CRUNCH TIME

The food wasn't crunchy but our lives have become that way. We're nearing the finish line with the big day and we've been busy. I have a TON of stuff going on at work (as does Meen) and we're both trying to bring it all home with the other huge thing we're working on. So last night required some errands and when we got home, we required Joya.

Meena had:
- chicken pad thai (NOT SPICY ... more on that later)
- chicken spring rolls

Alec had:
- tom yum koong
- thai salad with tofu and peanut dressing

Everything was nice. For some reason, my soup came NOT SPICY. So I had to jazz it up with some siracha. It worked just fine and the result was a delicious and very spicy tom yum koong.

Meena is trying a new trick - because even the mild pad thai is too hot for her lately, she's been ordering it NOT SPICY and just asking for some sambal oelek on the side. Then she controls the heat. You'll see the option from now on. She's MUCH happier this way.

So again, I'm going to try and keep this very up to date for the next couple weeks. Give me a shout if you think I'm slacking.

SORRY

For the lack of updates. I've been out of town and we're in crunch time for the big day. So we've been a little preoccupied. But I'll try to do better this week.


A little recap of the past few days ...

Last Tuesday ... Allen & Delancey. Awesome. I had the finest pork belly I've had in ... well, forever. Meena had a halibut that was just about perfect. Dan had some duck and Steve had a risotto. Pretty outstanding.

Can't remember Wednesday. Sorry!

Thursday I ate at Gage in Chicago. I had an antelope tartare and an heirloom pork chop. The tartare was sorta nuts. Had a raw quail egg, some awesome mustard and some other stuff. The chop was quite nice. I enjoyed it all.

Friday I was back in NY and Meena and I had come Cube 63 delivery. Just what the Dr. ordered after a longish flight back from the Windy City.

Saturday night we had Lucali with James and D. So awesome we were finally able to get there with them. We had a basil pie and another with shallot and hot pepper. Awesome pizza and fantastic company at one of the best spots in our hood in my humble opinion.

Sunday night was pretty much all planning all the time so we just called in some Zaytoons. Weird toon's night. My shish kebab sandwich was really messy and I found a cherry tomato in it. Sorta odd. The Zaytoons mix was a little lacking but I did get a bunch of peppers. So that was cool. Meena's chicken shawarma sandwich was equally messy. Not sure what was going on tonight.

So anyway, I'll try to be better here over the next couple weeks. Because soon we'll be off to Thailand and we'll be without updates for a minute. Maybe I'll have a guest blogger for the time we're out. Dan and Steve? D and James? Any takers?

MORE TOONAGE

Boy. Yesterday sucked. I'll come right out and say it. Miserable day at the office. So although we had high hopes of going to the gym and making dinner, we got home around 9:00 and just couldn't do any of it. What do you do when you're totally beat and totally over it all?

Zaytoons.

You've seen it before. But here it is again. Meena had:
- chicken shawarma sandwich

Alec had:
- shish kebab sandwich
- zaytoons mix

Olives, peppers, pickles, pitas, tomatoes, grilled lamb and delicious chicken. Man. It just doesn't get any better than this.

FISH AND VEG

Sunday was a busy day. Not really. But I did have to get my haircut and watch my Colts go down for the second time this season. Bummer. But when I got home from the bar, totally disheartened, Meena cheered me up with a little dinner she'd thrown together.

She picked up some fish at the market the previous day and got rolling with the following:
- lemon
- garlic
- thyme
- sage
- olive oil
- rainbow trout

She also threw in some sweet corn from the Carroll Gardens farmer's market to cap it all off.

I don't think she was a big fan of the fish, but I thought it was nice. Very mild and packed with a lot of herb and garlic flavor. I thought it probably would have been perfect with a touch of salt, but I'm not complaining. I thought it worked.

The corn was like candy. Just ... amazing. Now ... back to the office.

ARMY AND JOYA

Saturday I went up to West Point to see Army play Akron in a game of American football. It was weird. Strange that we were there. I'm a football fan, yes. But I don't really know much about Army. It was beautiful up there, though. And our tailgate was super. We had hot dogs, hamburgers, pasta salad. Everything.

I even got a sunburn. So you know, it was pretty awesome for a fall tailgate. When we got back to Brooklyn (when ALEC got back I should say ... Meena was at a dress fitting all day), I wasn't all that hungry. Meena was feeling some Joya, however, so I went ahead and picked something up as well.

Alec had:
- tom yum koong

Meena had:
- chicken pad thai (a little spicy)

This night we had a much better movie in Forgetting Sarah Marshall and the Joya was solid. I think I fell asleep around 10. Pretty sad for a Saturday night. But after that lovely day ... I was just tuckered out.

ZAYTOONS & THE CITY

Another long week and the only answer was sitting at home in front of the TV with some Zaytoons and a movie. Unfortunately, our movie was Sex And The City and it was awful. Terrible. But the food was great and I was with Meena so I can't complain.

We kept it pretty real. Meena had:
- chicken shawarma sandwich

Alec had:
- zaytoons mix
- shish kebab sandwich

It was a sleepy, lazy night. And despite the movie, it was awesome.

NANA TIME

Sorry to my anonymous commenter - but these photos aren't that great. See, this blog isn't so much about the pristine photos and success stories. It's just about documentation. So sometimes it happens with a camera phone. Sometimes it's at home with a nice camera and in those cases, I think my photos aren't THAT bad. But sometimes I just take what I can just to get the idea across. Thursday night at Dan and Steve's was one of those!

We were chillin' with the guys and we called in a little Nana to get our sushi fix on. Pretty good choice because the food was fantastic.

I have no idea what everyone had. I can't remember. I know I had a maki combo with some tuna rolls and california rolls and eel rolls. Meena had some shumai and a bunch of other nice rolls. It was delicious!

So, sorry for the crap photos - but I just wanted to make sure you had the latest news!

INDULGE

We were through the middle of the week and decided it was time to let loose. It was time to call in some Chance and just eat a bunch of stuff that made us feel awesome.

So we did. We called them and they brought us all this lovely stuff you see up there. Thank goodness. We needed it.

Meena had:
- chicken fried rice
- crispy fried beef

Alec had:
- hot and sour soup
- shiitake mushroom salad
- sea bass and carrot dim sum

Both of Meena's plates were great. Note, she didn't eat it all. Not by a long shot. But that's not the point. She likes to get a taste of a few different things. And with Chance's prices, that's not too hard.

Mine was rad. The sea bass dim sum is awesome. Delicate, moist fish with a little sweetness of carrot and some salty dipping sauce. Perfect, really.

FRESH AND FROZEN

Check out the juxtaposition. Frozen onion rings paired with some nice chicken sausage from the butcher. Again, like the tater tots from a few days back - weird, but oddly good. And comforting.

So I got home late and Meena got to work on this one. She started by mixing up a salad:
- field greens
- red onion
- green grapes
- bleu cheese
- dressing (olive oil, lemon juice, rice vinegar, sea salt, garlic powder and black pepper)

Then she cooked the sausage in some beer with onions and a bit of vegetable broth. The beer was a touch bitter so the onions took on a hint of that flavor profile. Not bad though. I threw them on my my sausage and housed a couple with an organic wheat bun and some mustard.

Nice.

Oh, I forgot to mention that the sausage was of the chicken sausage variety. Chicken sausage with jalapeño and cilantro. Very nice. Very nice indeed.

And to cap it all off, Meena threw in some frozen onion rings. Crazy! But I have to say, the came out of the oven crispy and delicious. Weird. So weird. But again - can't front, I liked them.

OH, MUNDAY

Yeah, we both had a case of the Mundaze. It was terrible. Awful. So what do you do when your day is totally unbearable? Order Zaytoons delivery. Obviously.

In addition to a Zaytoons mix (which was one of the best we've had in recent memory - the pepper and pickles were crisp and the olives were delicate and spicy.), we did a couple sandwiches. Meena had:
- chicken shawarma sandwich

Alec had:
- shish kebab sandwich

I don't know if it was just because we were both so tired and depressed after the day at work but this one was SO good. The shish kebab was grilled to perfection. It was packed with juicy bits of lamb and sweet grilled peppers. It was just AWESOME. Meena's sandwich was killer. Packed with hummus and perfectly cooked chicken.

Thanks for being our shoulder to cry on Zaytoons. We love you.

CAPPING OFF THE WEEKEND

If you read the last post, you can see we had a pretty great weekend. Lots of great food and all sorts of fun. So we decided to cap off the weekend with some turkey burgers and salad. You know ... just roll on through to Monday with some poultry burgers.

I got to work with the following for the burgers:
- ground turkey
- garlic
- red onion
- panko
- egg
- cumin
- soy sauce
- sesame oil
- black pepper
- green onion

I mixed that up and threw a few bits of the concoction on the skillet. When they came off, I threw them on some peasant bread with a little more red onion, mixed greens and a bit of that buffalo wing sauce Meena picked up a few weeks ago.

It was pretty good! The burgers were moist and had a lot of good flavor. The garlic and the sesame oil really came through nicely.

Meena also threw in a salad that featured:
- mixed greens
- green grapes
- bleu cheese
- red onion
- dressing (garlic, olive oil, lemon juice, rice vinegar, sea salt and black pepper)

And as if that wasn't enough, Meena pulled out some of the organic tater tots from the freezer. So weird. But good. I can't font. They were good.

If you have to let the weekend slip away, you might as well eat well.

INSANE // GOOD

I'll start by saying I stole some photos from scaredy kat on flickr. Thanks, sk. You're the best.

Ok. So this was a day. This was my bachelor party and rather than doing all the things you THINK I did, let me just say ... my day mostly revolved around my favorite stuff - friends, food and baseball. And some beer and cameras, too. Oh, and Queens. All things that I like now, even if I didn't so much before. That mostly refers to Queens. Queens and I are cool now. Not that we weren't before. We just didn't know each other well. We're feeling good now though.

Anyway, so the day started out at PS1 for some fun art in Long Island City. Some great stuff. Some stuff with obligatory nudity. You know. Art.

Then we hit an awesome halal street cart in Queens (might need Matt to remind me of the name) for a $3 chicken sandwich. With all sorts of sauces. It was messy, huge and totally awesome. It was dripping everywhere while I was trying to chow and run back to the 7 train so we could get to the next spot.

After that, we picked up some Corona Lemon Ice (I had pina colada) after a hike through ... Corona. I think my medium was $2 and worth every penny on what was probably the most humid day I've felt in September in a long time.

Then we hiked through the park and made our way over to Shea for my first (and last) game in the old blue ring. I'm glad I made it to Shea once. It wasn't such a great game. Mets blew it. But it was a lot of fun and I had a couple beers. Awesome.

After the game, we made our way over to the crown jewel of the night - Spicy & Tasty. Matt had heard some pretty amazing things about this spot and I'll just go ahead and say it - it did not disappoint. This is a tiny little Chinese joint out in Flushing and it's amazing. We were some of the only white folks in there and it was pretty clear the other patrons weren't all that happy to see us. That's harsh. They weren't UNhappy to see us. They were just like - what do these guys REALLY think they're doing here.

Well, we were eating all the crazy stuff we can't get anywhere else! That's what. And we did. We ate. And ate. And ate. There wasn't enough room on the table for our plates. And it was a big table.

I can't even remember everything. I know I had the following:
- sliced pork with crushed chili sauce
- diced rabbit
- beef tendon

I know Matt had:
- bean curd and celery with green onion
- shrimp in black bean sauce
- some other kind of shrimp with rice cakes
- some peanut butter mochi type thing
- seaweed salad
- sesame noodles

And James had:
- chicken with cashew
- black been mochi type thing

I can't remember what else James had. But suffice it to say, we at a lot and it was really, really good. Everything.

I think Matt might have real photos. I'll maybe post them later. But man. Great night. Awesome, awesome night. Matt and James really pulled through and sent me in to matrimony a very happy, very full guy. Thanks, dudes.

READY FOR A PARTY

We had a big night ahead of us and I had to take off early, so I got started on a quick breakfast ASAP. I'm not sure why I did this. I guess because we had some chicken I needed to use. So ... yeah. Chicken and the egg here.

The curry chicken salad included:
- chicken breast
- red onion
- red cabbage
- crimini mushrooms
- raisins
- light mayo
- red curry powder
- sea salt
- black pepper
- cumin

Then I threw a dollop of that mix on the following:
- egg
- peasant bread
- havarti cheese
- barbecue sauce

It was pretty delicious. Sorta messy. But it was good. And it wasn't such a bad way to get everything going before our big day.

THAI FRIDAY

Friday night was VERY welcome and with a duo of bachelor and bachelorette parties the following day, we were perfectly happy to stay home and chill. Meena wasn’t feeling so hot anyway, so it was probably for the better that we got some movies and called in Joya.

I wasn’t super hungry and wanted to save my belly for the following night’s festivities, so I kept it weird with a few small bites. Meena went with the standard fare. She had:
- chicken pad thai (sorta spicy)
- thai spring rolls

Alec ordered:
- thai house salad with peanut sauce
- tom yum koong
- summer rolls

I say ordered because those summer rolls I was looking for never showed up. We got this weird bizarro tom yum soup with chicken an coconut milk. It was really similar in regard to ingredients, it just had coconut milk to make it a bit sweet and super rich.

I wasn’t looking forward to it but you know what? It was actually awesome. I couldn’t eat the whole thing, but it was surprisingly very good. For not liking creamy stuff, I really dove into this one.

The salad was also awesome. The tofu sliced to look like chicken was a nice touch. Everything else was awesome. Another nice night with Joya!

I KNOW

I know. I'm sure anyone who reads this blog is like ... seriously? You eat WAY too much Tex Mex. And that may be true. But it was Thursday, we were tired, annoyed and sorta over all the rat race stuff so we thought - let's hit Lobo.

So we did. And I feel great about it.

Nothing special ... just the standard fare. Meena had:
- edwin's enchiladas with ranchero sauce

Alec had:
- pork quesadilla

Mine was slathered in habanero hot sauce so it was nearly on fire. Meena's was the same as always - deliciously sloppy and perfectly rich and delicious.

GROWN-UP GRILLED CHEESE

I was doing a quick scan of the food blog circuit last night before I came home and I cruised on by The Petite Pig. I hadn't checked it out in a minute, but when I went about halfway down, I saw a grown up grilled cheese she'd whipped up. And it looked amazing. And I knew then, nothing else would be acceptable on my dinner plate. A grilled cheese with some other stuff was 100% necessary.

So I made a quick stop by the organic grocery and picked up some gear. As soon as I got home, I got going with:
- peasant bread
- olive oil
- crimini mushrooms
- red cabbage
- red onion
- sea salt
- black pepper
- havarti cheese

And then I threw together a salad:
- field greens
- sea salt
- black pepper
- tomato
- red onion
- bleu cheese
- dressing (olive oil, garlic, sea salt, black pepper and lemon juice)

I can't front - this one was a winner. The grilled cheese (or toasted cheese as it's known in MY Indiana home) was amazing on the peasant bread and with the havarti, but the grilled mix of crimini mushrooms and red cabbage sent it to the next level. I kept the red onion raw which provided a big pop of flavor and an additional bit of crunch. Awesome.

The salad was good as well. I love this dressing. I know it's like ... THE MOST COMMON DRESSING EVER. But I love it. Those simple flavors are so, so good together and it makes any boring old bit of greens and veg shine very, very brightly.

I'll be making this one again. And again. And again.

LATE NIGHT JAPANESE

I got home pretty late last night but Meena was kind enough to call in some Cube 63 before I got back to Brooklyn. It was a really long day, so it was pretty awesome to see all these delicious little bites waiting for my arrival.

Last night Meena had:
- shrimp shumai
- 63 roll
- bahama mama roll

Alec had:
- spicy! miso soup
- spicy yellowtail roll
- tuna and avocado roll

Everything was delicious. I think the most odd part of the evening was the half gallon of spicy miso soup that came. It wasn't really a half gallon. But it was a BUNCH of miso soup. For some reason, when they make it spicy, they are required to give you triple the normal amount. Weird, right? I thought so.

All the fish was wonderful. The tuna was plump and went great with the creamy little bits of avocado. I mean, I don't really need to describe a tuna and avocado. Or a spicy yellowtail. Although I will say, the spicy yellowtail is nice because they don't grind up the fish like they do with a spicy tuna or something. You get nice hunks of fish in that spicy mix. I'm cool with that.

But other than that, it was fantastic. Nothing more to say!

BUFFALO IN BROOKLYN

Last night Meena took the reigns in the kitchen and whipped up something truly fit for an evening of Monday Night Football. See, she had a vested interest because her Packers were on. Playing their rival no less. So like any good daughter of Wisconsin, she got it it started with some buffalo chicken wraps.

Here's how she did it:
- buffalo chicken strips (breaded chicken cutlets)
- buffalo chicken sauce
- tomato
- field greens
- bleu cheese
- hot sauce

Meena also threw together a salad and I dressed it. Here's how that one went:
- field greens
- red onion
- tomato
- baby bell cheese
- dressing (olive oil, sea salt, garlic, lemon juice, black pepper and rice vinegar)

And she topped it all off with some TOTS. Yep. Tater tots. I think she got them from the organic grocery. Organic tater tots? 2008 is great, isn't it?

So it was a memorable evening. It was like being in sixth grade or something. Deliciously dressed up comfort food fit for a night of cheese heads on national tv. Awesome.

BITTER SWEET WEEK 1

It was a lovely day of football marred by one major flaw - my team lost. There were some great moments, of course. Tom Brady might be out for the season? If nothing else, that's possibly the greatest thing to happen all weekend. All these people saying it's bad for the league? Sorry if I can't agree. But despite all the fun of opening weekend, Sunday night closed with heartbreak as my guys blew it in their brand new stadium.

Sigh.

But we did have some excellent food! While I was gearing up yesterday, I threw a slab of baby back ribs in the oven with some barbecue sauce, apple cider vinegar and a touch of black pepper. I let them go for about 2.5 hours and when I pulled them out, I lacquered them up with a bit more bbq and threw it all on a plate with some sweet corn.

Sweet corn, smoky bbq with some rib meat falling off the bone. I can't think of something much better for a football game.

BROOKLYN BIRTHDAY

Well, happy birthday, Matt! Last night was Matty C's birthday and we celebrated by hitting a place I'd never heard of, Roberta's, way the hell out in Bushwick. There's pretty much nothing out there other than this place. Some nice loft apartments. And then a random BYOB pizza joint that sorta has a bit of Lucali going for it, but a few key ingredients were missing.

Which is funny to say, because unlike Lucali, our beloved joint with just two menu items and about six total ingredients, this spot had a bunch of ingredients. Bunches. They had all sorts of specials and starters and yeah. Tons of stuff. So anyway, I'll stop making comparisons. This spot was nice. And we had a great time. I just couldn't help using Lucali as a benchmark given the specialty and BYOB status. Anyway.

We got started with a couple salads. I can't remember exactly what they both were. One was a heirloom tomato thing with some goat cheese. Tomatoes were OK. Goat cheese was great. Funny presentation. We also had a wilted greens salad with bacon and cherries. Not bad. Bacon was a little too overdone. But it was smoky and delicious.

The pizzas were the main course and we went with one that was a "Hawaiian" style. It had ricotta, pineapple, ham, jalapeno ... some sauce. It was nice. Pretty delicious, actually. The crust was lacking a little. Could have stood to hang in the oven for another 2-3 minutes. Our second pie (they were small) was just the traditional cheese, sauce and basil but we threw on anchovies as an extra. I love that I've made Meena such a fan of anchovies.

I think there's also a photo up there of Matt sharing his hen of the woods salad. I think he enjoyed it. And I'm sure everyone he shared it with did as well.

We finished with a lovely, cake-like brownie made by Emily I'm told. It was awesome. A nice bit of cinnamon gave it a fantastic bite. Excellent end to the meal.

Pretty fantastic night, Mr. Chaymez. I know it was technically a surprise, but thanks for having us to share the occasion with you!

THE MORNING AFTER

Meena was pretty much out of commission after her latest foray into the bachelorette universe. Understandable.

I tried to make her something yummy for breakfast to get her back in gear, but she wasn't really feeling it. So I ended up enjoying this one, for the most part, on my own. I started with some potatoes:
- potato
- garlic
- olive oil
- green onion

And then I threw together a sort of Benedict with an Asian flair:
- egg
- whole-wheat english muffin
- salmon
- sea salt
- black pepper
- nori flakes
- sauce (thai chili sauce, soy sauce and sesame oil)

It was pretty awesome. The salmon was crisp in all the right places. Silky on the inside. And the layers of flavor flowing in from that nice little sauce tied all the egg and whole wheat together. Pretty good. I might try this one again.

FRIDAY AT HOME

Friday Meena was having another bachelorette party in the city with the Glamour girls so I was just hanging out at home with nothing to do but check out the latest offerings from the video store and call in some Zaytoons delivery.

I could have cooked. Probably should have. But Meena was kind enough to give Zaytoons a ring and when I got here, it was ready to go. Pretty awesome after a fairly miserable week at the office.

I had my favorites, too:
- shish kebab sandwich
- zaytoons mix

It gets no better. Lovely bits of lamb and pickles wrapped up with assorted veggies in one of the best pitas I've had in this city.

And the mix. I mean, just look - olives, pickles and lots of peppers. Seriously? They should call it Alec's mix.

FOOTBALL BEGINS

I was out in Windsor Terrace last night for the opening of my favorite season - football season. Meena was chilling at home while James and I watched his Giants cruise to a pretty easy victory over the 'Skins.

When I got back, Meena was kind enough to share some of her delivery because I just ... well, I forgot about eating until I got home. We had the following:
- beef with basil
- chicken pad thai (sorta spicy)

Although I've become less and less excited about Joya, I can't front - it was good. And even though we don't yet have a microwave, it was fine. Luke warm and drenched in extra hot sauce was ideal, actually.