xteethx

The Midwest

During the last few years I’ve slowly been discovering the Midwest, that vast unknown territory that makes up most of the U.S. If I ever went west of Philly, it was to visit friends and family in California and Texas, or to Hawaii for a friend’s wedding. In fact, I made a stop to visit my friend in the Twin Cities on the way back from Hawaii just because I wanted to see Minnesota.

But then my cousin moved to Iowa to work for John Deere and it was at his office complex that I first saw a combine. My other cousin moved out to Kentucky with her family and I got to visit the state for the first time last Christmas. For my past birthday I finally got to visit Chicago and loved it. This Christmas I went to Ohio to visit the parents of my significant other.

My impressions of Ohio before I got there? That it’d be ass-cold and snowing all the time. That’s about it. Oh yeah, I know that Ohio State has a good football team and that Oberlin has a good conservatory and if I had to guess, the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame and the Football Hall of Fame are there.  (I know now that I’m right, but I didn’t go into either)

Besides having a great time in Cleveland and being touched by everyone’s kindness and hospitality, (it’s true, everyone’s friendly out there), it was nice to see the little gems in Cleveland proper.

L’Albatross

(ok, I went here because it was in NYT Travel and we overheard the couple behind us say they were there for the same reason)

Nice little restaurant in University Circle. We ordered lox and artichokes for appetizers and I had the scampie while my s.o. had the skate. They were all good; esp. the lox. We had great service and the atmosphere was nice. (Do people tip 20% in Cleveland?! that’s what we did)

Cleveland Botanical Gardens

It was small but nice. They have two main “forests”, one replicating Costa Rica where they have wild birds and butterflies fluttering all over and the other was Madagascar. They had Christmas trees and gingerbread houses in other parts of the building for the season.

West Side Market

This was a nice place to visit. There’s one hall with all the fruit and vegetable vendors and the main hall that has everything including meats, cheeses, desserts, pasta, coffee etc. The vendors are friendly and I believe most of the items are local. (For fish, that means the transcontinental US)  we ate pork and black sea bass for dinner that night and they were great.

(red velvet cupcakes I bought there were also very good….)

Downtown

Yeah a lot of urban blight but there are some nice spots. The Rock N’ Roll Hall of Fame (designed by Pei) and the Browns stadium sit right by Lake Eerie which is a nice view. I also saw the Indians and the Cavaliers homes; the three sporting venues are not far from each other.

However in the more suburban parts of Cleveland you can see gigantic mansions along some streets, particularly Euclid Ave., which was once known as Millionaires Row. Many of them belonged to industrial tycoons including John D. Rockefeller. Looking at these mansions, I wondered how much the heating bill costs and wondered what it must have been like to live in Cleveland in its heyday. There’s so much history and so much to discover…

Italian Renaissance

As of late, Italians are invading my life in books, food, movies, music and video games. Not sure why this Italian renaissance is coming into my life now but here’s some stuff discovering and rediscovering as of late:

Cinema Paradiso

This film was released in 1988 but just watched it this past weekend.  It’s an endearing film about …life.   When Salvatore’s mom calls him to tell him that a close family friend named Alfredo died, he has a flashback of growing up with this father figure who had introduced him to the world of Italian cinema.  It is a delightful film that comes with as many laughs as tearjerkers.   Alfredo was a wonderful actor and the boy who played Salvatore was adorable. And it was such a sweet surprise to find that the music was by my favorite movie composer, Ennio Morricone.

Ennio Morricone

Morricone is a musical god to me.  I first learned of his music through  one of my favorite films, The Mission.  The music is absolutely  beautiful.   One of the scores in that film, Gabriel’s Oboe, was so moving.  I  felt it perfectly reflected the scene where  Gabriel, the Jesuit priest, plays his oboe at the top of the waterfall; the music was heavenly.  I also loved how Morricone  incorporated local instruments for this movie since it was about the  Jesuit priests mission with the Guarani Indians.  I posted the video of  Gabriel’s Oboe before and will post again; it continues to mesmerize people and  elicit so much praise:

After watching some other movies in which Morricone composed the music, I can definitely sense his style. Sometimes I find that the scores in “The Mission”, “Once Upon a Time in the West,” “The Untouchables,” and “El Cinema Paradiso” sound similar to each other.

Eat, Pray, Love

I loved this book. I chanced upon it while looking at a bookshelf in my boyfriend’s apartment. (It’s his roommate’s, but he’s reading it now.)  I felt like I could identify with what the author, Elizabeth Gilbert, was going through when she was having what appeared to be a mid-life crisis.  Somehow the stars align and everything falls into place for her to take a year-long journey to Italy, India and Indonesia to detox or find herself.

I have to say her experience in Italy was my favorite part.  She made me want to go to Italy again, eat pasta, go to a football game, speak Italian with my hands and eat tons of gelato in between.

“Heat”

Another book that is making me want to eat Italian is “Heat”. I bought it because it was on sale for $6 at The St. Marks Bookshop. (I picked up “Rogue Regime” for the same reason but reading it at the same time is kind of depressing since it’s about the lack of food in North Korea and Heat is all about food.) I’m only about 70 pages into “Heat” but so far it’s been a hilarious account of a cook working at Mario Batali’s restaurant Babbo. Of course it’s making me want to visit the restaurant and eat some pasta….despite the account where Batali searched around in the garbage to see if he could find any scraps to cook.  Tasty!

Assassin’s Creed II

Awesome video game about  a young Italian nobleman who avenges the death of his father and two brothers.  I haven’t actually played it yet but I’ve watched my bf play it and it’s beautiful.  It’s set in Florence in the 1600s and the details of the city are nice – from the Duomo to people’s clothes.  Your character also gets to scale walls and ride a horse so the viewpoints are nice from those angles as  well.  I may buy it for my PSP…and I don’t even like role playing games.




Any other favorite Italian restaurants, artists or books I should look at, let me know. Capisci?

Daily Bread

Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.

1 Peter 5:7

Listen

Watch: The Mission

Kati Roll

In a hurry for some curry?  Grab a kati roll, an Indian-style type of burrito that’s slender and has your choice of veggies or meat mixed with Indian spices.  (Even beef is served here.)

Kati Roll Midtown

I went to the midtown location which was a very orange and cute place with Old Bollywood movies adorning the walls.  It’s a no frills place; no utensils or anything.  I went for the Aloo Masala roll (spicy potatoes) and the Chicken Unda roll (chicken + egg) and I have to say the Aloo Masala won hands down; it was just tastier with whatever secret spice they put in it.  The Chicken Unda roll was a little bland for my taste. When I asked for some hot sauce, they gave me a bunch of green chopped chillies that looked deathly.  I used sparingly and survived.

I wouldn’t go out of my way to come to this place just because it wasn’t a completely orgasmic experience.  It wasn’t completely cheap either.  You can easily eat two rolls which will cost you anywhere from $8- $10 depending what you get.  If you’re going for cheap eats, there’s a lot more cheaper alternatives that will make you feel more full, such as Baoguette.

Baoguette

was good but they need to update their Websites.

As I wrote in Cupcake Stop, I went to the one on Lexington Ave & 25th but my date was waiting for me at the one in the East Village. My bf sent me a link of a review through TONY but I checked the restaurant’s Web site for more information which only had the Murray Hill location listed.   Another Web site lists all the current locations. (Okay so I need to plan better too)

The one on Lex feels like a shoebox where the only place you can sit and eat is on the bar stools along one side of the wall. The one on St. Marks is where you want to go eat with your friends.  Anyhow I wolfed down 1/2 of the catfish bahn mi while I was in a taxi going to the East Village location.  It was pretty tasty and all the ingredients were fresh; loved the spiciness of it.

I finished the other half when I finally got to the St. Marks location.   Had one spring roll which was good; tasted fresh and was nice with the dipping sauce.  I finished the other roll later on in the day and felt completely full;  did not even feel a need for dinner.  I definitely recommend this if you’re looking for a healthy, cheap way to get full.  These bahn mi sandwiches are cheaper than others I’ve found in Manhattan but not at the expense of quality.

By the way, the owner grows his own veggies and grew this monster zucchini.

Road Rage

Had a good case of road rage today and it did not even involve me.

A young woman in the car next to me hit the car in front of her. She then honked at the car.

A male driver gets out of the car and says, “Why are you honking at me? You’re the one who hit me.”

Woman driver: “You backed into me.”

Male driver: “No I didn’t. I was parked.” (It was a red light)

Woman driver: “Well okay…I thought…” (indecipherable mumbling)

Male driver just gets back into the car and drives off as light turns green.

I was pretty pissed. Don’t understand why people can’t take responsibility for their actions and try to blame others for things that were blatantly committed by them. I really wished I could’ve smacked her but I guess it’s not what Jesus would’ve done.

Luke’s Lobster

Luke's Lobster, 93 E. 7th St. NY

Taste of Maine (or 1/2 of Noah's ark)

Loved it. Yeah the portions are small but America needs to be weaned off of super size portions.  Trust me, even though you feel like you can eat five lobster rolls, you’ll feel full after eating $20 “Taste of Maine” which includes a shrimp, crab and lobster roll, two empress claws, chips and a drink.  The meat is fresh and was well-seasoned and even the rolls were toasted just right.  Shrimp roll was surprisingly good; would have to say that that was my favorite roll.

I’d definitely recommend this place if you’re in the mood for some fresh seafood without the hassle of using a nutcracker.

p.s.  Skip the pumpkin pie soda; the root beer was better.

Thirty Something

I feel the way she looks.

Eniko Mihalik

I want to watch the TV series “Thirty Something“. I don’t recall watching an entire episode since I was in my teens, but now it seems kind of interesting and pertinent to my life.   (Bushy eyebrows and shoulder pads FTW!)

Cupcake Stop

Unbeknownst to me I was going to the wrong restaurant to meet my beau when I came across the Cupcake Stop truck!

AND they were giving out free pumpkin cheesecake cupcakes on that day…holla!

I also got red velvet cupcakes at $2.50  each.  Honestly I didn’t think they even tasted like red velvet. It tasted like plain yellow cake to me with sweet frosting.  It was still good nonetheless, but the red velvet taste was hardly there.

Pumpkin cheesecake

Red Velvet

Although the pumpkin cupcake looks inferior to the red velvets, I thought it tasted better. I love that combo to begin with so maybe I’m partial to it and the frosting was creamy and rich but not too sweet.

I was supposed to meet my date at Baoguette in the East Village but I went to the one on Lexington Ave & 25th. (I went to the Web site that only had the location in Murray Hill listed.  Interestingly they have another Web site where all the locations are listed. ) Although it was unfortunate that I went to the wrong place, it ended up being a nice mistake to have picked up the cupcakes along the way.