sick deux

Yesterday I woke up with a sore throat but it went away once i re-hydrated.  Today I woke up with a sore throat and it's still there.  Ugh - I knew I was coming down with something because my eyes started hurting yesterday - a kind of low grade headache that feels like there's a burning behind my eyes.  I know sounds weird but that's what happens to me when I catch a bad cold.  What do you do when you feel ill but already work from home?  Continue working but stay in your pajamas and don't leave the house.  My son still has his runny nose so he's all congested - poor thing.  I think I am catching a different caliber of cold so I can't blame him for passing it on.

The other night was my wedding anniversary.  My sis and her boyfriend were nice enough to babysit for us so we could go out sans baby.  We decided to go to Buddakan which is right near Chelsea Market and right at the edge of the meatpacking district. Being from NY, you get accustomed to the tight cramped spaces that most restaurants accost you with...chairs back to back with the next table, people hitting you as they pass by, waiters accidentally spilling food on you all because of the cramped spaces.  Not this place.  Buddakan is huge, cavernous and dark and it's quite impressive when you walk down the stairs to the dining area with it's high vaulted ceilings, and massive center table.  They also have a lounge on the first floor when you walk in where you can have drinks and eat if you want.  I felt like I had walked into a hotel lobby front desk only it was very dark with mood lighting like a night club.  There were lots of dudes wearing suit jackets and women in work attire.  So it was that kind of place but mixed in with regular folk and tourists. My hubby and I rated this place a 7.5 out of 10.  Wait staff was great..(they dropped one of my buns for my hoisin glazed pork belly and they remembered to bring a replacement one albeit after I had already scarfed everything down because I was starving and they had to make a new one fresh)..ambiance was ok if you like being in a dark subterranean alcove.  I would not say the place is romantic because there is a constant buzz of people and sounds but it looked like it was a popular date night spot - somewhere you take someone to impress them or you're trying to be hip.  I do agree with some of the comments I read on yelp - it is basically overpriced Chinese food - but they have to pay for the real estate and the abundant restaurant staff.  I was impressed with the appetizers.  As I mentioned, I had the hoisin glazed pork belly and it tasted damn good to me.  The pork was served on a bed of coleslaw which had a hint of ginger mixed in.  The steamed buns were hot, soft and slightly sweet - perfect to go with the crunchy slaw.  My hubby tried these carrot dumplings which were literally shaped like baby carrots - orange skin and all..I had a bite and it tasted good to me.  Since my hubby is a vegetarian, I had to eat all the pork by myself, which didn't leave much room for anything else.  But I was impressed with how they twisted and fried our crispy whole fish.  It tasted good, but I felt like the green curry sauce was a bit too sweet.  Anyway I was stuffed to say the least along with eating Tofu with Eggplant & Dried Pineapple (pretty good), Stir Fried Chinese Vegetables (typical) and Vegetable Fried Rice (I felt like the rice was too sweet and left sort of a candy like aftertaste). I was curious to know how crazy and big their kitchen must be because there were so many people dining and the food was just constantly flowing out.  (yes, we were seated right by the kitchen entrance and bathroom - I guess that's what we get for not making a reservation? But it wasn't an inconvenient or bad spot - you just got to see a lot of people passing by.)  It was pricey but I guess every now and then on special occasions, it doesn't hurt to splurge and try out somewhere you haven't been before.