Recession Eating Frenzy

i love my friends. i love my food. i love my drinks. i love when all my loves come together.


unfortunately, that's not always possible. while i wish we were more creative in our ideas for outings, my friends and i tend to be limited in our activity choices: drinks and food. but not all my friends have the funds to support constant $10 drinks and $12 snacks (for itty bitty portions). being conscious of this, i've become more attuned to food and drink deals as a way to combine all my loves together.


this Saturday i met with Bubby for Jin's happy hour deal, which runs every day from 4-7 p.m.  The deal consists of a set menu where everything is only $3: this includes a nice variety of maki rolls and appetizers, as well a multitude of drinks including house sakes, beers (Kirin, Sapporo, Hoegarden etc.), and wines. the $3 drinks were the real reason i picked Jin (yes, i harbor an inner lush if you haven't already figured it out).


after ordering 3 maki rolls (eel avocado, spicy tuna crunch, alaska), a hiyayakko tofu appetizer,  4 cold sakes and 4 Kirin Ichiban drafts, the total amount per person was $24 including tip. not bad at all considering i was tipsy and Bubby was "a little bit drunk, i'm not gonna lie" (said with that universal lopsided smile that all drunk people exhibit).


clearly we weren't the only people who knew about Jin's happy hour special. when i showed up a little after 6 p.m., the place was packed. i was sat at the only table available at the time, which was a tiny 2-person table wedged extremely close to a very tall bamboo plant and only 6-8 feet away from the bathroom. while people usually complain about sitting close to the bathroom, i don't actually mind it so much as long as the bathroom's not smelly (which it wasn't). plus, it's not like i could actually see into the bathroom at any point. it wasn't that close. seeing a toilet while eating would be a no-no for me. on this particular occassion, being close enough to the bathroom was a blessing in disguise because drinking all that sake and beer made it so i had to make more than 1 trip to the lavatory so it was nice not to have to go far.

afterwards, Bubby and i headed uptown to Valhalla, a beer bar located in Hell's Kitchen. holy beer selection on draft.


although i'm not the biggest beer fan, even i have to admit that there's bound to be something at Valhalla that will tickle your fancy. and the bartender is very helpful in accomodating your tastes. so when Bubby and i decided to share a flight with the simple instructions, "we don't really like dark beers or ales. more summery and light?" she came up with a more than suitable flight ($23).


it being Gay Day, it was perfect that we were at Valhalla for Bubby's classmate's birthday party who is very of the same-sex persuasion. and totes hitting on Bubby. which she loves. although she may not be same-sex oriented (at least not soberly), she still loves the flirting. then again, who doesn't? 

2 beer flights later, Bubby was drinked-out. we decided to head down to St. Marks for some cheap snacks and ended up on Bleecker St. after some bad navigation on my part, we ended up going to Great Jones Cafe instead. i can't believe i've never eaten here before.

great hole-in-the-wall Southern restaurant. i only say it's a hole-in-the-wall because it's completely camouflaged from the street. if you didn't know about it before going there, you definitely wouldn't think the indescript restaurant was housing such great southern food.

Bubby was clearly on a food mission and quickly made the command decision to order the Wings. spicy, messy heaven. the came out piping hot and really hit the spot. and since i clearly wasn't going home with anyone sitting at our table (it was just Bubby, me, and BDayGirl), getting wing sauce all over my face and fingers was perfectly acceptable. we also split an order of the Lamb Po' Boy, which was extremely tender and flavorful lamb served with salty shoe string french fries.

it's been a while since i've done the drunken late night munchie but Great Jones Cafe was a great way to do it up and end the night.

Graceful as a Ballerina

i hate losing contact w/friends, but it's inevitable when they don't live in the same city. and if they're in Cali, then the time difference also plays a part in whether or not significant phone conversations are made. which is why when AmericanJoe called me to let me know he was gonna be in NYC, i was beyond ecstatic.

AmericanJoe is a friend i met when i studied abroad in Edinburgh, Scotland for my junior year of college. i'm not sure why, but we really hit it off and i truly love this boy (altho not in that way, tho i'm not sure why because he's adorable and very funny). regardless, he was arriving from Cali and staying with his brother before they headed home together for their Christmas family reunion so of course we had to meet up.

i thought we were meeting for drinks or coffee in the afternoon, but that ended up changing to dinner at Schiller's Liquor Bar on the LES. that wouldn't have been so bad except for the fact that by the time i showed up i really, truly couldn't eat a bite. however, i didn't want to be that girl who orders nothing while everyone is eating, so i ordered to Mac & Cheese which is served w/bacon bits. however, i only could eat 2 bites. AmericanJoe's brother had been raving about the dish and how he could eat 3 servings by himself, so i offered it to him but he said "no". and since we were going somewhere after dinner, it wasn't practical to have it packed up, especially since i was carrying a clutch person as opposed to a bag i could put it in.

it was probably one of my saddest moments to see them throw away an almost full portion of food.

the party we went to was around the corner and while AmericanJoe and i hung back the others went into the party. just as we were negotiating with the bouncer to get in (there was a cover-i hate covers. honestly, you're not that cool), our party came back out. turns out the party was very whack and not fun so we just bounced to a nearby bar for a drink or 2 before we split and headed home.

did i mention that it had started snowing while we were out? and the ground had turned very icy? o yea, it had and it did. so i was walking down the subway in my high-heel boots and i slid down the stairs. yes, it's embarassing as it sounds. and i broke my heel.

what was the best was when the couple that'd been walking next to me and saw me fall came over to check on me. i was fine except for my bruised and embarassed ego. and then the girl said, "well, that was really graceful. the way you fell."

the tea tea dance aka HAA-LLO

who's just been really really lazy lately? that'd be me! aish...w/school and all the events going on, even when i've had down-time all i really want to do is veg out and not use my brain at all...but now entries have been piling up and i must get to them or else i'll never get up to date.

i finally went to dim sum w/KimChi which we'd been talking about doing since i met her November of last year but our schedules never worked out until beginning of January. we finally met up and we went to, where else? Jing Fong for dim sum brunch. i invited Snoopy since he likes the skinny korean girls but KimChi is so adorable and fun. i've got to learn that if i hang out w/Snoopy too much i'm gonna turn into a giant fatty. he orders so much food! it wouldn't be so bad except for the fact that he barely eats any of it! argh...that is so frustrating. he just went into a frenzy at Jing Fong and there were us 3 girls and him. aish...however, the conversation was pretty interesting since i haven't seen KimChi since the 1st time i'd met her. KimChi's korean but learned to speak mandarin chinese which is why we hit it off so quickly. we both wanted someone to practice mandarin w/. KimChi's friend turned to me and asked me:

"how do you say 'hello' in chinese?"

this question always makes me smile b/c in all honesty, yes, there's the "ni hao ma?" that everyone knows, but most chinese ppl don't greet each other w/that except for when you're greeted by salespeople upon entering a retail store/restaurant. for the most part ppl who speak chinese greet each other by saying "hello". i told Olives that and she didn't believe me! just like korean has "aneonhaseo" (i'm spelling that phonetically so don't kill me), she wanted to know what was the chinese equivalent. i kept on insisting that "hello" or "hi" was the equivalent but she didn't think so, so i thought really hard and came up w/this answer:

"HAA-LLO".

yep, that really fobby, mispronunciation of "hello" you often hear FOBs say b/c that's 1 of the few english words they know. and it's true, when i travelled in Taipei i would get a lot of "hallos". and the pronunciation's always dragged out for some reason. so i said it Olives and even as i heard myself say it i started to laugh and so did she. i don't know why it was so funny.

afterwards, KimChi was yearning for some good boba milk tea so we went to Tea-riffic (i'm not joking, that was the name or at least that's what it's gonna be called for this month). i think Snoopy mentioned this place is run by the same ppl who run St. Alps on E.9th and you can tell. the menu's pretty identical. of course, even tho we'd just finished eating dim sum and were stuffed, Snoopy ordered toast w/crushed peanuts and condensed milk. now, when you hear an order like that you would think it'd be presented like peanut butter & jelly right? layered 1 on top of the other? nope. it's presented by smearing 1 diagnol portion of the toast w/peanut butter and the other diagnol portion w/condensed milk butter. although KimChi complained about the condensed milk butter smelling like baby powder, we all ate some and it was admittedly good.

i split up w/them after this and went to go catch up w/Debs who's just come back from visiting her dad in Beijing. we ended up meeting at St. Alps...for more tea. aish. so since i'd woken up that day i'd had meals and meetings centered around tea. i'm just figuring that tea's good for you so it can't hurt for me to drink so much, right? i did order another piece of toast, albeit w/coconut butter this time. it was heavenly delicious and all these tea shops use that big fat asian toast that reminds me of spending summers at my grandma's in Taipei. while at St. Alps i went to use the restroom (hello?! 1 bathroom for the whole cafe?!) and had to wait in line. the guy to go next was doing the pee pee dance hard core. i was secretly laughing to myself and waiting until he got into the bathroom before i discussed w/the other ppl about how funny that was, when he ended up mentioning it himself. it was actually quite endearing.

Debs and i caught up on all the love gossip in her life (since she's never w/o it-girl's got game). she'd gone to LA for her company's christmas party (yes they flew them out to LA) and had met a man there. they had their fling and she fleetingly mentioned he should come out to NYC and visit her sometime and man went and booked a ticket the next week! see, i told you she's got game. she's pretty excited about this guy but lamenting the long distance relationship thing. i used to be a strong advocate against it but as we've gotten older, i admit that as long as the 2 of you are working (not in school) there really shouldn't be a problem. o yea, and there is 1 more requirement: you've got to be living in LA, NYC, Boston or D.C. otherwise it's a no-go. i pick those cities b/c there are always flight deals between LA and NYC and Boston and D.C. are a stone's throw away from NYC. any other city is just preposterous. i told Debs this theory and she couldn't stop laughing. "what about Chicago?" she asked. puh-lease. Chi-town, Dallas, Denver?whatever.

i was exhausted after all these outings and was planning a night in when KimChi and Snoopy called about going to Kenka for more food and drinks. i always have a soft spot for Kenka so i agreed and since i was out i decided to go to Chase Honeycup's bday party at 205 Club as well. Kenka was fun (and very filling). we decided to head over to LES towards Chase's bday party and while walking i fell. i mean, i took a massive digger. no no, it wasn't b/c i was wasted. instead me feet got tripped up on my jeans. i swear! so that was embarassing...

we only stopped by Chase's for a minute altho i was impressed w/how Snoopy finessed the line. there was a line to get into 205 Club (why? i have no idea. it wasn't even that packed). i told the doorman we were there for Chase's bday but that didn't work. just as me, KimChi and Olives were heading towards the back of the line, Snoopy talks to the doorman again saying how we're 3 girls etc. and the guy let's us in! smooth Snoopy. i can tell you've done this before.

we only stayed for a minute before heading over to Crime Scene for Snoopy's friends bday party. the place was pretty empty when we got there but they were playing good music to dance to so we all just let loose and danced. the place started to fill up more but then it felt like jackals circling their prey when KimChi, Olives and i danced together. yuck. tho i did meet some really cute asian twins. that's the 2nd set this year! i never thought they existed and now they're just popping out of the woodwork! albeit they were a little short. it turned out it was their birthday.

o, i forgot to mention. after i'd split up w/KimChi, Olives and Snoopy in Chinatown, they'd gone into Aji Ichiban to look at snacks and candy. when they walked in the salesperson greeted them w/a, you guessed it, "haa-llo"

more surreality-is that a word?

the 1st time i'd ever hung out w/Chipmunk was the night after Jones Beach. i actually mistook him for Casper initially. we all traveled to meet Pal at Delancey but Stitch had multiple friends coming so we were all arriving at separate times. i'd figured that Stitch would be coming w/Pan who was out to dinner but Stitch, adorable that she is, had rushed over b/c she thought i would be waiting there alone. of course, instead i was running late (damn traffic on the brooklyn bridge and that damn motorcycle parade going on on houston). i kept getting these hilarious calls from Stitch like, "where are you? it's scary here..." or "are you here yet? please?". it was funny but i also told the cabbie to step on it asap.

once we all congregrated in front of Delancey i got a call from Pal saying she was at Boss Tweeds instead b/c a private party had booked the entire rooftop for Delancey. so we walked around the corner to Boss Tweeds instead. it was kind of surreal to have Stitch and Um at such a BAR-bar w/me b/c the only times we've hung out were always nice lounges or places requiring bottle service. Um adapted pretty quickly tho once he found out how cheap drinks were. alas it wasn't meant to be and we headed over to Hotel on Rivington instead. Pinky and his crew met us there and i was already reeling from the sheer amount of people i'd amassed when i run into Tina and Meegs as well. that was a total coincidence but still... i was pretty much on random gathering overload at that point.

between saying hello to everyone and sneaking into the coded-guarded-keypad VIP section adjoining the main lounge the night was completely insane. eventually went w/Pinky to White Rabbit where they knew the bartender and got a free drink which i could barely finish at that point and then Pinky's friend hailed me a cab and i headed back to Brooklyn just as the sun was peeking out.

blubbering

i'd been doing some serious blubbering earlier this week so my good friend Bubs and Kiks decided to go out w/me to forget my woes. i love them...

since i now reside in Brooklyn, Bubs & i met up at Ini Ani. ok, so this isn't the most hopping place on the lower east side. i'm sure that Schiller's Liquor Bar or Verlaine would definitely be a more "it" place to be, but i really liked this place. it was quiet, which was perfect for Bubs & i to chat. they do a nice happy hour deal of 20% off any bottle of wine from 5-8 pm and $15 caraffes of sangria. Bubs and i opted for a nice bottle of pinot noir and happily chatted away while we waited for Kiks. eventually we got food and it was really good. perfect finger food for wine. there was a delish smoked salmon platter and some yummy prosciutto bruschetta (i was craving the salmon & Bubs had been on a prosciutto drive).

eventually Kiks met up w/us and we skidaddled to the next spot. it was getting later and it was tuesday so instead we went scavenging for a dessert place which is surprisingly hard to find on the Delancey/Essex/Rivington area of LES. ultimately we stopped outside teany. perhaps like me, the only thing you knew about this place aside that it sold tea, was that it was opened by moby. i always thought it was pronounced "tea-NY" (saying the letters N and Y) but turns out i was wrong cause they have a drink called teanychino (SO SO good) that is pronounced like "teenychino". all their desserts are vegan which made us all curl our lips up in a "could this actually be good?" which i think is a very valid reaction. the culmination of dessert is butter, cream and eggs. when they don't have it it just seems pointless. however, teany proved me wrong. we got a chocolate peanut butter mousse cake, a coconut chocolate cake and a strawberry shortcake. the chocolate peanut butter was more peanut buttery and than chocolatey. the coconut cake was good and the strawberry shortcake had a taste that to me was like splenda-y goodness (although sugar fits in the vegan diet, but hey, that's what it tasted like).