Valentine’s in New York City

This city is full of surprises. Even with all the times I have visited in the last couple years, no two trips have ever felt the same. This time it was a really quick visit, just two short days, one of them Valentine’s. No romantic liaisons, but lots of awesome friends! I spent most of the day with my good friend Yifan.

There’s nothing like waking up to the hum of the city outside your window.

Yifan is a tiny little ball of energy. And she managed to find a dog that’s an exact mini replica of her.

After a visit to Yifan’s lab, we headed to one of my favorite spots in the city, Baohaus. The pork belly is amazing.

On our way out, we ran into Evan Huang, co-owner of Baohaus. We chatted him up and he gave us a sample of the brand new special– the Jeremy Lin bao, a.k.a. the Taiwanese T-bao. ;)

We walked across town to get hot chocolate (thick as soup and absolutely awesome), and we wandered through Chelsea Market up to the High Line.

After an unintentional shopping spree at Brooklyn Industries, we made it to our dinner date at Malatesta, an adorable Italian place in the West Village.

Later that night, we headed across town again to the Blue Owl and a bunch of my friends came out for drinks. I neglected to take photos except for this one of Vince bringing us treats from Momofuku’s Milk Bar and of Juliana being enticed to stay awake, feline style.

Thanks to Paul, Dave, Juliana, Michelle, Vince, and of course my date Yiffy for a great Valentine’s Day!

Oh, and that other day I spent in New York? That one was filled with ballerina amazingness. Unfortunately, I still haven’t figured out how I will be sharing those, but if you’re curious in the meantime, you can sneak a peak of my Pointe of View album on facebook. Feel free to “like” the page while you’re there!