Filed under: Go, Laugh | Tags: Belize, ceviche, chicken drop, conch, San Pedro, scuba diving, sharks, snorkeling, spearfishing
Since I began traveling in January, a lot has transpired. Here’s a brief overview:
I got swindled by a super-friendly taxi man in Mexico and now I don’t trust anyone who is too nice to me. I had a delicious chicken tostada in Tulum. I saw the most breathtaking ruin site in Tulum – sweeping Mayan ruins overlooking the Carribbean sea. In San Pedro, I had my first cherry bomb (maraschino cherries soaked for a week in 151). I went to a reggae bar and made friends w/Belizean rastafari in Caye Caulker. I got certified in scuba diving after hardcore panicking the first time I went underwater in six feet of water (I thought I was going to die). I have to sing “Under the Sea” from The Little Mermaid to calm myself down before every descent. I swam with a whole bunch of brightly colored fish, a sea hare (sea slug – it squirted purple ink at me!), an electric green moray eel, a barracuda, a reef shark, and a nurse shark. I went line fishing and used sardines as bait and caught the snapper we later ate for dinner. I got an official job offer from the company I interviewed with before I left. I got stranded really far from our hotel in San Pedro and hitched a ride on the back of a golf cart. They only have golf carts and ATVs here. What did the hurricane say to the coconut? -Hold onto your nuts; this ain’t gonna be no ordinary blow job. I’ve gone to sleep every night but three (including tonight) by 11 so I could wake up by 7 or earlier to dive. My first post-cert dive was to 130 feet at the Blue Hole, which is kind of a big deal. I’m still in Belize on San Pedro. I meant to leave earlier this week, but then I started diving and the locals have been so nice… It’s just been hard to say goodbye. Yesterday I dove for conch, broke open the shells, cut the adductor muscle, and made fresh conch ceviche. The conch tasted sweet like Maine lobster with the texture of surf clam. So delicious. Also, went spearfishing and fed nurse sharks with my hands from a boat (after petting them and swimming with 7 of them and a giant spotted eagle ray and a sea turtle with only 3 flippers). We also participated in a Chicken Drop last night. It’s this spectacle where there’s a giant Bingo board with numbers all over it from 1 to 100. You buy tickets to draw a number, and once every number is sold, they drop a chicken on the board and wait for it to poop on a number. (They have backup chickens in case the chickens are constipated.) You have to prep the chicken by shaking it and swirling it around so its bowels get agitated. I blew on a rooster’s anus. (Never thought I’d say that in my lifetime.) I was planning to leave San Pedro today, but couldn’t do it. It’s just too perfect here. No wonder Madonna wrote a song about La Isla Bonita. Spent today relaxing and heading to some tiny island with some locals and a new diving friend. Then tomorrow, it’s off to Guatemala by bus (20 hours of bus travel ahead – yay! NOT.)
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Filed under: Go
Greetings from Caye Caulker! Will be abroad in Central America for several weeks. Quitting one’s job does have advantages. Check back in a few and I’ll try to have something up between the Yucatan peninsula, Belize, Honduras and Guatemala.
Filed under: Drink, Go | Tags: Australia Day, Australian, Bondi Road, cheap, Dub Pies, free, holidays, lamingtons, meat pie, NYC, Queensland flood relief, Sunburnt Calf, Sunburnt Cow
It’s January. It’s snowy, slushy, and miserable in New York. But you know where it’s not cold right now? Australia. And since Australia Day is coming up this Wednesday on January 26th, you can plan your escape from this NYC winter (staycation!) and pretend you’re partying down under in warmth and sunshine while doing a good deed.
Australia Day is the Australian national holiday commemorating the arrival of the eleven British ships comprising the First Fleet at Sydney Cove in 1788. In Australia, I understand it is a day of boozy mayhem (I say that in the best possible way). You, too, can participate in this boozy mayhem with hordes of impossibly good looking Aussies at any of Australian-themed sister restaurants The Sunburnt Cow (East Village/Alphabet City), The Sunburnt Calf (UWS), or Bondi Road (LES). (Side note: have you SEEN the bartenders and wait staff at these places? What is in the water over there?! And such cute accents. Hubba hubba.)
You may have heard about the widespread flash flooding in Queensland that has been wreaking havoc since Christmas, resulting in evacuations, damaged property, and a state of crisis. This Wednesday, a $2 entry fee will be taken as a donation to the relief and cleanup efforts in Queensland. So then you can reward yourself for being a kind and caring person by guzzling drinks and snacking on free meat pies and lamingtons from Dub Pies in Brooklyn. Doors open at NOON! Specials include $5 milk bar menu items, $20 all-you-can-drink well drinks for 2 hours, or $30 for premium all-you-can-drink madness for 2 hours.
In case you feel like being the Aussie Martha Stewart one afternoon, here’s a recipe for lamingtons for you to try at home.
Party like you’re Australian:
- Sunburnt Cow (EV) 137 Avenue C at 10th St.
- Bondi Road (LES) 153 Rivington between Clinton and Suffolk
- Sunburnt Calf (UWS) 226 W. 79th St. between Broadway and Amsterdam
Filed under: Drink, Go | Tags: Aerolatte, apple cider, bourbon, cocktails, Elsa, hot alcoholic drinks, hot chocolate, hot cocoa, Huckleberry Bar, Ibarra, Irish Car Bomb, Jameson, Mexican, Mexican hot chocolate, Sidewalk, Summit Bar, The Redhead, whiskey
Happy New Year, everyone! Hope you all had fun-filled holiday festivities full of friends, family, and food.
Judging by my site stats, it looks like everyone’s been on the prowl for some warming winter cocktails as of late. I’m with you. I’ve been buying apple cider in mass quantities at Whole Foods and heating the cider with cinnamon and whole cloves before pouring mugs of the stuff and adding shots of Captain Morgan’s or Wild Turkey and topping with whipped cream and a dusting of ground cinnamon. And sure, while it’s fun to make yourself some hot drinks at home, sometimes you want just a little something extra, and you’d rather pay someone else to make it for you. It’s time to update my “Hot Alcoholic Drinks to Keep You Warm in the NYC Cold” post, so I have been doing extensive, ahem, research for you New Yorkers. I know. It’s a tough job, but someone’s gotta do it.
After the blizzard aka Snowpocalypse or Snowmageddon 2010, it seems like pretty much every bar with a chalkboard is offering your standard hot toddies and such. Maybe Usher was onto something. I haven’t been able to try every hot boozy beverage in the city, but I have tried a few, and I can comfortably recommend the following bars/drinks without hesitation:
Summit Bar (Alphabet City): The Road Well Traveled, Driving Ms. Davies (cold), Like Water for Chocolate (???)
How did this warm, sexy bar go unnoticed (by me) for so long? I’d walked by it several times thinking it’d be just like any other East Village bar, but I was wrong, because partners Hamid and Seider are two of the coolest cats around. Case in point? Like Water for Chocolate. (More on that later.) I liked the three separate bar islands, the eclectic sightly mismatched track lighting and chandeliers, and the long expanse of exposed brick punctuated with small walls of richly patterned wallpaper. There are a couple of couches for limited group seating, and we’d recommend arriving early as the place fills up around 11/midnight. I showed up on Thursday night around 9 with a friend and ordered their holiday punch, The Road Well Traveled ($12?), a hot brew of spiced apple cider with bourbon, walnut liqueur, cinnamon agave, lemon juice, and chipotle powder. It was kept in one of those metal soup warmers, and I was concerned that the alcohol might evaporate since it had already been added to the mix, but they maintain the temperature at a warm but not boiling temperature so fear not, the alcohol is very much present. We also ordered the Driving Ms. Davies ($12), a cold winter cocktail served with Templetown rye, gingerbread syrup, cardamom infused agave, and orange and whisky barrel bitters. I was especially impressed with the ice cube. Yes, singular. Ice cube. A large, single 2×2 ice cube from a special ice cube mold designed to cool your beverage with minimal dilution.
The attention to detail here is impeccable. I started chatting with Hamid about my quest to find a proper (spiked) Mexican hot chocolate with my friend the day after the blizzard, and he mentioned the movie Like Water for Chocolate wherein Tita whips up a chocolate mole sauce so full of passionfor her lover Pedro that it incites in her guests all sorts of amorous urges. I told him I wanted that, but in hot chocolate form. Hamid introduced me to his partner Seider – a mixology savant with a culinary background – who was also intrigued. Moments later, they sent someone out to pick up some whole milk and Lindt dark chocolate. I like to call the drink Seider concocted that night Like Water for Chocolate, but it may very well never make its way onto the Summit Bar menu, living only in my memory and in urban legend as the best boozy hot chocolate in New York City. There were three layers there: one layer of dark chocolate melted with a little milk, having the consistency of drinking chocolate; another layer of whipped milk with gingerbread sugar, cinnamon, chipotle pepper powder, and sea salt; and finally the addition of Ilegal Reposado mezcal tequila – smoky and spicy, but still smooth. And he just threw that ish together, just like that. Color me impressed, Greg Seider. Duly impressed. I’m coming to Summit Bar with some chocolate bars and milk in hand this week. See you again soon! Winter hours: Sun-Wed 5:30 pm to 3 am, Thurs-Sat 5:30 pm to 4 am.
The Summit Bar, 133 Avenues C between 8th St. and 9th St.; no phone – e-mail thesummitbar@gmail.com.
Elsa (Alphabet City): Sweet Potato Cider, Cortez the Killer, Elsa’s Toddy
Elsa is my favorite under-the-radar neighborhood cocktail lounge (it’s a little closer to me than Summit Bar, and those 5 extra blocks do make a difference). If a guy were to take me here on a date (without my suggesting it), he’d be one step closer to another date. Elsa has a sweet, faux speakeasy vibe with its white parquet walls, cozy tables and booths, and soft but not dark lighting. After all, you do want to be able to see your date, don’t you? Here, you have three choices of hot booze. The Sweet Potato Cider ($12) is filling, but incredibly satisfying. Made with hot organic apple cider, Jack Daniels, a housemade sweet potato puree, and spices (likely cloves and cinnamon), it tastes like a cross between sweet potato pie and apple cider with a hint of whiskey. I’d recommend this if you are drinking on an empty(ish) stomach, as it drinks like a meal. If you’re in the mood for a spicy Mexican hot chocolate, get Cortez the Killer ($13), which is made with Mast Brothers hot chocolate, ancho chilies, and silver tequila. If you like some tea with your whiskey, you can’t go wrong with the Elsa’s Toddy ($10), which is generously spiked with rye whiskey, lemon, maple syrup, and, surprisingly, mint. Also a bonus: they actually take reservations for Sunday through Thursday.
Elsa, 217 East 3rd Street (between Avenues B and C); 917-882-7395.
Sidewalk Cafe and Bar (Alphabet City/East Village): Makers Hot Toddy, Peppermint Patty, Apple Jack
You get your choice between three hot drinks at this unassuming Avenue A bar (attached to the Sidewalk Cafe), and each hot drink is $10. The Makers Hot Toddy is made with Makers (duh) Mark bourbon, hot tea, lemon, honey, and cinnamon. I’m not sure if it’s because I went in the day after the blizzard or what, but this was one of the best hot toddies I’ve had in my life, and I’ve had a few. Strongly recommended. Also delicious is the Peppermint Patty, a hot chocolate fortified with Stoli vanilla vodka, peppermint schnapps, and topped with a bit of whipped cream. It’s sweet, and you can barely taste any booze, so this is the best choice at Sidewalk for non-whiskey drinkers. The Apple Jack is a hot apple cider spiked with Jack Daniels and sprinkled with cinnamon. Sidewalk is open 24 hours on the weekends and until 2 am on Sunday nights and until 4 am on Monday through Thursday nights. When you walk in, you feel like you’ve walked into a bar. Nothing more, nothing less. Of note: is one of the live music venues that launched antifolk superstar Regina Spektor. Two-for-one happy hour daily 2-8 pm, though I don’t recall that we were given a second drink when we went in around 4 on Monday afternoon. Pint and any shot for $9 after 8PM. Rumored to have an all-day-long happy hour at the bar on Tuesdays and Sundays.
Sidewalk Cafe and Bar, 94 Avenue A at 6th St.; (212) 473-7373.
The Redhead (East Village): Hot Chocolate Car Bomb
I just saw the Hot Chocolate Car Bomb featured in the Serious Eats Best Winter Cocktails slideshow and nearly choked on my coffee. You will find me at the Redhead very soon to try out the hot cocoa laced with Jameson, Guiness, and topped with Bailey’s Irish Cream marshmallow fluff. Irish car bombs: not just for the violently drunk on St. Patrick’s Day anymore.
The Redhead, 349 E. 13th St. at 1st Ave.; 212-533-6212.
Huckleberry Bar (Williamsburg): Ixcacao
I haven’t actually been to Huckleberry in Williamsburg, but when I read about the Ixcacao on Refinery 29, I knew it had to be in this post. My friend Kim and I had actually gone into several bars and restaurants asking if they could serve us Mexican hot chocolate spiked with silver tequila, and couldn’t find any (this was before I remembered Elsa, doh!). The Ixcacao ($10) at Huckleberry is apparently named after the Mayan goddess of chocolate and combines house-infused peppermint tequila with blood orange liqueur and home-made hot chocolate with a kick at the end. Follow Huckleberry Bar on Twitter for daily specials – they’ve featured hot fig mulled wine ($5 a glass!), homemade gingerbread, and other toasty goodies recently.
Huckleberry Bar, 588 Grand Street (between Powers and Maujer streets); Brooklyn; 718-218-8555.
If you are more of a DIY type, I suggest you order some Ibarra Mexican chocolate pronto – it’s not the highest quality Mexican chocolate out there, but it sure beats Nestle Abuelita and is still easy enough to order or to find at your local grocery store in the Mexican/International food aisle. Typically, Mexican chocolate is made with roasted and ground cacao nibs, sugar, and cinnamon. Depending on the chocolatier, it may also include nutmeg, allspice, and chilies. Chop or grate the Mexican chocolate and stir it into hot (but not boiling!) milk on the stovetop until fully dissolved. Pour the hot chocolate into individual mugs, and if you have a frother (I use my Aerolatte
Filed under: Go, Listen | Tags: Alphabet City, Christmas, DJ Nickodemus, EV, funk, James Brown, Nublu
It’s December 25th, and it’s my first Christmas in the city. My brother is in town visiting since our parents are out of the country. As such, we’ve been attempting (and failing) at trying to experience a very New York City Christmas. Instead, we spent Christmas Eve eating Cuban food in the West Village, then drinking beers, playing pool/shuffleboard/Scrabble/listening to live jazz (Eddie Wyatt) at Fat Cat. Today, we went to go 92Y Tribeca for Chinese and a Movie – a Leslie Nielsen double header of Airplane and Naked Gun, complete with a Chinese food buffet. No one told me it was going to be vegetarian, and for that, I would dock the experience at least a bit. Still, Shirley, you can’t go wrong with the classics.
Tonight, we’re cooking at home before heading out to Merry James-mas! at Nublu (62 Ave C between 4th and 5th Sts; nublu.net; 10pm, $10) on Avenue C to celebrate and remember James Brown, who passed four years ago today. According to Time Out NY, every year since that sad day DJ Nickodemus (from Turntables on the Hudson) has hosted a James Brown Christmas tribute. Nickodemus will rework James Brown classics against the backdrop of timeless J.B. videos. The Pimps of Joytime will also perform live. Covers, classics, mashups, Funky People 45′s, The JB’s, videos & all things that’ll get you on the GOOD FOOT! In Funk We Trust! $10/ 21 & over.
Filed under: Go, Learn | Tags: Asian American, Chinese American, free, history, Maya Lin, MOCA, museums, Thursday
The Skint is one of my fave deal sources on Twitter. Today, they retweeted Target Free Thursdays at the Museum of Chinese in the Americas, or MOCA in NYC, not to be confused with the MoCA in LA (Museum of Contemporary Art). I’m especially intrigued by the “With a Single Step: Stories in the Making of America” exhibit in the space designed by Maya Lin, the artist/architect who designed the Vietnam Veterans War Memorial.
With a Single Step: Stories in the Making of America, MOCA’s new core exhibit, will bring to life the Museum’s unique historical content and birth a compelling art work by fusing itself with the architectural heart of its new home designed by Maya Linon Centre Street. Metaphorically and literally, this “heart” will ground visitors, and be the focal point of the “new MOCA experience.” This presentation is an innovative approach to museum and exhibition design. It will facilitate a new way of interacting with content: through the evocative use of space that stirs visitors’ emotions and breaks down barriers to deeper learning and understanding.
This looks like it’ll be a great space, and an informative and interesting exhibit on Asian American history. I’ve never been, so I think I’ll check it out tonight. If you want to join and grab a bite afterwards, let me know!
Go: MOCA NYC (Chinatown) 215 Centre Street between Howard and Grand, New York, NY 10013. Free Thursday 11 am to 9 pm.
Filed under: Go, Listen, Watch | Tags: cheap, cheapish, fancy, Metropolitan Opera, NYC Opera, opera
I said METROPOLITAN OPERA and $25 tickets. While I have thoroughly enjoyed my $20 tickets to the NYC Opera, I’m giddy about these $25 tickets to the Met.
This Saturday, you can watch either Boris Godunov at noon or La Boheme at 8:30 pm if you win the lottery.
The process is as follows:
Weekend Rush Ticket Drawing Process
- Monday: From 10:00 am – 11:59 pm ET, select from the available performance(s) listed for the following weekend.
- Tuesday: Drawing is held. Winners’ names, as well as those on the wait list, will be posted here at noon. At that time, winners may begin purchasing the tickets online, by calling 212-362-6000, or by visiting the Met Opera Box Office. Winners will also be contacted via email.
- Wednesday: Tickets must be purchased by 5:00 pm ET or the tickets will be forfeited and released to those on the wait list. Wait list tickets may be purchased on a first-come, first-served basis by calling 212-362-6000, online, or by visiting the Met Opera Box Office.
- Thursday: Wait list tickets must be purchased by 5:00 pm ET or the tickets will be forfeited and released for sale at the regular price.
If you select more than one performance, you are eligible to win all from a single entry form. Do not enter more than once per week. Winners are eligible to purchase up to two tickets per performance. Specific seat locations are random and non-negotiable.
Click here to enter the lottery, and good luck!
Note: These discounted tickets were made available by a generous gift from Met Board member Agnes Varis and her husband Karl Leichtman, and they’re also making weekday tickets available. 150 orchestra seats are available to the general public for each regular Monday through Thursday performance for only $20 (excluding galas, special events, and opening nights of new productions). You can purchase Varis Rush Tickets at the Met box office beginning two hours before curtain, subject to availability. I’ll be queued up outside the box office on November 6th so I can see the only Varis Rush ticket performance of Carmen, my all-time favorite opera.
Filed under: Go, Learn, Listen, Watch | Tags: cheap, event, Harvest, Hobby, jazz, NYC, paragliding
Hobby is a gathering organized by the good folks over at Harvest where four folks are invited to talk each month about what they do when they’re not actually working. Each speaker talks about his or her hobby for 5 minutes before a 5 minute Q&A session. My friend Mike, who spoke about poker and decision-making, suggested that Harvest get in touch with me to see if I might like to talk about this here blog. Crazy though it may be, they actually decided to give it a shot and they’re giving me a microphone (gasp!) and a remote control (double gasp!!) so I can talk about cooking and eating and shopping and other stuff I like, all with the aid of a not-so-fancy Powerpoint presentation I dreamt up today.
This Tuesday, October 19 at 7 pm in Chinatown/SoHo, you can come and see people talk about jazz, paragliding, and living in New York City on the cheap. The bios for this month’s speakers:
- Leo Ferguson is a native New Yorker, a recent driving school graduate and really likes french fries. He had an afro before it was cool and wants you all to know it, and no, he’s not Malcolm Gladwell. By day he does fancy-pants digital imaging and print stuff for big horrible companies and by night he is a musician, a composer and a lover. His music has been called “adequate” by important people who know about that kind of thing, and he’ll be discussing jazz.
- James Bradley started paragliding in 2003. He progressed rapidly to have an advanced rating, a commercial tandem certification, and can tell you what “cloud suck” is, and where you can get it. When not flying, James can usually be found trying to cram two hundred pounds of gliders and gear into the closets of a Manhattan apartment.
- Melody Han (that’s me!) thinks that people care about what she eats, and amazingly enough, some people actually do. Since moving to NYC in 2007, Melody has been eating her way through the city and other parts of the world (as cheaply as possible), trying her hand at cooking in her tiny LES kitchen, and dreaming of the day when she might have enough counterspace to own a standing mixer. Her eat.shop.love.NYC. posts have been featured in NBC New York’s Around Town | Food & Drink blog and The Gothamist. She always has a camera, if only to perpetuate stereotypes.
- Abel Horwitz has come to New York City pursuing a childhood dream. So far he has cut an album with Jay-Z, dated Natalie Portman, and is delighted to find out how affordable New York City is (not one of these things is true). He will do his very best to explain that you (yes, you!) can travel the world for cheap. Abel likes exploring the city, meeting new people, eating great meals and spending time with his best friend, Jay-Z.
RSVP on the Harvest Hobby website! Tickets are free, and there are 7 left at the moment. If they run out, you should still be able to come. There will be wine (I think), a boozy Halloween punch I’m concocting, cookies in creepy shapes, and cool people to meet. You might have an awesome time.
Be there: Tuesday, October 19th @7 pm sharp – Harvest HQ (Chinatown/SoHo) 187 Lafayette Street, 6th floor, New York, NY 10013 View map
Filed under: Eat, Go | Tags: Armenian, Aux Delices Armenienes, Berlin, Cannes, doner, France, Germany, kebab, MIPCOM, Place Gambetta, shawarma, Sylane Kebab, Turkish
Place Gambetta is the place to be when you’ve got a hankering for meat in a wrap. This is a smaller, but still sizable, daily market than the Marche Forville in the covered area in the center of the square. Place Gambetta is a block north of the Rue d’Antibes and a couple of blocks east of the train station. Place Gambetta is home to Sylane Kebab (Turkish) and Aux Delices Armenienes (Armenian, duh).
If you like your kebabs a little messy with lamb meat juice and yogurt sauce dribbling down your chin, Sylane is the place to go. The döner kebabs here were a revelation for me when I took my first sweet, sweet bite (sweet in the figurative sense, not literally) – I hadn’t tasted such moist and flavorful meat in my life. Granted, at the time I first tried Sylane’s kebab, my kebab experience had been confined to kebab joints in the US, but even New York City couldn’t compare. No, Bereket does not serve a good kebab (most of the time – it is always hit or miss); its saving grace is that it is open 24/7 and its many drunk patrons can’t tell a good kebab from their own asses.
Filed under: Eat, Go | Tags: 7 Mountains Motel, festival, gastro, lobster, lobster roll, Maine, NYC, road trip, Rockland Breakwater, seafood
CONTINUED from My Magical NYC to Maine Gastro Road Trip Part I and NYC to Maine Gastro Road Trip Part II. I should probably try to be a little more creative with these blog titles. My apologies in advance – this particular entry is lacking in food porn. For that, you may want to revisit prior entries or skip to the next in the series (Part IV).
SATURDAY NIGHT: Brunswick > Rockport (1 hour)
I fought desperately to stay awake after our third lobster roll of the day, but eyelids… so… heavy… I didn’t want to leave our courageous driver awake alone, so I tried my very best to stay awake (but failed). It was only about an hour or so from Brunswick to Rockport, where we had booked what seemed to be the only free room that was anywhere near Rockland and didn’t run $200 a night for a 2-night minimum stay. We rolled into our lodging for the evening around 9 pm, food coma-ed and bleary-eyed.
The 7 Mountains Motel had had a cancellation, and proprietor Joyce Braley had called me back to let me know I could have a room for four with two double beds for $100 (plus $5 for the guv’nor) on Saturday night.
I guess I was super-excited to be in an honest-to-goodness motel. A motor hotel! (more…)
