Pancakes and Soho

J and I didn't get a chance to properly celebrate pancake day, so we decided to make up for the lapse by having breakfast with friends at the Clinton Street Baking Company on the lower East side, home of the famous blueberry pancakes. Unfortunately, everyone else in Manhattan had the same idea, and we ended up having to queue for 2 hours before we could finally get our pancake fix!

We would've gone elsewhere but it was 9am and we weren't quite sure what else would be open. Luckily, we spotted a little cafe across the street. Thank goodness! It was freezing out, and I was not looking forward to waiting outside.

We popped in and managed to squeeze into a table and sipped on our coffees to warm up. I probably would've fainted if I had to wait much longer for food so J got me an order of oatmeal to tide me over.

The place was actually quite charming, and I think I would've been happy having breakfast here, but we had waited long enough for those damn pancakes that I was determined to see it through. 

After two hours (half an hour longer than they told us), we were finally permitted inside where we could drool over the food on offer. I probably shouldn't complain about the wait so much since the wait time had increased to 3 hours by the time we were seated. Insane!

We finally got our table, and I ordered the blueberry pancakes straightaway. After waiting for so long, I wanted to taste fairies and chupacabras and unicorns in my mouth. 

Eh. It was good, probably the best pancakes I've had, but it wasn't "wait for two hours out in the cold" good. To be fair, I don't think any pancakes are worth that. 

J had the chicken and waffles, but he got to nab some of my pancakes as well. Aw, the perks of marriage. He thought the pancakes were better than the waffles; the chew of the waffles wasn't quite right, but the fried chicken was quite nice and a combo you can't get in London.

We had a lovely time and waved goodbye to our friend so we could do some shopping in Soho.

First place on my list: Yellow Rat Bastard. I didn't really know what they sold, but a store with a name like that warrants a visit from me.

I bought a Star Wars/ bacon shirt there, and a box of mints that was labelled "eat shit". Definitely my kind of store.

We hopped into some other stores like Bloomingdales to stock up on basics like jeans and socks. J warned me that he was getting a bit tired, so I made my last store count.

One of my chef instructors mentioned that Marie Belle is a great American chocolatier that's a bit hard to find, and they supply Neiman Marcus. Lo and behold, I discovered they have an actual storefront in soho!

We walked in, and the place is absolutely stunning. 

I seriously think more people were taking snaps than buying chocolate, but not me! I bought a few thank you gifts for my instructors, and I goggled the chocolate drinking bar as I waited for them to wrap up my purchases.

J was pretty much done at this point, and we hopped in a cab to head back to the hotel to wash up before having dinner with my best friend from law school.

It was so great seeing him after so long and finally meeting his girlfriend. As I expected, he's a very successful patent litigator, and seeing him made me nostalgic for the good old law school days. It's funny how we were always so different but got along, and it's nice to see that time doesn't change that relationship.

I still can't believe it's been over 5 years since I graduated from law school, and I could never have predicted that my life would've turned out the way it did. Pastry school in London? No siree. Best laid plans and all, I guess. Nuts, just nuts.