bergerka

I would disagree with Todd36 (that's ok, I disagree with him about the Silver Moon, too...I frequently go out of my way to stop there) and say that the Hungarian Pastry Shop IS worth a pilgrimage, if only to eat some unusual (and delicious, did I mention that?) pastries while looking over at St. John the Divine and enjoying the bustling, college-town atmosphere. K

Speak for yourself...I had Brooklyn Lager. And don't forget the jalapeño poppers! K

Right now, my schedule is really variable - auditions have been cropping up at the rate of one or more a week, with very little notice, and I will be in and out of town all summer (two weddings to go to, and I have GOT to get some vacation "me" time in sometime!). For example, as of this morning I was available three nights next week. As of right now, I'm available exactly one, and I think I'm going to lock myself in my bedroom with the ferrets and a bottle of gin and refuse to talk to anyone or answer the phone that night. So knock yerselves out...and if I can make it, I definitely will! K

Err, would you care to deconvolute "red vermouth" for those of us unfamiliar? It's the vermouth that's not white vermouth. Also known as "sweet" vermouth (although I understand sweet vermouth also comes in a white version, every time I've asked for it I've gotten red). Most liquor stores have both. sorry to jump in for Sam...first chance I've had to read this thing all day! K

Unfortunately, I have a competition that night (I sing at 8:30 pm! :blink:), so won't be able to join you. Damn it...I LOVE Franny's. *sigh* have a four cheese 'za for me... K

I would just like to state that there's nothing quite like coming home from a loooong audition trip to Wilmington, DE during which we five singers, mapquest printouts in hand, got lost not once, not twice, but THREE times (I HATE WILMINGTON!!!! ), walking in the door, taking a DEEP breath...and realizing that Sam has cooked. *smile* *wub* Of course, THEN I took a look at the kitchen. I think he used every dish in the house. ...but that's ok. It's worth it for the smell alone. More after dinner. K

and one of my very favorite foods ever! K, whose cup runneth O-VAH!

Hold on, hold on! :shock: I had a late aria singthrough tonight! I told Sam to go ahead, as I knew I wouldn't be home till after 10!!!!! Believe me, he was willing to wait - it was MY choice. and you should have SEEN that plate. Man. Beautiful. Work of art. :wub: K

I just got home about a half hour ago, absolutely famished, and I'd just like to state that it even tasted good reheated. my nice sweetie pie made a BEAUTIFUL plate for me! Yeah! Dessert! except I'm too full now! K

I feel so jilted! ← I'm not actually AVERSE to polygamy. You just both have to be rich. And I have to have my own bathroom - in my next life, that one's going to be a dealbreaker. oh and I have to be able to continue to live with Sam and my ferrets. Did I mention that part? Oh, thank you, thank you, lurking hordes, for sparing me from TOFU. TOFU IS MADE OF PEOPLE...OH, THE BEANMANITY! (with a nod to Sluggy Freelance for that one). To get sort of back on topic, a lot of people have asked how it is that I end up merrily cleaning the kitchen (ok, semi-merrily) every night. When I moved in, we made a deal. Every time he cooks and I benefit from it, I clean up, and vice versa. As a result, I think I've cooked five times in nine years - and he was out of town for four of them. Probably best, that, as while I'm not a TERRIBLE cook, I'm a very inexperienced and nervous one, I can't keep recipes in my head, and I had to call my mother to figure out how to boil an egg. Not kidding. She laughed at me, too. I actually PREFER cleaning to cooking, though I'll chop veggies anytime. Thank goodness Sam likes to cook. I get leftover chicken & spring veggies tonight, as I have an aria sing-through tonight in preparation for an upcoming audition. K

I think for the mystery meal Sam and Marlene should have to arrange to meet up at some midpoint city and cook together. Hey. I can dream. K Edited to add...good lord, is EVERYONE on eG reading this thread? *waving to everyone* Hi!

this is bad because...? If you say tuna loaf, I will track you down and stomp on your flower garden or something equally mean. Ew. :laugh: K edited to add emoticons so you know I wasn't serious! I could NEVER stomp a garden.

You are my new best friend, both for the compliment and the tofu. If you're rich, I'll even marry you. Sam is, I'm sure, about to post pix of dinner, which was delicious. I'm absolutely stuffed and can't believe I'm about to go get some leftover bread pudding...but I am, oh, I am. :wub: K Edited to cast a vote for meatloaf and to say that yes, now I AM way too full and I may barf, but it was worth it.

Tofu. WTF is up with tofu? I don't care if it's the soft or the firm kind, the texture is yucky and the taste is icky. Yes, I've had it prepared well. Lemme alone. Eat your own damn tofu and I don't CARE how good it is for me. Powdered non-dairy creamer in coffee, which is absolutely EVERYWHERE in the American South. What the hell is wrong with milk? Cream? Half & half? Pickles, with the single exception of those super-crispy bright green half-sours found in really good delis that are more like cucumbers with a little vinegar. K

When NOT to go to the Shake Shack? Memorial Day, apparently. I'd have thought that a sunny holiday when the park was FULL OF PEOPLE would be a good day for a Shack burger and an Arnold Palmer, and there was nothing on the website or on the voice mail about it being closed, so we went all the way down there to no avail. Blue Smoke was ALSO closed, so we ended up having distinctly mediocre burgers at NY Burger Co. K, totally unsatisfied. :angry:

oh my gosh, when I moved here there were SO many things I didn't like that are now part of my regular diet (and some are favorites). Slowly but surely, Sam wore down my resistance to even trying them, bless his heart. Most kinds of seafood, including lobster, crab, salmon, any oily fish, scallops, shrimp (now one of my favorites, especially the salt and pepper shrimp in the shell at Grand Sichuan, I eat 'em shells & all), mussels (again, now one of my favorite things), squid, octopus (still picky about this one) and especially ANCHOVIES, which I now really like. I'm still a little iffy on first taste if something strikes me as "fishy" (and it's weird what things will do that). Oh, and I've gone from being totally icked out by raw oysters to craving them, more than occasionally. Olives! Yeah, olives! WTF was I thinking? Without olives and anchovies, how can I eat pasta puttanesca? almost any kind of offal. I now eat sweetbreads (in fact, well-prepared sweetbreads have been known to cause me to flush, breathe hard and feel dizzy, they're so good), blood sausage, liver, grilled chicken hearts, but brains...still not my thing. Nor lungs. And I can't see kidneys hitting my list of faves anytime soon. Now isn't that weird?

:blink: um...neither, unless Maureen Dowd sings Lucia di Lammermoor. And just to keep this on topic, creamed spinach made my mouth so happy last night that I had do get up and do a little happy dance. No, I'm not kidding. K

I just staggered out of bed - how sad is it that the very first thing I did was come to read this? I wasn't actually planning to clean till this morning, but thought "I'll just put the food away..." and before I knew it I'd done the whole damn thing. Honestly, because we washed dishes/silverware between courses and because slkinsey did a GREAT job of cleaning as he cooked, it didn't even take all that long. It was an AMAZING meal. (by the way, ewindels' dessert was a strawberry/raspberry tart). It's a sunny beautiful morning, the Red Sox beat the Yankees AGAIN, woohoo! (following up on their major Yank spankage of Saturday) and there's bread pudding left over for breakfast. K Edited because my formidable spelling skills desert me pre-coffee.

Better him than me. I hate shopping at that place in general, but on weekends it's beyond nightmarish. That said, though, I was there yesterday and it wasn't that bad...maybe everyone who would ordinarily shop there is gone for the holiday?

Have I mentioned that I spend a good hour six days a week praying to the gods of Pilates and the stairmaster? Except, that is, for this past winter, when I discovered that if I do nothing but eat, drink and sit on my ass for six months, I um...gain ten pounds. This didn't happen in college! I would just like to add that the ricotta gnocchi Sam made tonight, sitting as they were under short ribs and over sauce and interspersed with pearl onions, sent me right over the edge again. There's just something about the rich lightness of ricotta gnocchi with slow-cooked beef. K edited because I screwed up my own goddamned initial. This is what happens when I have a cocktail before dinner, wine WITH dinner, and food of the gods, to boot. Edited AGAIN because oh, oh, oh, I just read the post above mine...oh, lord, raw Kumamoto oysters with cucumber/black pepper granita. OHHHH man. and there is just nothing to equal a fabulous pulled-pork sandwich that has been smoked for HOURS. Ok, I need to stop this now.

I love that I never, ever, ever have to worry about driving drunk, because I NO LONGER HAVE TO DRIVE. This has brought my inner lush out in full force. ...but you meant food. Sorry. My younger brother was in town last week and I re-discovered several things I love about NY, food-wise: Crif dogs on St. Mark's and 1st Avenue - anyone who makes a hot dog, wraps it in bacon and slaps a fried egg on it is my new best friend. The Chinatown ice cream factory, and its ginger ice cream. The view from the Brooklyn Bridge, with an ice cream cone from the Brooklyn ice cream factory (are you sensing a theme here?). The Metro diner at 100th and Broadway, where if one orders a Belgian waffle, a side of fries, and a double order of bacon - after midnight, mind you (after Tosca at the Met, no less), no one looks twice. The Flatiron Lounge. As my brother's girlfriend pointed out, there just are so few cities that have actual COCKTAIL bars where one can go, hold a conversation in a normal tone of voice (hello, music as background, what a concept) and have a mouthgasm over an incredibly well-made cocktail. The tacos at Tehuitzingo on 49th and like...10th. As an Arizona girl, I appreciate being able to get a serious taco in my chosen city, even though it's way north and east of my birth city. Running into David Rosengarten on the street in midtown and recognizing him. The Shake Shack. Honestly, I've never seen anything like it anywhere else, with the possible exception of the Malt Shop in Natchez, Mississippi (oh man, the fried catfish were so good). Oh yeah, and my god, the mussels with pesto and cherry tomatoes at Landmarc. I dunno. Maybe it's just the comfort of knowing that I never, ever have to eat at, say, Olive Garden again if I don't want to. Which I don't. K

Actually, bergerka, multiple is occasionally even better than one ... or so they say ... ← And as I discovered on my first visit to Babbo, sometimes one can have multiple mouthgasms in the same meal...the mint love letters, then the sweetbreads, and whatever wines the sommelier chose did it for me... wow, I'm getting flushed and breathless just remembering. K

crap, I have to choose just ONE? Ok, fine. A sandwich made from heirloom tomatoes and homemade mayo - just a little bit - on warm toasted sourdough bread from the Silver Moon Bakery. O.M.G. MOUTHGASM. K

I'm just pissed off that I had to leave too early (was getting a haircut so if I inadvertently show up in any of these pix I'll look all stylin', instead of like a bad hair week) to partake of a Samuccino. FYI, I stopped at Fairway on orders from the maestro on the way home and bought: lemons, limes, granny smith apples, 1 lb of ricotta cheese (I love the Fairway cheese guys), some Fresca (life is nothing without Fresca), parsley, and some assorted things for ME, like Grape Nuts. K

I'll give you a hint, folks (is this cheating?). If you REALLY want to challenge Sam, make sure the mystery basket includes something that should be used in a dessert. He's one of these guys who is perfectly happy with just a nice piece of cheese and a digestivo, but *ahem* I LIKE SWEET THINGS AFTER DINNER. And hey, I figure making him cook something I want is exactly in the spirit of this kind of foodblog. K Edited to add that um...he's not still sleeping, actually. I think he must have gotten up and gone to the green market without my hearing him, which has pretty much never happened before.