Another Day at the Resto

Fell asleep around 10pm, woke up at 4:15am, with details of the restaurant rattling around my head. The only way to quiet it was to get up and organize and do the things I knew I needed to do this morning.

BREAKFAST: 5:30am, brown rice crispies with dead organic milk, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM SNACK: 7am, 3 freshly baked chocolate chip cookies, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
B (and maybe me) are going to a dinner party tonight, thank goodness I made cookie dough the other day and froze it, so I could make a top-shelf quality cookie with minimal effort.

LUNCH: 10am, most of a large turkey sandwich on nice fresh whole grain bread, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Knew enough to pick something up on the way to the restaurant, did want to forget to eat again today.

PM SNACK: 4:45pm, cheesy pork sausage roasted with parsnip, a little wine, a little cream soda, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
After menu review with the kitchen crew, L cooked up a sample staff meal, a nice flavorful Italian sausage with some parsnip that was turning him on. Poured a nice red wine all over everything mid-cooking which cooked off and gave a nice thick savory coating to the whole affair.

DINNER: 7pm, sausage and broccoli rave, whole wheat spaghetti with shallots and butter, 2 chocolate chip cookies, half glass of prosecco, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
The half glass of booze knocked me for a loop. Dinner at a friend of B's -- and the recipe for the dinner was from Rachel Ray! It's not so much nervy to attempt to cook her stuff as much as nervy to admit it!

EVENING SNACK:10:30pm, 4 chocolate chip cookies
My evil wife baked off more dough while I was out today! Hrumph!

I forgot to eat

Slept enough, but went straight to bed last night without doing any work; had to wake at 6am on a non-school day to grind. Calm before the storm at the restaurant, things starting to come together -- programmed the register with the indecipherable manual, created a hit list of the last food stuffs we need to cook the menu, got Hobart repair man to fix our floor mixer, scoped out a place to relocate the gelato, coordinated all sorts of details with front-of-house manager, and hosted an assortment of locals and visitors throughout day. For the first time in memory, I pretty much forgot to eat, not a very me thing. By the time I left, I felt a little nauseous from not eating, and by the time I rode my bike home, a bit woozy and acidy stomach!

BREAKFAST: 6:15am, smoothie, 1 bowl, hunger 3/5
Banana, frozen organic blueberries, half a kiwi, good yogurt, organic dead milk, freshly ground flax, shot of agave, vanilla, pinch of salt. Better flavor this time, nice balance of tart and sweet and earthiness. Too thick, though, maybe less yogurt next time.

AM SNACK: 10am, Manhattan Special, .25 bowl, hunger 3/5

PM SNACK: 1pm, handful of olives

PM SNACK: 3pm, glassful of latte de mendorla

PM SNACK: 5pm, snippet of gelato

DINNER: 7:45pm, shrimp in garlic sauce with black beans, yellow rice, small salad, crappy cheese cake ice cream, 2 bowls, hunger 4/5

Tired again. How odd!

Too much work to do, worked till I had to sleep last night, got not enough of it. Had a fun time in class, had fun getting the details in order at the resto.

BREAKFAST: 7:30am, swig of apple cider, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Grinding out stuff for the restaurant, printer acting up, wanted to make a smoothie but didn't get to it.

AM SNACK: 8:15am, small shot of Manhattan Special, numerous chocolate chip minimuffins, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

I brought a Manhattan Special to share and another classmate at the table brought muffins, good times, good vibes.

LUNCH: 12:30pm, various small slices of pizza, 1 sprite, small amount of Manhattan Special, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 8:30pm, wonton soup, shrimp toast, steamed dumplings, beef chowfun, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

Hey Shorty, it's mah birt-day!

Certificate of Occupancy is now in order, so looks like the restaurant is opening for real next Tuesday. Oy! Had class today, then off to the restaurant, mostly set up how we want the tables, dealt with the media (Time Out NY was there taking pics), went to a local copy shop to get delivery menus sorted. Then had to run out to hit up a birthing class with Beautiful Bodacious B! Full day. It's now 9:30 and I have to generate all sorts of signage and docs for the shop, and set up a presentation for class tomorrow....

BREAKFAST: 9:45am, 2 cart donuts, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 1pm, 2 slices pizza, small amount of "Pepsi Natural", 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Pepsi distributor gave up a sample of a new product, which is in a glass bottle, made with cane sugar, sparkling spring water and koala nut extract or something....and it tastes just like Pepsi, which means, it tastes like ass.

DINNER: 6pm, BLT on rye, fries, half a crappy piece of cake, water, 2 bowl, hunger 4/5
Snarfed down a sandwich from B, which we brought into birthing class. Had to get it down quick before they started talking about exploding hoo-hoos and sploshy pain! Gah!

Cheesy thoughts

Closer and closer we crawl to getting the restaurant open. Spent a good part of the day at the restaurant just fielding all-comers as L took care of business outside the shop, another good part of the day straightening out the wine list, eating pizza and tasting cheeses. Weird to taste cheeses, then consider how much you need. If we do well and go through 100 lbs of cheese a week, then the difference of $1/lb between two different brands of fresh moz is potentially...$52k a year! And that ain't a small amount of cheddar.

BREAKFAST: 7:30am, organic cheerios with organic dead milk, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 3pm, 2 slices Sicilian, 1 slice red, 1 slice white, sprite, 2 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM CHEESE TASTING: 5:30pm, 2 kinds of moz, glass of latte di mendorla, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 7pm, half a cream soda, snippet of gelato, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Had to test the consistency of the gelato. Hard work, I know. Just wait till I have to start testing the keg beers!

DINNER: 9pm, large green salad, 2 home made choco chip cookies, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

Chillaxing

Had the day off from the resto, so after class, headed over to Brooklyn and HVS treated to me some home cooking. She was a bit hesitant to cook for me but even her brussel sprouts were pretty good. A relaxing afternoon of a movie and yoga, then some chillin' in her crib until I went off for a meaty meal to celebrate myself.

Haven't yogasized in a while, felt really good to get a little physical, though my left shoulder had a new twinge -- old age is coming on! HVS expressed concern about me eating pizza everyday of the week - she's right, I need to think about how to keep my eating in a healthier way while working around seriously yummy but nutritionally stunted food.

BREAKFAST: 6:45am, smoothie with good yogurt, dead organic milk, frozen blueberries, kiwi, grapes, pinch of salt, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
Good to eat something super healthy for breakfast again. Not sweet enough, the tart and the bitter was a bit much, maybe a shot of agave? But for the first smoothie of Spring (and 2009), not a bad start.

AM SNACK: 9:45am, apple fritter, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
From Starbucks. Feel bad about shopping at the corporate behemoth, but the product is just better than cart cake -- the pound cake from the cart makes my stomach feel achy.

HVS SPECIAL: 12:30, brown rice with pumpkin seeds, baby arugula with tamari (!) pumpkin seeds, lemon, nutritional yeast and salt, steamed brussel sprouts, carob peanut butter cup, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Delicious snickle at HVS Fortress. The basmanti brown rice was really fragrant, and the salad zinged loud to the rice's low bassy note. I'm not a fan of brussel sprouts, but HVS cooked 'em not too hard and not too mushy. The carob cup, however, was a bit of a sad impostor. I must make HVS some vegan peanut butter cups using sinful dark chocolate and cartoony childlike supermarket peanut butter!

POST YOGA SNICKLE: 6:15pm, 4 flax crackers with tahini

DINNER: 8pm, braesola and arugula, pork goulash with fresh noodles, brownie with scoop of ice cream, prosecco, madeira, water, bite of steak, a few french fries, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
I was taken to Flatbush Farm for dinner for my birthday -- it's fun when people are singing Happy Birthday to you to sing along and shout "ME!" when they say your name.

Pizza for breakfast, Steak for lunch, and Cheesecake and Cookies for dinner

OK, not the healthiest eating day but turned a corner by the end. Played catch up on some work stuff and enjoyed the day with my smiley, pregnant wife.

BREAKFAST: 8:45am, digiorno pizza, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
This has been in my freezer for a while, and with nothing else in the house, gave it a shot for breakfast. Weirdest thing is that despite it literally rising like freshbaked bread in the oven, it STILL tasted oddly stale. That is, well, amazing! It looked inflated and thick, like a weird discus of pizza matter, and the thick pad of cheese on top had no flavor. The sauce was bright and acidity, kind of a cartoon version of what pizza sauce should taste like. Left over a lot of cheese, it was just kinda silly.

AM SNACK: 1:30am, 2 donuts, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
Just in the mood for these. Walking down Grand Street past the Donut Plant, short line of people, got a meyer lemon and a triple chocolate, both as fresh and moist as can be.

LUNCH: 12:30pm, steak frites in a red wine pan sauce, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Just craving meat. The hanger steak was a bit chewy, but still good, though the an sauce really needed some butter and a shot of acid to really make it sing. Sucks when you have a meal in a restaurant, and you KNOW you could make it better at home. Not because you have superior skills, but the patience to focus on the dish and access to superior ingredients.

PM SNACK: 5pm, 1 freshly baked chocolate chip cookies, .25 bowl, hunger 3/5
Baked them to go with some ice cream I picked up, an after dinner treat.

DINNER: 7:30pm, large green salad with olive oil and vinegar, stirfried shrimp, 2 cookies and cheese cake ice cream, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Now THIS is what I was craving! The first dad-style salad of the year (a.k.a.Noah salad, or what my mom would call blenderized salad), where labor is put into cutting all the veg finely into small to medium dice, so every bite is similar and the flavors blend into a more complicated 'salad flavor'. Simply dressed with fresh veg, just wonderful. Stir fried some fresh shrimp in garlic and ginger peanut oil, sake reduction, finish with soy sauce, Worcester sauce and a drop of hot sauce.Pulled them off early and let them finish cooking on the residual heat, pretty damn good, thank you c-school.

Bought over the counter cheese cake ice cream, good idea but kinda disappointing -- it had ice crystals in it, probably softened and refroze at some point. Next ice cream I make will have cream cheese in it.