My Food Post

UPDATE: Seeing how I almost never read a post before publishing, there were a bunch of spelling errors and randomness. I cleaned it up a little.

I’ve been wanting to write a post about my take on food for awhile. As someone who loves to eat, drink and learn about food, I spend a decent amount of time going to restaurants, cooking at home and reading about food and traveling and I think I have some useful insight. I’m by no means an expert, but again, this is a blog. You’re reading this on the internet. I promise it isn’t worse than anything coming out of CNN or MSNBC or Fox News and I think, it is a lot better. But you decide.

BTW - This is a LONG post.

Snedecker Wedding, Back in NYC, Drew Here

We’re back in NYC after about a week in the NW for me and a few days for Kelly. Our trips back are usually pretty busy and this one was no exception. I was going back for work as well as to attend my friend Gabe’s wedding as a groomsman. On top of that, the weekend before our house renters decided that they wanted to move out on July 1. Finding a new renter was paramount to the trip. So, if you didn’t hear from me or Kelly, it was because our plates were incredibly full. But no worries, we’re back in July for 3-4 weeks! More to come on that later.

Diesel Does the Wii

He’s doing the hula-hoop game.  He looks silly and I’m laughing like a retarded hyena.  Still, it’s funny stuff.

West Coast

Keeping on, keeping on; I woke up this morning at 5:45 am, unaware of where I was or what happened the night before. This always seems to happen to me when I wake up in the Chow-Greiner’s basement bedroom. It took me a minute to put it all together. I’m in Seattle and nothing much happened the night before, fish tacos and Georgetown 9lb Hammer Porters at the Hill Top Ale House, followed by some angry/sad discussion of the Mariners’ horrible season at the Chow-Greiner’s.

After awaking, I was about to go to sleep when I quickly remembered that I needed to be in Capitol Hill to take a friend to surgery. I took a 5 minute shower, got dressed and arrived to pick up Jing at 6:15am. Jing is having orthopedic surgery on her arm to fix a shoulder that keeps dislocating. Good luck, Jing!

And now I’ve settled into a cappuccino prepared by the masters at Vivace along with a cheese scone. Life is good in Seattle.

We’re Melting, We’re Melting!

So I guess they decided to skip spring and move right into summer. A heat wave engulfed NYC, and for the first time since I moved here, I really started to think that maybe I wouldn’t make it in this city.

Saturday: 95 degrees

Sunday: 97 degrees

What the hell is happening here (no pun intended)?

After Adam left to meet up with another friend, Diesel and I jumped at the chance of going back to the air conditioned confines of our apartment. A few minutes later, there we were: Me, sprawled on the couch. Diesel, sprawled on the floor. Lights off because we were convinced that even the faint warmth of a single light bulb could put us over the edge. Mouths shut because we realized that even talking made as sweat.

Blessed be our craigslist A/C, our most valuable possession, for its divine cooling powers. And may we survive this week of 95+ degree temperatures…and the summer…Amen.

May Visits

May was the month of parents and guys.

Brian and Ben came to visit during Memorial Day weekend. It was a guys’ weekend, and although I tried my best, there’s just no way I can keep up with their drinking abilities. Last weekend Adam came for a visit. Poor guy, brought his sweater (it’s 50 degrees in Seattle!) and ended up in the sweltering weather that punished NY this weekend.

On Sat night we met up with my friend Corinne, who was here on a work trip from Seattle

Diesel and Ben at Oh! Taisho before going out

Diesel and BJ after some drinks at a bar

Diesel and Adam crossing the Brooklyn Bridge

Nassim, Corinne and me at Plan B

Auf Wiedersehen und Hallo Dies!

Diesel has been traveling tons, and after his London trip, he spent one day in Germany. Literally: one day. One day flying in, one day flying out, one actual day in Berlin for his meeting.

Like a little kid, I have gotten into the habit of making sure Diesel knows that if he’s going to leave me by myself, he needs to bring me a present from his trip. With him traveling so much, this has become quite an expensive habit, but for a girl who got a belt (YES, a BELT) and a story book in ENGRISH (this is when I did not know any Engrish) from her Dad who was returning from trips, I decided to make up for the lame presents I got as a kid by, once again, putting the burden of my happiness on Diesel’s shoulder.

So this time, with only one day in what is arguably one of the coolest cities in Europe, he did very very good…Here’s what he got me (the BEST present EVER!). Thanks Dies!

(top from left to right: butter cheese, fresh cheese, granola, rye bread)

(bottom from left to right: multi-grain bread, rustic wasa crackers)

(that’s the reason why I gained over 10 pounds after my year in Germany!)

The Bad Daughter

As most of you know, my parents were here to celebrate our birthdays week. We all have birthdays in May, so I thought it’d be great to celebrate it all together. So my folks were in the city for a week, and although I took some time off to hang out with them, the question remained: What would they do here for a week?

After much thinking, I decided to put them in the famous Fung Wah bus. That’s right, the famous Chinatown to Chinatown bus! Here’s how it works:  go from the Chinatown of a major East Coast city to any other Chinatown of another major East Coast city for no more than $15 each way. That’s like over 10 times cheaper than the train. The bus goes to NY, DC, Boston, Toronto, you name it, my peeps will take you there for a very friendly rate.

Angry Asian vs. Stupid Old Man: The Final Duel, or The HATED Donald Duck

Have you ever worked with somebody really really dumb? I’m sure you have. In my life, this person is Donald Duck. After you read this post, you will realize that this co-worker’s Disney character codename is the only jolly thing about him.

So why Donald Duck? Because he spends many work hours idly, doing things that are either too dumb or too revolting for me to describe in full detail; amongst these things is his impression of Donald Duck, with full on character impersonation: crooked duck legs and spit hitting us from all sides while he laughs loudly up and down the hallway at his imagined hilariousness.

Thanks Fabulous Peeps!

Thank you all for your calls, e-mails, e-cards, blog comments, Facebook messages, etc wishing me a happy bday. I haven’t had a chance to respond to each of you individually, but I shall.

I spent my 31st bday–yes, as Diesel says, I’m OLD–with my parents and Diesel. We went to dinner at a Brazilian restaurant in the Village called CASA. The funny thing is that only a couple of days later, David went there too. It’s unanimous: the food there is awesome!

I’m old, and I don’t get very many presents anyway, but I can always count on Diesel getting me something really fab. From my trip to Barcelona, to my trip to Paris, to my beautiful green iPod mini, I spend a good part of  the days leading up to any meaningful holiday (including my bday) delighting myself in speculating about what Diesel will get me. Because he set the bar so high, anything less than fabulous would be a disgrace and positively spoil my celebration. I, on the other hand, have never really gotten him anything fabulous, so I really have nothing to live up to (Now you know who is the smarter one of the two of us).