reunions, housewarmings and treats, treats, treats

Its been a lovely first week back in NYC, finally settled in my Alphabet City pad and beginning my first week of school. This Friday, Drew and I threw a housewarming which was an awesome success - I drank boozy Arnold Palmers (Sweet tea flavoured vodka with Lemonade, dangerous!), we snacked on Drew's homemade salsa and Caroline's banana pudding, and we somehow packed a lot of people into our pad. We also got to take advantage of our great roof deck, taking in the breeze and the great skyline view.

Saturday was an awesome reunion with my old roommate and dear friend Alyssa. We had brunch at Cafe Mogador, one of my favourite East Village spots, though I'd never had brunch there before. I had smoked salmon eggs benny, one of my go-to brunch dishes, and their version was really great. We ran a bunch of errands (having way more fun at the Container Store than should be allowed) and wandered Chelsea.

Chocolate Doughnuts and Chai at Doughnut Plant

Spotted: Artisanal Popsicles @ people's pops. Plum Mint! Apricot Lavender!

Today I spent with my foodie friend extraordinaire Caroline. Since one brunch per weekend is clearly not enough, we had brunch as well, at a Scandinavian restaurant called Smorgas Chef. The menu was really quite interesting, and included a lot of ingredients I'd never heard of before. Caroline and I had the waffles (mine with bacon, hers without), which came with this delightful "cloudberry" sauce/coulis. We spent the rest of the day doing some casual shopping in SoHo, and finished with a quick stop at the newly opened Big Gay Ice Cream shop so Caroline could finally sample the famed "Salty Pimp". Big Gay Ice Cream Shop is the first storefront for the guys from the Big Gay Ice Cream truck, known for their amazing take on soft-serve ice cream. The Salty Pimp, for instance, is vanilla soft serve, Dulce de Leche + Sea Salt, all dipped in chocolate! Omonomonom.

Scandinavian waffles: thin, doughy, yet soft.

Strummer tribute down the street from my place.

Unicorn (!) @ Big Gay Ice Cream Shop

View into the shop

Can't get over this unicorn!

Caroline with her "Salty Pimp" outside the shop.