October 2005 Archives

I love Grey Dog's Coffee, I really do, but I wish they'd lay off the Lilith Fair music in the morning.  It pains me to be reminded before I've had my morning coffee that while I have to go be a day laborer at the cubicle farm, some crunchy nugget gets to make her living warbling about how she moved to Florida when she was eighteen.  Where is the justice?

Since I'm only there for breakfast, I'm only reviewing breakfast.  Banana blueberry bran muffin is righteous and raisin-less.  Their coffee cake is crumby and sweet with a light tang -- what is that, sour cream in there?  Mixed berry scones are buttery and shortcake like, with a juicy berry center that sometimes renders the surrounding dough wet and undercooked.  Their namesake not-acidic, tasty coffee can come with regular soy or vanilla soy, as well as your standard milk varietals.  Heavy traffic and friendly but not-in-a-rush baristas mean you shouldn't plan on grabbing your coffee at 8:25 if you've got a 8:30 meeting (*ahem*).  The egg on croissant is, unfortunately, a firm-cooked omelet-style slab of egg, so if you prefer your egg sandwiches over easy (like I do), you have to special order.  And if you're cool like Mary Karr in The Liar's Club, you can tell them to "flip 'em over and stomp on 'em."

Grey Dog's Coffee
33 Carmine St.
between Bedford & Bleecker St           
212-462-0041

B, D, F, V, A, C, E to West 4th St.

You talked about going to San Sebastian in September. It is fall now. You will have stories to cover--1-star restaurants, celebrities who eat, celebrities who eat at 1-star restaurants. Out East, where you vacation, the truffles will already be turning.  They turn in clusters, because their spores connect them.  Come back to work---and life. Until then, you will remain in my thoughts and prayers.

Some recent searches which led questing googlers to my humble website:

• undo freezer burn chicken
• "tasti d-lite" + "indigestion"
• moo shy pork recipe
• are green moldy looking areas normal inside a white rind pumpkin

Name: Shannon Darrough

Occupation: Designer

Borough: Manhattan

What did you eat today?

Breakfast: coffee
Lunch: One of those salads where you pick what you like. At Cafe Metro near my work on 52nd and 5th they have a deal where it's $7 for unlimited toppings (don't forget that you have to limit yourself to only 1 meat and 3 cheeses) so I got a spinach salad with albacore tuna, raisins, roasted almonds, corn, avocado, cheery tomatoes, kidney beans, croutons, cucumbers, olive oil, balsamic vinaeger, salt, and pepper. I know I've forgotten a few. The thing weighed a pound.
Dinner: Sat at the bar at Amuse and had a turkey burger with fries and a bellini martini (vodka, peach nectar, champagne). Two bellinis. Yum.

What do you never eat?

Beef. I gave it up a few years ago. When I lived in San Francisco, I used to have an out clause that allowed for In-N-Out burgers but I gradually began to dislike the taste. I also steer clear of strong, stinky, multi-colored cheeses.

Complete this sentence: In my refrigerator, you can always find:

Limes.

What is your favorite kitchen item?

My lime-squeezer from Williams-Sonoma.  I also love our global knives. Great for cutting limes.

Where do you eat out most frequently?

The single sit-down restaurant I find myself at most is L'Annan on 28th or 3rd. My mom and I probably probably eat there once a month (she lives a block south). Spice on 21st and 8th might be a contender also.

World ends tomorrow. What would you like for your last meal?

I'll be completely unrealistic and create a "food orgy" made up of my all-time favorite foods and dishes.

A handful of pistachios
A few shiso leaves to nibble on between courses
Green papaya salad
Fresh Japanese tofu with soy sauce and bonito flakes
Bolet mushroom terrine from Les Jardins des Sens
Souvlaki (on pita) from the local corner taverna in Pefki
Okonomiyaki from cute little okonomiyaki hut in Sangenjaya
Al Pastor burrito from Balazo on Haight Street (with lettuce)
Lamb chops from Slanted Door
Chicken tikka from Bengal Village in Shoreditch
Rainbow roll from Osaka on Castro
Tonkotsu ramen from Men Kui Tei in midtown
My grandma's chocolate chip cookies
Fresh mango
Pocky candy (the original kind)

As for drinks, I'd start with a margarita (my own), move to a Montrachet, end with a Sauterne.

No, it's not a very harmonious smorgasbord.

Shannon's website is fancier than yours.

I got my left eye lasered today.  I'm laying off the computer this weekend.  Tomorrow you'll get a new You Are What You Eat.  Then me and Left-Eye (heh heh) will return for more on Monday.  Happy eating, and go see your optometrist!

I saw a friend tonight who was feeling a little under the weather.  I suggested my favorite cold weather cure-all, ginger tea with lemon and honey.  I believe wholeheartedly in its preventative and restorative powers.  It sounded so good that I had to come home and brew some for myself. 

Ginger Tea with Lemon and Honey

1.  Thinly slice a 2x3 inch piece of ginger lengthwise.  Or, if you like your tea extra spicy and warming, add more. I like a good 2x5 inch piece to really heat up my esophagus.

2.  Add to a pot with 2 cups of cold spring water.  Bring your pot up to a boil, then simmer.

3.  Meanwhile, extract the pulp wedges from half a lemon by cutting into the lemon half in a circle with a paring knife, then cutting along the membrane in each section, the way you would with a grapefruit.  De-pip (pip pip!) your pulp and place it into your teapot, thermos, or extra large mug.  Squeeze in the remaining juice from the lemon half.

4.  Add a generous tablespoon (or more) of your favorite honey to the lemon, preferably local honey.

5.  Strain the ginger tea into your lemon pulp honey mixture.  Serve hot to sickies and healthies. 

Squashes threatening colds and soothes tickly throats.  Also makes you feel like you ate Vicks Vaporub, which is a very good thing, if you ask me.

[November 2003.  My uncle's cement house behind the province jail in the Northeast region of Thailand.  My AUNT, my cutie-pie, America-fascinated 14 year-old cousin FON and I are sitting on the floor of the main room.  Translated from Thai.]

AUNT: [examining me, clucking] How does a person get to be so fat?

FON: Mae!  She's not fat!  She's just American! [Turning to me] Right?  You're normal in America, right?

ME: [laughing] Yeah, I guess you're right.

[Phone conversation with my Pau.  We are discussing his brother/my uncle's recent double bypass surgery.]

PAU: You know what they do in the open heart surgery?  They open up the chess bones, you know, what you call?

ME: The sternum?

PAU: No, not the sternum...it's the see'krong.  You know what a see'krong is?  It's a...sparerib!  They cut open the sparerib.

ME:  Pau, they're called RIBS in people.

Name: Sirion Skulpone

Occupation: Research Analyst

Borough: Manhattan

What did you eat today?

Breakfast: cottage cheese and a pear & a cup of Tetley's English breakfast tea; Snack: Dannon Light n Fit smoothie in peach passion fruit and a banana; Lunch: Boca cheeseburger on multi-grain english muffin with spinach and tomato; Snack: Laughing Cow light cheese on Kavli 7 grain crackers and an apple; Dinner: Baked chicken breast with onion and baby creamer potatoes in broth, garlic, and lemon juice & white rice; Dessert: leftovers from my boyfriend's birthday cake (yellow cake with vanilla buttercream frosting).   

What do you never eat?

Tripe.  Even thinking about it makes me break out in hives.

Complete this sentence: In my refrigerator, you can always find:

Land O Lakes nonfat half and half, Dannon Light and Fit Smoothies [What the hell is nonfat half and half made of? You are a much more trusting eater than I.  --Ed.]

What is your favorite kitchen item?

My mortar and pestle which I use to mash up garlic for my mom's garlic shrimp recipe and pretty much everything else I know how to cook.

Where do you eat out most frequently? Saigon Grill

World ends tomorrow.  What would you like for your last meal?

Comfort food, which to me is my mom's home cooking. 
Tom kha gai (chicken coconut galangal soup)
Kanom Jeeb (dumplings)
garlic shrimp
Rex sole with celery in salty bean sauce
garlic pepper pork
thai basil pork
cabbage soup with pork
khao-tom (rice porridge) with bacon
mussamun curry with beef
white rice
for dessert, Viennetta or Ben and Jerry's Heath Bar toffee crunch

It's a big meal but I think I could do it!

Sirion is my one blood relation in New York City.  Of all the kids in the clan, she is the "Successful One", allowing a liberal arts jerk-off like me the freedom to be the "Slacker One" -- for that I am forever grateful.  Don't mess with her or all 182 of her globally positioned first cousins (yours truly included) will rain down on you like a muay thai monsoon.

[After a Vietnamese pho dinner at Nam Son by the Grand St. station, DOUG and I ride the packed D train home at about 8:00 p.m. on Monday night. We each have one earbud headphone in and are listening to the Shins loudly on DOUG's iPod.  We are also reading this week's Tables for Two review of Maremma in the New Yorker.]

DOUG:  I could not eat rocky mountain oysters.  As a man, I just couldn't do it.

ME: Really?  Someone once told me those beef balls in pho were testicles, so I really think I could make the leap, mentally.

[Pause]

Wait, am I talking really loud right now?