Our Place

So tonight Sam and I went to a restaurant called Our Place located at 82nd and 3rd (roughly) for dinner. We started with the obligatory fried egg noodles which were some of the lightest and least greasy I have ever had. Also, the duck sauce was unusually flavorful and didn't taste sickly sweet like the stuff you get from a takeout place. Then we started with a steamed pork dumpling appetizer, which was very good. The dumplings were more what I am accustomed to with regard to wrapper:filling ratio. I have reviewed a few restaurants recently whose dumplings were all filling with a crunchy thin outside. The dumplings at Our Place had a breadier outside that was a bit sweet and added a nice mellow compliment to the pronounced flavors of ginger and scallion within the pork filling. After one bite, Sam and I both looked at each other with a surprised "holy moly this is SO much better than I was expecting" glance. He had the sauteed filet with mixed veggies, and I had the brocolli in garlic sauce, both with brown rice. Sam's was good, and tasted like chef started the sauce as a basic brown sauce and then decided to flip the whole thing on it's head with big bold favors and no oversalting. The meat was tender and the veggies were all perfectly cooked - hot throughout but very crunchy. My brocolli was also perfectly cooked and the sauce it came in was sweet, thick and a bit chunky with garlic pieces. I enjoyed the fact that the sauce was crafted in such a way that it enhanced the brocolli flavor not masked it. Just as importantly, my brocolli wasn't sitting in a lake of over salted soupy sauce getting soggy - you know what I'm talking about. Both entrees were very tasty. Although, since I am not so much of a red blooded male meat eater, I preferred the lighter and more delicate tastes of my dish, to the bolder, fleshier tastes of Sam's. The brown rice was ultra short grain, so it stuck together nicely in chopstickable chunks.

All in all, pretty damn good. The things to try are the pork steamed dumplings and the brocolli in garlic sauce, in my humble opinion. On the other hand, if you're looking for a carnivores delight, you can't go wrong with the filet with mixed veggies.

YUM!

xo

Recent Unfashionable Moments / Douchebaggery

Last Tuesday I headed out to Park Slope after work with a couple of girls I work with. One of them took up hula hooping over the summer while she travelled the country peddling her art at music festivals. But his isn't your 1960's hooping - it was so intricate and complicated. Anyway, she had a show with her friend Lauren at a bar on 5th Ave and 1st, so we went to support her. I had known about it all week, but the day of the event I was really really tired, so I headed to work without a change of clothes for the night. Did I mention I teach kids gymnastics (for money I mean, "in life" I am a pre dental post bac)? So one thing lead to another, I was convinced to go. Cut to me standing in a bar wearing cotton shorts, seven year old khaki frat New Balances, my work shirt and a black cotton hoodie. And zero makeup. And big red glasses. And dried sweat hair. BALLS!

I so would have preferred to be wearing bean boots with jeans and a cable knit sweater with some foundation and light lipstick on sans glasses. The perk was that I didn't know that my high school sweetheart frequents restaurants on 5th Ave. (the Park Slope one) until four days later. Not that it matters what someone I dated seven years ago thinks, but it IS a general reality that seeing an ex when looking great is preferable to seeing them when you look like shit. Anyhow, but because I didn't know, I carried on about my evening despite my shoddy appearance and had a great time.

And yesterday I was wearing oxfords with white socks. Yeah. You couldn't see them, but conceptually it was wrong. Even I know that, but I didn't have any other socks, and it was cold! Too cold for ballet flats, and I don't own boots for the season yet (need to get on that asap).

And I have one angry New Yorker moment to share: Yesterday I was walking up the stairs to get to the R train at 59th St. to go to Kaplan in Astoria. Now, this was SMACK in the middle of rush hour so it was STUPID crowded. So when a delightful gentleman takes up the space I was initially taking up I plowed into the lady next to me. As I was looking up to apologize I saw two hands and then all of a sudden I was laying on the stairs on my looking up at sixty billion feet and hoping that I could stand up and gather all my stuff without a crushed finger. Seriously. She PUSHED me down! Ridiculous.

xo

-OH induced gastritis / Spice

This past weekend I got alcohol induced gastritis. I know you're thinking "oh quit being such a whiny bitch with a bad hangover". Except four drinks in four hours does NOT add up to throwing up literally everything for 48 hours. My favorite part was that the repeated hurling wore away the lining of my throat so then all I could taste was blood. And since I was throwing up everything I so much as sipped, I couldn't wash the taste away. God, it was miserable. I'm somewhat convinced something was in my dinner before hand or something got put into my drink, because that is just NOT normal. I was so dehydrated by the end of it that I could feel my heart racing. So, knowing that sleeping pills conquer nausea, I took an Ambien and right before I felt myself going to sleep I chugged two glasses of water. I woke up the next day feeling much better, but still a bit woozy. I had to skip out on a training at work since I started feeling crappy, and decided it'd be a better plan to sleep off the nausea so I could teach my class a few hours later.

Anyway, the night preceeding 48 hours of blood tasting hurling hell was actually pretty amazing. Sam and I headed downtown to meet up with his friend Caryn who he went to high school with out in Westchester. We did dinner at a restaurant called Spice (more on that later), and then to very hip private loft party. I don't think I need to say much more because, babes, I was below 14th st wearing a four year old black jersey ruched dress from Wet Seal. And ballet flats. What is it with me and the inappropriate frickin' ballet flats?! The people were all very very nice (maybe nice as replaced snooty as the new "cool" thing), but I couldn't help feeling like a complete fool ha. Caryn is what I would call an un-Diva fashionista. Her outfits are always on point, in a way that is . . . almost painfully effortless. Seriously - she is a FABULOUS dresser, but more importantly, she is very very nice. I'm sure everyone knows someone like her haha.

Okay, so on to dinner. Spice is located at 10th St. and 4th Ave. The three of us ate the pork and veggie dumplings and summer rolls as appetizers, and I wound up sharing my Tom Yum also. The veggie dumplings were small but very tasty. They had a very thin exterior which tasted good, was not over powering, and was perfectly pan fried but not too crunchy. These dumplings reminded me faintly of the ones Sam and I had at XO and were served IN the dumpling sauce, but again this presentation was tasty. The summer rolls were really fresh, but they had tofu in them instead of shrimp which was kind of a table wide unwelcome surprise. Otherwise, the veggies tasted great, there was a ton of fresh basil and the sauce it was served with was a perfect complement. The Tom Yum was good, but I would have preferred a higher "stuff" to broth ratio. There was also not quite enough cilantro for it to be mind blowing - but seriously, I've never had any Tom Yum I didn't really enjoy, and this was no exception :). I had Panang Curry (the same thing I typically have) which was pretty tasty, and was HUGE. I ate all of the "stuff" and had I not been going to a very chic loft party afterward would totally have taken the leftover sauce home. Overall I'd give it about 4 of 5, but the company made it a 5 of 5.

Special hugs and kisses to Sam for taking such great care of me and staying by my side literally the whole time I was sick. One word: keeper.

LOVE!

I Spent Today In Jersey . . .

With my coworkers. Sound miserable? WRONG.

IT WAS REEEEEEEALLLLLYYYY FUN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

One of my bosses Sandra had a bunch of the teachers and one of our managers over for a day long festival of adult bevvies and Italian food, and did she deliver! She had printed up little cute drink menus, and had a TON of options with every kind of mainstream liquor and mixer. She also had red and white wine AND champagne. It was unreal. She had a table of appetizers - crudite, bruschetta, mini pizzas, salad and I'm sure a bunch of other things I can't recall offhand. For the main event she made rice and a choice of three sauces: a creamy scallop sauce, a Hawaiian inspired chicken and pineapple sauce and one other sauce I can't remember right now either- did I mention I spent a great portion of the day drinking? There was chocolate fondue with strawberries, bananas and pineapples, cupcakes, and M&M sugar cookies for dessert. NOM!

We played ten fingers and taboo - two games which are awesome not only for learning factoids about people, but also for learning about how they think (taboo particularly).

I wore my fave baggy Levi's corduroys 2 sizes too big, and in my haste to not miss the train forgot a belt. I was also wearing a basic J Crew favorite tee in navy with sandals and a pink trench coat. The outfit was very comfy, and served it's purpose in keeping me dry - except when we were running for the train back to Manhattan, and I literally had to hold my pants up and kick off my sandals. Both necessary so I could run full speed without falling on my face or ending up giving the entire southbound platform and parking lot a full moon. No belt: FAIL.

Otherwise, good times :).

xo

Erev Yom Kippur / Stupid People

Fret not my Semitic friends, the two titles of this entry are not related.

Today Sam's Mom, Dad, and Older Sister came to the big apple to spend the day with us. They brought us an AMAZING spread from Zabar's which included white fish salad, lox, veggie cream cheese, regular cream cheese, capers, red onion, tomato, lemon, herring in cream, sable, and of course, bagels. Y. U. M. Sam's Mom, referred to from here on as The Real NewYorker (both of Sam's parents are native NYers, but for some reason his mom seems to embody the feist, attitude and air I associate with it), came in and immediately began a comedic retelling of her experience at Zabar's. She said a couple of things which made me laugh: 1) "It was me and hundreds, HUNDREDS of New York Jews, I WAS IN HEAVEN!" 2)"The line at the seafood counter was 10 + deep on all lines. Jews everywhere clamoring for smoked fish!" Maybe you had to be there, this woman has the most hilariously enthusiastic delivery.

And then we ate, and ate, and ate. It was awesome. Then we went to the Met to hit the highlight reel: Armory, Vermeer Exhibit, Religious and Secular Medieval Art - for $0.20 per person, it was well spent :).

After we left Sam and I wanted to take his family to Osha for a light dinner before they all headed back to Boston. And by that I mean, I really really wanted some Tom Yum (after all, Tom Yum is Yum Yum - yes, I came up with that myself, and no, applause is not necessary). Osha delivered splendidly again, and everyone was very content upon our return back to our apartment. TRN took her dog out as I took Seamus out to take a teewinkle since they had been in the apt for roughly 3 hours. I was about five paces in front of TRN when I passed a delightful woman who, upon my passing, said "fuck you". You're probably thinking "you must've done SOME thing to elicit that response" and you're right. I was wearing grey slacks with a beautiful haberdashery shirt and a cashmere cable knit sweater vest. Very unfashionable, and worthy of reproach. So let me run down the exchange:

"Fuck you."
"Uh, are you talking to me?"
"Yeah, that's some body's tree." (as my dog is taking a shit on a tree which is not landscaped, fenced, mulched or embellished in anyway that would make me think that it wasn't fair game - and in fact, I know that it is fair game because Mt. Sinai Hospital owns my entire block of apartments)
"Um, alright." (let the dog finish crapping, pick it up, and walk away)

Let me restate how much I love these random exchanges with miserable people who have nothing better to do than spew their unnecessary, incorrect and offensive quibble to passersby (particularly ME). Let me also restate that Sam never gets fucked with, nor does anyone else I know. Is the fact that I don't walk around giving the air that if provoked I could seriously damage some one's life? Anyway, so in my usual fashion, rather than give these twats the satisfaction of knowing they got to me, I waited until I got upstairs and ran through "what I could've saids". Because it's the only way I can get the insult out of my system. For this particular exercise, we decided to channel several of our friends that live in the city and played the "if this exact thing had happened - what would (insert friend here) say to shut the asshole up?" What follows is what we came up with:

The Unfashionista's Ex:
Crazy Lady: "Fuck you."
The Ex: "DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM?!?!?!?"
*this actually worked on several occasions in real life, that's why I'm including it*

The Unfashionista's Former Sorority Sister:
Crazy Lady: "Fuck you."
The Former SS: "Watch your mouth."
*her response to everything is "watch your mouth/step/attitude"*

Sam's Friend BRoy
Crazy Lady: "Fuck you."
BRoy: *eye contact*
Crazy Lady: "Yeah, that's some body's tree."
BRoy: "This is what you worry about? Your life is meaningless."
*this only works if BRoy delivers it in the effortlessly condescending manner he can have which cracks me up every time*

So then Sam and I thought about which one would best suit me, as it seems that everyone I know has some sort of stock response to random acts of idiocy. Typically, here anyway, that response is "FUCK YOU" - but it's not terribly original. It also had to be something I could deliver calmly when surprised. Our hypothetical for BRoy had me dying laughing because I could actually SEE him saying it, and if I could deliver it like he would, it would be the hands down winner. BUT I know if I were to deliver it while flustered it would be uneasy, too loud, and come out desperate sounding. Not what I'm going for. We chose "watch your mouth" in the end, because it's short, simple, and asserts a subtle superiority of class and manners.

I'll let you know how it turns out. Until then, I'll be ironing chinos and other various items I've been told shouldn't be worn before motherhood.

LOVE!

XO Cafe & Grille

Today Sam and I headed to midtown to pick up some new jeans and retire the ones with holes or what I consider to be an unacceptable number of pockets :). We got off at 42nd and wandered all the way down to Chinatown. I found out that there is actually about a three block radius that I really love down in the Village (not as much as I love Carnegie Hill, but I did find it surprisingly pleasant). It is the two blocks east of 5th somewhere in the teens - 3 streets worth - so I suppose 6 total blocks. Anyhow, so we got Sam's jeans and headed down because we both had pork bun cravings. Unfortunately, by the time we were done walking the 40+ blocks, lunch and dim sum were over. So we decided to pop in to whatever the next actual restaurant we passed was - and it happened to be XO Cafe and Grille.

We both had Hot & Sour Soup, split a Pan Fried Dumplings appetizer along with the Beef w/ Ginger & Scallion entree, and House Fried Rice. The meal was very good. Not your standard over greasy, funky, over fried over salted crap. Two things in particular were absolutely a cut above - the Pan Fried Dumplings and Beef w/ Ginger & Scallion. The rish one runs ordering dumplings is that it could be all dumpling wrapper and no fillng. You all know the ones I'm talking about. The ones we had at XO could not have been more opposite. They were chock full of fresh crunchy veggies and pork and the wrapper was extra thin and had a nice crisp on the outside. The dumpling sauce came drizzled over them, which was a presentation I've never seen before. Being a dumpling sauce fiend I was initially apprehensive about not having a giant vat of it, but the flavor of the filling and the potency of the sauce more than compensated. The Beef w/ Scallion & Ginger came out sizzling on one of those plates they serve fajitas on in Mexican establishments. It smelled like heaven, and the meat was as tender as . . . I have no idea - something phenomenally tender. That texture with the sweet flavor paired with the zesty snap of the scallion and ginger were UNREAL. It was amazing. The hot and sour soup was above average and the House Fried Rice had a surprising amount of shrimp and large chicken chunks in it. It lacked a little something, but when covered with the leftover sauce from the beef it became amazing.

The one thing that I would say that is less than positive is about the service. This is an authentic Chinese restaurant - as in we were the only non Asian folks there. Literally. The speed of the service was great, but the fact that only two waitresses/bussers spoke any english at all was somewhat frustrating. I'm not trying to be mean - they couldnt understand basic restaurant lingo like "Check" "Bill" "Chopstick" etc. Argh. The food made up for it, and the total bill including tip was only $45.00. Not too shabby.

Next time we go, we'll stick to the Dumplings and Beef with Scallion and Ginger.

Wicker Park/Dr. Oz stinks.

Oh my lord, is there some reason that Dr. Oz has to come after Wendy Williams? Wendy Williams is not by any stretch of the imagination my favorite talk show personality, that title belongs to Ellen Degeneres, but WW is by no means my least favorite. Her show is pretty fun, and is light hearted and amusing. And Dr. Oz bored me to death the one time I saw him on Oprah (who wins the title of my least favorite talk show personality), and now he has his own show which is SUCH a downer. Well, let me restate - Dr. Oz is a downer when I'm not laughing at his over the top faux emotion. His show stinks like poopy shit.

Anyhow, last night I went out with two of my coworkers for one of their birthdays. I had SO much fun. Turns out that they are both phenomenally cool, not that I didn't like them before, but there are things you just don't learn about people when you're in the workplace. We hung at a place called Wicker Park, which is at 83rd and 3rd. It was a pretty nondescript normal relatively low key bar. Things picked up around 7 o'clock and a group of guys sporting "my new fucking haircut" and all wearing black button down shirts came in. I'm not sure if that's typical Wicker Park scene or not. If so, I'd say skip it, if not and 83rd and 3rd is close to you then pop in. It is very clean and the bar staff were attentive and friendly.

xox
TheUNfashionista