i'm too tired to write...

and too excited by my impending road trip to lovely geneseo to bother with the long rundown. so here's a capsule photo montage. i don't know why some of the photos aren't showing up but i'm too lazycakes to fix it.

this is a cotton candy machine that was outside another of the izakayas in the east village.

on monday morning we had breakfast at good enough to eat, where i had the best corned beef hash ever (and i've eaten a lot of corned beef hash in my day, trust me), with big chunks of greasy, crusty potatoes, onions, and tender bits of real corned beef. it was served with fluffy yeasted biscuits and whipped strawberry butter. the strawberry butter was delightful. the dotytron had a regular farmer's breakfast with pork sausage patties, poached eggs, and a delicately flavoured onion-dill bread:

we rented bikes near central park and then biked around. we made a mistake and finished a small loop of the park in about 20 minutes - thinking we'd done the whole thing. MISTAKE. when we took the other fork in the road the bike ride was over an hour to circle the park - and some of it was ruthlessly uphill, which is deceiving because most of manhattan lulls you into complacency with its' flatness. we also biked along the hudson where i took horrible, ugly, unpicturesque photos:

our last dinner in nyc was in brooklyn, again in williamsburg, at fatty 'cue. zakary pelaccio has another restaurant (two branches, now) called fatty crab, which serves malaysian street food type stuff - laksas, curried crabs, etc. this is a southeast asian take on bbq with delicious, piquant results. this is a nam prik eggplant, which is served with chiccharones, green mango, radishes, and beans for dipping:

this is dragon pullman loaf from chinatown, toasted (the fluffiest white bread ever) served with fat from the smoker. somewhat predictably, i was the only fan:

this was pork belly, served with the most fragrant yellow curry custard - so good:

the dishes are meant for sharing and they arrive in no particular order. this was pulled lamb shoulder with house made pita and greek yoghurt with thai mint:

a cucumber salad and a celery salad with yuzu:

a smoked snapper that is then seared, served with chili sauce:

some of the juciest, most flavourful, most perfectly cooked duck i've ever eaten, served with a red curry custard:

brisket served with bone broth, bao, and condiments. the idea is you make little sandwiches with the bao and then dip in the bone broth:

this was a special that night, called "the legend" basically a cross section of the belly of the pig, smoked and then fried, served with more bao. sooooooooooooo good:

we had the snapper bones fried so we could snack on them:

i freakin' love that place and would go back in an instant. so good! so very, very good. lentz joined pingy, pingy's roomie, myself and the dotytron for dinner and he and the dotytron had a blast taking down the "recession special" at the bar and with dinner - a set of drinks which featured a shot of whiskey, a shot of pickle juice, and then a tall boy of pabst blue ribbon for $8. the pickle juice was really, really good! kind of gingery and not acrid briny at all.

the morning before we left we stopped at amy ruth's which is one of our favorite soul food restaurants, and also (according to the menu) a favorite of such african american luminaries as the reverend al sharpton and bill clinton. my stomach has been feeling a little sensitive and over-worked lately, so we kept it "light" so to speak. i had biscuits, virginia ham and eggs and the dotytron had bacon, grits, and eggs:

then we hopped on a plane and raced to our midwifery appointment and now we're all caught up.

last night we went to see stravinsky's petrushka at the toronto symphony orchestra. it was fantastico. i fell asleep through most of petrushka but stayed away for the pre-intermission bit, which was the second part of the three cornered hat (or something) which i LOVED and this nuevo tango number which i also LOVED.

i've been craving fresh, cold, salad-y things lately for dinner so i made us a GIANT pre-symphony greek salad which we had with beef souvlaki from sun valley:

it's been SO HOT and we don't have a/c in our house that i wanted cold crispiness. we're going to eat that again tonight before we drive down to geneseo.

squee! so excited to see my sis and outlaw bro and her family. we haven't seen them since easter. it was miss ramona's birthday a while back so i made up a certificate for her naming her aunt mercy and uncle do-do's "favorite niece of the year" and had a fill-in-the-blanks prize form for her to fill out and mail back which entitled her to a very special fun day with just us and her. she picked going to the strong museum (children's museum in rochester) and eating burgers for her activity. so we're definitely going to do that. otherwise it'll just be me and my sis rubbing our bellies together to get the cousins acquainted and eating and relaxing and watching MTOD. i'm hoping it's going to be hot and sunny enough that we can go swimming at stony brook, if it's even open yet.

happy memorial day weekend everyone!

i'm currently in love with this tune - it's so hands-in-the-air 80s:

it's made by the same guy who made her "hot'n'cold" which i kinda love, "since u been gone" which i TOTALLY love, and "party in the u.s.a." which is TOTALLY TOTALLY love. this guy, dr. luke, totally has me dialed in.

lol!

fin.

as dr. rei would say...

...what a dangler.

the saga continues...but my mum (who actually reads this thing!) is making me paro so let's say that i'm being hit on by kid cudi (i've changed the info in the previous post to reflect that.) TBH - if i was being hit on by the real kid cudi (or TI) let's say there there isn't a force in this universe that would keep me from getting all up in there. marriage vows be damned! to be more accurate, it's like i'm getting hit on by michael buble, but it's so gross that for my own peace of mind while i'm writing this, let's just say kid cudi.

so yesterday morning during my break i go to my personal email (i'm trying to get this shiz off the work servers) and send this polite, and i would argue fairly clear, missive:

"sounds like you've got a fully stocked bar in your office - it's a wonder you get any work done!
again, thanks for the interest but i don't think we have much in common - you're too much of a grown-up for me. i'll see you around"

MEANWHILE kid cudi has ALREADY emailed me at work attempting to "clarify" yesterday's "coffee metaphor" email and say that he didn't mean anything "dirty" - so i tell him to check his gmail, thinking that's the end of that.

BUT IT'S NOT!!! the dangler actually responded:

"what you mean is i'm probably too immature and playful and you have too many guys like that already !!!! or, you just insulted me by saying i'm too old for you. ;)
hmm...."

so i'm like, IS HE KIDDING OR WHAT? what the eff is wrong with this sad-sack?

and later on in the day i respond:

"with all due respect, you're too old for me - i don't fraternize with guys in suits - i like my guys in hoodies and stan smiths." (the stan smiths and hoodies is a shout-out to my boo, the dotytron, who really does look good in stan smiths - loves ya, you big lug!)

at which point, it couldn't be MORE done, right? that's assuming you're a normal, decent person and not the sleazoid of the next millenium. because brandon davis over here actually SENT AN EMAIL BACK:

"ouch. cold. you said it wasn't a THUMP.
ha ..
first .. i don't wear suits outside work ya know.
i have FOUR muthahfuck'n hoodies.
and i've never been accused of being too old.
too rough .. maybe. but never too old.
but i suppose younger women can't always handle that.
no worries. you are hot. and nice. thought i'd see what happened.
i need to go have a nap and lubricate my dentures."

WHAT A DANGLER. can i repeat that? WHAT A DANGLER. i just TOTALLY realized how apt my brandon davis analogy is. brandon davis, if you remember, is the giant greazeball who famously called lindsay lohan a "firecrotch" and even more recently accused mischa barton of being a "heffer" even though he not too long ago looked like this:

the best thing about googling brandon davis images is that you find THIS gem:

lol x 10000000000000000000.

ANYWAY, WHO WRITES THAT SHIZ?!??! reading the words "FOUR muthahfuck'n hoodies" and picturing THAT GUY writing them just makes you feel SO AWKWARD. it's like a very white, suburban mom trying to say stuff like "owned" or "hood rat" you just feel bad for them.

dr. rei has been hilarious - i forwarded her the emails and she's like, "ummm...the hoodies is a METAPHOR, obviously...an ACTUAL metaphor unlike your stupid coffee one"

lol!!! at this point, the emails have been forwarded to so many people, that i thought of the most hilarious way to shut this guy down for good. the best would be for DR. REI to respond to brandon davis here, IN THE FORWARDED CHAIN (so he knows it's been sent around) and interject herself into the conversation with:

ummmm...what do you MEAN by "rough"?
- dr. rei

LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HOW FUNNY WOULD THAT BE?!???!!!!? we died laughing over dinner just thinking about it. the dotytron thinks it's going to be the most effective shut down.

so i was going to ignore it but the guy kept sending me emails - little one liners being "should i email your work or your personal email" and i'm like "dude, you're not giving up are you?" and he's like, "no."

i'm going to stop responding. i'm going to be like, "dude, you're wack and a dangler, i'm not going to respond to any more of your smarmy, creepy emails" and block the m-fer already or report it as spam.

last night we met up with dr. rei for dinner at kenzo ramen. we had been to the kenzo up in north york with bwong before and it was so good. the downtown location (assuming it's the same chain) is equally delicious.

we split an order of meaty, tender, gingery gyoza in delicate wrappers:

the dotytron ordered the "king of kings" ramen:

which has a bunch of stuff in it (pork, seaweed, etc.) and is spicy. it's one of the most popular ones.

i ordered the tonkotsu, which has a few thick slices of braised pork, half of a soft-boiled egg, and a mess of bean sprouts and scallions, in a milky, delicate, faintly sweet broth:

the portions of ramen are HUGE! on the side you get a little personal shaker of togarashi to spice things up a bit. so good!

our seats for the symphony were pretty awesome! ground floor, centre. guys, the toronto symphony orchestra is kind of the best and it deserves your love and support. they're doing a 3 night series featuring jean sibelius' 7 symphonies played in sequential order. we saw the 1st and 2nd symphony. i prefer the second. orchestras are so cool! i love oboes and bassoons and double bass and cello the best. the sound was impeccable inside of roy thompson hall. they ended up recording the show and they're going to be broadcasting it on cbc 2.

i really enjoyed it - even if i did aggravate the dotytron by asking what it IS exactly that makes the first violinist so the bomb and why having the conductor is such a big deal - the musicians aren't even LOOKING at him. as i said, a "forte is a forte" to which the dotytron responded with a big rollseyes and exasperated explanation which resulted in me saying, "you don't have to be so defensive you know"
and him responding, "and YOU don't have to keep acting like a symphony isn't a big deal" lol!

tonight for dinner we're having homemade falafels with a tahini lemon sauce, pickled beets, and tomato cucumber mint salad. refreshing!

fin.