In Memorium

April is so bittersweet since it's me and my hubby's dating anniversary but that same year and month was also when my dear cousin passed away suddenly at 29.  Maybe it's lucky for him that he will never have to grow old.  He will eternally be 29 in our eyes.  Yesterday was the anniversary of his passing (it's been 2 years) and so my sister, her BF and I went down to 53rd St and 6th Ave in Manhattan to the famous Halal Food Cart.  Their known as the guys with the yellow tees.  I think I was first introduced to this cart when they only had 1 on the block right across from the Hilton hotel on a late night adventure with my sister and her friend many many moons ago.  And I've been a customer ever since.  Nowadays they've built up quite a reputation and I've noticed they now have like 4 carts around the vicinity of 53rd st, and the lines can go for eons for the perfect drunken late night snack.  We ate some gyros in our cousin's memory because this spot was one of his favorite places to eat.  Eating was one of his favorite things to do. 

I think my cuz's usual dish was chicken and lamb with rice (which is also served with a couple of slices of pita bread but I think they dwindled down on serving that). We opted for the lamb gyro version.  I think these used to have tomatoes with the lettuce - it's now been whittled down to bare essentials meat and lettuce.  Can't forget the white sauce and the hot sauce.  At most places, the white sauce is typically a yogurt sauce but I think here they use mayo to make it tastier.  And their hot sauce is the bomb - super spicy hot - I don't know what they use but I haven't been able to find a better hot sauce anywhere else.  The lamb still tastes good even though there's not much to be desired in the salad.  I kind of miss the old days when they used to overload the pitas and plates but I guess times are tough now and they need to be economical to remain a cheap eat.  Anyway I think it's nice to honor someone's memory by doing something they liked to do  .

The Sweet Life

This was a significant week in this little ol' life of mine.  Monday my little boy turned 8 months old.  He is getting so big so fast.  He still isn't able to crawl properly but he can propel himself across the floor with his hands, pushing himself as if swimming.  The hardwood floors help him glide to wherever he wants to go.  I wonder if that's a hinderance to making him crawl in the proper way on his hands and knees.  Anyway, he's enjoying the ability to wander to all these places he's never been before in our apartment.  He especially likes crawling under the dining room table, which doubles as my workspace area, and pulling on all the cords he can get his hands on.  He seems to also enjoy playing with our shoes that are stacked by our entry door.  And by enjoy, I mean tasting a shoe or shoelace or two.  Ugh.  You can have a conversation with him but his responses are in baby babble, which I unfortunately am not versed in, but it's still fun to try.  Sometimes he still likes to scream at the top of his lungs.  These high shrill shrieks actually sound a lot like monkeys do when you go to the zoo.  Weird but maybe it's a throwback to evolution.  He was sitting up on his own before but had to use his hands/arms for support.  Now he has the upper body strength to sit up without leaning on anything.  He looks pretty stable now, although every now and then, he has the tendency to fall backwards.  He's pretty quick now to move from sitting to being on his stomach.  I taught him to clap his hands and sometimes you'll catch him clapping on his own for no reason.  It's so adorable.   The new thing I'm noticing is that when he is on his stomach, he'll push up on his feet, straightening his legs completely while his hands are on the ground.  It looks like he's a step away from standing up (or tumbling over).  My sister keeps telling him to not grow up so fast...I mean with his four teeth and on his way to walking...it's feeling much like a whirlwind.

And Friday (yesterday) was the 2 year anniversary of our first date, the hubby and me.  My parents have the baby for the weekend, and my hubby took me out to dinner at a surprise location not disclosed to me until we were standing right in front of the restaurant.  He took me to Maze - one of Gordon Ramsey's restaurants at the London Hotel. How apropos!!  Why?  Because we've been watching Gordon Ramsey TV shows since we started dating and still to this day watch Kitchen Nightmares.  How very sweet and thoughtful!  I was very excited to be there.  I chose the 5 course tasting menu which was very  delicious.  Hubby ordered the halibut with a side of brussel sprouts.  But he was going to taste my dishes as well so it worked out to be a filling meal for both of us.  Well I guess eating all the bread before the meal helped with feeling full, but it was so good.  They bread was flakey and they salted the top so it was yum - you didn't even have to use butter but I think they even put sea salt on the butter.  At the bar, while we were waiting for our table, they had sesame breadsticks to munch on and let me tell you, they tasted a hell of a lot better than the stella d'oro ones.  For my five course meal, the first thing I had was a sweet potato velouté with fried battered shrimp.  It had coconut milk and curry.  Very good.  Next were fried sweet breads with beets.  The sweet breads were good - I mean most things fried taste good.  On the outside, the taste sort of reminded me of fried chicken but the texture once you chew it is soft, not like chicken at all.  It's an unusual texture because it's soft and dense.  Well it tasted good to me - there were only 2 pieces anyway.  Not sure if I'm a fan of beets in general but I ate the entire dish, so no complaints there.  Next was scallops - cooked to perfection - as Gordon would say.  Those were quite yummy and I was starting to feel full.  For my main course you had a choice of meat or fish.  I chose the fish - it was a lemon sole.  The only problem there was the potatoes had olives in it.  Should have asked if they could remove the olives or change the side but didn't.  The fish was delicious though.  Johnny's dish was nice as well.  It was actually served exactly the same as mine (with the olive potatoes and a red wine reduction).  The brussel sprouts were so good - I think they were bathed in butter.  The last course was dessert...it was some molten lava cake thing with a mini scoop of almond ice cream and 4 chocolate ganache balls filled with salted caramel.  Those balls were the bomb.  And who doesn't like the molten lava thing?  I was just reading about the trickle down effect of the molten lava cake in my Lucky Peach magazine and here I was having it at a Gordon Ramsey restaurant.  I don't think you can ever tire of it.  It's just an awesome taste sensation to have the warm oozing chocolate cake combined with the cool ice cream.  Overall an enjoyable evening with the hubby.  

Today was a beautiful spring day.  We went into the city and got foot massages which were a bit on the painful side, more painful for the hubby than for me. I think his masseuse had a vendetta against men or something.  ha!  It was quite funny actually (well maybe not for him).  My feet feel good - my calves are a little sore.  And now we might go to Talde (again) tonight since my boss gave me a gift certificate for there.  We checked on the little man this morning, and of course my parents said he was doing fine and was very well behaved.  He's such a good tempered baby except maybe when he's hungry...or is dire need of attention.  He does have his grumpy days but overall he is a happy baby.  I am very lucky indeed to have such a great little family.      

   

Addendum:
We tried to go to Talde for dinner but didn't feel like waiting the projected hour to eat so we opted for our local goto Japanese spot (Kiku).  The next morning, we passed by and noticed that Talde was now open for brunch so we decided to try it out.  Dim Sum style breakfast (small plates to share) but not at dim sum prices...Tater Tots for $4..other menu items that we ordered anyway ranged from $8 - $12 each.  For the vegetarian options, there weren't that many choices...we had a fat noodle wrapped with mushrooms and other vegetables served with a soy sauce.  It was simple yet delicious.  We also ordered Chilequiles - not sure what the "asian" was in this dish but it had crisp tortilla chips, cotija cheese and spicy salsa verde with a fried egg on top.  We also ordered the tater tots which were served with Siracha ketchup.  Can't go wrong with that.  For the carnivore items, I got kimchee short rib tacos which were really good (and quite filling if you're going to eat both on your own) and I ordered the Korean fried chicken wings and waffle.  The waffle was nice and soft and fluffy.  By the time I reached the chicken, I was so full that I couldn't eat.  I was expecting Korean fried chicken ala Bon Chon but it wasn't the same.  It was more like a Kimchee Spiced Fried Chicken.  Very crispy - Is it bad to be disappointed it wasn't like Bon Chon? - It felt more homemade.  Anyways, I also had some fruity mimosa concoction which was light and very summery - very yummy and refreshing. I would say brunch here is a little pricy for what it is but the food is good.  Lucky I had a gift certificate to use.    

Cinderella

Having a zipcar is a very helpful and handy thing to have when you live in the NYC...you don't have to worry about parking, or insurance or gas...you have a car almost readily whenever you want.  Although in my hood, sometimes if you don't reserve far enough in advance, there isn't a car available at a conveniently close by radius..Anyway, last night I had a rare but always enjoyable girls' night out.  I took my trusty zipcar out to Westchester to celebrate my friend's awesome achievement of completing her doctorate.  I was a little rushed with time because I got stuck in traffic but I made it there in the end.  I dropped the baby off at my parents on the way to dinner, so they have him for the weekend, and I had a very nice, relaxing dinner.   But no sooner than I arrived, the clock struck 9:30 and I had to gallop off into the sunset to get my car back to the garage by 11.  I felt like Cinderella and I was going to turn into a pumpkin if I didn't skedaddle out of there right quick.  That's the thing with zipcar  - sometimes I feel a bit rushed having to get the car back in time.  There is always the option of checking if the car is available for an extension, but it would be great if I had the car and didn't have to worry about that kind of stuff - That would mean reserving an inordinate amount of time for the car - if cost weren't an issue, I guess I would do that.  I didn't want to end the evening so soon, but at least I did get to go out and have a free night and I got back to the garage with a little over 15 minutes to spare.

I called my parents this morning to check on the little man, and he slept through the night no problem...woke up at 6am.  Hmmm - how come he always seems to sleep through the night when he's with my parents?  Anyway, I'm very lucky to have parents so close by and who are so very willing and able to take care of the baby.  It gives us a little respite and allows us to get a full night's sleep for a night or two and we can sleep in the next morning (Although I tend to wake up early anyway). Aside from  being able to spend some QT with the hubby, sleep has become a very valuable commodity to me.