**New York City Tattoo and Girlie Trip 2022!**

I’ve had the biggest pleasure of forging a friendship with Margaret from late 2021. I knew of Margaret from Juan as she is a mega-talented (and the sweetest) sound designer he met working at Microsoft. I think we started “talking” on twitter for a little while before we met up in real life and hit it off immediately. Our love for food, art and new experiences brought us together and we got to know each other deeper over this year. She has been such a wonderful, supportive and kind friend I made this year and I feel so grateful we got to share this trip! We had sooooo much fun eating and exploring the city and here are some of the highlight of our 5 day trip to New York.

We arrived quite late on the 30th and ended up ordering ramen to go at our hotel! It was sooo delicious but I wonder if it is because we were starving 😂

Proper Day 1!

First stop - The Highline. It is always so great to walk the Highline no matter how many times I’ve been. It is definitely something to do early in the morning before the crowds.

We were hunting for coffee but silly me, I didn’t check that they don’t have outdoors market in the winter so we walked all the way down to Chelsea Market to get some coffee and then back around towards Mercado Little Spain. It was the right call because the food were excellent. We ordered a few tapas and tried to not over order because we wanted to try other places!

After our very measured amount of food (good for us, haha) we decided to take a long walk over to The Color Factory - a museum. Along the way we found so many cute little New York scenes so I’m gonna share some of them here. New York in the fall is always so gorgeous and it always makes me fall in love with the city over and over again.

The Color Factory was sooo fun. They are interactive, filled with (you guessed it) colors! and fun activities. I don’t want to say too much about it but if you are ever in NYC and they are still open, please go!

After the museum we took another long walk down to Westfield World Trade Center. The walk was so lovely and it was a warmer day than expected!

I have been so excited about this restaurant since we booked a table for it. Mari is a korean handroll spot in Hell’s Kitchen. We decided to go with their Tasting Menu and let me just say that it did not disappoint. There were lots of food but as always, we managed to eat it all! The flavors of each roll were balanced and they played with interesting textures on each. My favorites were Caviar Salmon 케비어 연어, Spicy Tuna 매운 참치, and their Guksu 고기 국수, but honestly I’d go back for the entire menu again, they were so good! Highly recommend. We also had the greatest server who were super excited about the menu and that gave us an even better experience.

Funny side note: if it weren’t for Margaret’s suggestions, I think we would have just eaten Korean food the entire time we are in NYC (whoops) what can I say, I love Korean food.

Day 2: Tattoo Day!

I have been following Saki’s work for a couple of years now. His work has a certain east-asian boldness that I love love love. When I found out he will be in NYC tattooing for 3 months I was so excited, and even more excited that I got a spot! I want a lot of tattoos on my body but I also want them all to have specific meaning to me. I’ve been thinking about getting Jasper tattooed on my body but never found an artist to do it until I saw Saki’s work. Here’s his final draft of Jasper he sent. I am in love!

The tattoo appointment is in a studio in Brooklyn around 1pm so Margaret and I went to grab coffee at Irving Farm and I accidentally left my bag right outside of the coffee shop and we had to walk back fast, thankfully though it was still there! phew, that was a stressful 10 minute walk back. We then ended up in Ippudo NYC since we didn’t have time to get to another spot in Chinatown. The ramen was really good so that little blunder actually worked out in the end.

I made it to the appointment on time and Saki was even lovelier in person! He was really sweet and played some awesome music while tattooing me. We bonded over korean food and I found out he was originally from Busan so I’m getting tons of food recommendations for our upcoming trip to Korea. I am so happy and will definitely be getting more tattoos from him when I figure out what’s next! (most likely going to be an ox tattoo to represent my chinese zodiac) but we shall see. It took me over 5 years to decide on Jasper tattoo style. ⌛

After tattoo, I met up with Margaret for dinner! This time we went to Café China 傾國傾城 NYC in Midtown. The food was pretty good but the restaurant was pretty packed. We had an unfortunate time sitting next to this loud woman who kept “lecturing” her friend loudly next to us. It was hard to carry a conversation while she was spouting new-age ideas at her friend. The poor friend had to just nod along. 🙄

The highlight of that dinner though was their eggplant. It was soooo delicious and both of us loved it! After dinner we opted to walk over to Machi Machi for some dessert! Another great day in NYC.

Day 3 🧡

We got a reservation to this exciting korean dessert spot Lysée! We looked over the menu and was like omg we have to go. It was Margaret’s birthday in October so I thought this would be a good spot for a little belated celebration. We got their Signature and Corn Mousse Cake accompanied with their signature lattes both hot and cold. Everything was so good, not too sweet yet still decadent.

After dessert, we decided to walk to Chinatown for some Dim Sum at Jing Fong for a little middle afternoon meal. We ordered another plate of delicious eggplant because both of us are really into eggplants and then we walked all around there for some light shopping before headed back to the hotel to get ready for dinner with friends!

Dinner at Bar Moga!

We made a reservation at this cute little japanese bar to meet up with my college friends Mike and Roger. The last time I saw them was January 2020 before the quarantine and pandemic so it was really really great to see them again and to catch up over food. We ordered a bunch of food to share and everything was, yes, you guessed it, so delicious. I love this spot and it is even better shared with friends.

Day 4: Last full day in NYC

Today is the day for museum! We woke up early-ish to walk over to Dough Doughnut, my favorite donut spot in New York and then we head over to this thai food spot: Thai Villa. It was a good filling morning before we gear up for a whole lot of walking. We walked through Central Park to get to Solomon R Guggenheim. It was a really really gorgeous fall day, it was cool and sunny and the park was bustling with people but not too many people.

Alex Katz: Gathering Exhibit

I have not been to Guggenheim since 2014 and I forgot how much I love the layout of this museum. I love the simplicity of walking up in a circular motion and getting to progress with the artist along their journey to the top of the museum.

After Guggenheim we considered going to The Met but who are we kidding? we were both so exhausted from the walk and we didn’t want to go to dinner too tired. On our way back to the hotel I got to look at another Manhattan sunset and it always got me so nostalgic. In another lifetime I would have lived in that city and sometimes I still romanticize it. Realistically though, I love where I am and the space I have here in Seattle. Anyway, we head back to the hotel and I took a power nap before we go to our final dinner spot: Oiji Mi.

Y’all, I am not exaggerating when I said this is one of the most beautiful restaurants I’ve ever been to. Everything was gorgeous and my favorite part is their light fixtures. We got lucky and the manager of the restaurant checked in on us often and shared with us that Chef Brian Kim was involved in the design of the restaurant. He is very meticulous and really cared about infusing traditional Korean symbolism with the modern look and feel. My favorite part - other than the delicious food are the framed drawings of the menu in the bathroom. Gosh, I could go on and on about how gorgeous everything was.

We decided to go with their 5 course Prix-Fixe Menu. It was the most expensive meal we’ve had in the city but it was very much worth the price. The highlight for me was their OIJI BOWL 성게알 덮밥 although everything was just really really good. Margaret and I decided to choose different things from the menu so we can taste everything. I won’t try to describe the food, but I’ll share the pictures here.

This was one of the best meals I’ve ever had in my life. I am so happy that I got to share this with Margaret because we are matching in our enthusiasm for food among everything else. We were soooo full after this meal but also so happy that we reserved this meal for our last night in the city.

With that, our days in NYC is over but I am grateful I got to be in the city again and felt safe enough to be there. I am looking forward to more girls trip in the future. 🧡🧡🧡 Thank you for going with me, Margaret! I had so much fun and I hope you did too.

I am signing off 2022 (!) and will be back with another travel post in 2023: South Korea. Until next time, take care and have a gentle end of the year.

New York City 2022