ikea food

Last night, The Wife and I met up with Josh and Val who were in town for vacation. We ate at Aquavit, a restaurant once voted one of the top-ten in New York. I have to admit, though the food was good, I was not particularly blown away. Here's why. Aquavit specializes in scandanavian food, things like fish, meatballs, and fish. We started with an appetizer of herring sampler. For the main course I had a (swedish-sounding name)-beef dish while The Wife had poached cod.

The food was well cooked, not overdone, tender, but pretty boring. I think it was a lot like swedish furniture, well-made, functional-design, but not particularly impressive. My beef was cubed and served with cubed fried potatoes and a cream sauce. It pretty much tasted like expensive stroganoff.

Brunch!

I took The Wife out today for her birthday. I surprised her by taking her to brunch at Sushi Samba 7, a fusion restaurant in the West Village near our place.

We splurged and ordered the four-course Samba-Brunch, allowing us to pick any four brunch entrees from the menu. We started with the Samba California Roll Salad, followed by Churrasco & Eggs with a side of Yucca browns. We ended the meal with Doce de Leith French Toast and Brazilian Churros served with chocolate nad caramel dipping sauces. I was a little disappointed when I ordered a brazilian churros, I thought there would literally be a brazilian of them, but there were only four.

you know you laughed. maybe.

Taste of Chinatown

Today was beautiful. It was partly overcast and in the 70s. Everyone was out in dresses and shorts. We went to the Taste of Chinatown this afternoon and it was packed. Seriously wall-to-wall people. About 30 of the restaurants in Chinatown had booths offering $1 or $2 samples. We tried fried chicken wings, beef satay, fried rice, different lychee drinks, dim sum and even picked up some clothes while we were there.









Afterwards we headed to this little bistro in West Village and had sweet potato fries, lentil soup and an asian beef salad. I'm not sure if the beef was asian or not, but it tasted delicious and was a welcome change from the fried greasy goodness of chinatown.


Since it was so nice out, we took a walk around our neighborhood and found the famous skinny house. This house is only 8'6" wide.











My current pet-peeve are people who ride motorcycles... not the crotch-rockets that sound like angry hornets, but the rumbling harleys that make your walls shake from three blocks away.
Dear Mr Overcompensating,
There is no reason to rev your engine at 3 in the morning. I hope you hit a pot-hole. Alternatively, maybe a case of e.coli or I hope you ride through a swam of angry bees... with herpes.
Sincerely, me.

e. coli

Escherichia coli (E. coli), is one of the main species of bacteria living in the lower intestines of mammals, known as gut flora.

Tuesday night on the way home from work I started to feel a little feverish. It was followed quickly by stomach cramps and diarrhea. By Wednesday morning my fever had reached 103 degrees and was still slowly rising so I went to the ER at St. Vincent's Hospital in Manhattan.

I arrived around noon and was diagnosed with possible food poisoning or appendicitis. They gave me a catscan and a chest x-ray and determined that I didn't have appendicitis but I did have an inflamed small intestine which pointed towards food poisoning or Crohn's disease. I was admitted to the hospital overnight with a colonoscopy scheduled the following afternoon. I finally was given a room at 11pm after spending over 10 hours in the ER.

That night was one of most uncomfortable nights of my life. They gave me a gallon of "go lightly" to clean myself out to prepare for the colonoscopy. "Go lightly" is a laxative that tastes like sweat. Not only did I have to force myself to drink a gallon of liquid that tasted like sweat-socks, the liquid made my diarrhea even worse. I was up all night, constantly using the bathroom, walking back and forth between the bed and the bathroom trying to keep my gown closed and holding my iv bag while enduring constant cramps. btw, I don't think I'll be able to watch "Breakfast at Tiffany's" without feeling the urge to poo.

Finally on Thursday afternoon I had the colonoscopy which just confirmed that I had an inflamed intestine. They took samples to see what exactly was growing in my stomach and put me on anti-biotics. The upside of the colonsocopy, the laxatives, the inability to eat for 48 hours and an overall lack of appetite was that I lost 8 lbs in 2 days.

I started feeling better that night as my fever dropped and by Friday morning I was almost back to normal. Of course, the hospital didn't discharge me until Saturday afternoon. I can't remember the last time I was so bored. I actually got sick of playing my DS for a time being. Best of all, USA had some sort of Keanu Reeves marathon going on... it really wasn't my week.

Ironically, even though I've been eating at all these dives and street vendors in Chinatown I probably got e.coli from eating something from the work cafeteria salad bar that wasn't properly cleaned such as lettuce and/or bell peppers.

Flavio

We went to the opera last night to celebrate three years of The Wife putting up with me. We saw Flavio, an opera by Handel that was sort of a comedy. I was actually pleasantly surprised and entertained. Flavio, the Italian king, completely stole the show. Even in row "S" you could see his facial expressions, and he sort of looked like Andy Dick, but with less crack involved.

My impression of opera from Flavio is that each song comprises of 2 short verses and a bunch of one-syllable filler nonsense. For instance, if I were to write an opera about going to work, it would go like this.

The alarm clock goes of, I wake up.
I am tired and have to tie my tie twice.

two-times-two-times-twice-two-two-two-o-o-oo
ween-o-ween-o-ween-o-ween-o-ween-o-ween-o
toe-moe-roe-ichi-ni-san.
hip-hip-hooray-ho-ay-ho-ay-oh
(etc for 5 more minutes)

but I make it to the subway.
I want to catch the A-train downtown.

a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-train
a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-a-train
(etc. etc.)
(pause music so i can show off my vocal range)
a-a-a-a-a-a-a-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A!
(cue music)
TRAIIIIIIIIN!


In other news, I really need to upload pictures.