OMG.

I think all I can remember about this week is all the food I've consumed. I am still reeling from the fantastic korean dinner I had today with family after Ana's baby shower. I specifically requested to be off today because I wanted to attend Ana's shower. I can't even remember the last time I saw Tita Susan and she was flying in just for the day's event and flying back to Mississippi tomorrow.



I've never attended a shower before so it felt reminiscent of a rom-com movie where all the girls would break into a chorus of "awwwwwwwws...." and giggles everytime Ana opened presents and showed them little baby shoes and baby jumpers. They had light finger foods and I attacked the plate of mini beef turnovers which tasted so much like those Jamaican Patties I used to get from ATC. Mygahd I miss those.

Omar was so cute being the only boy at the party. I suppose you can break the no boys in a baby shower rule for an adorable 9 year old. He was so eager to join the games despite everything being baby related and prizes for winners were targeted for females. I wuvwuv my omeeboy.


After the shower, the family headed up to Flushing for Korean BBQ dindin. It was so good, I was in Kimchi heaven. I have got to take Mica and a couple of other people there. It's amazing food and good value for money. OO Ging, dadalhin kita doon. Kung kelan ka man mapadpad dito.

Name drop time!
My cousin Miya is studying at Brown University. She told me this one story about a day she was in her dorm room studying when a girl peeks her head in the door and says something like "Oh wow, you have a quad!" (quad=four to a room, most rooms in Brown are two to a room) Miya looks up and sees Emma Watson standing on her doorway! If you've been reading entertainment news, you'll learn she's enrolled herself in Brown last fall and chose to stay in the dorms like the other students as opposed to getting her own flat. According to Miya, she walked in and looked around the large dorm room and said something about wanting to live there. Miya said she watched her walk around with her mouth open. Miya also says she looks exactly like she does in photos, which would be absolutely gorgeous, by the way. It's very rare I gush over young actresses nowadays. Most of the existing ones you see on magazines now are complete idiots. Emma Watson joins the ranks of young women like Ellen Page whom I very much admire.

Boss called me this morning telling me not to bother coming in to work today. The snow storm is so bad and the resto is so slow. I was glad for the break but was kind of disappointed I won't be able to earn back the money I spent the past two days wining and dining as if I could afford it.

I woke up with the sweetbreads still on my mind. I can't believe a dish can get me so high. I almost walked out of the apartment with the full intention of heading back there and having it again.

I opted to stay in all day though and finally print some photos I've been meaning to frame and hang on our hallway. The frames I bought in Ikea have been sitting there for weeks and it's time I used them.

Mica wanted chicken mami for dinner and despite not having ever made them, I decided to give them a go. I didn't have time to make chicken stock from scratch so I bought chicken broth and threw that into a pot with the chicken cutlets, celery, onions, carrots, scallion stalks, whole peppercorns, salt and a bay leaf. Simmered that while I prepared the rest of my ingredients. I refused to use chicken bouillon cubes since I felt like that would be cheating. I try to only use those when I'm lazy. Thankfully, my broth was just right without the help of a little MSG.


I burned my garlic chips but it was fine when added to the bowl in moderation. This was a cheap and easy meal, the only thing that took too much time was my obsession with making it look picture perfect. I julienned the carrots, sliced the scallions finely, steamed the vegetables individually and setting them aside so as to not overcook them in the broth where they would eventually lose their color. I even used an egg boiling guide to make sure my eggs weren't boiled to the point where the yolk's edge turned green.

Tomorrow I get another off day (fours days in a row!). This one was requested a month in advance since I'm attending my cousin Ana's baby shower. I'm thinking of giving her my copy of Wolves in the Walls for the baby. The baby shower invite said to give a book instead of a card to start the baby's library. I hope they don't find the story and illustrations too scary for the child. The pictures are quite beautiful.

The evening was spend eating a variety of items I currently regret. While Mica and I watched the Sabrina movies back to back (both the 1950s Audrey Hepburn and 1990s Julia Ormond version), I snacked on cassava cake, seaweed snacks, butter pecan ice cream while I drank malibu pineapple. I had a couple glasses soda with my dinner so all of that simmering in there gave me a bad acid stomach. Ugh. I wish I can just fart this all away and get it over with.

I was meeting Mica at 5:30pm for dinner today. I spent the morning surfing through David Chang's restaurant menus and reviews since Louiie mentioned she was planning on getting his cookbook, Momofuku. First thing that came to mind was, "Hmmm, another place to go and try..." I was at the Union Square area a little too early to meet up with Mica so I found myself back at Strands Bookstore standing at a corner, poring over Thomas Keller's The French Laundry cookbook. I met up with her and we walked on over to a restaurant we were both trying to apply to for extra part time work. The head chef was very nice and said we can probably start in a couple of weeks when things start to pick up more. They've only been open a month so things are still slow moving. I am excited to work in a new place, gain more experience and meet new people. Plus! The best part? It's a Filipino restaurant! In my personal experience, most filipinos are not the best kind of tippers but I am taking this more for the change of scenery and pace. I won't be quitting the vegetarian gig anytime soon though, our weekends have been doing pretty well over there lately and I don't want to miss the good dinero. Specially now that I've developed this new expensive habit of eating out at these fancy places.

Tonight I found myself back at Apiary, this time with Mica and three of her dancer friends. One is also a NY based dancer and the other two were visiting from Hong Kong. Mica and I were there at 6pm and told the maitre d' that we're expecting three other people to join us in an hour and we will be staying at the bar for drinks while we wait. We each get a glass of prosecco and I convince Mica to share an order of the crisp sweetbreads with me. The bartender/waiter looked at us for a second then began,

Him: Have you had sweetbreads before?
Me: No
Him: Uhm well just to let you know that sweetbreads are a young calf's thymus gland....
Me: (cutting him off) I know what they are, that's why I want to try them.

I was smiling at him trying to convincing him that "It's ok, I won't send it back saying 'Ugh! Yuck! Gross!"

Him: Feeling adventurous tonight are we?
Me: Oh YES

Mica was apparently fiddling with her phone and distracted while this whole exchange was taking place because when I casually mentioned to her what the we're about to eat when the waiter left, she said "putangina mo, anong pinapakain mo sakin?!" I reassure her that it will be AWESOME and to add bonus reassurance, tell her that LOUIIE says they are great. Lately, we have come to believe that whatever Louiie says is good, indeed has to be good.

The dish came and we dug in. Now, I've used a lot of adjectives in the past describing the food I eat. I've mentioned amazing, great, awesome, delicious, good, excellent. I'm running out of things to describe dishes already. BASTA MASARAP SIYA OK! NAPAKASARAP NIYA TALAGA. I really would prefer not to describe it as "kinda like chicken" but it was what came out of Mica's mouth when she has her first bite. I guess it did, only BETTER. It was tender and melted in your mouth. The frisee salad that came with it was a perfect contrast to the sauce that circled the plate. I polished off the rest of the dish and secretly began running my fingers on the plate and licking off the wonderful sauce since I didn't want to waste a single drop of it. I saw the bartender sneak a glance just as I was sucking on my thumb and he smiled. Later, when we were seated with the rest, he jokingly asked me if I ordered the sweetbreads again.

Oh, I forgot to mention that we saw the man of the house himself! Scott Bryan! He was standing by the bar as soon as Mica and I walked in and made our reservations. My insides began screaming and I tried to calm myself as I told Mica, "Ayan na siyaaaaa!!! yung naka-puti! OMG!! Siya na yooooon!!!" I've seen a few Hollywood stars around New York but I haven't felt the same kind of "gigil" I felt when I realized SCOTT BRYAN IS IN THE ROOM. I wonder what will happen to me if I see Anthony Bourdain? I might faint. He lingered around the bar before dinner rush while we sat and drank waiting for Mica's friends. Later Mica asks me, "Nakita ka na ba ng chef nung andito ka dati?" I told her he wasn't there when I first came. "Kasi kanina pa siya tingin ng tingin sayo eh."

"TALAGA?!?!?"

Punyeta ang dork ko talaga. My reaction made Mica laugh so hard. She says she's never seen me so giddy ever. Anyway, wala lang naman yon pero natuwa parin ako. He disappeared into the kitchen when diners started pouring in. We were lucky they managed to squeeze us in despite a very busy night.

The rest of the party came, we sat down and ordered. I got most of the same I got last time except I chose the Roasted Merluza with curried mussel chowder instead of the chicken. I won't say anything about it anymore, you know it was good. Everybody else was very happy with their choices as the meal progressed. Since I recommended the restaurant, I was happy to see them pleased with their meals. Remember what I said yesterday about my dinner in Prune being my most expensive meal? Well today trumped yesterday's bill. BUT I DON'T CARE! Maybe next time though, I will stick to ordering only a few items at a time and not overly stuff myself in one go. Sitting silently by the bar while I enjoy a bowl of the tuscan bean and kale soup followed by the sweetbreads should be fine.

...and I spent it alone :)

I woke up and took my time. One thing I hate doing on my off days is rush myself. I took my time getting off of bed, making coffee, breakfast, watching last night's episode of Lost, looking at menus online deciding where to eat for dinner. I decided on Prune after watching an episode of No Reservations where Bourdain is joined by Eric Ripert (of Le Bernadin) and Scott Bryan (of Apiary) where they enjoy a late meal at Gabrielle Hamilton's place. I took my time in the shower, got dressed and headed over to Union Square and ended up where I usually go on my day off, a bookstore. This time I went to Strands and bought a copy of Thomas Keller's cookbook Ad Hoc.
I also bought a copy of Waiter Rant, which is the front of the restaurant's version of Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential. I read an excerpt about verbal tipping and found it both hilarious and relate-able that I had to get it.

I walked around the east village and down to Prune, which was about 14 blocks and two avenues from the bookstore. The place didn't open until 5:30pm so I sat at a cafe and perused through Keller's cookbook as I waited for time to pass. Six o'clock came and I figured it was enough time to let the restaurant open and prepare itself before it welcomed diners. I didn't make reservations since I was once again dining solo. I needn't have worried, I was their first customer. I ordered the roasted marrow bones with parsley salad and the seared duck breast with dandelion greens and raisin-caper dressing. Bourdain has said it again and again, his death row meal would be roasted marrow bones with parsley salad. I shall have to say I agree. Honestly, I could die tomorrow and I would die a happy (wo)man. I will tell you the duck breast was fantastic but the bone marrow was the highlight of my meal. Seriously. It was the BEST.THING.EVER. It was nature's butter. Trying to describe it would be futile. No words can illustrate how simple yet absolutely amazing it was. People started pouring into the restaurant as I devoured my appetizer. A couple sat beside me and as the waitress told them about the bone marrow appetizer being the best selling item on the menu, I sneak a glance and smile at her. She pauses and gestures to me and my marrow stained fingers as if to emphasize her point. I couldn't help myself and told them to get it. "You have to get that, I swear, it is amazing," I tell them. They agreed and order it. Later the man turns to me and says, "Would you like a glass of our French Burgundy with your meal? We ordered a bottle and we won't be able to finish it." I graciously accept and later I surreptitiously tell my server to charge me twice for my dessert and give one to the couple at the next table as soon as they finish their meal. I've been specially lucky with free drinks this week. I forgot to mention that the bartender in Apiary also bought me an extra glass of wine when I was there. I had a glass of riesling prior to the burgundy and was at this point feeling particularly generous and adequately buzzed. I tipped the server more than the usual, ignoring the fact that my meal tonight was one of the, if not THE most expensive solo meal I've ever had. I can say now that it won't be my last.

I was lucky with a cab today. New York City is supposedly notorious for it's difficulty in hailing a cab. I never had that kind of bad luck except when it's raining hard. Tonight, I was at an intersection and didn't even hail a cab. All I did was look at a passing cab and it pulled over a few yards from where I was standing. It took me several seconds to realize that it stopped for me and I ran to it. I needed to make the 7:45pm showing of Shutter Island at a theatre near Union Square. I got there (over tipped the cab driver, it was the alchohol, I tell you) and found that the 7:45 showing was sold out. I quickly checked my phone for the next soonest showtime and found one at a theater right in the middle of new yorker hell and tourist district, Times Square. I normally never go anywhere above 14th st unless I'm taking out of town friends around NYC but it was early and I really didn't want to go home so I went and saw the movie. I don't want to spoil it for people who haven't seen it but it was a really good movie. Martin Scorcese did an awesome job as usual despite the conclusion having a particular resemblance to another movie (you'll know which one I'm referring to when you see it).

I walked out of the theater once again greeted by Times Square's bright lights that it felt like it was 7pm despite it being almost 11pm. I got home and Caitlin walked in soon after bearing a bottle of Jack Daniels. We drink while watching Sabrina (the Audrey Hepburn version) in the living room. My eyes, tired and relatively drunk, gave up halfway through the film and excused myself to my room where I decided to type this post before bed before I let go of today's high.

Louiie, we are going to Prune when you come to NYC next month, and we're ordering the sweetbreads with bacon and caper sauce.

***I'm really buzzed and if there are any grammatical errors or typos in this post, I shall fix them tomorrow morning***

I'm currently watching Singles on Netflix and Pia messages me on YM mentioning my Apiary post the other day. She apparently also reads Rajo Laurel's blog and saw his post about that night's dinner. He has photos up so if you want to catch a glimpse of the food, you can see it there. He misspelled the name of the restaurant though (apriary instead of apiary) so his links to the website don't work.

Interesting info about his post, who owns the hand on the 2nd photo and the lady on the background in the 2nd to the last photo? Hehehehe....

Thanks to Pia for telling me about his blog.