PIZZA BIKE!!

After more than a decade of riding bicycles for the purpose of pleasure, commuting, communing, meditation, fitness, sanity, environmental sustainability, and sporting cool spandex outfits, this evening I road a bicycle professionally. The bike I road was probably a full four times heavier than Lance Armstrong's bike, and its purpose was not just to carry the human passenger but also to carry PIZZA!

Due to being unusually short staffed, I volunteered for a delivery shift at the restaurant. After folding boxes and hanging out for a while, the orders started coming in and soon I was pedalling all over Prospect Heights. Lots of brownstones, nice old apartment buildings, some with nice views of Prospect Park and the Brooklyn Museum.

The bike itself was a glorious example of form meeting function. It was a Worksman bicycle, a low-gravity pizza delivery model. The front wheel was a smaller 24" circumference, with a large steel box attached to the frame above it. The box was free of the steering column, meaning when you turned the front wheel, the steel box remained flush straight, similar to the experience of steering a car.

By 8pm, the delivery rush had me hitting 2 and three addresses on each run, with no time to hang out in between. One I had to come back to because I missed a salad, another gave the wrong address and phone number, or at least it was written incorrectly or something. By my last run, a single portion of rigatoni to Eastern Parkway, I was thoroughly enjoying the momentum that can be built up in such a heavy bike -- once you get it moving with a little effort, you've banked a lot of energy in that bulk and...it wants to keep moving -- even up hill. And down hill, well, it's like cruising on a express train, with luxurious padded seats.

The bike was awkwardly front-heavy. I chatted with the owner's wife towards the end of the evening, and seemed surprised that I was swooning over the bike. She was the one who went to the factory to buy the bike, and was planning to get a second one, but the delivery people really didn't like it. They preferred the crappy mountain bike whose basket didn't quite fit the pizza boxes. This Worksman is a classic, over-built and designed for its purpose. It delivers.

The money I collected over the evening went in to a pot. I wasn't really paying attention to tips, but when the count was done at the end of the night...well, I made a couple of bucks more during that one-time dishwashing shift. Now I see why only college kids and newly-arrived immigrants do this job. Still, next time I order in, I'm giving the delivery person an extra buck.

ADDENDA:
Lifted weights for the first time in years today -- but just on the arms, shoulders, and chest. Biking has given me a certain kind of strength, but the strength needed to haul hot heavy trays of pizza and bread out of a furnace of an oven with speed (and yoga's full wheel position and most inversions) require an upper body strength I just don't have right now.

BREAKFAST: 9:30am, organic chex with good millk, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 1:30pm, leftover pasta with shrimp, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 2:3opm, chocolate ice cream, 1 freshly baked chocolate chip cookie, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 6pm, cheesecake, water, couple pieces of bread, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 10pm, margherita pizza with sausage and broccoli rabe, rootbeer, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING DRINK: 11pm, 1 beer

Unintentionally Mostly Vegan

ADDENDA:
Took a nice quick bikeride out to Coney today. I filled my bottle up at a water fountain on the boardwalk, tasted like rust - shame, as it'll turn some kid off from public water fountains forever. The water fountain in Prospect Park tasted A-OK, though.

BREAKFAST: 9:15am, good yogurt with honey, vanilla, raw cashews, apple, 1 bowl, hunger 3/5

PM SNACK: 12:30pm, homemade power bar, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

AFTERNOON WATERING: 11-2pm, 24 oz Gatorade/water mixture, 12 oz water

LUNCH: 3:45pm, butt crazy rice with grilled tofu, stir fried broccoli & mushroom, chocolate soy ice cream, 2.5 bowls, hunger 4/5
I took a picture of this meal, the tofu looked pleasingly charred. However, it tasted unforgivably bland and boring, so I really don't want to trumpet it. The butt-crazy rice I did the other day was with 1 cup of dry rice - this time I tripled the amount, but only doubled the mix-ins, like the porcini, the onion, the chives. Undersalted and the olive oil just didn't deliver the same mouth feel as the butter.

I pressed the tofu between towels to remove moisture and brushed them with oil, but as I grilled it on a non-stick pan, when it came to flip them the browned parts still stuck to the pan! Urrrrg! Well, a few didn't.

I was in a local grocery yesterday to buy broccoli, but it all looked brown and disgusting. So I bought a bag of frozen broc. I microwaved it out of it's frozen state and it came out surprisingly mushy and dull. Stir-frying it briefly almost brought it back to life, but I think fresh is still the way to go.

DINNER: 7:30pm, kimchi, mungbean and leek pancakes, pumpkin noodles, 2 vegetable dumplings, grilled todok and asparagus, mixed grain rice, tofu bibimbop, tofu steak, tofu pudding, tofu icecream, tofu cheesecake, kimchi, water, 2 bowls, hunger 4/5
Out with B and a friend at Hangawi, the most expensive vegan restaurant in NYC. The tofu steak was just deep-fried triangles of tofu with a thick bbq sauce, the tofu ice cream was waaaay too much like tofutti. Really dug the interesting fibrousness of the todok.

Bicycle: Taste Enhancer

ADDENDA:
My last mountain bike ride late fall ended with an exploded rear derailleur. Today I subwayed it up to the Bronx, got to the trail head buried in Van Cordlandt Park around 10am, soon after caught a flat. Realizing I forgot my bike pass for Metro North Rail, didn't want to risk going up to Croton then having another mechanical breakdown and having to spring for a $100 cab ride. Ended up reading the newspaper in Inwood Hill Park and when I got up, the rear deflated again - needed to be taken apart, studied, and perhaps a new tire or tuning of the spokes. Wait a sec, this is a FOOD blog, not a bike blog, sorry....

The awesomely great mid-70s weather should of raised my mood, but between the pre-leaf nude trees and the suspect mechanics of my bike, just felt depressed. The last time I was chilling on a bike at Inwood Hill was a few summers ago, depressed about my parents passing. Weird how I ended up at the same bench, thoughts swirling about the future, the past. Was hungrier than I thought when I scarfed my two homemade power bars. Riding is a great taste-enhancer.

BREAKFAST: 8am, organic corn flakes with good milk, banana, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM SNACK: 11:30am, two homemade power bars, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Surprisingly yummy. The granola and nuts gave the bar a pleasant heft and dryness - the last round were a bit too moist to the point of sogginess.

LINNER (DUNCH!): 4pm, mixed gluten, mashed taro treasure boxes, mini sticky rice in lotus leaves, spring roll, mock shrimp in rice dough, water, 2.5 bowls, hunger 4/5
A late lunch at Vegetarian Dim Sum to cheer me up. Forgot how heavy this food is - 2 bowls felt like 5. Everything is very starchy, and greasy (in a good way) to boot. Still, unlike the typical Chinese take-away brick, doesn't leave me feeling like I just hit myself in the head and stomach with a hammer.

PM SNACK: 9:30pm, chocolate soy ice cream with 2 pieces shortbread, .5 bowl, hunger 3/5
Just felt like I needed to treat myself nicely. Funny how a sugary indulgence is synonymous with self-love.

Donut, Interrupted

ADDENDA:
Heading out on a bike ride around 11am, my first thought was, "Let's go get a donut!" My neighborhood shop, the Doughnut Plant, has some of the best artisan donuts in the entire city. Previously, I would 'balance' my healthy activities with indulgences in unhealthy habits. Looking back, that's kinda retarded - I want to cancel out my healthy activities?! Donuts, like other ornate sweets, alcohol, magical brownies, 5 course meals etc should be saved for special ocassions with friends, not a semi-regular bike ride.

So I paused and munched down an apple to help me get going.

BREAKFAST: 7:15am, good yogurt with honey and vanilla, banana, .75 bowl, hunger 3/5

AM SNACK: 11am, apple, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM-PM WATERING: 11-3pm, 20 oz water, 15 oz water/gatoraide mix
Brought along my camelback as well as a bottle of half purple gatoraide and half water - still haven't found a healthier satisfying replacement for this chemical brew.

PM SNACK: 1:30pm, bag of chips, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Stomach not ready for lunch, but hungry.

PM SNACK: 3:30pm, homemade powerbar, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 5:45, boca burger on superhippy bread with pickles, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
After ride, home to change quickly, but I was uncomfortably hungry, so I had to eat something.

DINNER: 6:30, 3 pieces of good bread with butter, duck confit amuse bouche, appetizer of crispy 'bacon' pork fatback with apple dressing, lamb loin, roasted onions, a couple of brussel sprouts, garlic risotto, weird mushrooms, 1.5 glasses prosecco, water, chocolate tart, meyer lemon beinets, 3.5 bowls, hunger 4/5
Dinner with B & a friend at Craft, probably my favorite NYC fine-dining establishment. I misordered by getting the bacon appetizer, which on an near-empty, hungry stomach, kind of made me feel all greasy and coated on the inside, I would of done better to of started with a raw fish.

Emilabar

ADDENDA:
Made these yesterday afternoon, adjusting a recipe that was passed on by Ilsa. I replaced the dried fruits with chopped almonds, organic brown rice crispies, shredded dried apples and dark chocolate chips, and added a shot of almond extract. It's ok, but could be a lot better. The three eggs in the recipe make it overly spongy, I'd like it denser. The rice crispies lost their crispness, not sure how to overcome that. The dried apple bits are too large, gotta chop them finer. The recipe calls for peanut butter, that's a nice note, should up the amount, goes well with the almond extract. Maybe experiment with other extracts on the next batch. Regardless, this should be a good bike-food this season...

I've eaten Cliffbars on the bike for the last 8 or 9 years, I could see a refined recipe taking over. Hmmm, what should I name them? Dude named his bar after his father, Cliff. Emilbars? Emilabar? Emilobar? Sounds a little bit like one of those meal-replacement bricks....

Got home around 5pm, feeling much more tired from the casual ride than I should, so I skipped yoga. Spent some time going through the earlier portions of this blog, tagging things to make them searchable. Noticed I got into my yogurt habit around the time I did a week-long desert-fast, wonder how that's related.

BREAKFAST: 9:30am, boca burger on toasted sprouted wheat with ketchup and red onion, water, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM SNACK: 10am, half a homemade powerbar, hunger 4/5

AM DRUGGING: 11:30am, 500mg Vitamin C
Got a headache, feeling tired and achy. Got 6 hours, disturbed several times by Betsy's repeated alarm. Inner ear a little achy, may be an infection starting.

PM SNACK: 12:30pm, 2 brownies, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Quick snack before a casual bike ride. Needed to finish them.

LUNCH: 3:30pm, sausage and veg pizza, half a small cup of rich hot chocolate, 2.5 bowls, hunger 4/5
Took B's cuz and a few of her friends on a bike tour of the tip of Manhattan, then over to Brooklyn Heights with a stop at Grimaldi's. Took a quick walk over to Jacques Torres. Really nice.

PM SNACK: 8pm, 3 halves of small chocolate bunnies, .25 bowls, hunger 2/5
Snacked on a few bits from Jacques Torres with my B. One was white, one was milk and the third dark. Nice contrast, underlines that dark is the yummiest.

DINNER: 9pm, baby carrots with a little ranch, 1 homemade power bar, .75 bowls, hunger 3/5

EVENING SNACK: 1am, small superhippy bread cheese sandwich, .25 bowl, hunger 3/5
To help get to sleep.

Food Crime Then & Now: Iceberg Lettuce & Sausage Sticks

ADDENDA:
During the course of the day, I sat down to read my hand-written journal from my cross-country bike trek. I wrote down pretty much everything I ate, the good, the bad, especially the ugly, and a lot of thoughts about my parents, whose passings were still very fresh in my mind. Only once, the two subjects crossed. From my Marshfield, Missouri entry:

Heard a piece on the radio about some local hospital improving their food, choked me up, reminded me of the time my mom was hospitalized, her food, sharing pizza & Chinese food with her, bringing her chocolate. God I miss her.

Mom's hospital food was bland and gross, and my mom had no appetite due to the chemo. Still, she would eat bites of the pizza, Chinese & chocolate not because she was hungry, but because it was comforting and it was shared with her son.

The full weight of my mother losing her facilities came to bear due to her bearings in her kitchen. When she started her first course of treatment, they eventually sent her home, and every few days would make her way back to the hospital. I got a call from her one evening at work, a little panicked because she could not remember how to turn off the oven. I immediately left work and rushed to her apartment. When I got there, the oven was off - she had mistaken the clock time on the panel as a temperature. The next day I moved in with her and started making arrangements for home health aides during the day.

My mom was never a good cook, and it was almost a relief that during the time I lived with her, I got to prepare breakfast and dinner (I'd set aside easy stuff to prepare for the aide). I remember one dinner, I was making dried pasta and jarred sauce, and made a simple green salad with most of the stuff I grew up on - carrots, cucumbers, green pepper, celery, onion - and romaine instead of iceberg. I stopped eating iceberg lettuce years before because it tastes like nothing and is nutritionally void. When I served the salad, my mom asked where the iceberg was. I sighed like I was a snotty teenager again, told her this was much healthier, not to mention tastier, and it was HER generation who screwed up our eating habits by making silly stuff like that the standard.

Instead of getting into a raucous (and fun) argument with me about intergenerational food warfare and my silly teenage-like snottiness, she meekly said, "but I like it." I immediately felt horrendously guilty - I knew subconsciously she was dying and these were most likely her last meals (they were), but on the surface I was hoping to introduce her to new things, to things that reflected my way of thinking and seeing things. Suffice to say, for the next month till the end her house saw nothing but iceberg lettuce. I can't eat the stuff today without feeling a little guilty and sad.

Speaking of guilt, sadness, and nutritional corruptness of a generation, today's peeps certainly aren't guilt-free. Some of us have gotten a lot worse than just iceberg lettuce. I think I ranted about this product early on in this blog, but it's worth repeating. This morning I went to my local Pathmark to pick up bulky sundries like cat litter and toilet paper. I used to shop for my main groceries here before Whole Foods and Fresh Direct started up. After picking up my list, I wandered around a few aisles, where I would find the things that in the past I'd be there to buy. Industrial cereals, yick, diet soda, blech, frozen White Castles, ewww. I seriously considered buying something snackable from the freezer case, and I was also keep an open mind about alternative breakfast foods. Of course, the chocolate chip pancake-wrapped sausage on a stick came into my view and stunned me with all the power that it stunned me with months and months ago.

Really, any adult who bought this for their kid should be charged with child abuse. Looking through the freezer case, looking at fat and salt-heavy snacks called "Anytimepertizers", Jesus fuck, are we insane? I understand freedom of choice, but if economic activities that are arguably victimless like drug use and prostitution are illegal, shouldn't there be a class of "food crime"? (Personally, I think prostitution and all drugs should be legal and regulated, and so should so-called 'value-added' food products, but that's a rant for a different kind of blog....)

BREAKFAST: 10am, organic cheerios with good milk, banana, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 1:30pm, homemade mac n' cheese, homemade vanilla ice cream, homemade brownie, homemade seltzer, 3 bowls, hunger 4/5
Boy, I'm stuffed. Three relatively unhealthy foods easily available in large quantities at Pathmark - mac n' cheese, brownies and ice cream, all made from scratch, all simply delicious, even if frozen and in the fridge for a week.

DINNER: 8pm, assorted shared appetizers including beef bone marrow on toast with wine reduction, 1 boiled whole shrimp with touch of cream sauce, artisanel french fries, country pate, misc. vegetables in vinaigrette, saucon sec, mushroom ravioli, chocolate bread pudding, 1 glass wine, herbal tea, water, 2 bowls, hunger 4/5
Intense meal at Blue Ribbon bakery in honor of Katya's birthday, with B and 3 others. Read a lot about marrow, seen it on TV, felt like I had it before but upon eating it realized, ahhh, actually, I never ate this before. Presented in a cut shank of bone, the inner marrow is fatty and gelatinous, a cross between warm bacon fat and good butter, really rich and tasty and a bit overpowering if not spread thinly enough. Really tasty, awesomely non-vegetarian looking - when you look at it, you know exactly what your eating, unprocessed and unmediated - you're scooping goo out of the bone, near the joint, straight up. Ain't a burger made up of 20 different cows, ain't mystery meat.

Early Bike Ride Turns My Head Around

ADDENDA:
Got out of the house by 8am and road over to Park Slope to look after Erikka's cat. Very cute, all rubbin' up on me for the entire time I was there. Then I road up the waterfront of Brooklyn to the 59th St Bridge. Cold and crisp, with minimal traffic, maybe 10 miles. I've forgotten a little just how stress-relieving a bike excursion can be.

After all the holiday hullabaloo and house guests and stress, Betsy has now gone to Boston to be with her mom for the week, my house is empty, and work is deadly quiet. Maybe if the weather cooperates, I'll take the road bike out tomorrow morning to the cat and to work...

BREAKFAST: 7:30am, organic cornflakes with the good milk, hunger 4/5
Nice to wake up with an appetite - it's like being driven by a need for caffeine, only much more satisfying when satiated. I should try it more often.

AM WATERING: 10:30am, 24 oz still

AM SNACK: 10:45am, overly sweet corn muffin, hunger 4/5
Morning bike ride left me hungry. From the company cafeteria. I can taste the corn syrup and stabilizers.

LUNCH: 2pm, .5 lb organic cow burger on wholewheat bun, side of vinegary slaw, hunger 4/5
The HVS and I hit up Better Burger on 9th ave over 42nd St. I'm about 1/2 way through the Omnivore's Dilemma, reading about the meaning/meaninglessness of what we accept to be 'organic' - the author uses the example of an organic TV dinner as how an organic analogue of something at the end of a long industrial food chain is just that - something at the end of a long industrial food chain, just with less pesticide and petroleum-based fertilizer. I imagine the organic fast-food burger is in a similar bucket.

The burger itself tasted surprisingly salty, almost unpleasantly so, and tasted a bit gamey, not what I expect from a burger.

PM WATERING: 2:45pm, 24 oz still
Feel a bit parched from the morning ride. Really feel good from it.

PM SNACK: 5pm, homemade vanilla soy ice cream, hunger 4/5
Dinner with a friend is late tonight, so I was gonna get some donuts as a special afternoon sweet snack, but remembered the Donut Plant is closed Mondays. I plan to make soy ice cream for the HVS this weekend, so it occurred to me to try making it as a trial run before presenting it for mass consumption.

Surprised how good this tasted - like tofutti, but without the fakey aftertaste. Only 4 ingredients - tofu, plain unsweetened soy milk, maple syrup, vanilla extract, all organic. Came out of the machine kinda like softserve.

PM SNACK: 7pm, handful of tortilla chips, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 9pm, shrimp butter masala, a little eggplant curry, rice and nan, 1 potato samosa, muligatawany soup, water, 1 glass red wine, hunger 4/5
Nice dinner with a friend, makes the holidays much more tolerable.

Dessert-Fast, Day 6 (Or: How does a dessert-fast die?)

ADDENDA:
After the farmer's market, set out to Coney Island on road bike, but by the time I got to Prospect Park, I was just chilled to the core so set back home for a total of 15 miles.

B has a family birthday brunch thing, we're bringing....the good donuts. Oh, how does a dessert-fast die?! Like this, my friends, like this.....

BREAKFAST: 7am, whole wheat bagel with good butter, hunger 3/5

LUNCH #1: 11am, reheated plate of fresh pasta with a little sauce, hunger 4/5
Could really go for a dessert. Will hold off.

PM SNACK: 1pm, slice of pizza, hunger 4/5
From the local.

PM SNACK: 1:45pm, banana, hunger 4/5
Headache. Could it be sugar-related?

PM SNACK: 2:30pm, 3 saltless whole wheat pretzels, hunger 4/5
Still headachey. Must just be a little just plain sick.

DINNER: 6:30pm, bread, veg bruschetta, interesting sampling of funky & nonfunky cheeses, a little salami, polenta-like dumplings with mushrooms and melted cheese, 1 glass prosecco, water, hunger 4/5
Dinner at a shmancy Italian place. Felt tired and fuzzy headed throughout with B and her friends, not my finest hour. Really enjoyed the different flavors of the cheeses, some stinky and soft, some mild and hard, but cut nicely with the sweetness of the prosecco. Some dessert was passed around and shared by most, but I was so not interested. (and it wasn't chocolate anyway!)

The Donut Dance

ADDENDA:
Had a nice, cold 50 mile ride out to Little Neck Bay in Queens, got to follow a part of the marathon route before all the stinky runners came through. When I was leaving out, I proclaimed to Betsy that I was about to go get a donut, I even did a little donut-dance, as I enjoyed provoking her disapproval. However, once on the bike and going down Grand Street, I realized I wasn't hungry at all and skipped it. The stubborn little boy in me would of gotten that donut if she were riding with me, just to provoke her dissatisfaction. Hmmmm.

BREAKFAST: 7am, good yogurt with honey and raw nuts, hunger 3/5

AM GATORADING: 9am onwards, 24 oz gatorade

AM SNACK: 11am, bag of corn chips, hunger 4/5
In a little dinky grocery by the Little Neck railroad station, indulged in this salty unhealthy snack, thinking of the lunch I was going to get in an hour would be so healthy I could brag about it here. However....

LUNCH: noon, turkey on a roll with Swiss, lightly salted potato chips, 24 oz water
....the big Korean green grocer I've been going to in Beechhurst for years was out of business! Really no options other than Chinese food and a deli, so got a standard turkey sandwich, which I took out half he excess meat. Didn't taste overly salty, but I know it's hidden in the processed bits.

PM SNACK: 3pm, 3 whole wheat saltless pretzels, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 6pm, a whole homemade pizza give or take a slice, green salad, apple crisp with lemon sorbet, vegan donut holes, 2 glasses wine, hunger 4/5
Made dinner for Tamar and my cousin Iddo (and B, of course). A selection of different pizzas, most came out pretty good. Sauce is still missing something, but thinly slicing crimini mushrooms from the farmers market really worked well, roasted in the hot oven and kept moist by the thin layer of sauce. Got the dough thinner and the over hotter, the pizza was more cracker-like and light this time. Lemon sorbet was WAY too tart for my my taste, and the texture was a bit too icy, but it's an interesting start. Gonna try to make a simple chocolate gelato next....

Funny, pizza and ice cream was something I used to think I could eat everyday. But so much pizza and ice cream out in the world is such crap. But if I were to break them down into their ingredient components, get the best freshest healthiest organic parts, then combine them and cook them into pizza and ice cream....I guess it would still be relatively unhealthy if eaten every day, but sure reduces my taste for the crappier stuff...

Disaster Day O' Donuts

ADDENDA:
After not going out last night and feeling crappy, my throat was scratchy in the morning. I considered staying home, but thought that just chores and staying home all weekend would make for a crappy weekend - a bike ride could turn it to a more good than crap weekend. Though everyone I was supposed to ride with dropped out, I went anyway and road up to the Bronx and did the Tour De Bronx. Between getting there and back, about 70 miles, a good day.

POWER SNACK #1: 8am, 2 excellent donuts, water, hunger 3/5
From my local bakery, fresh and organic.

POWER SNACK #2: noon, 2 OK donuts, 9-10 donut holes, half a croissant, big chocolate chip muffin, water, hunger 4/5
Was way too hungry way too early, and the food was all free. No, there really wasn't anything healthier there. There is something about unlimited free donuts...

UNPOWER SNACK #3: 2:30pm, 1/3 of a can of diet sunkist, hunger 3/5
The pastries sat like a brick in my stomach for the rest of the day, didn't eat anything at the next 2 rest stops, but they only had fruit and granola bars anyway (I can hear Ilsa groaning!) At the end they had free sodas, and I thoughtlessly grabbed one, started drinking it them remembered, ugg! I hate diet soda! He he. Tasted so acidy. I arrived too early for the free-za (it was crappy evil Dominos anyway), so was no big deal to skip it and leave.

COOL DOWN SNACK: 4pm, big green salad with Italian dressing, hunger 4/5
Home, nice farmer's market salad.

PM SNACK: 5:45pm, roasted ear of corn, hunger 4/5
From a street fair.

DINNER: 8pm, brisket with noodle pudding and string beans, a little hummus, babganoush & pita, olives, small chocolate cake, half glass of wine, water, hunger 4/5
Dinner at a nice Mediterranean place with good friends and guests. I actually hate brisket, but read meat really appealled to me this evening, after that ride. I thought maybe this would be different, as it wasn't made by my grandmom (disgusting brisket) or a friend, but it was still kind of stringy and funky tasting. Why do people like this stuff?

EVENING WATERING: 10:30pm, liter bottle of cherry seltzer
Feeling dehydrated. Only brought a water bottle on the ride, no camelback, probably only got though 50 oz of water.

Bicycle yoga?

ADDENDA:
Woke up at 4:30am, meant to wake at 5 but was feeling a little unsettled and anxious to ride after the week I've had. Got out of the train at Yonkers and by the time I got to the trailhead, the sun was just coming up, lighting up the cliffs across the river. Taking the Old Croton Aqueduct trail means your under a tree canopy almost the whole ride, but there are a few spots where the sun breaks on a clearing....and at 8am after freezing for the first hour, finally waking up, it was glorious. I stopped to appreciate the sun, remembered that a whole bunch of the yoga stuff seemed to be in praise of living or the sun or something. So with the warm sun bathing my chilled face and chest, I put my hands together in the namaste position, raised them above an in front of my head in a good stretch, brought them down and did a few breathing exercises, where I brought my breathe in through my nose, and kinda snorted it out fast in rapid succession. Lotta snot came out (was cold), but had the desired effect of making the sun just seem a little bit....sunnier.

Drive train failed soon after I left to come back from the reservoir, walked for an hour and 20 to get to the train. Bummer about the bike and the ride, but it was a spectacular fall day, it was the best part of the scenic aqueduct trail to walk, colors starting to change, crisp air, and I lucked out and caught an express train from Croton that was running late so it skipped all stops til Manhattan! Probably the most joyous failed ride ever.

BREAKFAST: 5am, hippie crispex with good milk, hunger 3/5
A slight craving for sugar, not bad but unusual this early. New cereal from Wholefoods, an all-organic all-whole grain knockoff of Crispex

SNACK: 6am, large conventional donut, hunger 3/5
Waking up more, more sugar craving. Road to Grand Central, the good local donut shop not open yet. This donut was about 2x bigger than my local shop, and less than half the price, and being in Grand Central must pay crazy rent. OK, they sell more quantity, but I could just taste the cheapness and weird preservatives in the texture and weird overly-sweet frosting. Not very satisfactory.

SNACK: 9am, 3 small apple cider donuts, hunger 3/5
This is what I'm talkin' bout! Farmers market just opening up in Ossining, the apple people sell their own appley donuts, so yummy, you can taste the brown sugar, the whole wheat, little flecks of soft fried apple, mmmm....

SNACK: 11:30am, large handful of whole wheat unsalted pretzels, hunger 4/5
On the train home.

LUNCH: 1:30pm, beef ravioli with pesto, water, hunger 4/5
Craving sweets, want to avoid indulging till dinner. Filled, but not stuffed. Sugar would turn off my hunger, but just gonna wait.

PM SNACK: 3pm, a few handfuls of veggie booty, hunger 3/5

DINNER: 6pm, lots of bread, a few small samples of antipastos, cavatelli with hot sausage, water, 1 half glass prosecco, hunger 4/5
Went to Frankies with various members of B's family who we don't see often enough. This is where we hosted the dinner for out of towners before our wedding. One of the family-style dishes we served was this spicy cavatelli, which I didn't really like because it was too spicy. Funny thing is, I wanted it tonight because that flavor was so associated with that happy time and this restaurant - I only realized this after my first bite!

EVENING SNACK: 8pm, apple crisp with buttermilk gelato, hunger 3/5
Everyone came back to ours, nice that I could serve them a homemade dessert. The gelato, however, crystallized because the new bunker freezer is set too cold. Live and learn.

Recovering with Mofungo

ADDENDA:
Nice ride today with my friend Erikka, about 60 miles. From Prospect Park to the Verazanno, around to Coney Island, down to the Rockaways and Breezy Point, back over through Broad Channel and back through East New York and a lot of sketchy neighborhoods.

I introduced Erikka to cycling years ago, and now she's a much stronger, faster rider than me. I took my fully-geared roadbike and she road fixed single-speed, and still moved faster than me with more energy by the end. It was fun to ride a little outside my comfort zone, though it was probably a little slow for her.

Hot day, weirdly summer-like. Drank over 150 oz. of water through out the ride.

BREAKFAST: 7:30am, half a good organic dark chocolate bar with salt-free peanut butter, hunger 3/5
Hang-over sweets desire from the night before.

SNACK #1: 9:15am, 1 and a half good donuts from the local shop, hunger 4/5
Imported the donuts to Brooklyn to help us start off right.

SNACK #2: 10:30, handful of cheese fries from Nathans, hunger 3/5
Erikka needed to eat at Coney, so she went to Nathans and got cheese fries and a huuuge diet coke. As she smoked her cigarette, I thought it cool that despite our radically different approaches to eating (not to mention bike nutrition), we're pretty much BFFs.

SNACK #3: Noon, handful of saltless wholewheat pretzels, hunger 3/5

LUNCH: 1:30pm, BLT on whole wheat bagel, small side of macaroni salad, water, bite of breaded chicken cutlet, swig of diet coke, hunger 3/5
Erikka was chowing down on an overstuffed chicken cutlet sandwich, so I had a bite. It was OK, but it reconfirmed my taste opinion that chicken is pointless. She was on her 2nd huge diet coke, which made me think that only 3 months or so ago I'd totally be there with her, enjoying a bottle with her. So I had some of hers, swished it around my mouth and grimaced. It was pleasantly sweet, but over-carbonated and tasted so acidy. Yik! I guess I could relearn to like this stuff....but why would I want to?

DINNER: 6pm, breaded shrimp with yellow rice and black beans, mofungo with spicy red sauce, full bottle of pelegrino
Ordered in from the local Spanish restaurant, heavy but suited the mood perfectly. Mofungo is so weird but so yummy - it's mashed plantains with lots of garlic and pork skin. VERY heavy. Lots of mofungo left over, good for dinner tomorrow... Kind of want sweet, but none in the house.

EVENING SNACK: 7:30pm, about half a large box of Entemann's chocolate chip cookies, water.
Went out and got some. I need to stock some frozen cookie dough so to avoid eating boxed stuff in the future.

I think I should have an 8pm sweets curfew...

Krazy Korean Soup

ADDENDA:
Went on a 50 mile slow ride with my coworker and friend Choi, who hasn't ridden a bike since childhood. He's in good shape, so he took the hills of Old River Road with grace, but between the crappy bike I put him on and his inexperience, it was a bit slow. We went up Manhattan to the GWB, took the hilly Old River Road north 10 miles, then back via 9W to Fort Lee for lunch, before going home.

BREAKFAST: 8:30am, yogurt with raw cashews, hunger 3/5

POWER SNACK: 1:30pm, 5 unsalted whole wheat pretzels, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 3pm, kimchi beef tofu soup, white rice, weird pickled Korean things, hunger 4/5
Me n' Choi went to the Soft Tofu Restaurant on Main Street in Fort Lee. The menu has about 10 different kinds of tofu soup and that's it. I had mine with kimchi and beef, and the beef were just small little bits, like a condiment. The soup itself was red and fiery, and pleasingly sour - a taste not found too often in American cooking. Choi showed me how one is supposed to crack and drop a raw egg into the soup when you get it, it thickens the soup. My natural aversion to eggs prevented me, but looking back, I should of just gone with it and hoped for the best - maybe next time.

As we were being served the soup, a large earthen bowl of rice was delivered, and they spooned two smaller bowls of rice out of it. There was rice remaining in the large earthen bowl, to which they added hot water. Choi told me that the water loosens the crispy slightly-toasted bits at the bottom and flavors the water. This watery rice is a popular snack! I tried it, and indeed the vaguely burnt rice gave a nice nutty tang to the starchy water, and the rice itself was surprisingly both soft and crisp.

This meal, however, was a big salt bomb.

PM SNACK: 5pm, small piece of apple crumble, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 6:30pm, half a salami pizza, large piece of apple crumble, large piece of dark chocolate, hunger 4/5

Ride Down the Joisey Shaw

ADDENDA:
A nice relaxing Saturday. Woke at 6:15, made myself a hearty breakfast, hopped on the bike, picked up some kick-ass organic local donuts and pedalled down to Pier 11 to catcht the 8:15am fast ferry to Stoney Point. Road 30 miles down the shore and 30 miles back, the way back a lot quicker so I could make the 3:15 and miss the rain... which poured over me the last 15 miles.

A 2 hour wait for the next ferry, long straight flat pieces of road, and buckets of rain is good motivator to sprint and push your legs to the point of pain (in a good way).

BREAKFAST: 6:45am, 3 substantial pancakes, seltzer, hunger 3/5

AM SNACK: 8:45, 2 donuts, hunger 3/5
Watching the Verezanno peel by over my head, both ends invisible because of fog....time for a donut!

AM SNACK: 11:45, 4 whole wheat pretzels, small amount of gatorade, hunger 2/5
Halfway mark. Monmouth County public park, lots of surfers in full gear everywhere. Seagulls, fishing boats zipping around, to think I was home only a few hours ago...

PM SNACK: 12:45 'medium' cherry ice, hunger 3/5
From a concession's stand on the board walk at Asbury Park. In NYC, the 'regular' is a little paper cup with one small scoop. This was a gargantuan 3-scooper, bright neon red and weirdly overly sweet - corn syrup in FULL effect. Huh. I've had this quality of ice before, never tasted so totally cloying and fake. But my body just absorbed the sugar, and the rush propelled me into the rain....

PM SNACK: 2:15, 2 wholewheat pretzels, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 4:45, 4 pieces whole wheat bread with hummus, handful of carrots and cucumber, hunger 4/5
Betsy prepped a nice spread for me when I got home, which allowed me to cook for an hour without goin' nuts.

DINNER: 6pm, 2 smoked pork chops with mushroom & onion, basmanti brown rice, seltzer, hunger 4/5
Pork chops, non nitrate, from last week's farmer's market. Oh. My. Gawd. I got to have some friends over and serve this.

Tomorrow, a Donut!

ADDENDA:
After a passover seder, it is traditional to exclaim, "Next year in Israel!", as the ceremonial dinner is very much about the Jews being caste out of Egypt and wandering for many years. Afer today's bike ride, I found myself exclaiming, "Tomorrow a donut!"

Woke up before 5 to get my gear on and meet up with T in Brooklyn. Getting out of the city was a wonderfully relaxing thing, with so few cars, delayed only by a random press conference blocking access to the GWB. We explored some secondary roads of NJ into Rockland county, wound our way back to the Hudson, then over the Bear Mountan Bridge to Garrison to meet the train.

BREAKFAST: 5:20am, half bagel with butter, a little seltzer, dirtpill hunger 1/5
Not hungry, but gotta get the motor started on something.

POWER SNACK #1: 8:45am, 2 whole wheat saltless pretzels, 1 peanut butter sandwich on whole grain bread, a bit of lemonade-flavored gatoraide, water, hunger 2/5
Not hungry, but I know it's from the riding, not too many calories.

I brought gatoraide on this trip, first time in a while. I experimented with a few healthier powders but couldn't hack the taste. I made a homemade sports drink wit coconut water and honey and water last week, but my bike malfunctioned before I got to the point of tasting it. Unlike last week's ride, if I were to have any kind of digestive stress, I wouldn't be able to end the ride, I'd have to complete no matter how uncomfortable (save for calling a very expense cab to a train).

POWER SNACK #2: 10:45am, 1 whole wheat pretzel, cliff bar, a little gatoraide, water, hunger 2/5
Upper Saddle River, in front of an volunteer ambulance company. Last time I was on this route, I called my mom from here. Infact, every time I had done this route, I called my parents at this spot, about 43 miles in...

POWER SNACK #3: 1pm, 1 whole wheat pretzel, peanut butter sammich, bit of gatoraide, water, hunger 2/5
Feeling a bit rubbery but good, fresh air, trees, gazebos, houses spaced out a bit more.

END SNACK: 3:30pm, chocolate hagendaaz bar, bag of sea salt & vinegar potato chips, a handful of oat cookies, 24 oz water, hunger 5/5
Felt my stomach reviving in the last few miles, anticipation of non-bike food roaring. Not the healthiest snacks, but literally 3x tastier than if I was just sitting in an office.

TRAIN SNACK: 4:30, one pretzel rod, hunger 3/5
Residual hunger - my stomach was full but I know I'd need to eat again soon...

DINNER: 6:30pm, large green salad, large amount of whole wheat pasta with homemade sauce and curry lamb sausage, large amount of water and seltzer, hunger 4/5
No desert! (There was no desert in the house, he he)

Saturday - Day O' Sweets

ADDENDA:
Rode bikes with Danny to Nyack and back. Between the waking up early and pushing the bike a little, my stomach just stayed tight and closed most of the ride. By the time I started to get hungry, I was already on the West Side bike path, within an hour of home.

BREAKFAST: 5:15am, toasted onion bagel with sablefish, a large number of 2-bite brownies, small amount of seltzer, hunger 3/5
I think I was able to stuff down those brownies without blinking is because I barely had any carbs for dinner the night before - even for me, a half tub of gelato is a lot, but it was not offset by carbs. I guess this was a continuation. I ate the brownies because the donut shop wasn't open yet, and I needed the sugar rush to get me on my bike and start moving.

AM SNACK 1: 8:30am, 2 fresh donuts from farm stand, lots of water, Hunger 2/5
Tip of northern NJ, didn't feel too hungry but was careful not to become hungry either.

AM SNACK: 10:30am, 20oz bottle of gatorade, lots of water, Hunger 2/5
The last 2 experiments to replace gatorade failed, but I still need to attempt to create a home-made sports drink. Reading the label, it's really liquid industrial candy with a few additional chemicals thrown in. I can't believe I used to drink this stuff casually at home. Still, my stomach was tight and it went down easy, giving me the needed sugar rush to get me over the cliffs on 9W.

LUNCH: 2pm, mushroom potato knich, apple cheese knish, botle of seltzer, hunger 4.5/5
Home! Munchies! Would of eaten more but fell asleep on the couch watching a DVD, snuggled tightly on the couch wedged between a warm woman and a warm cat.

DINNER: 6:30pm bread and whitebean salad, 4 pieces of tomato and roasted garlic bruschetta, linguine in meat sauce, dirt pillhunger 4/5
Went to Supper with B, a nice Italian restaurant with a slightly off-beat, Northern menu. I went there a few times with mom, she loved it so much she took some of her own friends there. The fact that it was in the East Village and usually had a line of people, mostly in there 20s, waiting to get in, she found that incredibly hip.

B was a little irritating, criticizing me for not engaging her. Thing is, I was there, I wasn't being rude and reading a paper or playing a video game. We were at the bar, facing the open kitchen and I was watching the people prepare ours, and everyone elses, food. On top of that, I was really hungry, really tired, and really sore from the day's activity. I thought being there together was enough, chilling out together and enjoying the same experience. Why does every minute have to be a gabfest?

The meatsauce was eh, but the roasted bulbs of garlic on the grilled bread was amazing. I must learn the technique to roast garlic this way - it's like an almost buttery garlic spread, but mellow instead of sharp.

Forgot the multivitamin this moring, so I took it befoer we left for dinner.

PM SNACK: 8pm, 2 cupcakes, hunger 3/5
Too full to eat dessert at the restaurant, we stopped by Sugar Sweet Sunshine on the way home. B refused to get her own, ended up eating half of one of mine.

PM SNACK: 11pm., handful of saltless pretzels, hunger 3/5

PM SNACK: 12:30am, cherry italian ice, hunger 3/5
Craving sugar, enough so to keep me up. Gave me a slight headache as I nodded off to sleep.

Apple Turnovers from Heaven (Saturday)

ADDENDA:

I woke at 5am to make a 6:20 train to Garrison with my road bike. Off the train at 8, my lungs were burning and my legs were screaming about five minutes later as I pushed my way up the steep grade from river to hilltop. Three miles east lay my parent's gravesite, which I visited and had a good cry and an outloud conversation, saying things I would of taken great pleasure in saying to them if they were here.

Thing is, I did this journey a few weeks before I left for my cross country bikeride - I wanted to attack and climb the hills of the Hudson Valley to get me ready for the climbs of the California mountains and Ozarks. This time I went more to commune with the folks, get my head clear as we come closer to my wedding day.

On the previous ride, I distinctly remember my hunger and what I ate - a slice of pizza outside of Croton-Harmon and a big plate of Chinese food around Irvington. Add to that a huge case of the runs in the public bathroom outside the 1 train in Van Cordlant Park.... This time, my mood was more....serene. The ride went by in a flash, the hills weren't as challenging as I remember (bumps compared to the Ozarks) and what I ate was considerably different....

BREAKFAST #1: 5:30am, toasted bagel with good butter, hunger 2/5. Not hungry, but too early to buy donuts. Even Dunkin' doesn't open till 6am.

BREAKFAST #2: 10am, BLT bagel, bag of linden cookies (lots of water), hunger 3/5. Outside the graveyard at Adams Corner's, me and mom ate snacks here several times when we visited my father. The smell of bacon tempted me. This is the first time having conventional bacon in a while, and I was kinda surprised how much I didn't like it - salty to the point of unpleasantness, it actually interfered with the porky, smokey flavor that makes bacon so good.

AM SNACK: 11:30ish, swig of fizzy water (lots of water). Ilsa gave me a packet of something as an alternative to Emergen-C, which I was hoping to use as a low-sodium replacement for Gatorade. Emergenn-C tasted like pee to me. This stuff tasted like burnt pee. I think I'm going to invent my own sports drink involving fresh citrus and apple juices (from a juicer), honey, water etc. Doesn't this Emergen-C stuff come in a pill?

PM SNACK: 1pm, apple turnover (lots of water), hunger 2/5. I passed through a huge farmers market in Peekskill about 10 miles away from Adams Coerns, but I was still bacon-stuffed. Another 20 miles up and down, I was grinding up the hill in Ossening, I remembered the farmers market there from the previous mountain bike ride, but I just was not hungry. As I squeaked past the turnoff, the idea of CIDER DONUTS raced through my mind, and I immediately turned back and shot down the hill. The donut peeps were there, but this time I had a big apple turnover.

Oh man. Growing up, I loved them hostess apple pies, with the little bits of dehydrated white apple in syrupy apple bath enveloped by a flakey crust. As an adult, I rarely eat these, as they're way too sweet and kinda crappy tasting. This apple turnover was the adult version. The crust was light and flakey, encrusted with granulated sugar but more buttery than sweet. The insides was a dark brown apple mush, equal parts sweet and tart, and overwhelmingly apple-y - absolutely no syrup, and didn't need any. I got a good slow sugar rush, that pushed me back up the hill.

PM SNACK: 4:30pm, large wedge of watermelom, hunger 4/5. Taking the train home from Van Cordlant, I realized I had enough energy to ride all the way home, but not enough time. Had a cliff bar on me, but just wasn't hungry. By the time I got home and relaxed, my stomach loosened and my jaw slackened and down went the watermelon. Yum!

PM SNACK: 5:30pm, 3 graham crackers with organic peanutbutter, hunger 4/5. Ravenous.

DINNER: 7:00pm, large mostly vegetarian Ethiopina meal, hunger 4/5. Ate with B and her mom, whose never had Ethiopian food before. Ordered a weird beef n' kale thing to go along with, my muscles were a little burnt and long-chain proteins like beef help quicken recovery.

PM SNACK: 9pm, cherry italian ice, hunger 3/5. Jonesing for sweets, felt good.

PM SNACK: midnight, one bite of gnochi, small bowl of rice crispies and whole milk, hunger 3/5. Hunger from the day's activity reared up again. Tried making some frozen gnochi, but didn't let the water boil and it became an unappetizing porridge. The small bowl of cereal satisfied me.

Five Donut Saturday

ADDENDA:
Spent the weekend not thinking about my diet, other than when I was putting food in my face. I guess this post is more indicitive of my 'real' diet than when I'm constantly thinking about it.

Saturday - Woke up early to ride up to Croton Resevoir on my new mountain bike - fell off three times, took 10 hours, and was a truly epic ride. Not listed is about 200 oz of tap and bottled water.

BREAKFAST 6:15am toasted bagel & butter, 2 donuts, seltzer, hunger 2/5. Gotta start the ride right. Took the 2 donuts from teh Donut Plant on the Subway, so the sugar would still be hitting me when I got on the bike at Van Cortlandt park.

LUNCH: 1pm turkey and swiss on kaiser, corn chips, lots of water, hunger 4/5. In Ossining, realized my stomach was tight, disguising my hunger - on a ride like this, if you get hungry-hungry, you're too late. Ate this meal out of habit - it's what I always eat on a ride like this. A lot of salt, hmmm.

PM SNACK: nasty emergen-C water - During the ride, I tried this out instead of Gatorade, on Ilsa's advice. 3 packets in 22 oz of watert, pretty much to the packet's instructions. IT TASTED LITERALLY LIKE URINE, if I were to imagine what pee would taste like. Chugged about a 1/4 of the bottle, but couldn't drink anymore. Going to experiment with a less intense mix and maybe some honey.

PM SNACK: 3 cider donuts, hunger 4/5. Back in Ossening, went to the same deli for a 1.5 liter bottle of water, noticed the farmer's market across the street - why didn't I go THERE for lunch before, I thought. Without thinking before, it didn't even register. There were assorted baked goods I totally could of vibed to. So I had 3 smallish cider donuts, moist and delicious and fresh., an excellent sugary snack to keep me going when my energy was starting to get tapped. Had a slight headache before this, headache got bad soon after, undoubtedly egged on by the riding. Went away after a few miles.

PM SNACK: 6pm, cliff bar, hunger 4/5. Back on the train going home, starting to tighten muscles, loosen stomach. Had this for emergency use, and if I didn't eat it, I would of bonked. Got me home!

DINNER: 7pm - huge bowel of pasta in pesto & 2 pork medalions, hunger 4/5. Ridiculously large bowl of pasta, 2 big pieces of meat, very satisfying - and no headache or stomache ache, too. First time I've cooked myself read meat (excuse me, the other white meat) of this sort, pan fried with a little olive oil, sea salt and fresh pepper. Reminded me very much of when my mom would make pork chops in the broiler, always tough and overcooked. I thought I cooked them just right but forget they keep cooking themselves when you take them off the heat, which caused mine to be a little mom-like, but still delicious.

EVENING SNACK: 8:30 sugar free lemon ice - not hungry but desired something cold and sweet

EVENING SNACK: 11pm 2 graham crackers with nutella, hunger 3/5 - Cravings.


Sunday

ADDENDA: After breakfast, B took me to a slightly shady back rub place in Chinatown as a little gift. During the 30 minute rub down, my face was straight down in a hole in the table, nothing to distract or amuse me other than the hands beating the crap out of my muscles and bones. I thought of Ilsa's recommendation to try and take 2 minutes a day to focus just on breathing. When I did, I found myself catching my breathe, the same way it becomes hard to blink when you think about your automatic blink reponse. Weird. I gotta try it again when a little chinese woman with too much makeup isn't working me over.

BREAKFAST: 9am organic pancakes with organic bacon, seltzer, syrup, hunger 4/5. Pancakes were dry and a little bitter, going to experiment with adding whole milk and a little honey to the batter.

AM SNACK: Noon, raw stringbeans, hunger 4/5. On the ride back from the massage, we went to our new local farmers market for the first time. Got a lot of produce, some really yummy looking, some straight up weird - I had to be directed to the red onions because they were unrecognizable in their fresh, unprocessed form - both purple and white, with long green scallion-like stems, and no dry outter skin. Gonna make a rocking salad.

LUNCH 3pm - philly cheese steak with fries, tofu stick, 1 beer, water, hunger 4/5. Road bikes with B and a couple of good friends, wound our way out to Red Hook, to a bar. Could of ate something healthier, but desired this, something I usually don't crave. Felt ok, not great after. No headache. Noticed they served their fries with sea-salt.

PM SNACK: 4pm pint of mint chocolate chip soy icecream shared 4 ways, hunger 2/5. Sat on the outside deck of the Redhook Fairway looking at the water.

PM SNACK: 8pm diet sprite, not hungry at all but desirous of something sweet.

DINNER: 9:30pm 3 corn on cob, good butter and sea salt, hunger 2/5. Not hungry enough for dinner, but got this corn at the farmers market. SWEET and AMAZING, best corn this summer so far.

EVENING SNACK: 11pm, piece of potato nik, hunger 3/5. Afraid I'd get hungrier if I didn't eat something. From freezer, a savory potato bread from a local kosher bakery.