So, I'm the Worst

I broke my new (Jewish) years resolution already, but the last couple weeks have been extremely tight. Im having flashbacks to my hungry days in Brooklyn constantly but haven't yet resorted to eating slurpees.

It's too cold for slurpees now anyways. Summer stopped by to say goodbye a couple weeks ago and like a second cousin or that aunt you aren't actually related to, I imagine we won't be hearing from him for many months to a year.

I also haven't been cooking as much which is just breaking my heart. I learned that I can't expect eating in to be cheap if I feed fifteen people nightly. So when I do start making money again, I'll be sure to cook delicious food for myself and myself only. The rest of the world can just be jealous.

On another note (a mostly unrelated to food note), I saw Lena Dunham this past Sunday. She was participating in an panel hosted by the New Yorker festival. It was all amazing but my favorite part had to be the free apple cider donut holes. Even better when I walked up to the snack table I asked the server how many I could have and he said, "As many as you want." THAT'S CLASSY

I promise promise promise to post more about food soon!

Doughnuts and more

I have been eating A LOT lately. I'm missing the days when I was starving in Brooklyn - sort of - because now I'm just starting to feel like a fattie. Sure I haven't been spending as much on eating out with access to my kitchen, but this same kitchen is allowing to me to eat 3 square meals a day (and on most days, many many more.)
I try to keep the meals I cook healthy, since I'm eating so much, but it gets pretty exhausting. Some days I wake up and just want to stuff my face and not have to work for it.

For example: Yesterday morning, my roommate and I were woken up by our stomachs, which weren't growling but rather yelling at us. The small part of me that's frugal was chiming, "make pancakes" but the hungry and lazy part of me - my stomach - was shouting "BUY DONUTS," which is what we ended up doing.

We walked down 23rd street past the creepy Chelsea Hotel where Nancy Spungeon, was... um...you know... by Sid Vicious, and onto 7th Ave where Doughnut Plant was waiting to change our lives (FOR REAL). Though new to us, Doughnut Plant has been around and innovating the Doughnut eating experience since 1994. You may think it's hard to get the doughnut wrong but that doesn't stop Dunkin Donuts from doing it every day. After awhile I'm just really sick of buying a dry, crusty, glazed donut or a jelly donut with strangely stale jelly.

With all this in mind I went into Doughnut Plant tentatively. The doughnuts were and are a little pricey-$2.75 to $3.75 for all doughnuts on their menu - and I wasn't in the mood to be let down. We ordered Dough-seeds to start. When we opened our bags and looked inside we were a little disappointed with the size of our food - not much bigger than a donut hole. This was going to have to be impressive. They were amazing. I took a bite and my knees went weak. My dough-seed was flavored orange blossom and my roommates raspberry. We'd bought them to split but when I was about to ask her if she wanted a bite, I realized I had none left to share. Filled with a light frothy cream it implodes in your mouth so gently and blissfully you're left wondering what exactly happened to you. This wasn't enough, so we ordered two regular sized doughnuts and went home feeling pregnant.

Of course that didn't stop us from stopping at Mcdonalds where we picked up fries and were almost charged for a refill on BBQ sauce. It's only a matter of time before I send in my application to the biggest loser.

P.S

HAPPY JEWISH NEW YEAR. I may not be jewish but that doesn't mean I wont take up an opportunity to try (and probably fail) to make a new years resolution. If I don't fail though you will start to see weekly posts from me, so GET EXCITED!

My One Exception

Ice cream is my one exception. Even when I'm sticking to my budget - buying only the absolute bare necessities - ice cream sneaks its way in and makes me a little bit happier... and a little bit fatter.
Today I stopped at Van Leewun's Ice Cream Truck (a wonderfully cute little counterpart to their equally cute main store http://www.vanleeuwenicecream.com/) after an interview that I hope went well at one of my favorite stores that starts with an A and ends with a pologie ( and no it's not apologie). I bought earl grey tea flavored ice cream and then walked home from Union Square because, I LIVE IN MANHATTAN AGAIN AND I CAN DO THAT.
This is my apartment:

AND THIS is my KITCHEN:


Needless to say, I'm obsessed with both of them/never leave my apartment/have become a hermit. In actuality though I've been cooking up the wazoo, and between the two film girls living here and the two theater girls living here the constant influx of gay men puts us practically on the same level as Ina Garten ( well maybe not quite, but we're getting there).

This weekend I'm going to a food fair - should be interesting for more reasons than one
(AKA I HAVE A DATE)

Yum Mum (again)

So yesterday I stopped by Yum Mum on St. Marks after work again, thinking maybe I'd try something other than their coveted pork belly. When I walked in the two women working the counter recognized me as "the very enthusiastic pork belly girl" and asked me if I was there to order the "emperor" again. Not knowing what this mysterious "emperor" was, I came to discover that this is their very appropriate nickname for the pork belly over rice dish. I ended up getting the street style noodles with minced pork belly which was a nice switch up and great with the chili sauce. Can't rave enough about this place.

Porchetta and the Greatest Thing Your Eyes Will Ever Eat

A couple weeks ago, my roommate and I went out and had an odd number of experiences jumbled into one eccentric friday evening. We nearly successfully recreated this evening several nights ago. We started our night drinking in the comfort of our dorm while simultaneously karoaking very loudly - I'm sure to our floor mates dismay- the Beatles, Queen, and probably a little Selena Gomez (can't really remember). We left in time to just barely catch happy hour, and then we stumbled around the east village until this "little piggy" caught our eyes(cue drum roll for my perfect pun) 

Porchetta (http://www.porchettanyc.com/). Small, sweet, and hidden in the most obvious place - New York City. Duh. Though we were reluctant to spend ten dollars on a sandwich from a place we'd never heard of, especially while kind of intoxicated, we took a leap of faith - to be trite - and bought what turned out to to be a moist, soft, and delicious representation of pork. I, for one, am not particularly good at preparing pork -it usually turns out tough- or finding good pork recipes so I tend to try to avoid the fiend entirely. This, however, was most definitely an exception. Stuffed between two crunchy and well toasted slices of bread, the decadent roast pork was seasoned with what I detected as fennel - another thing I'm not so fond of - but not overwhelmingly so. Enough that although we weren't entirely surprised by the taste, we were intrigued and given an incentive to continue eating. I will undoubtedly be finding myself back there sometime soon.

The next restaurant was certainly different. We came across it during our original adventure so I won't pretend like it was some magical portal we discovered for the first time the other night; but it certainly is a magical portal. Quoting the restaurant Panna II(http://www.panna2.com/) it is where "chili pepper lights meets christmas lights." This quote is an understatement. Walking into that restaurant is like operating on a piñata. As you sit at your table you almost forget that you're eating. You become mesmerized by what looks like fireworks at very close proximity. The lights are not meant to deflect from their food. Their food could stand alone - its good Indian food, not amazing and not revolutionary - but their food is not why a line of people stand in thirty degree weather waiting for a seat for an undetermined amount of time and its not why it can't help but fill up to capacity every weekend. The picture can only convey so much and honestly I think its only a matter of time before New York City recognizes this spectacle as a national monument. If you don't plan on going to any restaurant besides Applebees - if you can even find one - during your stay in New York, at least make it down to to this hot spot in the frigid east village.

Well I think I've done enough rambling for tonight. Tomorrow I'll be picnicking in central park. More to come.

Hiatus

Good morning new york, or should I say... you know I honestly don’t know what to say. Maybe its because I’m bleeding onto my second consecutive day with absolutely no sleep - yep I did it, I pulled an all nighter ( my first by the way) - and I’m feeling nauseous and disoriented because I’ve lost my glasses. I feel like a little blind mouse, or  even all three of the blind mice. My personality has been raging from absolute lunacy to more subdued and anxious to just plain stupid. Most of the time I think I’m just plain stupid and I blame this on the fact that that I haven't gotten more than three hours of sleep collectively since I got back from Canada three to four weeks ago, or whatever. 

Most of the time I wish I was still in Canada, especially as I was illegally sipping cheapo wine from a thermus that smelled like coffee before a David Sedaris reading back in NYC. David, I love ya and absolutely nothing against you, but It had certainly been a long week; one of many. With wine I’ve been eating cheese, in the comfort of my dorm. Eating out has become less of an option since I dropped the bomb in Canada. While there I climbed a mountain and then treated myself to a poutine - a delicious conglomeration of well seasoned frites (fries - I’m practicing for my french final can you tell?) covered in gravy cheese curds and whatever topping you desire. We ate fries, asian food, and crepes throughout the entirety of our trip dousing it with legally purchased biere rousse ( red beer ). There is something so entirely perfect about being able to drink legally, especially when its good cheap beer. Drinking red beer felt like, to quote my roommate, sipping amber.

Anyways, back to the point, which is that I can’t afford anything because of how much I spent in Canada. SO, I’ve been cooking. AHA, she cooks, I know thats what you are all thinking - all four of you - and yes its true. I do cook when I have the time. My uncle works at Trader Joe’s so periodically I’ll get a gift card in the mail from him ,which is always a nice surprise, and then i’ll go and purchase some tender, salty proscuitto and lace it over a finely picked cantaloupe like ribbon on a blonde baby’s head, or make a pesto pasta and top it with strip steak cooked rare. 


I guess thats why I’m excited to go home, I’ll be leaving today and as much as it saddens me that I’ll be away from the delicacies of New York for five whole weeks, I’m also incredibly happy that I don’t have to eat cafeteria food for that duration and I’ll be able to cook more often. I suppose I’m entering a hiatus, but maybe you’ll get lucky and see some of my own creations soon. Anyways, bye for now New York. You’re one hell of a heartbreaker, but I can’t help but love you anyways. 

Francophone Interests...

Daylight savings time, the preliminary to winter and depression. It's coming, we know it is. For now the orange and red and golden leaves glimmer under the dusky afternoon sun but soon there will be no leaves and no dusk, only the the darkening of our sensibilities under the luminous grey clouds.

What I need is a vitamin lamp - I'm not actually sure if thats what its called but I know there is such a thing and it provides you with sun vitamins: i.e vitamin d. Or I just need to drink more milk or something high in vitamin-ey goodness. or I just need to drink more wine. I'm thinking my best bet is with the wine unfortunately its expensive and illegal...for me at least. I wonder if there is an injection you can get to give you wrinkles so you'll look older, wiser, and less susceptible to being carded. For now I'm guessing either no this does not exist or it does and its more expensive then any illegally purchased wine I've invested in. For now I think I'll stick with wine samples. On saturday I fruitfully tasted several really delicious wines, the first a bubbly non carbonated twice fermented concoction that tasted uncannily like champagne, the second a flatter version but the flavors all the same, and the third a heavily alcoholic syrupy fluid, good for pouring over five ingredient vanilla bean ice cream, as the lady at the booth pointed out. I smiled and nodded dropping a dollar in the tip jar before scurrying away, in fear of being asked for my ID, down into the subway.

That morning I'd left my dorm with the intention of spending a day in central park, maybe stopping by Ladurée for a minute or two to buy a couple macaroons. What it turned into was a mad dash up and down ten blocks and an hour and half wait for five macaroons; and it was completely worth it. As the store pulled  up into view I ferocioulsy joined the line that was curving down the block, just behind a little dog in a fur collared leather jacket and a perplexing group of french people, who snarked repartee back and forth like no one could understand what they were saying. It wasn't so much what they were saying that offended me, rather that they had the audacity to come to New York just to visit Ladurée. Didn't they have their own in the motherland? Hadn't they always?

Once inside the store, I illegally snapped some photos - my second crime of the day - inciting a series of snapshots from behind me and the eventual overhead shouting of the man at the cash register demanding we not take photos. Once at the front of the line, my inner turmoil of whether or not I should have bought a six set of macaroons just to get the cute box or go for the significantly cheaper option of five macaroons without a box came to a climax and I walked away with five extra bucks and no cute box. With a meeting quickly approaching I didn't have time to relax in the park or even taste a macaroon and an hour later, sitting in the library I took a bite into the delicate, crumbling texture of a raspberry macaroon. It dissolved under the heat of my tongue and the tiny little seeds of the raspberry jam tantalized the grooves of the roof of my mouth. I proceeded to eat a caramel macaroon, which was a little to thick and sweet - not enough contrast of flavors - and a pistachio macaroon which was needless to say, perfection. Oh so nobly I sacrificed my two other macaroons to my colleagues, so for now I cannot know the the wonders of the two other flavors I purchased. woe. is. me.

Two Bros ( and whatever I can recall eating in the last week)

Happy Christmas, as the brits say. Halloween has been over in my mind since Saturday even though it just happened two nights ago. I spent my Saturday watching Elf and listening to the bells of a nearby church or bell tower or notre dame or whatever lying in my bed with a platter of Suzy's finest chinese to keep me company. To my dismay, I was dragged out that evening and it was then that I experienced my first bitter cold NYC evening. After about an hour of a so-so swing dancing event,  my roommate and I detoured to 30 rock at midnight to break into SNL. Little did we know, there was no show that evening and as we arrived in the freezing cold, my gloves soaked through due to excessively throwing snowballs at taxis, we found ourselves locked out of the building on the glorious pavement just in front of the famous ice skating rink.

Oh to be a New Yorker. Not that I felt like one that night. No, as I raved manically in front of monuments and demanded my roommate take extraneous amounts of photos of me with my arms outstretched and my hair lightly dusted with snow-none of which turned out very good I might add- I felt like a full fledged tourist. Our pitstop at the Mcdonalds across from Times Square only confirmed this.

I must say though, I do miss Mcdonalds. Back home I had it once a week at least, usually more. It was odd to walk in and see that new cuisines had joined their smorgasbord of delicacies. This is something I would have known and discussed in California. I began to wonder what it was I even spoke of anymore, what had my life become? I had to restrain myself from indulging and bought only a coffee.

It was all I could afford. In fact its all I've been able to afford for weeks. Where i've been drawing my food funds from I cannot say, as I painfully checked my bank statements to find I had negative one dollar in savings little more than a week ago. Of course it was that same day a friend of my suggested we all go to a restaurant before our study session. While I wanted to propose instead going to a dining hall, I inevitably ended up at this restaurant.

Two Bro's on St. Marks. A reasonable looking pizza shop. As we approached the entrance an A rating flashed my eyes and I pretty much knew it was going to be out of my price range. Walking in, the pizza man slammed his fist on the dough and looked up at a startled me asking what I'd have. I told him just cheese and an ironed out pizza was handed to me. My teeth bared, I waited for the price. 2 dollars! for a slice of cheese that is. That's a slice of veggie which is 2.50 or something. Still a bargain, especially considering the A rating. It's good to know poor people can eat vermin free meals too. Check it out the pizza, it's good.

Crapaway

So pumped right now. I don't know why coffee does this to me but my mind is so filled with everything, its like someone has injected thoughts into my brain like a drug. So I said it I'm on drugs, if thoughts were drugs.

It's made me want chinese, the caffeine I mean. Some spicy shezwan beef, with the little carrot slices sauteed in some asian cocktail of perfection. oooh yes please. My other roommate was telling me about some chinese porridge that they apparently put a funky egg into. I'll find out more details about that and let you know soon. Back to the chinese; I'm in the library trying to convince my roommate to order takeout but she wont respond, why must she do this to me?

My desire for chinese has been growing since last night when I mistakenly detoured to Crapaway, excuse me Crepeaway, the mediocre crepe ( gourmet taco restaurant in disguise) restaurant located on Waverly Place. It stays open till three in the morning every night so that drunk college students can roll in and get their fill on thick undesireable tortillas filled with an extraneous amount of nutella. They offer you a number of options ranging from savory to sweet, but their savory crepes are usually loaded with harsh meats that drown out both the textures and tastes of anything else they choose to "decorate" it with - cheese's, vegetables, etc - and their sweet crepes are deliriously decadent and a prank waiting to happen. I ordered the simba - a sack of diarrhea mixed with melted chocolate chips and peanut butter sauce or something. The chocolate chips melted instantly and turn into a more watery less appealing version of nutella and I found myself in a puddle which was disgusting, needless to say.

On a more positive note, their Rusty's arent bad persay - a crepe with butter and brown sugar - but I wouldn't say they're worth six bucks, not that anything really is, in New York.
Going to Eataly tomorrow. More later.

Sundaes and Cones

I dont understand life. I don't, I just don't get it. I just want to eat, that will make me feel better. Unfortunately all we have in our dorm is mayonnaise, mustard, and milk - not that I'm knocking any of those things but I'm kind of in the mood for something a little more substantial: peanut butter. I get my fill on that usually. Sometimes I'll dip fruit in my peanut butter or mix it with nutella like a homemade reese's, but better. Yum.

The sad part is I'm not hungry really, I mean I am but I can get on just fine without eating. It's not like I'm going to die, and if I were I would just eat mayonnaise - its good. 

My roommate, went to L'adurée today. I'm going to link you the website because its the cutest thing I've ever seen ever. http://www.laduree.fr/. click the present, for me, just do it. She bought a box of macaroons for fifteen bucks, because she can do that, because she's rich now. She just got a job tutoring for some loaded kids who live in their own apartment building. their own apartment building. Their dad owns the business underneath which explains why they own the whole building. but still.

I worked all day for the most part, not making nearly as much as my roommate - not that I'm bitter. I bought B grade pizza for lunch. It wreaked of disease, but it was either that or "grade pending" sushi. The choice is obvious. 

I should start getting ready soon but my mind is still on my ice cream, probably because I snagged a few Sundaes and Cones (http://www.sundaescones.com/home.htm) business cards, which are now staring up at me from my desk,  just for the sake of decor on my way out with my cone. Thats a lie, I actually didn't leave the shop - it would have been a crime to do so. Even in the worst most cynically depressed manic suicidal mind states, I can't help but feel that Sundaes and Cones would save my life, like the seal that helped the guy who survived jumping off the golden gate bridge. Sundaes and Cones is my seal. I got pralines and cream today, it was good but I should have gotten cantaloupe. They have that and its an ice cream, not a sorbet. They also have wasabi and corn, and the wasabi is white, which I don't understand. It's kind of an optical illusion actually, because they put the wasabi flavor next to pistachio so you think you're looking at wasabi when really its the white gunk next to it. I'm not fond of their bertie botts flavors but otherwise its the closest thing to perfection I've found in frozen desserts since I've been here, and I'm a block from a gelatto place that turns your ice cream into flowers. They're good too, but it isn't the same. 

I could go for some pasta.