I’m about to hop on the train for my return to NYC, but I have to once again thank the users of the Chowhound message boards for saving me from utter culinary deprivation while I was in Albany. Thanks to their recommendations, I ended up at My Linh last night — a Vietnamese restaurant. Despite the very slow service, even by NYC standards, the duck (which was highlighted by the Chowhounds) was delectable, with super-crispy skin and a tangy yet spicy nuoc mam sauce. However, I have to admit that I’m pretty excited to head back to my ‘hood, with a vast selection of ethnic eats, all within a 20 minute walk (rather than a 20 minute drive) from my apartment. Thanks, upstate Chowhounds!
Author: Laren
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Biking, Air Guitars, and Meat
A combo that adds up to a great weekend. As I mentioned earlier, I have two good friends moving in less than a month — one to Austin and one to San Francisco. We met years ago participating in the AIDS Ride, and have been cycling together ever since. Friday night I took it easy in preparation for our ride to Piermont on Saturday. This was my first “real” ride of the season — it’s about 35 miles round trip, which is short enough to be doable without much training, but long enough to leave me a little sore. The weather was perfect for our ride, and we made it back in time for our remaining afternoon/early evening activities — I had dinner with my mom, and the other ladies studied (or claimed to, at least — they’re taking some sort of business-y class prior to starting business school; they keep talking about warrants and convertibles, so I really have no idea what they’re learning). I was even able to fit in a nap before they arrived at my apartment, vintage rock t-shirts in hand, in preparation for the evening’s festivities. We had tickets to the NYC regional Air Guitar Championship, and we were going in style. We cut up our shirts and got ready to rock out. No, we weren’t participating, but we wanted to channel the mood for the evening. What a blast — we were proud that the winner for the evening was a hard-rockin’ chick doing her take on Van Halen’s Hot for Teacher. You can see more pictures from the evening here. And if that wasn’t enough, we rounded off the evening with some dancing, 80’s style, at the Pyramid Club. Damn, I’m going to miss these two. Sigh.
As part of my recovery today, I attended the second annual Big Apple BBQ Block Party. Hey — I biked and danced my ass off yesterday — I certainly deserved a little barbecue. The lines were ridiculous, so even though my team tried the divide and conquer technique, splitting off into three different lines, an hour and a half later, we only regrouped with barbecue from two different places — one had sold out right before we got up to the front of the line. We had a pulled pork sandwich from Big Bob Gibson Bar-B-Q, in Decatur, Alabama, and the beef brisket and sausage from The Salt Lick, in Driftwood, Texas. My favorite was the pulled pork, which was well-seasoned and tender, although I probably would have put a bit more sauce on top. The brisket and sausage were also good, but the sauce tasted very mustard-heavy to me, and I’m not a huge mustard fan. At this point, although we were no longer ravenous, we certainly didn’t get our fill of ‘cue, so after a quick call to Daisy May’s (and a sad discovery that they aren’t yet open on weekends), we were off to Pearson’s Texas Barbecue on the Upper East Side. Now, I’ve read that Pearson’s is known for their brisket, and I have to say, I thoroughly enjoyed it, but I think I’m just generally not a huge Texas style barbecue fan — I’m more of a Southern or Kansas City gal. I think the Texans have more emphasis on the smoke, and I prefer the emphasis on the sauce. That said, I did manage to snarf down several pork ribs, and I give their mac and cheese a big thumbs up — not too goopy and gloppy, with a sharp cheddary kick. Now thoroughly stuffed, I headed home to prepare for my trip to the Legal Assistance Partnership Conference in Albany — land of lame food, from what I can gather. I’ll be there for the next few days, so any food tips are more than welcome. At least the hotel has a gym, to counteract some of today’s excess damage — did I really need those onion rings and the hushpuppies? Yes, I think I did, thank you very much. You can see the rest of the pictures from the BBQ-fest here. -
Ladies Who Blog
The other night I had the pleasure of attending Nichelle‘s party at Lava Gina, celebrating the arrival of Venus. She had gathered together a batch of smart, cool people, primarily women, and many lovely ladies who blog were in attendance. Some, like Nichelle, I had communicated with before, but had never met it person, and others, like LustyLady, The Brazilian Muse and GirlyNYC, I met for the first time that night. Also in attendance was Anonymous Outsider. There’s something quite unique about meeting bloggers in person — I can’t quite put my finger on it yet, but perhaps it’s the notion that each of us has a part of us that’s out there for the world to see, almost like an alter ego. But then again, just from the brief conversations I had with everyone, I don’t think it’s an alter ego, per se — maybe just a highlighted portion of each of us. The folks I met at the party were interesting to chat with, and their blogs are as varied as they are — be sure to check them out. Thanks for a great evening, and special thanks to Jenn, a non-blogger, for joining me and sharing a light dinner at Perbacco that hit the spot on a steamy evening.
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Run, Laren, Run!
The marketing geniuses at Nike figured out a way to motivate me to run a 5K: it’s Run Hit Wonder — a road race/concert with artists like Kajagoogoo, General Public, A Flock of Seagulls, Tommy Tutone, Ton Loc, and Devo.* I am their perfect target audience — a child of the 80’s who might possibly be able to complete a 5K (the 10K is out of the question for me).
In addition, I have decided to train for a biathlon (well, a duathlon) in September. Nothing major, mind you, as I’m not much of a runner. Yes, I’ve biked from Boston to New York, from Montreal to Portland, Maine, from New York to D.C., and all around Tuscany and Provence, but running?! Running is tough for me. Thankfully, I’ve recruited a few friends to keep me motivated. Wish me luck, and perhaps I’ll bump into you on one of my runs — I’ll be the one in front of you that you’ll pass as if I were running in slo-mo. But I’ll finish — no doubt. Slow and steady, baby.
* PS — bonus points to anyone who can name at least one song for each of the above artists.
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Mangia!
Robert Sietsema of the Village Voice recently came out with his top 100 list of Italian restaurants in NYC. I was thrilled to see some of my faves in the top ten, namely ‘ino, ‘inoteca, Max, and Lupa, where I had the pleasure of dining for the first time this past Sunday night after our wine
clubsociety meeting. And of course, my beloved neighborhood bar, Otto, held its own at number 11. -
Another Bit of Geekiness
I get mocked quite a bit for having a blog. A blog? What the hell’s that? Why would you do that? You mean you have a website? What a dork! Yes, I am a big geek; I’ll admit it. But there’s another bit of geekiness that I haven’t yet shared with you, dear readers. It’s a part of me that has been around for over fifteen years now, ever since my freshman year in college. And now, I will share it with you. I . . . am . . . an a cappella geek. There — now it’s out. During my years at Tufts, I was in the Amalgamates, their first and oldest coed group. In fact, the group is celebrating its 20th anniversary this coming fall. Many of my close friends here in New York are actually Tufts a cappella folks. After Tufts, I missed a cappella so much that I had a brief stint in the Copley Cats, an all female group in Boston, and then once I started law school at NYU, I actually started a coed group there — Substantial Performance. It still exists to this day (yes, that’s the legacy I left in law school).
But why expose the a cappella side now, you ask? Well, this past weekend I had the pleasure of seeing Minimum Wage, an off-Broadway show featuring an a cappella group of the same name. It was cute and quirky, and had some fantastic songs, interesting arrangements, and extremely talented vocalists; best of all, it had tons of inside a cappella jokes, most of which I got. The a cappella world is a small one — turns out the music director is a friend of one of my Amalgamate friends, and one of the writers and arrangers is none other than Sean Altman (mentioned previously in my blog, and a member of the Losers Lounge, which you should go see if you haven’t already). The show closes at the end of the month, so go see it if you can!
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My New Neighbor
After much speculation as to what was going to occupy the corner space across the street from my apartment, formerly occupied by a shoe store and, more recently, by a hideous clothing store, I was pleasantly surprised to walk by today to see Le Pain Quotidien. It looks warm and inviting, and they seem to use organic ingredients, offer whole-grain breads, etc. — my kind of place. If I could manage to haul myself out of bed a little earlier in the morning, it’s the kind of place where I’d settle in over a bowl of au lait and a croissant or tartine. Perhaps I’ll try it this week. I have a good feeling that this new neighbor is going to be a welcome addition to the ‘hood.
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Graduation/Yay Maine Update
I’m finally home early enough that I have more than five minutes before crawling into bed exhausted. So now, the weekend update.
The weekend started out with a road trip. Haven’t done that in ages. But, you put three single women in a car, and the subject always comes back to guys.
At one point, we were discussing the varying degrees of cute when it comes to guys: there’s cute when you’re sober, cute after you’ve had a few drinks, and not cute ever, even if you’ve had plenty to drink. After more guy-chatter, we took a break at Rein’s Deli, a New York style joint off of Route 84 — and I’m pretty proud that I was able to find it after all those years. It used to be a regular stop on my trips to and from college. Having enjoyed a salami sandwich on seedless rye, some pickles, and a chocolate egg cream, I was ready to continue up to Maine. We arrived quite late, but awoke to a spectacular day, and drove out to lunch at Two Lights Lobster Shack in Cape Elizabeth. Stunning scenery, and a good lobster roll. Huge chunks of meat, and a dollop of mayo, not mixed in — had I known, I would have ordered it without the mayo. Next time. My road trip companions dropped me off in Portland, and we relaxed a bit until our first graduation event of the weekend — dinner at Mims Brasserie, a new spot down at the old port area. I thought it was a great setting for a casual celebration, and the food was simple and well-done. I had my second serving of lobster for the day in their lobster bisque.
The next day, we woke up bright and early to head up to Bates for the on-campus festivities, including a Baccalaureate service and the Phi Beta Kappa induction (my brother’s wicked smahht — takes after me, of course). Did you know the Phi Beta Kappas have a secret handshake? They may be wicked smahht, but they’re still a fraternity. We had a barbecue back at my brother’s house that night, with all the parents and siblings of his housemates floating around. The party got even bigger later that evening, and my brother, with his best peer pressure skills (“I don’t care if you come to graduation, it’s more important to me that you stay and hang out tonight!“), convinced me and my sister to stay the night. Unlike my brother, however, we did not stay up all night. But, being the old woman that I am, I made sure he had provided me with a towel, something to sleep in, and a place to store my contacts before the drinking started in earnest. The next day was graduation. The weather was perfect, the speeches were short, and my brother didn’t pass out or throw up from the previous night’s festivities. Congratulations on all counts — including the graduation part. Upon returning back to Portland, I had time for one final lobster roll before I flew back to NYC. This time, at the Portland Lobster Company. And it was perfect. Perfect. No mayo, huge chunks of lobster, toasted bun, Bibb lettuce, drawn butter, and lemon. Combine that with a picnic table on the water and end of the day sun, and I was in heaven. Yay Maine! You can find the rest of the photos here.
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Dump-o-Rama
Deb, of Smitten, in an attempt to cheer up a friend who got dumped via text message (how lame is that?!), has been collecting “worst breakup” stories. Strangely (and to my relief), I can’t think of anything to add from my own life, certainly nothing quite as hideous as some of the stories people have posted. As painful as some of my breakups have been, they have generally been civil, and have never happened via email, text message, or IM. Apparently, this is not as uncommon as one would hope. Technology really can suck sometimes.
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Jack’s Back!
I awoke to the sound of NPR bringing me delightful news in my semi-conscious state: after formerly switching to Crunch-n-Munch, Yankee Stadium has brought back Cracker Jack. I hope this makes you all as happy as it made me — I was so confused last time I was there — the game just wasn’t the same without it. Welcome back, Jack!