Taking Over New York With Joy

[I got a bit trigger happy with the photos in this post.]

Let me start off by saying, “I crossed something off my bucket list!!!1111!!!21!1!!!!” In doing that I am leading the way to taking over the world. Ha, joke. So, before I left for New York I asked if any bloggers were in the area and Joy said she was!

We made all the necessary arrangements and I found myself meeting her at Penn Station on Monday morning after coming from Baltimore. It’s a surreal experience meeting someone who you’ve only spoken to online before. This is an actual person who you’ve exchanged comments with and you’ve read all about their lives and now you’re actually meeting in real life and you’re all, “ERMERGERD, WUT!”

So, there you have it – I met Joy, and it was amazing.

We made our way to my uncle’s office, so I could drop off my stuff and he treated us to Wendy’s whilst we waited for Mutay. There was a bit of delay on Mutay’s side because her airplane that was meant to come hadn’t even left JFK yet, but that’s another story altogether. We wandered around Times Square and again I found myself in Toys R Us (man, I really love that place).

When Mutay finally came it was an explosion of, “Oh my gosh, I’m actually finally meeting you and oh my gosh, you brought us gifts, and oh my gosh, this is actually happening!”

We headed over to the Lower East Side (where we witnessed a lovely performance whilst walking through one of the stations) to feast ourselves upon Pies ‘n’ Thighs – a suggestion from Joy who knows how much I love Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. Guy Fieri went to Pies ‘n’ Thighs, so obviously we had to go to Pies ‘n’ Thighs – and what a glorious experience it was.

Despite having to wait until 5 (it was closed when we got there for whatever reason), the wait was worth it and whilst we waited we got to discover Café Grumpy just off Essex Street, which had cute merchandise.

Pies ‘n’ Thighs chicken is SO good. It could have done with a bit more seasoning, but other than that it was the perfect amount of crispy and the fries were really nice. Premium chicken and chips, mate. We’re about that life. Mutay let me have some of her mac ‘n’ cheese, which was delicious as well. It was nice to just relax with some good food and even better company. Finding out more about Joy was amazing – it’s always fascinating to find more about other people and what their life is like. I love meeting new people! Joy, you’re the best <3

After our meal, we went our separate ways with a promise to meet the next day.

Central Park and Brooklyn Bridge

After a delicious breakfast cooked by Mutay (waffles, sausage patties, turkey bacon and scrambled eggs all doused in maple syrup), we met up with Joy and had a little wonder around Times Square. We took obligatory selfies on the Red Stairs and killed some time before Joy got her bus back to Philadelphia. Joy was also a sweetheart and treated us all to dollar pizza slices, an idea I immediately fell in love with. They need to start selling £1 pizza slices in the UK!

After dropping Joy off at the bus station, we made our way to Central Park.

Central Park is beautiful. Honest to God beautiful. There are so many places to explore, so many places to wander, so many places. As you probably know, Central Park is BIG. We probably didn’t even cover a quarter of it, but it is definitely somewhere I want to go back and discover more of. Somehow we managed to end up on the side we wanted, despite wandering off in every single possible direction.

With hunger on our minds, we made our way to Amy Ruth’s. It was a bit confusing to get to, but luckily some random guy led us in the right direction. Although, I think he did stay with us a bit too long for our liking despite being very lovely and all – he basically told us his life story and how he loves London, and blah blah blah. Nevertheless, he did take us directly to where Amy Ruth’s was, so I can’t complain too much.

Amy Ruth’s is truly wonderful. Honestly, I can’t say anything bad against any of the food I ate in America. It was all so wonderfully fatty and delicious and good. Oooooh, I might have to retract that because I just remembered my Panera Bread experience… Anyway, I ordered something call The James Ford I believe, which was fried shrimp alongside mac ‘n’ cheese with mash and gravy. Absolutely mouth-wateringly good. I’m planning to write about Amy Ruth’s for The Food Diaries, so be sure to keep an eye out for an in-depth review of this place.

Full on life, our last stop was Brooklyn Bridge. Mutay is actually afraid of bridges, so this was a really big step for her. I’m glad she made it over the bridge, though! It was a little scary, I’ll have to admit, because cyclists can also go over the bridge and it doesn’t help that the slabs are wooden – so you can hear just about every creak when someone goes over it on a bike.

Admittedly, we got lost on the way back to my Auntie’s house and had to stop and ask a cop the way to the nearest station, and he himself didn’t even know. Sigh. We did manage to get home in the end. Just about.