Prada and Cookies

Country Harvest Wheat Bread

Ariana's friend Diana donated this bread to the Ariana's Pantry Foundation. Ariana has been telling me about it, because it is so good. It is available at Target. They both love it. It just tasted like sliced bread to me, but what do I know? Maybe you can't get fresh bread at a reasonable price this city that doesn't have cheese on top of it.


Chat 'n' Chew Mac 'n' Cheese Please

Ariana's been researching diners on the internet, and the Zagat guide says that Chat 'n' Chew is amazing, so we decided to go. It was quite an experience. Ariana had a hamburger for the first time in three years. I decided to go the road more travelled and try their the macaroni and cheese that has gotten rave reviews from everything from Zagat to menupages. It was okay but incredibly cheesy and kind of bland. I added salt and tobasco to make it better, which helped but that made me thirsty and the service was very slow. Also they were blasting the John Hughes Movie Soundtrack and it made the "chatting" very difficult. Most of the people in there were New Yorkers, and at this point I'm not sure if I prefer that or not. New Yorkers are equally large pains in the ass as tourists.


Chat 'n' Chew Fries

Ariana's burger came with fries and she let me help her eat them. They were the best part of my meal. They were super crisp, probably overcooked, and the contrast of texture really helped. And lots ketchup helps every meal.


Feast for the Eyes- Rockefeller Christmas Tree

I stupidly insisted we visit the tree, despite the tourists we would inevitably have to battle. It was worth it though. I had no idea that any tree could grow to be this big. Also the lights on it were colorful, which I think is so much prettier than white lights.



Two Boots Sicilian Pizza

This is around the corner from the Urban Outfitters on Broadway that Ariana works at, so it came highly recommended by her and all of her coworkers. I should have gotten the The Night Tripper, which is a white pizza with jalapeno pesto and spinch and sundried tomatos. But I stupidly went for the Sicilian, with "spicy" sauce and moz. There was nothing spicy about it. It tasted like hairspray. Ariana described it as sweet. Everything else was good though, especially the crust. It was thick and warm and crunchy. I want more of the crust.


Warm Chocolate Chip Cookies

After a long day of walking around, we retired to the apartment to decompress and bake cookies. They are still warm, and crispy on the outside and soft on the inside, the way everything good cookie should be. I have to go eat them now.

Hallelujah

Murray's Coffee

Today was the day my friends. Today I was reunited with my favorite food of all time. But I will start with the coffee, just to tease you. It was good as usual but it's kind of bitter. It doesn't pair well with the bagel, so it is best to just drink it after you are done eating. It makes you very thirsty for water and has a lot of caffeine.



Murray's Sesame Bagel with Jalapeno Cream Cheese

I have waited so long for this. It is still the best bagel in the world, and obviously the best bagel. One thing you should know before you go is that they will not toast your bagel for you. When I told this to Ariana she begged me to go with her to SoHo Garden beforehand so she could get a yogurt parfait instead of eating an untoasted bagel. I told her she would regret it for the rest of her life, so she went with the bagel. They were warm, right out of the oven. There's no need to toast bagels as fresh as these. The sesame seeds add the perfect compliment to what would otherwise be a plain bagel. The jalapenos are so spicy it reminds me of Texas and they are fresh and crunchy but not cold. It is the perfect meal. The spice from the jalapenos made the coffee burn and taste bitter (I tried to allude to this earlier but it was too awkward with the order in which I am presenting the pictures). If you ever come to New York, you have to come here. The good one is on 8th Ave between 22nd and 23rd. There's another one on Sixth Ave between 12th and 13th, but it blows in comparison to the other one, as there is barely any seating and the staff is less friendly.


Feast for the Eyes

Walking back to the subway from Murray's (it is in Chelsea, and there is nothing to do in Chelsea unless you want to look at tacky contemporary art or hang out with tacky gay men), we spotted a new restaurant called burgers & cupcakes! The sign drew me in so I walked over to read the menu on the door and on the sidewalk outside the gift shop next door is a pink toilet used for cigarette butts. I thought it was hilarious, because I hate Chelsea, except for Murray's, and this is such a gross-awkward-funny-interesting-convenient thing to have on the sidewalk.


Feast for the Eyes- Two in One Day!

This was a coffee cup from a magazine/coffee stand that I deconstructed in order to take a good picture. I have never seen these cups on the streets before, and I saw them sitting there and I stared at them. Ariana was so kind as to ask the man if I could have one, and he gladly gave it to me. I just think it's cute, and I like looking at it more than coffee cups with car advertisements on them, which is what you find at every other stand.


Chipotle, E. 8th Street (pictured on a coffee table)

We stomped around the city taking pictures this afternoon and we were on our feet for ours. When Ariana went to work, I went to MoMA for a few hours, then visited her, then walked around the village. I hadn't eaten since my 11a.m. bagel so I was starving. I considered going to a pizza place nearby that was highly recommended, but I decided that braed and cheese as a meal twice in one day would be too much, and I was starving, and my feet were going to fall off. So I went to the Chipotle I always used to eat at by NYU. I was afraid they were closed, because no one was in there and only one person was working. But they were open, so I didn't have to give up on Chipotle forever. It was good, as usual, but he was pretty stingy on all the ingredients, especially the red tomatillo. It was the best wrap job I've ever had at any Chipotle ever though.


Vienna Fingers

We bought these at Grand Deli last night. They remind me of my childhood. The cookie part isn't very tasty, it is too much like a cracker instead of a cookie. The icing is what makes it. It is creamy but not heavy. It's just good.

7 A Day--That's What the Doctor Ordered

Leftover Moroccan Couscous

I awoke three hours before Ariana this morning (afternoon, I should say) and decided to feast on my leftovers to hold me over. It was much better than I expected. Usually I don't care for leftover chicken because it becomes to rubbery in the refrigerator, but this maintained a perfectly acceptable consistency. Also, it tasted just as good cold as it did warm, which adds to its splendor. I found one of the dried apricots from Ariana's in my container, and I thought that the sweet and sourness of it added a lot to the other flavors.




Andrew's Coffee Shop Spinach Omelette

Since she slept in so late, Ariana entertained me by accompanying me to the old hangout, Andrew's Coffee Shop. It is right across the street from the apartment I used to live in, and for seven dollars you get a large omelette, some great french fries, and two pieces of toast. The spinach is fresh, not from a can, which is something that too many restaurants in New York resort to for their spinach omelettes. The toast is usually a little burned, but that's the way toast should be. It adds flavor. The french fries are so good. Sometimes they are soggy, but today they were perfectly crisp; so crisp, in fact, that I got a piece of crispiness stuck in my teeth. I CLEANED MY PLATE! I'm a true champ.

Bread TriBeCa Pizza

Ariana's roommate Albert gave us his leftover pizza this evening. It was cold when we got it, but hey, it's pizza, and it was from Bread, which according to the Zagat guide, is really amazing. It had Gorgonzola on the pizza, which I didn't recognize, and didn't find out about until later when he told us that's what it was, and that he had never heard of putting it on pizza before. That was a pretty big deal to me as he is really into food, and even works at one of the BLT's. Anyway, it didn't work for the pizza, although the cheese and crust alone would have been good. The sauce was way too sweet and couldn't hold its own. Ariana described the overall taste of the pizza as "wangy." Take it for what you will.


Diet Dr. Pepper in the Context of Ariana's Living Room

We were the SoHo Garden picking out sushi when I spotted a Diet Dr. Pepper in the refrigerator. Dr. Pepper is extremely hard to come by in New York and I jumped at the chance to refresh myself with it. It was good, but a little on the warm side. One thing I like about this place is that they give you straws to drink your canned beverages with. I don't mean to sound like the girl with smiley face stickers all over her notebooks when I say that, I just like how it adds a little extra fizz to each sip and how the straw floats around and sticks out of the can and sometimes falls out.


SoHo Garden's Orange Sushi

This is the sushi that I got at SoHo Garden. I was very impressed with the taste overall, but it was pretty poorly wrapped. I ate it with my fingers so it wasn't really a problem. It had microscopic bits of orange peel on the rice, shrimp, avocado, and celery. And it was only four dollars! I can't believe it. I wish I knew about this orange sushi when I lived here. The orange adds the best citrusy flavor to the sushi. I bet this would be amazing fresh at a nice sushi restaurant.


M&M's in a tin drum

We were given a tin drum full of M&M's (a Christmas tree decoration that someone gave to him as a gift) from another one of Ariana's roommates. M&M's are always good, especially when they are green and red and put you in a holiday mood. I miss crispy M&M's. Does anyone remember those? They had the piece of rice crispy cereal (or something to that effect) on the inside. I think they were popular around 2000, because I remember having them at our 1999-2000 New Year's Eve party. Bring 'em back, M&M and Mars Co.

New York, New York

This morning I had an early flight to New York. I imagined that I would have the greatest entry ever with a piece about airplane food, but I forgot that you can't have your phone turned on in the plane. It ended up not being a problem though, because all they offered me was a drink (I had ginger ale). Some people around me were offered Otis Spunkmeyer muffins, but not everyone. I was hungry and kind of upset about it, but I was too tired to do anything about it.


Café Gitane Moroccan couscous with chicken, peppers, raisins, pinenuts, humus and eggplant (Ariana's vegetarian version had dried apricots and cinnamon)

The environment, because of Ariana, was excellent. She was a vision in gray. We walked there from her apartment on the cobblestone streets of SoHo and were greeted by an array of awkward sights, including, but not limited to, mint green UGGs, fur hats, and cute foreign, canine boys. The hostess was intimidatingly cute and English, with a cute English accent to boot. We sat at the bar in order to avoid a long wait AT THREE IN THE AFTERNOON. We ordered one of the specialties, a tower of Moroccan couscous. It was a feast for the eyes and the stomach. Sitting at the bar we got to witness all the behind the scenes action of the food preparation. They stuff the couscous, vegetables and chicken into a mold to get it into the perfect tower of food that it is. Once plated, they add a large heap of fresh and delicious hummus and some pieces of bread with red pepper. It was so good and fresh and flavorful, the best Moroccan food I've ever had. And it was cute and chic and very New York. No one was into each others business, which I feel like is almost always a problem at small restaurants. The food was great, the atmosphere was better than you can even hope for in New York, and it was a really interesting experience.



Lucky Strike Fried Calamari

After a crazy evening of showing Ariana's apartment to potential residents, her landlord, a 70 year old artist from Chilé, and his girlfriend, an offensive yet jovial artist from the bronx, took us to dinner at a very SoHo restaurant down the block called Lucky Strike. I don't even know where to begin. We were meeting one of Juan's (the landlord) friends/past residents, and he turned at to be a 30-something patronizing ass hole, who said my shirt looked like pajamas and looked like he was going to have a seizure when Ariana struggled with the bread. The food! That's what I need to talk about, the food.

The calamari (on the house, because Juan is buddies with the owners) was very good, but maybe a little tough. It was accompanied with a spicy marinara sauce that really kept me guessing. I was impressed with their frying skills; I feel like people are taking for granted the value of a nicely breaded and fried piece of food these days (versus fried foods that become soggy or the breading falls off) and it's nice to see that it's making a comeback.


Lucky Strike Vegetarian Burger

Lucky Strike was kind of expensive and I had already had a big nice meal earlier in the day, and calamari, and good bread, so I decided to go for the veggie burger. The patty was pretty blah, nothing special. I'm sure it was just a garden burger. It came with lettuce and tomato and ketchup. The most interesting thing about it was the bun. It looked exactly like and had the same texture as an English muffin, but tasted just like a regular bun. The french fries were also very interesting. I doubt that there was actually any potato to them, they were just strands of fried grease. I'm not complaining. Yes I had a big food day already, but I was ready to conquer the fry. I was a little apprehensive about eating them in a fancy restaurant, so I experimented by trying to eat them with a fork. That didn't work out so well. But overall it was a wonderful meal and I heard a lot of really good stories and the camaraderie was worth the painful stupidity of the evil thirty-something male.

The Day Chipotle Made Me Cry

Mark's Take on Cinnabon

Remember that awesome recipe book I was telling you about? It is called Top Secret Recipes, and today Mark decided to make cinnamon rolls with the top secret recipe from Cinnabon. We had to make ANOTHER trip to the grocery store, at least my tenth this week. Anyway it was really funny watching him knead the dough and also make a huge mess. The yeast didn't rise correctly though and they weren't good, at least that's what I heard. I definitely wasn't brave enough to try them.

By midafternoon, I was starving and I wanted Chipotle. So I went to Chipotle, and the guy started pressing the tortilla, and he asked, "pinto beans ma'am?" and I said, "no I'd like black." and he said that they were out and wouldn't be making any more because they were closing in a couple hours, but why can't I just get pinto beans? So I told him I don't get meat and I hate pinto beans and I left. I could have given up there, but I was too hungry and too determined to be brought down by one silly Chipotle worker who doesn't understand the importance of black beans. So we took off for the other Chipotle in town. IT WAS CLOSED. So I stood there at the door to Chipotle on Christmas Eve 2006 and cried.

Historically, I don't return to food establishments that make me cry. Just ask Whole Foods, Spice, HEB, and Jester City Limits. I don't know how this is going to affect my relationship with Chipotle, but I am sure it won't be good.


Pizza

So when I got home from what will go down in history as The Chipotle Disaster, we had to go to Christmas Eve Church and I still didn't get to eat much at home. Afterwards I was too hungry to think so we just had pizza. Waiting to be seated at a restaurant for two hours would be the epitome of suburban hell for me. And it's raining and cold, blah. The pizza was burned but I didn't care.

Finally, we were supposed to have peppermint ice cream because it's Christmas Eve and that's the one thing we always do on Christmas Eve besides watch Christmas Vacation. I went to pretty much every grocery store in the Dallas area and none of them had it. NONE. How frustrating.

Now my stomach ache is back. Merry Christmas y'all.

I PASSED STATISTICS

Central Market Apple Cider Sample

We made the trip to Central Market for the sole purpose of buying apple cider. So we got there and ohmygod it was so busy. Like the worst shopping experience I've ever had. But as we made our way through the produce section we stumbled upon the warm apple cider dispenser which lightened the mood for sure. It wasn't very warm though, and when it isn't warm it gets too sour for my taste. But we bought it, and fully plan on letting it stew around in the crock pot for hours and hours before consumption.


Pancakes

I was in a pretty bad mood tonight, but my dad decided to make breakfast for dinner and that is always a good thing. Fizz is a master at the grill and the griddle. His waffles are by far superior, but I'll take what I get. I couldn't eat anything but the pancakes, but everything else made the kitchen smell pretty good. I gave Maggie her fair share of bacon and made Cricket watch on with jealousy.


Steak and Cheese Taquito

Mark and I went to the Mavericks game tonight, and since they scored more than 100 points, they were passing out coupons for free taquitos from 7-11 at the exits. So naturally, we went to 7-11 right away. We had pretty horrible timing though, as the 7-11 in Coppell gets slammed with 16 year olds who just got their driver's licenses and are only allowed to drive down the street around 11p.m. So we waited for ten minutes while the brace faces paid for their slurpees. I wanted the jalapeno one, and they had two spinning around on the thing, but the girl looked at them and said, "uh, you don't want this." So Mark and I both went for the Steak and Cheese. It had a kick to it, probably just some tobasco, but Mark is sure there were jalapenos. This was my first taquito experience ever, and I wasn't turned off. I don't think I will ever go to 7-11 to get a taquito again though, unless it's with my brother after a Mavericks game and we have free coupons.


Cheesy Gordita Crunch

One taquito is pretty weak if you haven't eaten in four hours. It's just enough to make you hungry. So we went to Taco Bell and got this thing Stephen's been telling me about: the Cheesy Gordita Crunch. My brother told me what it was, and I decided to go for it. I'm pretty sure that between the "steak" taquito and the CGC, I had five different kinds of rat meat, but I'm totally cool with that. C'est la vie. The anatomy of a CGC is as follows (from outside in): tortilla, cheese, crispy taco shell, rat meat, lettuce, cheese, special sauce. Very interesting. I'm not sure if I would get it again just because I felt like I ate a brick aferwards. But it tasted just fine, and that brick in my stomach could have just as easily been from the taquito.

Candy Bar for Breakfast

Benny's Jalapeno Bagel with Jalapeno Cream Cheese

I had to get up at the crack of dawn this morning for an incredibly unsuccessful doctor's appointment. I had to sit in the waiting room for an hour before I got to go back there. I woke up feeling a little sick to my stomach, but by the time I was out of there I was starving. Luckily, Benny's Bagels, the only independently owned bagel shop in the Dallas area that I know of, is en route from my doctor's office to my home. So I went in, and they were out of EVERYTHING except blueberry. But then he found a jalapeno bagel. So I asked for light cream cheese and he said they were out of that too but he did have jalapeno. I went for it, even though I felt a little weird about being so matchy-matchy. Then I paid with cash which was stupid because he didn't have any one dollar bills and now I have four dollars in quarters and dimes. Anyway, the bagel was good. Benny's are weird though. For one thing they aren't shaped like bagels. they are like skinny ovals. I don't think there were any pieces of jalapenos in my bagel and the cream cheese was mostly red bell pepper and not jalapeno either. But it still tasted good, I was too hungry to care about not getting what I expected, and really, you can't go wrong with bread and cheese ever, but especially for breakfast.



Moose Tracks/Whatever you want to call it

This is my brother in law's favorite holiday treat, and I like it too, so I was happy to make it this evening. It's just semi-sweet chocolate, peanut butter, crispix, and powdered sugar. I'm pretty sure everyone in the world has had it. Crispix is the best cereal in the world.


Chocolate Cookies

I watched Jack make these tonight. I tend to get in the way more than I help her in the kitchen, but I'm eager to learn as much as I can before I enroll in the culinary academy. They are very good, very soft and chocolatey. We made a ton of them, so I don't know what we're going to do with them because we definitely don't need them. Also eating more than one cookie makes me feel really awful, the equivalent of eating a candy bar for breakfast (I say this quite often to describe the worst feeling your stomach can get that isn't a going-to-throw-up feeling). She got the recipe from a friend that always makes good cookies.