Per Se, the definition of traditional fine dining. Well, The French Laundry would be the ultimate goal, but any Thomas Keller restaurant is going to be of that calibre, that standard, that makes other chefs who they are.
By this time, I was starting to get the hang of New York. Since I was no longer oggling at absolutely everything with too much for my brain to take in at once, I was able to spot more subtle things, like this lady who was wearing odd shoes! There was also another instance where I saw someone with different coloured laces too. New Yorkers are interesting!
Sometimes, I distinctly remember how I hear about a restaurant, and what possesses me to visit. Other times, I just forget! Wildair is one of those restaurants where I don’t remember exactly how I came to know the name. It was probably via Instagram or something. However, I do know why this place got my interest. It was contemporary, experimental, fun looking, and more importantly, walk-in friendly. I like keeping a list of interesting restaurants that don’t take reservations, or at a minimum, have the possibility of accommodating for walk ins, because I don’t like having strict plans when travelling, so I want to keep my food options open. The downside is that I have to decide within 30 minutes to an hour of the restaurants’ opening time, whether or not I’m going to go there.
Wildair is actually the baby sister of Contra, which is owned by the same people and is a more formal, degustation, bookings essential restaurant. I have a strong preference to restaurants that have the same calibre food in a more casual setting, so Wildair was my must go to non-reservation place.
There are lots of sushi places in New York, and Japanese food overall does seem pretty popular. There are tiny ramen joints every few blocks and all of them looked good. However, I was after something specific by deciding to try a sushiya in New York. I was hoping to try out ingredients that are abundant on this side of the world, and not to have the same things as I would in an Australian sushi restaurant. I had a few choices, and my original one was a place called Gaijin. My friend had a bit more of an extensive list though, and after browsing and doing a very small amount of research, I settled on Omakase Room because it felt more like what I wanted out of a New York sushi experience – I didn’t actually want a crazy New York experience like Sushi on Jones, and I certainly didn’t want to fork out a stupid crazy 600USD at Masa. Omakse Room seemed to be the perfect price point with the kind of atmosphere I had in mind.
This was the only restaurant that I didn’t scout out prior to the reservation itself. It has an address, I have a hipster sense, how hard could it be to find? Well, it turned out it’s only the second restaurant that I’ve been completely baffled by the entrance of (the first being Waku Ghin even though the door was 100% obvious)! I’d spent the whole time looking up for a sign, that I didn’t think to look down for a sign! And finally we went through the curtains into a wonderful, very traditional looking sushiya.
My four days of easing out of jetlag were over (though I was actually jstill jetlagged a tiny bit), and now, it was time to go full blast Monday! Not that I wasn’t already full steaming ahead 🙂
Good to know that New York only just got $15 minimum wage… considering they don’t get superannuation or free healthcare (I think), that’s not really that much, especially considering how much I’ve been noticing the stuff I like costs. The average street hot dog is $3, which is a fair chunk of that. A street meal (I think stuff like gyros or meat on rice? I wanted to try one but didn’t end up having time/stomach space to do so) was about $6, so the discrepancy between rich and poor must be HUGE considering the price of restaurants and cafes!
Or something like that. Well, now that I’d landed, what should I do?
I actually was waiting for a friend, who was landing a few hours after me, and since I knew it would take a while to clear customs, I decided to spend my remaining time just chilling at the airport. Firstly, I had to change terminals, and I could do that using the AirTrain. Wow, the train has really tiny carriages. By tiny, I mean that it seats 4 people and maybe a maximum of 4 standing? Once I’d boarded, I can’t remember exactly what happened, but basically, I ended up in a conversation with the other passengers, and they immediately asked where I was from because of my accent, and then they talked about stuff and things, but I no longer recall what it was about! Anyway, I got off on the next stop and proceeded to discover a Starbucks at this terminal, which seemed to be least boring eatery around, if you could even call it an eatery because it was a tiny stand that served only takeaway. I paid far too much for a sausage and egg muffin, and sat down in an out of the way spot to eat it, since all the seats were taken. As I was minding my own business, I hear a voice really close to me, and when I turned to look, I realised it was just some person talking on the phone. He sounded disgruntled because his flight just got delayed and so he was stuck at the airport now, and something about it becoming expensive for him because he had to make alternative arrangements? I’m not too sure since I didn’t really care to eavesdrop. However, after a while, I got the odd feeling he was talking to me, because he was still there and no longer talking about his flight. He was saying something about how he’d had one too. One of what??
So I look again, and he really is talking to me! He saw me eating the sausage and egg muffin and felt the need to comment on my one? So he repeated himself and said that he ate one too, and that it wasn’t all that tasty, and I basically said “yeah, but it’s better than nothing” and he agreed or something along those lines. I was more bewildered that he randomly started speaking to me even though I wasn’t paying any attention to him! Then he started telling me about the call he’d just had, and repeated much of what I’d already overheard, and then as I was politely acknowledging his comments, he finished up what he was saying, bid me farewell and walked off. Wow, that was random. Please tell me not all Americans are like this?? Like, sure, it’s normal that sometimes you strike up conversations with strangers, but this was sort of really one sided… what a first impression!
