Philly / Apollo in DC / Return to NY

Guys gals n non binary pals yall are in for a treat. It’s a double feature blog post this week since I’m making up for last week.

We took a flight out of Austin into Philly. Here are highlights from Philly:

Landed and went straight to Chinatown. With the anti Asian racism going on these days you gotta go straight for the most Asian part of the city to get your bearings you feel me? Also really wanted to get dim sum at Dim Sum Garden.
- Overall the food here was pretty decent. Good price. Mostly tasted as expected, nothing crazy. However, the Pan Fried Beef Potato Cakes were amazing. One of the best things I ate this past week hands down. If I ever found myself back in Philly I’d go out of my way to eat this
Visited the Eastern State Penitentiary museum. This was an audio guided tour where you go from checkpoint to checkpoint listening to curated facts/history. Great tour overall and pretty COVID safe since most of it was outdoors. Some facts:
- Eastern State Penitentiary was the first to pioneer solitude confinement. In their case they truly believed it would help rehabilitate the patient. They believed that the prisoner would reflect and repent in the quiet. Unfortunately/obviously this isn’t how solitary confinement actually plays out
- Some prisoners go into solitary confinement for 20+ years. Can you possibly imagine being stuck in a cell with no one to talk to for that amount of time? No wonder people go crazy in solitary. They had a few quotes from some of the prisoners that had spent years in solitary. One of them challenged the reader to lock themselves in their bathroom for a few years to understand what it feels like. Terrifying.

Visited Reading Terminal Market. Buncha food stalls there. Not super impressed sorrybud
Got cheesesteaks at Oh Brother Philly. This was a great meal. A real trashy smash-food-down-my-gullet-like-a-good-american kinda meal. Split the bacon cheese fries, Truffle cheesesteak and french onion cheesesteak.
Hotpot at Chubby Cattle. Was good overall but kinda pricey. Also wasn’t AYCE. How now brown cow? How you gonna do hotpot with AYCE? Smdh
Boba multiple times at Tiger Sugar. This spot currently tops my list for boba.

Always lookin for that Korean flag. Right by the art museum

Thoughts on Philly: I’m a real hater but I did not like Philly (sorrybud). Too small. Too dangerous. Too many random homeless dudes getting up in my face while I’m walking the streets. Just leave me alone bro. A week here was too long for sure. Will be a while before I return.

Oldest street in America so that’s somethin

Took a slight detour from Philly and visited Apollo in Washington DC.

Caught up with him about his new job at a DARPA contractor. Don’t know anyone else doing that and hearing about the job was pretty cool. We talked over perhaps the best burger in Washington DC at Duke’s Grocery’s. Will come back to this spot for sure the next time I’m in DC.

Afterwards we went to a few monuments.

Got some beer at Red Bear Brewing Company where I had the delicious Grande Goddess Vanilla Latte Stout.

Ended the night at Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream.

Great seeing Apollo again. Harry really enjoyed the city and may end up moving there. Love you DC. You’re the next East coast city I’d live in if I were somehow forced out of NYC.

Creepy shark thing found on the side of the road. WTF is the story behind this?

Ended the trip in UWS. Man I love UWS. Man I love New York.

Walked through Central Park sleep deprived and lonely (“sleep deprived and lonely”—title of my upcoming self published autobiography ). Basked in the glory of the rain and the water and the cherry blossoms.

Shook to my core with the belief that this was the greatest park in the greatest city in the world.

Wrapped up with Japanese curry from Shinbashi 72 (sick name, decent curry). Aiming to try Curry Mania next.

After testing negative for COVID I also went to the new office. Baller views.

A bittersweet feeling to see faces I haven’t seen in over a year. More bittersweet thinking about the coworkers that left or were laid off during the pandemic.

Ended the workday by meeting up with Naveen and Dominic over Korean BBQ at GunBae. Two of the wiser friends that I have for sure. A quarter of the time was spent catching up. A quarter spent pouring drinks respectfully-with-two-hands-korean-style while drinking at the same time. A quarter spent chowing on some delicious KBBQ. And a quarter spent listening to the wisdom Naveen and Dom were spitting at me.

Talked about race in America. Talked about how race plays out in India and Jamaica (where they grew up) and how in other countries race is less integral to your identity. And a buncha other topics.

Ended the night out singing karaoke. The thought of Dominic doing the monologue from Boyz II Men’s End of the Road is a memory and video that will stay with me for years to come.