Well, I wasn't able to order in the other night because what I wanted didn't deliver to Jessica's address, so I took a little stroll around the East Village to S'Mac, short for Sarita's Mac and Cheese, and I am so glad that I did. Also, you may have noticed a cheese theme. You are not wrong. I love cheese, but normally don't indulge because once I start I CANNOT stop. But I'm on vacation, so...
From S'Mac, I ordered two Nosh sized goodies, one for dinner and the other for lunch the next day. They have combos or you can design your own. I ate the Alpine for dinner. Gruyere with slab bacon, and I elected to get bread crumbs on top. Creamy and well-balanced. The next day's lunch was the Cajun - a combination of cheddar and pepper jack cheeses, andouille sausage, green peppers, onions, celery, garlic and seasn'n. Spicy, but not too much. I also got a take and bake, i.e. they make it and you take it home and bake it. That was a Meditteranean with goat cheese, sauteed spinach, kalamata olives and garlic. I haven't eaten that one yet, so might end up being Jess and Sean's.
Tuesday I hung out at home with the dogs, something I'm just not good at at home. I always end up working, but that day I just lay on the couch with the dogs and read. Glorious. Trevor got here and we had a small bout of lostness (okay, maybe a big one), but eventually we made it to this Cherin Sushi, where the reasonably priced sashimi seemed to please Trevor and my spicy shrimp rolls were well accompanied by my glass of bright pink plum wine. Then we went to the Comedy Cellar and saw, among others, Judah Friedlander, Dave Attell and Godfrey. It was an interesting experience, with two very talkative audience members, one of whom was repeatedly scolded by the comedians, and another of whom was a drunk 30 year old from Louisiana dressed like Al from Home Improvement whose wife was hideously embarassed by his behavior. Tragic, but amusing.
Wednesday we went to the Museum of Sex, which had an exhibit on the sex lives of animals. I know, that sounds kinky, but we're biologists! It was all in the name of science. They also had a Sex in Film exhibit, and a room with displays from the permanent collection. I discovered that manga porn is scary, and that sex education videos from the 50s are basically parodies of themselves. We came home, visited with the doggies, and then had an all you can eat meat dinner at Rio Brazilian Churrascaria. They have a huge salad bar, which is a giant red herring, and some yummy sides that are included in the prix fixe including yucca fries and fried banana. There were 12 kinds of meat available and we tried the 1) roasted chicken, 2) pork sausage, 3) bacon-wrapped filet mignon, 4) top sirloin, 5) pork loin, 6) prime rib, 7) garlic steak, 8) barbacued pork ribs. Dessert was tasty, if overpriced (I feel it should have been included), and I had an excellently mixed caipirinha, the national cocktail of Brazil.
Finally, today we went to the American Museum of Natural History, and wandered through the various dinosaur halls and the vertebrate evolution stuff. The Biodiversity Room is one of my favorites, with their wall o' organisms, which then opens up to the Hall of Oceans with its giant Blue Whale hanging in the center. There's a wall of fish and I quizzed Trevor on the fishes - you can see them identified on this little screen, so I'd call out a name and he'd have to find the fish. People looked at us like we were crazy, but we had fun. We also saw an IMAX show about the sardines off the Wild Coast of South Africa, which is a their newest ocean preserve; and the planetarium show about collisions. There were these kids in the planetarium, and at one point they talked about what would happen if a comet hit the Earth, and the kids were kind of freaked out. Good job planetarium.
Then we went to the Moth GrandSLAM tonight at Comix and it was AMAZING. I listen to their podcast of short stories and love it, and so tonight there were 10 people who had all one Story Slams and were now competing to be the champion. The theme was Curve Balls, so the stories all focused on a surprising, unexpected event, and it was great. My biggest complaint about Comix was that there is a two-item per person minimum, and things are sooooo overpriced. My mojito was $14!! A glass of random pinot grigio for Trevor was $9, and then I ordered a rather average $5 coffee that was therefore not worth $5. You already have to pay to go the show, so this just seems excessive. Finally, an 18% gratuity is automatically included. I wasn't pleased about that either, but to see the Moth, I was willing to suck it up.
So, we have one day left and I think we're going to Chinatown and perhaps going to have Cuban food for dinner. My biggest complaint is that there are so many cuisines that I have not yet consumed. If I lived here, I'm certain that I would spend a lot of money on food and get very fat.
From S'Mac, I ordered two Nosh sized goodies, one for dinner and the other for lunch the next day. They have combos or you can design your own. I ate the Alpine for dinner. Gruyere with slab bacon, and I elected to get bread crumbs on top. Creamy and well-balanced. The next day's lunch was the Cajun - a combination of cheddar and pepper jack cheeses, andouille sausage, green peppers, onions, celery, garlic and seasn'n. Spicy, but not too much. I also got a take and bake, i.e. they make it and you take it home and bake it. That was a Meditteranean with goat cheese, sauteed spinach, kalamata olives and garlic. I haven't eaten that one yet, so might end up being Jess and Sean's.
Tuesday I hung out at home with the dogs, something I'm just not good at at home. I always end up working, but that day I just lay on the couch with the dogs and read. Glorious. Trevor got here and we had a small bout of lostness (okay, maybe a big one), but eventually we made it to this Cherin Sushi, where the reasonably priced sashimi seemed to please Trevor and my spicy shrimp rolls were well accompanied by my glass of bright pink plum wine. Then we went to the Comedy Cellar and saw, among others, Judah Friedlander, Dave Attell and Godfrey. It was an interesting experience, with two very talkative audience members, one of whom was repeatedly scolded by the comedians, and another of whom was a drunk 30 year old from Louisiana dressed like Al from Home Improvement whose wife was hideously embarassed by his behavior. Tragic, but amusing.
Wednesday we went to the Museum of Sex, which had an exhibit on the sex lives of animals. I know, that sounds kinky, but we're biologists! It was all in the name of science. They also had a Sex in Film exhibit, and a room with displays from the permanent collection. I discovered that manga porn is scary, and that sex education videos from the 50s are basically parodies of themselves. We came home, visited with the doggies, and then had an all you can eat meat dinner at Rio Brazilian Churrascaria. They have a huge salad bar, which is a giant red herring, and some yummy sides that are included in the prix fixe including yucca fries and fried banana. There were 12 kinds of meat available and we tried the 1) roasted chicken, 2) pork sausage, 3) bacon-wrapped filet mignon, 4) top sirloin, 5) pork loin, 6) prime rib, 7) garlic steak, 8) barbacued pork ribs. Dessert was tasty, if overpriced (I feel it should have been included), and I had an excellently mixed caipirinha, the national cocktail of Brazil.
Finally, today we went to the American Museum of Natural History, and wandered through the various dinosaur halls and the vertebrate evolution stuff. The Biodiversity Room is one of my favorites, with their wall o' organisms, which then opens up to the Hall of Oceans with its giant Blue Whale hanging in the center. There's a wall of fish and I quizzed Trevor on the fishes - you can see them identified on this little screen, so I'd call out a name and he'd have to find the fish. People looked at us like we were crazy, but we had fun. We also saw an IMAX show about the sardines off the Wild Coast of South Africa, which is a their newest ocean preserve; and the planetarium show about collisions. There were these kids in the planetarium, and at one point they talked about what would happen if a comet hit the Earth, and the kids were kind of freaked out. Good job planetarium.
Then we went to the Moth GrandSLAM tonight at Comix and it was AMAZING. I listen to their podcast of short stories and love it, and so tonight there were 10 people who had all one Story Slams and were now competing to be the champion. The theme was Curve Balls, so the stories all focused on a surprising, unexpected event, and it was great. My biggest complaint about Comix was that there is a two-item per person minimum, and things are sooooo overpriced. My mojito was $14!! A glass of random pinot grigio for Trevor was $9, and then I ordered a rather average $5 coffee that was therefore not worth $5. You already have to pay to go the show, so this just seems excessive. Finally, an 18% gratuity is automatically included. I wasn't pleased about that either, but to see the Moth, I was willing to suck it up.
So, we have one day left and I think we're going to Chinatown and perhaps going to have Cuban food for dinner. My biggest complaint is that there are so many cuisines that I have not yet consumed. If I lived here, I'm certain that I would spend a lot of money on food and get very fat.
Comments
Glad to hear that you are having a blast and eating it up, so to speak;)