Something Like Korean

initially when Cousin told me she was coming into town, i was a little put-out in that selfish-aww-man-but-i-wanted-to-laze-about-and-do-nothing-like-i-do-every-weekend kind of way. there's always something slightly inconvenient about being asked to deviate from your normal schedule.  but, as with all things, change can be a good thing.

the eating and drinking theme of last weekend definitely took an unintended "korean" turn. it was kicked off by meeting BlackSesame at our usual friday night happy hour at K-town for some 50 cent chicken wings, soju and Hite beer. i'm supposed to be dieting (the result of a "serious" conversation with my Mom) and had had a little Checkers relapse the night before, so i'd abstained from eating all day except for a giant iced coffee (with skim and splenda) and a half of a whole wheat bagel with cream cheese.

so after 2 bottles of soju, 4 beers, and a lot of inappropriate conversations with the bouncer, BS and i headed off to Chinatown before i became one of those "unni" girls in the bathroom. i had intended for us to check out Super Taste so i could cross another restaurant off my list (hey, if i'm gonna fall off the diet wagon, i might as well go down slugging noodles and dumplings). unfortunately, by the time we rolled onto Eldridge Street from the subway, most of the restaurants were closed except for one sole beacon of light: Sheng Wang. and so it happened that BS and i found ourselves sharing a bowl of Fujianese Dumpling Noodle Soup ($5) and an order of dumplings ($3). 

i honestly couldn't have been any happier at that moment. the dumplings were juicy and flavorful with thin dumpling skin, but not so thin that the filling just falls out at the slightest touch.  the noodles were chewy and a great texture.  the only thing that would've made it better was if i had been clear-headed enough to order what i had really meant to order: the fishball noodle soup. because fujianese fishballs are the best little treasure bombs any fishball could have (it's fishball on the outside and meat on the inside. surprise!). but that being said, our order was perfect for the meal we were fulfilling and the shared order was just the right portion so we didn't walk away feeling like fatties.

after dinner i lame-assed it home in order to prepare for my cousin's arrival since she was taking a red-eye from Cali. and by laming out i missed out on meeting Sarah Silverman who BS saw at the bar he went to (Bell House in case you were wondering. they were doing a comedy show there that night.)

This is what happens when you decide not to be lame and go home.

after cursing my bad luck when i woke up the next morning, i diligently cleaned my room waiting to hear from my cousin. but around 12:30 i had still heard no word and was getting stahving. so Kitty and i made plans to meet up at Miss Korea in K-town for some delicious kalbi and  pork belly bbq and dumplings.

Miss Korea supposedly has some kick-ass lunch specials and is generally all-around good. when we arrived at 2 pm on Saturday, the place was packed. however, by the time we finished eating (around 3:30ish), the place had completely cleared out except for a few stragglers. 

we ordered steamed beef and pork mandu ($8.95) to start. being chinese, i'm a big fan of boiled and steamed dumplings. however, to date i have yet to have any steamed korean mandu where the dumpling doesn't completely fall apart. when i'd told Kitty i wanted to order it, he raised his eyebrows in a "are you sure?" look which i had chosen to ignore. lesson learned: when eating mandu, always ordered to fried version.

for entrees we decided to go with straight-up BBQ, so we ordered a serving of thick-sliced pork belly ($22.95) and premium kalbi aka Hang A Ri ($26.95). while the samgyupsal was ok, the galbi was superb. the marinade flavoring perfectly complements and tenderizes the meat and the portion is very generous. and it comes with some interesting vegetables inside the pot which is also grilled with the meat. another perk of Miss Korea is that they allow you to specify which type of rice you want (healthy or white).  the healthy version is the purple rice with various types of beans and oats. very hearty and it fools you into thinking you're counteracting all that dense meat you're putting into you're stomach.

after the late lunch, i was pretty full and skipped dinner which worked out well for Cousin, who had a double dinner at Ippudo and Soba-Ya due to a miscommunication with the hostess at Ippudo. 

the next morning, continuing my korean-themed food-a-thon, we grabbed brunch at Bistro Petit in Williamsburg. hole-in-the-wall doesn't begin to describe how tiny this restaurant is. it has 3 dining counters and self-serve station of fancy sodas and coffee (and no free refills on coffee and no tap water available). we sat at the counter facing the kitchen and helped ourselves to menus. it's a limited menu, with only 1 page of options, but then again, for a place so small, what else would i expect?

we ended up sharing an order of Watermelon Salad ($10)-diced watermelon, pickled watermelon rind, mint, grilled haloumi cheese, and spicy watermelon reduction sauce and the Kimchi Bouillabaisse ($19)-mussel, scallop, pollack, shrimp, fried tofu, rice gnocchi, kombu, white wine, korean chili paste, watercress and kimchi. 

the clear winner was the Watermelon Salad. sweet, refreshing watermelon with contrasting yet complementing flavors of picked rind and salty haloumi cheese. amazeballs. the Kimchi Bouillabaisse on other hand was a little salty. while the seafood was well-cooked, the soup itself was salty. and i kept wishing it had made up its mind whether to be fusion or kimchijigae instead of a wishy-washy version of neither/both.

after our meal, i took Cousin down to Brooklyn Flea in order to walk off some of the food and to check out the wares. it was my first time visiting the Flea since they moved from Hanson Place to the Williamsburg location. the wares were interesting, but a more important food lesson learned: the lines at vendors at Brooklyn Flea are significantly shorter than at Smorgasburg. well, with the exception of Dough.

Hodge Podge

i was perusing  NY Serious Eats on-line wherein they rated the "25 Best Pork Sandwiches [They] Love in NYC."  i stumbled upon the Prosciutto Sandwich at Ground Support. intrigued, i looked up the cafe and realized: i've been here before. which then triggered the question: why was i there?

i don't often find myself in Soho, so why was i there that day? and then i remembered what a hodge-podge of a Sunday that was. JimmyDean, MrsButterworth, and i found ourselves on our way to Jing Fong for NannyDiary's bday brunch. we got there uber late thanks to JD, who didn't warn us that the uptown 6 train we transferred to at the Brooklyn Bridge/City Hall stop was going express to Union Square, although he knew it when we got on the train. so we ended up having to take another local 6 train from Union Square down to Canal Street.

aside from my recent experience at Sunshine 27, this excursion to Jing Fong was one of my less pleasant dim sum dinings for the following reasons:

1. ND had invited so many people that we were separated into 2 tables. totally deprives the whole purpose of dim sum dining. you're supposed to be chatting over tea and exclaiming over the diverse variety of food together. kind of hard to do when you're sitting at separate tables.

2. every separate group of friends had their own dining check. wha?!?! i didn't even know Jing Fong would let you do that, let alone WHY you would do that. yes, it would make splitting the check a lot easier. except chinese food is all about family-style. which always ends up being less-per-person cost-wise anyways. and chinese restaurants aren't that savvy when it comes to splitting checks. e.g. JD, MB, and i got charged everyone's teas which was just weird.

3. because we arrived late, everyone had already eaten a decent amount. so we were pretty limited in what we could/should get to eat since there were only 3 of us eating whatever we ordered.

4. BUT of course that didn't stop us. or more correctly, JD, who hadn't been out to dim sum in quite a while. so he went a little buckwild when it came time to order and grab food. and this is an observation coming from one of the worst offenders of this type of conduct. since i'm used to eating dim sum with my family since i was a little babe, there are certain staples that i insist on eating at dim sum, or else i feel incomplete. but this type of behavior, coupled with JD's ended up with us having too much food, and not finishing most of it. although, it was a little absurd for JD to order 3 orders of Steamed Pork Buns and Sauteed Snails (which of course everyone had a bite of and then abandoned as weird).

5. we spent $20/person on dim sum for what ended up being an unsatisfactory meal. and that never happens to me at dim sum (until recently). i'm gonna have to remedy this soon.

so after this dim sum fiasco, we parted ways with ND's party and went our own separate ways.

wherein i stumbled upon my current favorite bubble tea place: Kung Fu Tea. we happened upon this shop and noticed it was having a grand opening. when we first went in, there was only 1 customer in the store. i was super happy to see they had Winter Melon Tea on their menu, which i ordered with no boba and 50% sugar. this was the perfect antidote to my bloated dim sum stomach, which wasn't very happy with the prior dim sum meal.

we then perused Soho stores since JD and MB had some errands to run and i could use the walk to walk off all that food.  and that's how, a few hours later, JD and i found ourselves at Ground Support Cafe while MB shopped at the Anthropologie next door.

Turkey Picnic

the cafe is super cute inside, and pretty spacious, with a hipster vibe. and they serve wine which i though was interesting since it seemed more like a coffeehouse from outside. but the best part was that after 5 pm, they have half-price sandwiches. and so although i wrestled with it, i ended up buying two sandwiches to take home: 1 for dinner and 1 for lunch the next day. i got the Turkey Picnic (turkey breast, aged gouda, pickled red onion, potato chips,  bbq sauce, bibb lettuce, and tomato) ($9.50) and the Cuban (turkey breast, berkshire pit ham, gruyere, pickles, peppadew relish, dijoun remoulade) ($10). both sandwiches were good and refreshing, but nothing i'd travel for.

Cuban

i kimbap you

the only good thing about having to go to Queens County Supreme Court in Jamaica for a 9:30 a.m. appearance is that i stop in ktown to pick up lunch. since i take the F train back and have to transfer to either the 4/5, R, or 1 to get back to the office, i get out at ktown and pick up some lunch and then hop on the R back to my office.

 this time, in the mood for something that could potentially cure my hangover, i picked up kimbap from E-mo (which is also on my list). i ordered a roll of spicy tuna ($6.50) and sausage ($6) but ended up receiving 2 rolls of spicy tuna. 

i can see why people are so affected by their kimbap. unlike some other places, they use 2 very traditional (hence non-traditional) ingredients: burdock root and sesame leaves. i'm a big fan of sesame leaves although japanese and korean foods are the only cuisines i've seen use them. and when i bought a bunch for a korean barbecue dinner i made for them, all of them really disliked the flavor of the sesame leaves although i find it refreshing, like a savory mint. burdock root on the other hand, isn't something i like the taste of, although i've used it in kimbap i've made before, and no one else seemed to mind it.


all in all, glad to have crossed E-mo off my list but in no rush to go back, unless i'm in the mood for some spam or beef kimbap. but then i can always just pop by Woorijip for those cravings and other snacks as well...

Park Avenue Summer (Again?Again)

with all the restaurants available in NY, whenever i do destination dining i tend not to pick the same place twice, unless i'm in a pinch e.g. dietary/ budget/cuisine restrictions, location restrictions, etc.

however, with Summer Restaurant Week rolling around, it was the first time i started to get a little bit weary.it's a lot of work to research every restaurant and their menu then to cross-check your choices with Yelp and blogs to get the best sense of where to spend your hard-earned cash (so as not to have a repeat of the Oak Room). and, as i started to notice last year, since the participating restaurants tend to always be the same cast of characters, i've started to have less and less enticing options if i stick to my "no repeats" rule.

which is how i found myself with reservations for dinner at Park Avenue Summer and Brasserie 8 1/2. after having been to Park Avenue Winter and Park Avenue Summer for restaurant week, i never really thought i would go back to try it again. because although they tout themselves as a seasonal restaurant, their menu options remain the same every season. so while the options may the be the freshest ingredients for that season, when it's the same options, it's not really that innovative or impressive.

however, this summer, they came out with a slightly varied menu so when Bubby choice Park Avenue Summer from my list of vetted and approved restaurants, i happily made the reservation.

getting there slightly early for our 8:30 reservation, i grabbed a seat at the bar. i hadn't paid much attention the last time Kiddo and i were there, but the summer decor is far less impressive than the winter decor and borders a little on kitschy. but then again, how much decor do you need to emphasize summer when it's still slightly light outside even though it's past 8 pm? maybe summer's the kind of season that just speaks for itself.

in contrast to the last time, the restaurant felt much more packed and trendy. the crowd consisted of young 20-and-30-somethings dressed in the casual-chic NYC uniform that everyone is seen wearing at these types of places: it screams while-i-may-not-be-wearing-a-suit-i-can-still-afford-to-eat-here-jealous?

as we sat down to our table, i was informed of a nice extra that wasn't available on the on-line menu: the restaurant is also doing a promotional wine offer of $6 for a glass of red or white as well as some suggested bottles of wine. we opted for the most economical bottle of white ($31) since we intended to order predominantly seafood for our appetizers and entrees.

all the appetizers we ordered were amazing. there wasn't a bad one out of the bunch.  we ordered:

Roasted Baby Beets with Lemon Poppy and Kunik Goat Cheese: the most "summer" of all the appetizer offerings. although i never opt for beets in a self-serve salad, nor do i ever prepare or purchase beets from the supermarket, i've always liked them when prepared in restaurant salads (the 2 times i've ordered them). and these were exquisite in a sweet and tangy flavor that was given a summer feeling through the citrus sauce. so good and most representative of "summer."

Mussels and Squid Ink Pasta with Red Curry Fra Diavolo: if you love seafood, this appetizer will pay off in spades. there was a serious amount of mussels in this dish to the point of overshadowing the pasta. you really have to dig through a trove of mussels before you get to the pasta at the bottom of the bowl. but when you do, you find a great al dente pasta that's been flavored with the juice from the mussels and the spicy sweet curry/diavolo sauce.

Crispy Soft Shell Crab with Avocado, Strawberry & Passion Fruit ($5 supplement): great portion and very well done soft shell crab although slightly salty. however, when eaten together with the sweet and softly textured accompaniments, it made for a perfect bite.

honestly, the appetizers were the highlight of the meal. for entrees we ordered:

Grilled Rainbow Trout with Kale, Lemon Aioli, White Anchovies: the trout was well cooked with a crispy skin and moist flesh. again the flavors remained fresh and not heavy most likely due to the lemon aioli and the kale is fried and retains its crisp.

Organic Scottish Salmon with Crispy Taro and Cucumber Salad: a well cooked fish, if a little bland. i also sometimes forget how much meat is in a salmon filet, which i categorize with cooked tuna as "steaks of the sea." due to the accompaniments, it was once again the most "summer" of the entrees, including the slightly bland salmon meat.

Potato Gnocchi with Sweet Corn and Summer Truffles: i've actually already had this dish since it was offered as an appetizer for last summer's Restaurant Week. but it was still great to watch Bubby and Kik's "ecstasy" face when they got a bite of this super rich, super buttery dish. aside from the "sweet corn" and the "summer truffles" this dish is pretty heavy since it's laden with what tastes like a whole bar of butter. but it is SO good.

no surprise that we were pretty full by this time dessert rolled around. but that never really stops us. we ordered:

Chilled Praline Parfait with Chocolate Crumbs and Caramel: you really can't go wrong with this dish if you like traditional chocolate or sweet desserts.

Creme Fraiche Cheese Cake Mousse with Blueberries and Lemon Semolina Cake: i just realized as i copied this item from the Park Avenue Summer Restaurant Week menu why this dessert tasted slightly bland to me. it hadn't registered that the "cake" in this dessert was a lemon semolina cake. i had just assumed it would be a cheese cake since i saw the words "creme fraiche cheese cake." oops. this was a good light dessert that will satisfy those that don't have a strong sweet tooth.
2 scoops of ice cream (Summer Corn and Basil): having learned my lesson from my last venture with Kiddo, i made sure we ordered ice cream instead of the panna cotta being offered. i'm a big fan of the summer corn which is sweet like corn in ice cream form. the basil wasn't my favorite as it kind of reminded me like mint but Kiks loved it.

as always, the bi-annual restaurant week dinner with my girls was a great experience and an opportunity for all 3 of us to get together and catch up (which doesn't happen as often as i would like).

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.

 
 

Highs and Lows

life can be a little funny: sometimes when you expect something to be bad, it ends up being better than expected. then, when you expect something to be good, it turns out to be awful.  life, you've got one helluva sense of humor.

i had a date with Sully to go see The Amazing Spider Man at the Times Square Regal theater. the movie itself was "meh" (even in 3-D) aside from the fact that Andrew Garfield is worthy eye candy. that Emma Stone is 1 lucky lady. it wasn't as witty as its predecessors, though it tried to be, but the action was pretty good and the chemistry between Garfield and Stone was fun to watch. i don't think the story was as great as the movie itself which resulted in my lack of interest at times.

the surprise of the night was actually dinner. and a Groupon dinner at that. i'm quickly jumping on the Groupon bandwagon, although it's just such a commitment to purchase something in advance. but i digress.

Sully had gotten a $60 Groupon for dinner at Destino. although i wouldn't call Destino a destination restaurant, if i lived in the neighborhood, i might consider it a worthy local italian spot that i could suggest to friends and family who were visiting. it's not a big restaurant, and if you're in a party of 2, be ready to sit thisclose to your neighbor. i could feel (and hear) the awkward atmosphere of the table to the left of us: it was an older gentleman with a younger woman and they barely said 2 words to each other the whole night. and we arrived right when their entrees arrived and they sat through dessert and coffee. AWKWARD. i could also hear (and sympathize) with the table to the right of us: a guy and a girl who were clearly "just friends" but through the conversation you could tell that the girl clearly liked the guy but the guy was either not interested/oblivious. they kept talking about bad dates the guy had recently been on.  these flaws (or not flaws since they were pretty entertaining) aside,  the Groupon deal for Destino was very impressive.

for $60 you had the choice of 1 appetizer, 1 entree, 1 dessert, and 1 glass of wine per person. and they didn't skimp on the options. with the exception of a few items, you pretty much had the whole gamut of the menu to choose from.

to start, the restaurant provided us with bruschetta as a sort of amuse-bouche. while a little bit heavy for an amuse, it was definitely refreshing (as it was 90 degrees outside). the crostini was a little too crispy, but then again, who disagrees with gratis food?

as appetizers, i chose the Polpettine di Mario ($14) while Sully chose the Insalate di Mare ($16). don't let the picture fool you: this is 1 whopping meatball. yes, it's only 1 per serving but it is 1 big serving. i ate about half of it and let Sully eat the rest. and i definitely recommend you order it; it's a balance between light and dense, and the sauce is hearty enough to give it some flavor but light enough so it doesn't overwhelm the meatball taste itself. i don't think i've ever had such a complicated (and pretentious) sounding meatball. just get it.  the seafood salad was also light and refreshing, and a nice counterbalance to the heavy meatball appetizer.

for entrees, Sully ordered the Vitello Milanese (veal pounded thin and breaded, topped with arugula, tomato, red onion, and buffalo mozzarella) ($24.50). i ordered the Dentice Marechiaro (red snapper sauteed with white wine and a touch of marinara)($26) since i wasn't that hungry and figured that a white fish would be lighter than the alternative, which was pasta. both the fish and the veal were fine, although slightly overcooked. however, Sully seemed very satisfied as he finished off both our plates after i had gotten full.

for dessert we opted for the Tiramisu ($11) and the Ricotta Cheese Cake ($11). both were nice and light, although if i had to choose a winner i would go with the tiramisu. it had a more dessert feel to it, most likely because it was slightly sweeter.

so, as is the irony of life, i had expected great things from the movie and very little from the restaurant, only to have the reality turn out completely opposite.

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.

Don't Be a Cheapskate Then.

ever since i joined the "real world" and got a job that makes me stay past 7 pm, i feel like i miss out on so many of the great free activities NYC has to offer e.g. movies in the park (i still have war-veteran-like flashbacks of watching Stand By Me at Brooklyn Bridge Park). luckily for me, Kins' current boyfriend works a job that allows him to get out fairly early, which is how i found myself with a prime seat in Central Park for the NY Philharmonic. 

i'm the first to admit that while i enjoy classical music, going to see an orchestra/ballet puts me straight to sleep. which is why concerts in the park are more my style. i get to (quietly) chat with my friends, eat yummy delicious food, drink wine (allegedly, since it's illegal to drink alcohol in a public park), and enjoy great music.

after receiving some initially poor directions from Kiks ("we're at the first speaker, walk towards the stage"-there were a total of 6 speakers staggered throughout the venue and the place was packed by the time i got there at 7:30 pm) we finally found each other.  and then i got to sit down and enjoy all the yummy and delicious snacks Kiks had packed for us which included, courtesy of Fresh Direct:sliced salami, a block of white cheddar, Triscuits (my favorite cracker-actually, i can't remember if that's the cracker she had, but i'm inputting my rose-colored memories on it), dense chocolate brownies, grapes, Israeli cous cous, baby carrots, and a cucumber tzatziki-like dipping sauce. Kiks always brings the best spread for outdoor picnics; she's the mom of outdoor spreads.

the concert began (relatively) promptly at 8:00 pm with some opening words from some guy related to the NY Philharmonic (either some top-ranked person in the organization or possibly a big philanthropist/volunteer) along with surprise guest Alec Baldwin. as soon as the celebrity was introduced a thousand cameras and camera phones shot into the air to try and get a picture. we're such amateur paparazzi. 


Kiddo and his girl ended up coming a little late and had to find us through the giant crowd. i had been texting Kiddo to direct him to our location and waving my hands in the air to make sure he saw me. we locked eyes and he seemed to have located our position; or so i thought. so i was surprised when i saw Kiddo less than a foot away from me (i could physically hear what he was saying) exclaiming that he had "lost me" and i couldn't find me. so of course i loudly announced, "i'm right here, stupid" which got me dirty looks and glares from the 2 women laying down in front of our blanket.

once Kiddo+1 sat down, i did the introductions between them all (the +1s were new to everyone else). keep in mind, we were keeping our voices at respectable low tones the entire time. but the 2 women in front of us-let's call them Groucho and Marx- kept turning their heads to give us those annoyed glares that passive aggressive people like to do in these situations.

finally, Marx, the younger of the 2 women, turned around and targeted me:

"can you keep it down, we're trying to listen."

and here was my response: 

"if it bothers you so much, go buy a fucking ticket.  otherwise, enjoy your free concert in the park with all the 300 other people present and shut up."


ok, i didn't say exactly that, this is just a condensed version of what i said but you get the gist. although i did say the part telling her to go buy a ticket if it bothered her so much. 


usually i'm not that confrontational with people, but the passive-aggressive way they did things really bothered me. and i think i have a valid point about the whole free concert vs. ticket issue. it's not like my friends and i were having a kegger on our little blanket. we were speaking at respectful volumes while also enjoying the music and laid-back, casual atmosphere. i can understand getting annoyed when you pay $100+ to have a fancy night at the orchestra and encounter a rude concert-goer. but Groucho and Marx were dressed in their hippy-finest in fucking flip flops. did they really expect the same type of behavior that you encounter with patrons who pay for their tickets? 


if you want that kind of atmosphere, stop being a cheapskate and pony up for some tickets. otherwise suck it up or move.