Illin' Day 3

Feeling better, but still out of it and drained. Nice to clear out some yummy stuff out of the freezer, though. Want more fresh veg, though.

BRUNCH: 11:30am, 4 mini muffins, 2 slices of restaurant pizza, grape soda on ice, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 4pm, banana, peanut butter, water, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 8:30pm, small plate of rice & beans, small amount of vanilla ice cream, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

Still Ill

Despite the Nyquil, slept shallowly and fitfully. Didn't go into the restaurant for a 2nd day, felt bad about it but there was no way I could go in in this condition. Spent the day taking baths, watching TV and napping.

BREAKFAST: 8am, swig of cider, water

LUNCH: 1pm, boca burger on whole grain toast, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM WATERING: 3pm, quart

DINNER: 8pm, vegetarian maki, shrimp roll, salad, vegetable dumplings, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING DRUGGING: 10pm, shot of nyquil

Must've been the chicken pizza

Had a good time at school today, but felt lethargic, overheated and uncomfortable. Realized I was having cold sweats and my forehead felt warm, so I swallowed my pride and called in sick to the restaurant. I really wanted to go -- I'm paying my dues -- but if I showed up all sweaty and weak, I would have been sent home for being an unproductive health violation.

Part of it has been a little too little sleep, the stress of painting the 2nd bedroom, lots of big thoughts. And chicken pizza is evil, I ate a couple of pieces of that last night! I think I just need to eat lighter for a while, sleep more and hug up on my wifey!

I think my very first taste of alcohol was a shot of Nyquil - back in the mid 70s, there was no child-friendly non-booze version. I absolutely despised it. Now it just tastes like....Jagermeister. Still hate it, but don't need to jump up and down and scream.

BREAKFAST: 6:45am, good yogurt with honey, raw cashews, vanilla, .75 bowl, hunger 3/5

PM WATERING: 1pm, quart of water

LINNER: 4:45pm, falafel and salad plate with whole wheat pita, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING DRUGGING: 9:15pm, shot o' Nyquil

Oatmeal Returns

BREAKFAST: 6:45am, oatmeal made with the good milk, a little salt and brownsugar, glass of apple cider, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Why haven't I had oatmeal this season sooner? Just getting tired of dry cereal and yogurt. The starch of the oats gave the milk a nice custardy vibe, and the mild dose of a dash of brown sugar made all the difference -- the salt turned up the notch on the whole affair. This is what those horrible packets of chemicalized instant-oatmeal try to be, and always fail. And it took 3 minutes in the micro, which makes instant oatmeal very suspicious.

AM SNACK: 9:30am, cart pound cake, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 12:45pm, wonton soup, a small amount of curry shrimp with fried rice, 1 bowl, hunger 3.5/5
Picked up cheap Chinese on the way home, absolutely horrible. Literally couldn't eat 2/3 of the plate, the curry sauce weirdly thick and goopy.

PM WATERING: 3pm, 1 quart

PM SNACK: 3:45pm, handful of chocolate chips, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 7pm, olives, various salumni, moz and tomato salad, pieces of 4 kinds of pizza, ice cream and cake, water, 2 bowl, hunger 4/5
Went to a new wood-fired pizza place in my neighborhood with B and a couple of friends. Good, not great. But I ordered the vegan pizza in honor of the HVS. Will go back, only if HVS accompanies me.

Soup the Season

I wanted B to eat the chicken soup, as it is the perfect food food for a pregnant lady -- full of protein and bone building collagen, organic, almost fat free, big real flavor, reasonable in salt, freshly seared chicken breast pieces and vegetables. But she is feeling picky and skipped it, and it was too good to let sit in the fridge.

I think I need to make a massive amount of chicken stock and just make soups with it as the winter rolls on, cooking up additions for different recipes to keep it interesting.

BREAKFAST: 8:15am, pint of cider, .5 bowl, hunger 3/5

BREAKFAST 2: 10am, bowl of homemade chicken soup, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

SNICKLE SNACK: 3pm, vegan Cesar salad, water, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
It ain't quite a snickle without the HVS, but it was in her honor. During the yoga class immediately before, the teacher asked us to dedicate our practice to a guru (a.k.a. yoga teacher) who inspires our thang. Of course, I dedicated it to Guru T!

DINNER: 4:45pm, potato knish, half a chocolate-cheese knish, a few slurps of cherry coke, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4.5

EVENING SNACK: 8:30pm, mom style salad, flax tortilla chips, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
At the movies with a favorite friend, snarfing knishes from Yonah Shimmels next door. Snarfing knishes in art house theater from a turn of the century knishery is what makes NYC great.

Snapple is for suckaz

Not enough sleep last night. I did sleep 3 hours or so in the car coming down from Albany, but got home from the restaurant around 11, all amped up, didn't get to bed til 1:30. Up at 6:30. After my habitual pound cake at class, got jumped in the library by an impromptu ice-cream bar of extras that would of gone in the garbage if I didn't help eat it up.

At home doing chores, chopped up a big healthy chunky veg salad for the next few days. Took the quart of the excellent rich chicken stock I made a week or so out of the freezer and heated it up in a pot. In a pan, I quickly sauteed thin sliced carrot, shitakes, cubed chicken boobie and a little garlic, deglazed with mirin, and dumped it in the stock with thin sliced scallion and let the heat of the stock finish cooking the chicken meat and soften the scallion. Seasoned with salt, this is easily the best chicken soup I've had in memory.

BREAKFAST: 6:45am, organic chex with good milk, .5 bowl, hunger 3/5

AM SNACK: 9:30am, cart pound cake, .5 bowl hunger 4/5

AM SNACK: 10:45am, selection of ice cream flavors, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
A culinary class put out about 12 ice creams in the library for all comers, I had to taste a few. A dark chocolate, a white chocolate mouse, a lame maple that was more vanilla, cinnamon, yum! The problem of hanging out at a c-school.

LUNCH: 2:45pm, momma style salad, homemade chicken soup, quart of water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 6:15pm, hunk of halava, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 6:30pm, pint of pork fried rice, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
On the way to meet the HVS to take a trip out to the airport, NOT a haven for vegan-friendly food, or any good food, for that matter. So took matters into my own hands

EVENING SNACK: 8:30pm, 2/3 of a bottle of Tazo iced green tea with spearmint and lemongrass, .5 bowl, hunger 3/5
It's organic, the bottle has less sugar than pop, it's cane sugar, blah blah blah. Bottom line, it tastes like over sweetened tea that someone spit a chewed up wad of mint gum into. Kind of like where a stranger's saliva meets toothpaste. Deeeesgusting. Why do people drink sweetened bottled flavored teas? Snapple is for suckaz.

A Weekend of Pizza

Spent the weekend up in Albany visiting my brother and his brood o' plenty. Stopped by the parent's grave on the way up, and slipped a copy of Baby E's ultra scan into their crypt, that gave me a shiver. In Albany (where I went to college), we visited Souvrana, which was this remarkable little grocery store that happened to have incredibly delicious pizza. Back then, the only games in town were Souvrana, JG's on Lark Street, and if you were drunk and poor, two competing 50 cent slice joints across the street from the QE2 club. Anyway, Souvrana was a family-owned joint that has since gotten rid of the groceries and put in tables, but it still has a thrown-off vibe. The pizza has VERY thick crust for a round pie, not quite Sicilian but very doughy. And I found it tasty, but kinda....gross. Undercooked, too much dough in the mouth, no balance. I guess experience has put the squash on some forms of nostalgia.

Sunday morning with the brood, made bagels from scratch in the kosher kitchen. Was fun rolling the dough with the kids, but an unfamiliar oven ran a little hot and the bottoms got slightly burnt.

Sunday evening at the restaurant, fun time with friends I haven't seen in a while. It seems a wood-burning pizza place just opened 2 blocks down the street. Which reminds me, a wood-burning joint just opened up a few blocks from where I live. And when I was in Albany, I noticed 3 or 4 new pizza joints, including one slightly upscale joint. Are we in the midst of a pizza-bubble?

SATURDAY
BREAKFAST: 9am, 6 pieces of bacon, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM SNACK: 11:30am, olive oil torta, bag of corn chips, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 2:30 pm, 2 slices of Souvrana pizza, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 8pm, small salad, 1 small matzoh ball, 1 vegetarian 'chicken' patty, water, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5


SUNDAY
BREAKFAST: 7:45am, 6 mini muffins, half an unripe banana, water, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 11am, 2 homemade bagels, hummus, cream cheese, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 5-8pm, bites of pancetta, a meatball with a piece of focaccio, nibbles from the pizza topping station, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 9:15pm, pizza with stewed tomatoes, roasted red peppers, sausage, caramelized onion, mushrooms, basil and a light sprinkling of parm, rootbeer, small ramekin of chocolate rice pudding, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
The roasted red peppers made this pie, and the sprinkled cheese made it just taste cheesy enough.

Baby is Fo' Reals, Yo

I went to the hospital with B today for an ultrasound to make sure all the parts of the baby were intact, and on a side note found out the gender. My wife doesn't want to know, so it's my secret...but if you want to know, scroll down to the bottom of this post to find out. Finding out was one of those moments...you don't think it's gonna be a big deal and then, when you do find out, it's like whack: a concussion. You don't remember what happened and yet you feel a huge excitement welling up from all directions...but you're not quite sure why. Then you remind yourself, and it's, oh yeah. He he.

Felt like a quick celebratory meal, pizza but something weird. Went to Viva Herbal, an odd vegetarian/vegan pizza place in the East Village. I'm quite familiar with it from the dark days of the years I was vegetarian & vegan, and fooled myself into thinking it was...pizza. On the bottom shelf they have traditional pizza, with cheese n' stuff, which seems silly (you don't get fish at a steak house, you don't get pizza at a burger joint, etc), but I thought it could be interesting. There traditional slice was WAY over-cheesed with a blanket of flavorless moz. I had a vegan picante, which is a snappy whole wheat crust with no chew, topped with a thick layer of relatively mild tomato stew, thickened with soy meat balls and roasted red peppers. It was actually pretty tasty, but a stretch to call it pizza.


Cooked up a bacon corn bread for a party I attended late in the evening. The theme was the Depression. Cheap, filling, full o' lard -- that's what I think when I imagine what people ate. And apples. (All those pictures of apple carts.) The party had a real working old-fashioned fireplace, and we toasted marshmallows in the living room of a well-appointed Carroll Gardens apartment, an odd experience. Riding home over the Brooklyn Bridge, my mind wandered as to what it's will be like raising this kid, this kid who just became a lot more defined today. Not that gender is the be-all end-all -- I still intend to go strictly gender neutral on the stuff side of things, and if my kid is born and naturally blossoms into something decidedly queer (or whatever the PC word is today), that'll be perfectly fine, too. I mean, Rufus was just fine living as a dude until his gender reassignment! Oy, it's 2 in the morning and I'm slightly buzzed and really tired. Good night!

BREAKFAST: 9am, organic corn flakes with dead milk, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 1:15pm, 2 weird slices, chocolate cigar, 1.5 bowl

PM SNACK: 3pm, bacon cornbread drippings, swig of apple cider, water, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 7pm, small bowl of potato chips, .25 bowl, hunger 3/5

EVENING DRINK & SNACKS: 9pm-1am, 1 beer, 1 manhattan, 1 gimlet, small plate of bland rice & beans, small wedge of bacon cornbread, small piece of smoked moz, 3 smores, 1.5 bowls, hunger 3/5

EVENING WATERING: 1:30am, quart


It's a.....



...First, this political message....




OK, OK. It's a.....

BIRL!!!

Because it sure aint a goy! I've been sworn to secrecy!

Kati Rolls are yummy

I got 10 hours of uncomfortable sleep on a small bed with an enlarged heated pregnant lady, but I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world. Still, waking up and still tired to a pantry I'm unfamiliar with is a little disconcerting, letting the graham crackers comfortably nudge me awake.

BREAKFAST: 7:30am, water, a couple of graham crackers, cart roll & butter, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 12:45pm, homemade mac n' cheese, 4 freshly baked chocolate chip cookies, quart of water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
It's nice when you finish the left over of a large dish that's been sitting around a while and it tastes just as good as the day it was made.

DINNER: 6:25pm, potato kati roll, lamb mince kati roll, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
D took me to a favorite lunch place in midtown before a movie, really good concept, nice looking space, good food, but the place was EMPTY and took 10 minutes to get our relatively simple food.

EVENING SNACK: 7pm, cherry icee, popcorn, 2 bowls, hunger 4/5
Usually I'd say 1 or 1.5 bowls, but according to the posted labels, this snack was about 1000 calories, so...

Tired again

Only got 4 hours of sleep last night, couldn't get to sleep. The restaurant called earlier and signed me up for multiple shifts over the next few weeks, guess the 2nd new guy didn't work out, either, or something.

After class, went to a kitchen class room at a community college to volunteer to set up for a student competition, for an organization that awards students scholarships to go to c-school. After, I went to join B at her brother's house to watch bad TV and eat pizza that Brother B insists is some of the best in the city.

BREAKFAST: 6:15am, good yogurt with honey, raw cashews, vanilla, pint of apple cider, 1.25 bowl, hunger 3/5

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

LUNCH: 12:15pm, falafel & hummus sandwich, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 2pm, cart hot dog, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 6:30pm, pizza, 1 diet soda, a chocolate thingy, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

Wood-fired roman pizza from a place called Waldy's, kind of rendered impotent by arriving cold.

PM SNACK: 6:30pm, graham cracker, small piece of chocolate, seltzer, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

ILSA! What is she good for? UHH! Absolutely SUMTHIN'!

(The title is sung to the tune of "War" by the Temptations....anyhoo....I've been thinking about my nutritionist Ilsa lately -- she's movin' on from NYC and going to embed herself on a farm out in Massachusetts, and our active bi-weekly meetings will be coming to an end. Next time we meet, we're going to work on just what has come out of the work we did.

Well, the first thing that's come out of it is kinda obvious -- this blog! Originally under the name "I Am What I Eat, I Eat What I Wish to Become" (snappy, huh?), it came out of Ilsa's request for me to keep a food journal for a week or two, and the reflectivity of it just made it too easy to roll on.

It was the original iteration of this blog where I started really cooking for myself, and thinking about what I was cooking....and with a little knowledge, I quickly learned how little I knew about cooking. Which lead to 8 months of culinary school....and my current part time job as a pizza cook. And another blog, Culinary School Confidential, to go along with it.

Yesterday, I ate really poorly....but upon reflection, it makes sense. It's winter, I'm craving the heavy, not feeling the light. One thing Ilsa has caused me to really reevaluate is portion size. The portion of mac n' cheese I ate yesterday was big enough for me, but a few years ago I would of easily eaten 2.5x more on one plate....in fact, if I were to put that much in front of me, I probably still could eat it without too much trouble. It's just now I know that if I cut my portions down, for some reason psychologically it just seems like I ate a full portion and enough is enough. For that, I definitely have to credit the work I did with Ilsa.

As I just mentioned, I'm now conscious of the seasonality of my eating. Before Isla, I would mindlessly make the same exact salad 12 months a year, whether I enjoyed it or not, regardless of what was in season. After Ilsa's assignments to choose random in-season veg from the market (and the skills acquired from c-school to prepare them), I can't imagine eating my standard salad outside of late spring and summer -- it just doesn't taste so good in the colder months.

I guess the biggest thing I gained was my control over my sweets intake. I still occasionally eat 2-3 sweets in a day....maybe once a week, if the sweets on offer are special. Before Ilsa, it was 2 to 3 of ANYTHING sweet, prepackaged industrial junk, as long as it had that fix. I enjoy sweets more now! It's not a habit, there is thought behind it.

This thread needs to be picked up later, I'm getting sleepy.


The HVS is back from overseas, spent a good part of the day eating with her -- I've been making food for her the past few days, but her front door key was changed at the last minute, so she came over this evening for an unprecedented snickle dinner. It was nice being able to serve a fully homemade 3-course vegan dinner with almost no prep or cooking! I was worried the chocotofu pie would be nasty, but was pretty good and rich and redolent of molasses.

BREAKFAST: 9:30am, organic chex with the dead milk, .75 bowl, hunger 3/5

SNICKLE SNACK: 2pm, large vegan Caesar salad, bowl of dahl, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 4pm, swig of apple cider, small wedge of halavah, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 5:45pm, one glass of black cherry/orange soda cocktail, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

SNICKLE DINNER: 7pm, grilled seitan, orzo salad, butternut squash soup, chocotofu pie, seltzer, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

Hungry for the Heavy

It's winter, I fully realized, as I ate pizza for the second time during dinner, after a lunch of not-light mac n' cheese for lunch. OK, I did make everything myself (including the pizza from the restaurant), but damn, not even craving veg. This morning I cooked up some killer vegan butternut squash soup for the HVS's homecoming, but outside of tasting it for balance, just wasn't....rich enough. Hungry for for the heavy.

Speaking of heavy, I weighed in at 226.2 this morning. The way I've been eating, I thought I was more than just a few pounds over where I've been. My body is handling things well. When I start going in for salads and lighter food in the spring, maybe I'll be in a good spot.

Saw an old episode of Seinfeld this evening, Kramer had an idea for a 'build your own' pizza restaurant, and was trying to convince the owner, Poppy, to go for it. When Kramer puts cucumber on his pie, they get into a fight -- Poppy believes it is NOT pizza if you put bad toppings on it, while Kramer believes it's not a pizza till it comes out of the oven. Hmmm.

BREAKFAST: 10:15am, organic corn flakes with bad (i.e. homogenized, dead) whole milk, .5 bowl, hunger 3/5

PM SNACK: 12:30pm, street slice, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
While riding home through Cobble Hill, stopped by an old slice joint on Court St. Classic big greasy triangle, too much salt. The menu said $2.75, the dude charged me $3. They also have 'brick oven' pizza, separate on the menu. They have a gas-burning standard pizza oven AND a built-in brick oven, very odd.

LUNCH: 1:15pm, mac n' cheese, grape soda & potato chips, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Not horrendously healthy, but the portion was right, and primarily home made.

DINNER: 7:30pm, 2 frozen resto slices, 4 freshly baked home made chocochip cookies, quart of water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

I got my mind on the pizza and the pizza on my mind...

You can google just about any term and 'porn' and find something interesting...

There are two pizza conventions: one in NYC in the beginning of March, and a national convention in Las Vegas in mid-March. Going to the local one is no biggie, $30 for a pass and I can ride my bike there. Las Vegas would require a hotel, an airline ticket, time off from school, being in Las Vegas and a $170 pass. Not sure what the significant difference between the two conventions are, other than it's 'industry' stuff. Definitely going to the first, maybe to the second. Does any one know definitely what the difference between the two are?

My mac n' cheese was luxurious but....bland, all these nice cheeses but skipped salt. For some unknown reason, I've been feeling fat -- I tried on a baby bjorn and even at the most extended, barely fits around my waist.

BREAKFAST: 8:15am, 1 glass cider and 1 cookie while cooking, 5 small pieced french toast, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5
Cooking for B & the guests. I was low on cream, so I did a 2/3 whole milk 1/3 cream batter mix, it was actually better than 100% cream, it was a better vehicle to get the focaccia to soak in the egg element, so when it came off the burners into the oven, it firmed up all the way through in a nice way. Very french-toasty.

LUNCH: 12 noon, mushroom risotto, chocolate chip cookies, handful of carrots and hummus, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 3pm, ramekin of vanilla ice cream, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 6:30pm, home made mac n' cheese, orzo salad, grape soda, small amount of chocolate, 1.75 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING WATERING: 8pm, quart of water.

Orzo Salad and Cookies and Pizza, oh my!

Got into a little cooking fit this afternoon. Finished the vanilla ice cream whose batter had to chill over night, then I made a big batch of vegan Basil Lemon Orzo Salad, made it up with out a recipe, pretty good. Box o' orzo al dente in well-salted water. 2 finely shredded carrots, carton of cherry tomatoes, quartered, juice of 1 whole lemon, cup of chickpeas. Lightly sauteed in olive oil: shallot and garlic, diced yellow pepper, diced de-finned portobello, a little chive, salt. Mixed in, finished with fresh diced basil, more olive oil, more salt to taste. Bright, fresh, and after it sits for a day or two, the flavor is really gonna mesh. And a big ol' portion of it will be waiting for the HVS when she gets home!

Also made focaccia french toast to soak, to be served to our guests tomorrow. Had some chocolate chips laying around, so made a small batch of cookies.

Made pizza for a friend of B's and her 2 little kids, boys age 2 and 4. It was fun showing them how to stretch dough and top the pizzas. Though MY kid's pizza is gonna be soooo much better then theirs!

I just got an email message from a distant relative, saying she just made beef stew from a recipe of my father's. I hope she has a hand-written copy by him, I would love to study it.

BREAKFAST: 10:15am, organic chex with good milk, banana, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 12:30pm, basil lemon orzo salad, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM SNACK: 1:30pm, a spoonful of vanilla ice cream, a snip of chocolate chip cookie dough, .25 bowl, hunger 3/5

PM WATERING: 2:30pm, quart

DINNER: 7pm, 1 cookie while cooking, homemade pizza, slice of s'mores pizza, 1 cookie, 1 spoonful of ice cream, quart of water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

Least. Healthy. Snack. Ever.

I found this while trying to find an image to illustrate "Bacon Porn":


"Tastes great, just needs more salt!"

In culinary school, one item that had almost universal popularity was honey-bacon. Ridiculously easy to make: brush raw bacon with honey, lay on a drying rack set in a sheet-pan, place in a cold oven then bake at around 400 until done. Flat, crispy, sweet & salty. I'm not a big fan of honey-flavor, and all the intense smokey fat really ratchet up that particular note.

Now the snack I had today, oy. Over all, I think I hit a new low in unhealthiness, but for not horrible reasons. I felt good, enjoyed working last night, have some new ideas, B worked from home and I had extra time to admire her belly, Rufus the Wonder Cat was super snuggly, and I had a really good yoga basics class with my favorite teacher focusing on my favorite yoga practice (back bending). Also maybe a lack of sleep, only 5 hours. So I'm not weirdly punishing myself, maybe celebrating by indulging myself?

While eating the bacon, I desired something sweet, and I reached for a grape soda. What a great combination!! I should make something like a loose grape jam, and spread it on the bacon! Mmmmm! Grape bacon! I posted on facebook, and people chimed in with "No! Orange!" or the like.

BREAKFAST: 8:30am, good yogurt with honey, vanilla, nuts, .5 bowl, hunger 3/5

AM SNACK: 11:30am, 6 slices bacon, grape soda, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
Least. Healthy. Snack. Ever. But so delicious! Hit the spot.

LUNCH: 4:30pm, curry ramen, pork fried rice, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

AFTERNOON SNACKAGE: 6-8pm, bits of chocolate, taste of cream anglaise, tofu pie batter, vanilla wafers, .5 bowl, hunger 3/5
Cooking. Vanilla ice cream for tomorrow's guests, a chocotofu pie with an experimental vanilla cookie crust for the HVS.

EVENING SNACK: 11:30, tortilla chips and salsa, .5 bowl, hunger 3/5

I am what I eat, but do I HAVE where I eat?

I got called in to the restaurant at the last minute to do a shift, so I had to find a fast convenient place to go eat on the way there -- it's bad to show up for service while hungry if you won't be able to eat when you come in, you'll end up snacking for hours. I was going through Chinatown, not in the mood for my regular vegetarian dim sum. Along Mott, there are the old restaurants that have been there forever, with a classic Americanized menu for the tourists. 'Big Wong' had a name that said, "Hey, if you go here, you can write "BIG WONG" all over your blog today!" -- definitely not the best way to choose a restaurant, but hey, the menu was cheap, so I bet the turn over was fast.

And it was. I had my first dish seconds after I ordered and my bill before finishing my meal. I think this was the way all Chinese restaurants used to be, particularly in the 70s. Big portions, cheap, harried, a bit dank, and funky of flavor. The first item I got was "fresh" shrimp wrapped in rice dough, but literally feet away from me I saw the waitress pop it out of the microwave. The shrimp was definitely a bit tough. The wonton soup was filled to the brim with pork/shrimp dumplings, at least 12 of them, and the broth was pleasingly/oddly gamy -- I imagine they must use EVERY bit of meat in their dishes, and the really scary unusable stuff....goes into making the broth! My main noodle dish, which was under $7, was enough for two people....and after that huge bowl of wontons, could only get through half of it. Am I glad I went? Yes. Did I enjoy my meal? Sure. Will I go back? Not any time soon.

Yesterday's weiner schnitzel brought back some strong parental memories. In the mid-nineties, me and my parents took our first and (now it turns out) last big trip as a family unit together. As my parents aged, they were never big on travel -- too expensive, too uncomfortable. (With my encouragement, they took a couple of cruises in the early 2000s, thank goodness, but that was without me...thank goodness!) We flew to England, London, stayed in Kensington, saw a bunch of my friends, travelled to a friend's for dinner up North, was really nice. Then we took a plane over to Vienna, where my father was born.

This was my second time there, the first time was in the early 90s as a student with a rucksack. I remembered all the pastry shops there, which my father remembered fondly and was undoubtedly the ground work for his diabetes later in life. We visited where he was born, where he grew up, the bench along the Danube River where he remembered "NO JEWS" painted on them. It never occurred to the three of us to bring a camera, that's how out of practice we were with exotic vacationing. (Fortunately, a friend had a camera when they visited, and my 2 pictures from that vacation are some of my most treasured possessions.)

The best time the three of us had in Vienna was probably when we went to some generic local restaurant for weiner schnitzel. Weiner schnitzel is simply a pork cutlet that is hammered out flat, breaded and deep fried to crispy on the outside, tender and juicy on the inside -- not so far from fried chicken in concept, thought the spicing and presentation is very different. It was served, as it was last night, with a German potato salad, a little cooked shredded red cabbage, and a little cucumber salad. The food was good, we relaxed in the restaurant, pausing to appreciate where we were and let it enter our bodies. These were pre-Euro days, and there was something like 3,385 Austrian marks to the US dollar. My father, being my father, paid for the meal. As we were down the street from the spot, we calculated my dad left about 17 cents in tip on an 80 dollar bill. He felt horrible, but me and my mom refused to let him go back -- they don't really tip in Europe anyway, and even so, will we ever be back there? But really, me and mom just wanted an excuse to tease him, which we did for, oh, on regular occasions until the day he died!

Weiner Schnitzel was a food my dad grew up with, and eating it with him in the place he was born was a treat and an honor, and I'm glad I got to do it. Weiner Schnitzel will never just be a hammered pork chop to me.

BREAKFAST: 6:45am, banana, pint of apple cider, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM SNACK: 10am, marble pound cake, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
I was hoping the pint of juice would of calmed me, but no. I know, I know, I feel like a broken record, I need to motivate.

PM SNACK: 2pm, olive oil torta, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 4:15pm, singapore chow mei fun, wonton soup, 'fresh' shrimp in rice crepe, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM SNACK: 7pm, half a soda, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 10pm, pizza with stewed tomato, sausage, parm, basil, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING WATERING: 11:45pm, 1 quart

B's Baby Bump

While at school today, my wife had a check up with her doctors. She's 20 weeks pregnant and looks friggin' great, and I'm not even talkin' about the boob situation; I am not a boob guy, I've always been about the....well, thats for a different kinda blog. Anyway, B is in good health, the miniB seems to be in good health, but the doc made a comment about her weight. (And yes, dear friend, I asked permission to talk about her weight in public before posting this!)

The doc says she should be gaining about 25-30 pounds by the time she's ready to give birth. We're about 5 months in, and she's gained about 20lbs. Gaining too much could lead to prenatal diabetes. I see (most of) what B eats, she definitely does not go crazy overall, even though a lot of her steady habits have dropped in and out over the past half year. For a few weeks she couldn't eat a fruit or veg, but french fries were all the rage -- that was fun! She's back to eating veg, but between her growing bump, the cold weather and the inappropriateness of a preggers lady riding a bike is not working in her favor.

I suppose the doc's 25-30 lb limit is a bit different for every woman. B is hardly sitting around gorging on bon bons all day (though I would love it if she did that for a day -- just so I could lovingly complain about it), and I'm hesitant to encourage any sort of dieting for her n' Lil' Fetus (That's gonna be the name of our baby, Lil' Fetus. Middle name: Cletus.) Whenever B has expressed any sort of urge for a food, I've either made it or we ordered it in. She doesn't eat weirdly large portions, either -- if anything, she ate weirdly small portions matched with weirdly large binges late in the day. I would love a chubby wife -- so cute! Like one of them sexy German farm maids, with the ruffly sleeves....but that's for another kind of blog, once again!

BREAKFAST: 6:45am, organic chex with the good milk, .75 bowl, hunger 3/5

AM SNACK: 10:15am, marble pound cake, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
Was hoping the more substantial breakfast would take me through to lunch. I was wrong.

LUNCH: 1pm, mushroom risotto, small amount of chocolate gelato, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 6:30pm, Weiner Schnitzel with German potato salad, cucumber salad, cooked cabbage, French Onion soup, half a dark beer, water, a few pieces of bread, 2 bowls, hunger 4/5
Dinner with friends before a movie at BAM in Brooklyn at a newish Viennese restaurant. This was the food of my father's childhood -- I think the last time I had a weiner schnitzel was in Vienna with my mom and dad in the mid 90s, very lucky to have done that. Still digesting it, figuratively and literally, perhaps more to say about it tomorrow.

Risotto, and how we got there.

Had a nice but odd experience at a restaurant I'm auditing for class. It was a fix prix lunch menu, both me and B were paying the same amount for a first and second course. However, my panino and fries was a large amount of food and her tortelli were 6 little halfmoons all lonely on the plate.

Met with Ilsa this evening, seems she's flying the coop this year to pursue her life on the farm -- I need to start thinking in terms of how I've changed in my eating and food perspective since starting with her. Anyone out there following this blog from the beginning who can summarize the whole shebang for me? 100 words or less, please!

Nyquil gave me the sleep of the dead last night, feel better but stuffed up. Appetite came back, but worried about waking up predawn again tomorrow. Got to work out a new breakfast/food routine for the mornings.

As I was cooking risotto this evening (which takes a solid 45 minutes of constant activity), I snacked on dessert, tortas and gelato, but just a little. Earlier the sugar goes in, the theory goes, the less it'll effect my sleep.

BREAKFAST: 8:30am, swig of apple cider, 7 slices of bacon, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Had to make bacon or let it go bad. Was delicious, and nice to feed bits to Rufus out of my hand.

LUNCH: Noon, prociutto & buffalo moz panino with fries, Caesar salad, 1 glass prosecco, small scoop of lemon sorbet, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 7:30pm, 2 Spanish sweet olive oil tortas, 3 spoonfuls of chocolate gelato, 2 bowls homemade mushroom risotto, 2 bowls, hunger 4/5
Hadn't made risotto in a while, pretty good. Using the chicken stock from yesterday, sauteed a shallot, added all the sliced mushrooms, sauteed the rice then added stock a ladle at a time till all absorbed. Added a cup of dry sherry and cooked to get ride of the alcohol. Cut the heat and finished with a half stick of the good butter, a half cup of marscapone and half cup of parmesan. Salted to taste and bammo, some kick ass risotto!

If an Alien assumed we were monodietetic...

Not sick, not well. I think I'd be a lot sicker if I was unhappy with life. I think I'm more unsatisfied than unhappy, thanks to the B and her little b baking.

Was going to cook this evening, and went so far as to make chicken stock with a baggie of 'chicken parts' from the market -- mostly spines and belly bones. After boiling them for 3 hours, added mire poix with mushroom stems, some dried porcini, pepper corns, thyme and a clove of garlic for an hour. Strained, put in the freezer to coagulate the fat. (What should I do with this yummy disc of shmaltz?) I was going to make mushroom risotto, but the tiredness and the laundry and the househusband duties got the best of me,

BREAKFAST: 6:30am, pint of apple cider, 1 bowl, hunger 2/5
Felt hungry and nauseous from lack of sleep, this was the only thing that could slip down easily.

AM SNACK: 9:15am, thick slice of street pound cake, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
Again, out of sorts and no plan while at school

PM SNACK: 1:30pm, bottle of grape soda, .5 bowl, hunger 3/5
Not quite sick, not quite well, just riding the low-energy edge. Need sugar to continue to move.

PM SNACK: 3pm, 2 olive oil tortas, .25 bowl, hunger 3/5
Sweet, savory, mildly like fennel, crispy, melty, all Spanish n' delicious

DINNER: 6:30pm, 2 slices restaurant pizza, ramekin of store-bought chocolate gelato, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Feeling better, low energy, not enough to continue with the stock to make risotto. I'm glad I have a lot of slices banked in the freezer, it's kinda like an alien's idea of what a human would stock up on to survive. Bee's stock up on honey, squirrels stock up on nuts, and human's stock up on pizza slices.

I bought a fancily packaged, high-priced gelato from the market today, as an experiment. Disappointing -- chocolate gelato should be deep and rich and hit a harmony of chocolate notes from milky and sweet to dark and pleasingly bitter.

EVENING WATERING: 8pm, quart o' da wet stuff

EVENING DRUGGING: 9:30pm, a shot of da Quil

This ain't a burger, Selma!!

On Sunday evening, B and I ordered in Ethiopian food. We got an odd call from the restaurant asking if we got our food (we hadn't.) It seems the delivery person was intercepted by someone in the building who thought the food was theirs and paid for in by credit card. If they were expecting burgers and fries, boy, are they in for a surprise....

B and I were given gift certificates to a high-end Thai massage place. The dude greased me up and twisted me around a bit into yoga-lite shapes. I guess if I was filthy rich and ridiculously lazy, this would be my new yoga regimen.

SATURDAY
AFTERNOON SNACK: 1pm, a handful of chocolates, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

BREAKFAST: 2:30pm, good yogurt with honey, vanilla, raw nuts, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

AFTERNOON SNACK: 3pm, the rest of the box of chocolates, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
I decided the temptation was too much - I was going to take a little nibble of each remaining chocolate, eat only 1 or 2 that was really good, and throw the rest out. However, they were all really good!! Damn me and my expanded palate!

DINNER: 8pm, 2 slices of restaurant pizza, momma style salad, grape soda, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

SUNDAY
AM SNACK: 8:30am, swig of apple cider

AM BREAKFAST: 9:30am, 4 mini muffins, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 12:45pm, spinach dumpling, mixed gluten, mini lotus wrapped steamed rice, deep fried dough wrapped in rice paper, mashed taro treasure box, a couple of mouthfuls of ice cream, water, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5
Vegetarian dim sum after ridiculous massage. B was hungry as all-git-out, so we got her some ice cream from the Chinatown Ice Cream Factory, I didn't get any but had a bite or two of hers.

PM SNACK: 3:45pm, swig of apple cider

DINNER: 7:15pm, small amount of momma style salad, Ethiopian combo platter, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5
The beef and lamb were both kinda nasty, will stick to the vegetarian combo next time. Beef was a tough cheap cut, lamb was braised but still stringy and fibrous.