random images

this is my second tomato of 2008.

the first was harvested in the second week of july. very tasty for an early, as advertised. it's a stupice.

we visited my parents over the weekend, and i watched the master choose tomatoes. he made a salad with fresh herbs from the neighbor's garden.

we took my 12 year old niece to every sight there is to see in DC.

panda

live butterfly exhibit

her fave, library of congress.

a sunday

one morning warren and i remembered that we live in new york.

so we went to the met.

i felt guilty dashing past the turner exhibit. i know it's important, but i found it boring. warren always gravitates to the medieval stuff. i always gravitate to mary magdalen. anyway, we always end up exhausted and grouchy.

we walked up past the reservoir to the conservatory garden.

it's not that well known because it's so far north, 105th st, on the east side, but it's my second favorite garden in the city, after the 6bc.

i suggest planning a visit and then having ethiopian food on amsterdam afterwards. there is nowhere to eat on the upper east side.

the queen anne's lace was enormous. mine has finally bloomed but is only about 2 inches high. WTF?

bbq chicken on st. mark's

and now for our guest blogger, mr champion, with a review of tonight's dinner:

hi. tonight we had bbq chicken, a new chicken place on st. mark's place. i think they're korean or chinese, who can tell the difference? anyway, i've always loved fried chicken, even though i was raised a vegetarian. my grandma would sneak me off to chik-fil-a or kfc whenever she could, but never popeye's (my favorite) because that was in the black neighborhood in cleveland. by the way, despite the name, bbq chicken is a fried chicken place, they don't even have barbeque chicken. but like i said, they're asian, so don't hold it against them.

back to business-- we ordered the five piece sweet spice chicken combo with mac and cheese, cole slaw, mashed potatoes, and biscuits. all for $12.95! not a bad deal. it was in one word: AWESOME! so greasy and crunchy and juicy, not very spicy though. i think they use corn flakes in the batter and they fry only using extra virgin olive oil. i'll try the hot wings next time and see if they're chinese hot or white people hot. the sides were also really good. one bad thing- our order took over 40 minutes for some reason. but they made up for it by giving us ANOTHER FIVE PIECES! it was so crunchy, i'll bet it still is when i have it for breakfast tomorrow.

so, to sum things up, bbq chicken fried chicken brought out the champion in me and made me feel like i could accomplish any task i set out to do. this is truly a chicken for winners, made by winners. with them behind me, i will conquer the galaxy!

nb- after briefly looking at their website, it seems they're korean, but they have restaurants in china too. very confusing.

thank you, mr champion. i hope we get to read more reviews from you in the future. i guess only if the food actually makes you feel like a champion, though, because otherwise you won't be mr champion.

here they are