Sea Pearl

We went to the Sea Pearl restaurant this past weekend because one of our friends had recommended.  It’s out in Merrifield, VA.  I thought it was an Asian Fusion cuisine, but apparently I can’t read.  The website clearly says that Sea Pearl serves modern American cuisine with a California flare.  More important than all of this is what’s on the menu.

I ordered the Lemon Ricotta Pancakes … simply amazing.  They weren’t too heavy, but were pretty rich and deliciously sweet with the distinct lemon flavor that made me eat the whole stack.  Marjie ordered an Egg’s Benedict with smoked salmon over a bagel.  Um, delicious doesn’t really go far enough to describe it.  The eggs had the perfect amount of run and mixed deliciously with the salmon and bagel.

I highly recommend the place and look forward to going back for another round of pancakes.

Salmon Benedict

She Eats!

Lemon Ricotta Pancakes

Slow as(s) Chocolate

Today, Marjie and I went to Artfully Chocolate, Kingsbury Cafe for brunch with some friends.  I had heard about this place from someone in our dance class last year, as in last December or so.  They have two places, one in DC and one in the Del Ray neighborhood of Alexandria, VA.

What sold us on the DC location was the bottomless mimosa for brunch.  Only, I’m not a huge mimosa fan and it cost $10, not including the brunch.  Ah well.  We arrived around 11.15am, were told it would be a half-hour wait for a table of four, then waited for about an hour and fifteen minutes for a table to open up.  Why double the time?  First, the cafe is tiny and there are only a few tables for groups larger than two.  That’s not terribly conducive to Sunday morning brunch.  Second, the kitchen staff was either super slow, short-staffed, or an optimal combination of both that allows for maximum hunger to set in with potential diners.

We got lucky in only having to wait an hour plus for our table.  If our friend hadn’t been diligent, the baffled host would have given away our table to a group that arrived about twenty minutes after us.  As soon as we sat down, we ordered.  Starving!  Thankfully that killer combo of a slow, understaffed kitchen gave us plenty of time to think about how hungry we were because it took another thirty or forty minutes for eggs, french toast, potatoes, and sausage to show up.

All told, it took over two hours to get basic food.  Not my ideal Sunday brunch.

How was the food when it showed up?  It was absolutely fine.  I ordered the Lavender Chocolate french toast.  Though I know there are few places that make french toast the way I like it, I thought I’d try this.  The thought of lavender and chocolate was too much to resist.  It’s a fine dish.  I thoroughly enjoyed the hint of lavender, but I can’t I loved it.  I certainly would never wait an hour and a half for it.  Everyone else’s food was thoroughly enjoyable, but none of it worth the long wait, either.

At least the person looking after our table was very attentive.  In all, I would return for one of their delicious hot chocolates, to go, but I would not do a brunch.  It seems like a cool afternoon coffee or hot chocolate hang out, not a thoroughly thought through brunch place.

Má Pêche blows ma mind

For my birthday, Marjie took me to Má Pêche for lunch.  This is one of David Chang’s new restaurants in Midtown Manhattan.  Though we are known on occasion to blow a crap load of money on an extravagant meal, Marjie was devilishly devious in finding an awesome restaurant that did not break the bank. The lunch prix fixe was three courses for $25.

We had the choice of:

• squid salad or summer roll,
• grilled trout, spicy rice noodles with lamb, and something else
• corn meal cookie or double chocolate cookie from the Milk Bar.  Apparently, you can order them online.

We ordered both first courses.  I got the trout and she got the lamb and pasta.  I have never really been a seafood person, but let me tell you, that squid salad was delicious.  Hints of cilantro, lime, and basil all evoking thoughts of Hanoi to be.  The summer roll was fine, but I didn’t enjoy it as much as my salad.  For the main course, the trout was made with some sort of cashew sauce, tiny potatoes mixed with more cilantro and ginger (I think), and it was absolutely perfect.  Marjie’s dish was not what we expected, being spicier and more French dish than an Asian dish.

We both could not get enough of the trout.  I would go back and order that dish again in a heartbeat.  Too bad I don’t have a photo of either the interior space or the dishes, but the whole experience was great.  The restaurant is below street level with ceilings that must be on the second floor.  It creates a huge space that long, light-colored tables fill.  Absolutely delightful.

On your way out, if one cookie per person wasn’t enough, you can get more at the Milk Bar, which we did.

Below is a map to Má Pêche in case you’re ever in NYC for lunch or dinner, on your dime or the company’s.

View Larger Map

Deliciousness in NYC

So, this weekend we might have gotten a bit extravagant with the choice of restaurant we went to, but it was worth it.  Marjie and I went to Asiate to celebrate something special.  We got the 7 course chef’s tasting menu.  I had mine paired with wine.  Unfortunately, I’m writing this post about 5 months after the meal, but I still remember it.

What was most memorable?  I don’t like seviche, but one of the first courses had a crab meat seviche where lime juice did the seviche-ing.  Amazing.  There was also a buckwheat noodle with tiny egg course that was similarly delicious.  With each course, I had a different wine or sake.  By the time we got to course 4, Marjie tapped out.  She couldn’t eat any more.  Not one to waste food, I ate all of the remaining courses.  Needless to say, this gluttony was rewarded with the need to stop on a bench near the Waldorff Hotel on our way to the Metro.  Or maybe we took a cab.  After all that wine and with such a full stomach, it was a long, long, long time before I was able to go to think about anything else.

Was it worth the big price tag?  Beyond a doubt.

Running is Good for You

If only my body weren’t broken, I could run because it’s good for me. This NYTimes article discusses Born to Run by Christopher McDougall, who spent time with the Tarahumara Indians of Mexico who run all the time. Apparently, it’s our cushy shoes and urban surfaces that lead to running injuries.

Here is Chris on the Daily Show:

Source:
The Human Body Is Built for Distance By TARA PARKER-POPE, Published: October 27, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/27/health/27well.html

How Far Do You Walk?

I haven’t written about my current, temporary work with New York Cares’ Winter Coat Drive.  I’ll write about that soon.  What I want to write about is a great new gift for the Christmas/Birthday season.  I was so excited about my Mom’s pedometer, that she bought me one when she returned to Virginia Beach.  I’ve worn it now for about eight days.  

How does it work?  I’m not exactly sure about my model, but there is a weight and a spring that react to the vibration of you stride.  The movement of the weight is counted as a step, then converted to a distance by multiplying by my 30″ stride length.

Today was my biggest day – 21,000 steps.  How far is that?  It’s about 10 miles.  Who knew?  I figured my job had me walk quite a bit during the day, but 10 miles?  OK, today is an anomaly.  I walked from work to NYU’s bookstore, then down about 10 or so blocks to Canal St to go to Pearl Paint Shop for some book binding stuff.

An average day for me is about 14,000 – 16,000 steps.  The number varies depending on how lazy the security guard at the loading dock is.  If he decides that opening the loading dock doors is too much effort, I have to walk up and down a ramp to the street to pick up and hand out the coats.

Amazingly, even on a Saturday where I left the house around noon and came back by 7, I managed to get 10,000 steps in.   That’s about 5 miles.  When you’ve got one of these nifty devices keeping track for you, it’s amazing how much you have to move around when you live in the city.

Mmm, delicious

Tonight, I put together a red bean sauce, using the base recipe from crockpot.com.  I started it last night around 7pm.  It began to smell super delicious right around the time I wanted to sleep.  The intoxicating aromas made me think about eating, rather than sleeping.  The night began restlessly, then moved to down right maddening when the bubbling sauce caused the lid of the Crock Pot to rattle, incessantly, at 4am.  Never again will I cook the red bean sauce overnight.

That said, it was delicious.  I put it over brown jasmine rice and devoured it.  Wow!  What was in this deliciousness?

• 1 red onion
• 1 green pepper
• 3 stalks celery
• 3 tbs chopped garlic
• 1 package chicken andouille sausage
• 1 lb red beans (boiled for 10 min, left to soak for 60min, and rinsed)
• 25 oz beef broth
• 2 cups water
• Emeril’s Creole seasoning for flavor (needed more)

I can’t wait for lunch tomorrow.

Lower East Side Food Tour

Today was a delicious day.  It began with a peanut buttered flat bread and coffee for breakfast.  Although not necessarily considered one of the world’s greatest culinary delights, I thoroughly enjoy it as a morning starter.

The real fun, though began with the food tour.  In October 2008, when my mom came to visit, I signed us up for a food tour through the UVa Club.  We did a dessert and wine tour around the 70s on the Upper West Side.  The company that provided the guides and was City Food Tours.  We enjoyed it so much, I thought it would be great to go on another.

Fast forward to today and I’m on a tasting tour of the Lower East Side.  It’s the place of immigrants.  Early in the history of the city, it was farm land, but soon after the Revolutionary War, it began to become a merchant’s district.  In the mid 19th century, the successive waves of immigrants seemed to find their way to the dilapidated tenements that characterized the area and left their ethnic imprint.

Although we saw quite a bit of Chinatown’s spillage into the Lower East Side, Nicole pointed out quite a few Jewish places that show the Old World past of the businesses and neighborhoods.

The Doughnut Plant

We began the tour with the Doughnut Plant.  I’m not really a big donut fan, but these are made with fresh, organic, homemade ingredients.  Apparently the creme brule donut is to die for.  The owner spent a couple months perfecting the donut.  We had pistachio donuts and cranberry jam filled donuts.  They were light, sweet, and delicious.  When we finished, I didn’t have any of the heavy feeling I usually get after thinking about eating a Dunkin Donut.

From there, we moved to the Bialy place, Kossar’s.  I’d never heard of a bialy, much less tried one, before I moved here to New York.  They are similar to a bagel, but not quite.  They are not boiled before they’re baked, they don’t have a hole in the center, and usually there is a sprinkle of real onion in the middle.  The result is a tasty treat – when well done – that hits the spot.  Not too heavy, not to light.

Pickles!

Next stop was the Pickle Guys.  I’m not really a pickle fan; I enjoy a good relish like everyone else, so I wasn’t terribly excited.  Still, how do you expand your horizons without trying something new?  Nicole, our guide, gave us three varieties of pickles – a new pickle, a sour pickle, and pickled carrots.  The carrots were soaked in vinegar and had a heated kick to them.  They were my favorite.  The pickles were cucumbers soaked in the brine solution for varying lengths of time.  The full sour pickle has soaked the longest and tasted, well, sour.  Imagine that.  The new pickle tasted more like a salty cucumber.

We wandered north, toward Houston Street, where we stopped for a coffee at the Roasting Plant.  There a former Starbucks executive, and manufacturing engineer, had designed a machine to roast, grind, and brew your coffee to order.  Guatemalan coffee too light and the Yirgacheffe too bold?  No problem, just ask the staff to mix them to your preference.  The system looks like a 1980′s sci-fi mail chute with the vacuum tubes that connect the roaster to the storage spots to the grinder.  Still, you have to admit, the coffee was delicious.  I would highly recommend a visit, paired with a tour of the Lower East Side Tenement Museum, to kick start your day.

Coffee!?!?

After the Roasting Plant, we went to Piada for a sandwich.  I had La Dolce Vita, which is bresaola, parmigiano, and arugula.  There was also a balsamic vinegar to give it a little umpf.  Delicious.  No two ways about it.  Simple and delicious.  We chased the sandwich with a chocolate bon bon from the Cocoa Bar.

It was a great morning with beautiful weather – sunny and mostly above freezing – that complimented the gastronomic delights we sampled.  I highly recommend this tour – Nicole was a great guide – not only for the food, but also the wander through the ancient history of New York.

New Look, New Blog, Same Chris

So, I just finished relearning everything I didn’t know about CSS, WordPress, and Joomla.  I just finished customizing the templates for the display of this blog and of the rest of the web site.  I wanted to see about integrating the WordPress blog and the Joomla! CMS.  We’ll see how this goes.  It’s probably a really dumb idea, but that’s OK.  I just want to learn more about both.  I like the blog editing interface of WordPress, but of course it’s better to have everything in the same database.  It would be nice to post some blog entries on my front page at times, but we’ll see how this goes.

What Happened?

I finally finished listening to Scott McClellan’s book, What Happened. Scott read the book – all fifteen hours of it – but is not one of the world’s best orators. Despite the halting reading, I found myself interested in what he had to say. Who wouldn’t? He was close to Bush and the Administration’s inner machinations, sort of.

The crux of the book is that Carl Rove and ‘Scooter’ Libby screwed his credibility by lying to him about the disclosure of Vallerie (sp?) Plame’s identity and letting him repeat those lies to the press. After this disaster, Scott started thinking about leaving the White House Staff. Josh Bolton, the Chief of Staff replacing Andrew Card, pushed Scott out before he had a chance to offer his own resignation at the three-year mark as Press Secretary.

I was surprised at how much Scott still defends Bush. You can hear the admiration for the man come through in his reading, even while he disagrees with the decisions that Bush made. The permanent Washington campaign led to the downfall of a President who pledged to change the culture of Washington, but instead polarized it even more.

I was shocked to hear Scott defend the errant 16 words on weapons of mass destruction. Scott believes the President and Condi Rice didn’t know how the words got in there. Huh? Has he not read Richard Clarke’s Against All Enemies? There was a battle to keep those words out but Cheney wanted them in, and the President had to know about it.

I was also shocked to hear Scott tentatively assert that perhaps the marketing of a war was a bad idea. I’m glad he came to that very insightful conclusion that when you commit killing US soldiers as well as innocent civilians, and spending trillions of US dollars that a marketing campaign is not the way to sell the war.

I think I was most surprised by what appears to be McClellan’s naivete about the way things really work, despite his experiences working on political campaigns for most of his life. I am glad, though, he decided to vote against McCain and threw in his support for Barak Obama. It shows me that he recognizes the problems he was apart of and wants to be part of the solution to the mess he helped perpetuate.