Sweetheart Sundaes — gettin’ in the mood.
I have an urge to confess something. (I will delete this post soon.)
I lost my virginity on Valentine’s Day 1999 — um, in a Frank Lloyd Wright house — and I had sex with M. for the first time on Valentine’s Day 2009. That was no accident. Oh gosh no. I am the kind of crazy sentimentalist who thinks having sex with the last man I would ever do it with ten years to the date after I lost my virginity is beautifully symbolic and should be planned for (yes: one month in and I was thinking This Is It). I am also the kind of crazy sentimentalist WEIRDO who gave the poor dude that I lost my virginity to a glass cherry (cringecringecringecringe).
So. Valentine’s Day. Whatchoo doin’?
Simply the most amazing short video I may have ever seen. I certainly never have seen an advertisement that made me want to cheer and cry at the same time. This isn’t a longing for nostalgia or rejection of innovation but simply recognizing what ails our society. The great flaw here is the idea that farmers have the power to restructure our food system. They don’t and Agri-buisness won’t be doing what you see in this video. This leaves the onus on us, the consumer who with every food dollar can vote for a more humane, sustainable and equitable food system.
A few people I follow blogged this commercial for Chipotle yesterday — finally watched it and now I see why. Excellent.
Weird hapa taco: mango pickle-marinated chicken, avocado, pickled onions & crunchy sprouts.
This is how I eat when I’m alone. No rhyme or reason to it, just a hodgepodge of things I like.
I know this is the very definition of first world problems and no one cares — at all —but I just have to vent for a minute. When I said we missed Next season tickets by a hair I meant it. The way it worked was thousands of people logged in to the site within a minute of it going live. The first fifty were allowed in to the site to make the purchase, and those that were slightly slower than others went on the waiting list, which quickly grew to 6,000+. I was 1,044. There were 950 packages, so I was right on the edge of getting in — considering nearly 10% of credit cards were declined and some people put themselves on the waiting list more than once.
Yesterday afternoon, Next’s Facebook page became a focal point for the anxiety of a bunch of one-percenters as they waited for the email that would allow them in to purchase. It quickly became apparent that a number of people with high numbers — in the 2000s and 3000s — had gotten the email and purchased tickets. What gives?! they shouted. Conspiracy! they screamed
Nick, the guy in charge of this whole circus, explained that by error, they let in about 30 people out of order. I estimate those 30 people purchased about 120 tickets between them.
By the time I was let in to the site, there were just about 20 tickets left, and I was stuck (with 49 other people) on this horrible page where I kept plugging in combinations of days and party sizes, looking for available tickets, and finding none.
So — Next’s tech error literally cost us “our” tickets.
On the bright side: this is like free money!
Where shall we spend it? we asked.
Torrisi tasting menu? Yes, definitely.
Brooklyn Fare? Hmmm — possibly.
Another trip to Stone Barns or Eleven Madison Park? Why not! We don’t even have to buy plane tickets to get there!
Then M. brought up the possibility of donating it to someone who could really use it. Talk about a Debbie Downer.
(And thus concludes the most pointless post in the history of pointless posts. Carry on.)
The Tippler. Don’t love the crowd but the sign is cool.
Oh burrata. You always know how to make me feel *good.*
Anything but böring
Ty-Lör Boring put on quite a show at City Grit last night. Befitting a man raised in Manhattan with a Japanese nanny and the kind of parents who come up with a name like Ty-Lör, his meal was herbaceous, thoughtful, worldly … and way too light for the amount of wine I was drinking. Oy.
He began with the dish that won the Modernist Cuisine Quickfire challenge: compressed watermelon with vanilla-honey syrup, olive oil and saffron powder, and telecherry reduction. (Imagine me eating it seductively, like Padma.) Could have done without the vanilla, but still, a winning dish.
Ty-Lör talking to the crowd.
Sea bass crudo with oyster coriander puree, fried curryleaf, corn starts, and smoked Maldon sea salt.
Buckwheat noodles with cherrystone crowns (the best part of the clam) and turmeric prik nam pla, lacinato kale, and a smattering of miso panko. I really loved this course — terrific balance of flavors and textures.
Golden tilefish with lapsang dashi, hon shimeji mushrooms, black radish, and schmaltz, which I just learned is a Yiddish term for chicken fat (“you live in New York and you don’t know what schmaltz is?” M. asked me. Well I do now.).
Pandan chocolate financier with mango juniper curd, candied coconut, and kaffir lime spuma. I dare say: a perfect dessert.
After dessert, they gave us little bags of popcorn flavored with truffle, saffron, vanilla bean, espelette pepper — all flavors we had in the meal. Ty-Lor explained it was his homage to the power of taste memory (the idea being we would eat it later or the next day, and reflect). I was just grateful for the extra food! I didn’t even stop to take a picture — my bag was empty before we even got the check. No shame.
Tequila & concord grape shrub … from the keg outside our back door. :)
Battling for the right privilege to spend $3-6k on three dinners this year.* Freaking crazy. (Check out the Facebook page for the nextus of insanity.)
* Unlikely to happen for us — there are 950 packages. Oh well. Cultivating gratitude! (And plotting another delicious way to spend $3k….)
Last day in the @citygrit kitchen with Ty-lor Boring! Only 200 more clams to clean!
Oh hey! It’s Ty-lor and our dear ol’ roomie Akiko. Thanks for an awesome night last night, guys.
← Previous
The Great American Cooking Project