Recently in foodage Category

USELESS HEADER
it's been a fairly quiet couple of weeks, january and february.  my first attempt to see my new niece josie was thwarted by a massive snow poop.  then my niece may's bday celebrations were snowed out too by passing snowstorms (whups), which in turn pushed our backlogged plans into my dad's 60th birthday vicinity.  eventually we just met up this past weekend to consolidate my seeing my new niece for the first time, may's birthday (well...really just giving her her gift), and a lunch for my dad.  silly weather...stop fucking up my plans.

I WENT OUT
prior to that tho was the usual smattering of dinners and drinkage, amongst them ippudo with sara (wow...finally.  fuck you ippudo), le singe vert with margie, and harefield road drinkage for fonz and erin's post-wedding celebrations (even tho they married over a month ago).

THIRD PLACE
as a random aside too, while we were hanging out at my parents house this past weekend, i went digging thru my room for some things i'd left behind when i moved to my new apartment.  and by chance i came across a bronze track medal i won my freshman year (the only medal i won during my short but illustrious career).  so of course i snatched it up to bring home.  my brother-in-law dave mentioned how they don't really give out medals anymore.  instead they give trophies to the school.  i'm thinking to myself, wow...that sucks. so much for individual achievements.  not to mention the medals pretty boss.  anyhoo, it's going on display somehow in my apartment.  maybe i'll frame it.  woot.

crap, the journal has yet again fallen to the wayside.  i'm going to blame....*spins the wheel-o-blame"...my job this time.  for inundating me with short deadlines and then making me tired once i get home.  ya.  for real.

i had on the agenda a massive post ala anna's year-end photo recollection, but that's turning out to be taking muuuuuch longer than anticipated.  so fuck it.  i'll post it when i post it.  in the meantime tho, a recollection of the year thus far.  it's already halfway thru january...time just continues to fly right by.



JOSIE ELLA
first and foremost...welcome josie ella to the world!  my new niece. ella was my suggestion too.  she rocks.  niece's rock, because i get to be a proud uncle without having to deal with the actual parenting.  it's a win-win situation.  a concern we're having at the moment however is, given her older sister's astonishingly advanced developmental state (i know parents/uncles/whatever always say this...but seriously, this is not hyperbole), we've postulated that she may in fact turn out to be functionally retarded.  or something.  too many awesome genes were invested in may.  we don't know what was left for josie.  i know...feel the love emanating from her uncle.  just kidding, we <3 josie.

REWIND
two weekends ago was hot pot at my place with jen di, sarah, and crew.  i'm very much liking a semi-regular hot pot to be honest.  it's a social activity that involves everything i love...eating, drinking liquor, and watching movies.  we followed this up with thursday noodling at the excellent pork chop house with di and em.  they'd never been, so i felt like it was my obligation to wise them to the goodness that is taiwanese cuisine.  we headed next door after dinner to apotheke, which was hilarious considering two drinks cost more than the entirety of our dinner a few feet away.  they however did send us free rounds of their mulled wine, called gluwein.  very soothing.  after apotheke, we migrated to the whiskey tavern to meet up with more people and continue our drinking (with the addition of tater tots).  i felt like shit the next morning...it was super.

and hmm...yea, i didn't do shit this past weekend.  doh!

i really do wish there were a way to stretch the period of time between thanksgiving and christmas.  it flies by way too fast.  maybe we should move thanksgiving to sometime in...august.  yes, august...then we can pop out the christmas decorations at the end of summer and ride the holiday season all through fall and winter.  word.

END OF NOVEMBER
hmm, i guess i haven't posted a "journal" entry in a while.  bullet-point time...or at the least a summation of various things i did, but without the specific times or days.  the end of november saw fonz's berfday drinkies at 2a in e.vil, luis' berfday drinks the following day at the whiskey tavern in chinatown, brunch with pho at nyonya (hey they moved across the street!), and thanksgiving with my sis and her extended family in joisey.

DECEMBER PROPER
decembers events are a bit better catalogued, and it started with a mini-hot pot gathering at my place last weekend with i4, max, patsy, mai, and john.  we loaded up enough food from chinatown for probably a small village and fired up dual hot pots.  we got stuffed.  it was good.  i spent the rest of the week in a food coma, then met up with melissa friday nite at robata-ya for plates and plates of robata goodness.  i think (it's a bit fuzzy) we also tore thru a round of shochu, followed by 3 rounds of sake.  this was then expounded upon with 2 more rounds of sake at decibel, and another 2 rounds of...stuff...at angels share.  i'm surprised that i shook it off as easily as i did the next day.

di and i went to check out the samurai exhibit at the met the next day.  the exhibit was ending january 10th (it's a relatively short exhibit), and this was one exhibit that i would stab someone with a shank if i missed.  the sizable collection of robes, samurai armor, and seriously gorgeous katanas made me giddy, though i sort of regretted that i took this long to see it (they change out the exhibit every week or so since their collection for the exhibit was larger than the amount displayed).  god i hope they bring back a similar exhibit in the future. 

afterwards, we decided on a ramen dinner in midtown.  this was actually a stupid idea...i don't know what i was thinking.  we got out of the 6 train and had to fight our way west towards sapporo on 49th and broadway.  and for those unfamiliar with midtown geography, rockefeller center is between the 6 train and the aforementioned ramen joint.  *sigh* well, i will admit it was nice walking past the rockefeller christmas tree.  i hadn't actually seen it in person in years.  so purty.  after our ramen dinner, we decided to get the fuck out of midtown and back to more familiar locales (e.vil, duh).  we actually had decided on cha-an for a post-dinner tea retreat, but that was overruled after seeing the long line winding down the stairs.  fuck that...we're going to go get liquored.  i'm not usually one to double-dip bars on the same weekend, but yea...i found myself back at angels share. this was however ok, as we tried out their seasonal fair this time around.  di had their "hot cocoa" drink (earl gray infused godiva chocolate liqueur) and i had their "hot apple cider" (calvados, hot apple cider, caramel syrup, and roasted apple slices)...holy shit good.  we also chatted up our neighbors to our left who were curious about the drinks and about eats around the area (you asked the right dude!). 

i sort of just upgraded mt, and then neglected to take it for a spin until now.  i have however since tweaked the design and layout to a point that i'm fairly happy with.  it's a 'variation' on what the old journal used to look like, which i suppose is moot considering i didn't even keep copies of the old layout files.  oops.  anyhoo...its purty enough for me at this point.  the ajax script was a wee annoying to incorporate when combined with how the archive pages are stored (had a hiccup in the coding for a few days)...but even that's sorted out.  go me!  and i say that with the knowledge that my web skills are pretty shit these days, compared to my more outgoing days in the distant past.

GENERIC JOURNAL ENTRY
huh, and i noticed that while i was posting up my journal entries for prague, i didn't even bother to log into my journal my social shenanigans.  so in turn, i have to dial the journal all the way back to the beginning of october.  gar. 

WILLIAMSBURG!
well...sometime in the not-so-distant past, i made it a point to hang out in williamsburg with kayako.  it was a dinner meet-up, with neither really deciding where to go til i made it a point to say "i'm down for anywhere really...even your neighborhood...hint hint".  i just felt the need to get out of manhattan and away from my usual watering holes that weekend.  so we ended up at dumont burger...i think it was.  it was good stuff, tho at that point i was feeling a little under the weather (sickness possibly).  we hung out later at k's place mixing fancy drinks and then imbibing the aforementioned fancy drinks.

i met my family for brunch the next morning so i could give my niece her gift i got in prague.  she sort of tossed it aside and then sat on it.  adorable.  on the bright side tho, she calls me uncle now and is growing up frighteningly fast.  ohny was that weekend too, but i wasn't feeling so hot and ended up holing away in my apartment the rest of the weekend (sorry margie!)

FRIED CHICKEN HUNTING
the following weekend was a group trip with hosan and company to congee village to check out their chinese version of fried chicken...called garlic chicken.  that was all kinds of awesome.  sadly, that was the highlight of that weekend, as i spent the rest of it staring at my apartment ceiling.  k, big stretches of time doing nothing...super.  oh here we go...we had our second dinner with building-mates at el paso on 104th.  it was good eating...drinking too. we've been trying to do it every other month, but this is obviously easier said than done.  still fun tho to eat around the neighborhood, because god knows i wouldn't bother if left to my own devices.  the following friday was also dinner at max and patsy's.  we were expecting frightening scottish fare, but instead got pretty rockin' lasagna.  thumbs up.  and finally...yesterday was a small get-together with cornell aap alumns in dumbo at rebar.  that was fun...and a first.  they got some feedback from us about what to do and what not to do.  do's included short surveys, more meet-ups (preferably with liquor), and more often...because its too easy to lose touch with people.  don'ts included long surveys...and no liquor.  or something.  yea.  k...this post took too long, blah.  stupid fancy formatting.

this weekend is a photoshoot for a yoga studio.  at 7:30 in the morning.  yea, it'll suck  massive.

ooh...a slight chill is starting to blow thru new york city. at night anyway...and early morning too. it's actually making my apartment uncomfortable, given that they tend to crank the communal a/c regardless (which affects my bedroom, but not my living room), so i may go to bed slightly hot, but wake up freezing. its weird.

so here's the typical summary of my life up to now. having had this journal now for 6 fucking years really takes its toll on the quality of writing im willing to expend on these posts. not that my oldest posts were in any way eloquent. i can say however that i probably put a bit more effort into writing them. whatever, thats not the case anymore. so rewinding back...plusan and her friends showed up in the city right around my birthday. it was the first time in nyc for a few of them. i met up with plusan for brunch in the morning at cafe henri in west village, but i technically spent the majority of my birthday in woodbury commons shopping with them. for 6 and a half hours. yea. well, i insisted...so we could have time to hang out. regardless tho...i just wanted to highlight. SIX. AND. A. HALF. HOURS. after we got back into the city, we immediately headed to kun jip to nosh.

friday nite i met up with them again at jadis for some wine and relaxation. saturday was our reservations at gordon ramsay's maze, which was good, but surprisingly unspectacular, given how big of a raging dick he is about food and cooking. we followed this up with my mini-berfday drink-ups at en (like last year, yep)...sake and food all around. we even rounded out the nite with a bit of a crawl over to ear inn afterwards til the wee hours. ah fun fun. and sunday i made breakfast at my place for plusan...then a pinkberry run before they caught their flight out of the city. bai bai!

hmm...what did i do the rest of the time? oh right...korean with sally, then dinner with hosan at city winery (that place is massive) along with follow-up drinks at en (i like the place...deal with it). then i made my way back home to see my niece, whos now all grown and stuff and is talking and dancing around. shit they really do grow fast. after that, i bussed it back into the city because we had a rooftop party in my building. that was all kinds of awesome...ill admit i hadnt even been up there since i started looking to buy there in the first place. and now we wind up at this week, where i had intended to meet up with sara for ramen at ippudo. but because that place is still overrun by fucking nyu kids, pushing wait times to an hour (for ramen...seriously!?) we decided on setagaya instead, where we waited approximately 2 minutes after we ordered before they brought our hearty bowls of ramen out to us. <3.

prague is coming up fast...word. this time next week, i will be on a plane headed over the atlantic. wait, is it friday?

* checks email *

this time+1 day...yes, i will be on a plane headed over the atlantic. woot.

septembers right around the corner...where did august go? oh right, it came and went with a plethora of video posts from io9 and gizmodo. damn i still <3 that gi joe vid. amongst the things ive done this month (conveniently culled from my iphone calendar)...bday drinks (not mine) in brooklyn at harefield road, dinner with building-mates at yo in yo out, a mini reunion with joan and joyce at flea market (i hadn't seen joyce in months, and joan in...erm, 5 years?), burger brunch with hosan at blue ribbon bakery, followed by a mid-week sake tasting too at satsko, and whew...let me catch my breath.

* pause *

k...along with excellent pork chop house with troche and pho (the beef noodle soup was particularly excellent that day), and gina's brief return to nyc this week...celebrated with hasaki and drinkies at scratchers. oh, and tomorrow's my birthday. rock on.

FRONT YARD
as for the picture above...i spent this weekend putting up the tree graphic i had custom made from dezign with a z. it's erm, actually about a foot below where it should be (you should see a bit of the tree trunk above the couch). but yea, that didn't quite work out as planned. that was about as high as i could conceivably get the graphic, short of getting a mid-life growth spurt of a few inches.

compared to the original rendering also, i over-stretched the vector file i sent them. not to mention the couch i decided to use in the rendering was actually lower than my actual couch...doh! but aside from what appears to be griping (they're not actually...just observations in hindsight), the tree actually looks pretty damn good on my wall. much <3 to dezign with a z. now to work on my bedroom (and maybe even get that rug)...

summers already half over...crikeys. and it hasnt been much of a summer either. between all the thunderstorms and chilly weather, its really only been summer for like, 5 days. maybe 6.

the term "summer doldrums" comes to mind to describe this summer so far. it cant really be helped when a good number of friends are either out of work, worried that theyll be out of work, or in general just feeling in the dumps. bleh. well, life goes on anyhoo, and hopefully this time next year, we'll be back to "normal"...

friday was an choi with di. an old co-worker of hers was one of the owners (tho he wasnt there that night). relaxing little place with good vietnamese. we roamed for drinks afterwards too...id been cooped up in my apartment too much and was in no mood to go home.

i lazy'd around the apartment saturday, photoshopping up my atlanta trip (ooh, i keep meaning to make another post about that), and other odds and ends. sunday was harry potter and the half-blood prince with max and patsy at the imax. oooh...imax, and 3d, word. the movie was pretty damn good, even if i was disappointed with a few changes they made from the book (oh noes...im becoming like one of those people!) as a movie tho, much of it made sense in terms of streamlining and focusing on specific themes and narratives. its just...you know...there was suppose to be a big fight! ah well...

the rest of the summers looking a little dull til the end of august. *sigh*

ah, februarys nearly done. that was fast. theres actually alot i meant to post, but i seemed to always find a distraction (a backlog of approximately 10 anime series will do that...heehee). so heres the quick recap vaguely outlining things ive done.

MAY DAY
to start off with, my niece may turned one back in the first week of february. yay may! her birthday will most likely coincide with the super bowl every year from now on...which will be interesting.

IM STILL EATING
various foodie outings included a welcome-back for steph at en (but now shes back in amsterdam...pooters), bcd tofu house with ky, fried chicken at redhead (yurmy yurm!) with ren, brunch with hosan at the new company in west village, rodizio in newark with fishy...who i hadnt seen in forever and whos not fond of being mentioned in these posts (ha!), and massive japanese bbq at gyu-kaku with milton (who was visiting from seattle) and a sizeable hk contingent.

REMAINDERS
last night was also the opening of the new droog showroom in soho, and i got to go in sub-studios place hehe. i liked their work while i was in amsterdam, so im hoping they bring their same design sense to their showroom in nyc. i dont want it to turn into another nauseatingly pretentious moss gallery.

there are probably numerous things that fell thru the cracks, but meh. i also have a number of pics to post too...maybe those will jog my memory a bit. ill get to the pics this weekend...i swear! no really. ill also be doing another anime round-up soon enough, because i burn thru animes like toilet paper now. word!

holy nuts its almost halloween already. and following that, thanksgiving, then the happy holiday season...woot. in the meantime tho, my parents are roaming eastern europe. i think. im never sure, because they just up and leave willy-nilly. but whatever...usual excuse about not posting, blah blah blah. but you know...my friends were just in chicago a week ago(?). and i thought it was for vacation. it turns out they were sent there by vw to test out a new car! and all because of their design blog. damnit...i never got any perks like that. =( i think the most i ever got was the premiere for life aquatic, and even then that was thru tien. im totally not utilizing my blog effectively...

anyhoo, running down the list of things ive done these past few weeks...din with grace whos visiting from texas, beer at radegast beer hall in williamsburg, din with fonz (my old roomie and high school friend) at amor cubano, wine tasting at bacchus, brunch/lunch with pho at nyonya, the new cornell dean reception on the 7th floor of the new museum (purrty views), and hey...korean bbq tonite with m and mikey. ah that was easy...

look at that...suburban lethargy overwhelmed me again, draining all desire to post. but i saw this coming, and jotted down notes anyhoo. rewinding what i think is 2 weeks...thursday drinkies at brass monkey with g+r, steph, kyoko, and dano. itd been a while since we'd been to brass monkey, probably since we had moved offices at my old job from the meat packing district to the west village. damn that place got big, and not in a figurative sense...they added a second floor and what looked like a roof deck. cripes. i crashed at g+r's too because we were out late, and i wanted to "practice" the commute from my soon-to-be new home to work. shit, its faster than getting their from alphabet city! thats just wrong...

my friday plans with di got postponed to saturday brunch...oops. so satty morning i met up at essex with di and her roomie and had a yum brunch, then roamed around the lower east side.

the following wednesday i had din at dieci with m, thursday with marisol at...some italian place in hells kitchen (cant remember name, but it was yum). then sunday was a semi-bai bai dinner for sally at luzzu's and then after-din ice cream from alphabet scoop. sallys still around and all, but will be heading back to the boonies (aka: ithaca) for grad school in august. boo-urns.

thursday was foodies with steph at blue ribbon, where i had some fancy fried-chicken...yum yum. and friday i met up with g+r for some sushi action at hasaki. chef's omakase...damn that was some good sashimi. and shit, if andrew zimmerns going to be oohing all over the (baby-poop-looking) sea urchin, ill give it a try too. i have to admit, it was mighty damn tasty.

k thats all my brain can remember at this point. whatever. its almost august eh...august is going to be one crazy month. on the to-do list...sis' berfday coming up, cribbs is coming up to visit from texas (word!), mins wedding that same weekend, alice and lysha are coming to visit from amsterdam (omg!), then a certain someone is having a massive turning-30 blowout, then closing on my new apartment (finally!). hoo-wee...fucking a.