Weekend Report (No Energy Bars, Just Pork, No Gatorade, Just Lambrusco)

Friday night I went to the NYC Bicycle Film Festival to see two hours of collected shorts. Inevitably, the topic of my new love (food) came smack up against my ongoing love (bikes) in interesting ways. One short was a mock-anthropological documentary of the "waffle bike", in which the researcher created a bicycle outfitted with everything needed to make waffles, including a waffle iron, refrigerator, prep station, chicken coop, machete, 2 shotguns, a sound system that only played a Farsi call-to-prayer and a gas generator (to run all the electronics, not move the bike) We see him ride from Manhattan to Brooklyn to a corner-store chicken coop to collect his chickens, then see him on the corner making waffles on his bike with very fresh eggs.



Even cooler was a more traditional doc on Balorda, an annual Italian festival where people dress in outlandish costumes, ride creatively decorated and mechanically adventurous bikes in a parade, then eat and drink and dance until they pretty much lose their minds. Here is a Youtube clip which unfortunately doesn't have subtitles, but you can get the bike/food vibe. The short-haired, round headed dude is basically saying, "At Balorda, we do not drink Gatorade, only Lambrusco! At Balorda, we do not eat energy bars, only pork!" That big pot of pulled braised pork looks gooooood....

Saturday evening I met the wifey, her momma, the HVS and three other of wifey's friends to catch the Sex & the City movie on opening weekend on the Upper East Side, Ground Zero of the demographic this move appeals to. I made too many butter cream frosted cupcakes this morning for B's book club, so I brought a dozen to the movie theater. After everyone in our group had their fair share, I couldn't help but notice several women around us (and yes, the theater was mostly women) eye-balling the cupcakes, so I offered them some, explaining that I was with 7 women but had 12 cupcakes, and don't worry: I'm a culinary student and the cupcakes are mostly organic. Funny, it was easy to be friendly with absolute strangers like this, something new to me. Of the four offered, two women took me up on the offer.

SATURDAY
BREAKFAST: 6:30am, banana, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM SNACK: 8am, 1 chocolate unfrosted cupcake, batter, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Made chocolate cupcakes with vanilla butter cream frosting for B's book club.

AM SNACK: 10:00am, another cupcake, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 1pm, 3 small grilled cheese with gruyere and onion on super hippy bread, big spinach salad, water, 2 bowls, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 5pm, yet another cupcake, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 8:30pm, crab cakes with fries, quarter of a turkey club, a few spoonfuls of creamed spinach and mashed potatoes, 1 beer, water, hunger 4/5
Got oddly hungry after eating the crab cakes. Nice being able to appreciate the presentation and quality of the cakes, after learning them this past week.

SUNDAY
BREAKFAST: 7:15am, granola with good milk, 1 cupcake, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
If I didn't eat the cupcake, it would need to be tossed. I'm the human garbage can. :(

LUNCH: 12:45pm, turkey on a kaiser roll, potato chips, 5 pieces of rugellah, 2 bowls, hunger 4/5
Lunch at a corner grocery in Putnam county with my bro and his family.

PM SNACK: 5pm, 2 pieces of french bread and olive oil, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 7pm, sauteed pork loin with mushroom demiglace, 3 corn on the cobb, grape fizzy lizzy, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
I seared the thick piece of pork loin after trimming the fat and seasoning with salt and pepper. It was a good 2-inches thick, and I also seared it on it's sides, then popped it in the over at 325 for about 5 minutes. When it came out, it was well-done but still relatively juicy, I think maybe if I didn't use the oven it would have been closer to the rare I like.

EVENING SNACK: 8pm, 1 beer
Out in Greenpoint with E, watching the hepster do their hep thing.

EVENING SNACK: 9:30pm, 1 slice streetza, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
On the way home realized I was hungry, that dinner wasn't as big as I thought. Kinda craving sweet, thinking of the cupcake and the rugallah, I think it kinda primed the pump to eat more sugar, gotta nip that in the bud. Though I just got a huge 20 lb watermelon in the fridge...