weekend

over the weekend i made:

a pie from scratch--blackberry, strawberry, nectarine and plum--using shortening for the first time in my crust--next time i'll use more butter,

a kind of fresh corn pancake, which involved heating a skillet in the oven, and four hands to flip it onto the plate.

and a casserole of farmers' market tomatoes, squash, (ridiculously expensive) ocra, peppers and basil.

i also deveined some shrimp for something my dad made, courtbouillon; it was fantastic. he's retiring this week, so i was visiting. we both love cooking and cook well together and tend to cook up a storm whenever i visit. he never visits me; i don't have a kitchen.

we talked about his future as a writer--never having written anything after college--his travels, of which he's had much, why he married my mom and my not ever having children. i am finally used to the idea that he is proud of me and admires me. and i really don't blame him.

east village cheap eats

cheap places to eat in the east village that you may not ever have tried otherwise because they don't necessarily look good and that ive never gotten sick from--sorry, the addresses might be block off at the most because i never pay attention to where i am:


east village thai (7th st btw 2nd and 3rd ave)
best thai food in the east village.* and ive tried a lot of them, having lived here for six years. not really a sit down and eat place though, cuz they only have like 2 tables and there's no "decor". my friend will lee turned me on to this place, and he's lived here his whole life.

downtown bakery (2nd ave btw 4th and 5th st)
yummy cuban sandwiches. super cheap. and they bake the bread right there. beware, the mexican food is so-so, though. and the egg sandwiches are awesome for breakfast cuz of the fresh baked roll and being really cheap.

pak pujab (1st ave and 3rd st), chutney (houston btw 1st ave and ave a), punjabi (next door to chutney)
pakistani food, cafeteria style, for homesick cab drivers. superduper cheap. and ive never gotten sick at any of them.

these two places have good food and look good too:

ginger (1st ave btw 7th and 8th)
not superduper cheap, but for midrange-priced sushi, i.e. four dollar makis, it's the best in the neighborhood by far. way fresher.

dumpling man
this guy, yes, there's actually a dumpling man, researched dumpings for years and came up with four perfect recipes, vegetarian, pork, shrimp and chicken. the wrappers are made by hand. rolled right in front of you, by real chinese ladies! again, cheap.

unfortunately i'm such a fan of rainbow falafel on 17th st and union sq west that i never get falafel in my own neighborhood cuz it's so not as good. but i love having brunch at cafe mogador, it's my favorite brunch place, perfectly poached eggs every single time, crispy chunks of potato, great cappuccino, my dog can sit next to me outside. and their hummus, tabouli platter is a perfect non breakfast meal. it's not on the list cuz it's not cheap.**

lately though my absolute favorite meal is the result of a trip to the farmer's market, union sq on saturday, tompkins on sunday. yesterday i had corn and a salad of baby kale, buckwheat sprouts and sunflower sprouts. with white concord grapes for dessert. (incidentally, mario batali was there on sunday being filmed shopping; his people probably stole that idea from my blog.)

as long as we're being all opinionated and stuff, my favorite record at the moment is *lovers and losers* by alice lee.
listen to sample tracks
buy it
she's also playing at the knitting factory on sept 30 which is a friday. ill be there.

*edited to add: klong on st. marks is better.
**edited to add: there is now a mamoun's falafel on st. marks, which is awesome.

prospect park

what gives me the most pleasure these days is taking my dog somewhere she has never been where she can be off leash. she spends most of the time right at my side, though, and perhaps this is what i love about our trips really. on labor day we went to prospect park, in the entirety of which, BTW, if you are a dog owner and dont know this, dogs can romp with naked necks at will. she had huge lawns at her disposal. the first thing she did when we got there was run five largish circles around us. yes, i counted. then we played fetch, well, not really, she doesnt really fetch, she runs after the stick and then refuses to return it, necessitating running after her and getting it each time.

and then we went to "dog beach". it is an area of a pond that dogs are allowed into. the water isnt even that gross! i cant believe i havent been going there all summer. she loved it. even though she cant swim. she was watching the dogs who could, though, and i think if we go there enough, she will learn. i read that dogs learn to swim from each other.

then we went to bierkraft and got beer and a washed rind cheese from colorado and peet's coffee. that place is awesome! they even gave mimi some niman ranch pastrami. i was inquiring because i am afraid to eat beef now unless it is niman ranch because of mad cow and plus it uses up a lot of resources to make beef, so it's very unecological. but i didnt want pastrami, i wanted roast beef. so we stuck with the beer and cheese and coffee. oh, and chocolate.

faceboyz

hi. if you are someone i dont know, really even if you are, i recommend to you the following event:

faceboyz open mic nite
tonight, which is sunday the 4th, and every sunday
9 PM
@ Mo Pitkins--it's a bar
Ave A around 3rd st.
$4

it is an open mic. you can do anything you want on stage, with very few restrictions. everybody gets to perform. you get eight minutes. great, great show. the only one youll ever see recommended here.

untitled

ive been told recently that i am scary because i am too honest. that i should lie more and be more deceptive in general, and that that would make people feel more comfortable. all i have to say to that is, "welcome to the desert of the real." that's a quote from the matrix, which is my favorite movie. i took the red pill.

interesting beginner essay

why doesnt "scary" have an "e" in it?

recently i have taken to reading fowler's before i go to bed at night, much as someone might read the bible, since i am all caught up on my new yorker reading. it is awesome. last night i read the entry entitled "hackneyed phrases". one of them is "curate's egg"; another is "clerk of the weather". hmm. needless to say, i am reading it with a grain of salt--it was first published in 1926--much as one might read the bible, which was published considerably earlier.

finally, i publically hereby pronounce the magazine, *radar*, lame. even though i chuckled twice upon reading the ABCs of something or other aloud to friends yesterday in order to prove how lame it was. but, importantly, i did not finish the article nor have i read more than three articles total in *radar magazine*. amen.

great.

i'm getting spam on my blog. do fries come with that?

new editor on the block

the stars of our show, upon seeing my episode, asked the producers if there was a new editor on the series because they loved it so much!