It’s pretty easy to tell when I get busy — the blog dies down significantly. Then again, Gothamist posts are still going . . . I have a bunch of pictures to upload from the weekend, but for now here’s the brief recap: dinner at Resto with Ali, training session, run, dim sum at Chinatown Brasserie with Ellen, errands, crawfish boil with Joe, karaoke courtesy of Jenn R., Mother’s Day brunch at the new Landmarc TWC, errands, nap, extremely sweaty hip-hop dance class, dinner with Gary at Bar Veloce, collapse.
Category: Fun
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Jamon It
Sometimes I look back at a weekend and wonder how the hell I managed to squeeze so much activity into it. Friday night I had a lovely dinner at Barbuto with Matt, Alexia, and their friend Nicholas, then planned to go home, but somehow wound up at Otto for a bit. I still managed to get to bed early enough to get up to meet Katie for a bike ride. Our progress was somewhat impeded by a charity walk/run in Central Park, but we re-routed ourselves a bit and had a good ride anyway. After biking, I met up with the ladies for an extra-special brunch at Florencia 13, perfect for Cinco de Mayo, Greta’s birthday, and a visit from Teddi, who had flown in from Seattle. After a few hours, I excused myself to go home and prepare for my 10-year law school reunion, which was later that night. It was much more fun than I imagined — I got to see tons of people I don’t see very often and even more whom I hadn’t seen since law school. And best of all, some of us ended up at karaoke.
Sunday was the D’Artagnan Duckathlon — a food-related competition of sorts where teams of four, most of which are from restaurants, participate in a bunch of mini-events — everything from racing around Hogs & Heifers in flippers to guessing the weight of a suckling pig. We certainly weren’t the most experienced or competitive team in the running, but, shockingly, we won the ham-identifying event. Our prize? Each of us got an enormous Jamon de Bayonne and a bottle of white bordeaux. Anyone out there have a deli slicer? Thanks again to John B., Emilia, and Joe for being such good sports.
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Weekend Wrapup
Friday was a great day. Not only was it gorgeous out, but I was back on solid food. I relished every bite of my first meal of the day — a half of a whole wheat bagel, plain yogurt, blueberries, and some sliced pineapple — certainly not exciting, but man, was it good. And don’t even get me started on the coffee. Ahh. I tried to go easy, sticking to a salad for lunch, but by dinnertime I was ready for more. I ended up at Mercadito Grove with Matt B., Dave & Lauren and couldn’t have been happier. In addition to the great company, I thoroughly enjoyed every single thing I ate. The spices seemed more vibrant and the textures — the crunch of a tortilla chip, the creaminess of guacamole, the viscosity of an oyster — leapt out in every bite.
I woke up Saturday and went on an invigorating run — the first long outdoor run of the season. Afterwards, I headed up to Matt R. and Alexia’s wedding brunch at their gorgeous apartment on the Upper East Side, where I got to catch up with some work folks and congratulate the happy couple on their nupitals. Following brunch, I headed back to Union Square to hit the farmer’s market (for produce) and Paragon (for triathlon gear). After much deliberation, I ended up with a sports bra that seems supportive enough to run in and comfortable enough to swim in, and some tri-specific shorts. I’ve already made peace with the fact that I’m not going to win any fashion awards at this thing, so I might as well be comfortable. Saturday night I headed out to Brooklyn for a wine dinner featuring selections from the $10 and under table at Smith & Vine (given the weather, I went straight for the rose), where I got to catch up with Jenn, Emilia, Viv, Anj, and Jules.
Sunday I slept a bit late, cooked up a tortilla espanola with my potatoes and eggs from the CSA (which will be my breakfast all week), then did a few errands outside before having a picnic lunch from Caracas Arepa Bar. By the time 6pm rolled around, I really didn’t feel like going inside for my hip-hop class, but I’m glad I did — it was a blast. Not only did I work up a serious sweat, but I worked out some major tension — how could you be tense when you’re dancing around like an idiot? Back home for a veggie stir fry and a little tidying up before bed.
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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 Quick Turnaround
Got back from Tuscany last night and am completely screwed up sleepwise. Regardless, I’m headed to Lancaster, PA tonight for Nathan‘s museum show debut at the Lancaster Arts Museum, where he is slated to be the artist in residence for the next month. Be back tomorrow!
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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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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.
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Head vs. Heart
This is a classic example of why I love The Onion: Point/Counterpoint — This Man Obviously Has Substance Abuse Problems And No Capacity To Love vs. But You Love Him
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I Heart Swine
What says Valentine’s Day more than The Big PIg Gig at Daisy May’s BBQ? Not much, really. Have a happy V-Day y’all — don’t forget to spread the love.
"Sweet Heart" Necco Conversation Heart sculpture by Nathan Sawaya, who made me some of the best valentines (and flowers) I ever received, just for the record.
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Weekend Wrapup
Still dealing with the number crunching, but managed to fit in some fun this weekend. Friday night I had sushi with Gabe at Le Miu, a spot in the East Village. Some of the chefs have Nobu pedigrees, and although they are trying to do some inventive things with the cooked dishes, I think we both enjoyed the sushi the most out of everything we tried. I got a good night’s sleep on Friday and woke up Saturday for a great workout. The rest of the day I did some work and cooked a carrot and potato soup out of this month’s CSA bounty. At 5:30 I met up with members of my Gothamist Food team, including the three new writers who I hadn’t yet met in person — it was great meeting them all and getting a chance to chat over drinks. Afterwards, I moved on to meet John B. for dinner at Momofuku Ssam Bar — that place absolutely rocks. It even got the John B. plate-licking seal of approval. If you don’t know about it, check out this NY Mag piece on David Chang, and then hurry over there for the three terrine sandwich, the brussels sprouts, and the pork buns. I’m going to try to gather a group for the whole pork butt that he does — who’s in? Dinner was followed by drinks at various and sundry bars in the East Village, where we were joined by Matt, the Lovely Miss Katie, Meg, Jenn and others.
Today I met up with a gaggle of food writers/bloggers for dim sum: Augie, David from Thrillist, Alaina and Ed from Serious Eats, Jen from Snack, Andrew from Gothamist, and Jennifer and Chris from Savory NY. It was great fun, and I plan to organize a similar gathering in the not-too-distant future. After some quality couch time, I cooked up some more CSA stuff — I roasted a half-chicken and more of the veggies. I’ll have plenty of food for lunch this week! And now, maybe a bit of work, but then early to bed — gotta hit the gym before work.