Exploring New York: Must-Try Food/Restaurants!

After having completed a full day of exploring New York, I am excited to say that I love it here! The bustling city crowded with tourists, cars, and sounds is exactly what I love in a city. I love the variety of different foods to try; there is truly something for everyone! Preparing for this trip, I had a long list of must try New York restaurants and foods I wanted to review. This list included bagels, pizza, Ichiran ramen, and some famous chinatown spots.

March 12: Day 1

1. Liberty Bagels

I started off the day walking to Liberty Bagels to try my very first New York bagel! The line was long, but the ordering system was very fast and organized. Liberty Bagels sells so many different kinds of bagels and spreads. There were so many I wanted to try! They had oreo cream cheese, honey bacon cc, and even birthday cake cc. I went for the famous rainbow bagel with blueberry cream cheese. The rainbow bagel was a colorful delight. It was chewy with a slight crisp on the outside. The bagel itself is on the denser side, but it was still nice and fluffy. To me, the star of the show was the blueberry cream cheese. It was light, not overly sweet, and creamy. There were little bits of fresh blueberries scattered throughout the cream cheese too! Overall, the texture of the bagel and spread was good, and it tasted amazing! Great way to start off the day. (Of course I am still going to try the other famous bagel shops like popup and Tompkins)

2. Magnolia Bakery

After having my breakfast bagel, we walked to Central Park, and on the way I spotted Magnolia Bakery. I have heard a lot about their famous original banana pudding, so of course I had to stop and try it myself. I got a small tub and the workers there were really nice! The March flavor of the month was a cookie butter/biscoff banana pudding. That was very tempting, but in the end I decided to go for the original. The banana pudding was creamy, fresh, sweet, and had great textures. The pudding itself had a creamy vanilla flavor that was not too sweet. There were also slices of fresh banana and nilla wafers (or some sort of cookie like that). The wafers were the perfect balance between dry and soggy. It was not overly softened by the pudding and it wasn't crunchy dry either. Overall, I am glad I tried the banana pudding here and I will most likely go back to try the biscoff March special!

3. Nathan's Famous Hot Dog Stand

After walking around central park and taking pictures among the many tourists, I found myself wanting a pre-lunch snack. Scattered around New York are many hot dog stands including the 'Nathan's World Famous' hot dog stand. I bought a hot dog for 6 bucks with ketchup and mustard. This was..a standard hot dog. It tasted just like an average hot dog, so I don't have much to say about this. If you are visiting New York, I would just skip this spot and go straight for lunch.

4. Ichiran Ramen

Lunch! Ichiran Ramen is my all time favorite ramen shop. I first tried it in Japan, so I was ecstatic to see that they had a location open in New York. I actually do not like ramen. However, Ichiran is different. I don't just think Ichiran is okay (like for ramen). It is not just acceptable. It is amazing. Like mind blowing, best ramen ever. I go out of my way to eat Ichiran, and that says a lot since I don't like ramen. I would even get the take-home DIY Ichiran kits they sell. To describe the ramen...you just have to try it yourself..but I'll give you a brief description. They only sell one thing: tonkatsu ramen. It comes with customizeable dashi, richness, noodle texture, and many other options. The dashi is the saltiness. If you want it less salty, just circle less dashi. They have recommended amounts/the standard ramen that is already good if you are unsure how you want to customize your ramen. I usually get the standard ramen with medium firmness for the noodles and 2/extra spicy. The tonkatsu broth is so rich, creamy, and light all at the same time. The flavor is immaculate and it really flows well. The spicy sauce they put on top is not very spicy, so it will not take away from the experience. Anyways, I'm yapping too much. I will make another post on Ichiran alone.

5. Pelicana Chicken

This first day here in New York was so.. #bigback #brokenow. All jokes aside, I can't believe I actually went for midnight munchies here. I had dinner at a relatives place (ate a lot), but I couldn't pass up eating Korean Fried Chicken at 11pm. Pelicana KFC was a spot I saw on tiktok and instagram reels, so I had to try it. I got their cheese balls and honey garlic chicken combo. The combo was 7 pieces of a mix between wings and drumsticks. The chicken was lightly battered, not too crunchy, but it was coated in the honey garlic sauce. The sauce is more garlic than honey. More savory than sweet, unlike other honey garlic flavors I have tried from other korean fried chicken places like BB.Q chicken. The cheese balls were quite nice as well. It has a mochi like texture and a great melty cheese pull. The cheese was cheesy and slightly sweet.

6. Sundae's Best

After my late night meal, I had to end the night with a sweet treat because who will say no to dessert right? I was walking around Koreatown and stumbled upon this ice cream shop called Sundae's Best. They have a variety of different unique, nontraditional flavors. The flavors are mostly asian inspired like banana milk, injeolmi, black sesame oreo, kaya coconut, and many many others. It was honestly so hard to choose which flavor. After sampling many, I ended up getting the banana milk and kaya coconut. The banana milk tastes just like the banana kick snack or banana milk you get at a korean supermarket. It is sweet and creamy. It also reminds me of banana hi chew. The kaya coconut tastes just like pandan!

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Overall, I had a great first day here in New York, and there are still SO SO many places I want to try. Stay tuned for tomorrow's post. Sneak peek: I will be exploring chinatown with places like Mei Lai Wah and Wah Fung No.1. I'm so excited!!