Mandy's Birthday Outing

My sister's birthday was last month, but her schedule is always so busy we had to plan an outing in October to take her out and celebrate. Let's just say it was a milestone birthday year that needed to be celebrated. My mom and I decided to take her out for a day in the city. Our first stop was dim sum at a place called Sunshine 27 (strange name, I know). My mom recommended it since the food is good and cheap. Here are Tam and Mandy enjoying some dim sum.



On our way back to the car we passed by the Doughnut Plant and decided to stop in since Mandy, Mom and Tam had never been before. We were still full from dim sum, so we ordered some doughnuts for later. Phil seems to be doing his best Vanna White impression with our umbrellas.

Our next stop was supposed to be a fair at Brooklyn Botanical Gardens, but we didn't end up going because it started raining pretty hard. So instead we found the nearest cinema in Brooklyn and watched "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs" in 3D. Surprisingly it was the first 3D movie in a theater for most of us. Considering it was in the city and it was 3D the tickets were crazy expensive, but the movie was very cute. Phil couldn't stop yelling "Steve!" throughout the whole movie. ^__^

Doesn't Tam look sharp sporting his 3D glasses?

After the movie we headed back into Manhattan and headed to the Momo Fuku Milk Bar. We went there once with Phil's cousins, and their chocolate chip cake (with Passion fruit curd) was too good not to share with the family. We munched on some composte cookie, chocolate chip cake and a slice of candy bar pie.

Afterwards we walked a little farther uptown to a street fair by Union Square. Along the way we passed an interesting piece of art (?) that was hanging on the side of a building. I'm not quite sure what it was and it looked kind of weird with the hand sticking out into nowhere, but it seemed picture-worthy.

And random dinosaur! Extremely detailed graffiti art? Maybe not...

By the time we made it to the street fair some vendors were starting to pack up already. We did pass a cart selling candied fruit on a stick - just like they sell at the night markets in Taiwan.

Before we left the street fair Phil decided he couldn't fight the smells of grilled meat any longer, so he bought some beef on a stick from one of the Falafel/Gyro places. He looks so hungry in this picture - too bad it ended up smelling better than it tasted. Oh, and check out the new shirt he got from Mandy and Tam. It reads: "I don't wanna grow up". So fitting. ^__^

Our final stop for the day was dinner at a fancy Vietnamese restaurant called Safran. The outside looks very unassuming, but the interior is very nicely decorated.

Here I am with mom and Mandy getting ready for some good food.

Phil ordered a spicy hot and sour soup...and that's it! Can you believe all the eating machine had for dinner was soup? He did munch a little on my dinner, but still...

I shared a mango beef salad with my mom. I know mango and beef together sounds kind of weird, but it was really good.

I had the Autumn Beef, which also had mango and I think pumpkin squash.

My sister ordered the Black and White Mushroom sampler, which was basically black and white sticky rice with different kinds of mushrooms.

And my mom had the Safran duck, which was a duck wrap, sort of like those peking duck sandwiches, but in a Vietnamese spring roll wrap.

Then we all shared dessert. It was called "Exotic Bomb". It was mango, passion fruit and raspberry sorbet covered in a white chocolate egg. It was so pretty, but unfortunately I didn't get a chance to grab a picture before the waitress cut it open. It still looks pretty cut open though. Looks just like a peach! (That's Tam in the back giving the dessert bunny ears.)

Aside from the little snag in our plans because of the weather it was a successful day. Who says Mandy's the only one in the family who can plan? ^__~