Annual trip to NYC

It seems like every year, I make the pilgrimage to New York to visit friends, eat, and brush up on what's hot and not in the world (this year, ramen burgers and cronuts, although I'm probably late to the game). This weekend, I had just finished Step 2 CK (the last standardized test I ever had to take in med school!! hallelujah!) and knew some friends were going to be in town for a wedding, so decided to make my annual voyage. Every time my bus pulls out of the Lincoln tunnel and we emerge into Manhattan, my heart quickens, my eyes widen at all of the quaint cafes and humongous flagship stores, and I fall in love with the city all over again. Every year, I'm taunted by my brief visits because it's so close, yet so far, and because I've never had the opportunity to live in NYC.  

But I have some lovely friends who do, so it's always a treat to visit and catch up with them when I can. Our first stop was, where else, Chinatown! 

For Shanghai soup dumplings and bubble tea, what we do best. Here are the famous Xiao Long Bao from Shanghai Cafe (Joe's Shanghai's lesser known competitor) for an incredible $5.

After that, we walked to SoHo where we pretended to be able to afford Topshop and Hugo Boss, and then slinked over to H&M and Zara (hey, at least I didn't go to Forever).

For dinner, A (whom I visited and stayed with last year) and I went to a cute Italian place called L'Apicio in the LES/East Village after much deliberation and me wanting to sit outside with fairy lights. I didn't get my fairy lights, but I got a fantastic dinner where we caught up with over a year's worth of adventures. 

We started off with a few celebratory drinks and shared everything else. 

 And so my love affair with burrata began

 Orechiette with broccoli pesto

 Mushroom risotto

Then, we met up with other friends, who were in town for a wedding. We must have all matured and mellowed out this year compared to last year when we hit up an open bar and went dancing because we just sat outside and drank, which is all that I wanted to do to begin with. It was the perfect meeting of DC, Baltimore, and NYC.

HS friends in NYC. Missed R+D who are currently in London!

And then we ended the night with drunchies :p