This past Thursday through Sunday was Fall Break for Penn students, so in accordance with the “break” part, we treated ourselves to a day trip to NYC. As for what we did there, I’ll let the photos do most of the talking.
Our bus stop was conveniently near Chinatown so we started our day with a breakfasty snack at Tai Pan Bakery.
Portuguese (left) vs. Hong Kong (right) egg tarts. Hong Kong wins this time!
For brunch, we met up with our friend Melinda at Nook. Like the name implies, this place is quite quaint. I almost walked right by it!
Eggs Florentine (one of the few savory things we ate all day)
Unfortunately we didn’t win lottery tickets for Book of Mormon and standing room tickets also sold out. But our luck turned around when we decided to check out the Chicago box office across the street for standing room tickets. We ended up with orchestra tickets at “rush” price!
Since we still had an hour or so until the show, we stopped by Cafe Zaiya for green tea and black sesame swirled soft serve. One of my favorite things we tried all day!
Their pumpkin pie was also really tempting. Just look at those kabocha chunks!
We slowly made our way back towards the theater and spotted Magnolia Bakery along the way.
The inside was buzzing with customers, and although their cupcakes did look yummy, we were there for one thing and one thing only…
Banana pudding! Another check off the NYC bucket list.
It was around dinner time after the show, and by then we were craving something savory. That craving was satisfied at Golden Steamer in Chinatown. (Note the gap of sold out pumpkin baos!)
Cha sui bao for $1. Cheap and delicious!
Pumpkin bao also for $1! (We got the last one!!)
Our sweet adventure continued after that bite of savory with a visit to Chinatown Ice Cream Factory.
The atmosphere inside was pretty hip.
We sampled their durian ice cream! Let’s just say you could definitely taste the durian.
They had a ton of enticing ice cream flavors, like Chinese egg custard, ginger, pandan, taro, and zen butter (peanut butter with toasted sesame seeds), but we ultimately decided on lychee sorbet.
Next: Vivi Bubble Tea!
We ordered the Japanese matcha hot drink, which was way better than Starbucks’ in my opinion because they give you so much more for the same price!
We also got pepper salt popcorn chicken to satisfy Crystal’s desire to eat chicken on a stick.
While wandering around Chinatown, we saw a lot of cool things, like these carved pineapples!
The Haagen Dazs there even had Hello Kitty cake!
Eventually, we meandered into Little Italy.
And found Christmas!
Because we always have room for more dessert, we shared a baby cannoli, too.
Soon we were back in Chinatown where we happened upon a three story Asian supermarket!
Coming full circle, we snacked on egg tarts from Pie Pie Q Cafe while we waited for our return bus.
This trip could be summarized as brunch and a Broadway show sandwiched between Chinatown exploration. Although we didn’t quite get to do all the things on our list (i.e. milk and cookie shots at Dominique Ansel and yeasted pumpkin donuts at Doughnut Plant), we were glad to have taken the time to relax and wander. There’s always next time!
Pancake Yancake 
that sounds like it was so much fun!!
Your pictures are so gorgeous! I really love your blog, your posts are all so beautiful and amazing 🙂 I am so glad I got to discover you ❤
This just made my morning! Thanks so much for reading! ^_^