Business as Usual

Apologies for the lapse in posting folks. Lots going on these days. I had a few interesting days last week that bear some repeating.

First, I played personal chef to my friends, Rob and Karen. Made Italian style burgers, which were delightful. Super easy to do. I just added some onion, garlic, oregano, salt and pepper to the hamburger meat before pan-searing them. We built the burgers on grilled eggplant brushed with olive oil instead of buns and topped them with tomato and basil mayonnaise. I have no idea where I got the idea, but I'm glad I did. For dessert, I went with peaches and cherries in a balsamic sauce. Delicious, but I want to do some playing with it. I'm thinking a cherry balsamic cobbler with peach ice cream for next time. Play around with the textures a bit. Going to be doing more personal cheffing this week I believe. If I have time between my volunteer shifts at Grand Central Neighborhood.

This weekend was positively interesting. Was supposed to go with some friends to Caracas Arepa Bar in Brooklyn and then a dance party in some warehouse in Williamsburg, but through some confluence of events ended up not doing either. We arrived in Brooklyn after Caracas had closed for the night and wandered over to Flatbush to fins something with an open kitchen. Found some, what I think was meant to be an Irish pub that was still serving food. At 11:30PM, you take what you find. I ordered the salad and the curry fries as those were the only menu items not fried or soaked in beer. The four of us split a pitcher of sangria served in the smallest pitcher I have ever encountered. I've seen beer steins larger than this thing. Well, we all had a good laugh about it. After food, we decided against hopping the train up to Williamsburg at that hour. Instead we wandered over to Lanae's watering hole of choice, Patio Lounge. There was some sort of junior high reunion so the place was packed, but the music was good, and the drinks were plentiful. While outside on the patio that gives the lounge it's name, we were accosted by a thrown bag of birdseed. Inside we went. Funny, but not worth a repeat performance. Drinks and laugh were had, then back to Jersey at 6AM. Good night.

As for the coming week, I have two shifts at GCN's kitchen scheduled, so I've decided to check out Caracas' Manhattan location for lunch on one of those days.

That brings us up to date. I'll be making the switch from NJ to Queens in a few weeks time, then the restaurant reviews and cooking can begin in earnest. Oh yeah.