Sweet Blog O'Mine

Category: Food and Drink

  • Visiting Another Blue State: the San Fran Report

    Jenn and I had both stayed up late to watch election returns last Tuesday night, so when we met super-early on Wednesday morning, we were both incredibly cranky and depressed, hoping that the worst was not yet inevitable.  During our flight over Jesusland (as the map that’s been going around now calls it), our pilot announced that Kerry was planning his concession later that afternoon.  Fuck.  At least we were on vacation.

    Our goals for our trip were to see friends, catch up on sleep, and relax, and I had the additional goal, as I always do, to find fantastic, cheap, local fare.  We succeeded on all fronts.  Between my SF Mates dinner at Tao Cafe (thanks again to the Chowhounds), to dim sum at Ton Kiang, from hitting happy hour at Nectar, a sleek and comfortable wine bar, to happy hour at trendy-wendy Lime, from sushi on boats at Warakubune to small plates at Three Seasons to modern Chinese at Firecracker, and the grand finale at the Ferry Building Farmers’ Market (where else can you have sweet, fresh oysters at 10 AM?!), I was definitely grateful for the hills and a travel companion who liked to walk as much as I did.

    Without going into too much detail (or I’ll never catch up), it was great to see Hinman, Leslie, Spike, Mindy, Joe, Jon, Eric, Bill, Adam, Arielle, David R., Stephen, Sid, and Seth — I was thrilled that I was able to spend at least a little bit of time with so many people and some quality time with a few folks I hadn’t seen in way too long.  Thanks particularly to Eric and Bill for their incredible hospitality and to my cousin Matt for letting me crash at his home away from home.

    Baybridge
    (yes, it’s the Bay Bridge, not the Golden Gate, but this is the view I had while eating those oysters I mentioned.  Nice, huh?)

    Can’t say I’m ready to move quite yet, but I had a great trip — and although I still have a great deal of recovery to do from the election, I’m glad I started down the road with friends and like-minded blue-staters.  It certainly softened the blow.  You can see the rest of the pictures here.

  • Playing Catch Up (and Other Games)

    Once again, my blog is lagging behind my life.  I got back last night from a great food and friend-filled trip to San Francisco, where I could counter at least some of the shock, grief, and depression I was feeling about the election results.  Ugh.  I’ll do my best to post my pictures, etc. tonight, but I have to go to Taste of NY first, to cover it for Gothamist Food.  Sigh — life is hard. 

    In the meantime, here’s some stuff from last weekend that I never managed to post.  I spent a great day in Chinatown with my friend Deb, and we had some dim sum at Ping’s Seafood, which was good, but I still think I prefer HSF.  We also spent some time playing a game we called Crazy or on the Phone?   So hard to tell these days what with all the hands-free headsets around, but I think we were running about 50/50.  We also stumbled across this sign, which we decided could have very well been a missed Midnight Madness clue:

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    I’ll catch up one of these days, I swear.

  • Whew

    It’s been another too-busy week, so tonight is my designated night in.  Of course, I have no food in the house, and am trying to save up some money for my vacation, so I get to play pantry chef — what do I have in the pantry that I can toss together and eat?  Looks like it’s going to be a variation of pasta all’ amatricana — tomatoes, bacon, onions, some crushed red pepper.  Not bad, if I do say so myself.

    The weekend was a bit of a whirlwind — starting with a Thursday night visit to Otto with folks from the beach house, the late arrival of my weekend visitor, a fantastic dinner Friday night at Strip House, a beautifully plated, delicious brunch cooked just for me, the Romare Bearden exhibit at the Whitney, a (sadly) rather mediocre dinner at John’s Pizza, a party in a spectacular duplex, brunch in Brooklyn with my Dad, stepmom, brother and sister, several naps, and rounded out with another visit to Otto to celebrate Augie & Lauren’s return from their honeymoon.

    124_2418_r1With no rest, I started the work week with dinner with Dad at Union Square Cafe on Monday, led my self-defense class graduation/open house on Tuesday, and just returned today from a day-long meeting in Albany. 

    One of the many highlights of the weekend was our dinner at Strip House, where Rene and his staff gave us the royal treatment.  I had never been before, and was very impressed — my filet was perfect, and I swooned over the goose fat potatoes with their crisy, flavorful crust.  How can you go wrong with goose fat, really?  And I had more foie gras that night than I have had in the past two years combined: the seared foie gras with peaches and green tomatoes followed by the foie gras meatball.  Rene rounded out the evening by sending out a piece of chocolate cake the size of my head — we had some difficulty determining whether it was twelve or fourteen layers, but regardless, it was decadent.  Plus, we had leftovers to take home!  Thanks to all for a great weekend, and after some rest tonight, I’ll be ready for the rest of the week.

  • Ah . . . Fall

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    So last weekend was our 8th annual OJ, and like others before it, this one was filled with friends, food, wine, and junior high potty humor.  Unlike past years, however, we were in a super-duper-kickass house in Vermont, thanks to the hard work of our man Sco.  We all plan to chip in so that we can ultimately buy it. 

    Highlights included:

  • Leg of lamb stuffed with wild mushrooms and greens and "OJ Potatoes" by John (and his assistants, for when he was, um, indisposed)
  • Delicious desserts by Doug, including deep dish apple pie with a cheddar crumb crust, strawberry struessel cake, and pumpkin spice cake shaped like a pumpkin123_2391_r1
  • Squash risotto adapted from this dreamy fall recipe (in veggie and decidedly non-veggie, i.e., with bacon, versions) by yours truly (thanks to Katie from the beach house for this one)
  • bacon with just about every meal
  • wine, wine, and more wine
  • soup, soup, and more soup
  • beautiful foliage
  • punkins!
  • "look at the pretty!"
  • "Lever 2000 Fuckface – ask for it by name"
    and, of course,
    "P.S. — doody." 

    You can find the pictures here.


  • And We’re Off!

    Off to the woods for our 8th (?) annual OJ — the October soJourn, this year to VT. I’m sure I’ll return with scads of pictures, several tasty recipes, and tons of nauseatingly-gushy-sweet things to say about how amazing my friends are. For a preview, read last year’s entry.

  • Why It’s Cool to Be Me Today

    Because, as the co-editor of Gothamist Food, I got a special treat messengered to my office that won’t be available to the general public until Monday. You’ll have to wait until then to find out what it is . . .

  • Welcome to the Working Week*

    123_2371_r1Back from a completely relaxing weekend in Kismet. Not as many pictures, or as many people as last time, but once again, I am so happy that I got a chance to escape a bit this weekend. I even got in a beach day — yes, the weather cooperated enough for us to have a beach day in October. Fantastic. I met a new batch of people, who were all interesting, smart, fun, and had a shared passion for food. We had several amazing feasts, including a squash, chestnut, bacon and sage risotto that was perfect for fall, and a leg of lamb, infused with garlic, thyme, and rosemary, done on the rotisserie (damn, I need one of those), and talked everything from politics to our first music purchases (for the record, my first two 45’s were “I Will Survive” and “We Are Family“). Strangely enough, the five of us had a number of “NYC small world” coincidences, including sharing former employers, knowing various people in common, and being kick-ass Scrabble players. Oh wait, that wasn’t me. Argh. Note to self — must improve vocabulary before next Scrabble tournament.

    Thanks to John for being an extraordinarily welcoming host — for giving me a ride and letting me stray in, even as an “outsider,” and he gets extra bonus points for introducing me to my new favorite cocktail, the sidecar, which I believe is long overdue for a comeback. It was wonderful to meet you as well, Jenn, Jay & Katie — hope to meet up with you soon, perhaps at my neighborhood joint.

    You can see the photos here. I particularly like the fact that I was able to capture one of the alien deer that lurk about the island (yes, I know it’s the flash, but humor me, dammit):

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    * A tribute, of course, to my boy Elvis. Costello, that is.

  • Amalga-Love and Smooches

    122_2275As usual, I’m a little too tired to do much else, but I wanted to post the pictures from the Mates’ 20th anniversary gala weekend. The Mates, or Amalgamates, is the Tufts coed a cappella singing group, in which I was not only a member, but president and business manager as well, not to mention president of the AAA — the Amalgamates Alumni Association. Or — as a friend of mine said earlier tonight — I was queen of the dorks. The Mates meant and continue to mean so much to me, as the speech I wrote for the occasion details in full. I can’t imagine you’d really want to read it if you’re not a Mate, but I just wanted to post it for posterity’s sake.

    You can find the pictures here.

  • A Wine Club Society Wedding

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    The founder of our wine club society, Augie and his lovely fiancée Lauren got married last night. In typical wine club society fashion, the food and wine were amazing, the mood was festive, and we had way too much of a good time until the wee hours of the morning. Augie and Lauren are another couple who seem like such a perfect fit for each other, they complement each other wonderfully, and they have made it a point to bring people together to share the things they love. I’m touched and honored to have been part of the celebration and am thankful that we have become so close over the past year. Congratulations!

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    You can see the rest of the pictures here.

  • Gettting So Much Better*

    So after I survived the trials and tribulations of the first portion of the weekend, I had nowhere to go but up. And up it went. I spent Saturday with my friend Jenn. We attempted to meet up with the Run Against Bush event in Union Square, but somehow managed to miss it, as we were running a bit late. We couldn’t quite figure out how we couldn’t seem to find a pack of people wearing identical blue t-shirts who were supposed to be running conspicuously from Union Square to Washington Square Park. After changing, we ended up going shopping and diiscussing men. We were talking about our financial situation, and we concluded that the whole thing is somewhat of a vicious cycle — we spend money on clothes we like so that we feel confident and attract men, but this leaves us broke, and if we don’t spend the money, we don’t attract them. We realized, of course, that this is merely a way to rationalize purchasing any given item. Jenn encouraged me to buy girly-girl clothes (when left to my own devices, I tend to buy lots of black and hang out in jeans, tshirts and hoodies). More on that later.

    That night we went to a dinner party, hosted by our mutual friend Jeff, who was in town from upstate. After fresh pasta with delectable homemade pesto (loved the addition of the sun-dried tomatoes, Jeff), salad with feta cheese, olives, and a healthy dose of red wine, Jeff proceeded to go around the room and compliment each of us. He had brought together his friends from different facets of his life, and took great joy in having us meet each other. Taking the time to go around the room and highlighting what he likes about each of us was pleasantly eye-opening; it made me realize how rarely we take time to let our friends know what we love about them. We should do more of this as a general rule. So to all of my friends out there, you rock! Anyway, after the feel-good-fest, we were off to Winnie’s for some solid dive bar karaoke. And speaking of friends, at Winnie’s I ran into Dan, a friend of my friend Gaby, and through the magic of Dodgeball, my friends Matthew and Manhattan Transfer stopped by too. A good time was had by all, at least until we closed down the place and they kicked us out. Thanks to Jeff (pictured below) for a fine meal, good company, and a solid evening of revelry at Winnie’s.

    Me_and_jeff_at_karaoke

    The next day, after a brief recovery, I met up with my mom, to catch up and do a few errands before we headed off to foodie at a gallery downtown. This foodie was a six-country culinary tour, with stops in Mexico, India, Italy, France, Portugal, and the local tri-state area. I’ve put up the pictures (from both nights), but not sure I have the energy for a write-up right now. All in all, it was a good time, and a special thanks to mom for treating me! My attempts to go home and go to bed after foodie were futile, and we ended up at ‘inoteca for some more wine and snacks. And as an aside, if you haven’t had their chicken liver, you must go have some. Immediately. On my way out, my friend David introduced me to the two women he had been chatting up at the bar. They complimented me on my outfit — lo and behold, it consisted primarily of the girly-girl clothes that Jenn had convinced me to buy the day before. Okay, you were right — that stuff does look good on me, so thanks, Jenn!

    Off to bed now, but I did want to note that tomorrow night I’m going to my first food event where I am using my Gothamist Food press credentials, Harvest in the Square. I get to check in at the press table and everything! Ok, must calm down. I’m sounding like a dork again here . . .

    * A tribute to the Beatles’ Getting Better