Summer Weekend

This weekend was the first chance we had to relax in a long time. We have had so many places to go the past few weekends, that it was so nice to just have a chance to breathe and catch up on stuff we needed to do.

Saturday we slept in for the first time in ages and it was definitely needed. I did an hour-long (almost, an hour with commercials) stretching and relaxation class from All Star Workouts and that felt amazing afterwards. I definitely need to incorporate more relaxation and have less stress!

For dinner, we went out to Queen of Sheba, an Ethiopian place in our neighborhood that we love. We just love Ethiopian food, the spices, the flavors, the emphasis on good vegetarian dishes. We shared an appetizer of timatim fitfit (tomatoes, peppers, onions and injera, the dish in the left picture) and for entrees, the vegetarian sampler platter and the doro tibs (chicken). Everything was delicious (as usual). I love the vegetarian sampler plate for the variety and because we don't know which one is our favorite! The samplers at the Ethiopian restaurants in HK seem to have more choices than some other places, and we definitely appreciate that.

Today we rested in the morning (ahh, sweet sleep) and then headed out for a late brunch. We didn't have a destination in mind, but had been thinking about going to Kyotofu, so there we went! I'm not sure if we have been back there since our New Years fiesta (I think we have tried to go, but the waits and lines were always so long!), so we were looking forward to a good mix of savory and sweet foods.

Brunch entrees at Kyotofu come with a complimentary cocktail - yay! We each got a bellini to start with, and waited for our entrees (the photos in the top row of the collage - yes, I went collage-happy for this entry) to come.

I got the chicken and tofu tsukune burger, which has teriyaki with shiso and cucumber, and also came with a side of crispy lotus root chips. The lotus root chips tasted just like potato chips. The burger was excellent, as I expected it would be since we had the sliders of the same at New Years and they were delicious, one of my favorites of the whole night. A got the brioche french toast which came with little berkshire sausages and also coffee shochu syrup. It was pretty good.

For dessert, we split the dessert omakase, which came with the signature sweet tofu, the strawberry-rhubarb cobbler and the miso chocolate cake. My favorite of the desserts was the cobbler, and A's favorite was the tofu. With the check, they also gave a little treat of chocolate cakes, but when we inquired about what treats the table next to us had tried, we also got to try these genmai financiers! That was perfect, since I loooove genmai flavors. The cookies were SO GOOD. I may go back and buy a bag of those, they were that good.

After our delicious lunch, we headed off for a walk to enjoy the beautiful weather. It was 80 degrees and sunny, and just perfect weather for a walk. (What a contrast to Friday when it was 50s, raining, and felt like summer was never going to arrive!) We started out walking around HK and Williams-Sonoma, but then found ourselves in Central Park. We started out by Columbus Circle, exited by the Met on the East Side, and then went back through the park until we came out on the southern edge of the AMNH. That walk is why I'm quite tired right now. But it felt so good to walk for hours.

Then it was time for dinner! We thought about going to the UWS branch of Shake Shack (we have only gone to the one in Madison Square Park), but the line was out onto the sidewalk. Instead, we headed over to Earthen Oven and had some delicious Indian food!

Like the collage? :) I just had so many fun pictures from today, and the only way to fit them all in well was to make collages.

They started us out with pappadums, and the chutneys were so flavorful. We got an appetizer of chicken samosas (one of my favorites) and then for entrees moved onto saffron chicken tikka and chana pindi. Oh - can't forget the garlic nan! Everything was so flavorful and we were really happy we chose to go there tonight. Another good restaurant to add to the list of places we can go to near the park!

In summary, it was a really nice weekend (for the most part). Really short and I can't believe it's over, but it was nice to have a break for a weekend where we could just relax and get some stuff done. Need one of those weekends every once in awhile. I'm off to stretch before bedtime!

Food Fair

This weekend was the Ninth Avenue International Food Fair. I went to the fair a lot as a kid. I remember doing sand art (which is still back at my parents' place), buying big t-shirts (it was the 80s/early 90s...) and trying all different types of food (I remember for some reason there being Greek food and empanadas). Ever since we moved to the area, we have been making an effort to go every year, especially to support the local businesses.

I don't know if it was always this way, but I think "professional street fair vendors" made up more than half the vendors at the fair. It's been like this the past few years, but I don't know if it was like this when I was younger. By "professional" vendors, I mean the people who show up at every midtown street fair over the summer (e.g., the mozzarepa people, the soap stand, the crepe stand, the reggae stand, the $1 Thai food stand, etc.), who also show up over and over again along the fair route. Of course they have as much right as anyone else to be there, but for this fair, we usually try to go to the stands run by the restaurants on the avenue.

Since it's late and I should be sleeping, just a quick recap of some highs (since there really weren't very many lows):


My favorite food at the fair this year was the spanakopita from Poseidon Bakery. The bakery is close to our apartment and has both sweet and savory Greek pastries. I love spanakopita. Their version is filled with spinach, leeks, onions, dill and feta cheese. (I unfortunately forgot to take pictures of the inside once we bit into it, but it looked delicious too!) I wanted another one, but there was so much else to try. Anyway, there's A holding the spanakopita before we devoured it.
My second favorite would probably be the pierogies from Millie's Pierogies. They drive their truck down from Massachusetts for the fair every year (at least since we've been back here), and they sell the pierogies in combinations of 3. This time we got kielbasa, cabbage, and potato & cheese. They were really good! (Is it obvious yet that I love starch with filling inside?)

Favorite dessert (although I guess we didn't get that many desserts because we were full) was clearly Steve's Authentic Key Lime Pies. Last year, they had their truck parked outside Delta Grill, and when we didn't see the truck from down the block this year, we were worried they didn't come! No reason for alarm, instead they just dropped off a cute little trailer with the pies. Yum, key lime pie. One of A's favorites. And this one is a really good version. I'm not sure how it compares with Lahaina Grill's Iao Valley Lime Tart (one of my most favorite desserts ever) but it's definitely good.

So that's the quick summary of the food fair! We tried a lot - spanakopita, crab cake sandwich, key lime pie, pierogies, pupusas (need to go back to Red Hook, I want huaraches!), lemonade, hummus, and pineapple fried rice. I finished it off during Survivor with some pico de gallo/salsa from Chipotle since the only problem with street fair food is that it makes me want fresh vegetables! I wonder who will be at the fair next year.

Weekend Health

I wrote an entry, lamenting about how the weekend has been detrimental to my health because of the eating and inability to fit exercise into the schedule, how it's unrealistic to be able to lose weight like on the Biggest Loser because I don't have 5-6 hours a day to exercise, and how I seem to be completely incapable of losing weight and getting in shape despite trying. I have stopped copying my posts before I post them, since Blogger has been doing better with this lately. Unfortunately, it has lied and claimed there are "conflicting edits" or some crap like that (really, who else would be editing this? No one else even reads it), and to press "back" on the browser and try again. Well, Blogger, of course if you press back, it's a blank post page! Post gone! I'm not rewriting my complaint about losing weight. It's too much effort and may make me even more discouraged about the topic since I'll have had to think through it twice. Thanks Blogger.

Weekend in Review

I can't remember the last time I did one of those "weekend in review" or "weekend update" posts. I think it's been a really long time.

Anyway, this weekend was really busy. On Saturday, I started off doing some work, and then we went down to meet my parents to look at wedding rings. We surprised ourselves (well, mostly me) that we found them on our first trip. Another thing to cross off the to-do list!

We also went out for an early Mothers Day dinner with my mom since we couldn't go out on Sunday (read below). Dinner was pretty good at Dos Caminos, and of course, the guacamole was the best part (other than the company)!


Sunday started on a good note because we went to go see Star Trek. Yay for the start of the summer movie season! (I guess Wolverine really started it, but Star Trek started my summer movie season!) I loved the movie. I totally want to see it again. And not only were we really lucky to get a nice empty theater (brunchtime on Mothers Day, of course it was empty!), but we got matinee pricing and got tickets for only $6. Yay! I can't wait for the sequel... in 2 years or so.

We also went to a wedding of some distantly related cousin. I love weddings, even if I'm not sure exactly who the people are who are getting married. I guess we need to figure it out soon for our own! But I do love going to weddings. And it's also nice seeing extended family.

Here we are, all dressed up at the wedding:


And here's the bride and groom during the toasting:

There were some really memorable stories from the wedding: the groomsman who didn't want to toast A during the table toasting because A didn't have alcohol in his glass at the time and you could only toast with alcohol, the friends who went through 4 bottles and 1 handle of Johnnie Walker Black Label and kept doing shots even though people were passing out, playing with my really cute little cousin (1.5 years old) who was fascinated by video games, and many more!

Now if only it weren't 2:20 am with work in the morning...

Away

We spent the weekend up in Milton at the Buttermilk Falls Inn, and it was amazing. We left less than 12 hours ago, but I already miss it. I miss the ducks that followed us around the grounds, the llamas and the goats, the view of the river, the cute little inn, the spa, and especially how relaxing and peaceful it all was (even if it was 10 degrees colder than at home). It's so sad that it's already back to the work week.