Day 2 Dinner: Spring

Jeeves and I love to eat, as you well know. We have learned from previous trips that it is important to research good places to eat ahead of time, and where possible, get a reservation. When we finally booked our trip to France, we started researching good restaurants that would be open while we were there (and that was a problem in and of itself - a lot of places we wanted to eat were closed for part of August). We also asked people whose foodie opinions we admire where they thought we should eat. Our wedding caterer, the amazing Yen, who has a contagious laugh and a true joie de vivre, lit up when we told her we were going to France. She had just been a few months before, and she immediately told us we had to go to Spring.

It was funny that she should mention Spring - we had both heard of it from this New York Times article. Additionally, it was mentioned in a few other things we had read. Yen said that and one other meal were by far some of the best food she has eaten in awhile, and I can assure you that Yen has exacting standard. I was intrigued - Spring's owner is a Chicago-native and is apparently devoted to cooking with seasonal local ingredients.

So, this is why having a travel agent was a brilliant move on our part - our travel agent took care of a lot of reservations for us, including Spring, which would not give us a reservation over e-mail. It all worked out in the end, thanks to our travel agent Peggy, and we had a 7pm reservation at Spring.

We were one of the earlier tables at this tiny little place, and just as the New York Times' promised, there was owner Daniel Rose standing at the front of the open kitchen bossing around his staff with seriously American accented French.

We ordered the tasting with the wine pairings, which was solely focused on French whites.

Course 1, which I weirdly do not have a picture of, was a trio of dishes - cucumber with peppercorns, Spanish ham with melon, and seaweed butter with bread. The seaweed butter was a little weird, but everything else was excellent.

Course 2: Zucchini blossom stuffed with trout and langoustine, spiced chicken jelly, salad of cucumber, squash, green beans, white beans, and herbs.

This was one of the best things I ate while in France. So subtle, yet so delicious. And the chicken jelly - oy. I wish I had some now to smear on some bread.

Course 3: Heirloom tomatoes with tuna and veal sauce.

The crazy thing about this dish was that the tomatoes were extremely smoky. It complimented the fatty tuna beautifully. Just a really nicely balanced dish, but not quite as good as the stuffed squash blossom.

Course 4: Chicken breast and leg (sous vide/roasted/pan seared) and lobster.

Another victory - and again, one of the best things I ate in France. The chicken was pure perfection - so much so that I asked if it was sous vide, and was told it was a combination of sous vide, roasting, and pan sear. Just perfect. And who doesn't love some perfectly cooked lobster.

Next up - 5 different cheeses. Sadly I did not write down the types, but I did take a picture.

Dessert was stewed blackberries, a deconstructed lemon pie, and a dark chocolate sorbet - all lovely. We were so stuffed.

Service was excellent, and the wine pairings were delicious. We had a truly memorable Alsatian riesling and a once-in-a-lifetime Georges Vernay Condrieu. After dinner, we went for a walk across the street to see the Louvre, lit up for the evening.

Then we went for a long, beautiful walk along the Seine until we reached Notre Dame illuminated. We finished the evening back near our hotel at the Cafe Montparnasse where we had a glass of wine. It was the perfect Parisian evening.

Day 2 - Where did all these people come from?

I did not sleep well the first night in Paris thanks to the incredibly rich dinner the night before. In the lead up to the wedding, I was not eating a lot thanks to stress, and what I did eat was light and healthy. So my body was definitely not used to the richness of the food. Jeeves went out and got us some pastries for breakfast from Poilane. It seems impossible to find a protein based breakfast in France, although you can get an omelette from time to time. But they don't seem as into yogurt as we are. Anyway, this is all to say that we ate a lot of pastries for breakfast while there.

Our first stop that morning was Notre Dame cathedral. It was late morning by this point, and we very briefly considered getting in line to go to the top of the cathedral until we learned the line was 2+ hours long. No thank you. So instead we settled for just going into the cathedral, which is free. And lovely. Also crowded. Very very crowded. The fact that it's so crowded and there are people snapping flash photos and yacking away takes away from the general feelings I get in churches. I'm not a religious person by any stretch, but I like the beauty and solitude of churches. I think they are a great place for meditation. While ND was beautiful, it was definitely not a place for meditation.

We walked around the cathedral and went onto the bridge behind it for a lovely view of the cathedral and the Seine.

We walked over to a smaller island in the river to see if this famous ice cream place was open. Sadly, it was one of the August closures. Le Sigh.

We thought we'd check out St. Chappelle, which many friends had recommended to us, but the line was incredibly long and I was starting the get cranky with all these tourists about. So we opted to go for what turned into a very long walk for lunch. We passed the impressive Pompidou Center, and ultimately arrived at Chez Prune, which had been recommended by a friend of Jeeves. It was certainly packed with locals, but for the most part the food was just okay. Jeeves had a pork dish and I had swordfish (I thought I was ordering steak, but it turned out it was a steak of swordfish... which is fine). We continued to walk for a bit along the canals in the neighborhood where we watched a momma duck and her babies. We both worried about one little baby who kept falling behind. I hope he's okay!

Next up, we metro to Sacre Coeur, which is high on a hill in the Montmartre neighborhood. It's a long walk up the hill to the church, which was consecrated in 1919. The place is mobbed with tourists and the area outside the church is a freaking carnival, complete with Bob Marley music blasting. But inside the church, it is quiet and there is no photography permitted. Also men cannot wear hats in doors. All of this is strictly enforced, and I found Sacre Coeur had a much more meditative quality than Notre Dame. It's really quite beautiful. And although the outside area is a bit of a shit show, it does offer an incredible view of the city. Le view:

Jeeves and I walked around Montmartre a bit, which I understand has become much more touristy in recent years. We stopped at Cafe Le Sancerre and had this lovely cheese plate for a snack.

The cheeses were a camembert, St. Nectair, bleu d'Avergne, and Cantal. Yummy. We headed back to the hotel after that, where I took a much needed nap. Dinner was to be at Spring, which I will post in a separate entry, because I have a lot to say about it and lots of food pictures.

Honeymoon in Paris

It used to be when I came back from a grand vacation that I would write a daily e-mail to Kate in which I told her everything I did on each day of the trip. It took a long time, but it was worth it. Aside from telling her everything I did, it also gave me a pretty great travel journal that I could look back on for years. Long after I forgot the name of the restaurant where I had spatzel with cheese in Berlin, I could look it up. But it's hard to do that, and when I came back from my honeymoon, I went straight back to work and school and had very little time for writing.

Kate suggested that when I had the time, I should blog about my trip and include pictures. So here goes.

We left for France on August 8th, two days after our completely amazing wedding. Of course, in typical Megs fashion, the flight was delayed. But we didn't know that till we got on the plane, taxied out to the runway and then sat on the tarmac for two hours because of technical problems. Ultimately, we deplaned and had to wait for a new plane to come. Sucky. But we arrived at Charles de Gaulle airport and flew through passport control. Seriously, the passport guy didn't even look up from the passport to see if the photo matched the person standing in front of him. We hopped in a cab and got to our hotel quickly. Our hotel, Le Littre, was in the St. Germain neighborhood, in the 6th Arrondisement. The room was quite big - much bigger than anything you'd get in New York. And we had a wonderful surprise from Jeeves' brother and sister-in-law when we arrived - champagne and strawberries!

We decided to go out for a walk to a bakery Jeeves had heard was good.

Now, this is the part where I should mention that August is a busy tourist time in Paris, but all the locals head out of town for a couple of weeks. As a result, a lot of stores and restaurants can be closed. But not Poilane! Poilane is open and with my broken high school French and some pointing, we leave with a pain chocolat and an apple tart. The apple tart was amazing. Sadly, I ate it too quickly to take a picture.

We then go to St. Germain des Pres - the oldest church in Paris (which is saying something). Then we meander through the beautiful streets to St. Sulpice. We stop at Cafe de la Mairire where we sit outside and have a glass of wine. The fountain in front of St. Sulpice is above.

We walked back to the hotel, both quite exhausted and jet lagged.

For dinner, we headed out to Chez Dumonez/Josephine - a very old and famous traditional French restaurant in our neighborhood. We had a wonderful bottle of Corbiere - wine in France is crazy cheap and amazingly delicious. I never appreciated French wine before this trip and now it's practically all I want to drink.

That was my appetizer - mushrooms stuffed with foie gras. Yummy. Jeeves had a pate de campagne - also fantastic. I then had the foie gras entree, and Jeeves had the boeuf bourguignon. My foie gras was not the best. First off, they didn't devein it, which... was... gross. Also, the sauce that came with it was so heavy, that later on in the evening I felt quite ill. Jeeves' boeuf, however, was the best I've ever had.

For dessert, we had a traditional souffle and some champagne that was complementary because there was a very long wait between our appetizer and entree. I think Jeeves and I were annoyed about it at the time, but honestly, dinner takes about 3 hours in France, so you get used to it and you stop being such a rushed American about everything.

One of the funniest things about this dinner was that there are three rooms at Chez Dumonez - the front and back rooms were all French speakers, and the middle room was all English speakers (primarily Americans) because there was only one waiter in the place who speaks English. The Americans were mortifying. I mean, every negative stereotype - these people managed to hit. My favorite was the table where the man demanded shrimp (not on the menu) and asked the waiter to "just make me some surf and turf" and then asked for a rum and diet coke. He was extremely annoyed to learn that they did not have rum. The woman at the table asked for a glass of ice and proceeded to dump it into her white wine. Yikes.

It was very cool in Paris, and we were cold walking home. But it felt great to be there. Tune in for the next post to find out what we did on August 10th!

Dinner tonight

We had such a large haul from last week's CSA share (tomatoes, green beans, swiss chard, boston lettuce, red leaf lettuce, corn, beets, pattypan squash, kale, and basil) that I was starting to stress about how I was going to use it all, especially since we will only be home for dinner a couple of nights this week.

Yesterday I made some fresh chicken stock. So tonight's dinner was lettuce soup courtesy of Serious Eats (I had made it before, and it was good, but this time it was even more delicious). Then I made some sesame green beans sauteed with a little crushed red pepper. And the "main" course was baked pattypan squash stuffed with onion, swiss chard, panko bread crumbs, and parmesan cheese. Jeeves was worried it wouldn't be enough food. That's before he realized how much fiber is in all these veggies! I am stuffed, and pleased that in one meal I managed to use so much of my CSA share.

This is LA

Jeeves and I haven't taken a vacation that was longer than a few days in awhile. Well, I shouldn't say he hasn't - he did go to India for 6 weeks, after all. But I personally have not been away for more than a few days since we went to New Orleans over New Year's 2008-2009. Sure, sure, last October I got to go to Chicago, but that was from a Tuesday night through Saturday morning. Not a long trip. I wish I could tell you that this all changed in June with a blockbuster trip to Los Angeles. But it didn't. Since I'm new to my job, I didn't feel comfortable taking a full week off of work. So, I took three days, and flew out to LA on a Wednesday morning, returning Sunday night. Jeeves, who had plenty of vacation days and needed to use them up lest he lose them, headed out on the previous Friday and went to San Francisco first to visit some old friends.

Jeeves and I have a good friend who moved to LA a couple of years ago. Jase missed his family who live in the Southwest and was tired of NYC. He loved the weather in LA and thought he would give it a try out there. A few months ago, he moved from Marina del Rey (site of the Banana Stand for all you Arrested Development fans) to northern Venice, near the border with Santa Monica. He kindly offered to let us stay at his studio which is one block from the beach. He went to stay at his girlfriend's place, which is just a mile away in Santa Monica.

I had never been to LA before, and based on what I had heard about it, I wasn't necessarily dying to see it. But lately I've had a lot of friends who have made it out there, and raved about it. Plus, we hadn't seen Jase in awhile, and missed him. Now that I have seen it, I can say that I walked away with an appreciation for the sprawling town, but I'm glad I live on the east coast.

My trip started out well - I flew out very early in the morning from JFK and on my flight, we had direct TV, so I was able to watch the US play Algeria. Apparently everyone else on the plane was watching too because when the US scored the only goal of the game, the flight erupted into cheers and applause.

I rented a car when I arrived, since LA is such a car town, and made the very short drive out to Venice. Jase's place was unbelievable - just what I imagined it would be, and you could actually see the ocean as you walked up the block to his place. I was starving, so Jeeves and I went to Lula's, a Mexican restaurant in Santa Monica, where we had some super yummy and fresh enchiladas. Jeeves and I then went for a very long walk from the the restaurant to the fishing pier down by the canals.

And this brings me to one of my first negative comments about LA - the smog. You can't tell from this picture, but there are very beautiful mountains in the distance... almost completely obscured by the famous smog. It's a shame, and it was true of almost every vista we saw, except for Malibu. It's just another issue I have with LA's car dependence.

That evening, Jase picked us up and the three of us went to Father's Office, a well-known bar and restaurant. The tap list was great, and the burgers were exceptional. Nom nom nom.

Speaking of burgers, the next day Jeeves and I went to In-N-Out for lunch. It was my first time there, and I have to say that while it was pretty damn great for a fast food burger - far, far superior to McDonald's, Wendy's or Burger King, it wasn't better than say, Shake Shack. I guess I was expecting a thicker burger, but it was skinny just like the other chains' burgers. Still very tasty. And though I did not get the burger animal style, we did get the fries animal style. Yummy.
Next up, we drove to Burbank for the Warner Bros. studio tour. I had read in my guide book that this was the best and least cheesy of the studio tours. I am a huge movie and TV fan and it seemed silly to come all the way out to LA and not see a studio. The tour was completely fantastic and I would highly recommend it to anyone. Super informative, and you just get to see a ton of cool stuff, like Heath Ledger's Joker costume from The Dark Knight, a Harry Potter museum, and the last standing set from Casablanca. There was a lot of Gilmore Girls stuff too, since that was filmed on the studio lot. That evening we had a big fancy dinner planned to thank Jase for having us, but I'll save that for another post, along with our visit to Griffiths Observatory, Mulholland Drive, Malibu, and my celebrity sighting of the trip.

The days are just packed

I realize that I am describing last weekend... hopefully next week I'll get around to describing this weekend a little sooner.

No matter how tough work is, there's always the weekend. Last week was exhausting for me as far as work was concerned. I worked late every day, and got in early. When my assignment that had to be done by Friday was finally finished at 4:45 that afternoon, I knew I would be getting out of there promptly at 5:30, and I would *not* be thinking about it again for the next two days.

Saturday Jeeves and I hopped the train out to New Jersey to visit my pops. I worry about how my dad eats, so as I usually do on my visits to Jers, I planned to cook several large batches of food for him. To that end, Jeeves and I hit the Fairway in Paramus. Fairway, you are the grocery store love-of-my-life. Sadly, the experience was a little less fun than usual because they were remodeling. It was very difficult to find just about everything and there were so many people there, I felt about ready to throw elbows. So we got out of there as quick as we could.

I then got to enjoy cooking in my dad's very nice kitchen - wiener schnitzel and meatloaf. Hey, don't look at me - that's what he asked for! He likes to take the wiener schnitzel and put some anchovies and an egg on it, thus turning it into schnitzel a la Holstein. I then cooked dinner for the three of us, left a big mess for Dad to clean, and then Jeeves and I took the train back to the city.

When we got home, we couldn't figure out what to do for the evening. Eventually we settled on Smith and Mills, a very small bar and restaurant on N. Moore Street. The place occupies a former carriage house and it is tiny. There are only about 8 seats at the bar and about 8 tables in the room. In order to sit at a table, you have to be eating, which we were too stuffed to do. But we ordered our drinks and stood about. Now, when I am in a crowded bar, restaurant, whatever, I get very competitive about snatching seats. I eye everyone with a seat and try to figure out who will be leaving first. Then I position myself right near them, and as soon as they start to move, I pounce! Frankly, it's a little stressful, especially when I get into a staring contest with someone else who is doing the same thing I am. But in the end, it worked out and we got a great seat at the bar. My Old Fashioned was not traditional - there was actually a lot of seltzer in it, and some fruit that isn't traditionally in an Old Fashioned. But it was delicious and refreshing on such a hot night. And that's the thing. I'm not so sure that Smith and Mills is air-conditioned. It got pretty sticky and uncomfortable, especially as more people poured into the tiny space. So Jeeves and I decided to move on to The Brandy Library for another libation.

But when we got to the Brandy Library, there was actually a sign on the door that said "We are at capacity." I kid you not. The host couldn't be bothered to turn people away in person? Weird. Jeeves was tempted to go in anyway, but I figured why bother with a place that doesn't want us? Especially when Ward III is so close by.

Ward III has definitely become my favorite nice cocktail bar lately. I love the set up - a few small sitting areas in the front, the long bar that runs along the wall, and then a back area filled with more proper tables. They have some funky cocktails that are their own concoction, but in my opinion, they really shine when making classic cocktails. Their Manhattan may be the best in Manhattan that I have tried, and that's saying something. But what I really love about it is the staff. The bartenders are friendly but not snobby. And the waitresses (not trying to be sexist here, but I've only ever been waited on by women at Ward III) always go out of their way to find me a table. It's not that I'm special, or a regular - it's just how they are. While the decor can sometimes make this place seem a little too cool for school, and the hipster doing the tunes selection looked like he just got off the L train, I have never felt anything but 100% welcomed when I walked in the door. And that's even when I have walked in wearing sneakers and jeans - most of the clientele is wearing decidedly nicer duds than I usually am. But it's no matter.

Anyway, we finished off our Saturday night at Ward III and that was the end to a very fun and full day.

On Sunday, it was World Cup time. We had stupidly decided to host a little get-together at the last minute. I always like having people over, but not necessarily when I haven't had time to properly clean my apartment. And what about snacks? We needed snacks! It all worked out in the end thanks to the very speedy tidying skills of Jeeves and we had a lot of fun watching with some of Jeeves' law school friends. Well, at least it was fun to have the company... the game itself was pretty dullsville until Spain finally scored a goal in extra time.

After everyone left, we headed to the John Jay School of Criminal Justice. Shockingly, it wasn't for anything lawyerly, but for a concert of the Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou. Poly-Rythmo is an afro-beat (and funk, and vodun, and soukous) band from Benin - they've been making music since the 1960s, and they have played all over Africa and in Europe, but last Sunday was the first time they played North America. They. were. amazing. Seriously, so full of joy, and I just don't know how you can hear their music and not want to dance. It was a great show.

When we finally straggled back down to Tribeca, we were both a little hungry, but still kind of bloated from all the snacks we had during the World Cup final. So we were in the mood for something light, but it being past 10, we were limited in our options. I suggested that we try The Odeon, which is super close to our apartment. We had never been there before. We both ordered BLTs, and I learned that Jeeves had never had a proper BLT before! Four and a half years together, and I still learn interesting things about my fella on a regular basis. The BLT was super - crisp bacon, thick tomatoes, fresh lettuce, served on a warm baguette. Yummy. But the best part was the awesome fingerling potato salad with grainy mustard. I want that recipe. We finished our meal by splitting a root beer float with Odeon's homemade vanilla ice cream.

It was a great weekend, and packed full of fun things. This weekend has been much quieter, and other than a few good recipes, will not warrant such a long post. I enjoy both types of weekends, the busy and the quiet. As long as they are filled with people I love and things I like to do, it's all good and it makes getting through the work week a little bit easier.

In which I am reminded that work is for suckers...

Late last year, I decided that I really, really could no longer stand to be a lawyer. I had thought about trying to get a sweet government law job, but every time I sent out my resume, there was a deafening silence. I mean, I didn't even get rejection letters. So I decided that I would get my social work license and apply to Americorps for one year of indentured servitude. While I was in the midst of that process, a good friend whom I had worked with before (who shall remain nameless in an attempt to keep us both anonymous) told me about an opening in the government agency that he worked for in New York City.

I had been planning to move in with Jeeves in January, so this seemed like something I should consider. After all, it wasn't that I was totally opposed to being a lawyer, right? It's just that I didn't want to bill my life away, wanted to leave work at 5:30 every day, wanted a significant reduction in my stress levels, right? Right? That's all true. What I had forgotten to take into account was that I actually really hate the whole ridiculous fighting over stupid stuff that comes with being a litigator. I enjoy the intellectual pursuit of an argument with friends or family. And I love research and writing. But so little of what I find enjoyable actually happens in litigation. To me, so much of litigation is bickering over dates and documents.

Anyway, I submitted my resume for the position. I got an interview, and I nailed it. I knew I was super qualified for this job, and the idea of working with/for an old friend seemed like it would be great fun. I got the job offer a few days later, and didn't hesitate to accept it. I started in the winter, and at first, things started off pretty great. I have an amazing office-mate, it was fun to work for my old friend, the work was maybe not rocket science, but interesting enough. There were things I didn't like about it, but it seemed like such a huge improvement over firm life.

In early May, The Powers That Be (as I will call my bosses from now on, or TPTB for short) instituted mandatory overtime for attorneys. We now had to work 5-10 extra hours per week. Sure, sure we got *paid* for it, but I had already left a job where I was paid generously - I don't care about the money. I want my evenings to myself. At first they said this would just be till the end of June. But now we're in July and mandatory overtime continues. Then, about six weeks ago, my old friend announced that he was transitioning from his position as our supervisor to a regular old attorney position, just like the rest of us. TPTB decided they wanted someone with more managerial experience in his position, and in any event, my poor friend was so stressed and fried from the supervisor position that he was actually relieved to be a straight up attorney again.

For the rest of us in the department, things got tough. No longer having my friend as our buffer, we had to answer (or attempt to get answers/clearance) to TPTB. Dear Reader, to say that this has been an unpleasant experience would be like saying the LOL Cats are just a little funny. On top of having to endure regular painful meetings, I have gotten the sense that The Powers That Be want to change the way this governmental unit works. In other words, instead of my sweet 9-5 gig where I have no problem running out for lunch with a friend, they'd like us to work late every night, weekends, and scarf down lunch in 5 minutes at our desk. At least, that's the only thing I can figure based on this continued mandatory overtime and the absurd, absurd amount of work that has been dumped on me and my office mate.

Right now, this job is actually worse than working at the firms I was at before, where at least my opinion was somewhat respected, and managers didn't look at me suspiciously when I assured them I have a lot of work on my plate. I am thinking that now may be the time for me to respectfully bow out of the law, having given it my best shot. But until I figure out where to next, wish me luck.

My Neighborhood

This is the view from my window in my new(ish) apartment. I've lived here over two months now, so I can't say that it's, *that* new, but whatever. Jeeves lived on the Upper East Side for 8 years (with a one year break in there when he lived in New Haven). I joined him there in January. We knew we weren't going to stay there when his lease expired in May. UES is really not nearly as cool as they make it seem on Gossip Girl. Case in point - whenever the Gossip Girl kids go out on the town, they leave the UES. And that is because the UES is boring. There's not much in the way of interesting food, the bars are pretty terrible and fratty, and there's only one subway line that runs through it. On a positive note, we were very close to the Central Park, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. And by the by, we almost never went to either of those places. I don't mean to totally rag on the UES. When Jeeves and I first started dating, I kind of loved it there. And we had a great local bistro called Jacques. And on the rare occasion we could get someone to come visit us, we'd go to the Heidelberg, one of the last remnants of old Yorkville. And then there was the Two Little Red Hens Bakery. But when we wanted to go out with friends, we always left. And the other thing about the UES is how damn far it was from just about everything we wanted to do. We frequently took cabs because unless we left the apartment 45 minutes to an hour before we had to be somewhere, we'd be late.

When I moved in to the city in January, I started to notice things about the UES that I really didn't like. The grocery stores were terrible. In most areas in Manhattan you can find a Whole Foods or a Trader Joe's, and if you're very lucky - a Fairway. But not so on the UES. A super crummy D'Agostino and an okayish Food Emporium were the best we could do. Blerg. And it seemed so crowded in the subway - I later learned that the 4/5/6 line is the second most crowded subway line in the city after the L train. And every block looked the same up there - walking was so boring, and there just was no cohesive neighborhood feel. And every single store was a big chain. Where were all these independent stores I had heard about? Why was there three Duane Reades and a CVS within 2 blocks of each other? These feelings about NYC only got worse when, less than a month after I had moved in, we discovered we had bed bugs thanks to an old man in our building who likes to bring things in off the street. If you thought I was feeling a little down on the city before, man you ain't seen nothing after that nightmare. I missed Jersey so very much. But that is a story for another time. Jeeves and I decided that while you cannot run away from bed bugs, we would do everything our pest control guy said to do, and we would also start looking for a new home a little faster. After all, even if we got rid of our bugs, we knew the old man downstairs wouldn't stop bringing stuff in off the street and it would only be a matter of time before we had them again.

But where to? One place that we both loved was Tribeca, and the real estate crash suddenly made it seem like we could maybe afford it. I personally find talking about my experience with brokers and what not rather dull. So I will just say that we looked a lot in Tribeca, but the stuff we could afford that was really in the heart of the neighborhood was.... meh. One apartment was as dark as a dungeon, and another had a sad little kitchen with an electric range. We also looked at a few spots in the Village (a 6th floor walk-up that was teeny tiny, another place over a restaurant), Union Square, Gramercy Park, and NoLIta. We bother really liked NoLIta, but nothing we saw there was right for us. When we did find the "right" spot in Tribeca, they told us right before signing the lease that they technically don't allow cats, but we could probably sneak one it. No thanks.

One day after that debacle when I was feeling especially hopeless and tired (having bed bugs pretty much ruins sleep for you), Jeeves found an ad on Craigslist. A couple who had recently bought a place in Brooklyn wanted to break their lease on a lovely apartment with lots of closet space in a doorman building near Tribeca. Their landlord said they could break the lease if they found new tenants. It was actually in a building that we had looked longingly at from the street, but we had been told there were no vacancies. The apartment was everything we wanted.

Naturally because we had to complicate things, we looked at an apartment in the Dumbo neighborhood in Brooklyn. I love Dumbo - I think it's one of the prettiest neighborhoods in the entire city. And the apartment.... well, it was enormous - 1000 sq ft with beautiful sliding windows, hardwood floors, basement storage, and the most ridiculous kitchen I have seen in a New York apartment. But after a lot of soul searching, we realized Dumbo wasn't right for us, at least not now. No major grocery stores, a long walk to a pharmacy, a ten minute walk to a subway line that frequently has problems. If our goal was to live in a place where we wouldn't be out of the way, then Dumbo was not the place for us.

So, we went with the apartment on the edge of Tribeca. It's really on the edge of Tribeca, Chinatown, Civic Center, and Soho. At first I thought not being squarely in Tribeca might suck. On the contrary, it's been so great to just walk out the door and stroll to the Uniqlo in Soho, or grab a cheap dinner at Joe's in Chinatown. And we're so close to every subway! But what I am really loving about my new neighborhood (and really, I do feel like my neighborhood is Tribeca, since that is where I spend the majority of my time) is that it feels like a neighborhood. I don't know if it's the fact that the architecture is all low rise so I can still see the sky, or that I can't wait until Tribeca Citizen posts the happenings at the Community Board meeting, or that there are so many little independent stores, but also a nice big Barnes & Noble, and Whole Foods. Maybe it's that the people in the pet food store where I shop all know me. But I do know that I am enjoying my new home.

More veggies than you can shake a stick at

I moved into the city in January. It's been a bit of a transition for me. But one of the things I was most excited about when I moved in was joining a CSA. "CSA" stands for Community Supported Agriculture. Basically, a group of people get together and decide they will pay an area farmer up front for produce that the farmer will then provide through the season. Every week, you pick up your share, and the farmer provides whatever is fresh and in season that week.

When my dad got sick last year, I started to get really serious about eating more vegetables. I decided to take the Bittman challenge and not eat meat during the day at all. Unlike Bittman, who is a "Vegan before 6," the best I can do is be a "Vegetarian before 6." That part is easy. The part that is tough for me is the no dairy. I really, really like a yogurt or a yogurt smoothie in the morning. And I really, really want cheese at lunch.

Anyway, I digress. I have a friend who signed up for the Paisley Farms CSA for a winter share last year. It sounded amazing. So when they announced they would have a pick up site right near me for their summer share, I wrote out my check and eagerly waited for June 9th to role around. The first week went fine - we got radishes, green leaf lettuce, romaine lettuce, rapini, mizzuna, turnips, and maybe something else that I can't remember now. I met my site coordinator, and he told me he was going to be away on vacation for a couple of weeks, but someone would fill in for him.

This week, I dragged myself up the stairs (elevator is broken at the pick-up site, otherwise there would be no Megs slogging up 5 flights of stairs), walked over to the veggie bins, only to discover.... a single head of lettuce and one bag of dried black beans. What? Yeah. A gentleman who got there a few minutes before me was in the same boat. All the other beautiful veg were gone! No kale for me! No cucumbers!!!! The ditz who was running the show couldn't understand what had happened. But as she explained it, the list she had was for 11 people, and they had only gotten 7 of each thing. So me and my new tall friend were SOL.

I wrote a somewhat snotty e-mail to the farm, wanting to know how they intended to rectify the situation. The next day I got a phone call from the farmer, Mike. Mike assured me that there are only 7 people on the list for the site, that they had provided enough for us, PLUS two extra servings in an attempt to encourage other people at the office to sign up. His best guess was that the girl covering for our coordinator just let her office mates go nuts or something. He then offered to drop my share off at my apartment building the next day.

Today when I got home, I found three boxes waiting for me. They had sent me a double share with stuff that was different (and in my opinion, way cooler) than what I had missed at the site - fresh garlic! And two beautiful potted basil plants. And kale, radishes, romaine, red leaf lettuce, MORE dried black beans, cooking greens (I think it's tatsoi, but I'm not sure), beets(!), turnips, zucchini, and cucumbers. Amazing!

I'm going on vacation to LA next week, and Jeeves has already left on our vacation, so there's no way I can eat all this stuff myself. But I suspect that some friends and family will be very excited when I roll in with all this produce. Hooray for my CSA!

The Return

I'm trying out this writing thing again. It's been one of those weeks.

Dear friend G, who regular readers from this blog many years ago will remember, started her own blog about food. And things got tough at the new job, where I work with another old friend. And that friend said to me, "well, as someone once said, 'work is for sucker.'" I missed my blog.

I won't be able to blog at work, sadly - it's just too chaotic there. But I hope that now that I have good internet connectivity at home, I'll be able to make this a habit again.

"We're knocking down the door. You've got to let us in."

Sometimes New Yorkers enjoy snarking New Jersey... but last night even the Empire State caught Scarlet Fever.

Go Rutgers!

R-U!

Rutgers doesn't have a fight song like Notre Dame. We have a cheer:

R-U rah rah
R-U rah rah
Hoo-rah Hoo-rah
Rutgers rah
Upstream Red Team
Red Team Upstream
Rah
Rah
Rutgers Rah

I know, it's deep. And it's actually about our crew team, which we don't have anymore due to budget cuts. But it sounds pretty cool when you get a bunch of Rutgers kids doing it in unison. We have songs too, like the alma mater, but they aren't as good for a football game

My first year at Rutgers, our college football team won 2 games. We lost 60-0 to Notre Dame (Wendy's crowing still rings in my ears - though I can't imagine why she would do such a thing - us losing to Notre Dame back then was akin to a teenager beating up a granny). Well, this granny has learned jujitsu and Rutgers doesn't suck anymore. Not only does RU football not suck, we frakkin' rule! I should probably watch what I say, as I write this we are down 25-22 to Louisville. But who cares.

I find myself wishing these days to be around campus - to be a student and really experience what it's like to be at a school with spirit for its sports team. I'm sure it's infectious.

I was also reminded by old college friend Molson the other day that the Rutgers 1000 is probably having trouble getting new members (they were a group devoted to pulling RU out of Division I). A little research showed that Rutgers 1000 dissolved in 2002 because they thought that the new prez would extricate them from the Big East. Oops! Guess they were wrong. Whatever, the point of this post wasn't to talk about them anyway

It was to talk about Rutgers football! Everyone knows a solid football team brings in more alumni bucks. But for me, I loved Rutgers College and never cared about whether we sucked at sports. I'd give money to them regardless. I just hope this sudden football success brings in more dollars, and that more people take note of good old RU, on the banks of the old Rar-i-tan.

Like Jersey itself, Rutgers has for too long been overlooked and unfairly maligned. It's time for a little more pride, and if we need to kick some Cardinal ass to get it, well then so be it!

Go Rutgers!

Foodie Ideas Welcome

Two days in a row. Bananas.

I dread the coming holidays, as is expected and common, or so I am told. A kid I once know, who had lost his dad some years before, once told me that even after many holidays without his father, he still hated Thanksgiving - it just highlighted the loss that much more. I hope that won't be true for me, but for right now, I am definitely sad and nervous about the holidays.

Last year, I was stressed while hosting Thanksgiving, and as you may recall, I had a car accident on Turkey Day and declared it the "worst" Thanksgiving ever. As for Christmas, well, I just felt like it snuck up on me, which is why I did not decorate my apartment at all and bought everyone's gift at the absolute last minute.

In constrast to that, this year I already have my Christmas list nearly completed and have already started shopping. The planning soothes me.

And it soothes me that we are keeping Thanksgiving and Christmas as close to what they have been in year's past as possible. I will be hosting dinner for Turkey Day, Dad and I will spend Christmas Eve and morning together, and we will have Christmas dinner at my sister's.

This is where the problem lies. My sister and brother-in-law have decided, in their infinite wisdom, to cook.... steamed buns for Christmas dinner. Steamed buns are a soup filled dumpling that I personally like to eat at Joe's Shanghai in Chinatown. I really like steamed buns. But not for Christmas dinner. And certainly not my brother-in-law's version - he doesn't believe in using salt, oil, butter.... anything that makes food tasty.

Dad and I were terrified - what would we do? If my mom were still alive she simply would have picked up the phone, called my sister and said, "Lorien. We are not having steamed buns for Christmas dinner. You will make a ham. I will buy it for you." And that would have been the end of it. Except that Mom would have done it in a sweeter way and would have almost made it seem like it was my sister's idea.

Anyway, Dad and I have decided that we will cook what we want to eat and bring it with us. Any suggestions are welcome - whatever it is should be transportable and only require warming at my sister's.

Happy Fall, everybody.

Benny Sitting

On Friday, I played hookie because.... my job sucks! Woohoo! Seriously, it had been a long week and I was in desperate need of a mental health day. I spent a lot of time sleeping and then I went to hang out with Gena who was babysitting Baby Ben.

Something bad happens when I hang out with Ben, though - he gets wired. My own nephews find me pretty boring and have no trouble dozing off when I am around, but not Benny! Despite my serious recommendation to him that he take a nap, Ben preferred to chew on his toys and bang on his Fisher-Price drum. Like me, he didn't want to work, he just wanted to bang on these drums all day.

Eventually, Gena and I strapped Ben into his stroller and the sheer bordedom of listening to us talk about shoes and Project Runway put him right to sleep. Please note that this apparent lack of enthusiasm for our convo did not stop Ben from grabbing at the InStyle with Heidi Klum on the cover that I had brought for Gena.

Benny, I'm glad I spent a workday with you instead of researching estate tax law. And I'm glad you find me fun and interesting now - in a few more months you'll realize that I really am quite soporific and your mom will start inviting me around at bedtime again.

Chez Zoppo

On Saturday, Jeeves braved New Jersey Transit for the second time and came out to my fair state for a get-together at Mike and Gena's.

Mike and Gena's house continues to wow me every time I am there - they still have my dream kitchen. The theme of the evening was a French bistro type affair - all French wines and we brought along some French cheeses. As for the spread of food - impressive as usual. Mike concocted what he calls, "the best part of french onion soup without the soup" - toasted bread with onions and melted gruyere on top. There was also my personal favorite - steak tartar, and artichoke dip on escarole leaves, mushroom turnovers, an array of sausages and the aforementioned cheeses.

In the cheese department - the bleu cheese brought by Emma was my personal favorite - smooth and just strong enough - so good you could eat it plain. Though, I also liked the petite reblochon that I brought.

As for wine, one can always trust Mike to provide excellence and he certainly did - six different wines set out for us with the Chateauneuf du Pape Blanc Vieux Telegraphe as my favorite. He also generously shared a 1990 Sauterne with us - very delicious.

It's been awhile since a Mike and Gena wine event - it was good to be back.

Happy Halloween

I know - no posts all month. Just terrible.

Today (or at least for the next hour) is Halloween, a personal favorite in the holiday front because I like being scared (or really, the giggles I get after a good scare), love the trick-or-treaters, the costumes, the horror movies, the crisp fall weather and the caaaaandy.

I took my nephew Connor trick-or-treating - he was a ghost - and sadly, he was the only trick-or-treater on the street. Where was everybody? We also discussed the meaning of the word "nocturnal" or, as Connor calls it, "octurnal."

On the way home, I got to stop off at Anh's house and see Baby Ben dressed as a bear. To me, this is the highlight of Halloween - dressing small children up as little animals or fat pumpkins. My friend Marc has always disliked little kids - except when they are dressed up in puffy animal costumes. Precisely for the reason that it is so damn cute. As was Ben.

Hope it was a good holiday for all.

Just fabulous

I know, it's been a long time.

I saw the series finale of Sex and the City tonight. For you non-fans, it aired about 3 years ago. I watched it at Anh's apartment in Bayonne, where she lived before she moved 3 miles away from me. Liana and her sister Thea were with me. Anh made quite the spread, naturally.

Anyway, what continues to amaze me about the finale is that it still makes me cry. I have heard complaints about it from critics and fans that it was not realistic - that part of what made Sex and the City a great show was that it realistically represented the reality of the single life, with all its depressing pock marks. First off, I disagree - to me, the real point of Sex was that it was the truest representation on television of female friendships. I have told the men in my life in the past that if they really want to get female friendships, they should watch Sex and the City. Yes, it's true that like the Golden Girls, the Sex and the City women represented archetypes. However, the bonds, the arguments, the differences that these women had with each other were all true. While none of us are entirely "a Charlotte" or "a Samantha," we have all shared a bond like that of Miranda and Carrie, or we have all felt irritation with a friend like Charlotte and Carrie in the "Ring a Ding Ding" episode (a personal favorite, because it's all about expectations and the meaning of friendship... and fyi, season 4 in general might be the best of Sex - "My Motherboard, Myself," "The Real Me," "A Vogue Idea" though Season 6 does have its moments: "The Catch" and "A Woman's Right to Shoes").

But this is besides the point. Why is it okay for Big, at the end of six seasons, to tell Carrie that she is the one? Because Carrie is our friend. And we all want the best for our friends, not reality. Reality is something we save for ourselves. I am the truest recipient of that knowledge. I have, for the most part, had a terrible year - I lost my mom who was my best friend. Add to that a job I hate and the usual confusion about the direction of my life. Then I thought I might be dying. No, seriously. I had this symptom, and while it could have been nothing, it could also have meant I was dying. I found out today that I'm not dying. I am just fine. But in those two months where I wondered and had tests, I listened to my friends, in varying degrees, hope for the very best - from those who insisted it was nothing like my dad was paying them to do it (thanks, Wendy) to those who were a little more retiscent. We don't think about realism for our friends, we think about what we want for them. And after six seasons of watching poor Carrie lay it all out for us, we wanted her to find her one.

And while I'm glad Carrie finally got Big to admit that she is his one and only (and even more importantly, as he told her three best friends, "You three are the loves of her life, and a guy can only hope to come in fourth.") I must admit I miss her.

I solemnly swear

Well, folks, two years after taking and passing the New York bar exam, I finally got sworn in. It's been a long and pokey road. It couldn't be helped - I was lazy and stupid.

I had to drive up to Albany for the character and fitness interview and the swearing in. I haven't been to Albany since I was very young, but my dad used to go there a lot for work. So when I told him I had to head up there for the swearing-in, he kindly offered to join me.

We headed up Wednesday afternoon and Dad had gotten us rooms at the Crowne Plaza, which is right down the street from the Empire Plaza Convention Center (where I needed to be). For dinner, we headed down the hill of State Street to Jack's Oyster House - one of the oldest restaurants in Albany. When we got to the restaurant, Dad said, "When you told me you had to come to Albany, I have to admit my ulterior motive that it would be nice to come eat here again." Dad retired six years ago and hasn't been back since.

It was a great meal - the oysters and clams we had from the raw bar were top notch, and my Steak Diane was nicely done. Dad had the duck, which was quite disappointing, but the chocolate mousse torte dessert made up for that. The chocolate mousse was as good as Luger's, though admittedly it came with less schlag.

We headed back up the hill where I holed up in my room and watched way too much Law & Order, something I almost never do anymore.

As for today's events, the interview and the swearing in went smoothly and Dad and I were headed back to Jers by 10:30.

It was a nice bonding experience for us, I think. This month hasn't been easy for me, between work, my lack of interesting vacation, and the double whammy of Mon & Dad's anniversary and Mom's birthday. It was nice for us to take a little sojourn together, and just talk, or sometimes, sit in amiable silence.

What do the five fingers say to the face?

S'mac! Not really, they actually say "smack" but I was pleased with myself on this one, so I had to go for it.

Bruni blogged about S'mac, which is a small eatery in the East Village which specializes in macaroni and cheese, a few weeks ago. As a mac & cheese lover, I was intrigued. Luckily for me, Jeeves had just returned from his European vacation and had time for some dinner in between being a law nerd and.... being a law nerd. We had narrowed down the contenders to a variety of selections from New York mag's 101 cheap eats issue, and S'mac. I chose the winner.

And a winner it is. As I find woolgathering about food to be a suitable way to make it through a day of blah work, I perused the menu and decided the best plan of attack was for each of us to order two nosh sizes and share all of them. This way we could try four different varieties of mac & cheese.

I arrived first, and Jeeves was, per usual, late, which gave me enough time to stand outside the orange and yellow restaurant and get antsy as it filled up and there were fewer and fewer tables available. But he arrived and we got on line while I told him my idea. Jeeves is almost always amenable to a plan that allows for more food, so he agreed. We selected the all-american, gruyere, cheeseburger and cajun, and we requested breadcrumbs on all of them.

After about a five minute wait, the waitress brought us our skillets of mac and cheese. We had made a mistake in our calculations - what we had assumed were the medium-sized servings were, in fact, the small. Four nosh-sized (the smallest) provided way too much food for two people. We dug in, regardless.

As Bruni has suggested, the gruyere, which includes chunks of slab bacon, was our favorite. It was lighter than the others and the gruyere went great with the bacon. But the all-american (just your traditional mac & cheese) was not to be discounted. Bruni complained that there were no burnt edges, but I personally feel that there are many ways of making mac and cheese, and while burnt edges are tasty and that is one way of making it, Sarita's (the owner) way is pretty great too.

The cheeseburger (which Jeeves likened to The Dude from Two Boots Pizza) was absurdly heavy and kind of like a really delicious serving of hamburger helper. As for the Cajun, well, in typical Megan fashion, I couldn't eat too much of it before the jalapenos got the best of me, but mac & cheese definitely benefits from being combined with pepper jack and andouille.

I kid you not, we had to take every single one home, which actually worked out well for the splitting - I took the gruyere and the cheeseburger, and let me say - the cheeseburger was fantastic reheated. But this meal was not without its casualty - Jeeves came down with a serious case of the cheese sweats. I didn't know it was possible to get the cheese sweats, but it is and he did.

On the whole, an inexpensive and delightful experience. I'll be headed back, but I'll just get one nosh sized next time.

Thanks, Amishah

This is Amishah (and her husband, but he's not important here). Amishah likes scrapbooking, travel, flowers, photography, chocolate and dislikes broken pipes.

I don't actually know Amishah. But she's got some great photography equipment, takes some nice pics, loves flowers (me too!!!), and most importantly, just went to the Bellagio in Vegas.

Kate and I were discussing the Bellagio vs. the MGM Grand today, when Kate remarked, "I wish I could see a picture of the bathrooms." I figured with the magic of Flickr, there must be a photo of the bathrooms in these hotels somewhere. Enter Amishah, who did indeed take photos of her room and the bathroom at the Bellagio (and a nice shot of the glass ceiling in the lobby). She took a lot of other pics in Vegas too - she has several cameras and one them takes very good night shots.

Anyway, after looking at her Vegas pics, I perused her other photos and got to thinking about how interesting Flickr is and how strange it is that a stranger could look at your photos and get an idea of who you are.

Anyway, thanks for sharing your pics, Amishah. You made Kate's day. Oh, and lest you think I didn't find the MGM Grand's hotel room bathroom photo, I did - thanks to Dawn (she's Canadian).

Vegas, baby, Vegas

After years of cajoling, talking and planning, Kate and I have finally agreed to a final date for our Great Vegas Adventure. I have wanted to go for about 7 years now. My sister and I had planned on going for spring break of my first year of law school. Instead she had a baby. So no Vegas. Thus started a six month "Kate, we should go to Vegas" campaign whereby I had to convince her that Vegas was more than gambling (pretty much, warm weather and nice pools, food, booze and spas sold her). Then it was years of not having the money or the time. Then it was the wedding.

But now it is here! In April, we're going to Vegas.

The questions now is where to stay. Camp Bellagio and Camp MGM Grand both make strong arguments. Any other contenders are welcome to throw in their two cents (I must say, though, if you are a fan of Steve Wynn or the Venetian, both are more expensive than Bellagio and MGM and therefore, out of contention).

I'll keep you posted.

Money's too tight for steak

Marge: Homer, I have to go out to pick up something for dinner.
Homer: Steak?
Marge: Money's too tight for steak.
Homer: Steak?
Marge: Eh, suuure... steak.

(This quote is really only used because any time Paul or I say the word "steak" the other persons launches into this quote. Because we're losers.)

Last Thursday was Jeeves's birthday, and to welcome him to his late 20s, I took him to The Strip House. Neither of us had been before, but we had both heard great things about it, and so, were quite excited.

While getting a reservation was no problem, I was surprised to see that the restaurant was nearly full when we arrived. Regardless, we were immediately seated. If you've been to or heard about The Strip House, you already know that the decor is noteworthy. The space is small with a bar area in the front of the restaurant, and tables that run along the walls and one row of tables down the middle. I was actually surprised by how small the space was. The bar area feels trendy - not remotely steak house-ish. But just past the bar, the restaurant mellows out and while you don't feel like you are in Luger's, you definitely feel like these people will know how to cook a steak.

The walls are covered with old bordello shots for the 1920s or earlier - shots that I am sure were risque for their time. The wallpaper, the seating - it's all red, but surprisingly not overwhelming.

There were service missteps early on. Jeeves wanted a rye Manhattan and asked the waiter if the bar carried rye. He wasn't sure, but felt comfortable giving a dissertation on the difference between a rye and bourbon Manhattan, and his personal recommendations for what type of bourbon Rajeev should choose if he went with the bourbon (they did have rye, and that's what he had). I asked for a menu of wines by the glass, and was delighted to see that they had Angus "the Bull" cabernet sauvignon from Australia (2003). Mike and Gena got me into this wine at one of their tastings and it's definitely a steak-worthy red. But the waiter took forever to take our drink orders. When the waiter did bring Jeeves's Manhattan, he attempted to pour it with a flourish, but really just wound up splashing it all over Jeeves's arm.

Anyway, that's neither here nor there, because the food came promptly and at a good pace. We started off with the foie gras appetizer, which was marked as a table share. Indeed. It was an enormous piece and we couldn't finish it. It was served cold, which I wasn't expecting, and I wish the menu had been explicit about that. As it turns out, the menu says it's "foie gras torchon" but until tonight, I never knew what that meant. In fact, it means the foie gras was wrapped tightly in a towel, briefly poached, then cooled in a liquid (frequently sweet wine) for several days. Regardless, it was delicious, but very large.

For the main course, we split the porterhouse for two, medium rare, along with creamed spinach and goose-fat potatoes. The creamed spinach is cooked in a truffle oil, which my boyfriend Bruni went on a rant about this week. Regardless of what he thinks, the creamed spinach was un.believable. Rajeev went so far as to call it the "best creamed spinach in the city." The crisp goosefat potatoes were also lovely, especially because of the crispy skin in which they are baked (think chunks of potato cooked in a crispy shell), though I must say I thought they were a little too salty. And the steak? Perfect. Sure, sure, the strip was yummy and flavorful. But the filet! Oh, the filet - tender and melt-in-your-mouth, but still piquant, largely because of the peppery rub on the steak. I will most certainly dream about that filet.

Of course, we had dessert, because one needs something sweet at the end of a meal like that, and also, I had asked them to stick a birthday candle in whatever we ordered. We had the profiteroles - large and rich, and in my opinion, disappointing. But it didn't really matter - I was completely stuffed and only needed a few bites for satisfaction.

Other than the initial missteps, our service was solid (and I would be remiss if I didn't mention that the bread was also quite good). I have been asked how Strip House compares to Luger's and all I can say is that a comparison doesn't seem right. If you want steak and bacon, no frills, Luger's is where it's at. If you're up for more of a restaurant experience, with ambience, a nice wine list, and creamed spinach that simply cannot be beat, you'd have to go with Strip House. More aptly put - perhaps Luger's is where you would like to go for an outing with your poker buddies, but a gentleman friend's birthday calls for the Strip House. If you're companion happens to be both, then I suppose you can let him choose.

Just Shut Up

I am obsessed with ESPN radio. I frequently have to go out of the office for work to do stuff that I hate (closings. blech.) but the bright side is I can listen to more ESPN radio.

Anyway, Mike and Mike in the morning have the "Just Shut Up" segment once a week for whoever is annoying them in the sports world. I would like to offer up Michael Kaye this week.

Why? It's the A-Rod thing. Look, I'm not one of the fans booing him, but I am so tired of Michael's incessant yelling on his radio show about "how dare the fans boo him?" Ugh! Michael, it's a part of the game. And if A-Rod is so damn fragile that he can't handle it, he can't hack it in New York. Last year Giambi was one the getting booed, but did you defend him? Did he fall apart? No, he got back on the juice and elevated his game.

Is A-Rod objectively a great player? Sure. But right now he's sucking and I'm sorry, but unless you were a part of World Series win streak, you won't be immune to boos when you suck (obviously Jeter, Posada and Bernie are given massive leeway, and for good reason).

So stop it, Michael. Just shut up.

The Light Show at the Parachute Jump

Two weeks ago, on a hot and sunny Saturday, I opted to drive into Brooklyn, pick up Philly, Emily and Jason, and head off to Coney Island for the Siren Festival. Siren is a hipster music fest that the Village Voice puts on every year. My knowledge of hipster music is limited (though it has grown thanks in large part to Philly, and of course, also to Jeeves and Jason and their blog) and there's the small part about me really not liking hipsters. But I do love Coney Island, hot dogs, the Wonder Wheel, the ocean, and this was an excuse to enjoy those things.

The lineup of bands was extensive, but we really only cared about seeing Art Brut and the Scissor Sisters. I had never seen or really heard too much Art Brut. But Philly took me to see Scissor Sisters for my birthday this year, and they are a lot of fun. But they wouldn't be on till later in the day, so we opted to head over early and get some Nathan's.

What can I say about Nathan's that I didn't say last year? Nothing. It was excellent as usual, and still a great deal on the beer - bucket (like a large soda at the movies) of Killian's for $4.50. I think my recent disappointment with Gray's Papaya was because I had eaten Nathan's a few days before.

Unfortunately it started to rain, but as luck would have it, we managed to get a table with an umbrella. Wooo! Eventually the sky cleared and we headed off to the batting cages. Some slow pitch for the ladies, medium for the gents, and we all gawked at the fast pitch (over 100 mph) and the dude who managed to make contact every time.

Next to the grossly overpriced Wonder Wheel - best view in Coney Island, even if it does cost $5. Eventually it was time to wander over to the stage to catch Art Brut. While there was a great breeze off the ocean and it's easily ten degrees cooler in Coney Island, it still get hot smooshed in with all those hipsters. As usual, the sceney kids were dressed in clothing that I can't imagine is terribly comfortable while standing around in th heat all day. But I guess that's the 80-year-old in me. Art Brut was a lot of fun, as were the Scissor Sisters, though by 8pm (when the Sisters went on) I was feeling pretty pooped and my footsies hurt.

As we walked back to the car, we got to see a crazy and interesting mix of locals, white dreadlocked kids with a sign that read "Hungry hungry hobos," and hipsters. As for the Parachute Jump, which was recently hooked up with all sorts of lights and you can allegedly see from Long Island, the lights weren't really on. Or if they were, I'd say that is one disappointing light show.

We made our way back to Brooklyn Heights for dinner at the Waterfront Ale House, which was enjoyable as usual. Except for the fact that we were all pretty much exhausted. Poor Jeeves, whose original plans got cancelled, found a group of geriatrics after his long subway ride out to Brooklyn. I'm pretty sure I was the crankiest of the bunch, which was definitely on parade as I drove home, cursing every cab driver all the way back to Jersey.

But the sleep was coma-like. And Coney Island is definitely worth turning into a grumpy pants.

Times Miscellany

A couple of articles in the Times I wanted to point out.

The Dining Section does an interesting piece on Austrian wine. Have spent a little time there last summer, I must agree with their raves about gruner veltliner.

And Bon Jovi was in NJ for his tour - he sold out three shows at Giants Stadium. Can we take a moment and consider that it's pretty damn impressive to sell out three shows at an 80,000 seat stadium? Anyway, Times reviews his show, and clearly enjoyed themselves (an encouraged my Jersey pride in the process). I think the reviewer hit the nail on the head when he wrote: "There is something comforting about his undying relevance, as if as long as he is advising fans to 'hold on to what we’ve got,' there will always be small-town men who marry their high school sweethearts, sell 100 million records and live in chateaus in unfairly maligned states." Whoooaaaa, we're half way there!

And lastly, this article about a painting Janet and I saw at the Belvedere Museum in Vienna last summer - Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I, by Gustav Klimt. The painting recently fetched the most money ever at auction (an arbitration panel ruled that the painting should be returned to Bloch-Bauer's family, who said the painting was stolen from them by the Nazis). Thankfully, the painting was purchased by Ronald S. Lauder, for his museum, the Neue Gallerie in New York. Now all of NYC can appreciate her beauty. And she is certainly a sight to see.

I Feel Love

My original plan for July 18th had been to go see the New York Philharmonic in Central Park play Beethoven's 5th. But then, late last week, Jeeves got word that he had scored a pair of tickets through work to see Madonna at Madison Square Garden. Woohoo! I had never seen Madonna in concert before, and like all girls who grew up in the 80s and early 90s, I have a soft spot for her.

Evening started off doubtfully – I wound up having to ride the elevator to the parking deck at work with the managing partner… and I had changed into street clothes. I hate it when that happens. And of course, it was a sauna outside. I had some time once I arrived in NYC to grab a bite to eat – I had been planning on checking out the 38th St. Restaurant. But on my sweltering walk up there, I got distracted by Gray's Papaya and decided a Recession Special was just what I wanted. I must confess – I think Gray's is a tad overrated. Maybe that's cause there was a thick white string running through one of my dogs. It might also be because I just ate at Nathan's on Coney Island last weekend. I hoped to run into Mr. Softy on my walk back to MSG, but he was nowhere to be found.

Jeeves and I met up at Rose Pizza in the LIRR wing of Penn Station, as per Philly's recommendation that they have the best beer prices. He was right – 32 oz Heineken for $5, and much cheaper if you wanted Bud or Bud Lite.

The concert was technically scheduled for 8, but Jeeves had heard that the Material Girl didn't go on till 9pm on other nights. So we headed upstairs around 8:40, got situated, and only had to wait a few minutes before the lights dimmed and the music started.

The show was a great time – what can I say, the lady knows how to entertain. She played a lot of stuff from her newest album, Confessions on a Dance Floor, but there were definitely decent amount of old hits, mostly remixed. The old(er) stuff included "Like a Virgin," "La Isla Bonita," "Live to Tell," "Music," "Drowned World," "Lucky Star," "Erotica," and "Ray of Light." In terms of Madge's 80s hits, I personally prefer "Material Girl" and "Dress You Up." And I prefer "Human Nature" to "Erotica" but hey, that's me. For my money, it doesn't get better than "Ray of Light" and she really killed it (in a good way). Of the new stuff, my personal favorite is "Jump" which was great, but "Sorry" was also a lot of fun. But I think it was definitely a highlight of the night when she came out singing "Future Lovers" and it morphed into a cover of Donna Summer's classic "I Feel Love."

Jeeves kept remarking that she was dancing up a storm, and yet still singing without being remotely out-of-breath. And yes, she really was singing - no lip-synching here. It must be all the pilates - the woman is in amazing shape, looked completely beautiful and is teeny tiny in real life.

There's not much more to say - I just can't think of anyone else, who at the age of 47, can come out in a Saturday Night Fever-style white suit and do a remix of her own song, "Music" to "Disco Inferno" and just sell it. The loudest thing in MSG that night wasn't Madge - it was the scream of her fans. And rightfully so.

Happy Birthday, Butterstick

Since K left, there are only two other female attorneys where I work and I wouldn't say I am friends with either of them. But one of them shares my affinity for baby pandas in general, and the DC panda, Tai Shan, in particular. She sent along this picture of Tai Shan celebrating his first birthday.

Jim, while once walking through a grocery store with me and watching me cluck with joy over miniature coca-cola cans, premised that girls really seem to love short, fat things. Short and fat reminding us perhaps of babies. I had dismissed him, but as I have gotten older, I tend to think he might have been on to something. Baby pandas are no different, though it should be said that I know a guy or two who love baby pandas as much as any girl.

I've got a sweet love hangover, and I don't need no cure

Okay, so actually it was influenza and a cure would have been swell. Monday, late afternoon, while sitting in my shitty, windowless office, my back started to really hurt and I felt feverish. Also, I had been crying at really stupid stuff, which happens when I start running a temperature. The last time I had the flu, I started crying because I became convinced that I had a leg infection, they would have to amputate my leg, and no one could ever love someone with a stump. Yeah. What do you want? I was delirious!

So I was out of work for two days. I wish I could say it was all fun and games, but the first day was mostly spent sleeping, whining to Abbott about how much my back hurt, and feeling massively guilty about missing work. On the second day, my Battlestar Galactica DVD came from Netflix, and that's when life drastically improved.

Back in the day when Kate had cable, she would watch the new shows and tell me what was worth watching. Thanks to Kate, I watched West Wing and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, two favorites from my college years. Kate no longer has cable, but does have a Netflix subscription, and she probably watches more TV now than she did when she had cable. Anyway, thanks to Netflix, Kate has started watching some of the shows that I recommended. But it's a two way street and I knew I couldn't keep getting her to watch my stuff if I didn't watch some of her's.

She had been pushing BSG (the new version, for the record, not the 1978 version) for awhile, but finally piqued my interest when she said, "Bart loves it and you know he hates sci-fi!" It's true. I hadn't really trusted Kate on BSG because she's also a Star Trek fan and I hate that shit. She assured me that it wasn't a normal science fiction show - sure it took place in outer space and there were robots and stuff, but really, it was more political, religious and social commentary with some really exciting espionage and good character development.

The premise - in some distant galaxy, there are the 12 colonies of man. (The number 12 is very important on the show, and yes, it is most certainly related to the bible). Man creates these robots with artificial intelligence called the Cylons (they look like giant toasters with legs). So at this point, very sci-fi and very Isaac Asimov. One day the Cylons rise against their masters, and there's bloody war, until an armistice is declared. The Cylons go off to find their own home and no one on the colonies sees or hears from them for over 40 years. Then one day they return, launch a massive attack on the colonies and pretty much kill all but 50,000 people, who escape into space. The Cylons, fyi, still look like toasters, but they also have managed to make models that look just like humans. And they have an eeeeevil and diabolical plan for the humans who escaped. It's all very exciting.

Unfortunately, the show starts with a miniseries, which Kate had told me, and I had forgotten. But I hadn't ordered to miniseries. I ordered the start of the regular series. So I was pretty confused. Regardless, the show is a good time. As the New Yorker review stated: "But what interests people who normally don’t care about science fiction is how timely and resonant the show is, bringing into play religion and religious fanaticism, global politics, terrorism, and questions about what it means to be human."

As for my love hangover, it's all for Captain Lee "Apollo" Adama. He's dreamy and he defends democracy!

Food, mostly tasty

I've gotten a lot of remarks over the last couple of weeks about all the cool places I eat. And I respond with "Actually, I've eaten at a lot more places lately than I blog about, but I'm worried that the perpetual food entries will get boring." Then I remembered who my readers are. So I decided to do an entry about all the other places I have been that haven't gotten mentioned yet.

Back in early June, Jim and I finally hit Fatty Crab. I have been excited about Fatty Crab ever since I read it's short review in the Times, and also, Eric Asimov's (whom I have dumped in favor of Frank Bruni) comments on in The Pour. In a word: disappointing. FC is located on Hudson Street in the Village. It's teeny tiny, and as such, there is usually a wait. But there was space to sit at the bar, and so we had a drink. FC's specialty is Malaysian street food, and so, food ought to be shared. We ordered the fatty duck, chicken claypot, short ribs and chicken wings. The claypot was quite tasty, with lots of tofu, which I liked, and the short ribs were tender and had a nice sauce. But the duck was disappointing as compared to Hunan Cottage and the chicken wings were undercooked. Jim says that the practice in China is to undercook the chicken, as compared to here where we burn the shit out of it. I personally prefer the latter method. And sadly, at the end of the meal I was still a bit hungry. Oh well.

As Jeeves was busy being a law student on my birthday, he took me out in June for a belated celebration to Yama, which he assured me would blow my mind. And it did. Apparently Yama is another place where you can expect a wait, and there's not much space inside to stand around, so it's best in good weather. But it is certainly worth standing around. Once inside, we marked off how may pieces of nigiri that we wanted (we had tuna, eel, yellow tail, salmon, mackeral, giant clam and maybe another piece which has subsequently escaped me, along with an eel avocado roll and yellowtail salmon roll). The pieces of sushi were completely enormous - I've never seen anything like it. The eel took me 4 bites to get through. Everything was superbly cut and tender, and the rolls? Heavenly. I daydream about the eel avocado roll - the eel sauce was perfect and the avocado was super ripe.

Other notable city eats - Great Jones Cafe for brunch which serves cajun spins on breakfast food. I had the eggs with ham on biscuits and smothered in gravy with a side of grits. It's pretty hard to find good grits in the northeast and my mom always made the best. But these grits definitely gave hers a run for their money. Creamy, but not too runny. And eggs with gravy? Brilliant. Jeeves swears by the bloody marys and indeed, they use fresh horseradish. And on this past Friday, very late, I went to Florent in the meatpacking district. Think of it as a french diner. I was boring and got eggs and bacon (sorry, but that's my go-to late at night in a diner-type setting), which came with a nice thick multi-grained toast and the bacon was well-done as requested. Jason was more adventurous and had the goat cheese and apple omellette and Jeeves had the veggie burger (which I think is bizarre, especially coming from someone who eats as many hamburgers as I do, but he insists is excellent). Also, I like that it's on Gansevoort Street, mainly because "Gansevoort" is fun to say.

What of New Jersey, you ask? Have I abandoned the food of my home state? Not at all. Wendy and I went to Reservoir in South Orange for her birthday. If you live in the area, you may know of it - great word of mouth. And with good reason. They serve up a nice thin-crust pizza. Wendy and I had one of those, some bruschetta (which was seriously out of this world - thick cuts of toasted bread which were crispy on the outside, but east to take a bite out of, with ridiculously fresh tomatoes and onions and a nice balsalmic maranade). We also had a penne dish which came with an excellent marinara sauce, mozarella and prosciutto. I highly recommend it, and in fact think I will suggest to Wendy that we head back there soon. Also, in typical Jersey , cash-only, Italian fashion, the prices were quite low - all that food for $30.

Well, another weekend has slipped by me and I had intentions of multiple entries, but as it is late, I have a cold... and sadly work tomorrow, I will have to postpone.