The Freckled Girl: East Coast Culinary Tour

One of my favorite things to do in NYC (well, anywhere actually) is eat out -- and as most of you know, it's a total must. Even though it can be expensive and starts adding up VERY quickly, a trip to New York without eating at a famous or notorious eatery just isn't a real trip. Here are photos from my recent culinary tour of NYC and the rest of the East Coast:

After an afternoon of shopping in SoHo on a cold and rainy day, I craved a hot bowl of something. What luck I had when I stumbled upon Kelly & Ping's Asian Grocery and Noodle Shop. I ordered my go-to cold remedy of Vietnamese Pho.

One of the kitschy walls inside Kelly & Ping's.

These are seriously the best pork buns I've ever had in my life and quite possibly the best pork buns on planet Earth. I heart you Momofuku.

The cool Fall weather in NYC had me wanting more hot noodle soup, so I continued on my hunt for the best ramen this side of the ocean. This was very close to my hotel, so I came to Hide-Chan to test out their tonkatsu ramen.

Hide-Chan's infamous Hakata Kuro tonkatsu ramen. The broth was literally black from a roasted garlic paste they add to it. It was hands down the best ramen I had in NYC...with the close second being Ippudo ramen in the East Village.

The infamous Ippudo ramen house in the East Village. Where no matter what time you come, there is always a minimum 15 minute wait for some of the best Japanese noodles/pork buns/general eats in New York.

I order the Karaka Men "original tonkatsu" noodle soup with special blended hot spice, served with pork belly chashu, kikurage, cabbage, onion, minced pork and scallions. You'd have to be stupid and evil not to like this.

My trip to NYC wouldn't have been complete without a visit to BonChon -- the tasty Korean fried chicken Annie introduced me to last February when I was in NYC. Seriously, KFC, eat your heart out.

I ordered the 6 piece that comes with slightly pickled daikon and I chose the kimchi cole slaw to accompany it. I could eat this every day, but then I'd weigh 300 pounds.

The famous DC landmark eatery Ben's Chili Bowl, which was right around the corner from Jesse's house.

The go-to half-smoked chili dog that they're famous for. It was a doozy of a "snack"!

After walking around DC's Chinatown for 20 minutes hunting for authentic Chinese food for lunch, I was about to give up when I went down one more street and found a few restaurants. I was about to say...a Chinatown without Chinese food? What the?