Paul and Mari, two of my more fabulous friends, took me out for birthday dinner a couple of weeks early. We went to Smoke Chophouse, a steak restaurant across the street from my job. I’ve worked here for nearly five years, and I’d never before eaten at that restaurant. Big mistake. On Mondays they have $15 lobster (total, not per pound), and Mari and I really enjoyed ours. Paul got an Angus burger, which he said was very good. Tuesdays they have happy hour, so I think that Luz and I may have another happy hour to add to our rotation.
It’s okay that I find a lot of (American?) vegan food boring, because I’m not vegan. A couple of my favorite food blogs are actually vegetarian and vegan (respectively), so it’s not that I can’t appreciate anything that’s not 100% carnivore-oriented (unlike my Southern father, who scoff at any meal I have that does not include at least one animal product). I just know that I’m not the target audience of vegan/vegetarian publications, so if what they’re showing doesn’t appeal to me, it’s not as though these outlets have somehow failed to reach their base.
Failing, in that case, might involve, oh, a vegan lifestyle magazine and web site using images of non-vegan/vegetarian foods in their spreads and only admitting to it after being found out by a blogger. Um…seriously? I don’t care how small your budget is, dude. If you’re trying to sell people on maintaining a vegan lifestyle, I would think that showing actual vegan products and foodstuffs, no matter how airbrushed, would be amongst the least of your efforts.
If you have an extra $15 lying around (or are willing to skip Starbucks for a couple of days), you could do a great thing for a New York family in need. Please consider donating to the Food Bank for New York, so that a family in need can have a Thanksgiving full of food and familial awkwardness.
I’m always on the lookout for a new recipe. Just last week, I made a jambalaya that I really liked and will definitely be making again. But if that doesn’t float your boat, how about a nice meal of squirrel with red wine and juniper? If this sounds like something you’d want to make/eat, click this link to see a very detailed instructional video on how to do so.
Who knew? Also, the Lewinsky jokes practically write themselves.
My new favorite wine.
As somebody who just shipped a boatload of alcohol from California, the proposed legislation talked about in this article makes me very sad.
Yesterday a friend and I decided that we wanted Vietnamese for lunch. Thai restaurants in Englewood are plentiful, but there’s only one place to get Vietnamese food. We walked down Palisade Avenue to the restaurant, but were met with a weird sight when we arrived. The awning still said “Saigon Republic,” but there were sloppily placed construction paper cutouts on the window that spelled out “Asia Time.” Despite the fact that this has got to be the most generic name ever for a restaurant that serves Asian cuisine, we went inside anyway. They’d changed the decor (for the better, actually), and we still weren’t sure whether this place was a new restaurant or simply redecorated, until we received the Asia Time menu with the Thai food and relatively high prices. We thanked the hostess, asked for and received a lunch menu, and went to Kratiem, a tried and true Thai restaurant up the street.
I was really bummed that Saigon R was no more, and checked ye olde Google to find out what was up. And, happy day! it turns out that the restaurant is just moving to Tenafly (as per the owners’ web site). Even though we’ll now have to go to Tenafly to get it, their yummy duck will be worth the trip!
Damn, I just made myself really hungry.
I haven’t had a Smirnoff Ice since the early 2000’s. I’d feel ashamed to admit that, but I’m sure that at some point we’ve all drunk something that we’d just as soon forget. In my defense, I was young and stupid, and SI looked really cool after you threw in a Skittle or two.
But I’m wondering what excuse people have now for this Icing thing I read about on Gothamist. (I really want to make a “young people” joke, but I’m pretty sure that most Gothamist people are my contemporaries.) The New York Times regards it as a form of viral marketing, which it certainly could be, but why would you do this? Smirnoff Ice stuff is vile. Its color-changing properties are the beginning and end of its awesomeness. My advice for summer get-togethers: save your friendships and buy some better alcohol (which you should still not force one another to consume).
If you’re in a restaurant and your 2-year-old drinks alcohol that you ordered, and was placed on your table with your party’s other drinks, it’s your fault. Not the waiter’s, not the restaurant’s. How could these people even kind of think that their reactions were reasonable? If I were that restaurant, I would have banned them for being negligent parents, crappy customers, and pretty useless in general.
I’ve just decided that May is going to be Personal Responsibility Month on this blog.
So I just got home from Boston where, as usual, I had a blast. I think that my opinion of Boston is skewed because I’m always there expressly to have fun; what city could suck when one’s only goal is to be entertained? We stayed at The Back Bay Hotel (thank Jeebus for Priceline), which was awesome, but whose unlimited free wireless would have earned it my undying love even if it had been only half as good. The hotel was in a great location for us to walk whereever we wanted to go, which is great, since we walked everywhere the entire weekend. For somebody as lazy as I am, this is quite an accomplishment. Actually, I don’t usually consider walking as real exercise, as you can look around and talk while doing it without losing your breath, but I definitely haven’t walked that much since I was in Europe last year.
Newbury Street was really close to our hotel, which is great, since there are some incredible restaurants on it. We went to:
- La Voile – French, awesome. The pan-seared fois gras is pretty amazing and the portion is insanely generous.
- Stephanie’s on Newbury – Great brunch, smart casual.
- The Other Side Cafe – Another brunch spot, much more casual/vegan-friendly/inexpensive than Stephanie’s.
- Pazzo – Italian. Unassuming space, pretty tasty food.
- J. P. Licks – Great ice cream. Crazy flavors, too.
We really wanted burritos from Boloco this morning before we headed home, but they didn’t open until 10, and we were on the road by a little after 9. It was a great, relaxed and fun weekend, and even the rain that greeted us as we neared New Jersey didn’t ruin the good mood I’ve got going!
Food and Drink | Nicole | 
May 11, 2012 2:27 pm | 
Comments Off on A really awesome dinner I had the other day 
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