Potluck Saturday

So, what did we do with the 11 pounds of turkey leftover from Thanksgiving? I woke up early on Saturday morning (well, early for my weekend standards) and made a Cantonese rice porridge with the Boy's leftover homemade turkey broth and probably a pound of turkey meat. I grew up eating Cantonese style rice porridge which is rich in flavor and sort of like a hearty soup. The first time I had the rice porridge that Taiwanese and Mandarin-speaking people eat, I had a hard time getting it all down. It was so plain! But I wasn't aware that you were supposed to eat it with a lot of salty side dishes, so it's not really meant to be a meal in itself, but more like a runny rice accompaniment. The Boy never had Cantonese style rice porridge and refused to believe that it could taste better than the type he was used to. I was out to prove that my version was tastier, and he loved it!

Unfortunately, my plan sort of backfired on me. Taiwanese rice porridge is really easy to make and takes very little time. Cantonese rice porridge takes more time and more work. I may have switched the Boy over to my side, but I created much more work for myself in the process.

Later that evening, we went to a friend's gourmet potluck in Brooklyn. The Boy made little turkey salad sandwiches, and I made a marinated veggie dish. There was a lot of food: duck with fig sauce, miso marinated black cod, Chinese sticky rice, a pasta salad and lots of delicious homemade desserts. Mmmm!

Ice Skating in Bryant Park

I also took the day after Thanksgiving off to relax ( I have a bunch of unused vacation time that will expire if I don't take it). While everyone was either at work or battling the crazy shopping crowds, I ran a bunch of errands that would have otherwise been difficult to run after work. The prescription on my glasses was off, but I never had time to drop by the optometrist's office to fix them. He was pretty pissed off that I waited 3 1/2 months to fix them and made it known.

Later in the afternoon, I met the Boy at Grand Central where we walked over to Bryant Park and went ice skating in the outdoor rink. It was the perfect day to go since the weather wasn't that bad ( it was much warmer than the couple of days before), and there was a craft fair going on in the area.

Thanksgiving 2005

The day before Thanksgiving was freezing! I took a day off of work and went shopping with a friend in Union Square and Soho. I needed many pairs of new boots. I was wearing the same pair that I had scuffed up pretty badly after just wearing them around the city for two months. They looked like I had been wearing them for years, and I was embarrassed to have them on all the time, but had no other boots to wear. I also needed some snow/ice boots so that I won't slip walking around when it starts to snow. I ended up buying two pairs of cute boots, but neither of them were snow boots. When my friend and I were in Soho, the wind was blowing so fiercely and freezing cold that I could barely keep my eyes open. Weather like this makes you never want to be outside. We ended up relaxing for the rest of the day in a coffee shop where it was warm and the wind wasn't constantly threatening to blow you away.

On the next day, the Boy and I caught some of the Macy's Thanksgiving parade on TV. We were planning on seeing it outside, but it was slated to snow (which it didn't) and freezing outside (which it was). The Boy spent the rest of the day making a 13 pound turkey while I made the side dishes: mashed sweet potatoes with brown sugar, and broccoli and carrots with toasted almonds. The turkey and sweet potatoes turned out great, and the gravy was even better! For dessert, we had ginger molasses cookies which I made the day before. This was the first batch of cookies that I have made that's ever turned out tasting like cookies. Among my friends and family, I'm known to make some of the worst cookies you could ever taste. My mom used to cringe every time I decided to try a new cookie recipe. I was so excited that I didn't end up with my usual panful of salty bread-like crumbs, that I didn't really care that the taste was a little unusual. The recipe, which I got from a cooking magazine, didn't get great ratings online. But at least the texture and color turned out great.

It's Getting a Little Chilly Out Here

The weather's freezing out here now! The average temperature during the day is in the 30s and 40s, yet somehow I'm able to handle the cold out here better than in LA where the daytime temperature rarely ever drops below 60 and usually hovers in the 65-70 range during this time.

(Aside: For my non-SoCal friends, sorry to burst your bubble. It's not 85-90 and sunny year round in LA, and LA has seen rain before...plenty of times! A coworker of mine told me he was going to visit LA for a week during Christmas because he wanted to go somewhere with tropical weather. He was planning on stripping down at the beach and coming back to NY with a golden tan. I quickly brought him back to reality, and he didn't believe me until his cousin in LA confirmed that the only tan he could get in LA during Christmas would be the sunless kind.)

The East Coast is better equipped for cold weather. The heat here works a little too well. I don't have control over the heat in my apt. Sometimes it gets so hot and stuffy inside that I have to open a window to balance it out. I've even slept with the window open a couple of nights after the heat was turned on so high that I was sweating. When my old roommate and I turned the heat on in LA, it was so weak that sometimes I would stick my feet up on the furnace to see if it was still working.

The winter clothes here are also warmer. It's hard to find a heavy coat in LA, and scarves aren't all that commonly used. Here, all of the coats are heavy and sold everywhere. When the Boy's cousins and their kids visited a few weeks ago, they had to buy warm clothes out here because they couldn't find any in LA.

Last Saturday, I waited an entire hour and a half in 30 something degree weather to get tickets to see a Broadway show. It was cold, but amazingly bearable. I got tickets to see "Fiddler on the Roof," which turned out to be a great musical. The Boy and I really liked it.

Oh Taisho!

Last Friday, the Boy and I met up with some of his friends/old coworkers for dinner at Oh Taisho! in the Lower East Side. One of his old coworkers brought his London client along to dinner. Oh Taisho! is a very authentic Japanese (small portions, tight space) teppanyaki place with great food.

The Boy did most of the ordering. We started off with a pitcher of Asahi, but soon ordered another. The guys at our table found their manhood being challenged after noticing that the table of skinny Asian chicks nearby were outdrinking us. They had three to four pitchers of beer for five girls and only one guy, while our table had one pitcher of beer for four guys and two girls. But the other girl and I didn't drink beer. I ordered plum wine and she ordered a cocktail.

The Boy and I were the only Asians in our group, so everyone else was either impressed or completely grossed out by the Boy's selections. One of his choices was an assorted platter of skewers, including chicken, organs, fish balls (meat balls made with fish), chicken skins and smelt fish. The smelt look like anchovies on a stick, and you're meant to eat the whole thing. Unfortunately, this dish came first and grossed the other girl out so much that she refused to eat for the rest of the night. It didn't help that the guys were poking fun at the situation:

Russian: Are you supposed to eat all of it-spine, head and all? Look! The spine's falling out as I bite into it.
Boy: Yes, it's good. Trust me.
Russian: Ok, seriously. You and the Girl are not just laughing inside, thinking "Look at these stupid white people! They are very entertaining nevertheless!"
Me: No, you're supposed to eat all of it.
Russian: Alright, but I'm not eating the head.
English: I'm not eating it either.
Boy: The head's the best part. You're missing out.
Russian (to Irish): Alright, I'll try it. Are you eating the head?
Irish: Of course, I never refuse head.
Other Girl: Ahhh! Stop it! That's gross! I can't eat anymore.

When the soft shell crab came, a similar dialogue erupted. Alright, so some things might seem a bit gross when you know what it is and you're not used to eating it, but everyone who was adventurous enough to try it usually liked it. The Irish and Other Girl came back from Scotland recently where they tried haggis which is a very nasty sounding concoction of sheep's organs, oatmeal, and blood among other things. Yuck! I don't understand how someone can eat this and then get completely grossed out by smelt on a stick or tiny crab legs.

After dinner, we headed over to Veniero's for dessert, but made a pit stop at the Coyote Ugly bar for a shot. None of us had ever been in there, but it was along the way, and we thought that the Boy's friend's client from London might be interested in seeing it. It was kind of a rough looking bar. When I walked in, I saw the largest bra collection ever hanging on the walls and poles all over the place. We all had a shot and were out of there immediately after.

The other girl was so grossed out at dinner that she couldn't even eat dessert at Veniero's. Everyone ordered coffee and cake/pie/cannolis while she sipped on a glass of water with lemon. Was dinner really that bad? Maybe I'm just used to eating that type of stuff. After dessert, we called it a night and went home.

The Effects of Space Deprivation

Living Manhattan for prolonged periods of time makes you batty. You're constantly cramped in small spaces and having to fight crowds. Unless you're fortunate enough to have an unlimited supply of money or don't mind being deep in debt, your entire apartment is likely the size of a two car garage. Also, if you take public transportation, which most Manhattanites do, you'll likely ride in a subway car or bus smooshed up closer to the next person than you'd ever want to be. Seriously, I get closer to random subway/bus riders than I do my boyfriend on most days. If you grocery shop, the store isles will be so narrow that two carts trying to pass through will create a traffic jam. Although I'm very guilty of this, I get annoyed when someone decides to stop in the middle of the isle to look at store ads. No one can get through! The pet food isle really should be the designated place to do this.

This cramped culture hasn't completely obliterated all of my manners yet. I still say 'please' and 'thank you' when asking favors (e.g. 'Excuse me, please' instead of 'Move!'). But I have become more aggressive navigating through crowds and trying to secure a spot on the subway. I won't think twice about shoving the person in front of me to get into the subway car if I think it can be packed tighter to accomodate me. I'll also elbow my way through crowds if I'm in a hurry to get somewhere. I've learned that these are things you just have to do if you don't want to continually be shoved to the back of the crowd. I don't really take it personally when people do this to me also, and they do.

The pushing and shoving are understandable because there is no space, and people do have to get places. But the one thing that irks me is all other forms of rude subway behavior. I almost started laughing when I heard this conversation on the subway last night:

(Girl pushes guy in front of her so that she can get onto the subway)

Guy: No need to push. There's plenty of room.
Girl: I'm sorry.
Guy: There's lots of room here. You pushed me.
Girl: I said I was sorry.
Guy: Fine, just don't do it again.

(Girl is slightly annoyed that the guy is being such an ass about it and makes a face with her friend to vent)
(About two stops later when the girl's friend leaves...)

Guy (to girl who glances over at him): Do you have something to say to me?
Girl: No.
Guy: Stop glaring at me. You [expletive] pushed me. Dike!
Girl: You're dead on.
Guy: Stop [expletive] talking to me! Dike!
Girl: You're just angry that I don't like men.
Guy: Oh, shut the [expletive] up!

Brief silence...

Guy: Dike!

These strangers were seriously 30+ and having this argument.

And then this morning:

I'm waiting at the entrance of the L train as it empties out. I step into the train and find myself a seat. Then:

Girl standing above me (rolls her eyes at me and then speaks to her sitting friend): I could have taken it from her, and I should have!

Ugh! I really wasn't in the mood to endure her tantrum, especially when there were empty seats around.

Me (getting up to move to another seat): I'm sorry. Take it.

Girl: No, no. Really, I'm fine. It's fine. You don't need to get up.

Argh! Now you want to be polite? One of my pet peeves is when people whine and bitch about what they don't have and then refuse it when it's offered to them. The train moved for about 10 seconds before it hit the next stop after which the girl got out of my seat and exited.

Brandywine and Dutch Country

Everyone was up pretty early the next day. The Boy and I snagged the small table on the balcony and ate breakfast together outside overlooking the forest.

After breakfast, we brought our plates back into the house. All of the women were sitting together in the kitchen. They started speaking to the Boy in Chinese. Then suddenly as the Boy left, all of the ladies looked over at me and started giggling.

What? What's going on? Why are they all laughing at me? His cousin couldn't hold it in, so she translated for me. They'd asked the Boy how breakfast on the balcony was. He replied that it couldn't be better with beautiful scenery all around and beauty at his side. Aww! Now I was embarrassed.

The first stop of the day was the Hagley Museum at the Brandywine River in Delaware. This was where the DuPont family from France first settled and started manufacturing gunpowder. We hopped on and off the trolley to see different tours of the premises and the DuPont family home. The entire estate was very scenic with lots of trees and the Brandywine River right next to us along the route. The home looked like all other historic homes that I had seen before in the East Coast and Europe. I thought that it was interesting that despite all of the land available to build their home, the DuPonts had to place their mansion next to their worksite where they were constanly testing and blowing things up. Because of this, various parts of the house were unexpectedly damaged or blown up and needed to be repaired. Apparently, it was tradition to have the home close to the factory in France so the DuPonts stuck to it.

Only the Boy, his mom, his cousin, her husband and I went to the Hagley museum, so afterwards we went back to the house to get the Boy's sister and meet up with his other cousins and their babies in Dutch Country, a last minute addition to our sightseeing itinerary. Originally, we were going to see the Hershey's Chocolate factory, but many of us really wanted to see the Amish instead. No one was particularly enthused about the Hershey's chocolate factory (except maybe the three year old, but she wasn't aware of our plans and really neither was I).

But before driving out to Dutch country, the Boy's cousins decided we should have a Philly cheesesteak for lunch. After all, that was Philadelphia was famous for. I could tell that his cousins didn't really eat out that much, because all of the places that they knew of to have Philly cheesesteaks on the menu either closed down or changed management. We drove around to several places looking for cheesesteaks, but couldn't find it anywhere. This was crazy! We were in Pennsylvania and couldn't find a Philly cheesesteak! Eventually, we found a place and ordered it to go. We ate in the car along the way to Dutch country.

Dutch country is in Lancaster County, PA. With some reckless driving, it took about an hour to get there. The cousin's husband was a bit of a speed demon. I was glad that we had extra napkins to wipe the cheese and grease off of our faces when one of us took a bite out of our sandwhich while the car hit some turbulence in the road.

As we got close to Dutch country, I saw people dressed in "Little House on the Prarie" type clothes riding a horse and buggy. They shared the same roads as cars did and paid attention to the same traffic signals as everybody else. There was quite a bit of automobile traffic along the road, so it was really weird seeing the Amish with their horse and buggy drive by a shopping plaza with a Target and Starbucks.

Initially, we met up at an Amish store in Intercourse, PA. I had no idea what city we were in, so I was a bit confused as to why an Amish store was selling t-shirts that said, "I [Heart] Intercourse." Then, the Boy's cousin and sister announced that they wanted to find the official "Welcome to Intercourse" sign and take pictures next to it. Ahh, now it was all making sense.

We drove around for a bit and for some reason ended up in the parking lot of the Amish horse and carriage driving school. It was closed because it was Sunday, but as the relatives stood in the parking lot trying to coordinate where to go, I saw a huge mess of Amish school kids (pre-teen and teenaged) playing across the street. The boys (dress in Amish clothes) were playing basketball, and the girls were hovering shyly along the sidelines probably gossiping about the boys. I don't know why this was, but I thought it was interesting that the girls that hung out in the same group all wore the same colored dresses. Four girls in purple colored dresses were gossiping amongst eachother, while the green dress girls were wandering around as were the blue dress girls. I guess peer pressure and cliques exists no matter what culture you're in.

Trying to find the official "Welcome to Intercourse" sign was like a treasure hunt. We ran across many signs similar to it, but nothing official. Eventually, we found it. Every couple posed for a picture next to the sign. We looked like such crazy tourists. When it was the couple with the two babies' turn, their three year old ran up and insisted on being in the picture. I thought that was hilarious.

Now that the relatives had gotten the souvenir picture that they were looking for, it was time to head home.

Pennsylvania Foliage

The Boy's mom and sister arrived early Friday morning. Everyone met up this past weekend at the Boy's cousin's townhouse near Philadelphia. It was a full house: me, the Boy, the Boy's sister, mother, aunts and uncles, cousins and their babies.

It took about 2.5 hours to get to Westchester, PA from New York City. I dozed for about a half hour and admired the foliage the rest of the way. The leaves were at their peak and especially gorgeous with intensely red, orange and yellow leaves. The freeway was surrounded by forests the entire way with postcard-perfect scenery. One of my good friends who is originally from the East Coast laughs at my amazement toward autumn scenery. We just don't get that in LA.

They Boy's cousin's townhouse is huge! It is two stories high with a ginormous "basement" that gets a decent amount of light since an entire wall is made up of glass doors. It's a shame (and waste of space) that she uses it strictly as a storage room. It would require a tiny bit of work, but the Boy and I envisioned that it would make a great party room if she added a bar and pool table to one side and cleaned everything up. The "basement" opens up to a spacious, grassy backyard area including a small forest. The place is just gorgeous!

Shortly after arriving and mingling a bit, all of the youngins (me, the Boy, his sister, his cousin and her husband) went to do some wine tasting at a local winery and then to a restaurant for pre-dinner beers and bar food. We were careful not to ruin our appetites too much - the Boy's mom and siblings were preparing a huge feast back at the house including filet mignon steaks and about a dozen other side dishes.

The rest of the night was spent eating and mingling among relatives. I hung out mostly with the Boy's three year old niece since she was the most willing English speaker in the house and definitely the most adorable.

Williamsburg

After work, I met a friend in Williamsburg to check out her new apt and hang out. We were supposed to cook (empanadas, salad and an almond creme caramel), but I got off of work too late, and she was starving by the time I got to Williamsburg. So, we decided to eat out instead. We walked around the area to see what restaurants looked interesting and finally settled on a "Mexican" restaurant called Tacu Tacu. The menu posted outside looked pretty appetizing. But when we stepped into the restaurant, the all Asian staff made me a bit skeptical of the authenticity of the cuisine. At least the decor of the restaurant was nice.

The drink menu had lychee martinis and other Asian infused mixtures. Where was the tequila?! I ordered a lychee martini, and my friend had a glass of white wine. The menu posted outside was only an excerpt of the real menu which mainly showcased Thai, Vietnamese and Chinese dishes. The Mexican dishes were printed near the back with the specials.

The dishes were a hit or miss. My "Salmon Saigon" was pretty good. My friend's red snapper tasted pretty crappy.

Afterwards, we went to my friend's apt. The place was cute. The kitchen and living room were roomier than mine, and there was lots of storage space. These are the trade offs of living in Brooklyn vs Manhattan. I stayed to talk for a short while and then went home.

Soho Shopping/Chinatown Run

The Boy's relatives started the morning without us on a Manhattan harbor cruise. We were supposed to meet them for lunch sometime in Chinatown. As the relatives cruised along the harbor, the Boy and I decided to do some Soho shopping while we waited for their boat ride to end. The boat ride went on for quite a while. I'm not sure what tour they signed up for, but after an hour and a half of shopping (unsuccessfully) we were starving. Eventually, the Boy's relatives called to tell us that they wouldn't be able to meet us for lunch. Oh well, we were worn out from Saturday's itinerary and Halloween party anyway. We picked up some groceries in Chinatown and then went home to relax.