Foodie Adventures with Nach: Day 3

Nach came back safe and sound from his Thursday Philly trip, ready to go adventuring some more bright and early on Friday morning. At one point he was trying to suggest that perhaps we could start a little later in the day. Memories of the terrifyingly long day we had on Wednesday had him talking crazy when he uttered that suggestion, but that would mean fewer hours to eat. Weighing the pros and the cons, we set out early once more but it was not early enough…

Mini-Adventures in St. Marks

I still believe that Beetchie is the one who brings us disasters at St. Marks.

Wednesday night's adventures at St. Marks with Alex did not bring disaster, really, but it did bring one hell of an annoyance - an annoyance who was allergic to mushrooms.

Things were going fairly well - I bypassed a dumpling on a stick for 89 cents place that I want Beetchie and I try, the boaguette place were not serving shakes much to my dismay as I really want a damned Ovaltine Milk Shake (H1, please provide upon return, and thanks), and my shady (soon-to-be-revealed) buisness was taken care of.

With no H1, Beetchie can have peace of mind that no takoyaki was inhaled without her.

With no H1, H1 can have peace of mind that no Ippudo was slurped down without her.

With Alex in tow, we did however, end up at what's becoming a new St. Marks' go-to-spot: Boka.

Korean Fried Chicken - still good even at my 4th outing.  I need to try different chicken places though.

Dumplings.  Not pork, sadly but not bad ...for chicken.  Yummy, crispy skin.  I am recognizing a trend at this place!

Drinky-drinks: Sunrise in front, Angelixir in the back.

The Korean fried chicken is always just so crispy and their drinks are pretty decent.  Though Boka guys, where was our chicken bone bucket? Alex wanted to know why she had to put her bones on the plate all shameful like.  And then it happened...

This girl at the table next to us, at the start of meal, was a freakin' annoyance.  She was fake, and liked to talk too much to show her "superiority" to her meek friend.  It was a painful interaction I wished to not be a part of.  And then it got worse.

Said girl was allergic to mushrooms.  While I sympathize with her having just this weekend had an awful experience with Momma HOchie's own allergic reaction to an unknown entity, this girl's indignant, obnoxious and "me.  me.  me", whiny, belligerent and sense of entitlement attitude made for an even more awful experience.

She was right.  If she asked for no mushrooms, then mushrooms should never have been brought.  What she was wrong about was the non-stop bitching to her friend.  She said the same thing over, and over, and over again.  She was worried that she would have to go to the hospital and that her allergies would kick in after 30 minutes.  She then expected to not pay for her meal but had no problems taking some of it home.  Like I said, she was right to have concerns but it was the way she went about the whole thing that was ridiculous.

I was about to turn around to the staff to tell them that I didn't want to pay for my meal either because this bitch ruined my dinner experience.

After eating, Alex and I left in disgust but thankfully, there was the dessert truck to make things seem better.  That is, until I got there and had the following conversation:

Me: I want the bread pudding please.
Sweet Asian guy I love ( I remember him from last time!): Vanilla anglaise or bacon?
Me: Excuse me?
Sweet Asian guy I love: They're both very good, but the bacon is the one that won the Throwdown with Bobby Flay.
Me: ::thinking - I dislike Bobby Flay.  That is not a good selling point for me.  You just HAD to go there, right?::: Bacon makes everything taste better, so bacon, please.
Asian guy I used to love: Sure!

Luckily for them their desserts are pretty good but if I have to hear about Bobby Flay one.  more.  time...

I should have taken a better picture... meh.

Brioche donuts with nutella

Don't mind the pinchy claws, just the nutella.

chocolate bread pudding with bacon anglaise

  Momma HOchie liked the bacon but I surprisingly did not.  Bacon is still magical. 

How Things Change (Yet Do Not): New Misadventures in St. Mark's

I call it eating a three course meal out of order, but wouldn't necessarily call it eating three meals.

On Tuesday last, Beetchie and I met up for some food, toys and fun times whilst she was in NYC on Spring Break.

It just so happened that Tuesday was Free Cone Day at Ben & Jerry's.  Beetchie being an ice-cream fiend, and I most always one to partake of Free Cone Day, headed after work to enjoy Chocolate Therapy cones.

Misadventure No. 1: My messy piggyh mouth.

Doubles and Mayo?

Who would concoct such a vile combination?!

No one really, that's just a misleading blog title.

It's not good time trini doubles like some of you may be thinking of...and DEFINITELY not those other types of doubles that CLee might be thinking of.

This afternoon, with the threat of a thunderstorm, which not only threatened but actually waited until we were in the open to occur (i.e. eff you false sense of security) Aims, H1, Beetchie and I went to St. Mark's.

Many a day we speak of going on foodie adventures but have decided that will do it this summer or at least try to, to knock a few things off someone's list.

Today was Pommes Frites. I had it before with some awesome eggplant mayo but H1 and Aims never had it before, so off we went and actually got a seat there.

Aims went with the sweet mango chutney mayo, H1 with the garlic mayo, Beetchie with the poutine and I with boring blue cheese as I didn't really see the board and made a hasty decision. Don't judge me.







Next, Beetchie and I went off to Toy Tokyo because we're addicts and it's right next to Pommes Frites. There were hardly any TokiDoki pups left for us to choose some so instead we picked dangerous zipper pull toys.

Beetchie blames it on H1 but our luck was not that great. We both got the same dangerous zipper pullie. I wanted either the brass knuckles, knife or razor blade but got a neon orange grenade. Beetchie got the same in a normal green. Who's going to believe that my zipper's dangerous with a neon orange grenade? Do such things exist?

Then I tried to do BooHead a kindness by getting a WALL.E capsule toy and got the famous Umbrella Robot. Wha'? Yeah, I don't even remember there BEING an umbrella robot in that movie though I guess the only place it could possibly have been in was featured as a member of the misfit rehab robots.

Cursing my ill luck, I gave the money to Beetchie to try her hand...and out popped a second umbrella robot. The doubles luck was unappreciated.

Snarky Toy Tokyo workers was also unappreciated - don't talk to me like I don't know what I want in Bleach toys, asses. I don't want series 3, 5 or 1. Series 6 or nothing. Ah well. They were kind of funny in a "I could smack them" sort of way.

After our failures at Toy Tokyo we trooped for some gelato which made my hands super dirty and 'bloody' like, took pictures of some peculiar buildings and the cube (have I never done that before?!), went to beard papa and then home.





Before I forget though, I wonder how long it took for a. the tape I stuck to Beetchie's jacket without her knowing, to fall off or b. did she not realise at all and went out like that later that night? It looked like it was coming off when she was leaving the subway.

Hmmm.



Aims showed us the coolest thing at Grand Central which we have to remember to show CLee when he comes up next year for the Toy Story 3 premiere in June...for 5 weeks again!

We had fun times and H1 has decided that we will try to do this at least once or twice a month because we don't explore NYC enough as we should.

While creepy, H1 and I saw dirty carney hand prints on the glass on the train. H1 found it very coinky dinky like that it JUST so happened that my tiny carney hands were also dirty and that I too, was traveling on the same train as the prints.

Curious?

Hmmm.



Currently listening to: "Alex Descends Into Hell for a Bottle of Milk/Korova I" by U2. Wha'?

Jasmart's Often Hilarious, But Was Super More So This Time Around: Adventures of the St. Mark's Kind, Part II

The Japanese are always rather funny. They're so animated, it's fun.

It's a thing Beetchie and I do - we always have to try something new at the JasMart (Japanese Supermarket), whether that be a drink or a snack.

Well, we were rather full so we didn't get anything but an iced tea which turned out to be an iced coffee (I was ppiiiisssseed).

The other thing we got was some good laughs.

For instance,



Sephiroth hair! I always wanted Sephiroth hair of my own or some sort of boy with white/silver anime hair...and I've found him! Modelling hair products...for Gatsby...of Japan? Hm. At least now I know I can always find someone and get the silver from this place. Or alternately, wait for Sephiroth to materialize.

There's this thing that cracked Beetchie up, in two varieties!





The stick cut Baumkuchen and round style. We still have no idea what it is and were too full to find out. Perhaps next time.

I found something for H1...look, H1! Your favourite!



Um, I'm continued to be plagued by hip parades and shiny asses courtesy of the Japanese:



And H1, Beetchie says this is you:



Deal with her.

Redeeming Our Good Name at Kenka: Adventures of the St. Marks Kind, Part I

Last Saturday was a good day.

Last August, around the 13th was not.

It was fun times seeing Beetchie (Yay! Summer break!) and she successfully completed her 2nd full year at Vet School.

In fact, Beetchie and I had a pretty great meal and an afternoon/evening full of...no misadventures.

It sounds very suspect and we're just hoping that no build of negative energy is trying to happen again like that day in June back in 2006 when the bakery in Brooklyn exploded.

We went to Barnes and Noble, Pet Co., Kenka, Toy Tokyo and got cream puffs from Beard Papa.

It's all the great things we usually do when we hang out at Union Square and St. Marks.

Of course, Kenka was involved and I am pleased to report that a repeat of the Taro and Raw Squid Incident did not occur.

Thank goodness for that.

We started out with the Angler Liver.



For me, it was a little bit too strong on the fishy-ness but add some garlic and even the not-so-scallion-tasting scallion and it was amazing. It was very smooth.
Beetchie rather enjoyed it on first bite and even more so when she later discovered that we did the Angler an unkindness by eating it. We were unaware that it is on a Watch List...trying to be protected from the Japanese. Of course, the Japanese. And us.

Next we had Neck of Yellowtail which was quite good. Beetchie had fun with the fatty bits on the bone.



Grilled beef intestines are always yummy times and this set was extra so because it was quite laden with the seasoning that just stuck to it.



The Kimchee Udon was a little bit of a disappointment but not like the disappointment to come but still, I like udon so I was okay with it and then Beetchie gave me like the only bit of fatty pork in there because she hearts me:



We sat around hungry and ordered more.

Knowing fully well that this is always a bad idea, we sat around and became less hungry.

When those two dishes came, well it was over for us.

It also was not cool that Kenka put cheese spring rolls on the menu and when they came out, they were tiny bits of fried spring roll skin wrapped around as Beetchie called it, string cheese:



And then! How could one go wrong with fried pork on a stick, right? Somehow, that managed to be bad. I was already full but sticking very-much-tasting-like-a-killer-onion onion in between the tonkatsu...HIDDEN, in the tonkatsu will do me in. And it did:



So, we may have gotten a little over confident by our successes and then got effed over but we still had a pretty good meal and it was not near a total loss.

Beetchie and I even got new T-shirts! The staff (all changed...wha'?) were wearing new company shirts that were so cool that we had to get some too.

Luckily for us, they do in fact sell their shirts and also, our little Japanese guy assured us that it did not say "I am an asshole" on it.

We'll see if that's the truth if we wear it in Tokyo sometime and we get whispered and "oho ho ho ho'd" about.

Oh yeah, and it's becoming a regular thing but my cotton candy was bigger than Beetchie's again.

Memorable Quote of the Evening:

While eating my cotton candy, man on street says to me: It's still not better than Coney Island.

Well, really I don't know what he was talking about because a. it was grape flavoured and b. there is no more Coney Island. Bwahahahaha.

Update: Scrap the talk of no misadventure! Apparently, Union Square was full of bees! You know what means, they followed us... let us not speak of this to anyone.

From 1010wins.com:

May 24, 10:47 AM EDT

Buzz off! Bee swarm traps workers in NY game store

NEW YORK (AP) -- Thousands of bees swarmed outside a New York City game store, trapping employees inside for hours.

Worried employees looked out the window of the Manhattan store while talking on the phone as the bees clustered Saturday afternoon. A sign in the window warned: "Look! ... closed due to bee infestation."

Most passers-by avoided the GameStop store near Union Square, one of the city's busiest shopping areas. But Edward Albers tried to help. Dressed in regular clothes, he lured many bees into a box without getting stung.

Eventually, police bee specialist Tony Planakis arrived in protective gear and used the scent of a queen bee to collect the rest of them.

The store has reopened. The bees are being taken to hives upstate.

And Then to be Hated on by Everyone: St. Mark's Misadventures II

After stumbling crankily out of Kenka with the bite-sized cotton candy, Beetchie and I went down the street to Toy Tokyo.

I can't tell you if there was ever time during my trips to Toy Tokyo that I was underwhelmed and walked out of there toy less. My continued hunt for D. Gray-Man paraphernalia once again turned fruitless. Additionally, Beetchie reached for an item up on a shelf and it hit another one diagonally from it and it came down with this huge thud on her head, braced by her arm. The store clerk asked us, "are you okay?" and was clearly annoyed. It would not be the first time he was annoyed because she knocked over two other items after that, with the second being right in front of him. At least the first time he couldn't see us even though the ruckus was loud. He must have thought we were drunk but it was only due to the fact that Beetchie was lugging her Guitar Hero guitar in one hand and umbrella in the other.



We stumbled crankily out of Toy Tokyo to our next destination: Paul's. A Burger Joint with some serious heart attack dishes, Paul's was packed and lively. That place was so much all about the meat that I took a picture of a fixture on the counter. How great is that cow with a baby cow for a cowbell? H1 was still at work, so we went there to get her some meat. While the burgers looked good, we couldn't quite decide what to get so we asked a guy (presumably Paul) what was good. He responded bitchly that everything was. Okay. Thanks for the help Paul. It's not so much that he was an asshole but he was kind of abrasive. That's just the kind of people they were though, funny but rough. I couldn't get a picture of one of the signs to show for the attitude but it said, "If you leave your kids unattended, we will sell them into slavery". Maybe that's not terribly funny but it is terribly wrong (and slightly amusing - in a wrong kind of way). We watched Olympics while I waited for my expensive assed burger. It did taste great though and I would like to visit there again to have a fresh burger.

On to the street we stumbled less crankily to go visit the Dessert Truck. Unlike the Treats Truck in Midtown, this one sells only about 6 desserts at the whopping expensive price of $5.00 a piece. Clearly not learning my damned lesson at Kenka, I opted to try the Goat Cheese Cheesecake, while Beetchie chose a good choice (you know I love me some custard) safety net, Creme Brulee.

When asked what was the goat cheese cheesecake like, we got a bitchy response of, "like goat cheese". Man, he was one bitchy gay man but then he explained something to us which I didn't hear. All I heard was black berries and pistachio but missed the 'other thing'.



It was that 'other thing' that I didn't care for. Beetchie and H1 think it was a guava flavoured sauce, which is probably why I've blocked that taste from memory and couldn't pin point it even though it was familiar. I'm not a fan of guava. It wasn't a horrible dessert but it's not something I loved at all. At least H1 liked it and Beetchie kind of liked it.
Thank goodness for safety nets.



Right after we ordered and were awaiting our desserts (including some great times chocolate bread pudding for Momma HOchie), this couple stepped up to order. A girl next to us interjected that she had been waiting there. She said it kind of quietly, so in case the people didn't hear her, Beetchie and I kindly told them that the girl was waiting. Then she says, "I was actually waiting before those two as well (indicating that she was waiting before us)". Well what the fuck girl. We didn't even SEE you there, nor did that couple and if the guy in the truck motioned for us to order next then we thought he knew all about his line.



Pissed off, we headed for a seat to eat our desserts. An open patio for Starbucks paying customers was nearby, so we stumbled there and sat down. Soon after, a barista came out and yelled at this couple to inform them that they had to buy to sit and then did the same to us. She was well nasty to us. We'd be damned if we'd pay for a cup of coffee just to sit down amongst privileged assholes who had nothing better to do. We took our leave but not before shouting to each other that what that Starbucks needed was "to be closed like the rest of them". I won't call it wrong and strong because I don't like to ignore rules and was actually considering going in there to buy some water but after being nastily spoken to, eff them and their effin' assness.

We took our crankiness to the Cube or "public property" as Beetchie said, and sat under it to eat. It was peaceful save my complaints about the goat cheese for all of two minutes until shady buisness started going down. Two idiots decided they would skateboard in the middle of the street. It'd be one thing if they could skateboard but they couldn't. At all. I couldn't understand why they wouldn't want to do that in the park where no one could see them. One of them threw his bag of shade next to a sign on the sidewalk and left it there. I was half expecting a bomb in that H&M bag.

It was after dessert and on our way out that disaster number 'too many to count' happened and it involved our worst kind - physical injury. Beetchie got up and knocked the back of her head on an edge of the Cube. It was hard and I was worried about her to the point of asking her if she needed to go to the hospital. She assured me she was okay and I guess she was fine because one of the 'skateboarding' idiots almost hit her when his skateboard came flying towards her and she gave him the evils. It wasn't quite the evils she could give, so I was still concerned she was not that well.

Really stumbling now because of a horrible headache, we stomped angrily off to Barnes and Noble only discover the place was locked up tight as if it was raided for drugs. Next was Beard Papa's for cream puffs. Of course, with our horrid evening in tow, the Tuesday Special was Mocha Puffs and not Pumpkin as I wanted which was on Thursdays. Ugh. And to think I chose to go to St. Mark's on Tuesday instead of Thursday which was what I was going to do.

Not much else happened that night - we went to Gamespot to discover that was also locked up tight even though the lights were on and employees were in there, then we went to Union Square to catch our respective trains back to the office for me and home for B. We saw the lamest break dancers there, and sadly watched each other from our platforms.

We attribute the misadventures to a number of factors.

2. She'll be away for a few months, so all misadventures that would have happened merely covered the bases in one shot.

1. It was a build up of Misadventure Energy. For the entire summer that Beetchie's been back, we've not been out alone together without there being some sort of buffer. We always ended up going out with at least one person present. Everyone knows at least 1 thing will happen when we're together.

Even though disaster occurred during every event that night and people were assholes to us every where we went, it was good to see Beetchie. She's currently back in Grenada as I type this but I'll see her again soon and it'll be Christmas, so we'll have tons of fun.

The time will fly quickly and before long, more misadventures will be had together.

Currently listening to: "The World Has Turned and Left Me Here" by Weezer.

Let's Go Back...To The Before Time

As in September 24th, 2005. Don't worry, it's not that far back. I'd like to recall some good times that happened the week leading up to October. Seeing Corpse Bride with my friend Beetchie. The movie itself was alright. It wasn't of the "Nightmare Before Christmas" variety/quality storywise but animation wise, well...We don't expect anything but greatness.

Good times, I believe I said. I'm getting to that right now. Beetchie and I went to St. Mark's right after the movie. We strolled over there from Union Square and found ourselves in the most hideous, boring street fair. We talked about her three week adventure in Europe this past August. The bottomline: Spain is full of thieves. Germany is full of fleas.

Then we milled around the Japanese grocery trying to decide to buy one item neither of us had tried. There were lots and we felt a little overwhelmed but finally we agreed on a strawberry type pancake thing. It was decent but meh, I think we've had better.

Then we stormed Toy Tokyo. And I will storm it again sometime soon, mark my words! We had fun and we bought tons of Gloomy Bear things (hence the picture at the beginning of this post)...Postcards and toys. I love the dead white boy. I know it's wrong. I know. I'm sorry. Truly.
We were having a hard time finding Luigi paraphernalia for Beetchie to have signed by the man himself - Shigeru Miyamoto san. For those of you who don't know and I'm sure there are many though it's not right. He is the creator of such legendary Nintendo games as...Wait for it. The Legend of Zelda (ooooo....ahhh), Mario and Donkey Kong. To put it this way: he's often described as the spielberg of video games.

The signing was on the day after and Beetchie and I had every intention of going early on the day of the signing to line up. However, after overhearing our conversation about looking for Luigi, a patron of Toy Tokyo approached us and said, "oh, you guys are going to the signing by Miyamoto tomorrow, right? You should probably go soon. My friends are already lining up there." What? No...

So with this in mind we traipsed some more in St. Mark's on a hunt for Luigi (Toy Tokyo can give us Yoshi and even stinkin' Toad but not Luigi...Poor thing, he gets no respect). We came up zilch. I was sorely disappointed to see that a mario pocketgame which I rocked as a kid back in Trinidad (and no longer had in my possession) was being sold in this vintage videogame shop for 129 dollars.

We then went to Kenka - this funky Japanese restaurant in St. Mark's which Beetchie fondly refers to as "the one with the raccoon with the big balls and red glowing eyes out front". It was quite good. Next victim...uhh, friend who comes around, they're coming with.
Dinner was followed by cream puffs are too good for me to talk about right now because it makes me sad that I don't have one to stuff into my mouth right now...
After the ...Dessert...Yes, dessert...We made our way to midtown to scope the situation with the Nintendo store. When we got there at 8.30 pm - like the guy said, people were waiting. People had been waiting from as early as 7 a.m. Freaks.

So what do we do? We became freaks too and camped out! Securing spots 46 and 47 in line was good times and thank goodness we didn't give it up considering when we left after the signing over 1,000 people were waiting to see the Man and he was supposed to do only 200 signings. So yes, I became a 48th & 5th Avenue Ho. Sleeping (using the term lightly because at most I got only 30 minutes of sleep before an idiot whose name was ironically Isaiah started preaching about the Zelda series) on the street next to my good friend and some random kid from NJ.

With no Luigi to have signed, Beetchie opted for the only worthy thing at the stupid Nintendo store - a 1UP Mushroom t-shirt. I bought a copy of "The Wind Waker" as backup. But thanks to the other awesome HOchie - my little figure of Link was brought to me the next morning. I happily went with him to the signing. Fiddling in front of the Man who was wondering what the hell I was going to give him to sign since I had nothing in my hand and finally fishing little Kujaseph (that's a gross misuse of a name to give Link, I know) out of my pocket to have signed. I gingerly put him on the table in front of Miyamoto san and Link unceremoniously decided to throw himself down. Miyamoto balanced him and started signing away but could not give me his English/Japanese signature. Instead I got it in Japanese and I was confused as to why the Man was drawing on Link's little green hat. Oh, and I was laughed at when I brought Link out of my pocket...either because a/ Miyamoto thought I was cute or b/Miyamoto thought me an idiot. I suspected the latter so I had to research the internet to ensure he actually signed his name and not 'To Idiot" on it.

After being on the street and dirty for so long, Beetchie and I wandered angrily (thanks to the messed up subway runnings and that thanks to the damned yankees game and ha, they're not in the w series anyway...muwahahaha) over to her Aunt's sushi restaurant for some good time lunch. Unfortunately I was not very hungry so I could only manage one roll but it involved soft shelled crab and eel. What was really good was that lychee iced tea. Mmmmmm.
Ok, so finally after being on the street and dirty and in a sushi restaurant and dirty we parted ways and I went home. Took a shower. Came out smelling like 5th Avenue as opposed to 48th & 5th. Went to bed soon after...went to work the day after. Was persecuted for my insanity. Came home. Got incredibly ill. Stayed home for two days due to the cold I mostly likely got from the random NJ kid who sat next to me on the street. Went back to work...still ill but had no more days to spare. But it was still worth it!

October 1st: It's Saturday!!!! And I was taken to dinner by the family and it was awesome. Ah, good times...good times.

Goo'day.

Music currently playing: "Everyone's a Little Bit Racist" by The Cast of Avenue Q.