Ah, the life of a food journalist. The full rundown is on Gothamist.
v. 2.0
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In the Fog
My dad left me a message the other night in response to my two most recent posts. First, he was concerned about my cholesterol levels due to the chocolate covered bacon. My cholesterol is actually quite good (or so says my doctor). He also made the suggestion that in order to avoid the escalator frustration, I leave for work an hour earlier and walk to work. Now, this might be a good idea for someone else. For me, not so much. I am not good in the morning. Anyone who has interacted with me before coffee can testify to this fact.
On Friday, after a decent night's sleep, mind you, I left work about 50 minutes before I normally do, as I had organized a training that started at 9:30 and wanted to make sure it was all set to go. I walked to the subway, looked at the front of the subway that was sitting in the station as I got to the platform, and jumped on. I stuck my nose in my New Yorker, and the next thing I knew, the train I thought was an E was at 72nd Street. After finally turning around and making to the proper stop, it had taken me 50 minutes to get to work. I headed to the elevator to go up to the training and wound up in the lobby. Seriously — not a morning person.
I caught up on some sleep this weekend and even made it out to the Big Apple BBQ Block Party yesterday. I went for a run this morning before the worst of the heat, but it was still pretty brutal. In a bit I'll be off to the James Beard Awards, which is a black tie affair — thankfully I found a black cocktail dress in the back of the closet that can pass as black tie to substitute for the floor length gown I had originally planned on wearing — no way in this heat!
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Minor Inconvenience
I know it's really not a big deal in the grand scheme of things, but the escalator construction at the 53rd and Lex subway station is really starting to get to me. Somehow each morning, I forget about it completely until the subway doors pop open and let me out onto the platform with the scores of other commuters who are all trying to squeeze up the same escalator. Sometimes I take the stairs (if they let me — some days they get pissy and reserve the stairs just to go down), but more often than not I just shuffle along the platform waiting to get to the escalator so I can walk up. Also annoying — given the construction, a lot of people are breaking the rules, which makes for a lot more escalator standing. And this is all pre-coffee, mind you.
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Bacon!
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Know Your Audience
For many in the blogosphere, this article in Sunday's magazine wasn't necessarily breaking news. Long story short, girl in her 20's blogs about her personal life waaay too personally, girl becomes editor of Gawker along the way, trashing everyone in her path, girl's "secret" blog is discovered, girl quits Gawker, gets a taste of her own medicine. When you put everything out in public, people feel entitled to pick you apart, which is why I always adhere to strict guidelines as to what I write here. Sure, I've been writing since 2002 (or more like 2003), and someone who doesn't know me could read through everything and learn quite a bit about me, but not all that much, really. I always assume a few things about my audience, which generally keeps my content in check: my parents and family read this, my boss and co-workers read this, and anyone I date reads this. With that firmly in mind, I post away with my rather vanilla subject matter (see further discussion here and here).
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Beach, Take 1
Ah, the first weekend at the beach. Sand, sun, wind, a 5 mile run (thanks for the company, Meg!), two fantastic meals courtesy of Marla, Jimmy, John, Spencer and the sous cheffing team, tons of mac and cheese, dancing at and closing down the Out, a round of "Would You Rather?", deep fried oreos (pictured above), waay too many people in the hot tub, frothy pina coladas (from cocktail master Ben), and the absolute best version of George Michael's "Freedom," that I've ever heard. The pictures from the weekend are here. Now, off to sleep. -
Long Weekend
Man, am I looking forward to a long weekend! You can tell I've had a busy week, since I haven't managed to post at all. Lame. There were some highlights along the way — a meet-up for the beach house, an opening party for Hundred Acres, some gym time, some couch time, and my second visit to Momofuku Ko.* I literally logged on to the reservation site on Wednesday at 4pm and there was a cancellation for 7pm that night. So — Roopa joined me (with an open mind) and we had an amazing meal. In addition to the dishes you can read about on some of the blogs out there, most of which I had last time, there were some new ones to try this time around. Roopa and I got served different things several times, which didn't happen on my last visit. I did not bring my camera — in fact, we chatted with one of the chefs, who mentioned they were possibly considering a no-camera policy. Anyhoo, back to the food:
- spring pea soup with crawfish, and a morel mushroom crepe
- kampachi with freeze-dried soy, chive flowers, chive oil, and pickled crosnes
- a japanese egg custard with asparagus, hackleback caviar, tarragon oil, and braised cashews
- lasagne with burgundy snails, broccoli rabe flowers, mushrooms, ricotta salada, and whipped ricotta
- halibut with radish salad, burnt onion, baby bok choy, and pepperoncini (my favorite new dish)
- trout with yuzu, pickled breakfast radish, bacon puree, and almonds
- kiwi sorbet with apricot puree and olive oil
- lychee sorbet with sesame "sand"
- cereal milk panna cotta with cornflake crumbs, avocado, and hazelnut chocolate
- yellow cake ice cream with chocolate, rhubarb, candied peas and pea "dust"
Once again, pretty damn amazing. We got the wine pairings again — this time I asked for a copy, which I'll hopefully get soon. And for your general amusement, here are the pics
from Matt's housewarming party are here. Well, at least those that are safe for general consumption.
* In case anyone's wondering why I didn't write about my Ko visits on Gothamist, first and foremost, I just wanted to enjoy my meal without worrying about giving a blow-by-blow recap. Second of all, I wasn't prepared for another per se treatment, although the dollar amount isn't even close in this case.
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Sigh
I know, I know. I still haven’t managed to post about Minneapolis. You’ll have to settle for a list of the places I ate and a link to the pictures:
- Hell’s Kitchen for huevos rancheros
- Nick & Eddie’s (my favorite dinner out that week)
- Solera for the monster group dinner
- Al’s Breakfast, which absolutely rocked
- La Belle Vie
- Sanctuary
- Matt’s Bar for a juicy Lucy
- and, although we didn’t eat there, Nye’s Polonaise (because where else can you belt out show tunes to a live piano player or dance to polka music at the same venue?)
And the pictures, although there aren’t that many, are here. Thanks again to the Lovely Miss Katie and her family for being so welcoming!
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Skip Lunch, Fight Hunger
Take the money you’d normally spend on lunch today and donate it to City Harvest’s Skip Lunch, Fight Hunger campaign. You can read more about it on my 700th Gothamist Food post. That’s right — my seven HUNDREDTH post.
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A Little Humor
To tide you over till I can pull it together to post my (few) pictures from Minneapolis. First, I’ve coined a new term. Last year around this time I was on a self-imposed dating hiatus. I’ve decided to call that a guy-atus. I’m not on one now, though, for the record.
Next, the Onion. It’s from a little while back but it made me laugh out loud: New ‘Get The Fuck Outta The Road’ Program Aims To Increase Pedestrian Safety.