What I Ate

10/10/10

2010-10-11T09:47:00.000-07:00

Breakfast – home
1 glass grapefruit juice
Oatmeal with golden raisins and brown sugar
2 cups coffee

Lunch – home
Grilled cheese (whole wheat bread, mozzarella, arugula)
Sausage soup with cannellini beans and cabbage
Cortland apple

Dinner – Momofuku Noodle Bar
Fried Chicken Dinner:
Southern- and Korean-style fried chicken, mu shu pancakes, sauces, herbs, etc.
Pork buns
Roasted corn with miso butter
Sauteed bok choy in pork broth
Cold noodles with Chinese sausage and candied cashews
1 bottle Lone Star

Dessert I – Veniero’s
1 truffle button

Dessert II – Momofuku Milk Bar
1 cornflake, marshmallow and chocolate chip cookie

6/28/09

2009-06-28T23:44:00.000-07:00

I have been cooking up a storm lately and have nobody to talk to about it.

Breakfast:
Homemade yogurt with flax seeds, honey, and granola

Lunch:
2 Nature Valley bars and a handful of peanuts

Dinner:
2 gyros made using a Cook's Illustrated recipe:
Pita, Spiced lamb patties, vegetables, and tzatziki (made from more homemade yogurt)
The recipe was really great. Instead of strips of lamb off a vertical spit, like restaurant gyros, you make patties out of lamb meat, spices, and ground pita, then you sauté them. The texture of the meat is more like well-seared sliders than normal gyro meat (next time I'll make the patties thinner for a better crust/insides ratio).

Don't Worry

2008-10-19T20:23:00.000-07:00

I kind of stopped for awhile but I am totally back to eating a shitload of saltines all the time.

Return to Saskatoon

2007-12-19T20:43:00.000-08:00

Diligent foodreaders may recall my trip last December to Saskatoon, a fantastic wild game restaurant improbably located in a strip mall on Haywood Road, between Cecil's Shoe Repair and Physical Graffiti South Tattoo.

Tonight I went back for seconds. And friends, they were anything but sloppy:

three slices, bread with cinnamon butter
house salad with vinaigrette
grilled zucchini and corn
garlic mashed potatoes
kangaroo a l'orange

First things first: as much as I enjoyed last year's grilled yak, the kangaroo was even better. It had the appearance and texture of beef, but it tasted more like an exotic poultry (ostrich, of which I've eaten exactly two bites ever, comes to mind). The sweet orange demi-glaze nicely complemented the kangaroo's natural flavor without overpowering it. Best of all, my mom was totally grossed out by the whole thing, so more 'roo for this guy!

I do have a few minor criticisms. First, my cut of kangaroo meat did not include a discernible pouch (which, in a perfect world, would have been filled with Stove Top stuffing). Second, Saskatoon's wild game sausage appetizer did not include kangaroo sausages, which Wikipedia refers to, adorably, as "kanga bangas."

Speaking of Wikipedia, here is a fun, possibly true fact I learned today:

"There has been recent discussion from the kangaroo meat industry about attempting to introduce a specific culinary name for kangaroo meat, similar to the reference to pig meat as ham and pork. In 2005 the Food Companion International magazine, with support from the Kangaroo Industry Association of Australia, ran a competition hoping to find a name that wouldn't put diners off when they saw it on a menu...

"The three-month competition attracted over 2700 entries from 41 nations, and the name australus was decided on December 20, 2005. Other finalists for the name included kangarly, maroo, krou, maleen, kuja, roujoe, rooviande, jurru, ozru, marsu, kangasaurus, marsupan, jumpmeat, and M.O.M. (meat of marsupials)."

There you have it, foodreaders. Tonight I dined on jumpmeat!

My mom had the scallops.

11.15.07

2007-11-15T22:35:00.000-08:00

Two slices from city pies (cheese, mushroom)
Honest tea (green)

Spaghetti with tomato sauce, mushrooms, spinach, basil
2 Damlas

11.14.07

2007-11-15T22:31:00.000-08:00

Blueberry muffin - late breakfast/late lunch (I slept in)

Seared duck breast with some french horn mushrooms and shallots
This was an experiment which resulted in the smoke alarm going off multiple times during Zachkay's writing club meeting. Sorry Miranda and Lydia and others! It came out decently.

Vanilla ice cream with a cookie.

11.8.07

2007-11-09T08:51:00.000-08:00

Blueberry muffin

Book Party
Mini crab cake
Mini pizza
Mini hamburger
Mini brussel sprout
Mini tomato with guacamole inside
Stella
Heineken

Auction House
Bud light
O'Hara's

I was hungry when I went home.

11.7.07

2007-11-07T21:15:00.000-08:00

Oatmeal w/ maple syrup
I graduated to non-instant oatmeal.

Some pretzels + diet coke

Thai Market (delivery)
Daikon cake appetizer
Noodle dish that was basically pad see ew with duck
Thai iced tea

That pretty much wraps this one up.

11.6.07

2007-11-06T22:23:00.000-08:00

California Roll
Inari

Orecchiette with broccoli, garlic, parmesan, parsley
3 "Damla" candies -- These have the same name as Mollie's roommate. Either she bought them for that reason or everything in Turkey is named Damla.
Some Jeff Gordon Checkered flag ice cream
Diet Coke

Twizzlers

What I Baked, Vol. III

2007-09-07T14:30:00.001-07:00

C.B. and I baked these a few weeks ago.

Betty Friedan, Gloria Steinem, &c: Thanks for all the liberties and opportunities! I baked you some cupcakes as a thank you.

April 15-June 2nd

2007-06-18T19:22:00.000-07:00

Fellow Food Reporters:

Here is a photo album of some things I recently ate:

Ridiculous Race - Vali food

Chicken Breasts Escoffier

2007-05-02T08:36:00.000-07:00

These were delicious. Let's take a look at how I made them. See if you can spot the secret ingredient that helped make them so tasty!

First I clarified a stick of butter. Clarified butter is also called ghee or superbutter. It was my first time clarifying butter but I think I did a decent job. There were some few white chunks left floating around, but it was basically fine.

I had the butter on very low heat, so I had a bunch of time for other stuff. I cut up two chicken breast filets into long strips about an inch wide and wound up with eight in total. If I had it all to do over again, I would have pounded down the thicker ones with the meat hammer, but they were not too dissimilar in thickness and everything got cooked through, so whatever.

To bread the chicken strips, my recipe took a minor deviation from my normal egg/flour-and-egg procedure. I instead dunked them in the superbutter and then breaded them. I think a pastry brush might have been helpful for this, since some of the butter may have gone on a little thick, and a bit of the breading came off in the pan later, but again, whatever. I use 4C bread crumbs out of cheerful associations with the "official bread crumb of the Davis family" campaign from our childhoods which has turned out to be a very effective piece of marketing with respect to me.

I also cut up some grape tomatoes into halves or thirds for later on. I also had my cast iron skillet heating up through this part of the "prep."

I put about half the remaining superbutter into the skillet and let it heat up, then I put the chicken strips in. The eight of them just fit in. They stayed there about five minutes. Up to this point, I had washed my hands about six times, since I'm a bit picky about washing my hands in general, and extremely paranoid about handling raw meat. I also put a bit of salt and pepper on the chicken in the pan. My recipe did not request that I add this to the bread crumbs, so I went along with it. This recipe came down from Escoffier through Alice Waters in California to my Annie Bell cookbook that I'm so damned fond of and have probably made you look at if you've been over to my house.

After the first side of the chicken was done, I flipped the pieces. The first sides had browned very satisfyingly and I added a bit more salt and pepper. I also put on a smaller pan - which I had used before for the clarifying process - and heated up the rest of the superbutter in it. Once this was up to frying temperature, I put the tomato slices in.

(Sorry for the infrequent and low quality pictures. My camera sucks both in terms of taking pictures and functioning for more than twenty minutes on fully charged batteries. Also, my own gifts as a photographer tend to flourish most in situations where I am not rushing to get photos taken, and as you all know, when I'm in the kitchen, I'm all about the business of making food and not of silly dalliances like picture taking.)

The recipe called for a minute or two of frying the tomatoes in the superbutter, but if I do this again, I'll give it a lot longer.

After four or five minutes for the second side of the chicken, I took it off the heat and served it. I poured the tomato/superbutter sauce directly over the chicken, added a hair more salt and pepper, and enjoyed. And enjoy it I did, it was very tasty. The reader now has one more chance to guess what the secret ingredient was. Okay, ready? It was the fact that my dinner contained a stick of butter.

I offered to let my roommates have some, but wound up eating all of it fairly quickly. Despite the heavy fat content and the multiple frying processes, it didn't even give me the kind of gutache some of my more delicious and oil-intensive dishes do. I can't speak to how faithful this pleasantly simple recipe was to Escoffier's original vision, but I think some reflection of his legacy of greatness could certainly be tasted.

Passover

2007-04-02T08:34:00.000-07:00

I've been eating a lot of bread products in preparation for Passover.

Moondance Diner on 6th Ave at Grand?

2007-03-15T11:43:00.000-07:00

Terrible. Just awful.

I'm glad they're knocking it down.

New York Insiders' Tip

2007-03-05T13:07:00.000-08:00

Here is a big tip for New York gourmands:

At San Luigi on 75th and Amsterdam they will add (cold) penne to your chicken dish for only an additional five dollars.

Grandma Dinner

2007-02-22T12:02:00.000-08:00

Gabriel's

Pinot noir
Marinated octopus
Lamb chops
Mashed potatoes
Asparagus

A special perk of having grandma dinner is that I get to go to places where 70% of the clientèle is 55+ years old. I sat in a row of tables where I was the only one under 65 or 70. There is this secret world of restaurants in New York where everything is like it was twenty-five years ago and every night is like an episode of Seinfeld. Anyway, this is what I saw while standing at the bathroom sink: a man in a suit walked into the bathroom, went into the stall, pulled down his pants, and starting pooping. You will notice that what he did not do is close the door to the stall.

I've done it.

2007-02-20T22:00:00.000-08:00

Friends,

I believe I have found the best sushi restaurant in New York City.

Sushi Seki (62nd and 1st)

If you are into places like Nozawa and Sasabune in LA, this is as close as you're going to get as far as I can tell. I've been to Nobu, I've been to Morimoto, I've been to Blue Ribbon, but as far as straight up sushi goes, this place is by far the best. You can order a la carte, but I recommend getting the $50 omakase and adding on if you're still hungry. Like those good LA places, stuff is brought 2-3 pieces at a time, and everything has its own garnish/marinade (the use of soy sauce is discouraged).

Highlights include: yellowtail with jalapeno, fried oyster roll, chopped spicy toro with radish, spicy scallop hand roll, and perhaps the best piece of toro I've ever had in my life.

Another awesome thing about this place is that it is open until 3am. From what I've been told, it is because flights from Japan tend to get into NYC around midnight, so the place stays open for all of the business travelers, which is pretty rad.

My point is, any time anyone wants to go, I will go with you.

I Found My Way Back

2007-02-19T08:18:00.000-08:00

An easy recipe that is bad for you:

Cook a bunch of halved grape or cherry tomatoes and a minced clove of garlic in (extra virgin) olive oil over high heat. Once they are softened and starting to fall apart, add some marscapone cheese (this is what is bad for you) and mix it through until melted and saucy. Add some salt and pepper and shredded basil. Toss with pasta.

I also started making polenta recently. Last night I ate some Baked Alaska made by XTina. That's pretty much what I've been up to.

Beer Soup

2007-02-16T10:09:00.000-08:00

A theme that recurs on this blog is how much our ancestors used to drink (see "Data," 12/11/06). In some of my readings I'd come across mention of a "beer soup" or "beer porridge" our forefathers enjoyed.

So I decided to try it. I used this recipe:
http://www.recipehound.com/Recipes/1472.html

and McEwan's Scotch Ale. I would suggest not using all the lemon rind. What you do use chop very finely. This also might have been improved by having some heavy bread for dipping - it was a bit much to eat on its own. Newcastle or Guinness might be good beers to try.

What I Baked, Vol. II

2007-02-14T11:17:00.000-08:00

Oh, man! Look at how I am a part of the anti-Valentine's Day movement! Look at how I am so badass!

These are some cookies I made for work. I think my co-workers will find them a refreshing change of pace. A real eye-opener!

Burrito Science

2007-01-24T16:45:00.000-08:00

The directions on my ten pack of El Monterey brand frozen bean and cheese burritos suggested that I might improve the taste of my meal (dinner, in this case) by taken the microwaved burrito and then frying it in butter until golden brown. Being a man of fundamentally curious disposition, I investigated this.

As a control for this experiment, I ensured that I had previously eaten a large number of El Monterey bean and cheese burritos in the past. (By the way, these are way worse than Tina's Beef and Bean or basically every other Tina's frozen burrito.)

I also discovered that frying my microwave warmed burrito to anything close to golden-brown was a very time intensive process, probably because of the large (let's say) weight and the relatively small surface area. Is that correct? A: it is correct enough.

I found, in the end, that pan-frying an El Monterey in butter will slightly improve the taste and will far moreso improve the somewhat gluey texture of the tortilla. However, the heating of the pan and subsequent frying process added quite a bit of prep time to the procedure, enough that it threw into sharp relief the thousands of other mealtime choices I could have and should have made leading up that lowly point. And I'm not just talking about decent meals, like some pork chops and some corn and some garlic bread, I'm including Pop Tart pan-fried in butter in there, which would have been even easier, incrementally less unhealthy, and wouldn't have even required the microwave. At least when you don't bother frying your burritos, you don't have so much time to contemplate the fact that I don't even like El Monterrey burritos.

In conclusion, God is punishing me for having only gotten two chicken chimichangas from Trader Joe's last time I went there.

Science accomplished!

morimoto

2007-01-24T11:40:00.000-08:00

As part of Winter Restaurant Week '07, I went to Morimoto and had their prix fixe lunch:

mixed greens salad
miso soup
chef's sushi tasting, which included a spicy tuna roll, salmon, tuna, shrimp, eel, salmon roe, and a few other sushi with Japanese names
Plus I ordered a wagyu beef sushi and an aka no ne ("carrot") shochu on the rocks.

Sushi all kind of tastes the same to me, but this was the best sushi I've ever had in terms of texture and tenderness. The salad was unimpressive, but the miso soup tasted noticeably better, i.e., sharper and cleaner, than typical miso soup. The wagyu beef sushi tasted beefy and fatty, but maybe not worth the troubling few seconds of chewing on a pretty big chunk of raw beef. Highlights were the eel sushi, which was incredibly tender and soft, unlike every other eel sushi I've ever had. And the salmon roe sushi, which I would eat every day just for the awesome mouthfeel of it exploding in your mouth. Totally worth the mercury intake. The shochu was nice - like a light, drinkable straight vodka.

MJ

2007-01-10T08:55:00.000-08:00

Recently I had the privilege of dining in Michael Jordan's own steakhouse.

Some Cabernet
14 oz filet
Creamed spinach (some truffles were involved)
French fries
Asparagus

It turns out that Michael Jordan runs a pretty classy restaurant. The waiters are enormous and laugh alot and put your sides on your plate for you at the table.

Quincy House

2007-01-07T20:16:00.000-08:00

it was my honor recently to be a guest at Quincy House. It's gotten at least 50% better than I remembered.

salad with lettuce and cucumbers, honey dijon dressing
3 tater tots
1 cup clam chowder
1 burrito with lettuce, tomato, salsa, and "burrito beef"
1 stuffed shell
2 M&M cookies
grapefruit juice
Barq's root beer
Irish Cream coffee

Clinton Street Baking Company

2007-01-05T14:59:00.000-08:00

I used to live right above this place, but during that period in my life, I was willfully doing everything wrong. So this was only my second visit. I had the Country Breakfast.

3 eggs scrambled
grilled "81 cure" ham steak
hash browns
buttermilk biscuit
coffee
grapefruit juice

note to restauranteurs: if you want to sell meats to SC, just add a modifier before it. I'll probably bite.

Peter Luger

2007-01-05T14:56:00.000-08:00

2 Tanquaray and tonics
1 jumbo shrimp, generously cocktail sauced
1 thick slice bacon
1 large tomato slice, with pepper
Decent helping of the "steak for four" with Peter Luger sauce
Some creamed spinach
Some German fried potatoes
Several bites chocolate mousse cake w/ schlag
1 Remy Martin cognac
1 Irish coffee
1 chocolate coin

Saskatoon

2006-12-28T14:16:00.000-08:00

Last night I paid my first visit to Saskatoon, upstate South Carolina's finest and only wild game restaurant. We sat next to a table of loud, jolly rednecks from Honea Path who had very strong opinions about Kevin Harvick, Daytona, and NASCAR in general. Here's W.I.A.:

two slices, bread with cinnamon butter
Caesar salad with shredded parmesan
fried alligator tails with mustard sauce
two bites, orange-glazed ostrich steak
grilled yak with garlic mashed potatoes

The alligator tails were very tasty, with a consistency somewhere in between fried clams and calimari. I accidentally dipped the last one in cinnamon butter instead of mustard sauce and it was fucking fantastic. But the real standout was the yak, which our fast-talking southern waiter initially described as "a big old ugly hairy monster that we slice on up and it's great." Then he dismissed my concern that it would be too gamey by saying, "It'll only make you frown just a little bit." Anyway, it turns out yak tastes exactly the same as steak, which I hadn't eaten in like eight months, so it was great.

Saskatoon also sells T-shirts with awesome slogans, such as:
"Conserve wildlife today. So there's more to eat tomorrow."
"Bison: one of the many vegetarians served in our restaurant."
and my personal favorite:
"There's plenty of room for all God's creatures... right next to the mashed potatoes."

Internet

2006-12-28T07:58:00.000-08:00

An ask.metafilter post about essential food staples to keep on hand
A sweet Cuisinart version of the Foreman grill - It might inspire you to tell your computer, "Griddle me this, Batjerk!"

My aunt Christine gave me a totally ruling Calphalon 12" Everyday pan, with hard anodized surface. I made delicious steaks in it. I "deglazed" with some Charles Shaw Merlot and put a few mashed cloves of garlic in with a dash of cornstarch to make sauce. Clean-up was a breeze!

2006-12-24 (Christmas Eve)

2006-12-26T19:18:00.000-08:00

Weylu's is back in business under new management, and seems to be back to pretty much business as usual. This is a lovely warm feeling for my Greater Boston ass, and maybe for yours, as well.

It's now operating under the name Jin, which is fine, although I choose to call it Weylu's since that's its name. The owners wisely decided not to redo the exterior, or the interior, so breathe easy, friends. We ate from the buffet. I could mention only those dishes of particular note, or I could mechanically enumerate them all and later talk about it a bit. Have you already correctly guessed what I'm going to do?

Some tea

Plate one
Jasmine rice
Sauteed frog legs
Peking duck with hoisin sauce
Roast pork
Peking pork chop
Crab rangoon

Plate two
Salt-baked silver fish
Scallion pancake
Sesame balls
Almond ball
Sauteed string beans
Lychee
Fruit very much like lychee, but a hair larger, and yellow like a peach
Watermelon
"Sweet glass jelly" - They mean "grass jelly"
Stuff crispy pear

Plate three
Sesame ball
"Jell-O" - this was a ~cube, opaque white, in the Jell-O section. It turned out to be coconut flavored.
Lychee
Durian ball
Golden pancake

I have never had frogs' legs before. They were fine.

I think that silverfish are the most disgusting creatures in the entire planet. The salt-baked silver fish appeared to be anchovies or something, tempura fried or something. I can't see how they could possibly have been actual silverfish, but if I find out they were, I'll kill myself.

The first item identified as sesame balls were small, hard pastries with sesame. I assumed that the almond ball would have red bean paste inside, but was wrong, it actually had some sort of savory-rather-than-sweet filling. "Stuff crispy pear" was a small flaky pear-shaped item - I was thinking some sort of baked pear quickly fried in a sweet dough, which sounded incredibly delicious to me. It was, in fact, a pear-shaped piece of dough stuffed with meats and vegetables. It tasted fine except for an overwhelming tang of bitter disappointment and a strong aftertaste of dreams that might have been.

The second sesame ball was a larger dessert item which I was basically sure would have red bean paste. It was actually sweet, but had some non-red-bean filling. I was starting to get sad. The coconut Jell-O was fine. The durian ball was pretty tasty - the starchy coating was a disconcerting artificial green color, but the filling was actually pretty good. I'd be willing to try straight up durian based on it. The golden pancake, the last item I ate, turned out, finally, to have some red bean paste inside, thereby saving Christmas.

Jin will be hosting a New Year's Eve party. Music will be provided by Bombay Jim and the Swinging Sapphires, a group of older Caucasian gentlemen in hats. DJ Nicky T will also be appearing.

The rest of what I baked

2006-12-26T11:23:00.000-08:00

Happy Holidays!

What I Baked: Holiday Edition

2006-12-26T09:58:00.000-08:00

Gingerbread Man holding hands with Sugarcookie Man

A Star of David cookie, and a cookieman I made by combining leftover sugarcookie and gingerbread dough. I named him after Tiger Woods. Also a multi-racial heart.

I just made the most delicious tuna melt

2006-12-21T18:47:00.000-08:00

I don't know what happened, but it was the most delicious sandwich I've ever made. Here's how I made it:

Tuna salad:
1/2 can of tuna
low-fat mayo
salt & garlic pepper to taste

Pan grilled mushrooms:
A few cremini cooked in a skillet with a little sherry & broth (~ tablespoon each), sprinkled with a little salt

Thinly sliced lowfat mozzarella (don't worry, this stuff melts really well)

2 slices tomato

2 slices rosemary ciabatta (you can get this at TJs)

I heated a skillet, sprayed with cooking spray. Then layered all the ingredients on the ciabatta (you need to concentrate all the filling in the very center so that when you press down on the sandwich the filling doesn't all fall out).

After the skillet was hot, I put the sandwich in and pressed down with another pot for about 1-2 minutes. Then I flipped it and did the same on the other side. The bread was browned really well--very dark.

Some of you will be skeptical of the lowfat ingredients, but I guarantee you, this sandwich tastes like it's really bad for you.

A Visit to Red Pearl

2006-12-17T10:09:00.000-08:00

This week I had occasion to go to Red Pearl, a new fancy Chinese restaurant on Melrose with some of my co-workers. I had the chef's tasting menu, which was very good. I also had a Tokyo Rose cocktail. This cocktail was blue and was made of blueberries. Why was it called the Tokyo Rose? No one could explain. An unreasonable number of the cocktails here include Pucker.

But the whole experience was marred by this exchange, between one of my colleagues and a waitress, as one of the courses was presented.

COLLEAGUE: And what is this?
WAITRESS: It's lahb.
COLLEAGUE: Larb?
WAITRESS: Lahb. L-A-H-B. It's Asian for "meat salad."

TV Chef Report

2006-12-16T16:59:00.000-08:00

I went to Vegas from Monday to Wednesday and I ate at a couple of restaurants owned by TV chefs.

Here is what I ate:

At Craftsteak (Top Chef's Tom Colicchio)

Arugula salad
Lobster bisque
Braised beef short ribs
Roasted chicken
Roasted garlic potatoes au gratin
Petit fours (chocolate brownie, gingerbread, white chocolate peppermint fudge)
Caramel ice cream
Chocolate souffle

This was accompanied by a relatively inexpensive bottle of rose.

At Mesa Grill (Food Network's Bobby Flay)

Blue corn pancake with barbecued duck and habañero chile sauce
Smoked chicken and black bean quesadilla with avocado and toasted garlic creme fraiche
Yucatan-style grilled chicken tacos with cilantro and mint
Roasted pork tenderloin sandwich

Between the two, I preferred Craftsteak.

My three-word review of the atmosphere and food at Mario Batali and Nancy Silverton's new restaurant, Pizzeria Mozza

2006-12-16T11:08:00.000-08:00

Douchey and salty.

but also I think I ordered poorly, and by the time I got there I was pretty drunk.

Our Man in Havana (or, Castronomy)

2006-12-14T08:54:00.000-08:00

Fortune and Vali delivered me to Havana for 24 hours to do official research. I arrived in Havana around noon.

1 Malta canned drink. This tasted like pure liquid sugarcane.

Almost immediately I realized that my resolution to eat in only non-tourist places would be impossible. The Cuban government has crushed small business. It is very difficult to find a store, let alone a restaurant. The few bakeries and hole-in-the-wall places have incredibly long lines. There's a grey economy system of private homes that double as restaurants, but this was difficult to navigate as I don't speak Spanish. It is illegal to buy beef in Cuba (except, interestingly, for the tiny Jewish community).

Cuban people are banned from entering tourist establishments by themselves. They are also incredibly poor. As a result, English-speaking Cubans will try and get you to take them to bars to buy them drinks. A young gentleman and lady introduced themselves, and I told them I would buy them drinks if they took me to a good restaurant. The gentleman said he knew just the place, and kept using the words "fatty" and "Cuban" to describe the sandwich I would have. I agreed.

Restaurant
1 ham and cheese sandwich. This was about what you'd get at ABP.
1 mojito

The woman then began offering services in which I was not interested.

Edificio Bacardi
1 mojito

A nameless bar
1 mojito

Ice cream shop
1 caramel ice cream with caramel
Cubans like their stuff sweet!

Los Frailes hotel
1 cafe con leche

Woman's home
1 cafe con leche

El Floridita
1 Floridita daiquiri
1 Cuban sandwich. This was made with chicken, pork, and a sort of potato mustard that was quite good.
fried potatoes
fried peppers

Hotel
1 daiquiri

The following morning:

La Taberna
1 sweet sponge cake
3 pieces Cuban sausage
2 pancakes with honey topping
1 piece pineapple
1 piece fruit - FRs, can you identify it? it was pinkish-red inside with a green rind.
2 glasses fruit juice - 1 pink, one mango?
1 cafe con leche

Jose Marti Airport
Roasted chicken with onions
Black beans and rice
1 Crystal beer
some fried plantains

Data

2006-12-11T09:37:00.000-08:00

I've recently been enjoying Jessica Warner's Craze: Gin and Debauchery in the Age of Reason (thank you, SC), but have found some of the data a bit underwhelming. It's in line with an earlier parcel of information I digested - that in the England of Shakespeare's day, people drank a completely staggering, I mean appalling, amount of beer - on average, some 250 glasses a year. Huh? Anyways, I will let the numbers speak for themselves, so here they are.

Warner chronicles the growth and decline in consumption of liquor in England as follows - these are the average numbers of gallons of liquor consumed annually per capita.

1700 - one third of a gallon
1720 - two thirds
1729 - 1.3
1743 - 2.2
1752 - 1.2
1757 - .6 at which point it stayed fairly stable for a while.

Meanwhile, she notes, the consumption of beer stayed at a fairly steady 30 gallons per capita per annum throughout this.

I won't deny that the growth of liquor consumption was enormous, but 2.2 gallons? Come one. One gallon is 8 pints. That means that at the peak of 2.2 gallons in 1743, people were drinking an average of 281.6 oz of liquor a year. Taking the conventional notion of one serving of liquor as being approximately 1.5 oz, that's just over 187.7 servings of liquor over the course of a year - just over one shot every other day. Of course, that's compounded by the fact that people were drinking 240 pints of "strong" beer every year.

Obviously, there are a lot of other things going on beyond these seemingly mundane figures - poorness of living conditions, the fact that the trouble-makers probably sat a couple of standard deviations above those mean consumption figures. I think that ignorance of basic principles of "liquor before beer" may have aggravated the situation somewhat.

Warner also points out that except for the extreme highs of the 1740s, these figures are on par with the consumption of liquor in the America of the 1970s and 1980s, and were "laughably low when compared to the amounts consumed by Americans in the early years of the Republic." (Go, team!)

Also, poor people used to be really short, etc. Still, this doesn't change the fact that I think I used to drink as much as twelve times as much as a "normal" British person of the 18th century.

East Village Beat

2006-11-29T07:29:00.000-08:00

Il Angolo Della Pasta has closed down.

Thanksgiven!

2006-11-24T11:40:00.000-08:00

Mushroom Crostinis
Mission Chips with Tex-Mex Salsa
Baked Brie with Wheat Crackers
a few glasses of Pinot Grigio
bowl of Pumpkin Soup
Cucumber Salad
Crescent Roll
a few glasses of Chardonnay
Broccoli Casserole
Garlic Mashed Potatoes
Butternut Squash Risotto
Candied Sweet Potatoes
Green Bean Gremolata
a few glasses of Champagne
Turkey with Gravy
Sage and Herb Stuffing
Pomegranate Cranberry Sauce
(nap, then)
slice of Toffee Vanilla Ice Cream Pie
slice of Venetian Torte
slice of Chocolate Cake
glass of Giant Red Wine

hattip: EAP, Jeff, Strach, Jones, Other Jones, Other Jeff

A Day in Old Manhattan

2006-11-24T08:56:00.000-08:00

Recently I had occasion to visit Manhattantown, and I tried to eat as well as possible. I recommend all these places to New York-goers.

First lunch, Pizza Gruppo
1 slice of pepperoni pizza

Coffee break, 9th Street Espresso:
Latte

Second lunch, Nicky's Vietnamese:
Chicken sandwich
Orange soda
Good, not great. Next time I'll get the pork.

Ice Cream, Australian Farm Cream:
1 scoop, mocha

The Half-King:
1 hot apple cider
1 Bass Ale

Art:
3 glasses white wine
1 white wine spritzer

Grand Szechuan:
2 crab and pork soup dumplings
Fresh Kung Bao chicken
Soap Opera fried chicken (?)

Pizza Bar:
32 oz. Blue Moon

Blue and Gold:
???

Yesterday

2006-11-24T08:55:00.000-08:00

TURKEY!

Re: New York Times Article That MattPod Posted on FF

2006-11-13T13:14:00.000-08:00

This is what I ate at work yesterday for lunch:

Caesar salad
Tomato and fresh mozzarella
Lobster tail with drawn butter
Prime rib au jus with creamy horseradish
Potatoes au gratin
Steamed asapargus
Lemonade

Two spearmint Tic Tacs

Sometimes the food we get is so awesome.

Beefsteak

2006-11-12T17:23:00.000-08:00

Not so long ago, MJTM posted this old New Yorker article about beefsteaks. I passed said article along to my friend Natch, a lover of red meats. She resolved to host a beefsteak, and last night did so. Aprons were provided, the entertainment was an Irish tin whistle and accordion duo, and Pabst and Stella were on tap. This was an East Side beefsteak - no crabmeat, potatoes, or other bullshit. Radishes and celery were the only appetizers. Grilled skirt steak, well-marinated, was served on day-old bread. I will investigate and report back on the ingredients in this marinade - rumor has it red wine was involved. In any case, it was extraordinary, and made for juicy, flavorful steak. There was no silverware. Butter and salt were the only condiments. I melted some butter and salt together on a plate, and would run my meat through the liquid before ingesting it. The result was scrumptious.

About 25 people attended. All ate heartily. No one was capable of driving home.

Best Meal Ever Served?

2006-11-09T12:11:00.000-08:00

FRs, I was wondering: have any of you, in your wide reading and studies, come across any claims to what was the best meal ever served? Surely there must be some feast in the Renaissance or something for which this distinction has been claimed. I would like to read about the candidates for "best dinner ever."

An Interesting Kind of Rum

2006-11-03T12:24:00.000-08:00

I went to dba last night and had an interesting new kind of rum. (BTW, dba serves their rums and cola with a lot of a rum and only a very token amount of cola.) That kind of rum: Pussers.

Many true and hilarious things were said about Pussers, aided by the fact that the drink was so mixed strong that it smelled enough for the whole table to smell like Pussers. But there were other things, too.

Sunday

2006-10-23T00:16:00.000-07:00

Breakfast - Astroburger
Sausage, egg and cheese on an English muffin
Small fries
Small coffee with lots of cream and sugar

Just after "Flags of Our Fathers"
1 slice Patsy's Pepperoni Pizza

Dinner
Turkey chili
1/2 can golden corn
1/2 bottle Black Swan shiraz
Some dark chocolate

Food-believe It Or Not!

2006-10-10T08:14:00.000-07:00

- Lately, East Village Cheese has been selling 8oz tubs of Rondele brand cheese spread for a dollar. The tubs suggest that the cheese is "perfect for hamburgers." Field tests bear up that claim.

- Meeting a friend at Centolire, I realized I had eaten there before with the same dining companion. Our dinner? Splitting the "grande" steak with spinach and mashed potatoes - just as we had last time!

- On a recent trip to the Russian Vodka Room, I tried their garlic, pepper, and dill infused vodka. It was very good. It had a strong smell of garlic and a pleasant dill-y aftertaste. It was also quite smooth.

I can hardly food-believe my ears!

Breakfast Beat

2006-09-26T07:45:00.000-07:00

I just found out yesterday that Amish Market (a local ~high end supermarket and lunch counter) has a continental breakfast buffet from 7 to 11 AM for $4.99 a pound. It's great! Yesterday, I got bacon and sausage and french toast and a crepe from the buffet and a banana on the side for $3.07. Today, I got bacon, sausage, french toast, caramelized bananas with strawberries, and a hash brown for $3.11. Koh got sausage, a hash brown, a veggie omelette, and a brioche. Also, you get free butter and crap, and their jellies include an extremely attractive apple butter option. Hooray! They also have two kinds of oatmeal.

Fair Food!

2006-09-24T12:39:00.000-07:00

Here's what I ate at the Los Angeles County Fair:
1 hot dog with mustard and ketchup.
A few chili cheese fries.
1 1/2 deep-fried Oreos. These are fine. As ACJ pointed out, you don't like them but you want to keep eating them. jee suggested they may have been Hydrox, which I doubt since it would expose the seller to enormous legal liability.
I wanted to get some ice cream from the ice cream place near the cow pen for obvious logical reasons but the line was too long.
1 root beer float.
1 baked potato with chili.
1 iced tea.

Another restaurant review

2006-09-24T11:31:00.000-07:00

I went to BLT Steak in Manhattan last weekend and had my first (American?) Kobe beef. It was a "cheap" cut of skirt steak, but it still truly tasted like butter.

However, BLT's menu proudly talked about how they use A Number 1 corn-fed midwestern cattle, which if you've read The Omnivore's Dilemma, translates to antibiotic-pumped, knee deep in own shit, drug-resistant e. coli-ridden poo cows. But their popovers were the greatest thing I've eaten in the history of the world. So if you want a heavenly popover with expensive poo-filled animal slave meat go to BLT Steak!

Swedish Feast!

2006-09-22T16:05:00.000-07:00

This week I went to the home of my friends Brian and Malin. Malin is Swedish and she made a delicious Swedish feast:
Meatballs (I ate 12, they were small)
Boiled potatoes (3)
Gravy (seemed like butter, cream and a few spices)
Green beans
Pickles (Swedish people love pickles)

The food at Jekyll and Hyde

2006-09-22T12:30:00.000-07:00

is fucking terrible.

Restaurant Round-up

2006-09-22T10:18:00.000-07:00

Peter Luger's - seemed nice, I had a good sandwich. I think my lunchmates may have enjoyed it even more than I did, but I definitely liked it.

Planet Hollywood - Sucks so much!

Mars 2112 - Not as bad as Planet Hollywood, but does not have much to recommend it.

The Jekyll and Hyde Club - I love this place! We had a totally fun time here! It really shames other theme restaurant by being so super-fun in ways that other lame theme restaurants can only dream of. Love this place! Didn't have any food, I'm not sure how the food is.

The Horrible Truth!

2006-09-20T10:50:00.000-07:00

The Subway near my new office sucks!

They always mangle the bread. They use a tiny little knife to cut it, and I'm not even sure that it's a bread knife. They can't cut the bread in halves well, they always flatten the bread when they're cutting a loaf into a 6" piece. They can't put the ingredients on right - I get vegetables spilling out of the end, I got a meatball marinara with two meatballs stuck squeezed in together on one end crosswise rather than lengthwise, and so consequently I had a big chunk of meatball-less bread. Sometimes the ingredients are all slid over to the bottom or top half of the roll, and so the bread closes in an awkward extruded "J" shape that is unpleasant and difficult to eat. They don't seem to care about what they're doing, and it shows with their lousy, lackluster sandwiches.

Subway near my new office, boo to you!

Lunch, 2006-9-18

2006-09-18T10:27:00.000-07:00

Some fried shrimp, two stuffed grape leaves, two cheese pies, some caesar salad, some guacamole, and some tilapia.

This is the first meal I've had in weeks that was not pizza, hot and sour soup, and a modest cheese course.

Guest Reporter: Nancy Pelosi

2006-09-08T13:46:00.000-07:00

"Many Hill watchers wonder how the sixty-six-year-old Pelosi can toil so hard while remaining immaculately dressed and consistently perky. One answer: massive consumption of high-quality chocolate."
- hattip: The Atlantic.

Yesterday

2006-09-05T21:20:00.000-07:00

Breakfast-Brunch:
Blueberry muffin
OJ

1 packet Maruchan ramen, beef flavor
Some dark chocolate

Grand Central Market:
1 chicken taco
Horchada
1 scoop coffee ice cream*

Village Pizza:
2 slices pepperoni pizza
Iced tea*

"Goodnight and Good Luck":
Orangina

* Tea and coffee ice cream are both permitted in White September despite their caffeine content.

yesterday and today

2006-09-05T18:18:00.000-07:00

09/04

lunch, Chipotle:
Chipotle burrito bol with steak, black beans, rice, pico de gallo, cheese, lettuce, many shakes of Tabasco
Coke

dinner:
Tilapia "Francese" (Rachael Ray)
Mediterranean couscous salad w/golden raisins, toasted slivered almonds, basil (GDL)
organic Fuji apple

09/05

breakfast:
1 bowl Kashi Heart to Heart oat flakes & wild blueberry clusters cereal w/skim

lunch:
leftover tilapia and couscous

snack:
Tostitos with salsa con queso

dinner:
Spaghetti with turkey meatballs in tomato sauce (GDL)
1 Blue Moon ale

September 2, 2006

2006-09-03T16:57:00.000-07:00

Breakfast:
Blueberries and Raspberries

Guava Kombucha Tea

Lunch:
Leftover zucchini lasagne

Dinner:
Raw Burrito from Erewhon. Not very good.

Farmers Market:
Miller Lite
Fat Tire

DC's:
Gin and Tonic

Soop Sok:
Lemon Soju

September 1, 2006

2006-09-02T13:48:00.000-07:00

Breakfast:
Nectarine
Trilogy Kombucha Tea

Lunch:
Leftover Taco

Snack:
Pasta sauce and Pesto on 2 kinds of raw cracker/bread (The flax crackers were much better)

2 cups coffee, black, at Insomnia Cafe

SC's:
2-3 glasses white wine

Dinner:
Leftover zucchini lasagne

SC's:
1 gin and tonic
more white wine

Little Bar:
Soju Margarita
Some of DC's beer (Great White?)

Danger's:
A little bit of beer

From the Field!

2006-09-02T10:21:00.000-07:00

Fact: Having grown enamored of the woman in the Jana water ads, I decided to try out the 1st place winner at the 2005 Paris Aqua Expo. It proved unremarkable!

Fact: I purchased a package of Armour's new honey flavoured brown and serve sausages. They'll never improve on the original recipe!

Friday the First of September

2006-09-02T07:51:00.000-07:00

Breakfast:
2 slices of toast with butter and marmalade
2.5 cups coffee

Lunch:
1 PB&J
1 pink lady apple

Cocktails:
1 99 cent size bag of Cape Cod Jalapeno & Cheddar chips
1 gin martini

Dinner:
leftover Thai broccoli from 31 VIII
3 glasses of Guenoc Cabernet Sauvignon

Intoxicant-Free September!

2006-09-01T15:34:00.000-07:00

Today is the first day of what I hope to make a month free of alchohol and caffeinated beverages. I have to allow the caffeine in chocolate, however, which keeps this from being full-on Mormonism.

Breakfast:
OJ
Tiger Milk bar
Raisins
3 baby carrots
Orangina

Orangina will be my new coffee.

Lunch from Wood Ranch:
Babyback ribs
Baked beans
Garlic roll

So far I'm feeling great.

Thursday the Thirty-First of August

2006-09-01T11:13:00.000-07:00

Breakfast:
plain yogurt with banana and honey
2.5 cups coffee

Evening snack:
1 bag of Robust Russet potato chips

Dinner:
rice
broccoli, Thai-style

1 tumbler of 1 part Talisker mixed with 1 part cold water

August 31, 2006

2006-09-01T08:42:00.000-07:00

Breakfast:
Smoothie containing frozen blueberries, raspberries, banana. Plus: dried goji berries, ground flax seed, spirulina powder, and hemp protein powder. This smoothie was brown.

A 1oz shot of wheatgrass from Robek's*

Lunch:
Leftover "taco" from yesterday.

Snack:
A carob quinoa bar from Erewhon. This was gross.

1 cup coffee**, black. From Insomnia cafe.

Dinner:
Zucchini Lasagne. A variation from the Rawvolution cookbook recipe. Strips of zucchini (I used green and yellow), topped with a sauce made up of: tomatoes, sundried tomatoes, garlic, onion, red bell pepper, mushrooms (I used cremini), sunflower seeds, lemon juice, nama shoyu, fresh basil, and fresh oregano. This was actually quite good.

*One summer in high school I worked at a juice bar called Zuka Juice (later purchased by Jamba Juice.) For our "initiation" we were forced to drink a shot of wheatgrass, if that gives you any indication of how pleasant that substance is to drink.

**I am still figuring out the rules on what's allowed and what's not. I'm pretty sure the coffee I had was not, but some raw food restaurants offer hot coffee, so I'm letting it slide for now.

I miss The Wrap

2006-08-31T20:25:00.000-07:00

The fact that it's now called Boloco and the only way to get there is by crossing a futuristic toll bridge from the landscaped island in the center of Lampoon Plaza only adds insult to injury.

But today, I vowed to stop whining and start doing something about it. And tonight, I ate the unthinkable: a homemade The Wrap buffalo chicken wrap. For serious.

First, I boiled a packet of Success Rice for like 35 minutes. Liz claimed the fan in our living room was responsible for the long wait, and indeed, turning it off made a huge difference. I have no idea why this happened because I got a D in my Science B course. Meanwhile, I medium-heated a Mission flour tortilla in a skillet, sprinkling cheddar cheese* all up and down its left side. SIMULTANEOUSLY, I microwaved a reusable tub of Butterball pre-cooked chicken strips.

Friends, that was only the beginning.

When everything finished cooking at the exact same time, because of awesomeness, I spread half the packet of rice and all the chicken strips onto the tortilla's non-cheesy hemicircle. Then I positively slathered the whole thing in Frank's Red Hot Buffalo Wing Sauce -- which, I.M.H.O., is by far the best such product on the market -- and, dare I say, WRAPPED it all up. In a wrap. It was pretty good.

Afterward, I finished off the leftover rice, adding a little Kikkoman for flavor. And that, friends, is "What I Ate!"

I also had a salad.

Wednesday the Thirtieth of August

2006-08-31T17:28:00.000-07:00

Breakfast:
banana in yogurt with some walnuts and honey
2.5 cups coffee

Lunch:
1PB&J
1 apple (I think a jonagold)

Dinner:
gazpacho
tuscan bread with some butter
defrosted homemade meatloaf with ketchup and a bit of Red Hot

August 30, 2006

2006-08-31T09:45:00.000-07:00

I started at dinner with a variation on the taco recipe from the Rawvolution cookbook. The taco meat is made of ground walnuts, cumin, coriander, and nama shoyu. I added red, orange, and yellow peppers, mushrooms, and sprouts which I had marinaded in a simple vinaigrette. I put all this in a Romaine leaf and topped with homemade salsa and guacamole.

This tasted pretty good, but maybe that's just because everything tastes good with guacamole on it.

The Crazy Things What I Will Eat

2006-08-31T08:55:00.000-07:00

Get ready to have your mind blown because I am going to try the raw/"living" food lifestyle for a few weeks. Have you heard of it? It's for people who think veganism is not crazy enough. They believe that cooking foods above 105 degrees F kills natural enzymes in foods. They eat only raw vegetables, fruits, nuts, and seeds. (Not even beans!) The pitch is that it gives you boundless energy and extreme mental clarity.

The other day I ate at "Taste Of The Goddess," a raw food cafe on Santa Monica. I had the "tacos" which consisted of sunflower seed cheese, tomatoes, spinach, olives, and peppitas, wrapped in a napa cabbage leaf. I ate about 1/3 before I could not eat any more. Your body is not used to this much straight fiber.

I also bought a small carob mint cookie which was so hearty that it took me three days to finish.

I will be using the Rawvolution cookbook, by Matt Amsden:

He says eating raw foods has intesified his energy and strength, which he proves by including a photo of himself holding his body up by his hands in the manner of a breakdancer.

Another thing he says is: "Animals will begin to interact with you in a different way, as they are no longer afraid that you may eat them." So there's that.

Anyway, I'm going to do this.

Yesterday

2006-08-30T23:29:00.000-07:00

Breakfast:
OJ
Blueberries
Tiger Milk bar
Small coffee w/ cream and sugar from Black Dog
Strach can take credit for my recent blueberry craze. I am trusting them to keep me alive to at least age 120, when I shall tour the country promoting my memoirs and receiving kisses from co-eds charmed that I'm still so "full of life."

Lunch - Jones on Third at work:
Corn Chowder
1/2 BLT

Snacks:
2 Mini-Special Darks
Pack of vanilla cream cookies

Cocktail Hour:
1 Red Hook IPA

Dinner:
Trader Joe's Turkey Stromboli

Society:
1 slice, chocolate cream pie
2 glasses, Black Swan shiraz
1 glass, Jameson over ice.

Some things I've eaten this week

2006-08-30T15:41:00.000-07:00

On Monday evening I made GDL's scampi on couscous. On Tuesday I had some medium-spicy boneless wings and poppers from Pluck You. On Wednesday I made Rachael Ray's salmon burgers with caesar slaw. Whole Foods' canned wild salmon had too many bony bits in it. Tomorrow I'll be making GDL's whole-wheat spaghetti with swiss chard and parmigianno-reggiano. I've also been drinking Rex Goliath Rooster chardonnay.

Tuesday the Twenty-Ninth of August

2006-08-30T04:22:00.000-07:00

Breakfast:
plain yogurt with walnuts, banana, and honey
2.5 cups coffee

Lunch:
1 PB&J
1 pink lady apple

at Shady Grove:
3 Miller Lites

Dinner, at home:
lasagna

Monday the Twenty-Eighth of August

2006-08-29T04:14:00.000-07:00

Breakfast:
plain yogurt with banana and honey
2.5 cups coffee

Lunch:
1 jonagold apple (mealy!)
1 PB&J on cracked wheat; chunky, strawberry.

Snack:
2 slices of toast with butter and marmite

Dinner:
leftover salad from 27 VIII
leftover pasta from 26 VIII -- this was penne with some defrosted homemade tomato sauce

Sunday the Twenty-Seventh of August

2006-08-28T04:12:00.000-07:00

Breakfast:
at Pamela's
corned beef hash
2 eggs overeasy
rye toast
coffee

Snack:
some carrots
2 slices of bread with peanut butter and honey

Dinner:
baby spinach, golden beet, tomato, chevre salad

Dessert:
small pineapple upsidedown cake, from Whole Foods
1 armagnac

Sorry I havent posted for a while; Blogger does not appear to be working on firefox.

Two Things I'm Pretty Into These Days, Which I Recommend

2006-08-26T14:44:00.000-07:00

Tiger Milk bars.
Orangina.

week in review

2006-08-24T08:00:00.000-07:00

On Monday, 8/21, I triumphantly returned to cooking, making three Giada recipes for dinner, including flank steak with red wine sauce, marinated zucchini and summer squash, and orzo salad with chickpeas, grape tomatoes, red onion, and spinach.

The rest of the week has been eating these leftovers and some KFC.

Hello, FoodReporters!

2006-08-24T05:26:00.000-07:00

This is my report for 23 August 2006

Breakfast:
1 bowl Cracklin Oat Bran, with 1% milk
1 everything bagel, toasted, with butter

Luncheon:
at Atria's
1 chicken sandwich with monterey jack cheese
french fries
Insouciantly average, this meal.

Dinner:
black beans and rice with chopped carrots, celery, and a fresh diced tomato
2 anchor steam beers

at Harris Grille:
1 Sierra Nevada Pale Ale
2 Yuenglings

Yum Times, Plus Celebs!

2006-08-21T13:22:00.000-07:00

Sunday, 8/20/06, with Warbs

12:30 pm: Rita Flora. The white truffle cheese omlette, a few bites of the fruit cup, 2.5 cups of coffee, glass of water with lemon. Very satisfying.

~2:15 pm: Celeb sighting #1: Lauren Conrad of "Laguna Beach" and "The Hills" at some luxury apartment building on Wilshire! Very exciting!

~3:15 pm: Celeb sighting #2: David Caruso with baby in front of the Hammer gift shop. Exciting, but certainly not as exciting as the first.

3:30 pm or so: Peach2O water from Rite Aid. This thing was terrible. It has the look of water, while still maintaining the consistency and full-bodied flavor of peach juice. Yuck and more yuck.

6:30 pm: Los Balcones del Peru. Mario's was too crowded, so we ended up here. We shared the bread and pesto-like appetizer sauce, and I had the fantastic Bisteak Apodaca (sp?), and water. This place is very good, inexpensive, and you're seated very quickly. They also serve alfajores (!), which I had puzzled over during my trip to Bay Cities, but this time I was too full and refrained from dessert. This place was a great way to end the day!

Guest, 8/19/06

2006-08-20T22:43:00.000-07:00

10:00 am: To-go from Mani's: One weird chocolate croissant (much worse than Amandine -- not flaky and light, but heavy and bread-like -- very undelightful), and a single vanilla latte. I also had one of the samples they were serving of the Strawberry Forever Cake. Everyone should buy this cake for every occassion. No one should buy their chocolate croissant ever again.

2:00 pm: A leftovers stir-fry concoction made by Papa Lo. This included spicy green beans, weird and thin rotisserie chicken strips, egg and white rice. While my dad was making this and I observed, it smelled great, but it turned out to be only somewhat good. To accompany: two glasses of water. And afterwards: a banana.

6:00 pm: Nyala with Warburton and Jones: We shared the pita-plus-hummus-ish appetizer, Yebeg Wot, Vegetarian Combination and Yesiga tibs. I believe I had the Dukem wine, which is white and very dry, and some water. Bonus: the jokes "tib of the iceberg" and "waitress, here's your tib" inspired an uncontrollable laughing fit in me!

9:00 pm: Two powdered sugar-covered Donettes. I loved (and continue to love) them so much that I had to add a picture to this post!
Party Times!
One Spritz (Campari, Cook's champagne, and Club Soda). Another powdered sugar-covered Donette. Stella Artois. A Bellini (Cook's champagne, Kern's Peach Juice).

Backtracking

2006-08-19T12:15:00.000-07:00

8/18/06
9:30 am: Amandine: Chocolate Croissant.

1:15 pm: The Cat and Fiddle: Strange spinach, potato, bacon and avacado salad with ranch dressing on the side. Surprisingly hearty. Water with lemon.

5:30 pm: some Cocoa Almonds.

6:30 pm: Arby's with my dad. Regular roast beef sandwich. Yum.

7:15 pm: English Breakfast Tea Latte at the Coffee Bean.

10:45 pm: Soju with Yogo Farms yogurt drink. Thanks, Jones!

8/17/06
12:15 pm: leftover shuh-zuh-tow and rice, a glass of water, a cup of coffee with French Vanilla Coffeemate.

5:30 pm: Hide Sushi, a great, little, and very cheap place on Sawtelle in West LA. They won't open on Sundays and Mondays because the chef believes that fish are fresher the other days of the week. Their free appetizer consists of pickled cucumbers and a little bed of lettuce with sesame sauce. I had the Chirashi, which consists of tuna, shrimp, halibut, salmon, octopus (ick!), and mackerel sashimi, plus shredded bits of egg, all on a bed of sushi rice. I added soy sauce. Very good.

7:35 pm: Haagen-Daaz Vanilla and Almonds ice cream bar.

8/17

2006-08-18T10:15:00.000-07:00

OJ, coffee. Then at lunch I had some kind of terrible tofu and kale soup and a turkey sandwich with gruyere and apples from Mani's. Apples on a sandwich always seem fun but never work. I snacked pretty heavily on Andes mints and mini-Krackels. Dinner was from Wokano - I ate 6 chicken dumplings, hot and sour soup, and **SPOILER ALERT**saved my Kung Pao chicken for tonight. Also I drank 3/4 bottle of Black Swan shiraz.

Yesterday (8/16)

2006-08-17T15:34:00.000-07:00

9:00 am: A few cocoa almonds to get me going.

9:45 am: 1 cup of coffee with Nestle French Vanilla Coffeemate. One piece of whole wheat toast. Two cubes of honeydew.

2:00 pm: pre-lunch snack at Leaf: 1 Mock Salmon Nori Roll, which was surprisingly tasty. Leaf is a light and airy organic vegan place in Culver City. You won’t miss it while driving on Washington Blvd., as it’s bright green! Although it’s no Real Food Daily and the waitstaff are really out of it, they use lots of soy and ginger sauces, which are great! To those remotely interested trying Leaf, I would recommend the “Wakame Wonder” as a starting point. It consists of wakame seaweed in a creamy ginger-shoyu dressing wrapped in mixed greens and sprouts.

3:00 pm: One salad with one of those parmesan lace cracker things on top from Wilson’s. (The director at the gallery I volunteer at ordered it for me, but I didn't get the full description.) A can of Diet Coke.

8:00 pm: Buddha’s Belly: Ginger Fried Rice. Lots of water with lemon.

~10:20 pm: "Project Runway" and the bad season premiere of "Laguna Beach" Season Three at Verbena: One and a half glasses of white wine (chardonnay?), a couple Kashi TLC crackers

Before bed: One glass of water

Here's what I ate yesterday

2006-08-17T13:42:00.000-07:00

Breakfast was OJ, coffee with cream and sugar from Black Dog, a banana. At our table read I had four chunks of pineapple and two glazed donut holes. Lunch was spread from Le Petit Greek. I had a gyro , some lemon potatoes, and some of that Greek lasagna stuff. For snacks I had several mini-Krackels and a Sunkist. After work I went to that Spanish wine place on Fairfax across from the Farmer's Market and had three glasses of red wine and bread and cheese. Back home I had Kraft Easy-Mac and two glasses of pear brandy. Pear brandy is no apple brandy, I'll say that.

Guest What I Ate?!, 8/15/06

2006-08-16T16:58:00.000-07:00

11:00 am: 1 cup of coffee with Nestle French Vanilla Coffeemate

12:00 pm – 12:30 pm: Waited in line at Bay Cities. A Santa Monica institution, Bay Cities is an Italian deli that has been recommended to me and my family for years, but today was my first visit, at my mother’s urging. The line was outrageous, and thankfully there was a woman handing out alfajores (?) samples, which consist of a small cookie sandwich with vanilla frosting in the middle and powdered sugar dusted on top. The quarter of an alfajore I had was great, but…

at 12:40 pm: Sunk my teeth into Bay Cities’ unrelentingly delicious Parma Prosciutto sandwich, with the works (Italian dressing, mustard, lettuce, tomatoes, peppers). YUM. I only had half of this sandwich because it was so big and so filling. Also gulped down a bottle of Costco’s Kirkland water.

12:50 pm: Decided I was hungrier than I thought and had a mini-cannoli, also sold at Bay Cities in their refrigerator of sweets.

3:40 pm: Another mini-cannoli, in celebration of my first trip to Ikea.

4:15 pm: Jasmine Milk Boba Tea from Volcano Tea on Sawtelle. While I was there, I saw Mark the Cobrasnake with his entourage, which included his 16 year-old girlfriend and a friend who was wearing a Mark The Cobrasnake shirt, but sadly sans Steve Aoki.

8:30 pm: The other half of my Parma Proscuitto sandwich from Bay Cities. Admittedly, this was a bit soggy, but still fantastic. A bottle of iced tea. Some water.

11:00 am: A few cocoa almonds!

Les Disappointments, 08/15

2006-08-16T10:03:00.000-07:00

lunch:
Gardenburger black bean chipotle veggie burger on wheat bun with monterey jack and ketchup

dinner, Les Halles Downtown:
1 glass Alsace pinot blanc
2 pieces bread with butter
Coq au Vin du Printemps -- rooster in white wine and cream sauce with veggies
some of He's frites and a bite of his steak

The coq au vin was terrible. I so badly wanted the steak, frites (which were good), but I felt obligated to get something else. I chose the dryest, blandest thing on the menu. Also, they didn't give you a little plate for bread. And they were shilling $25 autographed copies of Anthony Bourdain's books on every table as though it were a cocktail menu at Chili's. Lame.

later:
organic Fuji apple
Newman's Own lemonade

Guest Times, 8/14/06

2006-08-15T21:02:00.000-07:00

10:00 am: 1 medium-sized English Breakfast Tea Latte from The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf

between 11:00 and 3:40 pm: About 20 Cherries from Costco. Food Tip: Costco (at least here in LA) has fantastic fruit. Their peaches are particularly wonderful.

3:40 pm: A small Tupperware box organized as follows: one row of spicy green beans, one row of white rice, and one row of white fish with pine nuts. These I mixed together and ate with chopsticks. I also had a cup of water.

6:30 pm: 2 clementines (also from Costco).

7:00 pm: Leftovers from my parents’ new Monterey Park discovery (I couldn’t squeeze the name out of them): chow mein and a hard-boiled egg pickled in black tea. I also had a bottle of water.

8:27 pm: A few of segments of another clementine.

I watched Hell’s Kitchen tonight, in celebration of my FoodFriends invitation! I hadn't watched it at all, so I didn't really care about the outcome. The ending with the doors was dramatic! Does anyone have any thoughts about the results?

2006-08-15T20:43:00.000-07:00

Hey, Friends! Thanks for having me. I hope to regale you this week with food-loving fun!

When was the last time you ate an entire, full-size candy bar? What kind of candy bar was it?
About two/two and a half weeks ago, I got a full-sized Twix bar out of the LA Weekly vending machine. I wanted it to be really good because I was hungry and desperate, but it was thoroughly disappointing. The caramel was not stretchy enough.

What is a food you ate all the time as a kid, but which now disgusts you?
I used to consume Hershey’s Miniatures constantly when I was in high school. I would take handfuls from a glass pumpkin-shaped jar and eat them very systematically: first a Hershey Special Dark, then a Krackel, then a regular Hershey’s, and then a Mr. Goodbar (which were my least favorite). I would repeat this until I became very ill. The habit got to be so bad that my parents started hiding the jar, but I was sneaky and could always find it. Much to my parents’ pleasure, I now have no desire to see any of these candies either in their miniature or full-sized form, let alone eat them.

What is a recent food impulse buy which you regretted? Which you were delighted by?
I definitely regret buying a Costco bulk-sized pack of Kraft Mac `N Cheese in June. I was way too ambitious when I snatched it up, and now it’s sitting in my parents’ newly remodeled kitchen unopened and unwanted. In retrospect, it also makes absolutely no sense that I chose this gargantuan item while shopping with my parents because they always have gobs of good food.

Recent delight came in the form of Choco Leibniz. I bought two boxes for Project Runway at SC’s last week. Those cookies are great and I ate them to excess.

If you had to have one of the FoodFriends design your diet for a week, whom would you select?
MMW. I am always impressed by his well-curated meals.

What are the shows you watch the most on Food Network? What are your thoughts on: Rachael Rae, Alton Brown, Nigella Lawson?
I have only watched the Food Network here and there, but I did meet Nigella Lawson once! I was in Italy the summer before senior year, and an old painting professor took me around the Venice Biennale. The prof is good friends with Charles Saatchi, so during an art-break he introduced me to the advertising mogul and the cooking den-mother. She was very quiet and distracted by the heat.

What food staple would it be most difficult for you remove from your diet?
Noodles! They’re the only thing I feel truly confident preparing, and my first impulse when looking at any lunch or dinner menu.

If I told you that you could only eat one of the following for the rest of your life, but you could always get whatever you chose as fresh and as good as possible, which would you choose? Also, assume that whichever you chose would be seedless: (1) Oranges (2) Clementines (3) Tangerines
May I be so bold as to propose a fourth choice to this esteemed list of citrus fruits? SATSUMAS would be my guys. They have a taste similar to clementines, but wear their skin loosely—for easy peeling—and also rarely bear seeds—for easy nibbling! They also have a slight sweetness not found in clementines.

Also, do you prefer plastic wrap or aluminum foil?
I would go with plastic wrap. I love that I have to maintain focus when ripping it out of its box (for fear that it will curl, stick to itself and become useless), and I also love the idea that after being saran wrapped my food is nice and snug, as though it’s sleeping in the world’s most comfortable blankets.

When and how did you learn to cook?
I would bake cookies and brownies with my mom when I was smaller, but an incident with a carrot and a peeler left me scarred for most of my young life, and away from the kitchen. Thus, I didn’t really learn how to heat a stove until I spent that summer in Italy just before senior year of college (the same one during which I met Nigella Lawson). I was in Milan for an internship at an art magazine and my evening and weekends in the city were filled with boredom and loneliness. I searched through a local ex-pat magazine for things to do, and came across an English-speaking Italian woman who had placed an ad offering cooking lessons. Her name was Roberta, and she was an internet content producer-turned-food stylist. Her concoctions ran the gamut from miniature cakes for a Barbie photo shoot to Italianized sushi. She was a very kind woman with impeccable style. For the rest of the summer, I aspired to be her!

The first time I went to her attic apartment—which was decorated with quotations and books she had fashioned into sculpture—she asked me what I wanted to learn how to make and I said pasta and only pasta! She laughed and told me there was so much more. I only had three lessons with her, but she taught me how to make several different recipes: insalata caprese (that was a short lesson in which she basically taught me how to hold knives), pasta (regular tomato sauce, arrabbiata, carbonara), and risotto (mushroom and milanese). I don’t remember each recipe fully, and I’m still a terrible cook, but it was a good first foray into the culinary world. I also think the reason I’m wary of preparing meat is because Roberta didn’t teach me how.

A quirk of fate leaves you in each of the following cities for long enough to have only one meal. What/where do you eat? Boston, Cambridge, New York, LA.
Boston: I didn’t dine out much in Boston proper during college, so I’ll have to go with Locke-Ober, which I experienced for the first time on the eve of 2006. And I would replicate the meal I had that night, which I know included lobster bisque, and perhaps venison? I can’t remember it in full.

Cambridge: Darwin’s Limited on Mt. Auburn for a Longfellow Sandwich. I would also get my sandwich to go and make a quick trip to Toscanini’s, where I’d order a vanilla Micro Sundae with rainbow jimmies and chocolate syrup.

New York: I am usually poor and hungry when visiting New York, so I don’t have a favorite. Zen Palate comes to mind, though. I have had the fortune of having very good meals there which probably consisted of Stir-fried rice noodle with vegetables.

LA: I will break this down by meal.
For breakfast: Amandine Patisserie in Brentwood for the most delicious chocolate croissants this side of the Atlantic!
For brunch: Campanile for the hot chocolate and their eggs benedict.
For lunch: Taiko for cold tanuki soba, pumpkin tempura and a spicy tuna roll; or Angeli Caffe for slow food champion and "Good Food" hostess Evan Kleiman’s suppli and spaghetti aglio e olio.
For dinner: Ortolan, chef’s menu; or the Monterey Park restaurant my parents and I have been going to for years, Lake Spring Shanghai. At Lake Spring, I would order Shuh-Zuh-Tow (which mean’s “Lion’s Head”, but which is just big pork meatballs and cabbage in soupy brown sauce), Vegetable Chow Mein, and their shrimp with candied walnuts.

Name a fruit, meat, soda, and candy you despise.
Fruit: Mangos. (When I was last tested, I was allergic!)
Meat: I’m not such a fan of chicken. At most Asian restaurants, I will order tofu over chicken any day. And at European/Western-styled establishments, I will go for beef or pork.
Soda: Like fellow O-dog Owen, I never took a shining to soda. But if Orangina or San Aranciata count, then I finally have!
Candy: Black licorice. Puke city!

I have a teleporter, and can send you anywhere in the world for dinner. Where will you go, what will you have?
The Fat Duck. It was rated the best restaurant in the world by Restaurant Magazine in 2005! No doubt I would choose their Tasting Menu, but I would tell them I am allergic to mangos, and they would substitute with something equally enticing. I would bite the bullet and eat their bacon and eggs ice cream.

Name a food that evokes a strong memory of a particular time and place in your life.
My mom used to go on lots of business trips, so she would freeze a bunch of dumplings filled with spinach, shitake mushroom and clear-noodles for my dad to fry for dinner. I ate these most every weeknight from middle school until the end of high school. I’m still not sick of them!

What is your relationship to caffeine?
I used to only drink tea lattes, which proved to be a ridiculous strain on my wallet. But I’ve taken a liking to coffee recently, thanks to sugar and milk.

What is the best burger you've ever had?
In-N-Out’s Animal Style burger. However, I hope to get a table at Father's Office one day and order one of theirs, along with their mini-shopping cart full of sweet potato fries.

I have a food replicator from Star Trek Next Generation, what do you order and how do you order it?
The perfect mushroom risotto, with a liberal sprinkling of parmesan on top.

Are there any foods that would receive an f- grade from you?
Chicken feet, tripe, cow’s tongue, termites, octopus, fake cherry flavor.

Along the lines of "Salt," "Cod," and "History of the World In Six Glasses," what foodstuff would you most like to read a book about?
I would like to learn more about the history of cookbook illustrations. I would also be interested in reading about the history of the wok.

Is there any food you are embarrassed about how much you like it?
Not a food, but a beverage: I love Fiji water. I buy it to celebrate or console myself, as though this overpriced water were a fine wine.

Also, not a food, but a condiment: I keep Arby’s special sauce in my car just in case I forget to get it from the window teller, or in the event that I might need a good-tasting spread.

What was your favorite meal in the Harvard dining halls?
Even though I typically don’t like chicken, I would eagerly await the broccoli chicken. I also discovered mixing cereals thanks to HUDS, although it’s a technique that I have rarely used in the real world.

What are your favorite beers? What are your favorite wines? What are your favorite liquors? What are your favorite cocktails? Do you feel that you have a signature drink? If a FoodFriend ever had to order a drink for you while you were in the restroom, what drink should they order?
Favorite beer: Corona, Red Stripe. Favorite wine: Reisling. Favorite liquors: I have recently become a fan of Campari; Lillet was a fantastic birthday present from Dustin and Mareda; and soju in all its flavors gets my thumbs up (hat tip, Danny). Favorite cocktail: The Crimson Cosmo at Luna Park. No signature drink, unfortunately. But if I’ve stepped into the loo, please be so kind as to order me a white wine.

Last question: What is your favorite food?
Not Lo Mein, but CHOW MEIN!!!!!!!!!

August 14

2006-08-15T16:02:00.000-07:00

lunch, Zen Chinese Cuisine:
hot & sour soup
brown rice
calamari with bamboo shoots and preserved greens
prawns with spicy garlic sauce
tea

dinner:
Stouffer's deluxe frozen pizza
1 Kirin Ichiban

Monday the Fourteenth of August

2006-08-15T04:46:00.000-07:00

Breakfast:
yogurt with 2 sliced plums and honey
2.5 cups of coffee

Lunch:
pad thai with chicken from Lulu's Noodles

Snack:
1 99 cent size bag of Cape Cod Beachside Barbecue chips
1 Wolaver's IPA

A dinner of three small courses:
1 ear of corn. Corn can be made in a microwave. Wrap the shucked ear in wax paper. 1 minute per ear.
1 slice of vidalia onion pie
leftover zucchini-pea risotto
2 anchor steam beers

GR!

2006-08-14T13:40:00.000-07:00

This week's guest reporter will be noted LA cheermonger MLo, blessed with a fine dumpling hand and winning attitude. Let's hope she combines the dangerous excitement of Owen with the scholarly precision of DanO.

Sunday the Thirteenth of August

2006-08-14T04:35:00.000-07:00

Breakfast:
2 cups of coffee from the Hearth Room, consumed while on the road
1 bottle of propel

Late lunch:
1 large slice of vidalia onion pie

Dinner:
zucchini-pea risotto
2 anchor steam beers

The zucchini in the risotto wasnt a complete success, as it was a bit watery. But tasty enough, I suppose.

Congratulations Mike and Sue!

2006-08-12T17:28:00.000-07:00

Here is what I'm eating at your wedding right now. Hooray!

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ZK, on Food, Travel, and Romance

2006-08-11T14:28:00.000-07:00

MOVING WEEKEND

7/29
What did I have for lunch on Saturday? That is one lost to the whirlwind.

Dinner was at Orologio, w/ John and Mattpod, and I had pasta with chicken, and a Perroni. Ice creamed dessert.

7/30
Lunch at Cafécito w/ John, Mattpod, and Walt. I had a pressed cuban chicken sandwich. I wish I had known about this place sooner and then you all surely would have seen it in my reports often! I said that the waitress was pretty many times and she heard me and was upset. She didn't give us food for an hour.

Dinner at Luzzo's w/ John, Mattpod, and Walt. I had chicken parmigiana and some penne pasta. There was wine involved to be sure.

7/31 Move Out Day.
A toasted bagel w/ butter that Walt picked up for me because I had to wait for my mover's to arrive. Surprise! They didn't arrive for 3 more hours.

Some chicken and rolls and orange juice at Mattpod's grandma's house. Some orange flavored chocolates for dessert. Did I sleep on a single bed that was for some reason attached to Mattpod's bed that was 3 inches away, at Mattpod's grandma's house? Experts will agree that I did.

8/1 Tuesday is Travel Day
A plain toasted bagel from Zabar's via Mattpod's grandma. Some OJ. Chocolate frozen yogurt at JFK. Why at airports do people feel like they should eat dinner food at 9 in the morning?

Some life-savers on the plane.

Some cheddar goldfish in the car from the airport. Hello L.A.!

A chicken sandwich w/ fries at one of the million Perry's Cafés along the Pacific Coast H'way.

@ Phil Angelides' campaign event, w/ special guests Bill Clinton, Magic Johnson, Kathy Griffin, and the princess from Spaceballs who wasn't a special guest, but who was there and who I later checked out on imdb.
1 glass of white wine. 1 Heineken.
Some roast turkey and a croissant.
2/3 of a Bass, and some bits of toast from some stranger's sandwich.

8/2 Vacation Finally Begins
Xtina and I made pancakes in the morning, but in translating the recipé into a half-batch, we mixed up the proportions of the ingredients, and the pancakes ended up being horrible. This was compounded by the fact that the syrup was spoiled so we had to throw it away.

Grilled chicken sandwich w/ fries and OJ for lunch.

Dinner was from Bristol Farms supermarket:
Goldfish and 1 bass ale at sunset. This was very romantic and I talked a lot about God and Space.
2 lamb chops. Green beans. Buttered bread. 1/2 bottle of wine. 1/2 chocolate chip cookie. The wine glasses at Xtina's apartment hold about 1/2 a bottle of wine, which is great when you want to get drunk. Which you do.

8/3
Smoked turkey on baguette. Cheddar goldfish. Part 2 of chocolate chip cookie.

1/2 vanilla chocolate swirl frozen yogurt at the Santa Monica Pier. 1 quarter's worth of M&M's.

Dinner w/ Danger and Strach.
Stacy's pita chips and tomato and pesto hummus. 1 beer, I forget which kind. Presidio?
White rice, teriyaki salmon, broccoli, and asparagus. 3 bottles of wine split 4 ways. 2 Heinekens. 1/2 chocolate chip, 1/2 chocolate chocolate chip cookie w/ vanilla double churned ice cream and chocolate syrup.

8/4
Smoked turkey on Baguette. Pita chips.

Gala apple after some strenuous boogie boarding.

2/3 vanilla chocolate swirl frozen yogurt at Venice Beach. When we first looked for this we went to Cold Stone Creamery even though I knew they don't have soft serve and when we asked where we could find it, the girl suggested the liquor store. That was her first suggestion. "Maybe the liquor store?" She was wrong. Not as wrong as I would have thought though.

More pita chips. Some Hershey's Hugs at Talladega Nights.
We tried to go to Cha Cha Chicken, but it closed 1 minute before we got there, so we got pizza from some place where the word Dough was maybe in the name? It was on Main Street in Santa Monica. I had 1/2 slice cheese and 1 slice chicken and basil.

14 kinds of shitty beer at Yank's beer tasting at Dougan, Cort, Liz and Jeff's apartment. Some oyster crackers. A little bit of bread. A red stripe.

We had a traumatic experience when we arrived home, which was that a dude was passed out drunk on the ground next to his car in the garage of Xtina's apartment building and he wouldn't wake up, so we called the paramedics and they took care of it. On the ground it looked like he had a mustache, but when he got up he looked like that crooked cop/amway salesman from the movie "Go" and he had a lot of drool. Anyway, Xtina was pretty shaken and so we had some vanilla ice-cream w/ chocolate syrup and watched a bunch of the movie "Second Hand Lions." Haley Joel Osmont is the worst and he has a huge butt and he ruined an already terrible movie.

8/5 Last Day of Vacation
Some non-yeast sourdough bread w/arugula and smoked turkey. Goldfish. OJ.

BBQ at Chun's.
Grilled chicken, buns, chips, some Asahi, Alaskan something, some other stuff. Some shots. Celebrity.

8/6 Travel Day
We wanted breakfast, and we heard Ivy On the Shore was good.
OJ was 8 dollars, pancakes were 22 dollars. But everything was very good. There are free scones, which I don't like.

On the plane: Goldfish. Turkey sandwich. Hugs. OJ. Life Savers.

I'll catch up with this week during next week. Now that I wrote all about my vacation I'm sad.

ZK's Tips for Travel:
1. Pack Lightly
2. Drink Lots of Water
3. Have a Means of Transportation

8.9.06

2006-08-10T12:45:00.001-07:00

1 milano cookie

La Famiglia Pizza
1 slice cheese pizza
Pepsi
This place has a lot of promotional tools for franchising on the walls.

Little Giant
Smuttynose IPA
Some Syrah
Sweet corn soup
Scallops with corn, pea, fava bean, tomato succotash
Peat monster whiskey
Lime mint gelato

The Skinny
Some budweisers

Graffiti

2006-08-10T10:02:00.000-07:00

In the boys' room at Go Go Dim Sum, underneath the graffito reading, "Go Go Dim Sum = Heavenly," another says, "Go Go Dim Sum = Vision of Metropolis."

microwave

2006-08-09T15:17:00.000-07:00

Does anyone or anyone's food buddy need a microwave? I have one to give away.

What I Ate: San Francisco, 8.4-8.06

2006-08-09T12:25:00.000-07:00

8.4.06 -- New York
Scrambled Eggs
English Muffin
Peach-apricot Jam

Airplane
Pretzels
Diet pepsi -- No diet coke on United

O'Hare Airport, Chicago
Chili's To Go
Burger with bacon, chipotle sauce, blue cheese
Diet Coke -- This wasn't very good, or cheap, but it was either Chili's To Go or a $5.00 United Airlines Snack box. For some reason Chili's To Go Chicago only offers hamburgers and a Philly Steak and Cheese.

San Francisco
Stella artois
Beet salad, greens, goat cheese
Potato-leek soup
Pesto Bruschetta
White wine

Bottom of the Hill
Budweiser

8.5.06
Tartine Bakery
Pieces of:
Chocolate croissant
Ham and cheese croissant
Muesli
Bread pudding with nectarines, raspberries
Breakfast roll
I thought the bread pudding was the best, it was made with brioche. The croissants were great and huge also.

BBQ @ Spreck's
Fat Tire Ale
Some red wine
Guacamole + Salsa (Foodfriends Jamie and Sarah and I made these two items)
Babyback ribs
BBQ'd chicken
Homemade veggie burger -- I think this was made with breadcrumbs, mushrooms, beans, and some other stuff that I can't remember
Spinach salad
Sugar cookie

Zeitgeist
Brown Ale

8.6.06

Ferry Building Marketplace
Vegetable samosa
Duck rillette sandwich
Meyer lemon Grown Up Soda

Dinner:
Boont amber ale
White Wine
Potatoes Anna
Steamed broccoli romanescu
Salmon w/ white wine lemon sauce -- We used frozen, packaged salmon and it came out terribly. I don't know if this was our fault or the salmon's. The sauce was good.
Baked polenta
We decided to use whatever leftover foods were around the fridge and pantry for this meal. It turned out to be a lot of effort and yielded pretty mixed results at best.

Sea Bowl
Strawberry chewy candy
Diet coke

8.7.08
2 poached eggs
Fried polenta -- This turned out better than our baked batch.
Salsa

Top of Mt. Tam
Trail mix: peanuts and chocolate chips

Chez Panisse, Cafe Room
Sauvignon Blanc
Rocket salad with pecorino, hazelnuts
Bite of Jamie's tomato, avocado toasts
Bite of Sarah's Little gem lettuce salad
Roasted quail, liver crostini, frisee, figs -- Alert: the liver crostini was the best part of the meal.
Vin Santo
Cheese: Fougerus, Fourme D'Ambert, Montagne de Bethmale

8.8.06
San Francisco Airport
Chocolate chip scone

O'Hare Airport Quizno's
Mesquite chicken sub
Diet coke

Home: Artie's Takeout
Matzo ball soup
Brisket on rye

08/08

2006-08-09T12:22:00.000-07:00

lunch, Au Bon Pain in the World Financial Center:
Mediterranean wrap with roasted red pepper spread, olives, cucumber, lettuce, feta
Miss Vickie's sea salt and vinegar chips
Nantucket Necatars orange-mango drink

dinner, some weird restaurant in Battery Park:
Chicken parmesan with spaghetti
bread with butter
half a Caesar salad

Planet Hollywood

2006-08-09T12:18:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, professional considerations obliged me to take lunch at Planet Hollywood. Wow, what a bad restaurant.

keep it alive

2006-08-09T11:58:00.000-07:00

YESTERDAY I began the day with two home brown hash browns salted and peppered in the pan, and two strips of bacon plus my standard OJ. I also had an espresso and some blueberries. For lunch, we ordered from Prado Food Of The Americas. I got papaya chicken with black beans and rice but they didn't have my favorite thing, Jamaican tamales. I had some glazed donut holes , then later some coffee and an Andes candy . We got out of work early so I had a Sam Adams Summer Ale and 1/3 bottle of Smoking Loon Chardonnay . Dinner with co-workers at Maggiano's, where the food is not good, was Parmesan garlic bread and meat lasagna along with some nice red wine . Later, Calvados and a Neapolitan ice cream sandwich as I watched a great car chase on the local news. The guy went into a farm, and drove between the trees, and then got out of the car and even the helicopter couldn't see him and they had to send in the dogs!