Places I like + What I like there: Volume 1

So sometimes people ask me for food advice, which makes me very happy.  So I'll just get a list going here, and if you're ever near these places, check 'em out.  Though I don't know why they're almost all Asian.  I'll make another less skewed list soon.

Num Pang - 12th and University

This is an awesome Cambodian sandwich spot.  They're similar to Vietnamese sandwiches, with the same base of spicy mayo, pickled carrots, cucumber and cilantro, but it's the meats that really make this place stand out.  My favorite is the veal meatballs.  The tiger shrimp is the close second.  Or maybe the pork belly with Asian pear... It's a toss up.  Their sister restaurant, Kampuchea, is sort of Cambodian street food.  If you go there, get the lemongrass honey glazed pork belly.  Juicy, perfect little cubes of sweet, fatty meat. 

Stand Burger - 12th and University

In the summer, I like to wash down my spicy sandwich with the fattiest drink ever created.  And it's right across the street!  I admit that I've never had the burgers there since I always want a Num Pang sandwich, but its the milkshakes that keep me coming back.  Well one specifically.  Its the Toasted Marshmallow Milkshake.  I think that title deserves capitalization.  It's roasted (toasted?) marshmallows blended into vanilla ice cream, topped with two hot freshly toasted ones on top.  Its thick and rich and at $6 bucks a pop, definitely big and fatty enough to split with a friend. This image is from someone's Flickr.

Dim Sum Go Go - 5 East Broadway

Pretty cheap, super fresh and very fast dim sum.  These duck dumplings have big chunks of meat and vegetables in them, encased in the most delicate dumpling skin. The shrimp balls are also great, if you like a big deep-fried orb of sweet dense shrimp. Another favorite are the egg custards, which would make more sense on the dessert menu.  The flaky little pie cups are filled with a firm and subtly sweet egg pudding.  Whatever you get, just go with all dim sum.  The main dishes are good, but dim sum is the main attraction.

Food Shing Noodles - 2 East Broadway

Directly across from Dim Sum Go Go is this loud and chaotic noodle place.  Perfect for a quick and filling lunch.  The noodles are handpulled.  You can see the cooks in the back pulling the strands between their fingers like taffy, then folding all the strands over and pulling again, repeating until the noodles are thin and perfect, with little finger indentations still in the dough.  The noodles with duck is what I always get.  It comes with huge chunks of duck breast with a leg usually thrown in also.  Lots of meat, noodles, broth, and greens, all for about $5.  This image from NYT.

Momofuku Noodle - 171 1st Avenue

Jumping many price points up the scale is Momofuku Noodle.  Initially famous for their amazing ramen, the rest of the menu is great enough now that I usually skip them (also, Ippudo ramen a few blocks west might be winning out in that category now anyway).  The menu is seasonal and sometimes I don’t always catch them in time, but the roasted rice cakes is what I scan the list for most often.  Little logs of rice dough are roasted in a pan with a sweet and spicy sauce, scallions, and crispy onions.  Their surfaces get a little crunchy but give way to dense and chewy middles.  It’s a side dish, but heavy and filling for sure.  Get them with a beer, because the heat sneaks up on you.  This image from someone's Flickr.

Momofuku Milk Bar - 207 2nd Avenue

Also an old-news favorite, but you'd be surprised.  Sometimes I meet people who still haven't been there.  While they're known for the compost cookie (chocolate chip with pretzels, potato chips, and coffee grounds) the cornflake marshmallow is even better.  The marshmallows melt into the cookie and get caramelized and gooey at the same time and the cornflakes give them a little extra crunch.  I tried to make these myself and failed miserably.  Sometimes you just have to give in and pay $2 for the world's best cookie.  Again, this image from someone's Flickr. Why do I feel the need to say this?  I just think it would be false advertiing if I didn't.  I did take some of the other ones though!

Donut Plant - 379 Grand Street

They used to close by 3 or 4 because they would run out of donuts by midday.  In the last few years they’ve been featured on so many Food Network shows that it’s become a food tourist spot and they now have donuts all day long, thankfully.  It’s a little out of the way so I never get just one (easy excuse, right?).  There are two kinds of donuts- cake donuts, which are the flakier, crumbly, break-in-half-able kind, and there are yeast donuts, which are chewy and a little doughier.  As for the favorites, when people call to ask what they have to try there, I give them this shopping list, in order.  The top number one is the tres leches, a cake donut with little pockets of cream all along the ring.  Simple and easy and wonderful.  A very, very close runner up is the coconut cream filled yeast donut.  The glaze is sticky and sweet with little flakes of coconut in it, but the cream inside is barely sweet at all and tastes like pure coconut milk.  The last, but keep in mind, still in the top three of all the donuts I’ve ever had, is the peanut butter and jelly donut.  It’s another yeast donut, this one filled with homemade jam of different flavors in different seasons.  Coating the whole donut is a thick peanut butter glaze with chunks of nuts in it.  Like the world’s best peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  That’s it.  Okay, this entry was way too long. 

Harvest Song Fresh Walnuts

Murray's Cheese just got in these very weird, very unique walnuts.  They're picked from the tree when still soft and young.  The shells haven't hardened yet so they are eaten whole, shell and all.  The texture is unlike anything I've ever had, and hard to describe.  Firm but tender, and different with each layer.  The flavor is rich and meaty (in a good, sweet kind of way), but a with strong clove, cinnamon, and allspice taste.  My first thought was that they just tasted like the spiced sugary liquid that they float in, but upon reading the ingredients I learned that all those hints of spice actually come from the nut itself.  The syrup is simply sugar and citric acid, nothing else added.  Because they're incredibly sweet, I like them best sliced very thinly over tart yogurt or fresh ricotta.  

You can get them at Murray's Cheese or on their website.  If you're nearby, ask for a sample.  If you get lucky they might have a jar open, waiting just for you.

Wanted to Be Them

A collection of all the girls I thought I would be one day.  After this, I swear, I'll never post a 90's girl again.  Let's start from the very beginning. 

 

I wanted that vest so bad.  And David Bowie in leggings.  Through dangers untold and hardships unnumbered, I have fought my way here to the castle beyond the Goblin City to take back the child that you have stolen.

Rayanne Graff.  Endlessly clashing patterns, mismatched plastic earrings, baby barrettes, chunks of perfectly (strangely) placed hair, and lots of plaid.  My 4th grade best friend and I agreed that she was so Angela and I was so Rayanne.  Most of it was bad, but worked so well.  I wore as much jewelery as possible when this was on in elementary school (that's right, I did not discover it through MTV reruns) and it made the heavy-ringed fingers and hundreds of necklaces worth it when the cool 5th grader said "You are like, totally the Rayanne of our school."

I've touched on this video once already, but it deserves another look.  I had a plaid shirt that I swore was the exact same one from the video.  I forgot it in a movie theater and cried my eyes out. 

Blaire Waldorf before Blair Waldorf even existed.  She did not skin a collie to make her backpack, she did break in her new purple clogs, and no, a watch did not really go with that outfit.
This is an Alaia.

Light as a feather, stiff as a board.  Light as a feather, stiff as a board.  Everyone had that one girl who claimed it was really working this time! Also, who hasn't done the thing where you run your hands over your hair and then shake it out to change the color.  That wasn't just me, right?  Right...?

Skanky, I know.   But you can't beat that swinging in the woods scene.  

"I could get straight A's if I was chowin' down speed, too!"  She was so Contempo Casuals.  Mohair sweater... and so so sad.

"I thought you said that jacket was so 5 minutes ago."  "It's like, retro!"

 The less-rich girl from Minnesota always trying to keep up with Kelly and Donna.  I recently started DVRing 90210 on SoapNet, but after a few weeks I realized I was only watching it to look at their outfits.  When the story lines went from high school's "The gang throws Nat a birthday party at the Peach Pit!" to the college years' "Dylan and Brandon must save Kelly from a cult" I stopped being so entertained by 90's bodycon dresses and big hair. 

And that's who I planned on being when I was 10. 

Coffee-Loving Goths

Gum Wall! Click for full gummy effect. You can smell the mint when you walk by it!

Just got back from Seattle. Definitely my favorite city after New York. Or before it. Not sure. 75% of the people are earnestly, unironically, never-stopped-dressing-that-way 90's. Cute Soundgarden dudes, good. Hot Topic goths, very bad.

Not satisfied to have populated the world, including the most coffee fanatical city in the country, Starbucks has a new game. They sent out market researchers to small, independent coffee shops to see what people like. They then designed their own stores around this, specific to each city. But they don't call them Starbucks. The name is just the street that the store is on. I went to one.

The door says 15th Ave Coffee and Tea, Inspired by Starbucks. But... it's more like Starbucks, Inspired by every real coffee place. Yuck. Here's the interior. Basic faux rusticity, things "handwritten" on boards instead of typed, like any Starbucks.
But it doesn't really look like one. Sneaky.

Went to Mario Batali's dad's place, Salumi. He makes all his own cured meats. Molé salami with roasted green peppers. Awesome. You could really taste that spicy, sweet, very mild cocoa flavor.
Oh, Oh! Speaking of molé, some of the best Mexican I have ever had at Carta de Oaxaca in Ballard. Long trip from main Seattle, but so worth it. So if you ever have the chance, take the time to go there and get the piping hot tortilla chips (have you ever actually had fresh tortilla chips right out of the fryer? It's what they're supposed to taste like) and the chicken molé.

While you're there, go to "the Locks". Two sections of the river are at different heights. When a boat comes in from the higher part, its "locked" into this walled off area. The water in that area is lowered and then the boat is let out into the lower water level area. Kind of hard to visualize.
This is also the location of the salmon run. The salmon need help getting back to the bay they were born in, so they made a water ladder for them to, climb? There are also tubes that help the salmon babies get to the ocean. You can go into an underground room with windows looking out into this fish frenzy, which would have been cool if the salmon had actually been there when we were. But there is a display of the eggs in various stages.
So, Seattle is great. And I think people are lying when they say it rains every day. I've been there three times and it's always beautiful. They just don't want New Yorkers to move there.

Sawyer Stealing Cher's Bag

While being productive and watching old Aerosmith videos, remembering how much I wanted to be Alicia Silverstone wearing that flowery babydoll dress and combat boots, hitchhiking in the desert, I made a discovery. The 90's bowl-cut babe that steals her awesome Native American patchwork bag in the coffee shop is Sawyer. James Ford. You know. Check him out-

They make eye contact. Then she makes her pouty face, for some reason walks away to read a magazine "sexily" (what?), which is when he steals her bag. Rough day for Cher.

German Pancake Wonder

Easy and impressive-looking breakfast. You need a cast-iron skillet, which you should have already because they're great, if only for making this one thing. I use this recipe and it's always good. It's basically a big flat popover. But skip that compote business and mix some good fancy jam with sour cream. It makes a sweet, tangy topping. I do it with wild strawberry jam. It tastes just like ice cream.

Uni, Lovebugs, and Goats

St. John, Virgin Islands. Animals everywhere! Families of chickens roam all the parking lots.

These scary but beautiful bugs were crawling around my head on the beach at Cinnamon Bay. The pattern on their backs looks painted on. The park ranger said they were "lovebugs" but that sounds kind of made up and not the official name I was looking for. Maybe they're called lovebugs because they're always in these big swarming piles, "loving" each other, if you catch my drift.

One day, I was forced to go on a hike. After climbing over giant sharp rocks around the shore and making our way up the mountain, we got to this old sugar mill. It was built in the early 1800's. Horses would run in circles around the horse mill (still standing, amazingly) which powered a cane crusher, sending pure sugar cane juice pouring down the troughs to be boiled and turned into sugar. The mill was later powered by steam engine.

Behind the sugar mill ruins are these huge hermit crabs. Thousands of them crawl around the horse mill. They're so big you can actually hear them breaking branches and weeds as they walk.

The facility was also a rum distillery. Rum (and a few beers) are the only thing that St. John produces. They grow no produce and make nothing else to export. You expect tropical places to have fresh wonderful fruit, but everything on the island is shipped in from the mainland, making shopping for fresh stuff hugely expensive. Let's take out a loan for some watermelon!

The island seems to only recycle aluminum cans. I guess this is how they recycle their cardboard.
They really do eat anything. Also, have you ever heard a baby goat say "Baaa"? It sounds like a little human child pretending to be a goat. It has to be the most accurate "what does the animal say" I have ever heard. They really say "Ba-a-a-a-a".

And now. The most awesome part of the trip. Walking along our empty beach on the first day, we saw hundreds of little sea urchins in the water. Uni! We picked a few up and examined them, wondering if there were the kind that make the succulent, briny, sweet orange goo. The first few were very nice. I touched them, they wiggled, I put them back. Then I found the big daddy sea urchin. I swayed a piece of seaweed above him to watch his needles move, and he poked me. I deserved it, I know. A chunk broke off in my finger, but what was scary was the dark blue color seeping under my skin - sea urchin ink. We vowed to eat him the next day. We went out with a metal spatula, pried him (or a relative, they look so much alike really) and plucked him up, along with a few others. Beautiful, right?
I watched a video on how to take them apart. It was gross and bloody and black oozy. And I felt really bad about it. Then I got past it and we cracked into it and took out the good parts.
And they were so not good. They looked right, but tasted rotten and fishy and not at all like the delicate golden uni you eat at restaurants. So we apologized to the one we killed, and gently placed the rest back in the ocean.

Also, obligatory pretty ocean shot. This is Cinnamon Bay, by far my favorite of all the many bays.

The Ernie Hudson Project

Because I believe Ernie Hudson to be the most type-cast actor in history, I've amassed a list of movies and television episodes in which he plays an authority figure, specifically a law enforcement official. These are listed almost solely based on whether his character's official title was included on IMDB. I tried to research the others but even I don't have that much time. Think of how many more there could be. You can even just read the character titles in red to get the idea.

Detective School, 1979- Bombacaa
Underground Aces, 1981- African General
Two of a Kind, 1983- Detective Skaggs
Ghostbusters, 1984- Winston Zeddmore (okay, not really a cop, but kind of)
Joy of Sex, 1984- School Principle Mr. Porter
The Last Precinct, 1986- Sergeant "Night Train" Lane
Cop Rock, 1990- No name
Batman (animated TV show), 1992- Security Guard
Lifestories: Families in Crisis, 1994- Coach Seldon
The Crow, 1994- Sergeant Albrecht (this is where my fascination started.)
The Cowboy Way, 1994- Officer Sam 'Mad Dog' Shaw
Airheads, 1994- Sergeant O'Malley
Congo, 1995- Captain Monro Kelly
The Substitute, 1995- Principal Claude Rolle
For Which He Stands, 1996- DEA Agent Baxter
Mr. Magoo, 1997- CIA Agent Gus Anders
Best of the Best: Without Warning, 1998- Detective Gresko
Hijack, 1999- Senator Douglas Wilson
Stealth Fighter, 1999- President Westwood
Red Letters, 2000- Detective Glen Teal
Paper Bullets, 2000- Detective Ron Mills
Miss Congeniality, 2000- FBI Assistant Director Harry McDonald
OZ, 1997-2003- Warden Leo Glynn (thats 6 years of playing a prison warden.)
Annie B. Real, 2003- Principal Davis
10:8 Officers on Duty, 2003- Senior Deputy John Henry Barnes
The Ron Clark Story, 2006- Principal Turner
Crossing Jordan, 2006- Colonel Wirth
ER, 2006- Colonel James Gallant
Desperate Housewives, 2006-2007- Detective Ridley
Nobel Son, 2007- Sergeant Bill Canega
Final Approach, 2007- Agent Lorenzo Dawson
Balancing the Books, 2008- Detective Carter
Private Practice, 2008- Captain Frank
Lonely Street, 2009- Captain Morgan
Meteor, 2009- General Brasser
Heroes, 2009- Captain Lubbock

Thank you. My life's goal is complete.

José Gonzalez, Teardrop cover

I peaked at 7.

Linen Post Cards

I discovered these linen postcards a while ago, bid on a gigantic "lot" of them on eBay and started making cards out of them. My big card business stalled out when only 3 people bought them on Etsy. Which was good, because I hated parting with them. I just want them all to myself. But I have about 300, so, if you ever need an already-written-on postcard...

"Hello folks. Hope you are getting along okay. We are feeling fine. Sun shining this morning- for a change. 10 showers + 2 hard rains yesterday." -Sunrise Beach, 1949

"We see beautiful sights all along the way." - Pomona, 1937

"It's nice and warm down here. Been on the beach all day long. Got quite a burn." - Miami Beach, 1955

"Sweating it out on this island, lush with coconuts and blazing sunshine. Painting a series of pirate pictures- also taking three classes a week of Spanish. Regards to Ted and Tike." -Key West, 1947

This frightens me.

Check out Chatroulette. It hooks you up with random people with computer cameras waiting to chat. It has the effect of making me giggly, nervous, and very uncomfortable all at once. I mostly just see who pops up, see that its a creepy looking dude, and skip to the next. Last night, I was sitting at a table with people playing poker and they were dealing out cards to me. But I guess I got a taste of my own medicine because they got bored and skipped me.

Here's what it looks like. This is Loki waiting patiently for someone to talk to. Maybe if we wait long enough, another loser holding their cat up to a computer will show up and he can make a friend.

It's happened.

So I'm officialy on Twitter. I've tried twice before, but this time seems real. I'm really doing it. Check it - http://twitter.com/LillyFelice. Trying to make it food-only, like this "blog" was originally intended to be. So don't read it hungry.


UPDATE, MAY 10, 2010: 
My apologies for the approaching rant.
I have abandoned Twitter again.  I really hate it.  Though I think it's a good medium for comedians (comedium?).  The one person I really followed on it is a comedian friend and it was the only thing that made my sporadic visits worthwhile.  

One little thing to get off my chest.  I do not hate Twitter nearly as much as I hate Four Square.  Four Square is the worst part of every social networking site and none of the good parts.  It's the most elitist, wanting so badly to be exclusive, "please think I'm cool", incarnation of these sites.  Ooh, look where I eat soooo often.  So often the internet gave me a prize!  I'm at @blahblah with @thispersonyoudon'tknow and @thatpersonyoudon'tcareabout.  Ugh.  And it bothers me that businesses have to start learning this crap to pander to people who care about it.  I'm starting to be one of those people who hates technology. 

Periodic Table of Beer

Find your favorite beer on this awesome periodic table of international beer styles. ABV is alcohol by volume, IBU is international bitterness units, and SRM is standard reference method. SRM is how brewers determine the color intensity, or darkness, of their beer. Using a spectrophotometer, they measure the wavelength of the light that is able to pass through a contained sample. I'll pick favorites and go with lambics, geuzes, and oatmeal stouts.

Click to enlarge.

Link from Neatorama

Science Party Tricks

Richard Wiseman's Top 10 Science Party Tricks. Go to Wiseman's blog for more sciencey fun. Why do I love magic so much?