Sunday morning was met by a sudden craving for Pho and Vietnamese Iced Coffee. Vien was particularly craving them from one particular restaurant in Queens so we hauled our asses all the way from Brooklyn and braved through the mad subway service changes and track work being done over the weekend. About an hour and a half and 4 subway rides later, we were snarfing down hot bowls of pho and spring rolls with iced coffee. Very few words were exchanged while we nurse our hangovers with steaming, delicious broth.

After lunch, we hopped on a cab to go see Omar, who was expecting us for the day. As soon as we walked in the apartment, we were greeted by a tray of multicolored cupcakes with a special note attached...

Now Vien knows why Omar will always be my #1. 

We took him to go see Real Steel (which was blah and doesn't deserve more space in this post). The movie was followed by a quick dinner with Tita Chon at Jackson Hole Diner because Vien was craving for their huge 7oz burgers. 

Benny is back from his 3-week european tour so we met up with him and other friends for a drink before we called it a night.

Vien hung out with Santi and I the next day...

V looks extra chinky here because I pretty much forced him
to get out of bed to hang with us.

We missed the $1 oyster happy hour at Cornelius after work but that didn't stop us from ordering a dozen of them to share and enjoyed with a bowl of fries and beer. I must remember to go back there on a weekend so we can make it to happy hour and chug down a lot more of those. Yum!

Another weekend came and went and as per my last post, Vien did win and Mica and I agreed to come out and join him. It was a great thing that we did, too, because Mica's cousin, who was the reason we all came out, got caught up partying with her other friends in the upper east side that we ended up getting drinks and doing a little dancing of our own before calling it a night. I say little dancing because the place we went to had a god-awful DJ that must've been suffering from a weird case of ADD. It was supposedly hiphop night so I was looking forward to bouncing or something along that line. So this DJ would play a song no longer than a minute, sometimes less, and just as you are starting to feel the beat and move, he would change the song to something with a different beat thus throwing you off your groove. It was terrible. Mica and I gave up after 15 mins and we hightailed out of there. The night ended early but we all went to bed nicely inebriated.

Lazy day Sunday followed the day after. I had brunch with Vien, we walked around the east village, then to his place to watch episodes of The Walking Dead, napped, shared a pizza slice, shared a bahn mi sandwich and shared a bowl of ramen. Yes, we went to three different places for dinner. He was trying to convince me to get ice cream but I simply had no room for anything else.

I forgot to photograph the bahn mi sammie because we devoured it too fast.

So he got me into watching this show The Walking Dead. It's a zombie movie much like Dawn of the Dead and 28 Days Later. I'm not particularly a big zombie movie fan but I am rather enjoying the show a lot. Of course, I am completely unable to watch it by myself because there are scenes that get really uncomfortable to watch that prevent me from continuing. Go see it with someone! It's pretty good.

Injured myself first thing on Monday by slicing damn lemons. Seriously. I've never had a mad bleeding incident at work ever and this is the first one I've painted sinks blood red. Two chefs in the kitchen rushed to my side armed with bandages and antibiotic spray as I flushed my found under the tap. It's nothing serious, I believe I might have exaggerated a little with my Facebook status about the incident because I received a flood of messages both in FB and my cell asking how I was doing. Yes I did bleed like a MoFu and the wound was deep enough but not deep enough to kill me so relax ladies and gentlemen. I refuse to let my tombstone read "Here Lies Kari. She died by slicing lemons."

Finger is healing pretty well now. It took two days to clot but I can keep the bandages off now. I think the finger condom I wore to hide the bandaged finger might have freaked out a few dining customers but that's better than letting them see an open flesh wound before a meal.

I missed my pilates class this morning because I failed to wake up on time. How come? Well, I had the smart idea of making a detour to the liquor store around the corner from my apartment and scoring a teensy bottle of Absolut Apeach. I had a sudden pang of nostalgia way back to 2-3 years ago (I forget) when I used to drink copious amounts of said liquor just to put me to sleep. I was supposed to have one cocktail before bed (Absolut Apeach, triple sec and pineapple juice shaken and poured over a tall glass filled with ice= winner beybeh!) but I was joined by Benny and Michael and I had more than the one I had planned. I don't know what time I eventually passed out but that's why I missed my pilates session. Kari = genius.

I ended up sleeping in this afternoon just up until I had to eat (bacon, egg and cheese on a bagel) shower and head out for work at 4pm. It was not a busy night but it seemed like it because everybody decided to dine at the same time so we had one big rush and only two servers to manage an 85 seat resto. I was unable to help Mandy on the floor because I was too preoccupied being a bartender for the 25 pax private party we had at the bar. Yeah, you read that right. I was bartender for the night. They made it easy though and only had wine and beers all night. We closed the restaurant down an hour after closing time with all the cleaning up we had to do and I was exhausted. I failed to take my staff dinner so I finished up at midnight starving and extremely tired. I needed to eat but I also felt like I needed to eat something GOOD. It was midnight in NYC and I just got off a late shift and there was no one to call and ask to come join me. I felt so pathetic that I felt I needed to compensate by treating myself to a really good meal. I walked down to SoHo and finally decided to check out Blue Ribbon Brasserie. I've heard and read about this place many times and I've been meaning to go (some claim they have the best roasted bone marrow in the city) but the prices have always prevented me from going. Tonight, I didn't care. I worked hard today and my party of 25 gave me an extra $50 tip on top of the 20% gratuity I put on their $900 check. So I was feeling a bit lavish and decided to splurge.

So I got there knowing this isn't the kind of place that sells $6-8 lunch specials and cocktails would not be less than $13. I was under dressed and I did wonder if they'd shun me out for walking in there wearing havaianas and patchy jeans. But they were nice and I was seated soon after I checked in. I sat down, ordered a St. Germain and soda and perused the menu. I ordered one of each of the two kind of oysters ($3.50 each) they had on the special followed by grilled skate. The oysters were surprisingly fresh despite this being the city and the ocean is quite a few miles away. So the skate, HOMAYGAHD the SKATE. I've had skate before so I knew what to expect. But this, oh dear, was lightly coated with flour, seasoned and grilled then topped with capers, shrimp, potatoes and bacon. I'm not even talking about the small crispy bacon bits you find in pathetic caesar salads, nor am I talking about the usual fatty greasy crap you see everywhere. I'm talking real thick strips of bacon, bursting with porky goodness. GOODNESS. I wish it weren't so dark in there so I could've taken a photo with my phone. The price tag on the plate of skate? Oh, that will be $28 please. So if you did the math on that meal plus tip. I pretty much gave away the added tip that 25-top gave me at work. I don't care. I don't owe anyone money and I don't borrow moolah from anyone. I manage myself fine and I enjoy real good food because foodgasms make me very happy.

I was so excited about today's beach day with Kelly that I took a long shower last night when I got home from work, shaved my legs, waxed, packed my stuff for the day after and set 3 alarms to wake me up at 8am. My alarms rang but none of them woke me up. Mike walked in my room and woke me up instead.

This is what I call his "Abercrombie white boy heading to the hamptons" look.

But the weather this morning was gray and cloudy and soon it began to rain. So we canceled the beach trip and I was stuck with nothing to do on my day off. Much sooner than expected though, the rain stopped, the clouds parted and the sun came out, bearing its scorching rays on us. Kelly had already made other plans at this point so I walked to Cheryl's for brunch. My god I love this place. I've tried several other brunch places in my neighborhood and despite them also serving good food, only in Cheryl's do I walk out fully satisfied. Food here is so good for the soul. It's the kind of food that I will want to make one day, if I ever do decide to open my own joint. I got the strawberry pancakes with Chantilly cream with a "side" of scrambled eggs and a "side" of bacon.

From there I decided to head to PCRichards & Son to see if they have the same price for the brand of air conditioning I planned on getting at K-Mart. But when I got to the subway station, I decided to walk all the way to Atlantic Ave (about 2 miles) under the intense summer heat and humidity instead of seeking refuge in the air conditioned train cars. It was a good decision too since I never would have discovered the street fair that lined the streets of 7 ave in Park Slope. I decided to check it out and I soon regretted ordering my "sides" of eggs and bacon since there were booths stretched out as far down 7 ave as the eye can see and people milling around and the air smelled of grilled bbq, corn on the cob, shawarma, funnel cakes, mexican food, a fresh lemonade stand on every other corner and a host of other things.
Halfway through (or was it?) I doubled back and headed towards Atlantic Ave once again. By this time I had already purchased a bag and two glasses. One of them was this

PCRichards & Son was selling the unit for $25 more than K-Mart's price so I hopped on a train and headed to the east village K-Mart, bought the AC and hopped on a cab back to Brooklyn. I hauled all 42 pounds of that unit up two flights of stairs and spent an hour installing it. My room looks like a tornado hit it but later became soooo grateful that I will no longer suffer in my hotbox.I took a quick nap after, cleaned up then showered. I decided to make a simple pasta pomodoro for dinner so I made a quick trip to the market on the next block then proceeded to cook while watching The Dave Chappelle show.
I was dripping in sweat out there so I was keen on heading back to my room, turning on the ac and enjoy a nice comfortable sleep. Which I shall get started on right now...

Woke up and despite Caitlin being in Albany for the weekend and Mica being in Queens, I still got dressed and walked out to Cheryl's for brunch. I sat at the bar and ordered the buttermilk pancakes with mixed berries and chantilly cream. Good lawd they were awesome!

Midway through my meal, I get a call from Lily saying I can take the day off since we had no reservations and she thinks it won't be busy anyway. I suddenly find myself with another Saturday off and nowhere to go. I contemplate going back to Coney Island for another nap on the sand but I took too much time dilly dallying when I got back to the apartment that I had little time to enjoy the sun after that.

I walked over to the Greenmarket at Grand Army Plaza to find more fresh produce available now that weather has been better (for growing veggies, NOT for suffering through sweaty nights). It's been so hot now that I'm getting an air conditioner on Monday because I seriously cannot stand the heat anymore. I have TWO fans in my teensy room, one by the window and one by the bed and still I feel like I'm sleeping in a toaster oven. In my 26 years living in tropical, humid Manila, I never had the need to use an AC but I am surrendering to the heat now.

I bought a plant and scored 3 comic books at a stoop sale for $5. I was never into either of the two graphic novels below (Watchmen and Batman) but they were there so I got them.
I ended up visiting Mike at work in Superdry for a bit then spent too much time shopping at the Gap that I missed Benny's show which I originally intended to watch. Instead I bought a skirt and a "boyfriend" shirt at the Gap. I left the teal green floral maxi dress but I fully intend on going back for it as soon as I get paid. Money's a bit tight right now since I just paid bills. With that in mind, I still ended up spending the money I could have shelled out for the dress because I bought this:

David Chang's Momofuku Cookbook

I keep googling the recipes from the restaurant that I figured getting the book is a good investment because I know I will use the book a lot. And to prove just that, as soon as I walked out of Strands Bookstore, I walked straight to Whole Foods and bought shiitake mushrooms so I can make the pickled shiitakes I was going to pair to my usual ginger scallion noodle for dinner.

I also picked up Vegan Butter (huwaaat?!?!) because I was challenged to make my choco peanut butter cookies for Michael. I was curious if they would still taste the same. The real test would be if I fed them to Paul (at the restaurant) and see if he would notice. But actually, Paul would eat anything and everything so I'm not sure if he would be the best judge either.

I'm not sick of it yet. I could it this everyday.
Made fresh lemonade to beat the heat.

Time for bed, I promised Lily I won't be late to work (like I am every Sunday, heehee) so I have to be up early. Will be spending the night at Queens on Monday since Tito Ans and Joe are coming to NYC for a night before flying off to Manila for two months. Did I mention my entire family in NYC (and everyone else in other parts of the world) are flying out to Manila for my great grandmother's 100th birthday in July? It's a massive reunion and I cannot join them. *sob*

Okay, enough banter and bedtime for me.

I did say I was going to post photos of my weekend when I was sober but since I haven't had a signle sober night since we had Camilo and Andreas over, I am only sharing them to you now. Most of you might have already seen the weekend's photos over on facebook so those who haven't I'll post some of them here. I haven't been uploading anything on my multiply mostly because I'm lazy to bother uploading them there so people who don't have access to my FB will have to make do with what I share here for now.

This is Mica reading a book while sprawled on the lawn by Chelsea Piers (up) then eventually napping (below) as a soft breeze blew from the Hudson. You can see the New Jersey skyline in the background and a massive Norwegian Cruise Ship.

This was from Billy's Bakery. I bought five cupcakes and stuffed my face with it. They were just too awesome to have just one.

Sunday afternoon was spent in Coney Island, napping under the hot summer sun. I would have taken a quick dip if I wasn't so worried about leaving my stuff while I was out in the water. The next time, I will need company at the beach.

This was taken the second night we decided to have a rooftop drinking party. From left to right we have Camilo (danish-chilean), Mica, Alexander (russian) and Andreas (danish-english).

This was during tequila night where Andreas, Camilo, Benny and I chugged down four pitchers of frozen margarita while Caitlin finished off her bottles of beer in the fridge.

The danish boys' last night before flying back to Denmark was spent drinking cocktails at Bar Seven Five along Wall Street where Caitlin works. I will have to take the Santiagos here because they have really, really good cocktails. Then we hopped on over to Ulysses for late night dinner before heading home for a couple of light drinks before calling it a night. We have a group photo taken of all of us (Caitlin, Mica, Benny, Michael, Camilo and Andreas) but it was from Andreas' camera so I have to wait until he uploads that so I can share it.

The weekend was loads of fun. We have another new couchsurfer over tonight, a guy named Weston from LA who'll be in NYC for about a week. So far he's been getting along really well with Michael and seems cool. Benny says tomorrow we may have another session up on the roof, but this will depend on how tired I am from working tomorrow.

I guess I could have a drink...or two.

With Michael being in the house as our official temporary honorary roomie, a.k.a. he's crashing in the living room for a month before he sublets Mica's room when she leaves for Tennessee for 6 weeks starting June, being vegan due to his allergy to anything dairy, we've been doing much less regular cooking in the house and I've been mindful of reading ingredient labels on items I bring home so I don't accidentally try to kill him by offering him toast (true story).

I had an all vegan dinner at momofuku a few days ago with that jar-of-pickles+shiitake-buns+ginger-scallion-noodle combo and it was fabulous.

Today, I've managed to recreate two of me and Mica's favorite dishes. The anchovy plate from Prune and the ginger scallion noodle from Momofuku. Did I succeed? Oh yes. Good enough for me to not need to venture out to the city when I'm craving for both. Now, if only Scott Bryan had his recipe for the organic roasted chicken online(along with everything else in his delicious yet expensive menu). I haven't had the opportunity to go back to Apiary yet. Lately I've been trying to cut back on the expensive meals. The man's a genius but a every time I eat there I spend no less than $50 for dinner. Meals in my own kitchen will have to be sufficient for now.

Ginger Scallion Noodle with quick pickled cucumbers and baby bella mushrooms in grapeseed oilMarinated anchovies with celery hearts and toasted almonds

Last Sunday, despite gloomy skies, I went out for a quick photowalk by the Hudson River with someone-we-shall-now-refer-to-as E. So E and I met up at B&H photo since he wanted to buy a 50mm before the photo trip. I ended up purchasing a light umbrella and a 32" 5 in 1 reflector, the latter I've been meaning to buy, the former is something I thought I could use for my makeshift studio. We walked towards the Hudson River and walked down until we ended up in Frying Pan. The place is named after the lightship that's also docked by the pier. It's basically a boardwalk equipped with seating and a stage for bands who play at night. It's a great place to sit and drink beers by the water. Coincidentally, Michael told me about this place just two days before, since he went there with a couple of friends and they were dancing in the ship's boiler room. He insisted that we had to go there and that day, E tells me it's also one of his favorite places in the city.





Full photo album can be viewed on my facebook. Not my facebook friend? Tough.

Now excuse me as I watch the Lost series finale.

SO I find myself home (relatively) early on an off day. Was up till 5am this morning on the phone with my vegas chicka Louiie and was up oddly early this morning and made breakfast for people before they scurried off to work. I was supposed to take a short nap after lunch then head out to the city to wander. I ended up sleeping until 4pm. I got ready to head out and went to visit Michael at his workplace in Superdry. I've never been in there before and never heard of the store until he told me he got a job there. They sell really nice clothes at really ridiculous prices. Think $100 jeans and $500 leather jackets. I did have a lot of fun trying out clothes though. I spent about an hour in the store while Mike kept handing me random stuff to try out in the dressing room. I might just buy a leather jacket, a couple of jeans and a shirt...using his staff discount of course. Hahaha! I've never had clothes that fit me so well so I'm considering this a very good investment.

I then walked round and round the east village and ended up buying a cardigan and sandals on sale in Urban Outfitters. I had dinner at Momofuku Noodle bar where I ordered too much (jar of pickles, shitake steamed buns, ginger scallion noodles and a yuzu palmer slushie. I had the noodles packed up to go and kept walking until I found myself in Best Buy where I finally got myself an apple airport express. I've been thinking of getting one to plug my 1tb hard drive in so I can access my external drive from anywhere in the house.

When I got off the subway on my way home, I decided to make a detour and get a quick pedicure in the nail salon next to my apartment building. They were slowly closing up but luckily were still accepting customers for another half hour.

I got home and am now currently catching up on episodes of Lost, V and Mercy.

I saw Iron Man last night with Michael (finally!). We went to see the midnight showing up by Times Square after I got off work. I miss watching movies with my Denver Gang, and heading to Bona after. The movie was a bit disappointing. I didn't have the same feeling I got after watching the first film, the "Let's-go-see-that-again!" feeling. The first hour was remarkable slow, with a few hilarious lines from RDJ and when things started to get real fun with the actions scenes, it ended too abruptly. Overall, the movie was okay. not too great though.

I'm contemplating on attending a Lost Series Finale viewing party over at Tribeca this coming Sunday. To those of you who don't know, the show's last ever episode will air this Sunday and Lost fans everywhere are congregating in bars celebrating the end of a good show. I don't know anyone here who are fans of the show too so I'm wondering if I should just buck up and go alone and make an attempt at meeting new people...or I might find someone whom I can drag over to go see it with me. New York City readers, any takers? You know where to find me.

I shall shower you all with some of the stuff that's been keeping me preoccupied (apart from work). The past couple of weeks have been fun and interesting. Been going "out" with friends both old and new. I have been in NYC in over a year and I've never been out dancing in a bar/club until this week so this was definitely out of the ordinary for me. Was out with Benny and his friends a few days ago and we all danced at this gay bar somewhere in midtown near Times Square. Then two days after that, Michael (our new temporary honorary roommate) managed to drag me along with him to Greenhouse on a Tuesday night where we went dancing like we (really) just didn't care. Mica brought a couple of friends over and we all headed down to Chinatown for a late night (rather, early morning snack). They drove us home and we continued the party until the sun came up and we all passed out. The last time I did something like that, I must've been 21...or maybe not. Remind me...

Apiary has been temporarily replaced as my go-t0 place for good eats by Momofuku Noodle Bar. I have been there every week the past three weeks. The food is so remarkably awesome, I can't get enough of it. Pictured above is their ever so famous roast pork buns (dubbed as the best siopao on the planet). Below is the ramen I had on my first visit. The ramen was fabulous but it can't compare to the ginger scallion noodle Mica had, which I also ordered on my following visit.
Below and after photos of my recent haircut. Fake straight hair below. I have yet to take a photo of it with it's natural curl.
Based on a recommendation from one of the tour guides from Foods of New York, I headed down to Butter Lane, a quaint little shop that sold nothing but cupcakes. I had the chocolate cake with espresso icing and the vanilla cake with pistachio frosting. Was it good? Yes,, but not quite as awesome as Billy's Cupcakes. Magnolia bakery can suck it.
This was the group of boys I hung out with at Therapy Bar in midtown. This is us waiting for the subway home at 3am.This was the night I asked Mica to get a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon for us to share when I get home from work. Instead, she and Michael bought several bottles (one for EACH of us, plus extras). I don't need to describe how that night went but I will say that a crazy wrestling match occurred on our living room floor while watching Raising Arizona.
Have I mentioned that Michael is about 6'7"? I've never felt so short in my life.This is a photo I took of Mike while we were hanging out at the storage facility across Greenhouse while we waited for the club to open. He's sitting inside his storage space surrounded by everything he owns (which was not much). We sat there sipping vending machine coffee, sobering up after the drinks we had from Bar Seven Five earlier that evening. More alcohol was consumed that night of course.
I have videos of last night's fun events. Mike and I headed to Queens to pick up his tux then he accompanied me while I grocery shopped at an asian store where I picked up items I needed to make sinigang na hipon that night. I also gave him his first taste of green mangoes which he loved. Benny was hilarious playing host to his own talk show. Most of it was captured on my flip and I shall share as soon as I catch up to the 8 million things I haven't done because of all the fun I've been having.

I shall update soon.

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.