Plug

Mark this on your calendar, friends (if you want). My dear friend and 2 year Ithaca College veteran Josh Verbanets will be journeying from Pittsburgh with his band to perform at Lit Lounge on Saturday, May 23rd, at 9pm. I can attest to the awesomeness of this band, so you should come and bring your friends. Here's the info:

Meeting of Important People
Saturday, May 23rd
9:00pm - 1:00am
93 2nd Avenue (between 5th and 6th streets)

Also, you can "become a fan" of them on the Facebook. I've refused to "fan" anything thus far, but I'll make an exception. Just this once:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Meeting-of-Important-People/76230978859?sid=bf23b8827c824548cf054dc83833ca96&ref=search#/pages/Meeting-of-Important-People/76230978859?v=info&viewas=13804048

Or, if you still have a Myspace:

http://www.myspace.com/meetingofimportantpeople

New York's finest

Pointed out by Billie and/or Meghan.

Luck of the Draw

I get over excited by some really trivial things, and one of those things is drawbridges going up. Stopped traffic, people cursing, horns sounding, the whole shebang. So the Pulaski drawbridge going up this morning was a welcome obstruction to my commute, even though I was 20 minutes late to work.

Habitual Birthdays

Our friendly neighborhood bar turned 1 this weekend. I'm not sure what my close friends and I would have done over the past year had we not this lovely watering hole to hop, skip, and jump to. And also trip, stumble, and fall home from. The Habitat's company logo is an owl, so Meghan and I made them owl cookies to help celebrate the occassion. Chocolate sugar cookies, which I've never had or made before, with m&m eyes, which makes any cookie 50% more delicious.

I'm not sure if anyone reading this blog has not been to The Habitat with me at some point, but here's the info anyway:

The Habitat
988 Manhattan Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11222
http://www.thehabitatbrooklyn.com/

Passive Aggressiveness in the Office Kitchen

Looking for change

For as far back as I can remember, I've been collecting loose change in various containers (vases, glass apple juice jars, coffee mugs, etc). It feels like a small accomplishment every time I empty my pockets or purses and drop several clinks into the current container. After I've amassed what appears to be an acceptable amount of change, I go to the Coinstar machine (yes I know they charge you 8 or 9 cents per dollar) and cash in. Then I've usually taken whichever beau I've had at the time out to a nice dinner. Well, beaus come and go, clearly, but my friends don't. So I've changed my tactics. Meghan has jumped on board with the idea, and since we live together now, the loose change has doubled.

The container these days is a large glass vase, and the goal is lobster. Our "Lobstah fund" is growing every day. As soon as we have enough, we'll be heading to Ed's Lobster bar in Soho and stuffing our faces with expensive seafoods that we wouldn't be able to splurge on otherwise.

The fund:

The goal (+Meghan):

Falaflog

This past weekend I found out that Justin has a falafel blog, and I have to admit I was a little jealous because I'm on a huge falafel kick right now. The best I've had so far is at this place called Azuri Cafe. Apparently the guy who owns and runs the place was the inspiration for Seinfeld's Soup Nazi. As I was waiting for Meghan outside the place, I heard a girl on her way out say, "well at least he didn't yell at me this time." So, I was nervous... but Meghan had been there before and knew how to order inoffensively. I was kind of afraid to take a picture, so it came out a little blurry:
This pita was jam packed with flavor and even came with pickles on the side. It had hummus, broccoli, tahini, and other unrecognizable but delicious ingredients. We had the Spinach Burackas appetizer, which was also a hit. I had heard about the place from the NYC Food Guy blog, he does a better job at giving this place its due: http://nycfoodguy.com/2009/02/05/nyc-best-falafel-azuri-cafe-beats-taim-as-nycs-best-falafel/

Soup Nazi side note: Back in high school, I met the actor who played the soup nazi on Seinfeld. There was a soup drive at the sketchy local mall, and a can of soup landed you with a signed photograph of the guy. Mine reads "Katie, no soup for you!" Signed, whatever his name was. I still have it in a shoebox somewhere.

Almost forgot:

Azuri Cafe:
465 West 51st
New York, NY 10019
212-262-2920

Bridge to somewhere

I've been meaning to walk over the Pulaski Bridge for some time, but after 2 of my 187 Green housemates recently completed this feat, I had a resurgence of interest in doing so. With the 60 degree weather and a break from all this windiness, today was the day. It took only 12 minutes to cross boroughs and at the end I was treated to the smell of Italian food coming from the restaurant on the corner by the 7 train. It seemed a bit early to be cooking, but what do I know. I snapped these photos and felt like a tourist in my own neighborhood.

Approaching bridge:

Mid bridge:

Twinkie defense

Last post, I promise, because I actually DO have work to do today. Did you know that Twinkies have beef fat in them? That is disgusting. Wikipedia didn't make that up, either. It's on the twinkies package. I checked.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twinkie

Recipe

Also, I made this dish last night: http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1886385

It definitely needs some garlic and more salt than the recipe calls for. Adding spinach and lemon was a good touch. The cook needs more experience with the pan searing and multitasking (thank you helpful friends), but the tomatoes came out awesome.

Yea, I think I'm done for now.


Now I'm going to add a photo:

Mostly eating and drinking in Brooklyn

Another Brooklyn filled kind of weekend.

I went with Kate and Meghan (I give up on trying to hide proper names, sorry) to Dandelion Wine in Greenpoint on Friday. They have a free wine tasting on Friday evenings from 6-9pm, complete with delicious cheeses and an also delicious but unidentifiable pate of sorts. While our empty pockets appreciated the free-ness of the wine, the pours were incredibly skimpy. The guy running the tastings (not to be confused with the friendly owners) couldn't really be bothered with the likes of us, so there was a bit of awkward standing around with sad, empty glasses. I'd go again, but probably more for the cheese than the drops of wine.

After leaving, we went over to the new Brouwerji Lane beer distributor on Greenpoint Avenue. They had $2 8oz pour tastings to sample their offerings. I am not a beer tasting connoisseur, but I can say that they were good. They have a lot of delicious brown ales in their inventory, which I'm excited about, including Abita Turbodog and Captain Lawrence Brown Bird. Ithaca beer did have a spot in their fridges, but only the Apricot Wheat. Obviously I like the Ithaca Nut Brown best, so hopefully they will add that one day. The guys at Brouwerji mentioned that this sampling was a trial sampling, but I'd be glad to go again if they keep it going.

Sunday, Meghan and I checked out the Brooklyn Standard on Nassau Avenue. It wasn't as big as I had expected because of all the hype about it, but my expectations were vindicated by the avocado sandwich with mango spread. Delicious. McGoldrick Park is a good place to eat said sandwiches on sunny days, though this proved to be a bit messy because of the wind. Other highlights include: homemade pickles, hummus, random fresh vegetables, and some soy sauce subsitite that is supposedly a lot healthier.

On to something that didn't involve eating or drinking... the Artists and Fleas market on North 6th in Williamsburg was a hit as usual. We ran into a fellow Ithacan who sells her hand sewed monsters at the flea market each week: http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5288809

Dandelion Wine
153 Franklin Street
Brooklyn, NY 11222
http://www.dandelionwinenyc.com/

Brouwerji Lane
78 Greenpoint Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11222
http://brouwerijlane.wordpress.com/

The Brooklyn Standard
188 Nassau Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11222
http://brooklynstandard.blogspot.com/

Artists and Fleas
129 N.6th Street
Brooklyn, NY 11211
http://www.artistsandfleas.com/