good eats in nyc

when you live in one place for long enough, you get to know it pretty well -- you figure out the best way to get from place to place, where to stand on the subway platforms so that you don't have to walk as far when getting off the train, and where your favorite places to eat are.

so when we went to new york for new year's eve i already knew where i wanted to eat. the places below are just a few of my favorite places to drink and eat at. unfortunately, i don't have pictures for most of the places (read: all of them, but one), but that just means we'll have to go back to nyc soon so we can eat and drink there again!

manhattan:

vol de nuit: a dimly lit belgian bar in greenwich village. they have great belgian beers on tap, including my favorite, lindeman's framboise. they also have rockstar mussels and frites. the frites come in three sizes and i recommend them with mayo. (near west 4th street station, ABCDEFM)

mermaid oyster bar: a cute seafood restaurant with some awesome specials: $1 oysters during happy hour (mondays, 5:30-7:00 tuesdays to thursdays, 5:00 -7:00 fridays to sunday) and a lobster boil for $24 on sundays. they also have some seafood staples, like hush puppies and po' boys, that are delicious as well. an added bonus: every meals ends with a cup of chocolate mousse and a fortune fish. (near west 4th street station, ABCDEFM)

momofuku noodle bar: a packed little restaurant in the east village that is only a couple of blocks from another momofuku location, the ssam bar. this particular momofuku specializes in david chang's ramen, and often has a killer wait. but once you're seated, the food comes out fast and delicious. i recommend an order of the pork buns as well as ramen. (near first avenue, L)

brooklyn:

roberta's: a small farm to table restaurant in bushwick, brooklyn. they don't take reservations and sometimes the wait can be pretty extreme, especially since this review, but the food is totally worth it. i recommend getting a pizza and then something else (a salad or a main dish depending on how hungry you are) because their pizza is not to be missed and their other food is so pretty and delicious you just shouldn't say no. (near morgan avenue, L)

noorman's kil: a dark whiskey bar in williamsburg, brooklyn, with only a small sign on the door indicating you're in the right spot.they have tons of different kinds of whiskey, as well as fun drinks for the non-whiskey lovers out there. they also have grilled cheese if you want a snack with your drink. (near lorimer street, L)

where are your favorite places to eat in new york?

a last minute new york city vacation

over the past year we've fallen into a bad habit, that we love -- the last minute trip. it's kind of a disaster and a little stressful, but it's worked for us so far. plus, we've found that if you buy your plane tickets only a couple of days before your trip, they've dropped down in price and are fairly reasonable.

our latest last minute trip was to nyc over new year's weekend. not because we wanted to stand in the freezing cold for hours with thousands of people and very little prospect of peeing, only to watch a crystal ball drop at midnight. but because we finally had the time and i wanted rcg to meet my friends and to see my nyc. 

and we wanted to eat.

 when we travel, we like to eat delicious food, rather than go see all of the "tourist attractions". we like to eat our way through a city. so that's what we did. unfortunately, i didn't take any pictures of the food -- there were too many friends to see!

but we did stumble on some touristy things while we were gallivanting through the city:

rockefeller center with the ice skating rink and giant christmas tree

st. patrick's cathedral

 

 and the empire state building on new year's eve.

jiffy pop!

as some of you may know, i have a weird obsession with strange, creepy, and nontraditional foods. whenever i see weird fruit, i just have to buy it; i can't help myself.

i've bought some weird stuff over the years: grasshoppers, tamarindo, ugli fruit, lotus root, and kiwano & buddha's hand, to name a few. and then last thanksgiving rcg and i tried baby food.

so by comparison jiffy pop isn't that weird. 

much weirder was the can of elk au jus (for $10) we didn't purchase.

 but it's one of those things you always hear about when people talk about "the good old days". so i had to give it a shot. 

and it was, in fact, a jiffy to pop!

   

the instructions are simple and on the back of the lid -- take off the lid, very carefully. set the stove top should be set to medium (if on an electric stove, preheat the burner for 3-4 minutes). put the jiffy pop on the burner, and once it starts sizzling, move the jiffy pop back and forth until no more kernels pop. remove from the heat and open the bag with a fork; be careful of the steam.

jiffy!

pop!

2013 -- week 1 -- a whole new look to project life.

last year i started a kind of digital scrapbook called project life.

i got the idea from dolcetto confections. who got the idea from ali edwards. who got the idea from becky higgins. and she created it because she was feeling overwhelmed with all of the pictures she had taken over the years and done nothing with.
 (we've all felt this way, i'm sure.)

she created a scrapbooking system that is almost pre-made for you, saving you time and the stress of being creative enough to do "real" scrapbooking. you only need a couple of things to get started:

a project life binder, a pack of photo pocket pages (imagine sheet protectors that are already broken up so you can just slide your pictures into them.), and a paper kit that includes filler cards, title cards, and journal cards.

and then you add your photos and any other mementos that you want to save.

what a simple idea.

but also maybe stressful?
and expensive?

let me explain. 

change is good.

 i've been making plans. 

for the past couple of months i've been 

thinking about changes that need to be made.

that's what the end of the year is for, right?

changes. 

all year we live our lives,

sometimes reflecting on the things that are happening,

but mostly we are just trying to get by, survive.

that is, until the end of the year.

the end of the year is a time for thinking. 

thinking about where we've been 

and where we're going.

and it is a time to make lists and plans.

every day we try and make our lives a little better

than they were the day before. 

it can be little things that we need to change --

go to bed earlier, eat more salads, etc --

but sometimes there are big changes that need to happen too.

in 2011, i made big changes:

i quit my job in new york and i moved to mexico.

and ever since then i've been living my life

trying to make the most of it

and trying to enjoy the big changes i've made. 

and i did enjoy those changes. 

i enjoyed the living in a new country with a new job and a new boy. 

i enjoyed that my job wasn't nearly as stressful or as antagonistic;

i enjoyed that i was done with work at 4pm every night. 

i enjoyed eating tacos as often as i wanted. 

i enjoyed pretending to speak spanish. 

i enjoyed the cute little neighborhood i moved into,

with it's awesome trees and bike share system.

i enjoyed being able to explore a new place and culture.

and most of all, i enjoyed my new boy --

he made these big changes totally worth it.

 

but then in 2012, change was headed my way again;

in the form of another move: to tucson.

we were a little less psyched about this move, 

but we were determined to make the most of it.

it was a brand new start for both of us; 

neither of us knew anyone,

we had never lived in a desert before,

and we lived in a place that doesn't do daylight savings.

it was a strange journey we were headed on,

but we were in it together and that was the best part. 

we made new friends, saw new places, and did new things.

and as we rang in the new year last week,

we couldn't help but reflect on how the past year treated us

and we began to think about the things 

we wanted to do in the upcoming year:

the changes we wanted to make

and the changes that will take us by surprise.

it's pretty simple really:

my goal for 2013 is to

pull my life together.

too bad that's a crazy complicated thing.

anyone who knows me,

knows that i say this phrase a lot,

mainly because i'm in a constant state

of thinking that my life is, in fact, not together.

as we all do.

so this year i'm working on being an adult.

i'm 28; it's time.

i have big plans to 

be healthier, 

to figure out what the point of this blog is,

and then to make it a thing people actually read,

and to work on my resume, 

as a way to figure out 

what i want to do with the rest of my life,

let's start with the easy stuff:

this year i/we want to be healthier --

i know in the past i've made these ridiculous goals

(running a marathon with no motivation to train for it,

running five half-marathons,

or running 18 miles a week,

to name a few.)

and frankly, i don't know what i was thinking.

i'm a lazy person. 

i wish i wasn't, but i am. 

running is something i enjoy, sure,

but the prospect of having to put on a sports bra

can dissuade me from it 9 times out of 10. 

so making a running goal isn't realistic. 

plus, i think i may have asthma;

it's actually a real disaster.

so i'm changing tactics this year. 

being healthier is a vague goal, to be sure, 

but maybe vague is better. 

how am i to know what kind of healthier 

i am going to need in six months,

or even in twelve months?

it's impossible. 

so let's just keep it simple:

eat more leafy greens.

snack better.

do more yoga.

swim.

bike more.

 getting a little more complicated:

 i need to work on this blog.

for the past couple of months, 

i've been thinking about ways to make it better

and to get more people reading it. 

but let's be serious, 

who really wants to read about my life?

(except all of my lovely friends and family, i hope.)

but apparently blogs can be big

and can be wide read.

so why not give it shot, right?

but i still have to figure out what the point is.

i mean, i started the blog as a way 

to house all of my ice cream recipes

but it has turned into a

"look at all of the cool things i do" space. 

that's pretty boring, right?

is it a travel blog?

i do write about the places that i've been.

or is a food blog?

i do post recipes.

or is it something else entirely?

should it be?

i hate reflecting,

this is going to be a bummer.

 but hopefully, at the end of it

this blog has direction.

and as a result, so will my life.

a tall order, i know, but i'm hopeful.

 now for the scary one:

working on my resume, 

thereby allowing myself

to figure out what i want to do with my life.

first of all,

why is a resume so daunting?

you do the work every day for months on end, 

why does it feel impossible to write about it?

i loath working on my resume.

i normally enlist the help of mama walker,

 and she gives great advice,

but then i'm required to actually act on it.

(i still have an unread email from her, 

sent in september,

helping me with my resume.

what a disaster.)

so this year, i'm going to be an adult

and actually work on my resume. 

and then i plan on sitting down 

and looking at my job options.

because right now i'm not sure what i want to do with my life.

do i want to teach?

do i want to work in education, but not teach?

do i want to leave the education field altogether?

and if so, what do i do next?

(it's a whole situation.

an incredibly stressful situation.) 

i'm looking forward to 2013 -- 

i think things are going to be good.

change is good.

oh.

and i plan on reading another 52 books this year.

but not all at once, at the end of the year.

that was madness.