Fry up inspectors New York food adventure - Day 4

Day 4 - Staten Island and a trip to Coney Island.

There were less people at the breakfast table this morning and for the first time no Bibi situations to report on! I celebrated by drinking 2 coffees and eating a banana.

Breakfast this morning was scrambled eggs, cheese and turkey bacon (an imitation bacon usually prepared from smoked, chopped and reformed turkey) and it was delicious but I think I preferred the eggs served with spinach and cheese on day 2, also the toast was underdone this morning 7/10

We picked up this 3 musketeers bar from the local shop on the way to the subway station.

It was basically a milky way.. 6/10

We were off on the free ferry to Staten Island and the sun was shining!

Upon discovering twinkies are no more (until they return in July!) I decided to try some Dreamies as they looked pretty similar to Twinkies.

An artificial flavoured raspberry and coconut coating wrapped around moist sponge and a sickly cream centre, delicious in a strange kind of way! Full of calories though.. 7/10

As the ferry pulled away from lower Manhattan the skyline looked amazing.

This is the best my trusty iphone could do at capturing the Statue of Liberty. We had planned to visit but Liberty Island was still not accessible due to damage caused by Hurricane Sandy.

We arrived at Staten Island but wern't too bothered about looking around as we just wanted to go on the ferry trip to see the Statue of Liberty and Manhattan skyline.

We did walk as far as this 9/11 memorial that faces where the twin towers stood and lists names of all Staten Island residents that sadly died on that day.

On the return trip we spotted this cafe on the ferry, time to try more food.

Suzi had requested I try a pretzel, I should have got one from one of the Manhattan vendors as they looked much better than this one. This was really dry and way too salty, a total waste of tummy space so I gave it to the bin 2/10

Disappointing snack number 2 was this gourmet black & white cookie. It was like a giant jaffa cake without the orange centre, we ate it but didn't particularly think it was very special at all 5/10

Time to do as The Warriors did and take the subway to Coney Island! Thankfully no gangs were chasing us so the journey was quite relaxing.

I have wanted to ride the Cyclone rollercoaster at Coney Island for so long and there it was!

Today was Memorial day and although the platform seemed quite empty we had a feeling Coney Island would be very busy.

The first thing we spotted was Nathan's where we would be eating later.

The boardwalk separates the theme park from the beach.

A nice beach but hard to relax when you can see...

This behind you!!

The Cyclone looked really rickety but was still going strong after 86 years.

It reminded me of the wooden rollercoaster at Great Yarmouth Pleasure beach but I figured it must be faster as the corners were banked.

It cost $9 to ride it and the queue was quite quick.

I thought it would be a great idea to take some pics on the way round.

The first drop is quite steep and really fast.

I was really impressed with it, really good fun and fast for a woodie. My only regret was having my camera out, I still can't believe I didn't drop it and loose my sunglasses! It was no good, I had to ride it again with my phone and sunglasses safely in my pocket this time. We were really lucky to get the very back seat on our second go, it was really a rough ride at the back though!

Now to ride the Wonder Wheel.

The Wonder Wheel cost $6 and you could chose between moving or fixed cars, we chose moving and my wife was terrified all the way round!

In the far distance you could see the Manhattan skyline.

Remember this from the film "Big"?

There were plenty of stalls and attractions but we walked briskly past heading towards Nathans.

We were really looking forward to trying one of Nathan's famous hot dogs.

The record is 68 hot dogs in 10 minutes!!

The queues at Nathans were long and really slow..

It did give us plenty of time to decide what we were going to order though.

The crinkle cut fries were quite nice 7/10

We ordered cheese chilli dogs, the chilli was similar to tinned chilli and the cheese was pretty grim, together they masked the taste of a very standard hot dog in a not particularly fresh bun. 4/10 These $4.75 hot dogs were a huge let down and the ones we had in Central Park the previous day costing less than half the price were much better than these!!

The corn dog was excellent though and this was because of the really tasty batter 8/10

  I would have rather ordered a few of these instead of those chilli cheese dogs.

All was not lost though, time to try a funnel cake!

The people making them were getting a little confused over who was still waiting for their funnel cake and even managed to drop a $10 note into the hot oil, we paid and waited patiently.

Funnel cakes are made by pouring batter into hot oil in a circular pattern (within metal circular rings) and deep frying the overlapping mass until golden-brown, powdered sugar is then sprinkled on top.

I seem to remember it costing $5 and definitely remember how good it tasted, not the healthiest of snacks but the crispy edges and soft centre is pure pleasure to eat, if you ever get a chance try it! 8/10  

After enjoying our Fennel Cake we made a wise choice by visiting the Coney Island Circus Sideshow, it cost just $10 each to sit and enjoy 10 live acts. The acts were really entertaining but photography was not allowed so no pics I'm afraid. As we left the circus sideshow we noticed Coney Island was still really busy so we decided to head back to Brooklyn for a drink.

The Sycamore bar on Cortelyou Road looked really nice so we went inside for a drink.

As it was Memorial day most bars had happy hours which was a bonus. The guy beside the plant was desperate for a cigarette and kept asking us for one, I was desperate to hoist his trousers back up but thought better of it. He stayed around all evening and we named him "Johnny the fox"

The sycamore bar seemed to sometimes be a florist too.

The beer was excellent costing just $3 a pint, quite strong though!

After a couple of pints of beer we both had a cocktail, I forget what it was but at $11 not cheap.

Next we had a couple of Tequila sunrises, better value at $6 each.

One drink had turned into five and it was getting dark as we passed this Chinese take away, we couldn't resist!

We initially planned on having a spring roll each but decided we may as well also order some sweet and sour chicken balls and rice.

We ate the spring roll on the walk home, much smaller than we were expecting and quite nice 6/10

I love these containers that chinese food comes in.

The chicken balls were a bit smaller than I was used to but there were so many in the box.

We divided the food onto plates and ate it in bed, at least I did, my wife decided she wasn't really that hungry after all and found the plate of food barely touched in the morning. I finished all mine though and really enjoyed it, the rice was nothing special but the crispy battered chicken balls soaked in the rich sweet and sour sauce went down a treat! 8/10

Click here for...

Day 5 & 6 - A final visit to Manhattan, pancake, pizza and the journey home.