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Yanking My Chain

Beijingstarbucks

Lucky me. I’ll be heading to Buenos Aires just in time try Argentina’s first Starbucks, which opens today in Palermo, the neighborhood I will be residing in tomorrow morning.

Ok, I have no strong opinion on Starbucks one way or the other (as you saw last week, I totally patronize coffee carts) but I do love checking out US chains in foreign countries. I did have a green tea éclair at a Beijing Starbucks and a red bean scone at a location in Shanghai, and I didn’t feel like a dirty American for doing so.

I’ll only be away for a week, and I have no idea if I’ll be posting or not. I tend not to while vacation because I’m just not that plugged in and I’m not deluded enough to think anyone would notice a seven-day online absence.  I never miss my cell phone (which could have something to do with the fact that I only got my first one last year and use it like never) but I always check e-mail because I’m old (wasn’t it declared geriatric like two years ago?)

So, tonight I’m off to eat grass-fed beef, dulce de leche and maybe even a newfangled “mate latte.” Adios.

Photo of now-gone Forbidden City Starbucks by Miguel A. Monjas via Bloggle

Yanking My Chain

Beijingstarbucks

Lucky me. I’ll be heading to Buenos Aires just in time try Argentina’s first Starbucks, which opens today in Palermo, the neighborhood I will be residing in tomorrow morning.

Ok, I have no strong opinion on Starbucks one way or the other (as you saw last week, I totally patronize coffee carts) but I do love checking out US chains in foreign countries. I did have a green tea éclair at a Beijing Starbucks and a red bean scone at a location in Shanghai, and I didn’t feel like a dirty American for doing so.

I’ll only be away for a week, and I have no idea if I’ll be posting or not. I tend not to while vacation because I’m just not that plugged in and I’m not deluded enough to think anyone would notice a seven-day online absence.  I never miss my cell phone (which could have something to do with the fact that I only got my first one last year and use it like never) but I always check e-mail because I’m old (wasn’t it declared geriatric like two years ago?)

So, tonight I’m off to eat grass-fed beef, dulce de leche and maybe even a newfangled “mate latte.” Adios.

Photo of now-gone Forbidden City Starbucks by Miguel A. Monjas via Bloggle

Who Knew Cake Was Seasonal?


Rainbowcake

Yes, I was confused by the “Nothing Says Summer Like Icing” headline in today’s dining section, but then the Times always makes declarative statements that mean nothing to me.

I guess cakes can be summer food if you want them to be, but the paper is going to have an awfully hard time convincing me that twentysomethings making $60,000 a year are struggling.

I do love a layer cake, though. And the more garish, the better.

Porked

When I first started taking serious notice of alfresco porn in food magazines, I had no intent of singling out Gourmet. But it has become obvious that they’re the only ones who do it with such aplomb.

Granted, I only subscribe to four food magazines: Gourmet, Food & Wine, Saveur and Cooking Light (which lapsed a few months ago) so for all I know full on alfresco worship is thriving on the pages of Taste of Home and Bon Appétit (Cooks Illustrated, not so much).

Just to be certain, I checked the most recent issues in my possession for wantonly staged outdoor dining photos. Yes, there were open air scenes galore, especially since this is start of grilling season. But the non-Gourmet tableaus seemed like real scenes captured on camera, staged but with a snapshot feeling. They didn’t make me feel crazy.

Saveurmay08

Saveur’s “Bold Flavors, Ancient Roots” has regular folks in Cyprus eating mezedhes and toasting with zivania, a grape schnapps. Not even amateur porn.

Food&winejune08

Food & Wine’sThe Chef, the Pig and the Perfect Summer Party” focuses on Jean-Georges’s new Westchester weekend home and a backyard pig roast shared with family and friends. High potential for porn, yet the overall feeling is one of people having a real picnic. It just happens to be a famous chef’s picnic.

Gourmetjune08

Gourmet’sSerious Pig” has many similarities to Food & Wine’s feature: barbecued pork and a table set in a backyard near a lake. But where Jean-Georges has a regular table, chairs and an umbrella like anyone could buy at a store (maybe a “nice” store but still mass produced) this young, child-free, multi-culti crew clad in overalls and fedora, sups on a wooden plank held up by sawhorses flanked by weathered wooden boxes. Presumably they’re in North Carolina and nowhere near NYC, rural bon vivants. No new construction, but a stone shed as a backdrop. The scarlet watermelonade isn’t housed in Rubbermaid or even a run of the mill pitcher; it’s in an oversized jar, kind of agua fresca style, with a metal ladle. All this hyper-stylized rusticity is what makes the scene porny. So unreal, and so alluring.

I think I’m just easily influenced. Does anyone else experience inexplicable pangs of jealousy when viewing such manufactured images?

Monday

Hummus and wasa crackers

11:30pm Hummus and Wasa crackers.

Deviled eggs

12:45pm Thank god this is the end of this. One week is enough detailing. I had one of my deviled eggs and two Kashi TLC crackers. I was testing the Indian-spiced eggs I was bringing to a party. I thought they were a bit too sweet, so I added an extra sprinkling of chile powder

3-6 pm At the party I had two wings, a cheeseburger, salads, pork loin slice, a brownie and a bit more that I didn't capture in photos (bite of ham, bite of a different pork loin and a mini chocolate chip cookie).

Bbq chicken

Cheeseburger

Salads

Pork loing

Brownie

Whiskey water 

I know I said I only use this bottle for water cooler water or tap water, but I also use it for Jack Daniels. On this holiday occasion it's pure whiskey.

9:30pm For the record, and not that anyone's asking, I'm exactly to-the-number what I weighed when I moved to NYC ten years ago Memorial Day weekend 1998. I only mention this because it's unusual, and I also must admit that I'm kind of proud to be the exact same weight as when I was 25 years old. It took lots of yogurt and baby carrots over the past three months. And no, I wasn't even close to small in '98 and I'm still not, but there is a satisfaction to getting back down to my mid-20s weight at 35. This is a fitting end to my week of detailing, which was kind of scary.  

Sripraphai leftovers

10:20pm Sripraphai leftovers. Basil and chile pork and soft shell crab with brown jasmine rice. Finis.

Sunday

Chicken salad sandwich

1:58pm Chicken salad sandwich. I still had chicken leftover from earlier in the week and while some might think Monday chicken is iffy on Sunday I’m ok with six-day-old food. I mixed in green onions, chile sauce, tomatoes and a touch of light mayonnaise.

Francesco veal parmigiana

 4:45pm Veal parmigiana hero. Ok, this is incredibly random. Last week I was assigned to review swanky Grayz while this week I happened to get the pizza place up the street from my apartment. This was kind of unfortunate because Italian-American food is probably my least favorite cuisine on the planet (it’s not offensive, just meh).  I did eat a third of this sandwich, though. It wasn’t a bad rendition, but it’s just not my thing.

Leftover chicken salad

8:02pm Remaining chicken salad with Wasa crackers.

Dry sauteed string beans

10pm James wanted to make Sichuan dry-sautéed string beans. It’s supposed to be beans with a bit of pork but he seemed to have reversed the proportions. Not that pork isn’t tasty.

Leftover curry

10:30pm Leftover (lots of leftovers today) green curry with duck and brown rice. It doesn't look pretty.

Saturday

Yogurt and granola

12:57pm Greek yogurt with a crumbed up trail mix variety Kashi TLC bar mixed in. Sometimes I’ll also include a drizzle of my trusty agave sweetener or a spoonful of no sugar added fruit spread, but really the granola bar is sweet enough if you’re not a total sweet tooth.

Hummus and wasa crackers 

3:37pm I have an addiction to Sabra hummus. Seriously. It’s my go-to I’m starving snack.

Baby carrots

4:05pm Not crazy about carrots, not one bit. But I need something fiber-y to last me ‘til dinner. This is my portable travel snack while shopping in New Jersey.

Cheetos cracker trax   

5:20pm I managed to make it out of Target junk food-free. I used to have a serious Poppycock problem that I quit cold turkey earlier this year. But James broke out some Cheetos Cracker Trax in the car and I’m a sucker for new inexplicable brand name treats so I had to sample these. I only ate four paw-shaped crackers. They weren’t really spicy, just faux cheesey like Cheese Nips.

Bonefish grill martini

8:30pm We made reservations at Bonefish Grill because we’re classy like that. A new location to me in Roselle Park, not the one in New Brunswick that I’d visited previously (you don't need a proper review because it's a chain and how different can they be?). I had a martini with blue cheese-stuffed olives at the bar because it was the only cocktail that didn’t contain sugar or fruit or juice, or God forbid, chocolate, plus it was only $7.90 (all the drinks had bizarre non-rounded prices) which is pretty reasonable for such a drink. There’s one plus to suburban drinking.

I'm still a little weirded out by Bonefish's affinity for '80s music, and not the '80s music that annoys me a la Nu Shooz. I wasn't really paying attention but I did catch Bryan Ferry and Split Enz on this occasion.

Bonefish grill bacon wrapped scallops

We split the Bacon-Wrapped Atlantic Sea Scallops topped with chutney and served with mango salsa. The chutney was kind of bitter and horseradishy. I’m not sure if that was a good thing.

Bonefish grill soft shell crabs

Very strange that I would eat soft shell crabs twice in two nights, considering I only eat the delicacy maybe once or twice a year normally. But they were a special and I acquiesced. It wasn’t until we were heading back to Brooklyn that I remembered I received a promotional Bonefish email last week touting their soft shell crabs (yes, I’m on their mailing list—same for Melting Pot, of course). Do you think I was semi-subconsciously influenced?

Bonefish grill sauvignon blanc

I don’t know that I’ve ever ordered a bottle of wine in a chain restaurant before. But here we were with a Brancott Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand. It was a screw cap, which gave our exhaustingly perky waitress trying to use a corkcrew considerable trouble.

Friday

Marcona almonds

8:57am Marcona almonds.

Bagel and coffee

10:28am After seeing my food laid out like this, I realized what a cheerless workaday existence I have. No wonder I’m always listless and cranky (I don’t know where the idea that cutting down carbs increases energy originated. Same with that wretched master cleanse that two friend are currently doing for reasons beyond comprehension. I don’t see how subsisting on liquid for 10 days could possibly give you so-called clarity.)  So, I rectified that with a bagel and cream cheese. Oh yes, I’m cutting loose early for the holiday weekend. I have not partaken in my office’s “Bagel Friday” since February, but I don’t think a little fluffy bread every now and then is going to cause organ failure or something.

Green apple 

1:30pm That damn bagel threw off my schedule so now I’m back to fruit and vegetables. Ok, just apples. Um, plus I’m thinking of where to eat tonight and I haven’t Thai in ages and that will inevitably involve fried pork and lots of coconut milk so I have to cool my jets.

Vegetarian chicken salad pita

3:57pm I got to leave work at 3pm, so I picked up my recent inexplicable fascination, the vegetarian chicken salad sandwich at a deli in the neighborhood just in time to tune in to Judge Judy, and it was a freaking repeat. That is no way to kick off the weekend.

Huh, I just saw a commercial for Bagelfuls (I have bagels on the brain). Sure, the product is weird but I was more baffled by the two ladies featured in the ad eating said weird foodstuff while standing on a bus. Do white women in suits ride the bus to work? That’s not really been my experience in NYC which is more subway-oriented, nor Portland where only spazzes rode public transportation. The premise doesn’t ring true to me, but I would totally try a Bagelful is someone offered me one.

Hummus and wasa crackers 

6:30pm Wasa crackers and “supremely spicy” hummus.

8-ish I haven’t been to Sripraphai since February when my sister was in town, so a visit was overdue. I can’t believe the crowds that have developed over the past few years. When we left there were at least 30 people outside waiting to get in. From a distance is looked like a club scene. I don’t like club scenes.

We went a little overboard with fried things. I probably ate half of the crispy watercress salad and a third of everything else.

Sripraphai watercress salad 
Crispy watercress salad

Sripraphai soft shell crab
Soft shell crab with chile and basil.

Sripraphai crispy pork with basil and chile
Crispy pork with chile and basil. Hmm…two chile and basil dishes weren't probably neccessary. The pork and crabs tasted very different, though. This was dry and rich while the crabs were saucier.

Sripraphai green curry
Green curry with duck. I never order plain ol' red or green curries, but this was better than expected and super spicy. Much more so than any of the other dishes. There were also sliced chiles, tomatoes and pineapple chunks in the mix.

Singha beer   
Oh, and just one beer. I had a horrible headache all night and didn't feel like drinking, and that's just not like me.

Thursday

Kashi peanut butter bar and coffee
10:30am Black coffee and a Kashi bar, peanut butter this time.

Cheese and crackers

1:20pm Good ol’ Wasa crackers and Laughing Cow cheese. When I was a kid Laughing Cow cheese was a special treat that I only got when we went to the coast (Canon Beach) maybe once or twice a year. It seemed fancy at the time, gourmet, French, never mind that it’s not even real cheese (or is it? The fact that it doesn’t have to be refrigerated is kind of distressing). The processed cheese has certainly lost its allure for me over the years, especially since I can just buy it in bulk at Costco now.

Hale and hearty chicken chowder

2:10pm Chicken chowder and multigrain bread.  I normally get the split pea with ham, so this was totally wild. Crazy.

Leftover chicken  

6:43pm  Leftover chicken from Tuesday.

Chile garlic shrimp

9:40pm Chile-garlic shrimp and brown rice. This was tasty and vaguely Spanish tapas-ish (minus the brown rice) but I totally could’ve eaten double the amount. 

Wednesday

Coffee and oatmeal

10:25am Trader Joe’s cranberry oatmeal and extra large black coffee. I’m convinced that my coffee cart guy totally did see me at a competitor yesterday because this morning he said, “long time, no see” and I swear there was a darkness to this seemingly benign pleasantry. I got nervous and offered, “oh, I got to work late yesterday,” which was true but not so late that I didn’t get coffee across on the other side of Broad St.

Green apple

12:13pm This is the same apple pic from yesterday but the apple itself was slightly higher caliber. Still boring, though. In fact, my weekday food is almost always boring and I can’t say that I’m exactly thrilled about it. The monotony is bringing me down. But it tends to balance out weekend excess, which I haven’t got to yet. And being a three-day weekend, there's going to be trouble…

Pret a manger chicken provencal

2:15pm “No Bread Grilled Chicken Provencal” from Pret a Manger. I am still not clear how this line differs from their salads. I hate paying $6.97 for a salad that’s not even giant, but I like this better than those pick a mix deals. Maybe I just pick poorly because mine always end up mediocre and the ratio of stuff to lettuce seems wrong—there’s no way so many things are remotely healthy (um, but it’s my fault for choosing heftier stuff like dried cranberries, almonds, blue cheese and smoked turkey).

Yogurt and agave

4:50pm Yogurt with agave sweetener. Yep, repetitive. That's not really Pelligrino. Well, it was at one point, but I refill the bottle with tap water at home and water cooler water at work, and I usually hang on to it for 2-3 weeks. I really only drink water, and if I'm not drinking water I'm drinking alcohol. Those are my only two beverages. Oh, and coffee, but that's not like a beverage.

Cheese crackers salumi

8:17pm Kashi TLC Mediterranean Bruschetta Party Crackers with manchego and assorted salumi, capicola and something else.

Steak salad with miso dressing

9:45pm Grilled steak, salad and miso dressing. I didn’t intend to eat two main course salads today and it’s totally inappropriate for the soggy weather. I really only can handle salads when it’s warm out. This wasn’t half-bad, and I managed to get it together in time to watch the American Idol winner announcement. Even though I don’t care for the show, I need to know who wins these things.