August in Summary

What? Can you believe it? I'm dropping my August summary on the first day of September?! Yo, when it's blogging time, it's blogging time. Here's what happened in August besides Andrew visiting!

One early-August evening I went with Patricia to see this Australian movie called "Girl Asleep" at the Socrates Sculpture Park as part of their Film Forum summer movie series. The movie was fun, a nice companion piece to Hunt for the Wilderpeople in someways (although I wouldn't know that for a few more weeks), the location was great, and then there were tacos to go eat afterwards at Los Portales. Perfect!

One Thursday night I went down to the new little Mile End at the food hall by Grand Central because I had heard they have corn dogs. Well, they do and they're small...a half hot dog each. If you don't buy two, you're not nearly getting a meal. The hot dogs were of a snappingly good quality, the batter delicious and everything fried before my eyes. But still, too small. Just charge me a lot of a big normal corn dog, please, Mile End. I'd rather do that than buy two little ones. They look like hors d'ouevres.  

One lucky Friday night Victoria asked me if I wanted to come along to a free M Ward concert. Yeah I did! I hadn't seen M Ward live in 12 years (sheesh), and what an event that was because he was an opening act for a show at the Jersey Loew's, which has grown to become my favorite place in the city (even if it's in Jersey City.)

The next day, a Saturday, I could hear there was quite the ruckus going on outside. Turns out there were three different events happening outside my house.

First, a block party to my north.

Then a major community Salsa gathering to my south

Salsa has certainly never been my jam, but this particular party had me at least momentarily rethinking my jams.

And to the east, a big street fair

Last Saturday, or the one below, I met up with Andrea and Victoria and Orlando, Andrea's brother, in the Rockaways.

This last Sunday night Kristin hosted a going away party for Christian and Kimberly before they go off to BYU Idaho. Kimberly is going back now that she's finished her mission in Chicago, but Christian is heading off to start his Freshman year, to chase that degree and see what the future holds for him. Having tutored Christian since he was in 8th grade it absolutely blows my mind that he's heading off to college. I 100% can't believe it...I mean, I know he had it in him, but it's still crazy.

"We look like bachelors!" - Christian, when he sees this picture

You know, even though I was the tutor, it's not like Christian didn't teach me anything. I had never heard of a Chopped Cheese before going to a deli with him. Now I'm Chopped Cheese 'til I die.

Monday Christian came over so I could give him my gigantic suitcase that is too big to use for anything except heading off to college. We do not know what the future might hold for Christian, but we do know that he'll have something enormous to hold it in.

But, hey, don't be feeling sad for me about Christian leaving. Because August wasn't just a month for goodbyes, I also said "Hello" to the Ranchera Torta from Don Paco's Tortas, which I have been walking by for months and months if not years and years and finally went into this week. Don Paco and I, we've got to make up for a lot of lost time now.

A Visitor.

Last week Andrew came to town. Video games were played and meals were had. On paper it doesn't seem like much, but what really, what more is there? 

I would go to work and Andrew would play video games. He beat Firewatch, Uncharted 4, and about half of Metal Gear Solid V. Pretty impressive.

Wednesday night we met at Shake Shack for dinner. I tried ordering the Chicken Shack without all the lettuce and the intense dill mayo to try to ease off on the strange greenness of the sandwich. It's better that way, but could be better still. Andrew got the immaculate Smoke Shack. And then we split a Smoke Shack. What a life!

Thursday night we went to the Momofuku Noodle Bar. We ordered no noodles.

But here is our wild scallop crudo with corn and chicken skin dish getting finished up.

Pea shoots with kimchi vinaigrette. I realize now I've had these before, but didn't recognize them on the menu. They're good, though. I'm not complaining.

Shaved fennel on ricotta. To me this tasted a little like corn dogs. Andrew didn't think so.

Rice cakes with hozon and roast corn and lots of black pepper. Nice.

Gigantic slice of bacon with molasses and blackberries. Compelling.

Here's Andrew.

And, well, this is me. Look at that rainbow reflection.

Wrapped up the night's outing at Big Gay Ice Cream. You know I keep it simple with a chocolate dip sprinkle twist cone. A Berlin or a Merlin, depending on who you ask.

Ok, Friday. Friday I didn't have work. We went out to Queens to try a cemitas place ("Cemitas El Tigre) that sounded interesting.

Saturday, though, we did put up the controllers and spend a lot of the super hot and sweaty day out of the house.

We met up with Patricia at Fuku. Andrew and Patricia hadn't seen each other for 11 or 13 years, but they got right to talking.

Then we went over to Superiority Burger and they talked some more

Meanwhile I ate my yuba sandwich and blanched broccoli rabe

Look at this great doggo we saw on the street! 13/10, would stare at all day!

And check out this Masters of the Universe window display. It's like they've got everything in there! Lots of toys I haven't thought about for a long time, but recognized right away.

Then we met up with Victoria and saw this movie Hunt for the Wilderpeople. OH MAN! What a movie!! You guys, you've GOT to see Hunt for the Wilderpeople. Best movie I saw this summer I think, I mean, what a summer full of lame garbage movies we've had, but Wilderpeople makes up for it all.

After the movie Andrew realized he had cut his finger. But guess what? Patricia comes prepared.

Then I took everyone down to Soho because I had a surprise treat for Andrew. But it's harder to make surprises happen on blogs, so let me tell you what it was: We went to the Magnum Bar pop up store where you make your own fancy Magnum bar because Andrew loves Magnum bars, that's nearly the first thing I learned about him in London back in 2000.

This is mine. Dark chocolate over vanilla with mint chocolate chips, sea salt, chile flake, butterscotch crunch, and milk chocolate drizzle. I picked my toppings like a madman and it was good. Fun treat. No big need to do it again, but sure, do it once. 

Sunday supper, absolutely killer meal at the Ssam Bar. Dude, it had definitely been way more than a year since my last dinner at the Ssam Bar, which is crazy. Think back to 2008/09 when I was eating there, uh, 2-3 times a week? Times have changed! But the wait was worth it, food was out of control. Pictures aren't the best, but please, don't stop reading now.

Heirloom Tomato Salad and Plums with buttermilk and shiro dashi. This dish was like the restaurant saying "Yo, what's up? We mean business."

Little Gem Lettuce salad with beets and radishes. Great.

Benton's Country Ham is a must.

Shishito peppers with the yuzu mayo they used to serve along with the Jonah crab claws. So simple, so good.

And finally, Smoked Seven Spice Brisket with carrots and white barbecue sauce. Ask Andrew how this was and he might faint at the memory.

For dessert we went to Oddfellows, no pics but listen: Best ice cream of the summer? Forget Morgenstern's, forget Ample Hills, Oddfellows is quietly getting the job done. (I had carrot cake cream cheese and buttermilk honey blueberry after sampling nearly every flavor. So patient, the Oddfellows workers).

In the wake of so much heavy eating, Andrew and I wrapped up his visit the next day with salads at Sweetgreen. Just trying to take the edge off a little bit. Little tiny bit.

This post is dedicated to Andrew's sister, Sarah, who likes seeing his picture on the internet. Sarah, come on out to New York, bring Barry, you will have fun.

July Summarized

Nothing says "second week in August" like posting my final July wrap-up. Here's what I was up to when I wasn't in Chicago or at a rock festival in Chicago or in Utah.

I can't remember if I told you I went to Katz for a hot dog on the 4th of July. Fact: It was the second time in my 13 years living in New York to set foot inside Katz and my first time buying something/eating there. It was a fine hot dog, no bigger than a Grey's Papaya dog, but yeah, I'd say tastier. 

Look at this, the Second Avenue Subway really is coming. This is the cover across the new side to the 63rd Street subway platform.

You may have wondered if I went to the Martin Creed show at the Park Avenue Armory. Why yes, of course I did.

This is just what the Armory looks like all the time

And here's the most famous thing about the show: The room full of great big balloons. So many balloons! Such a strong latex smell! So hard to get a correct exposure!

Everyone knows about the balloons at the Creed show but from there it gets weirder. There's a room where the lights flash on and off while the door opens and closes slowly on its own--in fact, slow openings and closings are a recurring element of the show. Out in the main hall there's a giant curtain that opens and closes slowly on its own. But in the great big gigantic parade room they've got the biggest opening and closing. Up on this gigantic screen they play videos of the camera slowly zooming in on still figures who then open their mouths (slowly) to reveal mysterious gunk or goo. And then, even more slowly and less frequently, the door way down at the other end of the room opens up to the street and sunlight outside. Art!

Off to the side from there there was a gallery of smaller video installations of things like dogs walking around, passages getting highlighted, and, uhm, people throwing up (not pictured)?

Throughout the rest of the Armory it was harder to tell Creed's art from what was already in the museum, but there was this white grand piano that slammed its own lids open and shut. Which you can't tell from the photo. But that's what it did.

Let's talk about visitors? Scott came for a conference and stayed with me for a week while I was gone the whole time working, but we had some good 12:30am meals. He's down with dollar slices and up for Baconator fries.

And I managed to get back from Utah just in time to catch Jessica at the tail end of her New York trip. So good to see Jessica, hard to believe it had been ten years!

Last Saturday of the month I met up with Mary and Kim at the Metrograph to see Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. After that we grabbed some lunch at Mission Chinese...pro-tip: Place is EMPTY at 1pm on a Saturday and I gave my old neighborhood a little bit of a walking-around.

And, in conclusion, two creations I am proud of for July: this roasted vegetable salad and my BB8 watercolor.