Sweet Blog o' Mine

You've Been Blogfucked!

Gotta love it when you get an email with that as the subject line. I'll send you to Liza at Culture Kitchen, who does it oh-so-well. Once again, it was a pleasure mixing and mingling with the bloggerati, especially the lovely ladies who blog (and brunch).

Fried Gems at Pearl's

I know I've declared their lobster rolls the best in NYC, but there's another dish at Pearl Oyster Bar that shouldn't be missed -- their fried oysters. Now, I realize that some people just don't like oysters, and there's nothing I can do or say to make those folks try them. Some people might be put off by the fact that we're dealing with fried food -- the image of greasy, soggy, heavy battered things pops into their heads. Cast those thoughts aside, people. Pearl's fried oysters are light, with a crispy, salty batter on the outside, and the sweet, juicy oysters on the inside. The appetizer is served with a homemade tartar sauce, which is also completely unlike the goopy, gloppy stuff you might be used to from your past food nightmares. I don't even particularly like tartar sauce, yet I was licking it off my fork. I will admit, I add a healthy splash of Tabasco to my oysters, but they're perfect as served, with a squirt of lemon. You can also get them po' boy style as an entree.

I'll probably do a more "formal" write-up for Gothamist Food, with pictures and all, but in the meantime, run over there and grab yourselves some fried oysters -- you won't regret it.

Now Serving: Gothamist Food!

As you may know, I've been working on a new project -- Gothamist Food. Gothamist is a blog about all things New York, and several months ago, they sent out a call for interested food writers and editors. Lo and behold, my love for NYC food (and ridiculous obsession with lobster) shone through in my past food writing, and now I'm the co-editor, along with Jeremy from Frost Street. We've rounded up some great contributors, including Joe DeSalazar from Foodie (read my Foodie post), GirlyNYC, and The Brazilian Muse -- I hope you enjoy it! Please stop by and check it out, and be sure to leave comments, so I know you've been there.

And I Ran . . .*

Well, it certainly was a scorcher on Thursday night, but that didn't stop me from finishing my 5K. It was crowded as hell, but there was something cool about wandering around in a sea of blue before the race started -- we had numbered t-shirts in lieu of pin-on race numbers. Although my friends Doug and Jenn started with me, I waved them ahead as they sped up to a less-snail-like pace. Somehow, the course started and ended uphill, and there were definitely two moments when I thought I was getting slightly dizzy, but a brief glimpse of General Public kept me plugging on. I finished in what was, for me, a completely respectable time -- here are my results.

I have to say, I'm pretty damn proud of myself, although I'm not planning on making a habit out of running 5K's. I just don't enjoy it as much as cycling. And as Doug and Jenn learned, running that much makes me burp. Not pretty.

I finished off the night with karaoke with some law school friends -- thanks to Raj for organizing! You can see the pictures here.

* A tribute to A Flock of Seagulls, who played along the route. Not that song, unfortunately.

Mourning for Fritto

As I posted recently elsewhere (still in beta, but you can take a sneak peek), my beloved Otto is changing their menu -- they are removing the fritto and replacing it with a selection of pastas. Yes, they are reasonable -- under $10 each. But I have tasted two so far -- the spaghetti alla carbonara and the spaghettini siciliana -- and have been incredibly underwhelmed. The carbonara (which is one of my favorite dishes in the world, generally -- I recently had a near-perfect rendition at Lupa) was super-salty, which distracted detracted from the overall experience, and I didn't really care for the mix of flavors in the siciliana. I'd be willing to try some others, and I'm not saying they should remove the pastas, but my fritto?!? -- sigh. No more calzone, oozing with cheese, no more gnocco fritto -- a savory version of fried dough that was a perfect match with the prociutto, no more spicy, delicious ceci bottarga. What's a girl to do? We're making an attempt to voice our opinion with the proper authorities, and there's a rumor that the fritto may make a re-appearance at the bar. This is fine -- who eats at the tables anyway? Let's keep our fingers crossed, shall we?

Just a Shout-Out to da Boyz

Had lunch today with two of my former AKO colleagues. After weeks and weeks (and weeks) in the making, we ended up at Joe's Shanghai, the midtown branch. Although the soup dumplings didn't disappoint, the rest of the meal was a bit sketchy -- the service was spotty and they managed to screw up two out of the three of our meals. Regardless, I just wanted to give a shout-out to Rich and Schmitter -- it's great to keep in touch, even after all this time (damn, we're old). Back when we worked together, I never would have imagined that in five years' time, we'd be having lunch together, talking about kids (their kids, mind you).

After lunch, I stopped by Niketown to pick up my race number for Thursday night -- wish me luck! Lord knows I'll need it.

Blogging vs. Online Dating

After attending The Black Table party this past Friday night, and spending time with the lovely ladies who blog, among others, I realized that blogging is one of the two doors that have most impacted my social life over the last year (the other being hanging out at Otto). Through my blog, I have corresponded with and met incredibly smart, diverse, interesting people, who all have expertise in areas in which I have none (Brazilian culture, lesbian erotica, panties (well, I have some expertise in panties, although I tend not to use the word so often)), which makes for scintillating conversation. And although I have not yet met any dating prospects through blogging, it sure beats online dating. I'd rather spend an evening having pizza at 2 AM with a group of cool women chatting about The Straight Sign and food, than on a shitty online date with someone who, although he may seem charming and smart via email, is entirely lacking in wit and/or social skills in real life. Bloggers also seem to enjoy getting together offline a great deal -- makes for good blog fodder, at the very least. So -- a shout-out to The Brazilian Muse, LustyLady, GirlyNYC, Nichelle, and Lux, and thanks to Colin, a co-worker who joined me at the party on blind faith -- I told him there would be cool, smart women there (in addition to me, of course) and there certainly were!

I Have Nothing to Add at the Moment. Whew!

Break Up News is a recently launched blog that lists breakups in the same style as wedding announcements. Love it.

What Are You Lookin' At?!?

I heaved my lazy ass out of bed early this morning as part of my training for next week's 5K -- even debuted my Run Against Bush t-shirt! But there was one thing that I noticed during my run, and all of my prior runs around Washington Square Park: there's this guy who hangs out at the corner of Washington Place and Washington Square East. He's there every time I'm out running -- usually around 7:45 or 8:00 AM. And every time I run past him (which is not more than 5 times right now -- I'm up to 2.5 miles), I want to shout at him -- don't you have someplace to be right now?! What the hell are you doing, standing here watching us all jog by? Are you looking at my boobs? Eeeww! But I don't. I just keep running. See you tomorrow, creep.

To Post or Not To Post

This one goes out to all my fellow bloggers. Have you ever written a post and then hesitated before you hit the "publish" button out of fear that someone might read it and misinterpret it? I wrote a post last night that basically contained a generalized dating-type rant. Nothing really bad, and certainly not directed towards any specific person, but I was worried that there are several people out there who could potentially read it and imagine that I was bitching about their behavior. Be forewarned, folks, I'm not.

I have always wanted my blog to be a place that I would feel comfortable knowing anyone I might know would read it -- my family, my co-workers, my ex-boyfriends, my current boyfriend (wait, I don't have one -- never mind). I'm pretty sure I'll ultimately post it, but I need to make sure the timing's right. As they say, timing is everything. So stay tuned, and perhaps you'll see it at some point. And now back to our regularly scheduled program, already in progress.