No More Cheese

Played hooky from school to spend the day at the 2nd full day of the restaurant being open. It went both a lot better and a lot worse -- on one hand, the kitchen staff is really coming together, we're figuring out who does what, who can do what, who can't, stations are being established, we're getting some the supplies we need, and the lunch services was a lot more organized. On the worse side, by 8:30 we were deep in the weeds, some customers were PISSED because they were waiting over an hour for a pizza, and on top of that, we ran out of friggin' mozzarella! We closed the pizza kitchen down to new orders at 9pm, with the line that we were 'sold out'. Yeah, sold out, but that's more poor ordering than being too successful. L copped that it was his fault, but in the next few weeks, when things are smoother, it'll be my fault!

Remembered to eat today, and reminded L to feed the staff, which we did, good vibes all around. Becoming friendlier with the front of house -- all the comments I collected from them yesterday, I was able to respond to today after consulting with L.

Long day, but it was cool. Looking forward to going to school, and looking forward to the weekend -- spend some quality time with the B and hopefully do some presential trading with the HVS!

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

LUNCH: 3pm, 2 slices pizza, sprite, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM TASTING: 4:30pm, small slice lobster pizza, .25 bowl, hunger 3/5

PM SODA: 7pm, cream soda, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM DRINK: 9pm, glass of latte di mandorla, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 9:45pm, a few small squares of cheeseless Sicilian, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

AM WATERING: 12:45am, quart of the wet stuff

Open Sesame

Got to the restaurant at 10am, left after midnight, went by in a blink. Lunch was only a handful of customers but we had a good 2 seatings, near capacity, the kitchen didn't collapse but we did get backed up, one customer waited an hour for their pizza. A lot of systems and habits to be worked out, but the team is...good. I suspect there is a lot of accounting and reflection tomorrow.

I will be playing hooky from management class tomorrow, as I have to...actually manage a newly opening restaurant! How neat is that?

BREAKFAST: 7:30am, yogurt with nuts, honey, vanilla, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

RESTAURANT HAZE: 10am-12:30am, a meat ball, a GuS soda, cup of latte de mendorla, a few glasses of water, a slice of pizza, a taste of wine, a small portion of house salad, a few bites of over-fried cheese, a Sprite, 1 bowl or so, hunger 2 to 4/5
Wouldn't have had that Sprite at the end of the night but I was running my mouth at L, telling him everything we needed for the next day, and my throat just started to stick to itself.

AM WATERING: 1:15am, quart of the wet stuff

On the cusp

After class, shot over to the restaurant for the first and only real day of prep before opening. Most of the day was spent trying to get organized, figuring out how things will be made, where they should go, discovering what equipment we need -- and what we really need NOW -- while L dealt with the circus of salesmen, purveyors, and friends...just when I needed his attention the most. There was a front-of-house staff meeting, at which I spoke. By the end of the night, only 1 specialty pizza and a few toppings will be available tomorrow, thanks to thoughtful menu design (pat myself on the back here.)

Don't know how it's going to be tomorrow, but I hope it's not too much of a sh@tshow! It's a soft opening, so hopefully no one will judge us too harshly if things don't go totally smooth.

BREAKFAST: 7:30am, swig of apple cider

AM SNACK: 10:15am, apple fritter, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH: 3pm, quarter of a turkey sandwich, half a soup, cream soda, 1 bowl, hunger 4/5

PM TASTING: 4-9pm, bits of cheeses, vegetable, a meatball, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER: 10pm, 2 slices Sicilian, 1 beer, 1.25 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING WATERING: 11:30, quart

Pizza geekfest

Volunteered at the Astor Center today on a pretty excellent pizza class from this guy, really impressive. First a short walking tour of some classic food supply shops on Grand Street, Little Italy, then to the kitchen where we made dough and banged out a series of pizzas. It was wonderful to talk to and relate to a guy who has similar passion for pizza as myself, but clearly knows much more, has much more experience, and can cook pizza much better.

Since his class was geared toward home cooking, we used a fresh rather than aged dough, in ovens running between 500-600 on stones. He demonstrated a straight-ahead marg similar in style to L's, then a white pie redolent in rosemary and potato, similar to R's at the Prospect Heights restaurant. At the end of class, he demonstrated a dessert pie which at first had me doubting -- he was using tallegio, a cheese that I love, but the only pie with it I had was at Otto, and it was just not working. But Mark's application of the cheese was nice and light, and he matched it with a little bit of thinly sliced pear, honey, and truffle oil. Oh my, this guy knows what he's doing.

I talked with him a bit, we both confessed our love for Stouffer's french bread pizza, he's very much a Totonno's guy (like L) and our feelings on various pizza topics like Franny's price-point, the recent pizza trend, our shared passion for Pepe's clam pie. He does a pizza roundtable in his home for his friends, I could only hope to someday be invited -- a pizza-geek's wet dream.

BREAKFAST: 7:15am, organic chex with organic dead milk, 1 chocolate chip cookie, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5

LUNCH 11am-4pm, taste of different cheeses and salamis, various tiny wedges of many pizzas, taste of 5 wine paring, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

DINNER; 7pm, bulgogi, dumplings, water, 1.5 bowl, hunger 4/5

EVENING SNACK: 9pm, a couple of spoonfuls of chocolate ice cream

Another Day at the Resto

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I forgot to eat

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

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

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

PM SNACK: 1pm, handful of olives

PM SNACK: 3pm, glassful of latte de mendorla

PM SNACK: 5pm, snippet of gelato

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

Tired again. How odd!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Hey Shorty, it's mah birt-day!

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

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

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

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

Cheesy thoughts

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

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

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

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

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

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

Chillaxing

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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