Orbiting Insanity: TRAVEL JOURNAL: Bagels, Dumplings & Boba in New York City

Memorial Day Weekend (Saturday, Day 2 of 4) (Pt. 1)

* All names have been altered for privacy.

Over Memorial Day weekend, I went to NYC with my husband, my parents, my sister and her boyfriend. This post is a continuation of our adventures in NYC. To read about the first day of our adventures, click here → Day 1.

Saturday, May 24, 2025

If you want to get breakfast in NYC without having to wait forever in a line, you have to get up at a decent hour. So despite going to bed after 2 AM the night before, I dragged myself out of bed around 9 AM, which should be considered a Herculean task on a weekend. What can I say? I'm a night owl.

Han was up before me, as usual, so he was ready to go by the time I woke up. After I got dressed, Han and I went downstairs to meet my parents who were waiting in the hotel lobby. Lottie and Seth weren't awake, so we left them behind to face the consequences.

In NYC, if you snooze, you lose.

Dad led the way through the city streets. It was a little chilly for late May, but it was still a beautiful morning. The ten-minute walk helped keep me warm as we wound our way through towering glass and steel, past bakeries and corner stores, until we reached our destination: Broad Nosh Bagels.

There are several locations scattered across Manhattan, and I'm going to be honest, I have no idea which one we visited. I only know that my dad vouches for it, and even though he's from the Midwest, spiritually he identifies as a New Yorker.

My best efforts aside, I had not awakened early enough to bypass the lines. We waited outside for about 20 minutes, and while that's not outrageous by NYC standards, Mom and I were shivering by the end of it due to the wind.

Of course, the wait was absolutely worth it.

I ordered a French toast bagel with strawberry cream cheese, and Mom got a bacon, egg, and cheese on an everything bagel. Han ordered the same sandwich as mom, but on a cinnamon raisin bagel, which I found puzzling. He said it was good, and though I trust him, I don't think I'll be trying that combination anytime soon. We also ordered two extra bagels, one for Lottie and one for Seth.

Dad judged us all for our "basic" bagel choices, though I don't remember what kind of bagel he got––only that it was something smugly superior (his opinion, not mine).

A lot of the best places in NYC have limited seating options, so we carried our bounty back to the hotel and met up with Lottie and Seth at my parents' suite, since it was the largest of our three rooms. We spread our breakfast like a mini feast on the coffee table, and Mom and I both traded half of our bagels. The French toast bagel was my favorite, but the bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich was also delicious. They cooked the bacon perfectly! I hate when bacon is super chewy, for the same reason I hate when salmon on a salmon bagel is too chewy––you take one bite, and it'll pull the whole piece out.

Sandwiches should not require strategy, just saying!

After bagels, we took the subway into Chinatown, where everything drips with the color red: lanterns, awnings, Chinese characters on menus and signs. You can hear Chinese music playing in the streets, and the melodic notes of Mandarin mixed with other voices speaking the harsher, more complex sounds of Cantonese. You can still smell the signature NYC scents here––car exhaust, marijuana, the sea––but layered between are scents of sweet pork, oyster sauce, chives, and Shaoxing wine.

This was my second time in Chinatown, my first had been back in January when we went with Geralt and Luna. I'll admit, it probably isn't the best place to go if you've never been to NYC before or if you aren't used to big cities. Chinatown is perfectly safe, it can just be al little overwhelming and all the storefront signs are in Chinese characters, so unless you have a destination picked out, it might be difficult to find what you're looking for.

Dad took us to a place called Jin Mei Dumpling, a tiny little cash-only hole in the wall with no seating, just a window where you walk up and order. We got ten pork buns, and thirty dumplings for $15 ($5 for 10 pork buns, and $5 for 15 dumplings). That fed all six of us, and we couldn't even finish. They were by far the best dumplings I've ever had––though, I'm American and have never been to China, so take that with a grain of MSG.

We ate our dumplings in a nearby park, enjoying every single bite and laughing as Dad shamed us for not being able to finish everything. At that point, we realized we'd made a grave mistake by ordering so much food without ordering anything to drink. We were so thirsty, and the soy sauce on the dumplings wasn't helping at all!

After we had eaten to the point where we all felt like we were going to explode, Dad took us to a boba place with pastel walls and dozens of drinks called Once More Zaipin that was a short walk away. I ordered a matcha tea without boba, because I don't really like the texture. They remind me of that scene in The Incredibles where Mr. Incredible gets caught in those weird expanding balls.