rough start

met up with the boy and some of his friends last night at union hall. stayed out a little too late and ended up closing the place down. got home around 5:30 AM and decided to not sleep and take the chance of oversleeping and missing my flight to gainesville. instead, i goofed off online for an hour then took a shower and got ready to go. got to the airport and was at my gate with plenty of time to spare. fell asleep while waiting to board and luckily stirred to wake and noticed a line forming and asked the guy sitting next to me which flight was boarding. jacksonville. oops, almost missed that one. slept through th entirety of the flight and landed in florida ten till noon. the kids were just as excited as i was to see them. we all went to lunch at the cheesecake factory then walked around the large outdoor mall for a couple hours. by 5, we were all beat and made our way back to gainesville. got to check out my sister's new home, a cute one story house. very comfy with a large family room, perfect for a small family. the kids have grown so much and my nephew is turning out to be a rascal (but so freakin cute you can't stay angry at him when he's being bad). the two remind me of my brother and myself when we were little . . . either playing and making eachother laugh by saying "poop", " fart", "pee", or "booty" or fighting. spending time with them makes me realize how children- their laughter, noise, and chaos- can make a home warmer and complete.

the straw

i haven't been blogging as regularly as of late. . .while i was warned that a lot of changes would be happening as long ago as the spring, some have certainly been a surprise and some have not. regardless, it's going to be a rough holiday season and i'm starting to get a bit nervous.

at the same time, i know that even when things seem unbearable, we all find a way of getting through it and life goes on. though i expect it will get worse before it gets better. now how bad. . .only time will tell.

with friends like these. . .

survival instinct

as a child i was quite sensitive and self-conscious about speaking vietanemese. probably b/c there was a number of times when my mom or relatives would laugh at my attempts to put together a sentence or pronounce something. my mom would always try to explain that no one was laughing at me. however, being a child, i could not comprehend it.

as an adult, listening to my niece and nephew speak vietnamese (or any child speak a foreign language), i often find myself moved to laugh from the sheer joy it brings me. i guess my sister feels the same way. . .

this came up while talking to my sister on the phone this morning. she told me how my nephew was driving her crazy the other day b/c he peed on the sofa (note: he is turning 3 in october and is still potty training). sis lost it and was screaming up a storm. she cleaned my nephew up and sent him to his room.

she stopped by his room later to see him sprawled on the bed, reciting hail mary in broken vietnamese. i guess my nephew is much smarter than i was at that age, he knows how to use his cuteness to his advantage!! in any case, it worked b/c my sister had to do everything to keep from laughing and couldn't stay mad at the rug rat.

could you?

a perfect day

woke up around 7:30 AM with a full night's rest. hit the gym and caught up on the news. went to sunrise mart in the east village to pick up some japanese goodies and then trader joes where i got tilapia (price finally went back down), greek yogurt, chicken, walnuts, and crumbled blue cheese. . . hmm, i'm already thinking of the salad i can make with the last three ingredients!

got home and took care of some odds and ends and started working on my wall of food photos- an idea which i've been visualizing since january!! around 4 i headed down to midtown to my company's headquarters for an event. had a promising conversation with my director about my future at the company and where i wanted to be.

headed home and tried to make "mom's catfish in claypot" or ca kho for a second time. the recipe is from a vietnamese/thai cookbook and a linke is available on the epicurious website (though the omit the instructions for making the caramel sauce).

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/232438

funny thing about cooking. . there are so many dishes my mom makes that i would love to emulate (she really is an excellent cook) but she never taught me growing up. . every time i tried to learn, it would be, V, go study, don't worry about cooking! so now, i'm strugglin to learn how to make all her dishes while i can. it's difficult b/c she doesn't follow recipes and does everything to taste.

ca kho is a staple dish, we eat it a lot with kanh chu, sour soup. in any case, i tried this recipe out a couple weeks ago but was annoyed by the inconvenience of making the caramel. . i don't think i simmered the sugar and water long enough to get it to the "caramel" stage, more just a supersaturated sugar/water liquid. the dish came out ok, a little too sweet. this time i modified it, added sugar directly to taste and used tilapia instead of catfish. it came out well. reminscent of my mom's cooking.

it seems that vietnamese "flavour" boils down to fish sauce and sugar!

mustering up the will power

dunno if it's the change in seasons but i've been feeling pretty beat the past few days. . no major sleep deficiencies of late and plenty of caffeine.

i'm one of those odd ducks that rarely has difficulty motivating oneself to go to the gym. i enjoy my workouts. a time to zone out. get the endorphins going.

it was a struggle getting myself to go last night. every ounce of willpower to hit the stairclimber. once there i was annoyed because i arrived during the evening rush. argg. . .my favorite machines were in use. i went to the 3rd floor and they were also occupied. back downstairs i opted for the stairclimber (the one that actually has rotating stairs). got through half an hour on that and then switched to the gliding machine.

now it's 8:30 PM and i'm pumping myself up mentally to go. . maybe i need a change in routine? i would go for a nice run but it's dark out and i don't like to run at night by myself. . . hope i get out of this slump soon. good thing i have tomorrow off!

some of my pet peeves

besides peope that wear sunglasses indoors (no, you don't look cool, you look like an asshole), ranking on top of my list of pet peeves is (1) ordering the wrong dish or (2) overpaying for so-so food.

both happened last night when i met up with celestial for dinner at momofuku ssam. being a fan of the original momofuku and having read many good reviews about momofuku ssam i was pretty excited to finally try it out. the buzz was that it was an affordable restaurant with great meat (i.e. swine) dishes and i was excited to try the momofuku ssam.

celestial was running a bit late, so i was escorted to the back of the restaurant and told to stand around a square, metal island until the whole party was there. . .why i couldn't sit at the bar which had plenty of seats i dunno. five times i was asked if i wanted to order a drink which just seemed awkward standing in the back of the restaurant, drinking by myself, standing next to a short metal island. nevertheless, i was tired of being asked so ordered a glass of the sparkling shiraz (which turned out to be quite delicious and refreshing).

i half browsed through the menu and watched the cook staff prepare food (i do like that feature of the restaurant). . i did a double take when i read through the menu. the average entree was $25, the most expensive was over $100 (tho you get a whole pork butt). . so much for cheap eats. according to celestial, the menu had changed significantly from the restaurant's early days- prices had gone up and a lot of the cheaper items had been replaced.

celestial and i shared the eggplant tatine (essentially roasted vegetable bruschetta) and the short ribs. the eggplant tatine was good but not great. the short ribs were pretty tasty- slightly tangy marinade and the meat fell off the bones, and there was definately enough to fill us both. don't get me wrong, i don't think momofuku ssam is a bad restaurant, in fact, i think they turn out solid, tasty food in a casual, trendy atmosphere. yet somehow, i left feeling a bit let down and unsatisfied.

beware of what you wear

i was sporting one of my new favorite t-shirts, a gem i picked up in philly while visiting my bro, just yesterday. it reads "nerds have bigger hard drives". i took a leisurely walk through the union square farmer's market while killing time before meeting up with nels for coffee.

through the blasting of my headphones, i heard a random guy (RG) call out to me and felt a tap on my shoulder.

rg: excuse me, do you know where the granola stand is?

v: um, no sorry. . i don't really come here very much.

rg: well that's ok. i really didn't want to ask about the granola. it was just an excuse to talk to you. i like your shirt. you know i'm a nerd.

v: hmm ok. alright then. (while trying to edge away)

rg:my name is jonathan. and i'm a nerd. nerds have bigger hard drives. i have a big. .

v: alright jonathan. it's nice to meet you but i have a boyfriend already. . so . . umm.

rg: well that's not surprising. is he a nerd?

v: ok jonathan, have a nice day. bye!

i left in a hurry. i found the whole incident pretty amusing and give the poor boy credit for having the nerve to come up to a complete stranger. hmm, who knew a t-shirt would have such an effect?

whole again

sleep. is. good.

i was seriously run down yesterday- full fledged zombie mode which has not happened for awhile. though i probably have no right to complain since it's mostly from going into the weekend tired from work, having too much fun, and not enough sleep over the weekend.

went with the boy to against the grain on friday night. since the boy is a beer connosieur i am always on the look out for places with extensive or interesting beer lists (as long as there is a small selection of wine or i can get a gin and tonic i'll be happy). against the grain was a smallish place connected to grape and grain a small wine bar/restaurant that was opened by the owners who happen to love beer in addition to wine. i don't have a strong impression of the place. a little too dark which was highlighted by the fact that a t.v. provided the majority of the light in the place. actually don't like t.v.'s in bars unless it's a sports bar. it was very empty for the first hour, in fact we were the only customers for awhile. on our second round, the place filled up quite a bit. the server was actually pretty nice though i didn't love his wine suggestion.

two of the boy's friends, dapper and filmster, met up with us and after they finished a round we all headed to death & co. i guess the boy's love for the sazerac rivals my own as he had already raved about it to his friends. so we all partook. somehow the time had slipped away and we managed to close the place down somewhere between 3 and 4 AM.

by 11 AM the next morning i could not sleep anymore though i knew i was still tired. instead, i left the boy to sleep and went to the gym and grocery store. did some laundry and made some orzo salad to take to work during the week. around 4 PM we headed out for supper and went to mara's homemade in the east village. i had scouted out the place upon the boy's request to have good cajun cooking. we shared an order of gator bites. yes, pieces of alligator coated in cornmeal and then deep fried. delicious! he ordered jambalaya which turned out to be a dry version (mostly rice with pieces of chicken and sausage). it was good but not great. a little bland says me. my dish was a knock out though. catfish with creaole seasoning and topped with crawfish etoufee served with a side of broccoli and rice pilaf. the catfish was slightly crispy and the crawfish etoufee was extremely flavorful and rich, almost a gravy type sauce.

after dinner, we checked out our creative garden, a little community run garden on the corner of east 6th and ave b. lots of hippies and random passerbys. the place was overgrown with a hodgepodge of plans and random garden decor. the most striking element was a tall wooden "sculpture" with random stuffed animals, flags, and toys hanging on it. the garden seemed a little sad to me.

we had a couple hours to kill before the bowery ballroom's doors for cloud cult would open so we went to good world to have a drink in the garden. the concert was amazing, i was happy that they sound as good live (perhaps better) as they do on album and they are fascinating in concert. they are a multi-media performing group with a video projector in back and two artists (the lead singer's wife and the trumpet player) painting throughout the concert. at the end of the show, the paintings are auctioned off to the highest bidder. unfortunately, the two opening acts played for an hour each and the first group was pretty tired and the second was better but just tiring to listen to (too mellow).

after the concert was over i took the boy to auction house and then went to a diner. i had a horrible croque monsieur and he had a so-so omelette. it was 2:30 AM and i was beat. got home around 3 something and up by 7 the next morning for work. my boss was kind enough to let me leave at 6pm and i was home by 8. had a quick dinner of leftovers then went to bed at 9:30. 10 hours of sleep later, i woke up and feel like a whole new woman.

pennies are so tacky!?

theng is coming over for dinner tonight. i love cooking for friends and ever since going to spitzer's corner a couple weekends ago, i've been wanting to try cooking mussels with chorizo. since i had the whole day off, i decided to venture out to chinatown for groceries. food shopping turned into a 4 hour ordeal (probably didn't help that i took the bus all the way back uptown)!! chinatown, trader joes, whole foods, agata & valentina, and wine store!

mott has a ton of little seafood and produce stalls. i picked up mussels and greens at one food vendor. tomatoes, red bell pepper, and red onion from another. more greens from another. frozen minced lemongrass and clam juice from a vietnamese grocery store. was still missing zuchini, fennel, baby clams, bread, and e.v.o.o. (yes, i'm obnoxious like rachel ray and like to abbreviate that!).

walking down grand i saw the duck and bbq pork hanging from the restaurant window. it looked delicious and i couldn't resist but stop in to buy a pound. i asked for a pound and went to pay. the little old woman (l.o.w.) muttered something in cantonese.

v: duo shao qian? (how much in mandarin)

l.o.w.: si kuai liu mao. (four dollars and sixty cents)

i pulled out a five and started counting change. i gave her the five and she gave me a one as i continued to dole out change. when i put a quarter, three dimes, and five pennies in her hand she balked and started ranting in chinese.

v: what? why can't you take the change?

l.o.w.: no tax. i can't take pennies.

v: why can't you take pennies??

l.o.w.: pennies are so tacky.

v: i gave you five sixty. what's wrong with that?

another employee stood nearby and i spoke to her.

v: why can't she take pennies?

a.e.: no tax for you.

v: ok, that's fine. but why can't she take pennies?

l.o.w.: give me that dollar back.

v: i don't understand why you won't take the pennies? it's the right change!

l.o.w. grabs the dollar back and gives me forty cents back.

a.e.: no tax for you.

i left being pissed off and thoroughly confused. . did i miss something? when did pennies become bad? and what does that have to do with not being taxed?