These delicious Middle Eastern pastries are from a bakery in Astoria next to a restaurant where I go to frequently for falafel and shawarma sandwiches, tabouleh and babaganoush. The food here are delicious and inexpensive. These pastries are made from filo, chopped pistachios, honey and butter.
This policeman kindly posed for me and a group of other tourists in SoHo this weekend. He looked super confident and yet friendly, which is what we like to see in our New York Police Department (NYPD). Eliane from (the other) NYC Daily Photo posted also a photo of the NYC Mounted Unit recently. I guess they are everywhere in the city.
I saw these fancy pumpkins at the Green Market this weekend at Union Square. I don't think they are 
Here are the gifts I received this weekend from my friends and fellow bloggers from Perth, Australia -- Carol of Oh! For the Love of Food and Belinda of Bel's Fish Bowl. Belinda is (still) in New York City for vacation and she brought along some gifts for me from Carol and herself as well. So I would like to thank them both for the generous and thoughtful presents.
This is the New York City subway map. On the left is Manhattan Island. On the right is Long Island, which houses Queens (n0rth) and Brooklyn (south) . On the top is the Bronx and on the south (tip showing) is Staten Island. These five boroughs make up New York City.
This cute dog was tied to a pole outside a cafe in Nolita (north of Little Italy) while its owner went inside to get some coffee. The dog must be used to this arrangement because it didn't look scared or nervous. Actually it just looked bored. 
This little golden statue stands on top of the front entrance to the Puck Building in SoHo and Nolita. The red brick building is probably most famous for being the site of Grace Adler's office in the TV-series, Will & Grace. 
Is this graffiti or art? I found this scene in SoHo near some of the most expensive retail outlets in New York City. I think this is an entrance to one of the few artist studios that are still in SoHo. 
A couple months ago, I posted a photo of rooftop chimneys from the Upper East Side. Then this past weekend, I found more chimneys on apartment buildings in Greenwich Village so I guess I'm starting a new series -- the chimneys of New York City.
Not everything in NYC is beautiful and exciting. It can be very noisy and crowded, super expensive and quite dirty, like this photo above. There are also more rats in New York City than there are people. It was reported in the news recently that for every person living in the city, there are 4 rats living UNDER the city.
I was in Greenwich Village this weekend and saw this colorful bicycle parked and secured to a sign post on the side of the street. Notice the missing seat from the bicycle; this is a common practice to discourage the bicycle from being stolen. It would make it very difficult to "ride" the bicycle without the seat if someone decide to steal it.
I went to the Aubergine Cafe for lunch on Saturday because my favorite neighborhood restaurant went out of business recently. Since this was my first time here, I took out my camera and shot a dozen or so photos before my lunch arrived. Here is a macro shot of my meal -- honey mustard ham and brie on a baguette with a side salad with balsamic vinegarette and a large glass of iced coffee with milk. 
Here is a beautiful apartment stoop in the East Village. I think the iron railing and gate here are new because they don't show any signs of wear and tear that are normally seen in older iron work. Also, the individual pieces are very thin and delicate. Notice the new paint job and the newly polish front door. I think the building just went through a thorough renovation or face lift.
Here is another fire escape photo and this one was taken in SoHo. Notice the vase shaped railings on the fire escape and the ornate moldings on the roof. This is fairly typical of the building built in that era.
Dozens of lamps like this one light up Union Square after the sun goes down. I thought they were interesting and beautiful and I'm glad the city is keep them instead of installing newer ones. But I don't think these are very "green" or efficient.
Last Sunday, I went to Ceci-Cela Patisserie in Nolita (North of Little Italy) for breakfast. I got a cup of cappuccino and an almond croissant, and sat outside on a bench in front of the cafe. While eating my breakfast, I saw this menu printed on the wall connecting the cafe to the store next door. I took a photo of it because I love the colors and typography. It reminds me very much of Provence, south of France.
This dome shape structure by Korean architect, Minsuk Cho almost encased the entire park south of Spring Street between Cleveland Place and Spring Street. The project entitled, Ring Dome was made out of hundreds of hula hoop-like tubes secured together by thousands of fabric straps to produce the dome.
Recently, yellow taxicabs were decorated with flowers to celebrate 100 years of motorized, metered taxis in New York City. The project entitled, Garden in Transit was started by two brothers, Ed and Bernie Massey from California in 2000. Over 27,000 pieces of vinyl sheets were painted by children in schools and hospitals and used to cover the roofs and top surfaces of about 12,700 taxicabs in the city.
The theme for October 1st is cemetery or tombstone. I took a photo of these ornate cement urns at a garden store in NoLIta (North of Little Italy) that I thought would make beautiful tombstones in the future.
These little toys are Chinese puppet lions on strings. Personally, I think they are more for decorations than actually play toys because a kid can easily tear them apart within 5 minutes. They are made of paper and stick-on fur and beads.
