What could be better than coffee-flavored tea? 'Coffee Black Milk Tea' with tapioca is what I selected as my potion of choice this evening in Flushing's Chinatown. At Quickly! I love the name. The bubble tea, with a certain friend's mysterious discount card, is only $2. Quite nice, especially when the going rate for bubble tea is around $4.

Have you been to Quickly? If you don't want to travel to Flushing (which would be a mistake on your part, missing out on a lot of fantastic food), you can also sample a Quickly Bubble Tea in Manhattan's Chinatown, located at 237B Grand Street and Bowery, just down the street from the $2 vegetarian moon pies and $1 scallion pancakes which you can purchase from a nice lady through a window on the street, which is diagonally across the street from another nice lady who sells fresh tofu out of her shopping cart right on the sidewalk. Or try the Quickly in Indonesia. There are Quickly Tea Shops around the world!

At last, I have discovered a coffee meeting place that can be uniquely mine. When I say, "Meet me for coffee!" I now have a place that will intrigue and delight my coffee-co-conspirators. Koryodang in Koreatown (32nd St between 5th and Broadway right near Macy's Herald Square) is a hidden gem, that is if there are hidden gems in NYC, which, again, there aren't. Why do I like it? The atmosphere! The menu! They have bubble tea and cappuccino, great chairs, rocks on the floor, pretty white globe lamps and plants in the entryway, Korean pastries filled with interesting bean pastes, and that hustle-bustle atmosphere I love. It is my new signature coffee meeting place. Koryodang. Think of me when you go there. I invented it.

Koryodang, 31 W32nd St, 212.967.9661
pictured at right: chestnut buns

The firecrackers will go crazy this afternoon in Chinatown. It is the Year of the Dog. How does that bode for Roosters? I will have to look that up. So while not a great day to go buy your tofu (at 6 cakes for $1 made fresh every day!!), it is a great day to go have bubble tea and some dinner. My picks for that are the Peanut Black Milk Tea, iced, with tapioca, at Green Tea Cafe, 45 Mott St, 212.693.2888. This place is the best -- tastiest bubble tea, great teahouse atmosphere down to the cool Tang Dynasty-style stools you sit on, and most hustle-bustle excitement. And for dinner, try the Hong Kong-style XO Cafe, 96 Walker St, 212.343.8339, with quite an extensive menu including great dim sum served all day. Try the watercress dumplings! Happy New Year! Here is a 10% discount with your Metro Card, valid through February 15.