Sweet Blog O'Mine

Category: Food and Drink

  • Feed Me!

    If you read this blog on any even semi-regular basis, you know that I love food.  Not only does it make me happy in many ways and serve as a focus for many of my social gatherings, but it also saves many of those in my life from exposure to some major crankiness.  Reading this article in the New York Times yesterday made me think of so many instances in my life when just having a snack made all the difference between being bitchy, cranky, and snappy and being my rather pleasant, normal self.  I firmly believe that it is always helpful to carry a "cranky snack" around if you suffer from the same affliction — I often tuck away small baggies of nuts or easily packable fruit leather — nibbling on a few almonds can return sanity when it has slipped away due to hunger. 

    When Nathan and I moved in together*, we went to Ikea to shop for a dining table.  It was clear very quickly that we had two completely different ideas about what we were looking for: I wanted a table that could expand to fit more people for all the dinner parties we were going to have; he wanted something as cheap as possible.  If it wasn’t for the Ikea cafeteria and their Swedish meatballs, we probably wouldn’t have made it through that shopping trip (he gets rather cranky when he gets hungry), let alone through well over a year of living together.

    Come to think of it, I’m kind of hungry now .  .  .

    * John B. was kind enough to point out that I made it sound like Nathan and I are currently living together.  We’re not.  That was right after law school — 1997.  We’re still friends, though!

  • Where Does the Time Go?

    You know it’s bad when your own sister is insulting the lameness of your blog posts (sorry, Katie, but I really was excited about the new sneaks!).  What I’ve learned is that there’s no way to work out, write for Gothamist, and write here all before work, and unfortunately, this tends to come last.  And when I’m working out in the morning, I go to bed earlier.  It’s a never-ending cycle. 

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    Last weekend, thanks to a hot tip from Tien, Rob and I headed out to Flushing to eat soup dumplings from Din Tai Fung, a Taiwanese restaurant that set up shop for a few weekends here in New York.  Some say their soup dumplings are the world’s best, and I certainly won’t argue.  Not only were they beautiful, but they were delicate and light, and absolutely delicious.  After dumplings we walked around Flushing to check out the rest of the neighborhood.  All I can say is go take a field trip to the end of the 7 train because there is so much good food out there — Chinese bakeries, hand-pulled ramen noodles, Chinese and Latin roasted chickens, Indian and Asian markets (where I saw these "tacos"), kabobs — an overwhelming selection.  And you can even walk some of it off at the Queens Botanical Garden, which is right nearby.

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    In theory, I’m heading up to Maine tomorrow morning, but the weather reports (sleet, snow) have gotten the family in a panic.  We’ll see how it goes.  Wish me luck and have a great Thanksgiving!

  • You Know You’re Too Busy When

    You have to get up early, not to work out, not to write, but to clean your apartment because it’s the only free time you’ve had to do so all week and your dad’s coming.  Gotta love vacuuming at 8 a.m.

    You haven’t written anything decent on your blog in ages  (and I don’t have time now, either, but I’ve got a few good posts up my sleeve.  I promise I’ll get to some of them soon).

    And on an unrelated note, I’m very excited about three little words tomorrow morning: Din Tai Fung.

  • The Weekend Wrapup

    After the Vendys and a whirlwind of a week, I stayed in Friday night.  I must have been exhausted because I slept for 12 hours.  Saturday I went to the gym, visited the Dosa cart, then headed up to Westchester to spend the afternoon with a group of my high school friends and their kids.  It’s quite overwhelming as the one single, childless person the group, but it was great to see everyone.  The kids I had met before had gotten huge!  I’ve got to tell you though, there’s nothing like spending an afternoon with your friends who are married and/or have kids to make you realize that there’s absolutely no rush to get there.  All in due time. 

    I came back to the city to spend a mellow night with my cousin Sara, who’s a sophomore at Barnard.  We went to see Shopgirl (my advice is to wait for the DVD), then had a late night snack at Village Yokocho.  Every time I go there I remember how much I love it.  Late night yakitori, dumplings, and other Japanese small plate dishes.  Mmmm.  After that, I finally took my friend Brian up on his offer to come over and sing karaoke at his apartment.  Brian, who I met through my work at Gothamist (he represents cookbook authors and was with me the night I was out with the author of The Vodka Cookbook), was recently featured in an article in the NYT real estate section — he’s got a karaoke stage in his apartment.  So Sara and I headed over and sang until the wee hours of the night.  Can’t wait until next time.

    Today I had a delicious brunch at Augie & Lauren’s and had about two minutes to breathe before heading out to Brooklyn for Katie’s mom’s beer stew.  Stuffed, I spent some time cleaning my apartment tonight, gave myself a quick mani/pedi, and am heading upstairs to give Augie a little blog tutorial.  After that it’s a good night’s sleep before my last session of boot camp.  Woo hoo!

  • The Coveted Cup

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    Not only was the Vendy Awards celebration so much fun, but I spent some time chatting with the AP reporter, who ended up quoting me in an article that’s now all over the place.  You can’t hear the emphasis ("riDICulous") in the quote, but those of you who know me can surely imagine how I said it.  Apparently there’s an NPR piece on Weekend Edition tomorrow, a WNYC piece early next week, and a Food Network piece in January or February.  I’ll keep you posted.  Before I head out to Westchester for to see my high school friends and their respective broods (I’m the only single, childless one in the bunch), I’m going to head over to the Dosa Man, one of the finalists, for lunch.  I’ve been dreaming of his coconut chutney since Thursday night!

  • Whatcha Doin’ Tonight?

    2005_08_food_vendy.jpgIf you don’t have plans, support the Street Vendor Project of the Urban Justice Center (run by my friend Sean) and taste the wares of some of the city’s favorite street food vendors at the Vendy Awards. There will be an open bar of wine and beer, and the finalists will be selling their food (at their usual street-level prices) to guests in attendance. A team of esteemed judges (including yours truly) will determine the winner. After the honors are bestowed, DJ Diallo Internationale will spin world music into the night.$35 tickets available online or at the door. 7-10:30 pm, 27 East 4th Street in Manhattan.

  • Fall Bounty

    rainbow chardbrussels sprouts


    purple and yellow carrotsgourds


    chilesstill more chiles

    How much do I adore the Union Square greenmarket at this time of year?

  • A.W.O.L.

    After walking around in agony since Wednesday morning, I made the executive decision to skip boot camp this morning in exchange for more sleep and a Pilates video.  I am still so ridiculously sore that I’m moving like an 80-year-old woman — this weekend I’ll attempt some light cardio, go to yoga with Nikki to stretch out all the creakiness, and I believe that a good, solid schvitz is in order.  After all that and some decent rest, I think I’ll be ready to re-enlist at 6 a.m. Monday morning. 

    Wednesday night I had the pleasure of eating at my friend Ron’s new restaurant with Erika and Jeremy. Pair of 8’s, on the Upper West Side, is going to be a huge success — on their second night they were already full and turning people away.  They have a fantastic special on Monday nights: $25 prix fixe for two courses and a drink. It might even be enough to make me go uptown more often.
    Congrats, Ron!  Last night I had the pleasure of attending an awards ceremony where one of the associates at my firm was honored for her inspirational pro bono work on behalf of domestic violence victims for Sanctuary for Families.  Yay, Hannah!  After that, I had a top secret meeting with a fellow Vendy Award judge to determine our criteria for next week’s event — go buy your tickets! 

    Tonight I’m hosting a wine tasting dinner with Jenn, Vivian, and Melissa.  At our last one, we went through six bottles of wine among the four of us, so I’m definitely looking forward to this one!  Now, I just need to figure out how I’m going to clean up this pigsty of an apartment and buy dinner (pumpkin ravioli with sage and brown butter) sometime before 8:00 tonight . . .

  • Yeehaw!

    Believe it or not, I went square dancing last night.  Many thanks to Sean for being up for the adventure.  We’re going to recruit a large group next time and make an event out of it, so get ready.  We also discovered (thanks to a tip from Nicole), the Leela Lounge, a great new upscale Indian restaurant right nearby.  More on that later.  And for those of you who asked (Dad), yes, I’m still doing boot camp.  It’s not getting any easier and I still come home and crash for another 45 minutes after my shower.  I think it’s killing me slowly.

  • I’m Tired*

    *for best results, just imagine Madeline Kahn in Blazing Saddles.

    You can tell how busy I am by the amount of crap piled up on my dining table, the number of dishes in my sink, and the degree to which my apartment is in a state of general disarray.  Thankfully, after tonight (planned night in), the piles on the table are a little smaller, the dishes are washed, I’ve written one out of three things I wanted to write for Gothamist tomorrow, and I’m getting to bed at a reasonable hour.  As my friend Katie pointed out, my blog posts are getting shorter and shorter.  I’m just tired these days.  After returning from OJ, I’ve been going nonstop — work’s been busy, I went to the Human Rights First gala dinner on Monday, and had dinner with Jenn at Joya (yum!) last night.  My apologies, dear readers.  I don’t mean to be terse.  And speaking of readers — I’ve been checking out my stats lately, and I’m dying to know who the reader is from Chicago who did a Yahoo search for "blog by a woman named laren set in new york city."  ‘Fess up!