Weekend Report (Eatin' the Fool)

I was going to ride on Saturday morning, but technical difficulties with my bike kept me in, and an ill B kept me in most of Sunday, too, with a jaunt off to Newark for a fine, fine meal.

SATURDAY
BREAKFAST 1: 6:30am, school-made bagel with butter, .5 bowl, hunger 3/5

BREAKFAST 2: 8am, smoothie, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Grapes, blueberries, kiwi, banana, milk and yogurt, flax. Kiwi made it surprisingly tangy.

AM SNACK: 11am, WF cheesy poofs, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5 LUNCH: 2pm, Malaysian shrimp fried rice, roti canai, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Ordered in while B slept.

PM SNACK: 5pm, handful of dark chocolate

DINNER: 8pm, school made minestrone soup, 1 bowl, hunger 3/5

EVENING SNACK: WF cheesy poofs, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Well, those didn't sit around the house too long.

SUNDAY
BREAKFAST:8:30am, organic chex with good milk, .5 bowl, hunger 3/5

AM SNACK: 11:30am, heaping tablespoon of good peanut butter, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 3pm, 2 cheeseburgers, fries, diet coke, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Ate McDonalds with my cousin at Newark Airport. He ordered the bacon cheese burger because he will not have access to bacon once he's back. I haven't eaten this stuff in a long time -- I would of avoided it, except that the other food in the food court ("Asian Chou"?!?) looked super nasty -- at least with McD's, it's a known quantity. Two things surprised me -- the bun of the burgers tasted a little bit like what you'd expect upholstery foam to taste like, if edible. Second, those fries are damn good. And thirdly, I'm in no danger of becoming addicted to diet coke anytime soon.

PM SNACK: 5:15pm, slice of streetza, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 7:30pm, 1/3 of a pint of Ben & Jerry's Peanut Butter Cup, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Was going to eat salad for dinner, but gravitated to the ice cream. Was gonna eat half the pint, but by the time I got a third of the way down, felt a bit queasy -- the McD's and pizza is talking. Not my healthiest day.

Thomas Keller (Not My Grandma's Tater Pancakes)

Today's recipes were probably the most challenging of my entire time at c-school. My recipe was Blini with Roasted Sweet Peppers and Eggplant Caviar. There were the three elements in the name of the dish plus dried peppers as a garnish, and all four elements took time and a bit of effort in mising and in cooking.

Basically all four elements had to be in the process of being made at once. The first one to go was the eggplant, as it would take 2 full hours before it's final steps. First, the egg plants were halved and scored, well seasoned with salt, placed flesh-side down on a tray and a second tray placed on top and mounted with weights to press it. After an hour, the eggplant was greased up with olive oil and roasted for another hour. Once it came out, it had to be scooped out of the skin, the flesh placed in cheese clothe, and squeezed and squeezed some more to get out as much moisture as possible.

The pulp of the eggplant was placed into a robocoup, smoothed, then olive oil, a little dijon mustard and finely minced garlic was added. Salt to taste, then left to sit and let the flavors bind.

The second thing I started was the dried pepper garnish. A red, a green and a yellow pepper were cored, peeled of it's skin, then thinly julienned and placed on parchment. Into a 200 degree convection oven, it took about an hour to dry. Once out and cooled, minced into "pepper confetti".

Third thing was the roasted sweet peppers. A red and yellow pepper were placed on the open burners till it was nice and blistered, then placed in a bowl and covered to loosen the skins. Peeled and cored, thin minced and placed in a sauce pot with a bit of chicken stock. The stock was cooked down to dry, then mounted with a bit of butter, a bunch of minced chives and seasoned with salt.

The fourth thing couldn't hang around too long. A few pounds of potatoes were peeled and cooked to tender in salted water with a pat or two of butter. Once drained, they were pushed through a tammi (basically a fine metal mesh, like a screen door) to give the smoothest mash of potato possible. While still steaming hot, a little flour, creme fraiche, eggs and an extra yolk, and salt were all whisked in. The mix had to form a pourable batter than could hold it's own shape, and I ended up adding about 3 times more creme fraiche than the recipe called for to get it flowing.

Once the eggplant, roasted pepper relish and dried peppers were set up, I set up four non-stick pans and started cooking off the blinis, in about 2-3 inch widths. Once all the components were on hand, I got out some hot plates and started arranging a plop of eggplant caviar, a blini leaned up against it, a smalled plop of pepper relish, then sprinkled the dried peppers around the dish.

Every one had multipart recipes to deal with, and it was a chaotic rush to the end. While I was preparing the eggplant caviar, I had to season it. One moment, it was woefully bland, then with a short pinch of salt, it was woefully over salted. After conferring with the chef, the only real way to fix it was add more eggplant, but I didn't have 2 hours to burn, so the next best thing was to garnish with something that will cut down on the salt in the mouth. So I reached over to Roundhead's mise and grabbed some blanched and shocked baby red and yellow tomatoes, quartered them and plated -- there was no tomato in the recipe, but the colors made good sense.

Monday comes "Market Basket", where there are...no recipes. We're assigned ingredients then write our own recipes. I plan to keep mine simple, try to push and perfect my basic skills -- what's more lovely then a perfectly grilled piece of shrimp? A perfectly sauteed piece of pork? A perfectly braised beef cheek?

ADDENDA:
Really enjoyed dinner this evening. Went out to Apiary with D&E (B was feeling on the ill side), and ate a bunch of things I wouldn't of ordered or ate before c-school. After getting intimate dissembling squid, calamari tentacles went down deliciously, the match of sweet roasted pear and salty ham was very appreciated. The waiter asked if I wanted the pork medium or medium well, and I said, no, medium rare. He gave me a look like, "you sure?" and I insisted. It came out medium anyway, oh well, that's what Chefs at school said would happen. The only way to get it medium rare would be to send it back. Appreciated the juiciness of the meat, the depth of flavor of the pan sauce it rested on, the green crispness of the perfectly cooked green beans, the nice sweet/savory action of the cooked figs that I spread on every bite of pork. Even the crust of the chocolate tart was impressive -- my pate sucree on my apple pie was leaden and retarded compared to this professionally-caressed crust. And afterwards went to tapas bar for a drink, and I really enjoyed the sweet stickiness of a proper aperitif, something I would of found kinda nasty less than a month ago. As the sherry got warmer over the 30 minutes I was sipping it, I REALLY noticed the change in the flavor profile, going from raisiny and almost menthol, to a thinner cherry lollipop flavor, mmmm.

Got grades for last mod, I'm running a 3.78 GPA. Only if university graded so easily, back when I had to keep my parents happy!

Our team was responsible for a lobster in butter sauce recipe, which Dora the Explorer took on. About 5 different people during the beginning of class asked me to do that one, as they were looking forward to eating it, but as policy do not eat anything she produces. Thank goodness today was the last day of these groups.

BREAKFAST: 6:30am, good yogurt with honey, vanilla, raw cashews, .5 bowl, hunger 3/5

AM TASTINGS: 10:30-11am, a handful of blinis with the roasted pepper relish, cod fish, cod cakes, a bite of weird puff-pastry 'pizza', 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
The food today was oddly unappetizing. Perhaps the extreme use of so many ingredients matched with such twittering preparations which made 4 hours a little bit too little.

PM SNACK: 2pm, cream anglais ice cream, bitter sweet chocolate, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 4pm, WF brand cheetos, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
Junk food, yeah, but I was feeling indulgent.

DINNER: 7pm, roasted pear with prosciutto, rice flour coated calamari, roast pork with fig confit and hazelnut haricot verte, bite of lamb, bite of rabbit, chocolate tart with cashew ice cream, bite of peach cobbler with vanilla ice cream, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNORT: 8:30pm, glass of Spanish sherry

Daniel Boulud (Fussy Fussy)

Today we recreated some of the fussy French recipes of Daniel Boulud. Since there were three recipes for the four of us, I went halfsies on the Crisp Paupiette of Sea Bass in a Red Wine Sauce, with Roundhead making the sauce and me spending most of the time on the fish.

This dish is a fish fillet wrapped in a thin blanket of thinly sliced rounds of potatoes, sautéed and served with a rich buttery wine sauce. First things first, the fish had to be filleted and skinned, as the bones and heads were needed to make stock for the sauce. I had four large sea bass to run over with a fillet knife, saw off the sides of the fish from head to tail (without making it look too torn up but not wasting too much flesh), then getting the fillets skinned by running the knife against the skin and the table while pulling it towards me. Getting to do this 7 times in a row (after have Chef Al review with me once) definitely allowed me to feel more comfy around the fish.

Roundhead went off on making the sauce (which contained bones, shallots, mushrooms, thyme, chicken stock, red wine, heavy cream, butter, sugar and salt -- no, not a quiet thin sauce) and I cut the potatoes into ovals, then thinly sliced on the mandoline, just as with pommes maxim, pommes anna and all those other oh-so-Fraaaanch potato dishes. Using lots of clarified butter, made overlapping sheets of potato, 3 rows of 4, applied a healthy dose of salt, placed a piece of the fish in the middle, added more salt, then gently folded around the protein. This took a few goes, making the tato thinner and thinner until it bent under the weight of being dipped in butter then glue itself to each other. Once we had about 14 packets of fish in potato on the sheet tray, we placed another sheet tray on top to keep the whole shebang in place, and into the fridge to solidify all the liquid clarified butter that drenched everything.

About 20 minutes before service, we heated up four non-stick pans and quickly sauteed the fish packages, again having to play with the level of heat. At first, too little heat wasn't doing anything, just allowing everything to suck up more fat. Then too hot, browing the potato in a minute, when the fish inside needed at least 2 to 3 minutes on each side.

As we were working, Chef Al flitted around to advise us that we needed to keep everything close by our station by the oven, as if we were in a real restaurant situation, we'd be crammed in a small space with 10 other line cooks. Well, yeah, but we ain't in a real restaurant situation! He also recommended getting the cooked-off fish packets into the over till service, but we had timed it so there were only a minute between finish cooking, plating and presenting.

Since there were mushrooms in the sauce, I quickly sauteed a few shrooms in the butter, and did a simple plating. Due to my past experiences working with uncooperative potatoes, I was surprised how well the potatoes cooperated in packaging the fish.

Tomorrow, Tom Keller.

ADDENDA:
Riding my bike across 14th St., I hit a pothole and my left foot slid off my pedal. My weight went to my right foot, pushing the pedal down and backwards, sending the left pedal up and really hard into my shin. I kept riding till I noticed something wet on my leg. I look down, and I see two spurts of blood shooting out of my leg. Huh. I coasted, thinking what I should do. Well, if I'm healthy, it should stop bleeding. I have nothing to clean up with, so mucking about will just make a bloody mess. So I road to 101st St to my friend, cleaned up and all was well. I imagine getting shot is similar. A quick brief action, keep moving then notice something wet. Huh.

BREAKFAST: 6:30am, good granola with good milk, .5 bowl, hunger 3/5

AM TASTINGS: 11am, handful of carmelized almonds, two pieces of rack of lamb, scallops and truffles wrapped in puff pastry, the fish wrapped in potatoes with butter wine sauce, quart of water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
My pores were oozing butter and salt.

PM SNACK: 4pm, half a bag of fritos, seltzer, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 7:15pm, green salad, half a buffalla moz pizza, small ramakin of cream anglais ice cream, 1 glass of wine, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING WATERING: 8pm, quart of water

Rick Bayless (Tacos, fine-dining style)

Today we received our new and final chef, Chef Al, a guy with a goatee and a straight, focused way of talking. I liked him immediately. The menus of Rick Bayless are all regional Mexican, calling for techniques we haven't tried much and some ingredients we haven't used at all.

We held the same groups, and I went back into the bubble. My recipe was Gordiata de Tocino con Guacamole de Chile Poblano, or Bacon-Flavored Gorditas Corn Masa Pockets with Roasted Poblano Guacamole. There were a lot of ingredients, and the description of the recipe ran three pages. As I worked through it, it wasn't so complicated -- a toasted and fried tortilla topped with guac n' stuff.

First thing was to mix some water with powdered masa harina (a finely ground corn flour) kneaded to cookie-dough consistency, then wrapped to prevent drying before letting it sit. Took a rasher of slab bacon, removed the skin, and sliced it up and cooked it slow in a pan to crisp. Once done, rough-chopped it into about 1/8" pieces, and mixed half of it (along with some rendered fat) into the masa.

While the bacon cooked and the masa rested, we prepped toppings -- grated queso fresco, arugula, salt, lime juice. Prepared a tortilla press, which looks like a small flat waffle-press minus the heating elements. Each plate had a piece of plastic applied to prevent the masa from sticking.

The guacamole was simple and surprisingly delicious. A poblano pepper was roasted on the open flame until covered with burnt blisters, then placed in a bowl and covered to steam itself to loosen the skin. Three cloves of garlic (with skins) were placed in a hot cast-iron skillet, then moved around occasionally until the skin was spotted black, the garlic soft and roasted. Both deskinned, the pepper and garlic were finely minced, then two avocados were scooped out over it and mashed together with a spoon. Seasoned with lime juice and salt, and into the fridge.

The gorditas were supposed to puff up at some point, to be stuffed like a pita. Either my ratio of water, the lack/surplus of heat on my pan or my fryer, or the presence of hunks of bacon in my dough prevented any puff action. Immediately after pressing, I placed the tortilla in the skillet, a minute on each side to get some nice brown spots, and then dipped them in a pot of canola oil at about 350 degrees (for about15 seconds), watching as the edges got crunchy. And that was that.

From there, it was just assemble and serve. Tortilla, guac spread on with a butter knife, small bunch of arugula chiffonade, generous pinch of cheese, pinch of raw onion, pinch of bacon -- what's not to love? The bitterness of the arugula, the creamy roasted flavor of the guac, the crisp corniness of the tortilla, the smokey num-num-ness of the bacon and cheese, a really good combo.

Tomorrow, the focus on French returns with Daniel Boulud.

ADDENDA:

BREAKFAST:
Throat a little scratchy, feeling tired, on the edge of run down. Took a vitamin C pill in addition to my daily dirt pill.

AM TASTINGS: 11am, bits of slab bacon, a few freshly made tortillas, two bacon gorditas, one pulled beef gordita, a few small pieces of chicken, turkey, cat fish, a little red rice, lime-aide, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Dirty Kim did a dish similar to mine, but hers puffed up in the oil, making them stuffable like pita pockets, but were a bit on the greezy side.

PM SNACK: 3:30pm, cream anglais ice cream, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Fell asleep, needed a smack awake.

PM SNACK: 5:45, large green salad, a couple of whole wheat pretzels, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 6:30pm, handful of bittersweet chocolate, .25 bowl, hunger 3/5
Shame on me.

DINNER: 8:30pm, pork cutlet with curry rice, a few pork gyoza, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING WATERING: 11pm, quart of water

Ming Tsai (Did the recipe or the cook sink this dish?)

In today's class, I took on the Citrus Herbal Tea-Rubbed Halibut with Orange-Fennel Orzo Salad -- a fussy name for a fussy dish. Though I had a solid 2.5 hours from start of prep to service, and the method of cooking the fish was the quick sauté, I really didn't have much time to sit around.

First, I had to get the fish into the dry rub and then into the fridge to absorb as much flavor as possible. The main feature of the rub was dried citrus zest. With a micro-plane, I stripped two lemons, two limes and two oranges, and spread them on a silicone mat and into the convection oven at about 100 degrees. The recipe called for 225 for 1.5 hours, but the fan-action of the convection oven made quick work of the drying, maybe 15 minutes.

Into the rub went the dry zest, ground green tea leaves, powdery dried mint, dry lemongrass flakes, salt, turbinado sugar, and freshly ground ginger. I had a whole side of halibut to work with, and Chef A generously reviewed how to break it down. First split the top from the bottom, then remove the bones near the gut-cavity in one long piece (you lose a little flesh, but to try to take each bone out with a pair of pliers would take an hour AND tear up the fish). A few cartilaginous spots from the spine also had to come off. With the boning knife, I cut an angle through the flesh to the skin, then sawed the knife across against the skin while I pulled the skin towards me with a balled fish. Fwooooop, and the fish was skinned. From here, I cut trachons -- thick slices on the bias. Sheet-tray lined with parchment, scattered with rub, each piece dipped in rub, wrapped up, and put into the fridge.

The second component was the Orange-Fennel Orzo Salad. Boil up some orzo until tender, then shock in ice bath to keep from getting mushy. Juice a few oranges and a lemon, cut up 2 oranges worth of supremes, thinly slice a few bulbs of fennel (cored) and mix it all together with a healthy shot of olive oil. Tasted really bland, so I hit it was a couple of fistfuls of salt till it tasted like something.

The recipe called for canola oil, which I don't care for so much. I considered using clarified butter instead, but that wouldn't happen in Asian cooking. So I tried for peanut oil, but the commissary sent up toasted peanut oil, which would not do, though I added a shot of it to hopefully mask the canola.

I cleaned my station and set up my sauté, and by then it was about a quarter to 11. Hit the pans with the oils, then placed the rubbed fish on it. Fried each side for a good 3 to 4 minutes. Last time I sautéed multiple batches like this, I forgot to wipe down the pan and all the residual spices from the first batch burned and ruined the second batch. Not this time! I wiped down and cleaned the pans, reheated and reoiled, and all was well.

And in the end, the dish was....feh. It wasn't bad, but was definitely missing something. The orzo salad was a bit of a one-note flavor, the orange kind of overwhelming the fennel. The fish didn't taste much of anything, the green tea not really notable, a vague mint overtone, but kind of bland -- I should of doubled the salt in the rub, or hit it with salt right before cooking.

Tomorrow, Rick Bayless.

ADDENDA:

Stupid scale said 226. Stupid scale.

BREAKFAST: 7am, good granola with the good milk, .5 bowl, hunger 3/5

AM TASTINGS: 11am, a few pieces of Chinese sausage, ginger butterfish, soba noodle sushi, Mongolian beef with black bean aioli, corn fritter, rice noodle stirfry, orzo with sausage and sambal, spicy shrimp with mango, achiote duck breast, halibut, quart of water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

Food today was surprisingly good.

PM WATERING: 12noon, quart of ice water

DINNER: 5:15pm, extra-large green salad with balsamic, olive oil and a pinch of sea salt, whole wheat pretzels and good peanutbutter, ramakin of cream anglais ice cream, 2 bowls, hunger 4/5

Mario Batali (Putting my own stink on Batali's sprouts)

Today was the first day of the fifth and final mod before we go into the world for our externships. The mod starts with single days spent creating dishes by various famous chefs, today Mario Batali (or as Chef M called him, Mario Bobali).

Chef A, who subbed the first day (aaaalright? Okaaaay!) of mod 3 was in to sub today and tomorrow, after which a new chef will take us through to the end. Chef A divided up the class alphabetically, which meant I was placed with Roundhead (ok), 2nd Language Girl (pheh) and the dreaded Dora the Explorer. We had three dishes, Two Minute Calamari Sicilian Lifeguard-Style, Monkfish Piccata with Caperberries and Preserved Lemon, and Brussels Sprouts with Pancetta. After asking what everyone wanted to do, I took on the sprouts. After yesterday's ride, something simple and without aggravation was in order.

What looked pretty straightforward actually had a lot of subtlety to it, and Chef A really helped me understand what was going on. Brussel Sprouts with Pancetta: trim sprouts, blanch and shock, cube and render pancetta, cook sprouts in a pan till tender in pancetta fat, add pancetta and minced thyme and parsely, hit with salt and pepper to taste.

The recipe calls for 2 minutes of blanching before cutting the sprouts in half. I had cut them in half beforehand; they turned out woefully undercooked. I had a hard time finding the right temp to render, and the pancetta first just sat their in the pan, turning an unappetizing pale grey, then burned. It was still pretty edible and crispy, but the fat all dissipated.

Chef A recommended caramelizing the sprouts slowly over low heat. A bit of olive oil, a couple pats of butter, then place the undercooked sprouts in the pan. First hit it with high heat to rid of the water the sprouts were sitting in; after steaming, put on low heat and let sprouts turn a little brown, a little sweet. Myself, I'm not a fan of brussels sprouts, but I tried a few to check for doneness and flavor. They seemed a little tough and chewy, but seemed to be browned enough with the right amount of natural sweetness. On Chef A's word, I took some chicken stock and put it in the pan, blasted high heat to cook off the stock. Then I tossed in the pancetta and herbs, tasted, determined the appropriate sharp saltiness of the meat, put in some fresh ground pepper, and plated. I'm still not a fan of brussels sprouts, but these were ok, with a sweetness that cut down on the funky brussellsy flavor I don't like.

Tomorrow, Ming Tsai.

ADDENDA:

With the format of this class (every group doing unique dishes), I think I'm going to report on just the stuff I have a hand in, not everything my group works on. Today I did refresh 2LG on how to clean and disassemble squid, and sat in on Chef A's demo on how to clean monkfish, but over all just stuck to my own thang.

BREAKFAST: 7am, good yogurt with honey, vanilla, nuts, .5 bowl, hunger 3/5

AM TASTING: 9-11am, fenchbread, a few tiny bites of bacon, a few tiny bites of pancetta, a few brussel sprouts, mint pasta with lamb ragu, skate and shrimp with lemon sauce, a bite of sweetbread with caramelized onions, water, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 3pm, 2.5 ears of boiled corn with butter and salt, water, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 5pm. 3 tiny school made croissants, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 6pm, fancy onion rings, a little tomato salad, small portion of scallop ceviche, small piece of pinapple upside down cake, small piece of bland brownie, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Underwhelming dinner at Tabla Bread Bar. Portions too small for the price, ceviche not particularly bright despite being acidy, brownie unforgivably mediocre.

EVENING SNORT: 7-9pm, equivalent of one glass of wine, prosciutto, a little cheese, a couple of crackers, a slice of cheese cake, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
The wines of Spain mostly taste like ass, other than this one 25-year-old sherry, which was quite nice. They had more food in the class today, and it was funny to see B "share" a piece of cheese cake with me. I put it in front of me, and she pretty much kept reaching over until it was gone and I hadn't even had a bite yet. Wimmin!

Weekend Report (Suspicious Sports Drink)

I was in the local conventional supermarket Saturday, picking up tinfoil, toothpaste, razorblades, paper goods, and the like. I spent a few extra minutes milling around, trying to get inspired about what to eat for dinner. In the dairy aisle, there was packages of pre-cooked bacon. WTF? Bacon is wonderful, but if it ain't hot off the grill, it tends to be disgusting -- this product seems to be predestined to be detestable.

As I digested my pancake & bacon dinner Saturday night, while it stormed out and B was out at a bachelorette party, I hunkered down to get to bed early for the next day's ride...and had an urge to call up my mom and make small talk with her -- I'd probably lead off with berating her about how her generation's laziness has caused the invention of pre-cooked bacon. It was a weird moment, a few seconds of friendly excitement about a comforting conversation followed by the awareness of her having been gone almost three years now. I think I'll ride by her grave site next weekend, and bitch about tainted bacon to her then.

Sunday, rode the NYC Century.

SATURDAY
BREAKFAST: 5:30am, smoothie, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Grapes, cherries, blueberries, banana, yogurt, good milk, flax, a dash of salt.

BREAKFAST 2: 9:30am, stirfry, quart of water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Smoked tofu, brocolli, zucchini, seaweed, carrot, scallion, shitakes, brown rice stick, mirin, sesame oil, soy sauce, fish stock. Came out OK, overcooked the veg a little.

AM SNACK: 10am, a couple of spoonfuls of vanilla ice cream
Making the cream anglais into something much yummier.

LUNCH: 2pm, medium green salad, school made soft pretzel, small cup of ice cream, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 6:30pm, pancakes and bacon, handful of chocolate, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

SUNDAY
BREAKFAST: 5am, good granola with good milk, .75 bowl, hunger 3/5

AM BIKE SNACK: 7:15am, krispy creme donut, tiny cliff bar, water, .5 bowl, hunger 3/5
Prospect Park rest stop, not hungry but ate to prevent getting hungry. Saw an orthodox woman in a full-length dress, tailored jacket and strood jogging.

AM BIKE SNACK: 9am, half a bagel w/pb&j, a small piece of pita with hummus, 2 tiny bags of potato chips, a bottle of suspicious sports drink, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Carnarsie rest stop. Giving away "Functional" sports drink. OK, made with cane sugar, but big claims for all these unusual non-FDA-approved ingredients that makes it a bit hokey. Tasted mildly sweet, which was nice, though.

AM BIKE SNACK: 11am, half a suspicious sports drink, water, .25 bowl, hunger 2/5
Kissena rest stop. Stomach really tight, to the point of slight nausea. Legs felt good, but belly a bit....too much water, maybe?

PM BIKE SNACK: 1pm, 1.5 pb&j sandwiches on whole wheat bread, one small piece of pita with hummus, tiny cliff bar, 2 tiny bags potato chips, banana, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Astoria rest stop. Hunger back, felt good.

PM BIKE SNACK: 3pm, krispy kreme donut, water, .5 bowl, hunger 2/5
Van Cordlandt Park rest stop. Eight miles to go, stomach tightened up again.

PM OFF-THE-BIKE SNACK: 4pm, large chocolate chip cookie, water, .5 bowl, hunger 2/5
End of ride on the northern end of Central Park, B & her momma there to greet me. Really nice, ate the cookie despite not being hungry because I knew if I didn't it, I'd crash. 108 miles on the body is nothing to play with lightly. Felt drained and out of sorts and ecstatic and so relaxed at the same time.

DINNER: 7pm, shrimp w/broccoli, pork fried rice, pork egg roll, bbq spare ribs, 1.5 quarts of water, 2.5 bowls, hunger 5/5
Ahhhhhh....