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.

Celebrate Me!

Got to the restaurant around 11 to help with mise, random friends of the restaurant rolled in around 1pm, friends of the me around 2-3, and we just rolled out assorted pizzas until close to 6:30, was really nice and relaxed and social in a good way. I had the idea of a table situation, but once people bellied up to the bar, it just seemed natural, and I got to hold court behind the bar and get a good chat in with everyone and serve various beverages. Definitely probably the most enjoyable birthday party I've ever thrown for myself, though it's not often one gets to take over the majority of restaurant in downtown Brooklyn for an afternoon without having to pay a lot o' money.

BREAKFAST: 6:30am, spoonful of yogurt, honey and vanilla
Not that into it without nuts, kinda amped for the coming day of pizza.

AM SNACK: 11:30am, 2 pancetta balls, a few bites of vegetable mise, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Prepped at the restaurant a bunch of salad stuff, including celery, cucumber. We reheated some 4 day old deep fried pancetta balls in the pizza oven and they came out quite good, may be a menu item because they held so well.

LUNCH: 2-6pm, various slices of pizza, various sips of wine and beer, a small portion of gelato cake, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Normally I would eat a massive amount in a situation like this, but I was just having too much fun talking to people.

DINNER: 9pm, matzoh ball soup, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Oh my! My mother-in-law gave me a pack of homemade frozen matzoh balls today for my b-day, and poking around the kitchen, considering ordering in, then found these...right near my frozen chicken stock I made a while back!! BWAAAAH!!! The code in my DNA made me immediately crave bits of chicken and noodle in the soup, but I made it straight up with just the stock, balls and a bit of salt and pepper. Man, my momma-in-law is good to me.

Intense Day

A long but fun day at the restaurant. A blurb on line got a few more people popping in and calling, asking what and when it's all going to happen. Tomorrow, I've invited friends to come to the restaurant for a pre-soft opening / birthday lunch. We've been talking it up to some locals who might join us, and a harpist hungry for work is playing for free, which is nice/weird. Never had a harpist play at a birthday party for me!

BREAKFAST: 8:15am, organic chex with organic dead milk, .5 bowl

AM SNACK: 11:30am, samples of 3 different kinds of soup with excellent baguette, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
From Almondine down the street, really high quality.

PM SNACKING: 12noon-8pm, various snippets of gelato, a sampling of cheeses, celery and olives (an appetizer we're figuring out the presentation), a few sodas, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

Tired again!

Weird day. After class, took the subway to work as my bike had a flat. Led the first staff meeting of the restaurant, was a good vibe. Still absorbing everything.

BREAKFAST: 7am, BLT on toasted bagel with homefries, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Went to the diner on my block, something I used to do often before I went to c-school and realized how shitty the food was. Still, I'd gone there with my parents, and it was nice to commune with them for a few minutes before starting the day. Though it does make me wish that my parents took me to, say, a juice bar rather than a greasy spoon!

PM SNACK: 12:30, pretzel roll with a small dollop of cheese, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Right before work, from Almondine, really nice.

PM TASTING: 5pm, several wines, a few olives and cheese, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 7pm, roast chicken, mussels, piece of bread, glass of wine, bite of cake, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Dinner at Vinegar Hill with L and his daughter V, who is also the head of front of house. Really nice place, in an out of the way corner of the greater DUMBO area. Usually don't eat chicken or mussels, but it was on L's recommendation and he was right: they were both fantastic, honest dishes.

I can cook that!

I attended a birthing class with B this evening. Before, I was a bit skeptical about the utility of FIFTEEN HOURS (spread over 5 lessons) talking about birthing, and after...I still am. Unfortunately, they closed the class with a video, including exploding vajayjays and and wrinkly blue baby-monsters. One thing they talked about in the film is the minor contractions after the birth that dislodge the placenta (afterbirth)....of course, they had to show that, too. And the doctor playing with it in a bucket, showing us the bits....all I could think was, huh, that looks like sweetbreads from culinary school....I could cook that! Sorry. I'll spare you the method.

BREAKFAST: 6:30am, good granola with organic dead milk, .25 bowl, hunger 3/5

AM SNACK: 9:45am, apple fritter, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Falling asleep in class, didn't want cart cake as it tends to give me a stomach ache. Wandered around the corner to evil Starbucks, was actually good. And a smaller portion than the big cart cake.

LUNCH: 1pm, street gyro, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
In a rush, on foot downtown doing restaurant errands. Had to eat, grabbed this because it was cheap and available. Good the first 3/4 of the way, disgusting the last 1/4 -- not a good sign.

PM GELATO TASTING: 3pm, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
We got gelato in! Me and a bunch of folks just sat around and had little spoonfuls of the stuff and talked about the flavors. Hard work, but someone's gotta do it.

PM SNACK: 3:30pm, half a Manhattan Special

PM WATERING: 5:45pm, bottle of seltzer

DINNER: 9pm, shrimp and stringbeans, a little brown rice, shrimp toast, quart of water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Chinese food, not very hungry, tired, busy.

Tired

Absolutely exhausted. Was at the place under the bridge from 8:30-5:30, then at the Prospect Heights joint cooking 6 to 10:30. Now that we're aiming for a soft opening next week, there is too much to do and not enough time in the day. It was nice to be able to go into a fully set up operation and turn off the brain a little and just toss dough and pull pizza. I'm so tired right now.

BREAKFAST: 7am, good yogurt with honey, raw cashews, vanilla, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM SNACK: 11am, a few olives

PM SNACK: 12:30, a couple of square of my rice crispy bar from the weekend

PM SNACK: 2pm, quarter bottle of Manhattan Special

PM SNACK 4pm, a few tastings of dry sausage

DUNCH: 6pm-10pm, slice of pizza, 3 sodas, tiramisu, chocolate cake, 1 meatball, water, a few snips of bread, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
It's easy to graze when working in a fully operational restaurant!

Wine makes sense all of a sudden!

I spent the evening volunteering at class about pairing wine and food. I've taken a bunch of wine classes related to my culinary education that were mildly interesting, but in the end kind of unappealing and too full of hi-falutin' wine culture. This class, however, pretty much rocked my world from beginning to end. I never liked port, it's kinda like cough syrup mixed with wine and corn syrup. However, when matched with dark chocolate, the grosser elements of port got calmed down and it was all of a sudden like drinking a luscious cherry cordial. Wow! I still don't know a lot about wine, but all of a sudden it makes a lot more sense.

Between school and the class, spent a few hours at the restaurant -- we passed the DOH inspection! Now the only excuse we have for not being open is ourselves. I'm spending the day there accepting and inspecting deliveries. L referred to me twice today as the manager...which is fine, as long as I get to cook, too....

AM SNACK: 6:45am, bunch of baby carrots, .25 bowl, hunger 2/5

BREAKFAST: 8am, cart sesame bagel with butter, water, .75 bowl hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 12:15pm, 10 pork & chive dumplings, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 3pm, quarter of a roast beef sammich, half a cup of mulligatawny soup, 8oz of coke, .75 bowl
We got some food from Almondine Bakery. Oh my, this was the best mulligatawny soup I ever had -- same flavor profile as the thin stuff I've had at crappy Indian restaurants, but this had a cream element to enhance the chicken stock and the lentils were fresh and the spicing just right. Wow.

PM SNACK: 4:30pm, prosciutto balls, Manhattan Special soda, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
The landlord stopped by to help celebrate us passing the DOH inspection today, brought us these amazing breaded deep fried balls of chopped up prosciutto and ricotta, spiced with a touch of black pepper, fresh and ungreasy and amazing. And the espresso soda to get me wired.

EVENING SNACK & WINE: 6:30-8:30pm, equivalent of 1.5 glasses of wine, tastes of prosciutto, salt, smoked almonds, piave cheese, dark chocolate, barbecue potato chips, honey, hot sauce, .5 bowl, hunger 3/5

EVENING WATERING: 11pm, quart o' water

Wasn't supposed to happen, but pizza snuck in

I think I lazily ate too many sweets today, I just feel it in my stomach and head.

BREAKFAST: 8:30am, organic cheerios with organic dead milk, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM SNACK: 11am, 2/3 of a pint of B&J's "Half baked", .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
At the computer doing restaurant business all morning, didn't want to think about food, just sucked in what was convenient. Made me feel a bit bleah. Half-baked is one half chocolate chip cookie dough (bits of dough in vanilla) and one half fudge brownie (brownie chunks in chocolate ice cream) -- the ultimate B&J's-style garbage ice cream. Made me appreciate how little gelato goes such a long way, with those big clean flavors.

PM TASTE: 1pm, a few spoonfuls of peanut butter chocolate bar components
Made a recipe out of the Baked cookbook for one of B's best friends, who we hosted a little birthday get-together this evening. The base is cooked sugar to the softball stage mixed with butter and rice crispies, then a milk chocolate-peanut butter ganache, topped by a dark chocolate ganache. It's all very tasty, I just hope the consistencies come out right...came out ok, a bit chewier/tougher than I hoped, but definitely edible.


DINNER: 5pm, 1 glass white wine, handful of tiny sausage & kraut pizzas, 2 peanut butter chocolate bars, handful of baby carrots, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
The focus of the canapes were supposed to be sausages and home-fermented kraut, but I couldn't stand to put it on a boring croute, and I had dough just sitting in my fridge from Friday night's Roman pizza class....so I banged out tiny 2" pizza shells, and topped them with pre-cooked sausage and kraut. For a laugh, I lined some mini-muffin tins with dough and filled them with a little raw kraut. I pinched the tops and baked them off...they were a similar vibe to the wonderful cabbage peroshki I had when I visited St. Petersburg, Russia, a few years ago. I really need K to come over and do some Grandma-style Ruskie cookin'....

Porno Apples

On the way out this morning, passed a Burger King and saw this sign. OK, they're selling pre-cut fresh apples to kids. But really, aren't they trying to make a connection in adult and children's minds that for food to be fun, it must resemble deeply unhealthy food? Like for sex to be fun, it must be like a porn movie?

AM SNACK: 8am, swig of apple cider

BREAKFAST: 11am, half a bagel with cream cheese and salmon, pickle, chocolate babka, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 3:45pm, chocolate babka, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 5:30pm, popcorn, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 8pm, three kinds of Roman pizza, a little fava bean salad, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 3/5
Dinner at Pala with T and B, a pizza place thats a bit more upscale and pushing Roman-style, the oblong stuff with less-sauce focused toppings. I had a Buffala crudo, which was tomato water, whole cherry tomatoes, then finished with hunks of cold buffalo moz and lots of basil. Good, but needed salt, the crust was fluffy but flavorless, could've stayed in the oven for another 5 minutes. B got a pumpkin thing that was also under seasoned and didn't really taste like pumpkin -- must of been out of a tin. Still, nice crust mouthfeel. T's was vegan potato-pesto thing with odd moz soy-cheese, and the potato must of been pre-fried or something, because it was just too greasy. I've made potato-pizza at the Prospect Heights joint, and was soooo much better than this.

Pala has an Italaforno oven, three decks, similar to the one at the DUMBO restaurant, except they were running then at 325 degrees -- no wonder the pies seemed a bit pale-tasting! I wonder why they do that.....it increases cooking time and prevents browning.

Bad Pizza Day

Whatta pizza day! No class, met L at the 'rant at 8:30 and we drove out to Maspeth (the last big scary industrial section of Brooklyn, just low rise warehouses around industrial equipment, dirty canals, some streets not paved), which was a thrill simply because I've ridden my bike through many times over the years but never had any personal connection to the area. We went to a large food purveyor who specializes in Italian food, and we got the grand tour. They spent a few hours with us talking about our needs, and gave us plenty of samples. We toured their gelato classroom (because they sell a large line of pre-made mixes and equipment) and were invited to come back for classes. Huh. A few weeks ago my class did a tour of another food distributor, and we were treated well, but nothing like this. Money talks and BS walks. I feel like I just went from playing basic dungeons & dragons to being in the middle of an advanced game! It was a lot of fun, seeing all the Italian meats and cheeses in the refrigerated warehouse. We sampled a few little things, and we were on our way.

We got various Italian grilled vegetables, all pre-packed in air-tight containers in a vinegar solution. We tried them on our pizzas, and they were all uniformly crappy, all flavors muted to a very flat and boring vinegar flavor. The seafood salad was absolutely picked by the stuff. It made the pizza dance a little bit like salt would, but after being in the mouth for a few more seconds, kind of dominated and killed it. Oh well.

I spent the evening at my culinary school for a recreational class on Roman pizza with the chef who taught my pastry mod when I was in school for the arts program. It was a bit disappointing -- I thought we'd geek out on specifically Roman style things, but really it was a generic pizza class with a few different toppings thrown in (zucchini flowers, potato), but it turned into a free for all by the end and most people made margs or garbage pies. Between being exhausted from the day, feeling a bit out of place among the the very nice but inexperienced enthusiasts, and just wanting to go home and squeeze my wife, it wasn't the most fun ever.

One thing I did notice was the incredibly poor quality of the pies we were producing, and it made me think of why. One, the oven was electric, and the chef explained they had to keep the three decks at 450, or it would blow out the circuit -- thin pizza really should cook at a minimum of 550. Another, the dough -- it was too wet and hard to work with, a bit tricky for me, very hard for the new hands. That wet, you can't really get it thin. I would give credit for the high quality ingredients, but everyone was throwing too much on their pies and making a lot of sloppy messes. I made a simple potato-caramelized onion-sweet sausage thing, which I finished with small dollops of cold ricotta (L's technique) and it was ok, the crust just wasn't browned and didn't have the brown flavor.

I sampled a lot of people's pies looking for inspiration, and was only surprised by one, simply because it was the ugliest of the class, but also the best tasting. The dough was not stretched enough, so it was round but small and stood high. It looked like it had a lot of sauce and cheeses strewn on top without much thought. -sigh- I took a bite and....huh? Wots this? The crust was light and airy, and while it was chewier more than crisp, there was a bit of a contrast. The thicker crust held up to the topping, giving some balance. It tasted....good! I'd pay for this. It occurred to me, in talking with L, that the ideal for Sicilian pizza is 450 degrees, and this person in a roundabout way made a thick crust pizza -- he or she should have let is sit in the oven for another 10 minutes to make it sing, but it was still pretty good. -huh- I'm glad I went, I learned an important pizza lesson despite my snobbery!

BREAKFAST: 7:30am, good yogurt with agave, vanilla, raw cashews, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM SNACK: 11:30am, small piece of chocolate babka, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 3-4pm, equivalent of 2 slices with assorted seafood and vegetable toppings, 2 small sodas, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 9:30pm, assorted mini slices of student pizza, half glass of wine, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 11:15pm, small amount of Ben & Jerry's Ice cream, .25 bowl, hunger 4.5

No Pizza Day

Good day, class in the morning was invigorating as we're getting into more interesting matters -- supervision of a restaurant, which happens to run parallel with what I'm doing in the afternoon. L and I took a trip into Manhattan to pick up the liquor license then hit up Katz's for lunch before spending the day on the Bowery, looking at equipment and dishware. It was kinda cool going into Bari, the main manufacturer and distributor of pizza equipment on the East Coast. I think I may go back and buy a proper peel to replace my fartsy Batalli peel. And I found the good pint glasses you can never get at Ikea!...

BREAKFAST: 7am, organic chex with dead organic milk, .5 bowl, hunger 3/5

AM SNACK: 9:30am, 2 cart donuts, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 3pm, half a pastrami sandwich, half an order of fries, pickles, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 7:45pm, fried catfish, mashed potatoes, spinach, mini corn dogs, BBQ ribs, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 10pm, handful of chocolate chips, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Hidden deep and away from B, gobbler of all that is sweet!

Kelly Clarkson, why am I not turning the TV off?

A day of class then restaurant. End of day, feel wiped. Kelly Clarkson is on American Idol. Trying to edit all the collateral I'm designing and editing for the shop. Ate so many baked good today, not enough veg. Got some salad in at the end of day, though.

BREAKFAST: 7am, handful of apple mini muffins, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM SNACK: 9:30am, cart donut stick thing, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 1-3pm, equivalent of 2 slices of pizza, 1 small sprite, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 5pm, ice cream cone, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 8pm, shrimp pad thai, green salad, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

Spent a good part of the day making sausage, frankfurters in particular. Had all my ingredients in line, grabbed a recipe off the internets, remembered the technique from school, did the triple grind, cooling things along the way, etc etc. Boiled gently for 20 minutes, took a bite and.....yuck! Something didn't work, the texture was crumbly and dry, the flavor less like hot dog and more like bland boiled meat. Not sure what I did wrong, have some suspicions.

BREAKFAST: 9:30am, chocolate chip muffin, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 3pm, 2 slices pizza
Out of the freezer, from the Prospect Heights resto. Good, it's been in the back of the freezer for 6 weeks and still cooked up well, no off flavors. Scary how I was desiring this for lunch despite eating this stuff professionally.

PM SNACK: 4:45pm, 5 pork dumplings, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
At my favorite cheapo dumpling house in Chinatown with K.

DINNER: 8:15pm, baby carrots and potato chips, granola and dead milk, 1 bowl, hunger 3/5

Lovely Dinner with a side of guilt

BREAKFAST: 6:30am, good yogurt with agave, vanilla, cashews, .5 bowl, hunger 3/5

AM SNACK: 9:45am, cart pound cake, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 1:30-4pm, various pizza slices, 1 sprite, half glass of prosecco, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Things developing slowly at the restaurant, hope to be open next week. Had some practice stretching and topping pies, finding the subtlety in L's style, the logic in his distribution and balance. We worked more on the Apple & Ricotta pie, this time with a small base layer of moz and more honey. Needs less honey, more apple, apple needs to be peeled and maybe a tangier cheese to contract with the apple. Delicious as all hell with the cold florettes of smooth ricotta, but can be better.

DINNER: 7:30pm, bread and butter, waygu carpaccio, half a suckling pig, bluefoot mushrooms, gnocchi, pork risotto, pureed potatoes, chocolate waffle with chocolate sauce and roasted banana & peanut butter caramel-crunch ice cream, mint tea, water, 2 bowl, hunger 4/5
Birthday dinner for brother in law at Craft, one of my favorite restaurants in NYC. Food was outstanding, but the style of service -- food delivered on family-style platters, coming out when they are ready instead of all at once -- seems a bit out of step with expectations. Still, enjoyed myself greatly, though the check made me feel guilty -- perhaps this money should've been given to charity or kept in savings or something?

Wobbly Day

Too much going on, felt ill all day after oversleeping, probably too much pizza and too little sleep. Better too much pizza than too much crank or booze, huh?

BREAKFAST: 9:15am, large handful of apple cinnamon mini muffins, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
Notes on the 3rd week in a row of making these minis: Closer. I've got the cooking method and time down -- 375 for 15 minutes, let finish cooking in pan for about 5-10 minutes after leaving the oven. And premix all liquids with shredded apple before gently folding into the dry minimally. I let some small pockets of dry mix go, they got absorbed in the cooking, and came out nice and soft and tender.

Need to reduce the salt from 1 teaspoon to maybe 3/4 teaspoon. Up the cinnamon for 1 teaspoon to 2 teaspoon. More vanilla from 2 beans to 4 beans. Instead of sprinkling brown sugar on top, maybe a brown sugar glaze?

PM SNACK: 4:30pm, hammentashen, .25 bowl, hunger 2/5
A religious organization left little purim kits on everyone's doors, and I was just coming out of a couch-driven haze...

DINNER: 7pm, pasta a la Noah, Gatorade, 2 bowl, hunger 4/5
Hunger comes back. Boiled some pasta, made an odd pan sauce with everything in the fridge: chicken stock, white wine, heavy cream, olive oil, butter, garlic, chives, Worcester sauce, a random firm cheese from the farmer's market, grape tomatoes, salt. Good but unfocused.

Accidentally ate pizza twice today

AM SNACK: 5:30am, 1 tiny dark chocolate cornflake cluster

BREAKFAST: 8:45am, cheese grits, 2 pork sausages, 1 piece of french toast, hashbrowns, pakora, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
Out of the buffet bar at Wholefoods.

BIKE SNACK: 1pm, 1 slice streetza, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
On today's bike ride, I stopped by the slice joint I've hit up every time I come off the Triboro Bridge in Astoria -- John's. It's pretty generic looking, except for the fact that there is a Papa John's 1 door down. I haven't been through here in a while, and at first I thought, eesh, this is going to be the only day this week I'm not going to eat pizza....but I want a slice!

The slice was surprisingly good, but then I remembered it was always pretty good. Crisp snap, nice chew, sauce pleasantly tangy. The cheese is inferior but they don't try to make up for crappy cheese by adding a ton of it, therefore making it nastier and strictly for tourists. Good balance. Looking around behind the counter, I recognized the different pieces of equipment essential for operating a pizzeria.Near the cash register, they had taped up an old article out of the NY Post about Sal DeMarco and his DiFara restaurant, about how his $4 slices are the most expensive in the city (outside of ballparks and airports, where the artificial setting allows for gouging.) DiFara is the best slice joint in the entire city, and John's of Astoria, you ain't no DiFara!

PM SNACK: 2:30pm, baby carrots, piece of soft stinky cheese, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 4:15pm, 2 pancakes, glass of cider, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Damn, amazing pancakes from last week outta the freezer. I gotta make a large batch and sell them on the corner, they're addictive.

PM SNORT: 6:15pm, glass of prosecco
B and miniB had a sip, too.

DINNER: 7:30pm, bread, "focaccia," Cesar salad, Rustica pizza, piece of Vegetariana, piece of Diavola, water, bite of octopus, 1.75 bowl, hunger 4/5
Escorted B to see her friend and friend's family out on south Court Street in Gowanas. First a drink at a bar, then next door to Luna Rossa, a Neapolitan pizza joint in a similar style to the Prospect Heights restaurant I toil in. Wouldn't be my first choice, but when in Rome...

Hands down, their oven and their crust is some of the best in the city, second only to maybe Franny's. They're running wood-burning brick oven, the pizzas were getting cooked in under 2 minutes, beautifully pillowy and charred and smokey and chewy and crisp and brrrrr...everything a pizza skin should be. The waiter dropped a basket of "focaccia" on the table, but it wasn't, it was a pizza dressed with only olive oil, salt and pepper, cut into rectangular strips, and it was fantastic.

Unfortunately, the rest of the pizza simply pulled the pizza down. I ordered a white pie with mushrooms and sausage. He laid raw sliced white mushrooms under the moz, which caused them to steam in their own moisture and turn the majority of the inside of the pie to flibbidy flobbidyness. The sausage looked like industrial pellets and didn't taste much better, and it was over-cheesed with aged moz, not fresh. The other two pies I sampled suffered from bland tomato sauce and crappy cheese. Too bad, it's a good oven and a deft crust, marred by skimping on the quality of topping and the technique of topping.

Heavy Eatin' Day

BREAKFAST: 5:30am, 2 pancakes, orange Boylan's soda, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
Pancakes out of the freezer, the ones I made last weekend. Deee-amn, they're good. Never had a pancake out of the freezer this good. I think I just did the rare/dangerously self-satisfied act of impressing myself.

AM SNACK: 10am, handful of mini apple muffins, .25 bowl, hunger 4.5/5

LUNCH: 1:30pm, white Swiss chard Sicilian, minted Sicilian, Pecorino-only Sicilian, glass of white wine, small Sprite, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Oh jeez, L was just playin' with the square doughs, we had to cook 'em or toss 'em, as we're not open for biz and still have our weekends to our selves. I brought in toppings for dessert pies, but we didn't get to it today. But a lady came in, potentially hiring us for another catering gig, and we banged out three mini pies for her to taste. We did the mini apple, which is a slice of apple on dough with oil and a sprinkle of salt, and topped with a florette of smooth ricotta. I brought in honey for my dessert pies, and when I had L squirt a few drops on top of the ricotta, it went from being your cute best friend to just wanting to rip it's clothes off and have your way with it. Sexxxy dessert pizza!

PM SNACK: 4pm, 4 dark-chocolate covered graham crackers, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 8:45pm, spinach dumplings, scallion pancake, piece of bread, singapore mai fun, small bit of chocolate cake, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Vegan dinner with the HVS and the B. Nice to see a lot of restaurants packed out on a Friday night despite the economy, but annoying because we were hungry!

Hors D'Oeuvres 3 (Gallery Style)

After a long unstimulating class in the morning all about food service health and safety practices, had a fun afternoon with L and the kitchen crew banging out a few hundred mini-pizzas. This was essentially the same item I made for the grand buffet of my culinary arts program, only this time they were....good. Done right.

We were hired to deliver a few hundred mini-pizza to a gallery opening on 29th St on the far west side, whatever that neighborhood is called. We rolled 1 oz dough balls last night, and today they were rolled out to about 3 inch disks. Some were red, some were white, and as we cooked off batches of 20, L started rolling, artichokes on here, anchovies there, pepperoni on those, parsley on the whites, a twist of mint on the red.

It was fun just making it up as we went along, and for the final iteration, L chopped up an apple. He asked for input, and I suggested a dead simple treatment: dough, 1 slice of apple, olive oil, light sprinkle of sea salt. We spoke of ricotta earlier in the day, and we both vibed that a squirt of the creamy ricotta out of a star-tipped pastry bag as a finish would be niiiice. Small mint leaf for sparkle and color, viola! What it really needed was a quirt of honey (me) or a sweet desert wine mixed in with the ricotta (L).

As it turns out, it was the apple dessert pie that got the biggest reaction from the crowd, and a few people even asked L if he'd have a dessert pie like that on the menu! Haaa! I've been lightly jabbing him to have a dessert pie or two on the menu for weeks now. So tomorrow when I go in, I'm bringing ingredients and we're going sample some of my recipes. My simple stuff with L's Sicilian funk gonna be cool, even if it doesn't get on the menu!

I've refrained from describing L on this blog, other than that he's the restaurateur/owner/chef I've been toiling with & under lately. Well, a picture is worth a 1000 words, so here he is from this evening with a random gallery goer. Why yes, he is wearing a kilt!



BREAKFAST: 7am, toasted onion bagel with the good butter, .75 bowl, hunger 3/5

AM SNACK: 9:45am, cart chocolate croissant, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
It was sad eating this pastry, as I remember making these in school and they were sooooo good. This was not.

LUNCH: 1pm, 2.5 slices of Sicilian, 2 small bottles sprite, 1.4 bowl, hunger 4/5
L's Sicilian is over the top. The mint version could be a signature dish of the restaurant.

RICOTTA TASTING: 2:30pm, a few spoonfuls of 3 different kinds of American ricotta, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Salesman in the shop, showing off his ricotta. We're leaning towards an Italian sheep's milk ricotta, but one of these American were pretty pleasing (and a whole lot cheaper!)

DINNER: 7pm, one and half little pork loin sandwiches from Porchetta, 2 glasses white wine, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING WATERING: 9:30pm, quart

Neither high or low

Class in the morning, at the resto under the Brooklyn Bridge all afternoon. Not high stress, but not low stress...so much swirling around, who knows when we'll really get open? L has done this 7 times before, but I'm very much the virgin when it comes to opening a shop. Well, I helped open a tiny record store/label office years ago, but the scale and expectation was SO different.

BREAKFAST: 6:30am, good granola with good milk, apple cider, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM SNACK: 10am, cart pound cake, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 1pm, 2 slices, small sprite, 1 bowl, hunger 4/6

PM SNACK: 7:15pm, baby carrots and a piece of soft cheese, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 8pm, soy nuggets and veg in peanut curry over wild rice, fried gluten with bbq sauce, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Got home hungry. Ordered in from Tien Garden, vegan, HVS-approved.

Tasty Tastings

Toured the LES with L from the restaurant in the afternoon, tasting product, then volunteered at Astor Wine Center for a cool intro to sake class in the evening. They seem to like me there, they held a volunteer spot for the pizza class & walking tour for me at the end of the month.

BREAKFAST: 7:30am, good yogurt with honey, raw cashews, vanilla, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
I've missed this breakfast. It's good!

SOLO SNICKLE: 1pm, vegan Cesar salad, bowl of dahl, vegan chocolate chip cookie, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Made a noon yoga class, after spending the morning working on collateral for the restaurant. About half way through the class, found myself skipping positions I usually don't have an issue with -- my energy was tapering off quickly. I really enjoy the particular teacher, and I did not feel anxious to leave, but when my mind kind of wandered a bit, the first thing it said was, "DAMN, I'd love me some lunch right now! Me hungry!" So rather than fight it, I ditched class half way through and wen to the cafe there. It was the right move.

CHAMPAGNE & WINE TASTING: 2pm, equivalent of 2 glasses, small buffet plate, .75 bowl, hunger 2/5
Met L and a few restaurant peeps at Shang on Orchard Street, where a distributor was having a tasting of their full line, from fancy-ass french champagne Dom Perigon and Veuve Cliquot to a tasty organic Napa called Newton -- I would happily have a case of their chardonnay to have in my house as the only wine I drink until it's gone. I didn't enjoy the hard-sell elements of the event, and other than me and L's big ol' beard, the majority of the crowd were in suits and ties, high heels and a bit douchey. However, after, we walked down the street to....

GELATO TASTING: 3:45pm, equivalent of small serving, .25 bowl, hunger 3/5
Il Laboratrio del Gelato! Yaaay! We're carrying their line in the restaurant, so we went over to meet them, had a tour of their tiny factory space, reviewed flavors and tasted just about everything they had on hand. Unbelievable, all pure simple but non-boring flavors, the opposite of Ben & Jerry's. B & J's seems a bit consumer driven -- I could see a shmo on the street suggest, "Hey! I'd love chunks of brownie in my chocolate ice cream!" but at il Lab, you ain't gone find chewy chunks of ginger candy in their pristine ginger gelato. I have a price list for the 2.5 litre tubs, part of me wants to buy a case of them and store them in the locked fridge I got to tame B's lack of control....

SAKE TASTING: 6:30pm, equivalent of 1 glass of sake, small bowl of spicy crunchy rice thingies, .25 bowl, hunger 3/5

DINNER: 10pm, falafel sandwich on whole wheat pita, glass of apple cider, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

Too Much Bad Pizza

I rode my mountain bike this morning to the Jacob Javitz center to attend the International Food Show, and realized maybe I should have trained it when I saw people on 23rd point at me and shout, "Look at that!" The show itself was kinda underwhelming, with a lot of equipment and random things, but I paid keen attention to anything pizza related. There was an area just for pizza, but due to the weather, all the speakers and demos were squashed. I wandered around, ate a lot of bad but relatively tasty food.

I went straight to the restaurant under the Brooklyn Bridge and we ended up making pizzas from start to finish, meaning there was a lot of pizza to eat. Oy! When I got home, needed something relatively nutritious, so I banged out a momma-style salad (big hunks of carrot, cucumber, red onion, grape tomatoes, and a wedge of creamy raw milk cheese I picked up at Brooklyn Flea yesterday) and poached some shrimp in the chicken stock I made a few days ago. A thoughtless dish, made of just stock, shrimp and salt. In c-school, I remember we were to poach for 5 minutes then shock, but ate it soup style and the shrimp were smaller. So, I only poached for 90 seconds and ate it in the hot stock; it ended up getting a little rubbery anyway. Hmmmm...

Looks like I have a gap in my schedule tomorrow to get some yoga in. Looking forward to it.

BREAKFAST: 7:30am, apple cider, .5 bowl, hunger 2/5

AM SNACKING: 10am-11:45am, various bad slices of 'pizza', bits of pork product, mini burgers, cookies, chocolate, cheese sticks, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM PIZZAING: 12:30pm-3pm, various wedges of practice pizza, 1 bowl, hunger 3/5

WINE TASTING: 4pm, equivalent of half glass of wine

DINNER: 6:45pm, momma style salad, fresh shrimp poached in chicken stock, piece of halava, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

When Lunch Meat Attacks

In front of my building, a parked car inexplicably has a round piece of semi-dried lunch meat smooshed into its driver-side window, as well as a piece under the windshield wiper. A message from an enemy? Random drive-by meating? When good meat goes bad? An affront to vegan drivers everywhere? Hell, an affront to all health-conscious drivers and passerbys everywhere?

On a less fanciful note, me and B went to the hospital around 9:30 pm, as she was feeling unusual abdominal pain and pressure. After spending 3.5 hours of being poked, prodded, tested and all sorts of labs done, we found that everything is fine, the baby looks great, and it's either indigestion and/or natural pains of a baby growing bigger inside da belly. While B napped I went across the street and had a truly mediocre veggie burger and fries, not so much out of hunger, but out of anxiety.

BREAKFAST: 7:15am, good granola with good milk, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM SNACK: 10:30am, handful of freshly baked apple cinnamon mini muffins, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Made another attempt, after last week's muffins came out burnt and dense and all-around not very good. This time, I went back to using whole milk instead of cream, lowered the temp of the oven from 400 to 350, pulled them when some still looked slightly wet in the middle and held off depanning them until cooled. I also scraped a couple of vanilla beans into the liquid before combining with the dry.

The muffins came out soft, tender, very appley, as I think the vanilla softened the cinnamon spiciness and allowed the apple to sing loud -- a good thing, since they were fresh mutsus bought from the farmer's market yesterday, and had no problem holding it's own. Got a bunch into the freezer before B was able to gobble them all up, for later reverie.

NOON SNACK: noon, more muffins, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 2pm, pad thai, a little bit of scone with lemon curd, water, half a chocolate cookie, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Went to Brooklyn Flea in Dumbo with B&D, picked up a fantastic piece of aged raw milk rind-washed soft cheese. We ate at Rice, then went around the corner to Jaques Torres.

DINNER: 7:15pm, momma style salad with edamer cheese, dark chocolate covered cornflakes, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER 2: 11pm, veggie burger, fries, 1.5 bowl, hunger 3/5

My Wife and Her Evilly Nice Ways

Hit up the Union Square farmer's market with the slow-strolling B this morning, then had the most delicious nap with her and her big belly on the couch before taking off for the Prospect Heights restaurant for a pizza cooking shift. After spending the week in an unopened restaurant thinking about all the systems and policies and training we need to get in place, it's nice to slot into a well-run well-oiled machine.

BREAKFAST: 8am, pancakes and bacon, lemon soda, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Haven't made pancakes at home in a long time. I remembered the pancakes we made in c-school were SO much better than the ones I made that it was a little infuriating. So this morning I busted out my course books and looked up the pancake recipe and it became immediately apparent why this recipe was superior to the one I've been using, a modified recipe of one I pulled off the internet. Two things: it uses both baking soda and baking powder in larger amounts to achieve a fluffier, springier product and secondly, it uses a shot of melted butter in the batter to give it that distinct pancakey flavor you won't get even if you fry the damn thing in butter, like I've been doing! Hot damn! Made a half recipe, still had 6 pancakes left over for the freezer.

Picked up a Boylan's Lemon soda the other day, a new flavor. It's their spin on 7-Up/Sprite, and damn if it's not superior to those brands. Best lemon soda I've had, helped by the pure cane sugar flavor.

AM SNACK: 10:30am, most of a cider donut, .25 bowl, hunger 2/5
At the farmer's market, B said she wanted a cider donut, but only a bite. To my surprise, she was telling the truth!

AM SNACK: 11:45am, pint of apple cider, .5 bowl, hunger 3/5

LUNCH: 3pm, slice with sausage & onions, root beer, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 10pm, rigatoni in mushroom sauce, water, chocolate cake, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 12:15pm, chocolate cupcake, quart of water, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
This is what happens when you have a loving wife who leaves you sweet snacks for you -- you eat chocolate cupcakes after midnight! Blaaaaaaag!!

From lamb to pork

BREAKFAST: 6:30am, half a buttered bagel and 6 slices of bacon, .75 bowls, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 12:45pm, roast pork wonton soup, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Midtown cheap lunch with D, absolutely wonderful. Love in the air? Nah! Pork is in the air!

PM SNACK: 2pm, toll house cookie, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 3:30pm, packet of peanut m&ms, water, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Airports make me eat sweets. I had to search for the single serving m&ms, as they put the movie theater-size bags up front and hide the normal size. One of those big bags, which one could mistake for a single serving, has over 800 calories!

PM NIBBLE: 6:45pm, forkful of halava
Sweets from HVSland, B is already knocking it back!

DINNER: 8:30pm, Cesar salad, spicy garlic bread, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Ordered in from a local pizzeria, Two Boots Tavern, who just reopened yesterday. Couldn't bring myself to order pizza.

Lamb 5 ways

After school, spent the day at the restaurant under the Brooklyn Bridge. Eating pizza, stretching dough with the kitchen staff, chewing the fat with some front of house staff, revising the menu with L, then going out to dinner with him and D. Long, intense day.

Tomorrow, the HVS comes back to us! YAAAAY! I gotta come correct and either yogacize or ride bikes tomorrow morning....

BREAKFAST: 6:30am, organic cornflakes with good milk, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM SNACK: 10am, cart poundcake, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 12:45pm, 2 slices various pizza, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 3pm, 1 slice minted Sicilian, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 8:30pm, lamb broth, a spoonful of lamb liver, slow roasted lamb, lamb chop, lamb and rice, sweet mint tea, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
My friend met me at the restaurant after hours and hung out with me and L, and after a discussion about how we all could go for some lamb, both D and L expressed a love of a Yemenite restaurant on Atlantic and off we went. From soup and appetizer to three entrees, it was a demonstration in all the ways secondary cuts can be be made fantastic by method and correct seasoning. A spectacular meal.

Tired But Good

Long day, but it passed in a hot moment. Woke up at an ungodly hour to make a 4:30am trip for a tour of the Hunt's Point fish market with the school, then home and off to the restaurant under the bridge by 11am for pizza training and hanging out. Working on a graphics package for the shop, but not enough time to make real head way. Had to go to a drinks thing to send off my nutritionist, who is ditching NYC to go get an organic farm up and running all the way over in the wilds of Massachusetts, then to an opening of a design store in Soho which a close friend is managing. I'm so tired, but good.

BREAKFAST: 3:45am, organic cheerios with good milk, .5 bowl, hunger 3/5

AM SNACK: 7:30am, large muffin, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM SNACK: 10am, whole wheat unsalted pretzel, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 3:15pm, 2 slices pizza, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 4:45pm, shot of Manhattan Special, half glass of white wine, 3 shots of various natural sodas, .5 bowl, hunger 3/5
Tasting various stuff we may serve in the shop.

PM DRINK: 6pm, glass of shiraz, .25 bowl, hunger 3/5
At Ilsa's good-bye party, we'll miss hah.

DINNER: 7:45pm, shrimp burritto, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 9pm, caramel ice cream. water, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

Binging like I'm 28 again!

Intense day at the pizzeria, dealing with a lot of managerial responsibilities that I've taken on. DOH inspection is hopefully next week. We don't have any flour in store, and the pizza cooking training doesn't continue until tomorrow.

By the time I hit the supermarket before getting home, realized I was in a bad place -- starving in a supermarket. I just went to my base instincts and bought frozen White Castle and pre-packaged onion rings. I almost bought a box of Enteman's chocolate chip cookies, but remembered how not great they are and how much cookies from scratch roooool over them.

As I was peddling home, I regretted the onion ring purchase -- the beer battered onion rings we made in Culinary were so good, and so easy to make. And if I was going to deep fry anyway, it's really not that much work...unfortunately after busting out a simple recipe, I realized I had everything in my cupboard except....onions. D'oh! The White Castle frozen burgers were filling, but....they didn't taste like anything, very weird. They're definitely more an idea of a burger than actual burgers. The original intention was to make grilled cheese for B, which I did, but I couldn't wait for her, so I downed all those burgers and onion rings while I waited.

Tomorrow, back to some pizza. Eating like I did 10 years ago is a nice place to visit once every bunch of years, wouldn't want to live there again.

BREAKFAST: 7am, toasted bagel with hummus and smoked salmon, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 12:15pm, half a Manhattan Special, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 4pm, half an apple, snip of french bread, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 7pm, 6 pack of frozen white castle, deep fried packaged onion rings, half a grilled cheese sandwich, water, 2 bowls, hunger 4/5

Pizza free, day 2

Woke up just not hungry, but by the time I went on break at school, I was hungry enough to feel a bit nauseous. Went straight to the restaurant under the Brooklyn Bridge fully expecting more experimental pizzas, but the dough was done and no flour, so the time there ran towards menu design and construction until Louis had to take off to take care of insurance details. Tomorrow, I'm going back to observe an pre-inspection by the DOH, should be interesting!

BREAKFAST: 10:30am, cart poundcake, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 3:45pm, shrimp and veg in red curry sauce over sticky rice, shrimp chips, water. 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 7:30pm, butternut squash soup, flax sesame corn chips, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Had the soup in the freezer for a good few months, glad it still tasted pretty good out of the microwave.

EVENING SNACK: 8:30pm, peanut butter and nutella, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Pizza-free Sunday

Spent a wonderful day with B, and it was a day with out pizza. Woke up before 7 on my own, which was nice as my body clock is finally used to 8am classes. Got out of the house at 8 to go to Russ & Daughters for some fishes and cream cheese, then stopped by Kossars for a bag o' bagels. Made some freshly squoze OJ and baked some apple cinnamon mini muffins based on this recipe, but swapped out the milk for heavy cream. Unfortunately, I didn't adjust enough for the miniature size of the muffin, and many burnt on the bottom. Next time, drop the temp to 350 and lessen the time to 18 minutes or so instead of 25.

B's momma came over for the brunch spread and we had a nice afternoon, though in the Frankenberger style, we napped and when I woke up, momma was gone.

BREAKFAST: 7am, 2 freezer waffles, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM SNACK: 11:30am, tops of burnt mini apple muffins, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 12:45pm, a few mini apple muffins, onion bagel with cream cheese, sable, thin sliced purple onion, pint of apple cider, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 5:15pm, momma style salad, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Felt the need for salad, glad I had stuff in the fridge. The colors and landscape of the salad was so pretty, had to take a pic. Now, if a pizza could look like that...

DINNER: 7:15pm, egg roll, shrimp toast, Singapore chow mai fun, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
While B was sleeping, I was watching an episode of Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares where he was complaining that the chef deep-fried 90% of his menu. Nothing better than a comfy Chinese take out to watch some of the Oscars, featuring 2 deep fried appetizers while my wife continues to bake our baby in her oven as she rests.

And yes, this is a hell of a lot of more reasonable portion than a combination brick, Ilsa...

EVENING SNACK: 8:30pm, homemade caramel ice cream, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

And on the Seventh Day, He Ate More Pizza

Took B & a couple of her friends to the resto in Prospect Heights for a nice meal, though honestly pizza was not on my top things to eat....but the special was really nice, and I never had that one before, and was probably some of the most enjoyable pizza of the week. Tomorrow, I will NOT have pizza. Probably.

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

AM SNACK: 9:45am, 2 donuts, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
The meyer lemon donut at the Donut Plant is amazingly good, best lemon donut I've ever had.

LUNCH: Noon, shrimp curry yakisoba, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 3pm, ramekin of dulce de leche ice cream, handful of chocolate chips, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 5pm, pizza with moz, provolone, asparagus, mushroom, & balsamic reduction, focacia, 1 glass wine, small portion of tiramisu and chocolate cake, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

Pizza all day long, from wake to sleep

In the morning, I spent a few hours prepping all the mise for dinner, including raw sauce, cauliflower puree and roasted cauliflower, dulce de leche ice cream mix, chopped salad, etc. After working up a new version of the Brooklyn Bridge restaurant menu, got there around 11:30 and spend the day with L and various figures involved in getting the business off the ground. It's a real education, unfolding in real time with a real business at stake. Got home a little after 6 and got my mise out, and the pizzas rolled out pretty smoothly.

NOON SNACK: 12pm, half a Manhattan Special, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 2:30pm, 1.5 margerita slices, small bottle sprite, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 6:30pm, spoonful of nutella, spoonful of caramel ice cream

DINNER: 7:45pm, 4 slices of savory pizza, 2 mini slices of sweet pizza, ramekin of dulce de leche ice cream, 2 glasses wine, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Pictures speak louder than words, sooo....

First up, salad pizza. Crust sprinkled with parm, olive oil and salt. Salad is simply romaine, cucumber, grated carrot, dressed in olive oil, balsamic, salt and sprinkled with a little parm.

Classic marg. Raw tomato sauce, pulsed in a blender, though L insists it damages the tomato, and a food mill is the way to go (he may be right.) Seasoned lightly with salt, oregano, black pepper, olive oil, and let a stem of basil sit in it for the day. Fresh moz, basil leafs.

Cauliflower pizza, once was a special at the Prospect Heights resto. Layer of moz, topped by cauliflower puree (steamed cauliflower, heavy cream, butter, garlic, salt) and sliced of roasted cauliflower. Finished with sliced scallion.

Guests requested pepperoni, so here is a simple marg with pepperoni and caramelized onions. Too much oil rendered, making the middle a bit flibbidy flobbidy.

Divided a dough into 2 smaller pies, one with nutella and banana finished with powdered sugar, the other a layer of marshmallows over semisweet chocolate chips and a little olive oil and salt.

And on a final note, if anyone needs to buy me a pre-baby present, do not get me ANYTHING....except this:

Only pizza once today

After school, spent the rest of the day at the Brooklyn Bridge restaurant. Worked on the menu with the owner/chef, kinda odd but cool making a real menu so soon after learning about menu writing in school. So of course, there was more pizza to be eaten, and it was a relief to eat some self-cooked vegetable-based food this evening. Long day, all day food.

BREAKFAST: 7am, good granola with dead milk, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 12:15pm, 10 pork n' chive steamed dumplings, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH 2: 2pm, 1.5 slices margarita pizza, cup of latte de mandorla, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 8:30pm, stirfried shrimp and broccoli, handful of baby carrots, pint of apple cider, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Picked up groceries for tomorrow's pizzas and ice cream, picked up some raw shrimp and broccoli for dinner. Cooked in a wok, with my chicken stock, mirin, worchestire sauce, minced garlic, a little soy and hot sauce. Overcooked the broc a little, but was happy with the deep flavor I created.

Guess what? I ate more pizza!

After school, I was planning to get some dumpling for lunch but wasn't very hungry, and realized I might just be eating pizza all day....which was correct.

Stretching training continued along with 4 others, and breaking for assorted pizzas eaten with random people, friends of the owner, characters from the neighborhood, etc. I'm finding eating the same pizza every day fascinating, because it isn't quite the same pizza everyday -- L is experimenting with the length of proofing (rising) the dough, time in the oven, herb and aromatic choices, moving the pie in the oven as it cooks, putting olive wood sawdust in the oven to create a smokey flavor profile, etc.

Last night I designed a menu for the restaurant, based on L's rough notes on what he'd like to see. I've been a graphic designer for a decade or so, but I've only been learning about menu design and menu writing in the past month, so it's an interesting challenge -- and unlike a school exercise, I can't just make sh#t up, the menu has to summerize the whole friggin' restaurant, determine the tone, the scope, not to mention food costs and labor costs. We were too busy today to sit and talk, but hopefully tomorrow I can bounce all the questions I have off of L's noggin'.

The four others left and I remained behind to help L host a birthday dinner for his nephew and a large extended clan from Staten Island. Serious Italian Staten Islander, accents and Sopranos-vibes and everything. Seeing the large raucous family get along and really appreciate L made me think of just how much Jewish and Italian families have in common.

So this was basically the very first service in the restaurant -- 15 member os L's family. I stretched dough beside him, ran around the kitchen fetching him tools and platters, trying to anticipate before he asked -- y'know, the restaurant dance. I met a bunch of L's family, and I also met his daughter, a young woman with long dreadlocks who will be managing the front of house -- the service, waiters, hosts, captains, bussers, bartenders and barbacks. Though I haven't been hired yet, perhaps a similar position for me in back of house? Who knows?

And when I got home after 10pm, I made a batch of pizza dough for the dinner I'm cooking Friday night for B and her friends....

BREAKFAST: 7am, 2 freezer waffles, banana, quart of water, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM SNACK: 10am, street donut stick thing, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 1:30pm, slice of white pie with fresh tomato, slice of Sicilian, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 7:30pm, 1 slice Sicilian, small sprite, cup of latte de mandorla, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
L got a bottle of almond milk syrup, which was diluted into 6 parts water into a milky white sweet drink, kind of like a liquid almond cookie. Maybe a gratis apertif after a heavy pizza meal?

EVENING SNACK: 10:15pm, large bowl of baby carrots with side of potato chips, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

Another Day in Pizzaland

Stepped on the scale this morning for the first time in a while and was pleased to see 224.6. I seem to be maintaining my lower winter weight, despite the lack of serious bike riding and the indulgent restaurant diet. Regardless, for health reasons, I need to curb some of my sugar consumption, replace it was the same amount of calories in veg and complex carbs n' protein.

Spent the day at the restaurant under the Brooklyn Bridge, just hanging with the owner/chef and picking his brains about his plans. He had a meeting of local business owners and served them wonderful mint-infused Sicilian pie, then later a marg to various friends and potential employees. So the whole time was basically eating pizza, talking pizza and thinking pizza theory. Ahhhhhh!

BREAKFAST: 8:15am, organic cheerios with industrial milk, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
The one good thing about the dead milk is that it sticks around, and doesn't go bad within 3 or 4 days. Still, it just doesn't taste very....milky.

LUNCH: Noon, mixed gluten, mashed taro treasure boxes, steamed glutinous rice wrapped in lotus leaf, mock-shark fin dumplings, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Swung by Vegetarian Dim Sum before hitting up the Brooklyn Bridge restaurant. I ordered 4 small plates, and it was just too much, left behind a good 1 plate worth of food. Got to remember, never more than 3.

PM SNACK: 1pm, 1 slice of mint Sicilian, .75 bowl, hunger 3/5
L made a large square tray of Sicilian style pizza, but in the sauce he infused it with fresh mint, and laid on a layer of torn up fresh mint leaves between the bottom layer of cheese and top layer of sauce. It tasted surprisingly sweet on the tongue, but not in a cloying way. I associate strong mint flavors with sweet, so maybe it was my brain playing tricks on me? It was surprisingly pleasing.

PM SNACK: 3pm, 1 slice margerita, Manhattan Special soda, .5 bowl, hunger 3/5
While chewing on L's ear in the back kitchen, we forgot the pie was in the oven and caught it just as it was on the edge of beginning of burnt -- you could taste a mild bitterness starting to develop on the bottom crust, but the crisp crunchiness matched against the firm chew of the bread easily made up for it. This is some serious pizza.

The Manhattan Special is a carbonated, sweetened espresso drink, and the caffeine jolt got me buzzing for a solid 4 hours. I usually don't drink stuff like this, but it's going to be served at the restaurant, and if I don't end up working there, who knows when I'd get a freebie.

DINNER: 8:45pm, half a sesame noodle appetizer, spinach salad, hijiki tofu patty, water, 1 bowl, hunger 3/5
Tired after another intense day, nice simple dinner with a friend I haven't seen in way too long.

Pizza Intensity

Spent a few hours this morning at the new pizza restaurant under the Brooklyn Bridge, it's a good vibe but I get the impression that the chef-owner-proprietor is a bit sensitive about his trade secrets, so I'm not going to repeat here what I'm experiencing and learning there -- suffice to say, it's pretty humbling to be in the presence of someone whose so passionate and committed to elevating the humble pizza into something fantastic.

Had lunch with B with the restaurateur and the embryonic staff, really amazing Italian-American style slices, high quality with a deft touch on the dough and a nice olive-wood aroma from a technique he's experimenting with (my lips are sealed!) We took off and visited the park we married, got a snack at Jacques Torres, walked over to where B used to live and all the landmarks we courted each other.

Spent the evening working the phones and the counter at the Prospect Heights restaurant, very busy for a Monday night. It was pretty intense, and the 5 hours flew by in a second. AND the restaurateur from the Brooklyn Bridge spot came by for dinner, to check out the operation I've been talking up a little to him. A long day of pizza intensity

BREAKFAST: 8:30am, good granola with industrial milk, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 1:45pm, 1 slice marg, 1.5 slice white, small amount of chicory salad, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 3pm, 3 chocolate covered graham crackers, half a hot chocolate, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 8pm, cheese cake, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 9:45pm, small pizza with moz, spicy sausage, fresh bell pepper, black olive, cherry tomato, ginger ale, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING WATERING: 11:30pm, quart

I still hate tequila

When a burly back kitchen cook offers you a shot of tequila at the end of the night, and you don't have a good grasp of Spanish and he doesn't have a good grasp of English, and you both are dependent on each other through the night to keep your work moving smoothly without errors, well, you accept it and thank him, muchacho. I HATE tequila.

I was at the restaurant from 11 to 11, first as a combo phone/bus/pizza helper, then after 4, strictly pizza. Around 8:30, during an extended 2 hour rush, I started to feel a bit unfocused on my feet and ran to the back and sucked down a tiramisu, which made me feel a lot better. I would have chosen something healthier, but I needed something on hand that took no time to prep.

BREAKFAST: 7:30am, good granola with industrial milk, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 11am, slice with onion and prosciutto, chocolate hazelnut cake, 2 sodas, 2 bowl, hunger 4/5

MEAL 3: 4pm, french toast, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 8:30pm, tiramisu, water, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNORT: 9:30pm, shot of tequila

DINNER: 10pm, kid's size rigatoni with mushroom, pine nut tart, water, half glass of wine, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5