Weekend Report (Tenderloin Walkin')

On Sunday, I took a train with my bicycle to Garrison, rode to my parents' resting place, then down the Hudson Valley back to the Bronx. On the way, in Putnam Valley, a small front lawn off the street had a bird feeder hosting three cute-as-a-button deer. I stopped, watched them chewing the bird-cud, and wondered how hungry they must have been to expose themselves to traffic and spandex-clad cyclists. Also made me wonder how delicious their tender-loins could be....

I made two apple crumb pies on Saturday, one for a get-together with B's friend's that night, the other for a brunch that B hosted on Sunday. I used Chef Al's quick and easy pate brise recipe, which can be remembered by 1.5 + 1.5 = 3: 1.5 cups of AP flour, 1.5 sticks of butter, and 3 tablespoons of ice water, plus salt to taste. Chill flour, cube butter. Place all in food processor for about a minute, make into a powder. Press with fingers (the warmth from fingers should make it ball up). Add two tablespoons of sugar, put into a cylinder, wrap, and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

For the filling: 10 green granny smith apples were peeled, cored, and sliced thin (by mixer attachment). In a pan, heat sugar and lemon juice with water and cinnamon. As an experiment, I put in a shot of light corn syrup and one tablespoon of cornstarch dissolved in a little water, just to play with the mouth feel. Once it started boiling, it looked like it thickened, and I put the apples in the pan to heat and coat thoroughly.

Rolled out the dough into two rounds, covered two tins. Piled in the filling, then topped with crumb topping: butter, flour, sugar, and cinnamon blended in the mixer with the whisk attachment until it got really...apple-crumbly. Poured over the pies and baked for 60 minutes.

Consistent the crust was not. After laying in the first, the second got really thin to cover. On the thinner one, the crust was somewhat overwhelmed by the filling -- maybe I should have blind baked it? But the thicker one, the crust held up fine and tasted awesomely buttery. Chef Al's recipe worked.

Tomorrow begins the last full week of c-school.

SATURDAY
BREAKFAST: 9am, organic cheerios with good milk, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 1pm, sauteed shrimp with homemade pasta sauce and wholewheat pasta, organic cherry Italian ice, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
This was perhaps the best pasta dish I ever made at home. The sauce was homemade a week ago and frozen, with shittakes in them to kick it up a notch. For a change, I butterflied the shrimp and dredged them in flour and sea salt before cooking off -- it gave them an interesting snap, and the butterflying made them curl up in a very restaurant kind of way. Once the pasta was boiled off, I put sauce in the pan and cooked the pasta further in the sauce to really grab and bond to it. Tossed in the shrimps, covered the top in freshly grated parm. I cooked up about half the bag of pasta, and when I was putting it into the bowl, I could hear Chef Al deriding me for serving him so much pasta -- only someone as 'large' as me should can eat THAT much pasta. So I left about 1/3 of the pasta behind (after picking it of shrimp and sauce), and it was quite enough. The cherry ice I picked up at Wholefood was only made with 5 ingredients - water, cane sugar, cherry puree, natural flavoring and citric acid. It was really good, looked purple instead of red, had a real nice flavor, but if I were to make it, I'd put in a shot of gelatin to make it just a little bit smoooother.

DINNER: 7pm, cheese and crackers, hummus, tabouli, 2 slices homemade apple pie, 2 glasses white wine, .25 bowls of food, .75 of pie, hunger 3/5
Dinner at A's house with B and two of her friends. Very low key, and not hungry due to great lunch. Lots of compliments, but I thought the pie was a bit disappointing.

SUNDAY
BREAKFAST: 4:45am, pancakes and bacon, .75 bowl, hunger 3/5
Wanted to eat strong for the ride, but only ate about 1/2 the amount of pancakes as usual, due to it being so damn early. Put the other half of the batter in the fridge, gonna cook 'em tomorrow to see how the flavor is.

BIKE POWER SNACK #1: 9:45am, small bag of potato chips, small bag of chocolate chip cookies, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Peekskill.

BIKE POWER SNACK #2: 11am-12pm, 20oz Gatorade, bag of corn chips, 1 bowl, hunger 3/5
Stopped in Ossening hoping for a farmer's market, but it wasn't there. Wasn't hungry enough to finish this small snack, but felt a lightness of head coming on.

BIKE WATERING: 8-3pm, 60oz

PM SNACK:3:15pm, bagel with hummus, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Left overs from B's girlie brunch while I was gone.

PM SNACK: 4pm, apple pie, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Today's pie was much better than yesterday -- the crust was thicker, and held up against the apple goo.

DINNER: 5pm, beef & brocolli with brown rice, shrimp toast, water, 1.5 bowl
Perhaps the most reasonable meal I've had from Chinese takeout ever!

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.

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....

Weekend Report (Philly)

On Saturday, B & I took a day trip to Philadelphia. We took Amtrak out there, and walked up the river and rented bicycles for the day. Sure, we hit up the Rodin and Mutter Museums, gawked at the Liberty Bell and rode up and down the waterfront, took naps in Rittenhouse Square and wandered around Society Hill. But, most important, we ate cheese steaks! And, upon recommendation from a friend, hit up the perfect restaurant to help celebrate our first anniversary as a married couple. Philly is a very bikeable city, and B actually seemed to enjoy spending the day getting everywhere by quick pedal power.

On Monday, did a nice 80 mile ride with D around Staten Island. Ate rather crappily but kept me going with strength.

Monday morning scale said 225, a pound in the right direction.

SATURDAY
BREAKFAST: 5:30am, organic chex with good milk, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

BREAKFAST 2: 9:30am, plain bagel with cream cheese, water, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 12:15pm, one and a half Philly Cheese Steaks, 1 beer, water, 2 bowl, hunger 4/5
Jim's Steaks at 5th and South Street, I got whiz, B got provolone. Even though cheese whiz is a disgusting substance, it just works with the hot greasy meat.

PM SNACK: 1pm, chocolate chip cookie, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 5pm, spinach gnocchi in a cream sauce, green salad, water, 1.5 bowls, hunger 4/5
Took B to a restaurant named B called "Gnocchi", which is one of her favorite foods.

EVENING SNACK: 8:45pm, 1 slice streetza, hunger 4/5
Got to readjust back to NYC!


SUNDAY
BREAKFAST 1: good yogurt with honey, vanilla, raw cashews, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

BREAKFAST 2: bagel with cream cheese, lox, tomato, onion, side of bacon and home fries, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 2-3:30, raw pate sucree dough, cooked apples, handful of chocolate, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Cooking apple pie for B and her momma. The pate sucree came out very crumbly, hard to work with. Cooked the apples with sugar, cinnamon, lemon juice and a little flour in a pan, covered for 15 minutes, smelled good but tasted slightly odd.

DINNER: 5:30pm, 2 pieces bread & olive oil, crostini with ricotta & truffled mushrooms, cold string beans with preserved garlic, cavatelli with sausage and browned butter, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

DESSERT: 7pm, apple pie, creme anglais ice cream, chocolate sauce, .5 bowl, hunger 3/5 After dinner out at Frankies with B and her momma for our anniversary, we came back to Casa de Rufus and ate homemade dessert. The ice cream and sauce was great, and the pie was surprisingly good -- despite the pate sucree crust looking a bit frankensteiny and sloppy, it tasted great and the filling melded nicely.

MONDAY
BREAKFAST: 5:30am, large piece of apple pie, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

BIKE WATERING: 7am-3pm, 150oz of water
I'm amazed I drank this much water during the 80 mile ride but only peed about 3 times.

AM SNACK: 9am, potato chips, boylan's orange creme soda, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Only two hours into the ride, but got surprisingly hungry. Hoboken was near abandoned, except for this Korean grocer on Washington.

AM SNACK: 10:30am, 20oz gatorade, small bag cornchips, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Powersnacking in Bayonne, NJ.

LUNCH: 12:30pm, turkey and Swiss on a kaiser roll, cheesy poofs, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Bad food on the southern tip of Staten Island.

LINNER: 3:30pm, pint of pork fried rice, large piece of apple pie, small portion of vanilla ice cream, 1.5 bowls, hunger 5/5
A rare 5/5! When I got home, could not see straight from hunger and exhaustion. Showered, then wolfed down a pint of rice I picked up on the way home. Homemade dessert definitely hit the sweet spot.

DINNER: 8:30pm, wholewheat pasta with homemade pasta sauce, apple pie, water, 2 bowl, hunger 4/5

Weekend Report (Physical Pheats of Phearless Phrenzy)

On Saturday I did my first unassisted shoulder stand in yoga, on Sunday I road in the North Fork Century, doing my highest average speed over such a long distance. And I wolfed down 2 burgers, a hot dog, an ear of corn and THREE slices of pie in the space of an hour or so.

SATURDAY
BREAKFAST: 5:30am, 2 pancakes, 1 school-made madeline, bacon, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM SNACK: 10am, 1 tiny chocolate vegan sniggidy snack

LUNCH: 12:15pm, vegan stirfry with brown sticky rice, a few bits of maple candy,3 thimbles of sake, seltzer, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Got a bunch of good looking veg from the farmer's market with D and HVS, came out good, but not great. Needed ginger and stock, less mirin, cooked the mushrooms a little longer, the peppers a little less.

PM SNACK: 3pm, handful of school-made cookies, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5 I gotta get rid of these things. Anyone want cookies?

DINNER: 5pm, wholewheat pasta with garlic & olive oil, fresh tomato, grated parm, a pat of butter, salt and pepper, 2 bowls, hunger 4/5
Eating some extra carbs in anticipation of tomorrow's ride. Didn't sweat the garlic enough.

EVENING SNACK: 6:30pm, a handful of school cookies, 2 school-made chocolate truffles, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
If you think I'M bad, my wife just ate an entire pint of chocolate truffles!

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

AM SNACK: 4:45am, 2 dunkin' donuts donuts, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM SNACK: 8:15am, 1 small piece of pound cake, hunger 3/5

AM SNACK: 9:45am, PB&J on graham crackers, small piece of crumb cake, 8 oz of gatorade, .5 bowl, hunger 3/5

AM SNACK: 11:30am, small piece of focaccia, 1 piece wholewheat bread with nutella, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 1:30pm, 3 pieces of apple crumble pie, small handful of individually wrapped chocolates, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 2:30pm, 1 hamburger, 1 cheeseburger, 1 hotdog, 1 ear of corn, 1/2 a can of sprite, can of diet coke, 2 bowls, hunger 4/5
The water fountain wasn't very cold, and the sodas were on ice.

DINNER: 8:15pm, shrimp in garlic sauce with black beans and yellow rice, water, 2 bowls, hunger 4/5

Weekend Report (Studying at Pepe's)

Got out of the house on Saturday early to get to Brooklyn Bridge at 7am sharp to enjoy the start of the NYC Summer Streets thing, where they closed off a main thoroughfare from the bridge to Central Park. For a while, I thought maybe the entire city forgot this was happening -- tons of cops milling around and from the bridge to Grand Central I saw all of 2 other cyclists, one dog walker, and less than 10 joggers. However, I did set a new personal land-speed record of getting from the bridge to 42nd Street in 12 minutes. On the way back close to home, my legs felt a little rubbery and thinking of an indulgent breakfast, maybe at my local diner I used to frequent weekly until I started watching what I ate. Yummy! Then I remembered, no, no yummy - gummy greasy pancakes and over-salty bacon, acidy diet coke. Comforting, maybe, but not yummy.

Sunday I got out on the bike on a casual pedal-about with E, explored the Williamsburg waterfront, made it down to the Red Hook vendors again for some amazing empinadas, hopped on the Ikea ferry to Wall Street, checked out David Byrne's 'Playing the Building' art installation (peeps were crawling around dancing at us as we wandered around), had a chillaxing beer (as some Canadians would say) and more laid back pedalling. A good mix o' food and riding.

SATURDAY
BREAKFAST: 6:15am, school made bagel with butter, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
We scaled out 4oz of dough for every bagel, they came out about half the size of store bagels. Very tasty.

BREAKFAST 2: 8:30am, leftover spaghetti with half a meatball, small amount of WF sport drink, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM SNACK: 9:45pm, big chocolate chip cookie, water, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
Comfort food for the train ride to New Haven to spend time w/B and the father in law.

LUNCH: 1pm, white clam pizza, a few small slices of tomato pie with sausage, pint of beer, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
In New Haven at Pepe's, 30 minute wait in line but well worth it. Crisp and chewy, tasty wood char, fresh clams, big hunks of garlic. As I was eating it, I was studying it: how could I make this at home. Large mince of garlic, olive oil, wine reduction flavor, butter? Maybe not, maybe it would make it better. Ground pepper? Dried basil? Salt?

DINNER: 7:30pm, homemade stir fry veg and noodles, grilled shrimp, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 8:30pm, small box of Entemann's chocolate chip cookies, half pint of Adirondack chocolate ice cream, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Needed comfort snack. Ice cream was hormone-free and a relatively short list of ingredients, but not as good as my homemade stuff...judging from the order of the ingredients, they use a lot less egg yolks than I do. The cookies were, as usual, disappointingly filler-tasting.

SUNDAY
BREAKFAST: 7:30am, half a chocolate babka-thing, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
From Moishe's, the kosher bakery around the corner. Looking forward to making croissants with chocolate tomorrow.

BREAKFAST 2: 9am, school made bagel with butter, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 2pm, cheese and meat empinadas, large tamarind sweet drink, traditionally dressed corn on cob on stick, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
At the Red Hook vendors again, the empinadas were absolutely fried perfectly, the soft cheese pillowy and soft tasting. The tamarind drink was a lot less flavorful than what Chef K made in class, it was more like sugar water with a slight tamarind aftertaste.

PM DRINK: 4pm, 1 beer
In the beer garden of Battery Park

PM SNACK: 5pm, 1 bite of a slice of 2boots Pizza
E was eating, I wasn't hungry. She had a BBQ chicken slice. Really tasted it carefully -- from top to bottom, the 'BBQ chicken' tasted like vinegar and Tabasco, nothing like BBQ. It lent a greasy patina to the excess layer of moz, the sauce was overwhelmed b the toppings, and while the crust had a nice bite, they use so much cornmeal on the bottom of their pies that is supposed to be a trademark, but just tastes too gritty and vaguely burnt to me.

PM SNACK: 5:30pm, half a pint of chocolate ice cream, .5 bowl, hunger 3/5
Just needed to cool down a little.

DINNER: 7:30pm, beef lomein, half an eggroll, one piece of shrimp toast, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
B's dad wanted Chinese! It's not my fault!

Weekend Report (HAMMERTIME!)

On Saturday, B & I took the free ferry to Ikea from the Wall Street area, then walked over the Red Hook Ball Fields vendors, a collection of food carts serving all sorts of South American street food. The lines for the vendors were out of control, and the number of vendors (this year forced into trucks by the DOH) were easily split by half. While we established ourselves on the longest line for the huracha (sauteed meat or veg with veg, queso fresca, sauce) I wandered to another card and got a spectacular empinada stuffed with little cubes of beef, cheese, veggies, and spices. The corn on the cob had a perfect balance of mayo, lime, salt, grated cheese and grill flavor, something I wouldn't have appreciated before C-school.

SATURDAY
BREAKFAST: 6am, smoothie, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Grapes, cherries, kiwi, blueberry, banana, good yogurt and milk, flax, dash of salt, dash of honey, dash of vanilla extract. DAMN!

AM SNACK: 10:15am, vegan snack bars, water, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Overly-sweet maple syrup bars after yoga in the park. B & the HVS were ga-ga over them, I guess because they were sugar bricks with some crunchy stuff thrown in, hrumph.

AM SNACK: 11:30pm, baby carrots and hummus, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Saving my appetite for the Red Hook vendors...

LUNCH: 1:30p, beef empinada, corn on the cob with dressing, pork huracha, 8oz lie drink, water, 2 bowls, hunger 4/5
Absolutely delicious.

PM SNACK: 2pm, chocolate ice cream cone, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
From a Mr. Softy in Red Hook. Not great, but hit the spot on a hot sunny day chasing spicy food.

DINNER SNACK: 8pm, handful of raw cashews
After napping for 3 hours, not that hungry but felt like eating something. Soon after, would be sleeping again.

SUNDAY
BREAKFAST: 6:15am, good yogurt with cashews, honey, vanilla, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM SNACK: 7am, 2 donuts, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Donut Plant: some of the best damn donuts in the world, and they happen to be on my street. Got one big puffy chocolate, one small dense hazelnut. Good to get the legs started on a bike ride.


LUNCH: 10:30am, dry salami slices, carrots and celery, bad onion dip, watermelon, a few sesame pretzels, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Picked up some random groceries in Nyack and feasted at Rockland Lake. No, I didn't finish the dip, only about 1/4 of it. Pretzels are HVS-approved, and quite delicious.

PM SNACK: 12:30pm, 2 donuts, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
At a farm stand, freshly fried donuts, nice and crispy. Not as good as Donut Plant donuts, but they were fresh, free of preservative chemicals and the sugar kept me moving.

PM SNALACK: 3pm, large green salad with fresh tomato, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Might be going out to eat in a few hours, need to temper my potentially out-of-control appetite.

PM SNACK: 5pm, 5 sesame pretzels, water, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 6:30pm, small green salad, cup of pea soup, meat stuffed derma, 1/2 a keilbasa, 3 perogies, 2 slices challah, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Dinner with Y at Veselka. I remember huge portions, but this was very normal, surprising for a 'deluxe meat combination'.

EVENING SNACK: 7:15, chocolate ice cream, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 8:15, hot dog with kraut, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Still hungry. We stopped in at Criffdog, surprised by how not very good it was.

EVENING WATERING: 9pm, quart of seltzer

This has nothing to do with food, but midway through my ride up into Rockland County, I came across this stop sign. Someone had taken the time to come up with the idea of painting "HAMMERTIME" on a stop sign? And made a stencil, bought spray paint, and chose this sign to paint on? As I was standing there, marveling and taking a picture, across the street (out of frame) ,a 100-car freight train went past at full speed. I waved to the conductor and he waved back. HAMMERTIME! It was a brilliant ride.

Weekend Report (Too Much)

Upon reflection of last night's pizza marathon and Saturday's wedding and Thursday's little anniversary picnic, I must say that I lucked out with B. She's like salt -- she just makes life a little bit more lifelike, in a good way. (And she raises my blood pressure, too!) At the pizza parties, while I'm toiling away in the kitchen, she's making everyone just love being here and being around her. At the wedding, she makes a structurally stressful event a breeze. And when I make an effort to get all romantical on her on our anniversary, she makes me feel like I just set a Guinness Record for greatest guy alive.

Went to the movies on Sunday afternoon with D & Cousin I. Waiting on line for a cherry slurpy, and while I waited noticed they had posted in a tiny font the calorie values of every item on the menu. I was intending to get a medium slurpee: 700 calories!!! A small, 550!! 700 is like 1/3 of what I need a day, and I wasn't planning to skip a meal to fit this crap in....and I wasn't even that hungry anyway, just thirsty....

SATURDAY
BREAKFAST: 8am, 1 banana, 2 ramekins of almond ice cream, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Remembering how much I hate wedding food, gorged on ice cream to damp my appetite -- just too tired & lazy to cook or prepare anything. No left over pizza from last night, which sucks but in the scheme of things is a good thing, right?
AM SNACK: 9:45am, chocolate chip cookie, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
On a sugar kick, feeling a bit on edge about spending the day at a wedding.

LUNCH: 12pm, Italian antipasto, weird industrial Chinese food, seltzer, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Wedding reception food, funny how weddings serve an all-you-can-eat buffet BEFORE you sit down for a meal.

LUNCH 2: 2pm, filet mignon with brown sauce, potatoes and cooked veg, vegetarian ravioli, small amount of chocolate, bite of wedding cake, water, 1 bowl, hunger 3/5
Filet mignon sounds fancy, and it is tender, but it just doesn't taste like much. Funny how I noticed when B's chicken came out, the presentation was upside down, with the sauce away from her and the bone pointing towards her.

DINNER: 8pm, sausage and polenta, .5 bowl, hunger 3/5
School-made outta the freezer -- freezer fishing is a lot more fun since going to c-school.

SUNDAY
BREAKFAST: 8:30am, good granola with good milk, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM SNACK: 10:30am, almond ice cream, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

BRUNCH: 12:30pm, dim sum, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 7:30pm, homemade pizza, seltzer, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

Weekend Report (Ethiopfneh!)

On Sunday for lunch, I had Ethiopian food for lunch with B. We got a vegetarian platter for two, seen above. I was introduced to this cuisine years ago, and I really liked it, the spicy flavors, the weird consistencies, the practice of eating everything with soft spongy flat bread instead of utensils. I had many early dates with Ethiopian food, to see how the women reacted. The NY Times had an article recently explaining why African food in general has never taken off in NYC, despite the fact there are more Africans here than all Asians of different ethnic groups (Chinese, Japanese, Thai, etc) combined. I remember taking my friend from England to Ethiopian and her being shocked by a platter of 'baby sick'. I took my parents, who I had previously introduced to Indian, Thai and regional Italian food, of which they all loved -- Ethiopian, they turned a little green.

So it pains me to say that I think I don't like Ethiopian food anymore. In school, I'm learning not just how to cook but how to eat, too. For what reasons does food become thought of as 'good'? Unthought about, you can go strictly on emotional ties and the nutritional value. But now I'm thinking, ugh, there is no variety of texture on this plate, the injera isn't nearly as fresh as it could be, the spices of the two different looking things are way to similar, but not complementary, the kale is oversalted, the cabbage is undersalted and the stuff should not be soaking the platter with oil. FNEH!

SATURDAY
BREAKFAST: 7pm, smoothie, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Banana, ginger, blueberries, cherries, grapes, kiwi, good milk, good yogurt. Had to make another vegan smoothie while this sat, and when I got back to it, its beautiful pink color turned a weird light-cement brown. Still delicious.

AM SNACKS:8:30am, pretzels, chocolate vegan cookie thing, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM SNACKS: 11am, pretzels, chocolate vegan thingie, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACKS: 1pm, fries, cherry ice, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Bad food at Asbury Park. The birds would fly really close to the HVS's head and snap up fries thrown in the air.

LINNER: 4:30pm, bad fried fish sandwich on puffy white roll, small bag of chips, 2 cans of beer, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 8pm, beet pasta with talegio cream sauce and pears, 2 meat balls, mint chocolate chip ice cream, 2 bowls, hunger 4/5
When I got home from riding along beaches all day, was going to go out for Ethiopian but B had fallen asleep. Tempted to order a Chinese brick but when I went into the fridge, remembered I was a culinary student who is wearhousing some really good food in the fridge and freezer....

SUNDAY
BREAKFAST: 8:15am, good granola with good milk, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
Woke up hungry, always a good thing.

AM SNACK: 11:45pm, chocolate bar, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Hungry, lazy, easy in. It just kinda jumped out of the wrapper and down my throat.

LUNCH: 1pm, Ethiopian vegetarian platter, 1 bowl, hunger 3/5

DINNER: 6pm, samples of 8 different sausages, 1 piece of dark bread with quark cheese, one dark beer, .75 bowl
It was the last day of Sausage Week at Blau Gans, so I shared a multi-tiered sausage platter with a close friend of mine and close friend of B's who I suspect were hitting it off quite well. It's hard not to think of sexy-times when eating a huge platter of sausages. I left when they started their second drink.

EVENING DRINK: 7:30pm, 1 dark beer
Another bar with Cousin J, who is leaving soon and had to celebrate/commiserate with some of her friends.

Weekend Report (The 'Mus is Loose!)

SATURDAY
BREAKFAST: 7am, watermelon, 2 bowls, hunger 4/5

BREAKFAST 2: 9:30am, peanut butter & pretzel, lots of good bacon, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

BREAKFAST 3: 11am, a few bites of vegan 'gyro', .25 bowl, hunger 2/5

PM SNACK: 3pm, small cherry ice, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 5:30pm, 1 small burger, small amount of potato salad, 1.5 small kielbasas on buns, a few slices of mojo flank steak, a few pieces of grilled eggplant, a couple of cubes of chocolate cake, 3 beers, 1.5 bowls, hunger 4/5

Grilled over coals at B's cousin's brownstone in Brooklyn. Made a nice non-mayo style tater salad that was yummier than expected, marinated the steak in red wine, honey, OJ and lime juice, came out pretty decent. If I wasn't doing most of the grilling myself, I probably wouldn't of ate this combo of food, but felt obliged to sample everything (the burger had a nice garlic character) before serving it to friends.

EVENING SNACK: 10:30pm, homemade mint chip ice cream, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Nice smooth feeling in the throat and tummy after a warm bike ride on a squeaky machine.

SUNDAY
BREAKFAST: 8am, smoothie, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Good milk and good yogurt, grapes, blueberries, half a kiwi, banana, freshly ground flax, pinch of sea salt, ice. I'm really starting to like the flavor of these smoothies -- blueberry is the dominant note, the other fruit seem to blend into the background.

BREAKFAST 2: 11:30am, fresh homemade hummus with 1 wholewheat pita, handful of baby carrots, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 12:30pm, 1 slice local streetza, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 3:30, 4oz Entemann's chocolate chip cookies, water, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
20 miles into bike ride at Breezy Point, some easy energy to keep me going. Used to love these cookies from my childhood, now taste a bit fakey.

LINNER: 5:30pm, hotdog with kraut and onions, fried potatoes, 1/3 of a funnel cake, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Keepin' it real at Coney Island. It was either ride 10 miles home or eat some funnel cake and take the subway. Greezy! GreeEEEzy! Funnelcake tastes like summer.

DINNER: 9:30pm, baby carrots and hummus, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Attempted some short grain brown rice in the rice cooker, but the ratio on the bag of rice to water was totally wrong and I gave up after it came out totally crunchy twice.

Weekend Report (Four Day Nap)

Saw this scale for sale on the Lower East Side -- who wants to stand on an evilly grinning humanimal-chef holding a plate of food while you weight yourself?

Had a very low-key extended weekend, where I ended up squashing a lot of plans so I just could sleep a lot. Thursday, tried to ride the bike in the morning but got 10 miles up the west side and turned back, too tired. Ended up going out to lunch then the movies before assisting in a rec class. Friday stayed indoors all day, road bikes to B's mom until she blew a flat. Had a nice dinner on the UES then fell asleep during the fireworks. Bleh. Saturday was supposed to go out to Ikea but felt flat, fell asleep and slept most of the day till B dragged me out to fancy dinner. Sunday's bike ride was cancelled due to suspicious weather and ended up spending most of the day in a movie theater with B and the HVS.

Looking forward to getting back to school and getting a groove on.

THURSDAY
BREAKFAST: 7am, homemade pancakes, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Holy crap. The pancakes in school were better. Mine came out a little dry, a tad tough and a little bland. Gotta do a rethink. Funny, these were the most rocking things compared to crappy mixes. Now that I made them quasi-professionally, they taste all wrong.

AM SNACK: 11am, carrots, cucumber, and red pepper, school made hazelnut vinegarette, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 12:45pm, mixed gluten, mashed taro treasure boxes, steamed gelatinous rice wrapped in lotus lead, mini spring rolls, mock-shrimp dumplings, 2 bowls, hunger 4/5

Stuffed myself at the Vegetarian Dim Sum House, as dinner will be steak-a-tho

DINNER: 9pm, grilled skirt steak marinated in red wine mojo with orange salsa, crab cakes, tomato and onions with steak sauce, German style hash browns, mushroom gravy, baked alaska, 2.5 bowls, hunger 4/5
Rec-class dinner, a whole lotta fun bringing 5 members of the public through a few recipes. Replaced veg oil in the hashbrowns with clarified butter, brought them to a whole new level of deliciousness.

FRIDAY
BREAKFAST: 8:30am, good yogurt with honey, cashews, vanilla, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM SNACK: 11am, spoonful of good peanut butter topped with dark chocolate chips, hunger 4/5
I think my body is ready for a tasting.

PM SNACK: 12:45pm, boca burger on wholewheat with kimchi, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Wifey is taking an epic amount of time to get ready to go out to lunch, I'm forced to graze through our woefully understocked kitchen. Chef jokes that coffee should be the 6th mother sauce -- wrong, it should be kimchi. Deeeelicious!

LUNCH: 2pm, homemade pizza, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 6:30pm, onion gratinee soup, sauteed skate with haricot vertes and hazelnuts, small dish of vanilla ice cream, bread & butter, 2 bowls, hunger 4/5
French food on the UES with B and her momma.

EVENING SNACK: 8pm, small amount of chocolate frozen yogurt, hunger 3/5
Yuck!!! The consistency is right, but overly sweet and has an aftertaste of spoiled milk. Who the hell eats this crap? The brand proclaims 'all-organic', but there are something like 7 fillers, gums and stabilizers added in to get the right consistency. Yeesh.

SATURDAY
BREAKFAST: 7:30am, organic cheerios with good milk, .5 bowl, hunger 3/5

LUNCH: 2pm, pasta with butter, garlic and glace de viande, 1.5 bowls, hunger 4/5
Oversalted the water, the sauce was kinda gross without some wine to reduce in and balance it.

DINNER: 7pm, beef tataki, lobster with corn in a light butter sauce, various gourmet breads, half a glass of prosecco, half a small choco-peanut butter desserty thing, 2 bowls, hunger 3/5
Excellent dinner at Commerce. Dessert had a small bit of celery sorbet that was a weird but wonderful flavor complement to the chocolate and peanut butter.

SUNDAY
BREAKFAST: 6:30am, good granola with good yogurt, banana, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM-PM SNACKS: 10:30-2:30am, wholewheat sesame pretzels, dark chocolate pieces, agave-cashew vegan ice cream, chocolate chip cookies, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
B, the HVS and I spent the morning and afternoon at the movies, snacking on vegan treats to get us through.

DINNER: 4:30pm, vegan pizza, 1.5 bowls, hunger 4/5
Earthmother pie at 2boots.

EVENING SNACK: 10:30pm, peanutbutter and pretzels, boca burger on whole wheat with kimchi, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

Weekend Report (Toquin')

How often do you see busts sculpted in solid hummus? On Sunday, I went to the Fancy Food Show at Jacob Javitz and sampled some great products (who knew that two juices I despise, mango and carrot, would taste so great together?) while others just tasted like toothpaste water.

I arrived at 8am as a volunteer in the open kitchen of D'Artagnan on the floor of the convention. At first I was a bit concerned, as the chef was running around freaking a bit because he didn't have everything and was just figuring where everything was, but soon he got it in order, a few more students arrived, and he became much more laid back and on the ball. I was given a toque to wear, the tall kind of chef's hat that one expects, for the first time in my life. The four hours flew by in a hot second, and we were just starting to crank out appetizers, samples, and formal plates for the V.I.P.s when my shift was up. They were really cool and gave me a goodie bag that included their cookbook and an Amex gift card. I'm going to rearrange my schedule and volunteer for them again on Tuesday -- good people, good product. Wonder what I could do as an extern for them...

After spending a few hours wandering around the floor (Paul Prudhomme lost a million pounds! Fried cheese is delicious! Most foods marketed as 'healthy' don't taste very good!) still wearing my chef's whites and toque -- several vendors called me 'Chef' and chatted with me about their products -- cool, but I felt a little fraudulent.

Hauled ass by bicycle to Williamsburg for the Unfancy Food Show, where friends with beers greeted me with open arms. About 15 booths in a small backyard beneath the Willamsburg Bridge, some really good Bronx-made veal and foie pate. In particular, talked to the peeps at a booth for Tastebuds, an informal social network for foodie-leaning types, gonna check out their thing at some point

SATURDAY
Just chilled after Friday night's rec class. Took the mountain bike up to Tarrytown, skipped going out to a shmancy restaurant and just read in bed with the Wifey from 5pm till sleep.

BREAKFAST: 8:30am, school-made Israeli couscous, 1.5 bowls, hunger 4/5

SNACKS: 11:30am & 1pm, 1 homemade power bar each, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5 Keeping calorized while on the mountain bike between Yonkers and Tarrytown.

PM SNUNCH: 2pm, 1 slice streetza, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 4pm, homemade chocolate soy icecream, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Even though Lady Wife had lots of sweets at a bridal shower earlier in the day, when she saw me take out the ice cream, she flipped and ate a double portion. Oddly enough, she felt ill after and we cancelled our reservation at a nice restaurant later in the evening. Everybody comment and put the shame on B!!

DINNER Pt 1: 5pm, large green salad with Italian dressing, small amount of low salt corn chips, 2 bowls, hunger 4/5

DINNER Pt 2: 8pm, singapore chow mei fun, shrimp toast, wonton soup, fizzy grape juice, 2 bowls, hunger 4/5

SUNDAY
BREAKFAST: 6:30am, large portion of chocolate homemade icecream, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM TASTINGS: 8am-noon, foi gras, foi truffle mousse, hotdogs made of duck, buffalo, beef and pork, duck and venison bacon, sausson sec, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
While helping at the D'Artignon booth.

PM TASTINGS: noon-2pm, lots of different chocolates, juice concoctions, cheeses, weird meats, a beer, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
At the Fancy Food Show

PM TASTINGS: 3-4pm, veal-foi pate, ice cream, chocolates, a beer, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
At the Unfancy Food Show

DINNER: 5:30pm, shrimp and grilled veg tacos, a beer, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Mexican in Williamsburg.

Weekend Report (HI, I'M A PANCAKE. F@CK YOU!)

FRIDAY
No school today, but woke up extra early to get ready for the 3am call the next day. Spent the morning making mise for a future meal. Made 6 servings of pizza dough to do a three-day cold rise in the fridge. To get rid of the chocolate from school lying around, cooked up a batch of soy-based daily ice cream, only this time using the good milk instead of soy milk, which was not on hand.

AM SNACK: 5:30am, small handful of chocolate pistoles, hunger 3/5

BREAKFAST: 7:30am, fruit smoothie, 1.5 bowls, hunger 4/5
Base of whole milk and good yogurt, banana, handfuls of cherries, grapes and blueberries, ice. Forgot the wheat germ and honey. Surprisingly good. Want to get a food processor to purée the fruit properly, then incorporate.

LUNCH: 2pm, handful of baby carrots, shrimp stirfried with unsalted stringbeans and criminis with adame, 2 ears boiled corn with butter and salt, grape soda, 2.5 bowls, hunger 4/5
On assignment from Ilsa, I was to cook a vegetable with a seaweed product replacing salt. I picked up this dried black weed stuff from Whole Foods, which I needed to soak before throwing in the stir-fry. I used sesame oil for the strong nutty flavor, along with diced shallots. It did taste briefly undersalted, but once I got some of the weed in my mouth, it actually tasted pretty good, huh.

DINNER: 6pm, mushroom pate, mushroom spaetzle, chocolate caramel tarte with chocolate sorbet, 2 pieces bread and butter, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 3/5

SATURDAY
Up at 3am with my friend E. Rode to the start at Penn Station. E needed cigarettes and caffeine, and did not want to wait on line for the free coffee. So we shuffled over to McDonald's in our bike gear and waited in line with all the drunk, crazy and flagrantly omnisexual customers -- the line at a midtown McDonald's at 4 in the morning is hardly typical.

I haven't eaten anything from McD's in quite a while. I ordered the pancakes and sausage, which came in an old-school styrofoam clamshell. The last time I had pancakes and sausage at McDonald's, it was really early in the morning, I was with my mom, and we were waiting with a bunch of women for a bus to take us to Washington DC to march for a woman's right to choice. In an early morning pinch, crap is ok. However, today these pancakes tasted artificially tender, like a soft side of rubber, and the flavor was really LOUD, like HI, I'M A PANCAKE. F@CK YOU! Like a cartoon drawing of a pancake, instead of the real thing.

As you can see by the list below, during the bike ride to Montauk, just kept on piling it in at the rest stops. Not without thought, but with a very specific goal of a) keeping my bloodsugar level and b) never getting hungry. One thing not listed was about 120oz of water, which was a constant through the ride, due to a hydration pack on my back -- they look geeky and but it keeps me level.

One thing I did NOT eat on this ride, which I usually do, is Gatorade. After Ilsa admonished me that this stuff is just liquid candy with salt, I played around with alternatives, but none were really effective other than....lots of water and the right amount of food.

One big mistake I made was over-indulging in the food at the end. E was pretty miserable and crying because she forgot to refill her water bottle 25 miles back, and maybe hit the ride a little bit too hard early on and didn't save any juice for the end. I was up and running about shoving down as much food as possible, and got down a big plate of pasta and, uh, four burgers. The burgers were in a braising liquid, and were nice and juicy. When we got back to the hotel, I did not move far from the toilet until the next morning. Lesson learned: when my body is compromised (by, say, a lack of sleep and riding 109 miles on a bicycle), do NOT eat chopped meat.

AM SNACK: 3:15am, banana, hunger 2/5

AM SNACK: 4:15am, 1 Boston creme donut, one piece of poundcake, .5 bowl, hunger 3/5

AM SNACK: 4:45am, one half of a McDonalds pancake and sausage, .5 bowl, hunger 3/5

AM SNACK: 6:30am, one chocolate donut, .33 bowl, hunger 3/5

AM SNACK: 8:30am, 2 pieces of olive focaccia, pbj on graham crackers, handful of chocolates, 1.5 bowls, hunger 4/5

AM SNACK: 10:30am, 1 piece of focaccia, pbj on graham crackers, handful of chocolates, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 12:30pm, 2 large pieces of apple pie, whipped cream, 1.5 bowls, hunger 4/5

LINNER: 2:30pm, 4 small juicy hamburgers, plate of pasta in meat sauce, 1 beer, 2 bowls, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 9pm, portion of french fries, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

SUNDAY
Lazy day in Montauk. Went to a popular pancake house for breakfast, was surprised to find that the pancakes were strictly mediocre. In fact, all the food in Montauk kinda sucked. Rich people have low standards, as long as it's expensive.

BREAKFAST: 8am, 2.5 pancakes with bacon and home fries, apple juice, 2.5 bowls, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 1pm, fried fish sandwich with fries, large icecream sunday, 2.5 bowls, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 6:30pm, slice of streetza, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 7:30pm, half a rib plate, 1.5 bowls, hunger 4/5

Weekend Report (North Forkin')

The weekend flew by like a blur, no time (or computer!) to record my every bite. B and I went to Shelter Island to get away from the NYC madness and quietly celebrate her birthday together. Breakfasts consisted of our Inn's continental spread -- I haven't eaten Kellogg's cereal in a long time, and my hippie all-whole grain all-organic versions actually do taste better.

Riding my road bike each morning made me hungry. We hit up a really pretentious, douchey restaurant on the water Saturday afternoon that made me glad I'm not wealthy -- too much money seems to go hand in hand with a lack of imagination in many things, including dining. Too much ice cream indulgence in the afternoon.

Easily, the highlight of the weekend, gastronomically and otherwise, was visiting B's friends in the North Fork, who happened to be staying at a family friend's home with 3 other un-ugly and single female friends (pictured here with B, blurred because I'm a crap photogr....they're anonymous!). This clutch of ladies spent the day collecting local ingredients, and made a mighty meal honoring B's birthday. First course were bubbly cocktails with bits of rhubarb and mint, and goat ricotta and rhubarb compote crostini (pictured above). The main course was a broiled blackfish fillet with walnut pesto, fresh micro green salad with cute little pea shoots and haricot verts. Dinner was topped off with this really decadent (and homemade) chocolate pie involving a caramel layer and fleur de del sprinkled on top. Spending the night with five purty ladies in a real-life raunchy version of Sex & the City didn't hurt, either.

Weekend Report (Extra Lips, Hold the Buttholes, Please)

On Sunday, B & I attended the James Beard Awards a Lincoln Center. That morning, I joined a classmate in getting on line at 9:30am for the 11am sale of student tickets. We were first on line, and it's fortunate -- they only had 50 student tickets for sale, each person could buy 2, and there were more than 25 peeps on that line by 11am. Student tickets were $50 a pop, which sounds like a lot, but being that a full-priced ticket is $500 and includes an all-you-can-eat-and-booze gourmet buffet, it's actually quite a deal. And I got to walk my lady down a red carpet, something a dude should do for his wifey at least once in a while. I searched Flickr for some porny food shots of some of the stuff I ate, but only found red-carpet shots....with me right in the background! I'd post them here, except I'm anonymous, remember?

Oddly enough, our student tickets put us in a box very close to the stage with an excellent view of he proceedings. Three hours long, it was a bit of a snooze fest punctuated by some sincerely beautiful clips of old-school American restaurants and their owners, and some interesting speeches from writers and humanitarians, and the Godfather of French cooking, Jaques Pepin.

Once over, I rocketed out of the gate with an appetite to seriously eat, and was handily defeated by waaaay too much good food everywhere. So this is how rich people eat. More details below.

On Saturday, I got in spandex and on the bike and threw my yoga mat on my back and made it up Central Park to practice yoga with the HVS, where she was doing an outdoor class. It was nice and refreshing to stretch out in the park, and made me look forward to seeing the effect of a yoga class right before a formal ride. Rode home, picked up my friend E and we did a loop around the waterfront of Brooklyn, spending some time on the beach in the Rockaways. We ate at Nathan's in Coney Island -- not much of an ass-meat eater anymore, but that stuff just tastes right. Not the greatest bike food, though.

On Monday, I slept in for the first time in a long time, waking up at 8:30am, not hungry at all. The scale says I'm 224 for a third week in a row, grrr. I almost want it to say I'm heavier to motivate me to do something more aggressive. I shaved off my beard yesterday, and the deep slope from my chin to my neck is a reminder why losing a few more pounds wouldn't hurt.

Recently subscribed to a journal called Meat Paper and got the first issue. Really interesting articles about urban farmers, pork in Israel, the magic of food-styling meat for the camera, as well as some....odder bits.

SATURDAY
BREAKFAST: 6:30am, granola with skim milk, .5 bowl, hunger 3/5
Out of the good milk, used some of the grass-fed, organic skim milk that B got at Fairway last week (it's homogenized and pasteurized, so it can keep for a month, instead of the week the good milk gets.) It had a creepy bluish tinge, and tasted and felt similar to water in my mouth. More importantly, the granola which I usually love kind of tasted...bland. The granola is pretty low-salt, but eating it with this milk without the fat to kinda louden the flavor, it just tasted a bit dead and sawdusty. Huh.

AM SNACK: 11:30am, homemade powerbar, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
On bike ride.

LUNCH #1: 12:00pm, 1 hotdog with kraut and onions, a handful of cheesefries, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
When E asked me what I wanted at Nathan's while we were in Coney Island on our bikes, I said one hotdog, extra lips, hold the buttholes. Hotdogs are nasty things when you think about it, but it's a traditional Brooklyn food in a traditional Brooklyn place, so no harm in a small indulgence. However, the toxic yellow goo called 'cheeze' on the fries...

LUNCH #2: 3pm, onion bagel with lettuce, tomato, onion and butter, small packet of sunchips, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
At the Bay-Gull store in Broadchannel.

PM SNACK: 5:15pm, small cup of homemade chocolate soy icecream, .25 cup, hunger 4/5
It would of been more if B hadn't eaten the entire container except this sliver.

DINNER: 8pm, rigatoni with meatballs, bruschetta, bread, 1 beer, water, 2.5 bowls, hunger 4/5
With B and her friends in Tribeca. Pasta sauce horribly sweet, too hungry to pass it up, though.

SUNDAY:
BREAKFAST: 7am, carrot and celery sticks with hummus, piece of edamer cheese, water, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM SNACK: 10am, literally 1 bite of good donut, hunger 3/5
In line for student tickets for the James Beard awards, started talking to some students from the C.I.A., all young n' chirpy and psyched to be there (they travelled down from Poughkeepsie to get on line.) I couldn't help but share 2 of the best donuts in NYC with them.

AM SNACK: 12 noon, Boylan's Grape Soda, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
This grape soda is the soda of my youth. Sweetened by cane sugar, the grape flavor has absolutely nothing to do with what a grape tastes like, but a very interesting idea of what "grape" is. I suspect this flavor is what turned me off most fruit to this day -- the fake thing just tastes so good. Makes me think I should force myself to eat more fruit and retrain myself, as I'm not 10 years old anymore.

LUNCH: 1pm, home made pizza, water, hunger 4/5
Had two pieces of dough that rose for a second day in the fridge. There was a farmer's market on my street, very small, but they had a cheese-monger who was selling artisenal low-moisture mozzarella, so I picked up a bit. Through a can of tomatos in the blender with olive oil, garlic, salt, sugar, balsamic and a dash of herb to create a fresh raw sauce, and prepped some garlic slices, basil and baby tomatoes for topping. The second day of rising made all the difference, the flavor of the dough was perfectly yeasty, puffed up nicely on the edges, and took on char in all the right places.

PM SNACK: 4pm, homemade power bar, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Napped for a couple of hours before heading out to the James Beard Awards

PM SNACK: 6:30pm, caramels, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
The award's sponsor, Lexus, gave away really gourmet boxes of caramels before the awards, which was clever, as you need something to get a few thousand hungry wealth people through 3 hours of awards. They had me fill out a survey on how I felt about the Lexus brand, which I can sum up as thus: I'd rather be on a bike than a yuppie land boat.

DINNER: 8:30pm - 10:30pm, James Beard Awards Buffet, 3 bowls, hunger 4/5 at the beginning, 1/5 by the end
The lobby, balcony and entrance floor of Avery Fischer Hall in Lincoln Center was set up as a huge gourmet buffet, and once the ceremonies were over, we hit the food as hard as possible. It was quite easy to eat more than $50 worth of food. I can't recount everything I sampled, but a few stand out above the other. Easily the best were one table that was doing duck sliders and lamb sliders, two meats I've only come to appreciate since starting c-school. There was a hazelnut pork terrine that looked like slabs of marbled and squared poo that not many people were eating, but tasted fantastic. Small rounds of fresh pasta in a nutty, woodsy walnut pesto just screamed. One table which had the longest wait was corn masa tamales topped with a fragrant lima bean salad and chopped grilled and cured pork, absolutely gob-smacking. Green & Black had a tasting table of organic chocolate, where I greedily tried each one of their flavors without fully cleansing my mouth before the next bite. Soft shell crab on an avocado couli, a few different cheese tables with all sorts of handcrafted goodies, rhubarb gelato with strawberry compote, buffalo empanadas, amazing smoked cod chowder, razor clam butter soup YUMM, avocado sherbet. There was free flowing champagne, wine and mixed drinks, but all the food kinds of locked me down. I could name the stuff I DIDN'T eat because I was too full by the end. I kinda wanted to hang out, but my stomach demanded me to leave.

MONDAY
LUNCH: 1pm, rigatoni with sun dried tomatoes and shallots in olive oil and white wine reduction, topped with fresh moz and parm, 2 bowls, water, hunger 4/5
Slept in, just not hungry after last night's feast. Just through in what I had on hand, turned out ok -- sun dried tomatoes are an overpowering flavor, next time I cook with them I'll be a bit more conservative.

DINNER: 7pm, grilled jumbo tiger shrimp marinated in butter and garlic, roasted broccoli in panko, boiled corn on the cob, large green salad with olive oil and vinegar, half pint of cashew-cream gelato, water, 2 bowls, hunger 4/5
It's not so bad spending most of the days indoors in a stupidly hot day when you can cook fun food. It was a bummer, however, when B came in while I was eating, and freaked out about all the smoke and excess heat in the apartment. I was enjoying my food too much to notice.