No Regrets

look at me just churning out the blog posts! probably because i'm completely checked out right now about work (sometimes when things get too burdensome or overwhelming i just completely shut down about it-DEFINITELY not a good self-defense mechanism).

last night i met up with Stitch who i haven't seen in a bajillion years. we're planning on attending the 2NE1 concert at the Prudential Center on August 17th and i had a check to give to Stitch for it. i picked Ugly Kitchen to meet up since i wasn't sure whether we would be eating or snacking, and Ugly Kitchen does happy hour until 9 pm everyday ($6 cocktails, wines, and well drinks and $4 draft beers). we did the usual catch-up conversation since it had literally been ages since we had met up wherein i felt like my life was completely boring compared to Stitch but i also learned the following:

1. Stitch's job is in PR for liquor clients (this i already knew about her, i didn't just learn it last night). what i didn't know was that her job is exactly like how i imagined it would be on TV: she plans parties and events to showcase her client's liquor. so fun. granted i learned this because she had a work crisis regarding an event in Boston (also fun, she gets to travel for her work to attend these events. last week she was in San Francisco), but still, these typical work stresses aside, this Stitch has a pretty cool job.

2. Stitch is mad at Gohm. yes, my ears still perk up at all news about my ex. it's the same feeling you get when you walk through a historical exhibit where they recreate the life of a 1776 colonial person. clearly you're far removed from the person so you'll never really know what was going on with them in their life, but it's when you hear or see little tidbits about their life, you have an abstract sliver of what it's like to be them or what they were doing/thinking.

3. Stitch may move to San Francisco. NOOOOOO! i barely see Stitch as it is and if she moves to the Wrong Coast aka California i may never see her! then who will i have to go with me to kpop concerts and fangirl about 2PM?!?! boooooooooo.

all these updates were fun and insightful, but the best one was that Stitch has started to like a friend of hers that she's known for 10 years. hooray! i love those kinds of stories. and apparently, he's always liked her, which means that he probably still likes her but thought it was foregone conclusion that she would never like him.  so boy will he be in for a big surprise.

we continued this conversation over dinner at Ramen Misoya, which is only a few blocks away from Ugly Kitchen and is on my list of restaurants to try. it's the newer of the ramen shops to open in the St. Marks area and although small, it doesn't seem as pretentious and hipstery as the other popular ramen places. since it's a small place, i think it's ideal for 2 people, although if absolutely necessary you can prob push it to 4. but that's it. no more. don't ask me to.

both of us claimed we weren't that hungry. however, Stitch wanted a hot ramen with soup whereas i was intrigued by the cold ramen offering, so we ended up each ordering an individual serving.  Stitch ended up with an order of Shiro Miso Chashu ($13.80) which was recommended by the waitress as one of the most popular soup options and also the lightest. while i can't confirm either claim, the dish (of the 1 i had) had nice and chewy wavy noodles and a flavorful but light (as alleged) soup. 

i on the other hand, had ordered the Cold Sesame Shiro Miso ($10) which is a cold, soupless order of al dente wavy noodles served with iceberg lettuce, tomatoes, ground pork, and corn with a sesame shiro sauce. indulging my chinese heritage, i also added a hefty dosing of shichimi and rice vinegar which gave the cold noodles the exact punch i was looking for. and apparently we were both hungrier than we thought since we each finished our portions without any trouble.


if you get to go, i also recommend ordering a carafe of their cold sake. it's served in the cutest carafe i've ever seen. there is a hole in the center of the carafe where ice cubes are placed in order to keep the sake nice and cold. and no matter how you pour the sake out, the ice cubes (even as they melt) don't ever fall out of their little holding cell. it's pretty impressive.


so back to my convo with Stitch. i gave her 1 quick word of warning about my own experience crossing the friend line with someone i had known for over a decade:


i had known Door for a long time and we had initially dated back in middle school but broke up after a month (if it could even be called a real relationship). and ever since then we were in constant communication through high school and would occasionally hang out since he lived only 2 towns over from me. throughout this entire period, Door would serenade me with claims that i was "the one that got away" and how much he liked me. i would politely defer, and brush these overtures off as just silly talk. 


until my freshman year of college, where i was away from home for the first time, at a women's college. and i would occasionally miss home and eventually fell into a pattern of talking almost daily to Door, who was back home in NJ. so no surprise that i started to really entertain the idea of dating Door and began to see him as a real prospect. and so 1 day i told Door that i was ready to date him and wanted to be together with him in an actual relationship. 


at first Door didn't believe me, which is understandable since for him, it seemed to come out of the blue, and it wasn't like he was acting any different than he usually did over the many years that i had known him. but eventually, he accepted what i said as true, and we tried the dating thing. and things went well for the few months that i was at school, but quickly went downhill once i returned home to NJ for the summer and we had a real, day-to-day existence as a couple.


Door turned douchey real fast once i got home and he realized he had to be a boyfriend on a daily basis. and Door and i are still friends to this day and he completely admits that he turned douchey. but here was the real problem: after all those years of claiming he "loved" me, when it actually happened, it became apparent that Door wasn't "in love" with me, he was just used to the "idea" of me and what he imagined dating me would be. and even tho he knew me in real life, the idea he had of me as a girlfriend adjusted to fit whatever mood he was in or whatever phase of life he was going through. so no wonder i didn't live up to that expectation. and so no surprise, we broke up.


so when Stitch told me she was a little nervous to confess her feelings to her friend, i gave her this little tale of warning. however, i also gave her my feelings about the whole experience: if i hadn't done it, i would've regretted it for the rest of my life. because i would have always wondered "what if." but since i did it, i never have to wonder if Door was my soul mate or what would have happened if we had tried dating because now i know. and while we didn't end up together, we are still friends and can talk about that time together in a nostalgic and amicable way.


so good luck Stitch! try to go through life with as little regrets as possible.

 
 

A Day of Rest

every once in a while i get a little burnt out with the monotony that is (my) life. sometimes the whole "rat race" concept feels a little too close to home. so when i get into one of these moods, i tend to take a day off from work. although it's not a true day off since i usually have to work from home, but the good part is i can enjoy some of the day-time things that i don't get to partake in when i have to be in the office all day.

luckily for me, Life is 1 of my few remaining friends who hasn't been tied down to a 9-5 (or 7) yet. so he was more than game to meet up with me to catch the happy hour deal at Strong Place, a few blocks away from my apartment. in turn, i got to partake in my favorite kind of happy hour: $1 oysters. 

if i could eat only 1 food for the rest of my life- ok, wait, that's too horrible for me to think about. let's start again: amongst my favorite foods that i don't get to eat enough of, oysters would probably be at the top of my list, perhaps along with pate, foie gras, porterhouse steak, korean barbecue, uni....

 tangent aside, oyster happy hours depress me because i can never get off work in time to enjoy them and most of them only run during the week. 

 and so it was that Life found me sitting at the bar at Strong Place with a dozen oysters in front of me and a 2-for-1 draft beer.  the oysters are already a great happy hour deal, and for beer drinkers, the 2-for-1 draft deal is even better. Strong Place has an extensive list of draft beers and includes its entire menu in its 2-for-1 happy hour special. the only catch is that the pours seem to be 12-oz pours vs. the traditional 16-oz pour. but for $5 for 2 beers of the more unique variety, i think it's a good trade-off.  i usually don't partake in fancy beers because they almost always give me the traditional asian-red-face and then just make me pee a lot and sometimes even gives me a headache. but who can say no to 2-for-1 int eh $5-$7 range?


while Life and i chatted, we somehow got onto the topic of Scoutmob, of which i'm a strong advocate. particularly since the first time i'd heard about it was while eating the best burger from Burger on Smith. although it's a little more expensive than two-8-two, it has a ton more topping options and remains cheaper than Moo Burger. plus, if you have Scoutmob, you get 50% off your entire order (capped at a $15 maximum discount). when Life and i went, they were also doing a beer special (with a better option than your generic Yuengling/Bud/Coors options). 

the fries are always crispy and flavorful but the burgers are what i go for. and 1 burger in particular: the Left Coast (beef burger, gruyere, avocado, oven roasted tomato, arugula, and garlic aoili) ($13) which is also served with a pickle and coleslaw. 


great. now i'm hungry.

15 mins of offensive television?

before you get up in arms at me for this post, just try to keep in mind that racism and cultural/ethnic stereotypes are interpreted in many ways by many people. and a person's level of sensitivity or perception of an image/conduct is subjective to each individual. 

ok, that being said, i watched 15 mins of hilarious television that covered a whole plethora of asian stereotypes.

Cousin arrived in town on friday night from a conference in Philadelphia and met me near my office for a happy hour dinner at Haru (which was so average and passable that it's not worth describing-except for the Happy Hour where everything offered on the HH menu is under $5). we finished relatively early, which meant we had time to head to K-town to meet up with BlackSesame, Kiddo, and Kiddo's new girlfriend for drinks, but first we had to make a stop at my apartment so Cousin could drop off her luggage.

once inside the apartment, Cousin needed a few mins to answer some work e-mails and use her laptop, so i turned on the tv while i waited for her and got to watch Supernatural for the first time in months. what can i say? i like spooky stories that resolve themselves within an hour, Jared Padelecki and Jensen Ackles are easy on the eyes, and the writing and dialogue's can be pretty witty at times. i don't have to justify my CW11 tv-watching to you.

however, this episode happened to center around a high school student who gets struck by lightning and becomes a prophet that can transcribe the word of God. but that's not the best part. the kid is a typical asian stereotype. he:

1.  plays the cello: he's introduced by a close-up of the cello and then the camera pans out to show him playing it. then to nerd it up even more, his computer chimes and a message alerts him that his cello practice is complete.
2. he dates a chubby asian girl who's dressed like a catholic school girl. 
3. he too is dressed in preppy school gear: button-down, tie, and slacks. 
4. he's stressed out about his SAT scores.
5. he wants to attend Princeton.
6. he has nothing to write about in his college admission essay: since you know, asians are robots when it comes to school and only spend their time practicing their cello/violin/piano and doing homework. no other extracurriculars allowed.
7. he's in Advanced Placement (AP): when he meets the main characters for the 1st time, that's actually how he identifies himself, "I'm Kevin Tran. I'm in AP."


as i watched this i thought, "come on, Supernatural. was this really necessary? i mean, fine, he's asian. but does he really have to be the stereotype? couldn't he just be a normal person who happens to be asian?" i'm not saying the stereotype doesn't exist because it clearly does. i myself fit most of the characteristics listed above when i was in high school. but i also did other non-stereotype activities like go out with my non-Asian friends (i did have them), went to the movies, and went to house parties (gasp!). just like every other normal teenager who's not asian.

then things got really weird.

the show ran to commercial, and the first commercial that played was the Intel Ultrabook commercial.

now i get it, this commercial is a parody of House of Flying Daggers. although i don't see why the actors have to be asian. it's about trying to find an outlet in a coffeehouse. i think that's pretty universal to all ethnicities and races. i don't think the use of coffeehouses are limited to asian people. i started to wonder whether CW11 was going to make the entire hour asian-related, but thought, "nah, that's impossible. this was just a coincidence."

except the commercial immediately following the above was this Starburst commercial:

wha?! this did not just happen. just because the Supernatural episode involves an asian doesn't mean the whole hour has to be asian does it? it just seemed really weird.


honestly, i wasn't particularly offended by the above series of events and i could find the humor in all these commercials (and the Starburst one doesn't involve any stereotyping and shouldn't be considered offensive at all). what sort of bugged me was that these were presented in a series, one right after the other. i can't believe it was intentional, because that would just be stupid. but then again, what are the chances of that happening? it's not like commercial featuring asians are so abundant that there's a 1 in 3 chance every commercial you'll see has them.


my brain can't really process what i saw. it was just weird.
 

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.