Of all the times I’ve been to NY I’ve never strayed across the bridge to visit Brooklyn…till this trip. And as it turned out, it was there that I found my favorite pizza joint and bakery. Who knew I would love Brooklyn Heights (from where you could get a great view of Manhattan)

and DUMBO (Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass) this much…

but I shouldn’t have been surprised, given how obsessed I am with bridges, including the Manhattan Bridge…

and the Brooklyn Bridge in the background…

I’m not sure it’s great to live this close to a bridge, but I could photograph this neighborhood all day long:

In fact, while I was getting semi-lost around all the cool loft buildings, I ran smack into Almondine, a bakery that I’d read about on tripadvisor.

I’d heard how great their almond croissants were so I was quite excited, especially on a drizzly and cold day (which put me in a constant state of hunger!). Unfortunately, I was too late–the morning rush had wiped out their inventory. Their huge chocolate chip cookies locked eyes with me from behind the glass case, however, so what could I do? Well, let’s just say I finally remembered after almost finishing it that I should take a photo to commemorate the best cookie I’d ever had. But darn that bridge–it always has to be the star of every photo:

Let’s try this again. Here’s what’s left of the best cookie on Earth:

Literally an hour later, as I was taking more photos, my lenses followed a long queue of people outside a white building:

There were no paparazzi and the crowd seemed to be local people, all seemingly giddy to go inside what turned out to be Grimaldi’s, a pizzeria with chains in a few more states. As I was trying to Yelp for more info on the place, the line got longer and longer, so we just decided to queue up and see what the fuss was about. All these people couldn’t be wrong, right?

Now that’s what I call a pizza! Best pizza I ever had outside of Italy. The location in Manhattan is also in a cool building but without the charm of this one.

So that’s how I spent my day visiting–or should I say eating Brooklyn. Because after all that pizza, I wandered into the Sunset Park area and ate my way through Chinatown.

It did occur to me, after my third squid on a stick, that maybe I shouldn’t be so quick to eat on the street. But a grilled honey sweet yam later from the same food cart vendor and all caution went out the window.

I love me some Brooklyn.

PS: I did go back to Almondine and yep, best almond croissant ever 😀 .