Ann is leaving Pace, and that's a real bummer. But she's also going off to do her own work and other big great things in Germany and her studio, which I am really going to encourage her to name after me. ;-) This is a winky face, emoticons don't communicate my joke-y tone very well, do they? So anyway, it's really not so sad after all, like how parents are happy-sad when their kids go to college, except that Ann is older and infinitely wiser than me, and I have no children so I don't really know what that feels like. She had a studio-warming party, but I was too busy trying to eat snacks that I forgot to take a picture of the actual studio, so I stole this one from her:

Isn't it so nice? Here is her website with all her wonderful work: http://www.annaspinwall.com/

There is a big table in the middle that was covered with food. The best part is that since it's not a very big space, hanging around the snack table doesn't look like you're only trying to socialize with the food because that's really the most spacious place to hang out anyway...right?

Kathy's husband, Richard, made caponata, which is a Sicilian vegetable salad type dish with eggplant. And it was so so delicious, it would have been great if I could have just eaten it straight from the spoon. Plus, Richard lived and travels around Italy every year, so he knows his stuff.

He also made terrine! I've actually not had very much pate or terrine, although in my head, I always assumed I liked it a lot, so this was a great way to back up those assumptions. It's more solid like meatloaf and not spreadable like pate, and I think I prefer that because it feels more substantial. And you can make sandwiches out of it. I keep scrolling back up as I'm typing this to go have a look at the picture again and try to remember how good it tasted and how that was a really good moment when I ate some.

AHHHHHH

That's all I have to say, and I'm pretty sure that was my response when this beautiful platter showed up.

Then there were 3 pizzas from Sullivan St. Bakery, and they were the kind that's just bread and whatever toppings are on other, no sauce or crust, you know all that stuff

This one was zucchini, the one above was mushroom, and there was a potato one as well, but the picture was too blurry. The potato was my favorite because there's something really great about eating starch on top of starch.

KORZO HAUS (best burger ever)

So last week I went to Korzo Haus with some people I work with. But when I say "some people" I mean that with a lot of affection and love, not like "some people" from off the street or that I went to high school with or ...something. Anyway, THIS PLACE RULES!!! It is amazing and I have found my favorite burger in New York and maybe the world. I mean, I know I've been here less than a year, but I have eaten a lot of burgers in the past 9 months!

They have a daily burger special called "The Steven," which I think is the name of the guy who makes the burgers. This day it was nutella and pickled jalepenos, which sounds so crazy and I would totally try it, but I wanted to try the original one first. Another day...

The Original burger is a beef patty, apple smoked bacon, allgauer emmentaller cheese, mustard and whatever their pickled thing for the day is. This day it was pickled celery, and it was really good. The burger is then wrapped in...get this...Hungarian fried bread, called Langos. Served with apples, cabbage slaw, and aioli. There are no words for the magic that happened when I took my first bite. The cheese is so creamy and a little pungent which goes so well with the nice, fatty bacon. But then the pickles complement it all so well, with a little sourness and crunch. Same with the slaw and apples, you don't need much more than a few bites of that, because the burger is so good (I couldnt even finish it), but it really does help balance out the heaviness of it all.

Ann's "Slav" burger, which is a ground beef patty, slow-cooked pork neck Haus sauerkraut, caraway seeds, juniper berries, bryndza. Kristen got the veggie burger, but it didn't come out very well in my pictures since it's so dark in there, but apparently it was amazing.

 Halušky fries, which are basically little potato noodles

They make their own beet ketchup and hot sauce, both amazing as well!! There were some dudes next to us having a bro night or something, and they ordered some of the other amazing looking food, like the mac and cheese and potato salad, in addition to their burgers!! I can only dream of a bottomless stomach pit like that. We should have tasted some of it.

 Korzo Haus serves "mittle European comfort fare" (apparently mittle = middle, who knew), which I'm not sure I really knew what that was, but if it's all like the food the serve there, I will move to somewhere in "mittle" Europe. There's a location in Brooklyn too just called "Korzo" and I guess it's a little different, but I'd like to try it. Everything is locally sourced and seasonal, and soooo good. Holy cow. Really.

calexico truck

There's all this fuss (on the Internet...) over Calexico and how it's this really great California-Mexican food. I also JUST understood the name. Like just now. Anyway, there's a truck near work, so I decided to try it today.

Chipotle pulled pork burrito bowl (I got the tortilla on the side)

So this was good, but I don't get all the hype. It was actually a little sweet, and tasted more like barbeque than chipotle pork, not that there was anything wrong with that, I guess. I mean, it tasted really good for what it was, and I enjoyed it, but it wasn't what I was expecting. And the wait was 30 minutes. Maybe I'll try something else next time.

Ann's 2 tacos

If I remember correctly, she got carne asada and ground beef. She preferred the ground beef, but I think she thought these were just "ok." I guess this was a little bit disappointing. I don't really have crazy high Mexican food standards, I'll eat at Chipotle, but I really didn't think this was the greatest thing ever. I'd go again though.

Porchetta

I've been bad at keeping this updated since I got back from Seattle. I guess I've been kind of busy...I just spent 3 hours making Excel spreadsheets to budget myself better so I can start paying my student loans. SO EXCITING, I KNOW! I had to make sure I left myself enough money to eat out though, which is what all the "loan counselors/experts/whatever" tell you not to do, but I feel like food is the tiny crack of light at the end of this long tunnel of doom and endless debt. Besides, the food I eat at home has gotten so boring and I mostly only eat vegetables, pita, and 3 kinds of hummus.  Sometimes I'll actually make something, but usually I'm so tired after work. Being a real person is hard.

Last week I finally went to Porchetta! All week had been talking about when I was living in Rome, and it really made me miss it, mostly the food, obviously. So I had to go here and get myself some pork on bread.

This porchetta was better than some I had in Rome!! I mean, porchetta is everywhere in Rome. I don't think I ever disliked any, but it wasn't always amazing since it's easy to get a dried sandwich. This was really great -- the pork was so tender and moist (I dont like this word), but then the crackly, skin bits were such good surprise bites. I was afraid the bread would be too dry, but it was soft, with just enough chewiness. I sort of remember being able to add mayo or some sort of sauce in Rome, which sometimes it definitely needed, but this didn't need anything at all. Although next time I might order a side of beans. 

bologna sub from no. 7

Went back to No. 7 Sub to try the bologna sandwich. I thought that since this sandwich has brussel sprouts and pickled red onions, the bologna would taste less like Oscar Meyer baloney, but I guess bologna is bologna no matter which way you slice it. But that's not to say that I don't really like it, because I enjoyed this sandwich a lot. No. 7 has this great way of combining weird flavors. The brussel sprouts and onion were a nice balance to the heaviness of the bologna, sour things work so nicely. I think the broccoli is the best sandwich there though. 

stuffed salmon

corner bistro

 So I've been using the "Guide to Hamburger Styles" to describe what kind of burgers I love the most, and I think nearly all of burgers I would put at the top of my list would fall under the "pub burger" category. They're sort of sloppy and not fancy, but they taste so good...I think this is how people feel about reality TV, but I don't watch any. Except once I did watch a whole season of this show called "Huge" and it freaked me out.

Anyway, this burger from Corner Bistro is in the top part of my burger list. It was perfectly moist (actually a little drippy, but I'm into that) and all the melty cheese gives it a nice creaminess, THEN THERES THE BACON!! And of course, lettuce, onions, tomatoes, and pickles.

See the drippiness?

It's a nearly perfect burger, really. The only problem is that the patty is so round. It's not that it's too much meat or that the bread was too small and flimsy to contain the patty (I sort of like that, sometimes), it was just sort of tricky to eat it. But really, if you have nobody to impress (like me), then who cares if there's burger juice dripping down your arm and some burger bits stuck to your face? 

P.S. I saw some dudes there that took the buns off their burgers, then the tomatoes and ate them with hot sauce, then they took off the rest of the toppings and just ate a plain patty with a fork and a knife. Get out of there!!