This bowl of gazpacho was from Le Pain Quotidien, the Belgian chain restaurant/bistro. I had my first gazpacho soup probably about 5 years ago at a french bistro and since then, it has been a love affair that knows no bounds. . . . except when it comes to me having to make it myself. :-) It is especially delicious during the hot summer months when the last thing I want to eat is a warm soup.
This photo was taken at the corner of Madison Avenue and 58th Street in midtown Manhattan. Madison Avenue, especially north of 60th Street is the prime shopping district for high end fashion goods like Ralph Lauren, Hermes and Versace. South of 60th Street, the avenue is comprised of mainly offices for big corporations and financial institutions.
This is the Fanelli Cafe on Prince street and Mercer Street in SoHo. The restaurant bar has been around since the 1800's and it is still a popular hang out place among the locals and tourists alike. I have had some decent sandwiches here after an afternoon of wandering the streets for photo-op.
These tricycle taxis are a fairly new phenomenon in New York City. I started seeing a few of them on the streets about two years ago but now, they are everywhere. These young fellas will "drive" you anywhere in Manhattan if you pay the right fare. I don't know how much it would cost since I've never ridden on one. And it is not an efficient way to travel around the city but for a tourist, it is definitely a fun way to explore the city.
This is a macro shot of a simple flower arrangement at a Thai restaurant on Court Street between 3rd and 4th Place in Brooklyn where I had dinner with a friend last week. The small pink bloom with yellow center is probably about 3/4 of an inch across. 
This is a regular summer scene on Greeley Square, a small triangular plot of space bordered by 32th Street, 6th Avenue and Broadway in midtown Manhattan. Around the square is one of the busiest intersections for automobile and pedestrian traffics in the city. If you have been to the gigantic Macy's store on 34th Street and Broadway, you will understand that this is an oasis tugged inside a concrete jungle. 
Last week, I lost my camera but I found it the next day. On Saturday, I saw this sign posted on a lamp post in SoHo -- apparently someone found a lost bird. My question is how does one find a lost bird? Did it fly into someone window and said, "I'm lost?" 
If you are a regular reader of this blog, you would have figured out that I rarely eat/cook at home. But I do . . . sometimes. This photo above is an example of my cooking reportoire: nutella (hazelnut chocolate spread) sandwich. My other specialty is a scrambled eggs over peanut butter and toasts. When I tell my friends that, they all said, "EWWWWWWWWW!"
The yellow building in the reflection is the Sherry-Netherland Hotel on 5th Avenue and 59th Street. The glass building doing the reflecting is the GM Building, one block south between 59th and 58th Street. You can also see the Apple Cube on the bottom right corner of the photo. 
I had lunch this afternoon with fellow NYC bloggers, Lisa of Gramercy Cafe and Todd of Postcards from Hell's Kitchen at Le Pain Quotidien, an amazing Belgian cafe/restaurant in Union Square. Unfortunately, I "lost" my camera this morning so was not able to take any photos except this one with my cell phone. 
This is the front entrance to a tiny (and I mean TINY) Japanese take-out restaurant called Otafuku in the East Village. There are only three items on the menu: okonomiyaki (Japanese style savory pancake), takoyaki (octopus balls) and yakisoba (stir-fried noodles). Customers can mix and match any combination of two of the above items for less than $5. Now, that's cheap eats.
Everything I photographed lately has turned out . . . blah!! I have been lacking inspiration or been visiting the familiar haunts too frequently. I need to find a new place to visit instead of tSoHo, Little Italy, Union Square and East Village.
The real estate market may be battered in some parts of the country but it is doing very well in NYC (Manhattan) , thanks to the foreign buyers in the market. Some realtors, like this one in SoHo, are targeting European buyers with their strong Euros. The apartment listed on the chalkboard is a condominium loft in the NoHo (north of Houston Street) district and it can be yours for a reasonable €888,000 or an affordable £766,000 or an unbelievably absurb price of US$1,532,000. Ouch!!
This is the skyline of East Village on Lafayette Street, just south of 8th Street. The blue glass building on the left is a new $5 - $12 million condo/coop building that sits on leased land. This is an interesting concept in residential real estate because the building does not own the land it sits on. At some point (way in the future), the lease on the land will expire and a new contract will have to be drawn up. How will that affect the prices of the apartments? Only the future can tell.
I saw this elderly gentleman waiting outside the Christian Dior store on 57th Street near Madison Avenue yesterday evening. He was probably waiting for the car service to pick him up after an afternoon of shopping.
This is the Parachute Jump, a relic of an old amusement park attraction in Coney Island, Brooklyn. I found out on Wikipedia that it was built in 1939 for the New York's World's Fair in Flushing-Meadows, Queens but was moved to the Coney Island Steeplechase Amusement Park in Brooklyn later. Incidentally, I have also photographed the famous structure from the 1964 World's Fair -- the Unisphere which I posted earlier this month. 
Today is August 15, which means it is another subway theme day. The photo above is an enlarged view of a subway sign for the N and W trains at Union Square. I was waiting for the train when I noticed an interesting smudge on the N circle. Upon closer inspection, I realized it was a stenciled graffiti. I couldn't help but like the "artwork" because I think it is quite hilarious and very original. But I don't know what it represents.
Mulberry Street, the main restaurant and tourist alley in Little Italy, is usually closed to automobile traffic on weekends so the locals and tourists can enjoy browsing and hanging out in the neighborhood. One of the regular vendors on the street is Vinny's Nut House, which sells nougat candy (egg white, sugar and almonds), candied apples, marzipan (almond paste) fruits, lemon iced cookies and different types of biscottis.
I saw this wasp carrying a cicada up the tree outside my apartment building last weekend. Upon further research, I found out that it was a cicada killer wasp that preys primarily on cicadas. Incidentally, I heard the cicadas singing outside my office last recently. I guess it's cicada season.
The decline in US dollars has made NYC an affordable vacation spot for many Europeans. This week alone, I saw a couple of stores advertising, "We Accept Euros" on their windows including this restaurant in Little Italy.
I was walking down Lafayette Street in the East Village when I saw this interesting lock mechanism on the Vespa's handle. Vespas have always fascinated me and I have professed on this blog my fantasy of owning one one day and cruising down the street (of the Amalfi Coast in Italy, perhaps) on it. Hopefully, my dream will come true soon.
Here is another view of Union Square from the 6th floor of Filene's Basement (discount retailer) on 14th Street. It was taken last Sunday afternoon when I was there to buy some new pillows for the apartment. Normally, the area would be crawling with people but it was surprising sparse that afternoon.
This is the facade of the Booth Theater on 45th Street between 7th and 8th Avenue at Times Square. Currently, Thurgood starring Laurence Fishburne is playing here.
This is the view of the Empire State Building from the 6th floor of a building/shopping mall (Filene's Basement) on 14th Street and Broadway.
Last night, my out-of-town friends (former college buddies) and I met up with another alumnus at a restaurant in Brooklyn called, Alma Restaurant in the Columbia Street Waterfront District. This is a part of Brooklyn that I have never visited before so I was excited to see the neighborhood. The restaurant is set near the water so the Manhattan skyline was clearly visible from the third floor rooftop dining patio. Unfortunately, I forgot to bring my camera (UGH!!!) and missed out on a great opportunity to photograph the awesome view of the city.
I went to the Brooklyn Museum a couple weeks ago to see the Murakami Exhibition but it had already closed. All that was left were a balloon and a statue by the artist at the inside entrance area of the museum. The day wasn't a total waste though. I got a chance to visit an old friend and we explored the different neighborhoods of Brooklyn. Like the saying goes: when life gives you lemon, make lemonade.
Since my out-of-town friends are still in NYC, we decided to go to my favorite Greek seafood restaurant for dinner last night. Taverna Kyclades on Ditmars Boulevard and 34th Street in Astoria serves mostly seafood cooked on the grill. This is one of my favorites: grilled shrimp. The dish comes with roasted lemon potatoes on the side. We also ordered a serving of Greek salad with tomatoes, cucumbers, kalamata olives and feta cheese.
I saw this at the Green Market at Union Square this past weekend -- purple carrots, white carrots and yellow carrots (not seen in this photo) displayed along the regular red carrots. I did not know carrots come in these rainbow of colors. I thought all carrots are red. I guess I was wrong.
Some out-of-town friends and I went to an Off-Broadway show called Naked Boys Singing yesterday evening when we came upon this impromptu body art project on 43rd Street between Broadway and 7th Avenue in Times Square. The artist was painting the bodies of some youngsters, including a very pretty girl who was also topless like these boys. I did not get a chance to ask the name of the artist nor what the project was about because the crowd was clambering over one another to take a photo of the girl's chest.
This is a close-up shot from beneath the Unisphere in Flushing Meadows Park in Queens. The 900,000 lb (409,000 kg) structure made of stainless steel was designed by landscape architect, Gilmore D. Clark for the 1964/1965 New York World's Fair. The structure and its surrounding area received a complete renovation in 1994-1995, which cost a couple millions of dollars.
It's August 1st and the theme this month is Metal. This globe called, Unisphere is located at the Flushing Meadows Park in Corona, Queens. Come back tomorrow for more information on the Unisphere.
