Calamari c/o McCrossen's

Another day I met up with L. at McCrossen's. I was feeling peckish and wanted to eat something, but didn't feel like a burger. I considered the eggplant sandwich but in the end I went with the calamari. A very sizeable portion, and nice and hot. I think I prefer a slightly less heavy breading on calamari, but it did facilitate a satisfying crunch with every bite.
After eating, I played darts with L. She likes darts a lot. I'm not so good, so usually she's just practicing while I am just fooling around. This was true of this game as well...except that for a while I had a commanding lead. Triple 20 at one point - L. couldn't believe it was possible, but it was.

Chai and Chocolate c/o Capogiro

On a Monday or a Tuesday - or some other day altogether, I can't quite recall - I met up with L. and we walked to Capogiro. This time around I went with the chai and a chocolate. I forget the exact details about the chocolate. Though I liked the chai sample, the full amount of it wasn't 100% as awesome as I might have hoped. Good to catch up with L.

Turtle Creation

After lunch and Rita's I regrouped and drove on over to J. and J.'s to have a visit with She-J. and the boyos. S. asked me to make a turtle out of this clay stuff (I forget what it's called) based on the picture of a turtle on the product's packaging. He made the black markings while I did most of the body work.
N. enjoyed making balls and then putting marker stuff all over them.
I forget what S. said this was, though it had part of his name on it (the rest was on the other side).

A nice afternoon visit.

Loads of Food c/o Hardena

The day after the super moon, my new friend G. and I went to a new spot. Well, new for me not for him: Hardena. It's a really small space. And the food's right in front of you and you can pick and choose what you want on your plate, cafeteria-style. After I had my plate filled with rice, greens, chicken, a fish curry of some kind, a tofu something of some kind and something else, I realized that they also did satay. If I were to go back, which I would, I'd try their satay without question. All was good, though such a large, heaping portion of food (for like $7) overwhelmed my eating abilities.

This was also the first official day of Spring, which meant that Rita's water ice was giving away free water ice! I went with raspberry and, um, I forget. We considered trying to hit up multiple locations, but my teeth got cold and there was nowhere to park.

Super Moon!

On the drive to and from the restaurant, the moon's super-ness was definitely on display. This was, of course, because it was the SUPER MOON! Which you should certainly be saying or thinking should sound like 'Super Man!' Only moon. Get it? I didn't take as many photographs as I probably should have, considering the rarity of such a moon. But I took a few.

Soup, Curry and More c/o Thai Tida

Once Mr. Ass was finished with his responsibilities we gathered ourselves together and began to play a game of Scrabble. Unfortunately I may have gotten us a bit off the topic of Scrabble and the game was never completed. Actually, that may have actually worked out for Mr. Ass's pride in the long run since I had a pretty good chance of getting a bingo. Heh. L. met up with us and then we all went to Thai Tida in Lambertville. While the man at the front was, to put it mildly, a bit less than cordial to us upon our entrance, our servers were quite friendly. I wanted the Tom Yum soup, so I ordered it.
Mr. Ass wanted the sweater shrimp. So he ordered them.
I made a game time decision and went with the green curry with chicken. This dish started at 'medium' and then you could add 'one pepper' 'two peppers' or 'three' for additional spice. I assume these were figurative peppers not literal ones, though I guess it could work either way. I went with one pepper over medium.
L. ordered the duck with three peppers, or maybe two? And Mr. Ass ordered the Drunken Noodles. My dish was definitely spicy, and L.'s spicier than that. I really couldn't take L.'s dish. Yes, there was flavor there and I knew it, but my mouth burned and burned. The drunken noodles were more my style. I guess this is my foodie weakness: an inability to really appreciate food that makes my mouth burn. I mean, I love wasabi, but that's more of a head rush than a slow, neverending burn.
Spiciness aside, it was a good dinner and continued my weekend's eating tour of Asia, you'll see that it continued.

Bucks County Walkabouts

After pho I returned home with every intention of doing productive things, like my taxes and vacuuming. But it was a sunny day, and I hate taxes and vacuuming, so I called Mr. Ass to see whether he was available to distract me from my responsibilities. He had his own responsibilities and couldn't be entirely distracted, but invited me to come on up to his neck of the woods with the promise of eventual game playing. This was good enough for me. I drove up and first stopped off at Tyler State Park for a quick nature walk. While Spring is on its way, it's not reaaaally obvious yet. The only birds I saw were geese. Well, I saw other birds, but they were small, boring, and hard to photograph.
Honk.
There's this one house in the park, along one of the paths. I just wish I lived there. Though maybe not, since 100s of people probably walk by it each day, which would make one's life perhaps a little too much on display for my taste. But this dog had no problem with the attention. Handsome and not a barker.


Bird nest.
More winter than spring.
Then I went on over to Mr. Ass' and took a walk down to the creek. I saw more geese and maybe a Kingfisher kind of bird, but damn was it hard to get photos. I am thinking about photoshopping the photograph below so that the green is much, much greener than the brown.



Honk. I wish they were snow geese because I think snow geese are cooler. Or if they were cranes. That would make my day, if I could take an in-focus, decent photograph of cranes flying.

Glory Be to Ha Saigon

L. and I originally had plans to do something entirely unlike having pho one Saturday morning, but when that plan was canceled we didn't give up. No we did not. Instead we decided that it was time for another trip to Ha Saigon. We ended up ordering the exact same coffees and meals, which prompted us to make our table settings nearly mirror images. See that?
Oh yeah buddy, that's some condensed milk coffee crazy.
We both went with the rare steak, well done brisket pho with more broth, less noodles and an extra side of limes. We also split the spring rolls, but none of the photographs were that great nor were the rolls ... well at least when compared to their grilled pork rolls, which I will unquestioningly order on our next trip. The steak was not all that rare. I don't know if this is because there was a little delay between the bowls being prepared and delivered, or if they thought that we weren't serious about the rare part. Still delicious. L. noted that the noodles seemed different, I agreed. They weren't as elastic and broke more easily. Still quite satisfying though.
Isn't that a nice photograph of pho? I'm kind of proud of it.

Walk WIth Reward c/o Capogiro

On Friday I walked into Center City after work. I did this because it was a beautiful, warm day. I did this because I needed to move my body a little bit. I did this because the reward was gelato. It's always a hard decision to make when it comes to flavors at Capogiro, but I ended up with the limoncello and thai coconut flavors, as I thought the tart would balance the creamy sweet of the coconut. I was correct ... because I am a gelato genius.

Veggie Burger and Veggie Quesadillas c/o Bishop's Collar

On St. Patricks Day my new friend G. came over and we split a Bishop's Collar veggie burger and veggie quesadilla. The burger was astoundingly boring. It lacked any kick or verve, and I didn't have more than a few bites because it felt like such a mushy waste of my belly space. The quesadilla, on the other hand, was well packed with cheese and veggies. The pickle that accompanied the burger was tasty. I didn't share it.

Half Burger and Fries c/o McCrossen's

Some time last week L. and I went to McCrossen's and split a burger. We were expecting their delicious and thick-cut fries but were sadly faced with shoestring fries instead. T. said that had been a mistake and that they actually had the right fries as well as the mistake fries. And yet somehow we got the mistake fries. I was sad. I cried. I wept. I asked for vindication. The burger was good though.
I forget what L. is doing here, but I took the photograph three or four times so clearly it was important to document. Maybe it's the fear she has of my fry wrath. Probably not.

Cappucino, Cherry Lemonade and Cherry Tomato and Corn Salad

With few hours of sleep under my belt, I awoke on Sunday primed to go to Manhattan and meet up with R. Though I've visited New York any number of times since our last Korean face-to-face, I haven't seen R. in a good three years. So it was good that we finally met up. Our original destination was closed, so we ended up going to this other place. Unfortunately I can't remember what it was called. Here's what I can tell you: I needed coffee and decided that I would have a cappucino. This was a very good idea. As was my further splurging on a cherry lemonade. R. ended up buying me lunch, and had I known she was going to do so then I might not have been so liberal with my beverage intake. But. Well. That's how it goes:)
Both beverages were delightful and did much to help me counteract the copious drinking I had done the night before.
I was tempted to try Mystery Restaurant's Nicoise Salad, but ended up being drawn to the cherry tomato and corn salad with lemon vinaigrette and queso fresca (or maybe some other Latin-like cheese?). It was definitely generous, but had a weird overwhelming sweetness I didn't totally dig. A little more acid and salt would have made it perfect.
It was great to see R. after such a long time, and I hope we manage to see each other again before another three years go by. Thanks to her for buying me lunch!

Cuban Panini

We returned to Brooklyn in a crowded cab. I was very interested in eating something, specifically pizza. But weirdly enough, no pizza joint exists that stays open super late in their neighborhood. So, instead, we went with a bodega. After much deliberation, I ordered the Cuban Panini, which was chock full of cheese, pickles and awesome.

Surreal in Chinatown, Even Stranger Out in the World

So when I learned that we were going to a party with a surreal theme, I planned ahead and brought my senior prom dress because, well, what else was I going to wear?Fat T. had a washboard tie with eye. L. had a lovely new hat. Did we go crazy with the photos? That's for me to decide. I decide no.


So I actually used one well placed safety pin to update my dress a little and to create a ridiculous bustle, which you can't quite make out in any of the photographs. L. lent me her red tights and big flower bow thing (which I imagine once was wrapped around a wedding gift).

I'm not going to lie to you. I look better in my prom dress now than I did in its original wearing.
So we went to the party but things were kind of slow (even though it was midnight), so I texted S. to see what he was up to since I knew that he was going to be somewhere not too terribly far from the party. He gave me his details and Fat T. and L. gave me directions and I was off. Ok. Note to self: when you are wearing a ridiculous outfit and high heels and plan on walking the streets of New York City by yourself, be prepared for cat calls from passing cars, judgmental looks from passersby and the fact that you should probably just take a cab. While Fat T. was right that the distance between the party and the bar wasn't too far and could take 15 minutes, he wasn't factoring in high heels and a bustle. Nearly two miles I walked. That's not a big deal in sneakers but hooo-wee, my feet still are ravaged. How do women wear heels all the time? What is wrong with you people! I wasn't terribly surprised to find not only S. but C., T. and J. as well.

They were all celebrating this guy's birthday. I had never met him before, so every time I saw him I would yell 'Happy Birthday!!' to him. I think I may also have hugged him, like, three times. It's fine.
I forget what the bar was called but it was kind of dumb. A bottle of budweiser was $5. Ridiculous. S. and C. left soon after my arrival, but I had good conversation with T. and J. and met their friend S., whose long defunct blog first alerted me to the concept of 'brining.'

Eventually those folks got themselves together to decamp and I got into a cab to return to the original party, which seemed to have gotten quite a bit more lively after I left. Like burlesque dancer lively. L. said she was sorry I missed it, but I think it's for the best. The view from the fire escape.




The fun times. They just wouldn't quit.



L. and I went to the bathroom together. It was like college only - if you can believe this - slightly more wholesome.


A late, late night. When we first got off the train in Chinatown L. was all 'I think this will be an early night, have a drink or two and then move on.' Uh huh. Sure L. Suuuuuuure.