Ventured out to the upper east side today over at Ifang's. She and her husband are selling their studio apartment and asked me to take photos of the place so they can show potential buyers. Since I was there already, I also offered to take photos of 3.5 month old Koyuki, who was absolutely delish! She had such soft, fat, sausage arms, a full double chinned face and a cute button nose. I loved her! I have yet to sort through the photos but I do have one to show you.

My favorite are her elbow dimples

I bought two bulbs for my clamp lights from Home Depot after that then headed down to Union Square to chill but the park. I laid on the grass and read a book and I got alarmed for a second when I saw this when I was looking up beyond my book.

I actually thought there was someone standing at the edge of the building, I almost panicked.

I met up with Mica for dinner and we ate at one of four (or is it five?) of David Chang's Momofuku restaurants, the Noodle Bar. We had the famous roast pork buns (which are famous for a reason - they ROCK!) and I had the house ramen while Mica had a pickled shitake and scallion noodle bowl. On paper, her dish seemed boring but in actuality, her choice blew mine off the park. I had one of taste of hers and even after a few bites of mine, the flavor of her dish still lingered on my tongue. I had to shyly ask if I could get another bite. Their servings are portioned well enough to make you want to roll yourself out of there but still manage to walk several blocks after. Which we did since Mica wanted to buy herself a pair or of Crocs too after I told her I got a pair for myself earlier that day. We walked back to Shoemania, where they were having their never ending "Buy 1, get the 2nd at half off" sale. I ended up buying two more pairs of shoes after she showed me a couple of good choices. What's even funnier is we got a pair of the EXACT same shoe each.

We are now both proud owners of purple snakeskin print leather flats. We promised to inform the other if we are to wear those shoes out, specially if we have plans of meeting up later in the day.

We got home and were greeted by Benny and his friend Michael who's staying with us until he finds a place to sublet. He stayed with us for a couple of weeks last year before the holidays when he went home to Pittsburgh. Benny left soon after that and Michael convinced Mica and I to watch Breakdown with him, which was an old 90's Kurt Russel suspense film. It was not bad. It reminds me of a very muted down version of The Hills Have Eyes, without the mutants and the gruesome killing and extreme morbid violence. Kind of like The Crazies meets The Lottery.

My mac is currently messing with me so I can't edit photos or even convert the images to sRGB for web so the colors in the photos of this post is kind of bland. The mac will have to sleep all night and I shall try again tomorrow. Goodnight.

Woke up with a horrible bout of allergies again this morning. When will this spring pollen allergy end?!? Caitlin asked if I wanted to brave the line at Tom's for brunch today. Tom's restaurant is a place we pass by on the way to Cheryl's for brunch. There's always a very long line that snakes out of the restaurant and around the block. When we passed by one time, a busboy was handing out orange wedges to everyone on line. So today we decided to join that horde of people waiting for a table at Tom's. The wait was long, the amount of time we stood in line, we could've walked to Cheryl's and back. But the people of Tom's make you want to wait. Soon after stepping in line, we were handed free coffee, followed by free cookies, then free orange wedges. Anyone ol' freeloader would have called it a day and stepped out of line after that, but we soldiered on. By the time we sat down, I had already studied the menu by the door and knew what I wanted. Caitlin ordered lemon-ricotta pancakes while I had corned beef hash with soft scrambled eggs and home fries PLUS apple walnut pancakes AND a tall serving of egg cream.

That's Caitlin with my vanilla egg cream.

Two out of three of those plates were MINE.

On the way back we passed by a Craft Fair and I scored a few items, a cute little crafty apron with a munster flipping pancakes on them and a limited edition framed print of a trashcan with flowers on them. Hehe. There were several stoop sales on the way back and I got a few little items each of them $3 or less. When I got home I made myself a nice and refreshing watermelon cooler.

Sometimes I take home the used bottles from the restaurant bar and strip them of their labels and decorate them with twine. Don't they look pretty on the window sill? I got the poppy stems from a cute little store a few blocks from the apartment.

Took these this morning. He was asleep most of the time so sleeping shots for now. Should have better ones in the coming months. Already told Ana I wanted to make a monthly thing out of this.

The rest can be seen here.

I made a different version of my usual meal, which would be chicken and potatoes for lunch.

Baked crusted chicken cutlets with garlic herb roasted potatoes and my usual veggies.

Such a small meal for one yet I ended up with an overflowing sink of dirty dishes.

Today I finally decided to patronize the nail salon downstairs. I've been living here for over a year and I never went in, choosing instead to pay $28 for a pedicure over in Union Square. I walked in and had my toesies done there for $10 less! And I didn't have to travel across the river to do it too! I was afraid at the kind of place it would be, thinking it would be dank and dingy. It was surprisingly clean, even cleaner than the other place on 6th avenue (and better massage chairs too). I may just go there every week now.

I went to Target today to buy toiletries but I made the mistake of first making a detour to DSW where I walked out with this in a camel color since it was on sale.

I was hungry when I got home and wanted something quick so I used some of Mica's olive bread to make bruschettas.
I'm trying to use up the slowly rotting produce before it really goes bad. I hate how basil goes bad so fast. I bought a bunch of them the other day and most of them have gone gray now. I had to pick through them to find a few good ones for this. And apparently, Mica had been buying produce to replace the ones of mine she's been using and here I was buying more stuff since I didn't want to use hers. So now we have double the number of tomatoes, green beans and bell peppers. A house of 4 people who love to eat will always have a pretty full fridge.


Benny also made a comment about him no longer having shelf space in the kitchen cabinets since I've monopolized one whole shelf solely for my baking supplies. So I decided to use up a bunch of them today by baking TWO UN-red velvet cakes. I didn't want to buy food coloring just for the sake of making it red hence the un-redness of it. I used my squeeze bottle to add an extra flair to cakes too just for the heck of it. If I find extra time tomorrow, I might tackle another batch of white chocolate cranberry oatmeal cookies again.

I have to be up early tomorrow and head out to Ana's to take photos of Santi. I believe he's turning one month old this week and I've volunteered to take photos. I might just make a monthly thing of this. Next week, I will head out to Ifang's to take photos of the apartment she and her husband are trying to sell/rent and also to take photos of their baby, Koyuki, who's 3 months old now. I can't believe it's been that long since I took these.

Benny's self-produced show is tomorrow night so I'm also skipping over to the lower east side to watch it. I'm not sure if I've posted this before but the postcard flyers that were distributed to promote the event were designed by yours truly. I cannot take credit for the image though, that was taken by Benny himself. This is only the second material I've made that have been handed around NYC so I'm mighty proud.

By here, I mean at Tita Chon's. Why? because this place never seems to run out of food. Spent the past two days hanging out here since I didn't want to roam (and spend) like I have been the past few weeks. I also didn't feel like being home alone so as soon as I was done cleaning the house yesterday, I called Tita Chon and invited myself over. As soon as I arrived I was offered chicken adobo for dinner. I was hungry from all the cleaning that I piled my plate high. Soon after that while watching tv, Omar looks at me and asks if I wanted ice cream. I asked him what hey had and Tita Chon answers, "Chocolate, strawberry, coffee, vanilla and sugar-free vanilla." OMG. I stood up and went straight for the kitchen with Omar at my heels followed by Tita Chon. As Omar and I scooped mounds of ice cream into our tall glasses, Tita Chon brings out jars and bottles of ice cream fudge, strawberry syrup and whipped cream. I look at Omar and say, "OMG Omee, I love your house." He smiles and says, "Imagine how better it would be if we had apple pie!"

That kid reads minds.


I woke up the next day with everyone gone. I put on pants, brushed my teeth and walked on over to Jackson Hole Diner where I had a monstrous mushroom and bacon cheeseburger.
I was hoping for pancakes, eggs ad bacon bu they only served that until 11am so I ended up with this monster. They serve burgers with 7 oz. patties! Did they actually expect me to finish this whole thing? Of course I didn't. I needed room for the chocolate milkshake I was planning to take home with me after this. Ha!


The diner looked exactly as you would imagine a diner to look, minus waitresses in short uniforms.

Although the table jukebox did have an odd song in the playlist.

I walked back and found a notice posted around the corner saying parking along the side streets in the area are unavailable until Friday due to a film shoot for Son of No One. I quickly googled to find that it's an Al Pacino, Channing Tatum, Katie Holmes flick. I contemplated heading back there later in the afternoon to star spy but later decided against it. I went back to Tita Chon's place and watched Sita Sings the Blues online. The creator of the film is a regular at the veggie place and after years of struggling with copyright issues from the film's soundtrack, she finally got her film released and it's available for free for everyone to see. It took me a while to finally decide to see it. I was aware of it's availability for a while now. I'm not the biggest fan of Bollywood type films but if I had known it was a wickedly witty animated flick for adults, I would had seen it sooner. The plot follows the usual basic plot of the Ramayana but includes hilarious commentaries from shadow puppets trying to make sense of the stories themselves. The creator, Nina Paley, also manages to inject her own life experience that inspired her to make the film. She was married and her husband got offered a temporary job in India which forced them to live apart for a while. A few months later, she flies out to see him but her husband was cold and distant. She is offered a chance to attend a workshop in New York for a week and she jumps at the chance. In New York, she receives an email from her husband telling her not to come back and that the marriage is over. She moves to Brooklyn leaving everything in San Francisco, including their cat.

Marriage. San Francisco. Separation. Distance. Break-up. Email. New York. Brooklyn.

Sound familiar?

I know. If I didn't personally know this woman, I would have thought someone was playing a prank on me.

Anyway, I finished the movie and picked Omar up from school. Made him do his homework then took him and his bike out back to school grounds where he can ride his bike in circles. We played basketball with a friend of his or rather, they played basketball, while I embarrassed myself in front of two 9-year old kids.

We went home a few minutes before tita Chon did and I started making salpicao for dinner. I decided to no go home tonight thinking Mica would be spending another night at her parent's place (I was wrong and later got about 6 missed calls and a voice mail from her asking where the hell I was). I will need to be up early tomorrow for me to be able to get back home and get ready again to go back out to work.

Lately my affair with food has gotten slightly uncomfortable. My first thoughts upon waking is what I'm going to eat, whether I eat out or I stay in and make something. I promised myself that today's day off would be spent indoors cleaning as opposed to heading back out and end up spending money on books, dinner out and whatever else I find that I don't need but suddenly decide I want.

Today, I wanted chicken (again). I didn't want to make the same old cutlets and I wanted to chew on tasty, crispy chicken skin so I hopped off of bed and headed out to the grocery store across the street and got myself a pack of four skin-on, bone-in chicken breasts and potatoes.

The mission was oven roasted chicken breasts, potato au gratin and garlic mushroom snow peas. I found the gratin recipe on allrecipes.com and I've been meaning to try them out. I called Louiie up to ask what spice rub to use on my chicken. She suggested a few spices, most of which I did not have so in the end, I ended up with good old salt and pepper and rub the skin and underside with a good dose of paprika. I let the chicken sit while I made my gratin. When both were in the oven, I prepared snow peas and mushrooms then waited until my timer went off.

Gracey, this is something you have to try. It's easy as long as you have time to make them. The potatoes take an hour in the oven and total prep and cook time should take no more than 90 minutes.


Preheat oven to 400F.

The chicken (serves 2)

2 chicken breasts, skin-on bone-in
1 1/2 tablespoons salt
freshly cracked black pepper to taste
enough paprika to rub on both chicken
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon olive oil

Generously salt your breasts with 1.5-2 tablespoons kosher salt. Add pepper to your liking then rub them down with paprika. Don't be shy, coat them well. Let them sit while you prepare the rest of your meal. This will help the spices settle and will bring your chicken to room temperature. Cold chicken from the fridge/freezer will take longer to cook and you might end up with over cooked chicken on the outside and undercooked insides.

The potatoes: serves 4

4-5 russet baking potatoes, peeled and sliced into quarter inch thick discs
one medium onion sliced to rings
salt and pepper to taste
1 cup milk
1 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoons flour
1.5 cup shredded cheddar cheese (or you can also do half-half cheddar and monterey jack)

Grease a casserole dish with a bit of butter then line the bottom with a layer of potatoes then a layer of onions. Salt and pepper to taste. Then layer again with the rest of potatoes and onions. In a small saucepan, melt 1 tbsp butter then add flour, whisking them together. Add a teaspoon of salt then the milk, whisking until thick. Add all the cheese at once until melted, about a minute. Pour over the potatoes. Cover with aluminum foil and place in the preheated oven. Set your timer to 60 minutes.

Meanwhile, in an oven safe skillet (I used Caitlin's cast iron), melt a tablespoon of butter and a table spoon of olive oil. Place the chicken breasts skin down and leave undisturbed for a few minutes. Then flip them over, cut in an extra teaspoon butter in the skillet and chuck them in the oven uncovered beside the potatoes. Chicken should be ready in about 20-30 minutes depending on the size. I placed the chicken in the oven when my timer hit the 30 minute mark so both dished finish at the same time.

Remove the aluminum foil from the potato casserole 15 minutes before it's done to allow the top to get nice and brown.

The veggies are easy. Saute onion and garlic in butter until fragrant, salt and pepper to taste. Add mushrooms and snow peas and toss. Cover to steam for about 3 minutes and you're done.

Optional: when the chicken is done, transfer to plates then put the skillet back on the stovetop and add another tablespoon butter and a tablespoon of flour. Get a wooden spoon and scrape all the good chicken bits and fat off the bottom. You can keep the gravy on the side or pour over your chicken. YUM!

I started eating this with a knife and fork, I finished it with my fingers.

My new favorite restaurant at the moment is Westville. I woke up craving for their lemon herb marinated chicken with garlic mashed potatoes and green beans and almonds so I got off bed, washed my face and headed across the street to score produce for lunch. Added red bell peppers, mushroom and garlic to my veggies and marinated my chicken in buttermilk while I prepped everything else. Ooh lala. I might very well do this again for lunch tomorrow.

I opted to make my meal today instead of going back to Westville for lunch since I just spent a massive amount of dough the last two days roaming around on my day off. Wednesday was fine since I dedicated that day to buy myself spring/summer clothes. It's gotten so hot lately that wearing jeans have gotten a wee bit uncomfortable. I also got myself a pedicure after shopping. I had lunch that day at Organika where I had a salad and pizza with fresh mozz, anchovies and capers. Dinner was spent at Cafeteria where I had my usual Fried Chicken Salad, which was monstrous and I had to roll myself home after that.

Pizza from Organika.
No, I did not finish this all by myself.
I boxed half of it and gave it to the veggie place staff.

The next day I had lunch at Westville again (grilled porkchops smothered in onions and mushrooms + apple pie) then decided to walk over to Soho to watch City Island. That movie is one of my favorites now. I don't know if it will screen in Manila but if you can score the pirated ones online, I suggest you see it. I saw it again later that night at home with Mica and Caitlin since I couldn't stop talking about it. They actually know one of the actors in the film, Ezra Miller, who played one of Andy Garcia's sons.

View of Union Square from Filene's
I tried to take a night photo to show the lights from the Empire State Bldg in the background but was only equipped with a crap camera phone

I had no plans of shopping yesterday but Mica was jealous of my new shoes that she wanted to go shopping too. I met up with her at DSW then went to Filene's Basement where I ended up swiping my card for more stuff. Ugh. Must not spend anymore over the next few weeks.

Mica and I couldn't get a table at Momofuku Ssam Bar so we had dinner at Prune. We ordered four items to share but the highlight of the meal was the plate of marinated white anchovies, celery hearts and parsley with toasted marcona almonds. Mica was in heaven.

It's been an interesting couple of days since last posting. My last day off I decided to take a loooooong walk. Walked across the Brooklyn bridge, up through the supreme court neighborhood, got lost in Chinatown trying find a particular banh mi joint, bought a sammy, then hopping back on the train to Union Square where I squeezed myself into fully occupied benches in Union Square Park.

I sat there for two hours finishing a book before I decided I wanted to see if my chef crush Scott Bryan was working. I walked back down to Apiary where I sat in the bar, chewing my food and sipping my wine hoping he'd come out of the kitchen. He apparently wasn't, because halfway through my meal, he sidles up next to me on the bar and leans over to talk to the bartender. He looked like he's just coming into work dressed in a t-shirt, shorts, kicks and carrying a gatorade bottle. I had to control my breathing and excitement during these few seconds. The only thing crossing my mind at that moment was how my ridiculously overpriced dinner (which I didn't need since I had that huge banh mi) was totally worth just seeing him then. Can you spell S.T.A.L.K.E.R.?

I watched Clash of the Titans 3D after that but I could barely keep my eyes open after having downed my last glass of wine too fast so I could make my 8pm showtime. The movie was mehh. Nothing exciting and totally forgettable.

Yesterday was such a hot day and I was so jealous of everyone walking around enjoying the sunny and mild breeze that I made it a point to get out of the house earlier so I, too, can walk around before my shift today at 4pm. I had lunch at this place called Westville, which I discovered through urbanspoon. I had the lemon herb marinated chicken with garlic mashed potatoes and sauteed green beans with almonds plus the absolute BEST apple pie I have ever had in my life. I might have to go back there tomorrow just to have that pie.

layed on the grass and read a book before heading back to work

I walked around until I ended up in Hudson River Park. As I was walking along the water, I noticed a familiar stretch of boardwalk and wonder where I had seen it before. Then I remembered, months and months ago, I read an online article about Hugh Jackman buying a $33 million dollar triplex condo in the west village overlooking Hudson River. The view from the photo was where I was standing so I looked left and saw the building...and eventually the condo unit itself. It wasn't very hard to spot, which is odd for a famous celebrity. You'd think they'd want more privacy. The building was all glass which meant you could see through to the units and it was the only three story unit with the white spiral staircase as also shown in the article I saw. I know where Hugh Jackman lives! Again, STALKER.

2nd tall bldg is Mr. Wolverine's building

I'm beginning to scare even myself.

In other news, as in literally news. When I walked out of the apartment earlier today, I found that the surrounding areas was swarming with NYPD. I overheard one telling a passerby that my street was closed within a 10-block stretch. I didn't want to linger and ask what was going on. Later at work, Mica tells me about a drug raid that happened today. NYPD raided several establishments around the area for selling marijuana and in one instance, cocaine. When I got home to check NY1 news, I saw a video of the arrests and found out one of the said establishments happened to be the restaurant right beside my apartment building. There was my bldg! On the news! Where was I when this was happening downstairs?

Rather than be worried about the kind of neighborhood I live in, I was more reassured at the thought that something has been done to remedy the situation. I'd be more worried if the NYPD has given up and left my neighborhood to rot. Now only if they can do something about that late night karaoke place right outside my window?

Which is how I felt today working in the other place.

I never truly appreciated how organized and systematic the veggie place was until I spent today with the other place. It shouldn't even have been that difficult. I worked the dinner shift with a busboy and a bartender so I had plenty of help. Over at the veggie place, I work the entire restaurant (bussing, bartending and serving) for lunch and I never felt as frustrated as I did today. I really don't want to rant too much about it but it was so maddening that I texted Lily today to tell the owner that I accept her offer and will start with the new position at the veggie place on Friday. They will hold a quick meeting with the other servers to announce my new designation. This brings me back to when my old boss announced to the TPC ATC staff that I was replacing their beloved manager. I was very scared my peers would sneer and scheme behind my back. Here's to hoping they respond to me going all Jerry Maguire on them, "Help me, help you. Help.Me.Help.You."

I got home and was soon followed by Mica, then Caitlin and we sat in the kitchen exchanging restaurant stories like lazy co-workers and bad tippers. Oh yeah, we talk about you. Yes you, you know who you are. We servers remember the bad tippers just as much as the good ones. Rest assured the next time you come back, we will have the new and incompetent trainee serve you.

*****


I went to Prune again yesterday because I've really been craving for the bone marrow dish again. I simply had to have it again. I sat down and ordered that as my first course then decided to try their sweetbreads with bacon and capers. I remember watching a video of Gabrielle Hamilton claiming she had the best sweetbreads in town. I don't need to describe the marrow to you, I've done that in an old post already. When I got to the sweetbreads, I soon realized what Louiie was warning me about them tasting too organ-y. I simply couldn't understand what she meant when I tried the Apiary version. Now I know. Prune's dish was lightly breaded and deep fried, then ladeled over with a caper sauce and served with a wedge of lemon. The dish was small but I had the most difficult time trying to wolf it all down. I have to honestly say I did not enjoy it. It had the consistency of liver, which I personally hate (except for foie gras, OF COURSE). There was no flavor to it whatsoever and no amount of sauce could help it. I have to give props to Scott Bryan for making his version over at Apiary absolutely delectable that I ended up licking my plate. I am going back there tomorrow for dinner before I meet up with Mica to watch one of our friend's shows.
Maybe if I wasn't forced to eat a plate of this by myself after I had the roasted marrow dish, I might have a different opinion on it.

I've been reading Service Included and I got a tip from the book about this restaurant in Soho called Blue Ribbon having the best marrow bones in the city. Looks like I'm having another new tasting soon.