Sweet Blog O'Mine

v. 2.0

  • 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.

  • Pro Bono Happy Fun Time!

    Otherwise known as reporting season.  I’m up to my elbows in statistics, but did find time last night to hit the Smoke Joint in Ft. Greene.  I need to go back for some further research, but I really enjoyed both the beef ribs and the wings.  Okay, back to work.

  • The Way to My Heart

    Like I said, if you really want to woo me on Valentine’s Day, it’s all about the heart-shaped truffle pizza.

  • Questions of the Day

    1) How is it possible that Grey’s Anatomy can make me flat out bawl uncontrollably, even when there’s no PMS involved?
    2) Who left a white, square ceramic plate with my doorman this morning?

    Any insight out there in cyber-ville is most welcome.

  • Law School Does Not Make You Smart

    Case in point:  I decided that a good time to take a swimming class is on Tuesday nights from January to March, as this involves a long walk to the subway with wet hair at 10 pm in 20 degree weather.  It will end just in time for it to get warm out.

  • Ah . . . A Long Weekend

    But filled with fun stuff, as usual!  Friday night I met up with the folks who handle the PR for the Modern Mexican restaurants and had some drinks and snacks at Pampano, then headed out to Brooklyn for dinner and catching up nwith the lovely Miss Katie, Kim, and Rachel.  Saturday morning I headed to Chinatown Brasserie to check out the fabled dim sum with my aunt Ellen, who was visiting from DC and my cousin Sara, who had recently returned from her Christmas break from college.  We then headed down to Soho for some shopping.  After some modest success, I returned home to relax for a while before hitting the gym.  Saturday night Roopa and I went to Ditch Plains for dinner, where we sat at the bar and were entertained by Rob, the bartender.  After dinner we headed to Otto for a glass of wine to finish off the evening.

    Ahh . . .

    Sunday I went to the gym first thing before making some brunch and then attempting to visit the Brooklyn Museum to see the Annie Leibovitz exhibit with Rodez.  I say "attempting" because the line was ridiculous — after waiting for about 20 minutes, they made an announcement that the wait would be well over an hour.  We gave up and headed to the Botanical Garden instead.  Certainly not the best weather for it, but fun nonetheless.  I then met up with Jenn, Carolyn, and some others for salsa lessons on Smith Street — this woman gives lessons out of her father’s barber shop — it was a blast!  I managed to pick it up fairly quickly despite the fact that it was my first time.  When we were done shaking our groove thangs we met up with a crew on an Atlantic Avenue bar crawl.  We were so hungry from salsa-ing that we skipped some of the bars I really wanted to visit because I haven’t yet been (Floyd and Last Exit), but it was probably a good decision.  We met up with the crew at the Brazen Head.  At this point Jon had joined us — the Brazen Head was really loud (I swear, I’m turning into an old woman when it comes to noise level in bars — my voice just doesn’t carry in a loud bar, and it’s frustrating), so I was very relieved when we went to our next stop, the Brooklyn Inn.  It’s a gorgeous old bar on the corner of Hoyt and Bergen — Jon and I liked it so much there (and could actually hear each other talk), so we stayed even after the bar crawl team left for the next stop.  We ultimately met up with them for a bit of music at Hank’s to finish up the evening.

    Luckily, it was a three-day weekend for me.  I was determined to make a vat of chili for the week, so I did some grocery shopping, and ran into Augie, Lauren and Rob on the way home.  They were headed to Pearl Oyster Bar, so I joined them for some lunch (how could I resist, really?).  I had a very domestic afternoon — tidying up, making chili (I used a bit more chipotle than the recipe calls for), and doing laundry.  I wound up the weekend at a dinner party at my friend Matt’s, which was quite fun and delicious — Silvia, a business colleague of his, was visiting from Italy, so she cooked us an Italian feast of panzanella, risotto, and a roasted pork loin with dried fruit.  It was a great meal, but I got to bed a little later than I had planned. 

    On a side note, the Food Network show that contains footage of the 2005 Vendy Awards (for which I was a judge) finally aired last night.  Some of my family saw it, but I’m DVR’ing it tonight, so I haven’t seen it yet.  Be sure to tune in!

  • Theories

    People from my past often track me down via this blog.  I am constantly shocked how many of them, during the course of an email, will say something to the effect of "I can’t believe you’re not married," or "I thought you’d be the first person to get married."  I understand this to some degree.  To people in my past (let’s just call it high school through about a year past law school or so), I was the one who always had a boyfriend.  I went from one to the next to the next, without enough time between to become truly comfortable with myself and with being alone. 

    For people who have met me more recently, they are often surprised that I don’t have a boyfriend.  I have, from time to time, and I definitely go on dates, but things are very different now than they were back in the day.  And everyone, especially the married folks, has a theory about why I’m currently single.  One of my readers  (whom I’ve never met) commented the other day that maybe it’s because I’m "not a nice person in real life, have cats, or have issues."  He did add the caveat that we all have issues (and I’ll agree to that).  Today’s theory, from a friend and former co-worker, is that my "standards are too high."  Um . . . have you read about the jackasses?  My absolute base standard is "not a jackass."  Granted, I also like guys who are smart, attractive, treat me well, and call/make plans when they say they will.  I hardly think this is setting the bar too high.  Sure, there’s more to it than that, if we’re talking true boyfriend material, but for a few dates, at least until I get to know someone, that’s where we start.  And let’s assume for a moment that my standards are, in fact, too high.  It’s not like there are lines of single, available, sane men hanging around to date me if only my standards were lower.  I meet tons of guys, but they’re taken, hung up on an ex, workaholics, players, or, as they say, "just not into me."  Or I’m just not into them.  My point is, dating, and especially dating in New York City, is not that simple, or that clear-cut.  And I have plenty of friends in the same boat as I am.  So feel free to throw out your theories — I’ll try to address them.

  • There Are Just Days

    When Hugh just gets all up into my brain.  Case in point:

    Foolishlove

    I was given some grief today about not having any jackasses last year.  Here’s to hoping that 2007 will be as boring for my readers on that front as 2006.

  • It’s Picture Time!

    Xmasinbrooklyn

    Ah, pictures.  This one’s from a stroll past Grand Army Plaza last night.  Sure, it’s a little blurry, but I like it, nonetheless.  Friday night the Lovely Miss Katie and I went for a schvitz (that’s two weeks in a row, in case anyone’s keeping track) and then had leftover truffle pizza for dinner (from my second bday dinner at Cronkite on Thursday night).  Saturday morning my neighbor took me to a kick ass class at Equinox called Budokahn — it’s a mix of yoga and martial arts.  I really liked it, but confirmed the fact that my balance leaves a lot to be desired.  After some recovery and a few errands, I headed out to Brooklyn to meet up with Ben for First Saturdays at the Brooklyn Museum.  It was crowded, but we were able to see both the Ron Mueck sculptures and the Walton Ford watercolors.  Each exhibit was slightly wacked out in its own way.  I still need to return, possibly next weekend, to see the Annie Leibovitz exhibit — it was simply too crowded.  We ran into Jay and Catherine, and ended up joining them as well as Jon and Jen for dinner in Park Slope.  Today I did a little yoga (my back’s sore from training on Friday, so I wanted to take it easy), then headed off to Jackrabbit to buy some swimming gear — I’m starting a swimming class on Tuesday in preparation for my triathlon this summer. 

    And, in other news, I finally put up my New Year’s Eve pictures.  Enjoy!

  • Moo


    Moo

    I spotted one of the cow cabs this morning. Very fitting given that a very nice (and handsome) Gothamist reader dropped of a bunch of grass-fed beef at my apartment last night. Yum!