So today is day one of my three-day Blueprint Cleanse, a three-day juice cleanse designed to fit in to your busy NY schedule and life — I’ll be writing about it for Gothamist. Wish me luck, and please forgive me in advance for any strange behavior on my part for the next few days . . .
Category: Food and Drink
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Restaurants Against Hunger
Food, Fashion, and a Good Cause::Restaurants Against Hunger’s Celebrity Kick-off Party!I’ll be on the couch tonight, but if you’re feeling better than I am — head to this party! It’s for a good cause and my friends Nicole and Lynn are helping to organize it.
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Sweet Treats
Congrats to Rachel, Nichelle, and Alizinha, who got a shout out for their Cupcakes Take the Cake blog on Food and Wine mag‘s blog, Mouthing Off. Life is not so sweet for me as I am fighting off the plague and losing. Tonight is the first night of my level 2 swim class — I’ve graduated from Efficient Technique to Technique and Endurance — but I think I’m going to pass since I can’t breathe out of my nose at the moment. A night on the couch might be just what the doctor ordered.
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Fingers Crossed
I’m keeping my fingers crossed that I don’t come down with the plague. I got back home yesterday afternoon and the sore throat and sniffling began almost immediately. It’s like my body was waiting for me to get through all these trips and then gave up. I’m also still waking up at 6 a.m. — perhaps some leftover jetlag or something. I’m going to bed by 10 tonight.
Pictures are up from both the Tuscany trip (although this is Cinque Terre, not Tuscany):
(follow the links to the full galleries).
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A Taste of the Weekend
Went to the newly opened Ed’s Lobster Bar Friday night. The verdict? If I can’t go to Maine, I’ll stick to Pearl Oyster Bar for the time being, although I still have yet to return to the new home of Black Pearl.
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The Morning After
I ate thirty-three different things last night and I am still dreaming of perfect sushi, delectable grilled toro and freshly shaved black truffles . . . full rundown to come. Many, many, many thanks to David for the opportunity and to Matt for being my date for the evening.
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Catching Up
Let’s see — just a little catching up since my last post. I had a few relatively quiet nights this week, believe it or not. Not too many, though. Friday night, The Lovely Miss Katie and I tried out the new Blue Ribbon Bar — definitely one to add to the regular rotation, although not too often, as it was pretty easy to go overboard, both on the delicious food and the wine flights (see the foie gras torchon above as evidence). Saturday morning, after a workout, I met Dad at Chinatown Brasserie for some delicious dim sum, including my favorites, the shrimp dumplings with pea shoots, pictured above (love the eyes). Sure, it’s more expensive than Chinatown dim sum joints, but it’s really worth it. More pics of all the tastiness on flickr.
After some laundry and errands, I met up with Hugh for a drink — it’s hard to believe although we’ve "known" each other electronically for years, we’ve never actually met in person! He was even sweet enough to draw me a cartoon on the back of my Gothamist card (thanks, Hugh!). I did some cooking Saturday night and eventually fell asleep on the couch. I suppose I was exhausted — I slept for about 11 hours.
Today was Brooklyn day — birthday brunch for Doug followed by a walk with Bill and dinner at Katie’s. In line with several of my other Brooklyn jaunts, I ran into someone I knew when I stopped in at Big Nose, Fully Body to buy some wine. And now, I’ve tidied up my apartment and am going to hit the sack early so I can work out first thing before work.
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An Open Apology to My Father
As I was spending time in my homeland, I recalled the days when my dad and I lived on Capitol Hill. It was just the two of us for a while, and every day he’d pick me up from day care on the way home from work. We’d walk home down (I think) Pennsylvania Avenue, and we’d pass McDonald’s and Roy Rogers on the way. I would very often plead with my dad to take me to one or the other on the way home — I wasn’t a foodie from birth, folks — and sometimes he would cave in. At Roy Rogers, I loved the fact that the large fries came in a holster, even though I wasn’t ever allowed to get anything other than the small. At McDonalds, I usually got a cheeseburger, but there was always a bit of an issue. McDonalds, at least back then, adorned their burgers with ketchup, mustard, onions and pickles. I, at that time, absolutely hated mustard and pickles. Dad experimented a few times, scraping off the offending condiments, but I was too picky, and swore I could taste pickles and mustard even after they were gone. So Dad would have to special order my cheeseburgers, without mustard and pickles, completely defeating the point of the "fast food" experience.
Over the past five to ten years, I have learned to like many of the foods I never did as a kid (except for goat cheese, which I still don’t really care for), including pickles and mustard. So, Dad, I just wanted to apologize for the wasted time you spent waiting for my custom-made cheeseburgers. I can’t give you the time back, but the next time you want a burger, it’s on me — with whatever condiments you choose.
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Debut
It’s the debut of the new camera! I took it to Morandi the other night. Didn’t take very many pictures, as I only bought the 1G card last night. Unfortunately, this burrata was ice cold and we had to keep it at the table for a while before it got remotely oozy. See the rest on Flickr.
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Weekend Wrapup
Started off the weekend with a farewell party for Teddi, who’s moving off to Seattle for 6 months. As much as we all want Teddi to be happy, we selfishly want her to hate Seattle so that she’ll come back to NYC. I’m going to put her in touch with Geek and his family, who are living out there and can keep her company and show her around. After that I went to see Neko Case with Doug. I hadn’t seen her before and neither of the people who had promised me a CD came through, but despite that, I enjoyed the show (and still would love a CD). Following the show, we went to Cafe Grey for a drink and a snack. We got extravagant and ordered a foie gras crostini, which literally took 45 minutes to come out after we had placed our order. The bartender comped it, which was generous, and really the best way to handle the ridiculous delay. After that, off to Otto for a nightcap with Roopa.
Saturday I spent some time purging papers and whatnot (the continuation of a process of purging paper, clothes, and other crap living in the back of my closets), had a great workout, and then headed to Rob’s for raclette (a.k.a. melted cheese-fest). After a major cheese overdose, I slept like a baby. Woke up Sunday to draft a post on Gothamist (only to be trashed by our lovely commenters, who seem to have nothing better to do), then read the paper, threw in a couple of loads of laundry and headed to the gym. Met up with Jenn D. to catch up a bit, then met up with Augie, Lauren, Rob, Sara, and the little one (wearing the hat I knit for him), for dinner at Morandi. Can’t say I loved it — the things I liked the most (fried artichokes, meatballs, gorgonzola crostini) I can get at Gusto (where Chef Jody Williams formerly worked), and it was more expensive than we expected for what we got. I took pictures with my fancy new camera, but haven’t loaded up the software on my computer yet, so haven’t managed to get them off the camera yet. Finished up the night watching the Oscars with Rob and Sara before heading off to bed.