Happy Memorial Day!

Started off the day out in middle of nowhere Brooklyn at Farm on Adderley for a high expectations brunch...ordered a burger medium rare topped with a fried egg and was sorely disappointed. Looks good:

But they definitely over-cooked the burger, which is the saddest thing in the world =( I don't want my burger meat all grey and tough!

Then headed out to Coney Island for a day at the beach, playing in the cold water and laying on the sand and reading trashy mags. I've definitely evolved into a beach person...love it, trashiness and all. Unfortunately some idiot brought pet SNAKES to the beach (wtf) and that grossed me out so we went home before the sun set. Hung at Shake Shack, and then met Kat for a huge taco salad dinner (and no, I'm not going to let the word salad make me think that this was even remotely healthy).

Back to work tomorrow =( But lovely long weekend, please come back to my life soon!

Governor's Island Picnic

Super hot day - headed to Governor's Island with Christine, Alice, and Justine with a picnic lunch. Waited forever for the ferry! Ugh. But finally got there and it's gorgeous and sunny and we sat around and snacked on chips and mussels and salad and strawberries and brownies.

Summer definitely screws with my appetite, I want to munch but in a non-committal way. Namely...I want tons of Popsicles and pasta salad and sushi.

Wandered around random art exhibits and then watched people make fools out of themselves on the trapeze set =)

Graduation Eating

Started the morning with a SPICY CHICKEN BISCUIT from Chick Fil A. Yes, CFA like sponsored UDel's graduation and it was awesome slash the best breakfast biscuit ever.

Sat in the huge stadium, watched all the kids having fun in the sun, and listened to a great speech. Essentially the exact opposite of my graduation (quad, rain, terrible bio professor talking about cancer ugh).

Then graduation part 2 featuring a surprise guest appearance from KANYE WEST haha and then off to pig out on Korean BBQ and the best seafood pancake I've ever had (again, win for Newark, Delaware on the food front, and very surprising)

Graduation 2011 success. Back to NYC for the rest of the long weekend.

Good Morning Vietnam?

That felt like too cheesy of a title...titles are so high pressure!

Anyway, got to the hotel and was greeted with a Blue Hen cocktail in honor of UDel graduation weekend. Already beating UChicago graduation...so had some cocktails while waiting for Elliot to show up, and then headed out for dinner at a Vietnamese place that someone found online but hadn't been tested. Wasn't expecting to be wowed because it's Vietnamese food in Delaware and I can't find anything very good in NYC. Regardless, we ordered a ton of stuff - lots of beef and pork and seafood and a crepe and various lemongrass and vermicelli based dishes and everything was just fantastic

Ate a ridic amount of food that hit me like, 10 minutes after I stopped eating but not really in a bad way because it was all just so delicious and fresh tasting. Lovely surprise from Newark, DE =)

FOOD TRUCK WIN

So...wanted food truck food, wanted something delicious, and had exactly $7 in cash in my wallet. Checked out the blogs and discovered that Korilla was trying out a new midtown spot! Awesome. So I've heard tons about Korilla but had never been and you know, trendy things get hyped up and what not. Wandered down to the truck, decent line before they were even open!

Definite fate though - got a beef bulgogi burrito and it was exactly $7 and was also absolutely delicious. Stuffed with kimchi and rice and some random sauces and wrapped so that every bite had bulgogi = win.

 So yummy. Left work early, ran down to the train station and off to Delaware!

Hello Summer

Celebrated a gorgeous Thursday with a long walk from midtown to the West Village for a yummy Rusty Knot (god knows what's in this but it's so yummy and refreshing) and a pretzel wrapped hot dog. Love that it's served with mustard (love that I finally discovered the deliciousness of mustard!)

Gourmet Hot Dog

Oh man! It's hot outside and I was in the mood for some kind of street food, but none of the street food places I wanted were nearby! Luckily Seth found out the Oscar Mayer mobile was handing out free hot dogs in Times Square so we braved the heat and the crowd...

Turned out these weren't just hot dogs, but hot dogs with a celebrity-chef-created toppings bar. And not like, relish toppings. But chili, pasta salad, potato salad, fried onions, pickles, broccoli sauce, pineapple salsa, and more.

And if pasta salad on a hot dog sounds disgusting...you've got another thing coming. Seriously the most unexpected and delicious combination ever. Happy free lunch day for sure =)

Fried Chicken Heaven

Solid Saturday - returned to zumba, wandered around a street fair on 6th ave, and ended up hiding from the potential rain storm at a free showing of Bridesmaids (great, esp free). Post this, wandered up to Madison Square Park to meet up with the bankers for maxing out the expense account on fried chicken at Hill Country.

Got a family sized serving of wings and drumsticks, a platter of huge, super dense biscuits:

And then chicken strips with mustard, and three adorable little pies! One was cherry (surprisingly I liked it), one apply (always good), and one was WHISKEY. I mean, it was probably something else, but that was a key ingredient and it was great.

Low key Saturday in general, but fried chicken ftw =)

AWESOME BRAZILIAN DINNER

Oh man. Got invited over for a dinner party at Maria's tonight, and it was just...perfect. Picked up a bottle of wine on the walk up Broadway, made brownies from scratch and cut all the onions (so many tears!), and then watched magic happen. Jen and Daniele showed up and we all fluttered around the kitchen and then pigged out on the most amazing meal. Started with deep fried, bread crumbed bananas:

Which were, yes, as delicious as they sounded. Then on to like, the 5 other dishes Maria whipped up: an awesome avocado salad, rice and beans, potatoes, and garlicky tuna:

And then drank more wine, had this awesome Abita strawberry beer (which I now need to drink all the time), and ate brownies covered in whipped cream. Excellent meal, definitely worth being out in the rain for =) Also...want to marry Maria now.

Hearty French Eating

Groupon lunch w Christine today (crazy crazy job day!!!). Went to this French restaurant, Le Rivage, for a half off prix fix lunch. Started with some lobster bisque:

Then beef bourguignon, my first experience and definitely not my last. This was perfect. Like the meat was unbelievably tender and all the vegetables were great and the sauce was delicious. Could definitely make my way through winter eating this. So good!!

 Wrapped up the meal with a Napoleon - a little too sweet for me, but still yummy.

 Lovely meal, and at the end of it I had a job offer! So overall successful day =)

Woo Dim Sum

Went to a great place for dim sum in the heart of Chinatown (and by that I mean some random windy street, super cute) with 10 people...Num Wah Tea Parlor (read about it in the Times and was sold). Feast of egg rolls, dumplings, tofu, shrimp things, broccoli, sesame balls, and other delicious things.

Yeah. I definitely need to be eating dim sum for breakfast every single Sunday instead of just once in awhile...infinitely better than standard (boring) brunch fare =)

rhs'o5 Reunion Dinner!

Made breakfast for Libby and myself this morning in preparation for our super early 5:30pm "dinner" - toasted sourdough with gruyere cheese and scrambled eggs. Delicious.

Zumba'd and listened to tons of awesome pop music for a couple hours before heading downtown with Sarah and Libby and meeting up with everyone! For a big reunion night! Starting with dinner at Otto, where I got some pasta with pork shoulder and tons of cheese and it was very yummy and had the right bite.

Also obviously dessert but didn't take a picture because Kat and I were digging into it super quickly. Something called a black and white which was this great gelato with hazelnuts and chocolate chips and caramel and just the perfect combination of flavors and textures.

Then off for big night of Jenga, Scattergories, and Penny Farthing =)

Thursday Happy Hour

Ended up leaving work early because an interview ended early but for not bad reasons (haha) and wanted to enjoy the gorgeous day! Hung with Sarah and Mona at the hotel and then ended up (somehow) in Brooklyn...like the dodgy part that involves walking way past downtown hipster central and over on to Rye House.

Solid drinks - mine was definitely not my type (mixed in Scotch which I didn't realize) but the others were all delicious and definitely worth a return to. Also we became BFFs with the bartender and got some extra special drinks such as this inspired-by-cosmo (but only insofar as it's pink) drink:

Yes that's a legitimate motorcycle that's been burned or imprinted or something onto this drink and even as you sip away it doesn't disappear! Yes the drinks were all super strong and I went to the gym tipsy. Overall successful Thursday.

PONY BAR

Yesssssssss. After a delay last week because of Jen's silly sore throat, rescheduled a cute girl's dinner at Pony Bar w Maria and Jen...ended up adding extra people because Alex showed up in town! So yes, gorgeous day outside, left work and met up with Alex in Times Square and wandered over to Pony Bar to start drinking and waiting for everyone to show up. Ended up ordering the fried oyster w bacon sandwich this time, along with some more beer, chips w malt vinegar, and the awesome awesome wasabi pickles. So good.

Totally stuffed my face but all for a good cause =) Seriously this place rocks. Good times catching up, lots of discussion of some Asian-American article in NYMag because it featured some silly UChicago-er, etc etc. I want more pickles now...

Food Weekend at Home

Home for VNA and dentist and Mother's Day.

First day was Thai Kitchen lunch - awesome pad Thai and yellow curry, delicious as usual. It's outstanding how this place is always the best Thai food that I can get anywhere...outstanding and awesome. Dinner was homemade fish and shrimp tacos (homemade by mom), featuring fish, shrimp, cabbage slaw, beans, corn, etc etc, yumminess.

 Up close

Saturday brought hibachi lunch with Alice and leftover Cinco de Mayo food before the Usher concert...awesome homemade arroz con pollo and tortilla soup and fresh guac. Again, win for the mom. Sunday we pigged out on Mother's Day pastries from Randazzo's (so much cream filled stuff, all so fantastic, seriously, I don't even like cream filled pastries) and then a late pig out at Dynasty dim sum. Yes I came home and went straight to the gym...new Sunday night habit apparently.

Clt Reunion Dinner

Went out with JP and Ivan to celebrate new jobs and other stuff at Casa Adela - yummy Puerto Rican ish food and BYOB with no fees is just my type of meal. We shared something called mofongo which is a plantain dish with other stuff. No idea what's in it, but it's delicious and I could just eat plates full I think.

Ended up with a stuffed belly and then a hefty lunch for the day after thanks to my half chicken plus a huge side of rice and black beans, also delicious.

Seriously. I want to go back and eat more chicken and mofongo and drink more Brooklyn Brewery summer ale. Good dinner, good chatting times w the boys, good buzz =)

Sloppy Brunch

Ended Boston on a solid note at a jazz brunch...thought about ordering a short rib sandwich but decided to go with the sloppiest option possible: soft fried eggs on top of poutine on top of melted cheese on top of fries. Tasted delicious (even though that probably sounds gross to the vast majority of people):

Post food, stuffed some ice cream in our faces and then headed back to the city. Sweet road tripping, awesome food, cultural stuff (super Chihuly exhibit), overall fantastic weekend. Came home and went straight to the gym for a solid hour...my legs will kill tomorrow because it's been a long gym hiatus.