Almond Jo's ....

I know I spend a lot of time taking about food, but this is because I dread lunch times. I don't know where to get food, and so I put it off as long as I can ... I did find the sushi but it is not the best - what I would give for the Aussie variety and convenience of sushi. I had considered going to one of the soup shops (eg Hale & Hearty), but when todays main new choice for soup was "Chicken Pot Pie" I decided not to. How do you shove chicken pot pie into soup?? Yuck. Other options are new england clam chowder (with cream), curried cauliflower chickpea and lentil (with cream), creamed brocolli and three cheese (with cream)... you get the picture. Even a quick trip to Pret (yes they have that here) does not yield results. True, it is the closest to a baguette you will find in NY, but the options are not the UK ones. Here you get to choose from sandwiches such as BLT, new york deli (pastrami etc), giant all day breakfast, chicken coronation with cheese (I am serious), and turkey club... Begin to see my problem?
So today I went to the Chinese place also under Rockefeller Centre, and after them nearly falling over when I asked for steamed rice (default is fried rice of course), the food was OK. A bit on the scrimpy side, but it was only USD6.02 (gotta love that sales tax), and was fairly filling. I got the beef and brocolli and the shrimp and green beans. Rather a lot of salt with the beef and sugar with the shrimps. Geographical hazard I guess.
But then I headed across to the variety store to get some almonds to munch on, and was again struck by US "candy" choices. One small pack of almonds was USD3.99. All the mixed and jumbo bags of sweets were USD1.99. Hmmm. All sorts of options, half of which come in sugar free too (which in my experience increases the fat content, and gives you also those nasty digestive results you get from too much aspartame or sorbitol or whatever else they have pumped in there). Some healthy examples are Almond Jos which are like bounty bars, but with an almond on top (why be frugal?). Or Werthers with chocolate - basically chocolate bars loaded up with crunchy bits of werthers (probably the floor sweepings in the factory), hazelnuts and soft toffee. Yummo - not. Ho hum. This does sound like a catalogue of complaints about food, and lets face it - it is!
Yesterday I did go outlet shopping to Woodbury Common which was genuinely a lot of fun and very convenient. I left the apartment at 8:30am, caught the subway to 42nd street and used the underground link to the port authority bus station. Got my return ticket with Gray Line (USD38.00 inc tax), and got on the comfy airconditioned bus. It was about 36 degrees outside yesterday! I was sharing my bus ride with a bunch of spaniards, some Russians, a family of aussies, and a family from the UK right next to me. Like a mini-UN really, but without America. The UK family in particular was the most interesting. They decided to time the trip to the outlets (described as being about 1 hour). Gav: "right-ho, let's time it! nine firty" ; Shirl: "nah, nine twennyfoive" Trev: "nah, its nine firty alreddy" Shirl: "me watch must be slow" Gav: "just like you you dozy mare". Vaguely amusing for the first 20 minutes anyway. Aussie Jen and Jack were just talking about all their nieces and nephews that like to wear designer labels. Jen and Jack had brought a large empty suitcase with them on the bus - I like that feeling of optimism.
I didn't end up buying that much, but did choose a good day to go - it was Father's Day here, so I didn't have too many people to tread on. Woodbury Common is set up like a mini-village (except it is huge) - very hot in between the different mini-houses. I did kind of wish that instead of the cute village design, a giant underground mall would have been better! The discount book they give you for going with Gray Line is well worth it though - my 20% discount at Ann Taylor paid for the bus ride and then some! Highly recommended little trip...