Sweet Blog o' Mine

Know Your Audience

For many in the blogosphere, this article in Sunday's magazine wasn't necessarily breaking news.  Long story short, girl in her 20's blogs about her personal life waaay too personally, girl becomes editor of Gawker along the way, trashing everyone in her path, girl's "secret" blog is discovered, girl quits Gawker, gets a taste of her own medicine.  When you put everything out in public, people feel entitled to pick you apart, which is why I always adhere to strict guidelines as to what I write here.  Sure, I've been writing since 2002 (or more like 2003), and someone who doesn't know me could read through everything and learn quite a bit about me, but not all that much, really.  I always assume a few things about my audience, which generally keeps my content in check:  my parents and family read this, my boss and co-workers read this, and anyone I date reads this.  With that firmly in mind, I post away with my rather vanilla subject matter (see further discussion here and here).

Beach, Take 1

Ah, the first weekend at the beach.  Sand, sun, wind, a 5 mile run (thanks for the company, Meg!), two fantastic meals courtesy of Marla, Jimmy, John, Spencer and the sous cheffing team, tons of mac and cheese, dancing at and closing down the Out, a round of "Would You Rather?", deep fried oreos (pictured above), waay too many people in the hot tub, frothy pina coladas (from cocktail master Ben), and the absolute best version of George Michael's "Freedom," that I've ever heard.  The pictures from the weekend are here. Now, off to sleep.

Long Weekend

Man, am I looking forward to a long weekend!  You can tell I've had a busy week, since I haven't managed to post at all.  Lame.  There were some highlights along the way -- a meet-up for the beach house, an opening party for Hundred Acres, some gym time, some couch time, and my second visit to Momofuku Ko.*  I literally logged on to the reservation site on Wednesday at 4pm and there was a cancellation for 7pm that night.  So -- Roopa joined me (with an open mind) and we had an amazing meal.  In addition to the dishes you can read about on some of the blogs out there, most of which I had last time, there were some new ones to try this time around.  Roopa and I got served different things several times, which didn't happen on my last visit.  I did not bring my camera -- in fact, we chatted with one of the chefs, who mentioned they were possibly considering a no-camera policy.  Anyhoo, back to the food:

• spring pea soup with crawfish, and a morel mushroom crepe
• kampachi with freeze-dried soy, chive flowers, chive oil, and pickled crosnes
• a japanese egg custard with asparagus, hackleback caviar, tarragon oil, and braised cashews
• lasagne with burgundy snails, broccoli rabe flowers, mushrooms, ricotta salada, and whipped ricotta
• halibut with radish salad, burnt onion, baby bok choy, and pepperoncini (my favorite new dish)
• trout with yuzu, pickled breakfast radish, bacon puree, and almonds
• kiwi sorbet with apricot puree and olive oil
• lychee sorbet with sesame "sand"
• cereal milk panna cotta with cornflake crumbs, avocado, and hazelnut chocolate
• yellow cake ice cream with chocolate, rhubarb, candied peas and pea "dust"

Once again, pretty damn amazing.  We got the wine pairings again -- this time I asked for a copy, which I'll hopefully get soon.  And for your general amusement, here are the pics

from Matt's housewarming party are here.  Well, at least those that are safe for general consumption.

* In case anyone's wondering why I didn't write about my Ko visits on Gothamist, first and foremost, I just wanted to enjoy my meal without worrying about giving a blow-by-blow recap.  Second of all, I wasn't prepared for another per se treatment, although the dollar amount isn't even close in this case.

Sigh

I know, I know.  I still haven't managed to post about Minneapolis.  You'll have to settle for a list of the places I ate and a link to the pictures:

• Hell's Kitchen for huevos rancheros
• Nick & Eddie's (my favorite dinner out that week)
• Solera for the monster group dinner
• Al's Breakfast, which absolutely rocked
• La Belle Vie
• Sanctuary
• Matt's Bar for a juicy Lucy
• and, although we didn't eat there, Nye's Polonaise (because where else can you belt out show tunes to a live piano player or dance to polka music at the same venue?)

And the pictures, although there aren't that many, are here.  Thanks again to the Lovely Miss Katie and her family for being so welcoming!

Skip Lunch, Fight Hunger

Take the money you'd normally spend on lunch today and donate it to City Harvest's Skip Lunch, Fight Hunger campaign.  You can read more about it on my 700th Gothamist Food post.  That's right -- my seven HUNDREDTH post. 

A Little Humor

To tide you over till I can pull it together to post my (few) pictures from Minneapolis.  First, I've coined a new term.  Last year around this time I was on a self-imposed dating hiatus.  I've decided to call that a guy-atus.  I'm not on one now, though, for the record.

Next, the Onion.  It's from a little while back but it made me laugh out loud: New 'Get The Fuck Outta The Road' Program Aims To Increase Pedestrian Safety.

Forgot to Mention

that I'm in Minneapolis this week at a conference.  Having a great time so for -- all of my panels/meetings have gone smoothly, as have the meals I've organized.   One more panel to go!

Just Ducky

the Mother Duckers

Had another fantastic time competing in the annual D'Artagnan Duckathlon. No jambon this year, but we managed to win the olive-oil tasting event, which landed us some olive oil from Fig & Olive, black truffle oil, white truffle oil, and the jackpot -- a log of black truffle butter. Woo hoo! Thanks again to Emila, John and Frank for being excellent teammates and to D'Artagnan for including the Gothamist team for our fourth year in a row. The rest of the photos are here.

There's No Place Like London

In the words of Sweeney Todd.  Yes, we have our differing opinions of London (Rob), but I certainly enjoyed my time there.  The pictures are now up.  Highlights included a trip to Oxford with Rebecca, a day at Borough Market followed by dinner at St. John with Rob and Tamara (the famous marrow bones and parsley salad pictured above), Thai dinner at Addie's, my long walk to the Tate to see the Peter Doig exhibit, and drinks and dinner with Jodie and Margie.  Thanks again to Rob (and Sara in absentia) for their hospitality.