Whilst I had the best intentions to have another go at blogging, my laptop packing in made things pretty difficult. Nobody can blog from a smashed up ipod, my only internet source for the last two months. Luckily when I close my eyes I can go straight back to my travels, and now I have a shiny new computer I can finally write about my adventures!
Unfortunately, there's only so much of New York City you can cover in a couple of days, and I was tight for time and had not done my research. After all, New York was only a prelude to the real trip - Mexico! So when I stepped off the plane at JFK and boarded the slow, sweaty bus into Manhatten I was pretty unprepared. After finding my hostel and freshening up I hopped on the subway and started exploring. Unfortunately in all big cities when you enter the tourist areas it can be hard to find good food. Quality drops and prices hike as the restaurant big wigs know that the majority of passers by have little local knowledge, and on this occasion I was one of those. A bit of homework and I'd have certainly found it easier, but after a couple of hours of strolling the streets and drinking in the sights I settled on the Heartland Brewery & Chophouse off Times Square. Sitting in the bustling restaurant at 10pm, with only my Kindle for company and almost 3 weeks of travel in front of me I felt pretty psyched to be there, although I didn't have high hopes for the food. In actual fact, my cheesesteak roll wasn't bad at all, steak a little overcooked but oozing with caramelised onions and melted cheese. The real star of the show, however, was the beer. Their microbrewery in Brooklyn brews a variety of delicious ales to be served in their 5 restaurants, and I got a flight of 6 to sample with my dinner.
The Harvest Wheat beer was light and zesty, really refreshing on a mild April night. The Indiana was everything you'd expect from an American pale ale, ferociously hoppy with a smooth maltiness. If I'd had a partner in crime I could've probably stayed all night and drank the bar dry, but as I was solo and it'd been a long day, I went back to the hostel to get a decent night's kip for my one full day in NYC.
The following day I was on a mission. You can't visit New York and not sample its famous cheesecake. Whilst I spent the day wandering and seeing the sights I still had the thought of the creamy, smooth wedges I saw in the window of a deli on Times Square the previous night in the back of my mind. So after a day of sightseeing I returned to Times Square to satisfy my craving. At $12 a slice I was probably ripped off, but it was so good I didn't care. As I'm not a fan of the biscuit base (what's the point? It's just taking up space that could be filled with cream cheese goodness) I was pleased to find it had a layer of soft, light sponge instead. This probably isn't very authentic but GOD DAMN it was tasty. The topping was so much smoother than any cheesecake I've ever made, like vanilla scented velvet. I concluded that the cheesecakes must be baked at a very very low temperature and taken out of the oven while still wobbly to have this silky texture, and I will be experimenting at length.
Unbelievably, the slice was so huge I actually couldn't finish it. Never thought that would happen! So at 6am the following day, waiting at Penn Station for the train to take me back to JFK to catch my flight to Mexico city, I finished it. If you can't eat cheesecake for breakfast in New York, where can you?
So the next leg of my adventure started 8 hours later when I arrived in Mexico City. To be continued!
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