Good bye dinner! Ugh

So not a REAL good bye but still Maria's going away for a month and that's a pretty damn long time...so we got dinner at a delicious Moroccan place (Cafe Gitane) downtown in a super cute spot. Did some window shopping beforehand but didn't find anything fantastic and realized I'm super not with the trends at all, like, don't even know what they are. Got this bread covered in melty cheese, an awesome dish of meatballs and boiled egg, and then a chocolate bread pudding to split (duh - dining with girls almost always involves a shared dessert):

Final Team Dinner!

Went out for a massive four-team dinner at Tamarind Tribeca which is a Michelin-starred Indian restaurant...so I was excited but not SUPER excited because idk, Indian food is Indian food haha. We ate sooo much and hands down my favorite thing was probably the "crepe" stuffed with duck - so tender and fantastic and I could have just eaten that. Some features:

I also loved my lamb chops! Super good. Dessert was eh, probs should have stuck with an Indian dessert and not an "interesting" one. And uh...drinks were good (maybe too good) because I did something super silly involving the Other Consulting Firm guys at the table next to us....but all good fun :)

(Real) Mardi Gras

So we're obviously checking out of this project because today at a normal person hour, Slava, Jak, and I just kind of stood up and left. And then went to drink. And eat comfort food. At Lillie's, which is quickly becoming a new "fav" spot especially in Midtown. Got a Bee's Knees (perfect) and then ordered tons of food - shepherd's pie, fish and chips, gruyere mac 'n cheese (actually fantastic even though I usually think these fancy mac 'n cheese things are overrated)

Nachos and mussels in a spicy jalapeno sauce

And yeah I think we finished almost all of it (to be fair we had two other people join but that's still a hefty amount of food). BUT it is Mardi Gras and I did need to eat like a fat person today (as opposed to every other day right...)

(Early) Mardi Gras

GREAT pig out day.

So, woke up, went to the grocery store, made a cheesecake. Wanted to make it exciting so did a sour cream topping and randomly added in coffee grounds and just assumed it'd turn out fine because I think cheesecake is the easiest dessert in the world (but somehow always super impressive which is great). Then headed to the gym in anticipation of the big dinner that was headed my way...

Headed to Deepa's later and helped her make handmade spaghetti with her awesome pasta maker machine thing, ate all the pickles, and then after everyone came had a fantastic dinner: baked chicken w lemon and some herbs, the pasta, and a salad doused in truffle oil

And then king cake from NoLa which was so rich and good and cheesecake:

So yeah, happy tummy day :)

Lovely almost spring day

So beautiful outside! Started the day with a walk over to Columbus and 109 through the park - so many people out :) Grabbed a coffee while waiting for Maria to meet for brunch at Crepes on Columbus, which was really yummy (had been there before and while the savory crepe was good, I wasn't wowed...crepes are definitely a better breakfast/brunch dish) - got mine with salmon and goat cheese and it was super good

And of course we had to split a Nutella and strawberry crepe which was...so good. And great times catching up with Maria on boys and gossip and whatever :)

Went wandering through TJ Maxx and then headed back home through the park to relax at home, maybe hit the gym? General lazy day, and then met AFC for dinner at Shake Shack which was good as always - doing the "make yourself" concrete was not that awesome though, and I think I'll probably trust them going forward.

Went for drinks at some random place on 2nd ave and then called it a night pretty early. Love my lame weekend nights haha.

Happy Suicide Prevention Day

Family in town yesterday, we did the classic pig-out at Szechuan Gourmet (fantastic as always), and then went to the 9/11 Memorial - I knew it was amazing from the TV shots, but even more impressive in person, and excited to see it when it's completely transformed.

Did dinner w Deeps, Phil, Sam & friend at Vandaag...which I thought was going to be Indian food? Who knows why, because it turned out to be Swedish. Not close at all. Had a good drink, good apps, a delicious amuse-bouche, a random soup course (yes this meal took FOREVER to serve), and then scarfed down my entree so I could make it to R Bar on time, but it was really really good:

That's a ton of mussels, shrimp, some kind of snail-esque thing, random other seafood, and the richest (in a good way) broth ever.

Post-dinner, big dance-fest at R Bar, which was awesome - basically everyone I know in NYC but never get a chance to see, lots of random people showed up and it was fantastic :)

Great food day!

Last day of Restaurant Week and decided I wasn't going to stand for canceling my dinner plans anymore, so went to Kittichai with Jakgrid and Elise for a fantastic (and super-filling) lunch, so good.

Had the chili mussels for the app (and some bites of their ribs) - the appetizers turned out to be the best dishes of the meal (not that the others weren't good, these were just really really good):

And then got some curried fish dish for the main:

And then not half of a very rich flourless chocolate cake:

Then left work at a NORMAL person hour! Went out for work drinks, stole a box of heart-shaped chocolate (win), and then headed to 5 Napkin for the first time...

So, burger was good. But not amazing...and everyone raves about it and it's totally over-hyped. Good burger. But nothing on Burger and Barrel for sure. And then that was the extent of how social I could be on a Friday without a nap :)

Extra: Lauren and I met Chewbacca on our walk to the train :)

Sushi of Gari :)

Particularly gruesome day at work. Thought it couldn't be redeemed. But then I persuaded Jakgrid to join me for dinner at the Midtown Sushi of Gari and we rewarded ourselves with amaaaaaaazing sushi. Seriously. It's like, I know it's going to be phenomenal but it's still so surprising that sushi can be so good!

 And they have adorable tea cups!

Basically this totally turned my Tuesday around :) And left my tummy super happy :)

New Everyday Lunch...

Introduced to something NEW at BonChon! Turns out their beef bibimbap is pretty delish and has a ton of veggies so I can pretend it's remotely healthy...and when I spend forever sitting in the terrible white room, I'll take whatever pretend healthiness I can get:

Nothing else exciting happened today. Guaranteed.

Kefi Lunch

One of my fav dishes in NYC is the sheep's milk dumplings with feta, sausage, spinach, and other delicious stuff at Kefi - if it wasn't so rich, I'd probably eat this constantly:

Post Kefi, went and hung out in a bookstore and got sucked into this great Lincoln epic book...might actually need to continue reading that. Then went and saw Chronicle, which was TERRIBLE ugh so awful. Definitely would have rather seen Big Miracle :( Home, big nap, shake shack, more sleep. This project has killed everything interesting about me..

Eh day, great night

Today dragged. And we had to watch everyone leave for happy hour while we sat in our sad corner in the back of the office :( And I had to cancel two dinner reservations because we just weren't leaving :(

But then Andy snagged awesome tickets to Anything Goes! And immediate 180 on the night. The show was SO good, just like, exactly what you want of a Broadway show. Great singing, dancing, hilarious actors, just really fantastic. And then we literally ran to the only restaurant in Times Square that was still feeding people semi-decent food, Etcetera Etcetera, and downed some strong drinks, and ate this ridiculous piece of lamb:

Pretty good. Not as great as what I've heard (though maybe they were in a rush to get rid of us), but pretty good, and tasty sweets at the end of the meal always make me happy :) Ended up being a pretty great Friday night.