GRILL

Melissa's sister had a BBQ at their dad's really great apartment but it was good mostly for the grill...There was so much food, I almost didn't eat lunch today, but who am I kidding? I had breakfast, lunch, dinner and dessert. We went to this grocery store called Fairway and I didn't get to spend enough time freaking out there. It's big and beautiful and has so many food options. I'm going to get one of those wire old lady carts so I can go shopping on the Upper West Side. I also got a Costco card!! Actually my dad just put my name on his card and took my mom's name off... industrial sized packs of bacon HERE I COME!!!!

Baguette, olives, and this dip that is super simple and deadly if you're lactose intolerant like me. It's ricotta cheese, a little milk, olive oil, salt, and pepper...and maybe some lemon juice? It is so so good. I couldn't stop eating it. **Not pictured: cheese with caramelized onions in it, prosciutto, salami, and...spicy salami. Maybe it has a fancier name?

Most of the food. I had to keep taking new pictures because new food kept coming in off the grill. Starting from the top right corner and zigzagging down: sweet potato salad, grilled zucchini, grilled bell peppers, sausage, corn, bahn mi tasting coleslaw, grilled onion, chicken, radicchio in a balsamic dressing. **Not pictured: fat, juicy grilled tomatoes.

Close up of the potato salad because it was my favorite! It has beans in it and I'm not sure what else, to be honest. It's not super thick like regular, mayo-eggy potato salad, but the potatoes are creamy enough themselves, and it also doesn't feel like you just ate a packet of mayonnaise and eggs.

A little bit of everything. Building a plate at a BBQ or a picnic is like making a burrito. It always seems like there's not enough of anything but somehow you end up with more food than you can eat. I could have eaten more if I hadn't eaten half a loaf of bread. There was also grilled peaches and ice cream for dessert. UGH

I like this picture. It sort of reminds me of scanwiches, clean and organized. I was talking to Erik and Neal about the food pictures I like, and I think that regular old crappy pictures like from my iPhone or point and shoot are the best kind. I mean, I appreciate good food photography and all those fancy pictures on Tastespotting and nice food blogs and magazines, but a lot of the time they are too perfect. It's always the perfect, sunny day with the happy friends and children, pistachios scattered nicely around the home-churned ice cream, beautiful mise en place shots (do people REALLY cook like this? Unless you're, like, Giada or Ina Garten, who is such a wet blanket), but let's get real. When I cook, the sink always has dishes and the stove is maybe a little spattered with oil, and I use 99 cent paper towels instead of freshly scented soft towels, but I still think my food looks good and tastes good. When I look at food pictures, I want to feel like I could eat what I'm looking at. If you only look at digital SLR photos of grilled watermellon on a clean, new grill, when you actually make it on your own grill, sort of crusted with burned marshmallow bits, it's not going to seem as good! Or it's like looking at shoes you can't buy on the internet. That's why I like this guy's posts. They're not great pictures and they're not even of food that particularly great either, but I always get the hungriest when I look at them because I feel like it's something I could eat right away. I also like this guy's posts because the food is not set up or constructed, but they still look real and beautiful because he has a nice camera.

food from this week

Tuna sandwich + avocado, tomato, and lettuce from Cafe Prague...this sandwich was ok. I like the idea of putting avocado on everything but the tuna is already so soft, so it doesn't really do anything for me, texture wise. I made my own version of this sandwich, except my tuna didnt have celery but had pickles instead. I also put mozarella cheese on it and toasted my bread and left out the tomatoes so it wouldn't get soggy. I think my sandwich tasted better.

Tried Papaya Dog for the first time...what's the big deal? It's not a great hot dog, just some cheap-o dog that everyone gives 4 stars on Yelp. It was a satisfying $1.50 hotdog though...sauerkraut and ketchup.

My friend Matt made some great fish tacos tonight. Yeah, updating this less than 24 hours after it happened...welcome to the rest of my Friday night!! This was too good, and now this is what I want to eat for the rest of the week while I try to mostly not eat gluten or dairy...but yeah right. But I even bought most of the ingredients at like 130 am as soon as I got of the train. It was that urgent.

Tilapia, a vegetable medley (maybe it has a real name) of avocado, peppers, tomato, cilantro, lime juice, and this aioli made with quail eggs on a blue corn tortilla

breakfast

I haven't really had breakfast since I moved away from Providence, probably because I don't live above 3 different breakfast places and my apartment doesn't always smell like bacon. So I guess this is my first breakfast in New York, except it was at 3 in the morning but that still counts.


Challah french toast and corn beef hash from Vesleka. Is this place actually good? I mean, I thought it was so tasty and it was really crowded, so the answer is probably yes, but I couldn't tell if it was just me being me. I almost got 2 eggs, potato pancakes, and corn beef has because I always pick savory over sweet, but then I usually regret it when I'm feeling bloated from the sodium overload. So it was a good thing I got the french toast, though I don't think that stopped me from feeling too full. These ladies at the table next to us were sharing a salad while I was ordering, and I was being such a self-righteous jerk about it because who goes out to eat at 3 am and gets a side salad? Then their order actually came and it was mac and cheese, perogis, and something else really large and greasy. And I was so jealous. MY BAD LADIES

BLT

There's this place in the Flatiron District on 22nd & 5th called Eissenberg's, and I always thought it was just some run of the mill sandwich shop, but then I forgot lunch and googled "best sandwiches flatiron" and it came up. They also have breakfast and hot plates. Today's special was meatloaf and mashed potatoes, but I didn't get it. I regret it. So I decided to try a sandwich, and I guess a BLT isn't complicated but it's easy to get it wrong...soggy bacon, soggy bread, no lettuce, NOT ENOUGH BACON. This is a problem more than it should be. You can't make a BLT then only put in 3 paper thin pieces of bacon.

This BLT great, except the bread was a little too toasty and it scratched up the roof of my mouth. Wah wah wah. But there was a lot of crispy bacon and just enough mayo, plus the perfect amount crunchy lettuce and super juicy tomatoes to prevent my body from feeling like I was overloaded with sodium. I don't think the ingredients are anything special, but who am I kidding, I don't get fancy at the grocery store either. The sandwich looks like a regular size sandwich and I thought $6.50 was too much to pay for it, but judging by how full I felt after, it was totally worth it. Next week I'm going to get the meatloaf sandwich.

Did this blog entry sound professional? I applied for this job on Craigslist to be a food blogger/recipe tester...I almost cried because that would be my dream job. Then I read all these other food blogs and they involve so many adjectives and proper grammar and this nice tone of writing that really makes you feel like the blogger cares about you. I don't care about you (j/k I do) I just want you to be jealous of the food I eat.

David's Texan momma sent him an obscene amount of brisket. He and Neal got tired of it so we decided to make the brisket into chilli! So this is what it is...brisket chili with black and kidney beans, corn, onions, cheddar, sour cream and avocados on top. Plus corn bread

It is miserable and hot, and it wouldn't be so bad if I had an air conditioner, but I don't. Sitting in my apartment is what I imagine it feels like to be stuffed into the trunk of a car. I have been sleeping with bags of ice and wet towels, in the tub, on the floor. I got up and sat in front of the fridge for a second, but it turned into a few minutes because I fell asleep. What is it like to not be sweaty and salty? I feel gross. It's not so bad right now though. I have 2 box fans, 1 oscillating fan, and 1 mini round fan all pointed at me. It feels ok.

Went to this Cuban place with Melly, really good plantain chips, but what is all that stuff on top of it? Does anybody know? It was really good.

Corn with spicy mayo and salt

Cuban sandwich and chickpeas

And just a few steps away from the Cuban place is this Japanese restaurant where all the boys take their Asian girlfriends, it's true. I saw.
California roll, spicy scallop, and a mountain roll in the shape of a mountain!! This wasn't my order, but I also got the spicy scallop, which was good, but I think I have had better. Really excited about the mountain shape though...I haven't seen a mountain in so long.

Woah, having an iPhone makes me a better blogger because it's so much easier to put up pictures. But I guess using mediocre iPhone photos means I should give up the dream of joining the ranks of the Tastespotting food bloggers, even though I have the Camera Plus app. I paid $1.99 for that!! But who wants to look at those neatly arranged digital SLR dinner shots anyway? Just trying to keep it real on 19meals

This is ox-tail soup with hand-pulled noodles, cilantro, and baby bok choy.

It's from this grubby little basement food court in Queens, called Golden Mall or something like that. I don't know, Neal took me there once and then later we saw it on Anthony Bourdain...beat that guy to it! There are lots of different good things to eat as long as you don't think about how crusty it is down there and can figure out what some of the foods are without being able to read Chinese.

I went there again got these noodles for $6, 12 dumplings for $3 (at a different booth), and a lamb burger from Xi'an Famous Foods for $3. That's a lot of food for no money. I think there's a clean(er) version of Xi'an somewhere in the East Village, but I bet it's not as fun. Also, the lamb burger tastes a little like spicy Taco Bell...I loved it.

Sauteed pork tongue with scallions and sesame from Hakata Tonton in the West Village

Shake Shack makes another blog appearance! I have nothing to say except that this place is good, the crinkle fries are good, but I really miss Dick's.