Best This Is What I Wanted to Talk About

Well, last night I went to Momofuku Ko. This was a big deal for me for several reasons:
1) Perhaps you've noticed I like the Momofukus, and I had never been to this one. 2) I had never been to this one because there are only 12 seats at Momofuku Ko, and reservations are only available via an online reservation system. Seats become available for seven days from the present date at exactly 10:00 am and are all gone by exactly 10:00.01 am. 3) And why are they gone so quickly? Partly because it's a Momofuku, partly because the exclusivity breeds madness, partly because of its constant food-media coverage, partly because of its two Michelin stars, partly because it was the Times' #1 Best New Restaurant of 2008, and partly because of a pile of additional accolades along those lines.

So how did I get my reservations?

I must attribute it to a higher power.

Monday night I was tucking myself in and about to turn off the light when a voice spoke to me and said "Check the Ko reservations page." So I did. And instead of a field of red x's, I saw a green check for Thursday night at 9:20. So I clicked it! And then I started emailing people that would care and making mysterious blog posts because I couldn't help it. I was excited.

Now that I've had that dinner, I can stop being ridiculous about it. Oh, it was good, it was great, the memories are a bit overwhelming...but you know how when something really terrible happens, and we say, "Well, it's not the end of the world" or "Well, the sun will still come out tomorrow"? The same happens with really great things. My dinner was not the end of the world, and tomorrow came (but it's rather overcast).

So, let's get down to the dinner.

Arrived on time, was joined by Leslie for the meal. Ko is in the space that was the old Noodle bar before it moved up the block to its larger present space. Like with the old noodle bar, you are seated around the open kitchen and are served by the chefs. You get to watch the whole meal being cooked, it's like real-fancy Benihanas (with the showmanship toned down quite a bit) and conversations often stop dead in their tracks at the sight of some of the food as it nears completion (or is just getting started). The whole atmosphere of the restaurant is such an interesting blend of real laid back and real fancy, it's a fun mix...everything is real casual, you don't have to dress up, but the food and the service is exacting and perfect. (You know, new silverware for every course, glasses never empty, the chefs answer questions and engage in a little conversation, but they're still all business.)

Ko serves a tasting menu and the tasting menu is what we had. Also, Ko has a no photography in the restaurant policy (the meal-blogging level when it first opened was ridiculous and the tiny restaurant must have looked like a constant Food & Wine photo shoot before the rule was in place), but here's a picture of what I ate anyway:


Let me expound upon that a little.

Amuse
Chicharon w/ shichimi togarashi and Biscuit w/ black pepper and mirin

"Chicharon w/ shichimi togarashi" is the fancy way of saying "a pork rind with Japanese seasoning" on it. The biscuit was one one of my favorite things of the night, served warm with peppery butter and a mirin reduction, I could have eaten a tray full of these.

Amuse 2
Pork belly on polenta w/ huckleberry jam

This one also punched me in the gut. A tiny piece of pork belly (now I'm wondering if it had been ground up or something, it was very soft) served on a tiny circle of polenta on top of a dab of huckleberry jam. Major flavor explosion, could have eaten these all night.

Raw
Spanish Mackerel w/ rice crisps, mustard oil, mizuno

A fine plate of sashimi, very tasty mustard oil squirted all over the plate, these tiny rice balls that acted like salty explosions, and nice little green leaves here and there. I feel my ability to describe this dish lacking.

Uh, Soup?
Grilled pork belly, rice cake, oyster, kimchi consomme, cabbage leaf

When I saw the pieces of pork belly coming off the grill I got real excited because there used to be this grilled pork belly dish at the Ssam Bar lunch that they don't have anymore and I really missed it. What they did with this pork belly I was not expecting it. They placed it in a bowl on top of a cabbage leaf alongside an oyster and a little cylinder of rice. The chef set this in front of me and then poured a bit of kimchi consomme in the bowl, about up to the edge of the oyster shell. So it was like soup, I guess. Except I took the oyster out and ate it, and took the big pieces of pork belly out and ate it, and then mixed up the rice in the broth, and ate that like soup. And then I ate the leaf. Oh, it was delicious. But confusing.

Egg
Smoked poached egg, caviar, fingerling potato chips, onion soubise

A large poached egg (I wonder if I didn't hear right and this was the egg of something besides a chicken because it seemed real big) served on a bed of sweet cooked onions with a bunch of tiny potato chips around it. The egg had been sliced open and a dab of caviar spilled out of it along with the yolk. Very pretty. Reminded me that I don't know how to poach an egg.

Pasta
Hand torn pasta, pecorino romano, chicken & snail sausage, crisp chicken skin

This one was so cool! I got all excited as I watched it being prepared, I hadn't expected Momofuku to serve me something almost totally straight up Italian. I watched with so much anticipation as they dished out all the pasta, made sure there were an equal number of these little meat cubes on each plate, grated the cheese onto the plates, and then topped it with... something. At first, at the sight of it, I hummed to myself, "mmmm, bacon!" but when the plate was served they told me it as crisp chicken skin! That's like my favorite thing! I didn't know you could use it as a cooking ingredient! And then they said the little meat cubes were chicken and snail sausage? Man. I knew I was in for something good.

Fish
Halibut, apple & cauliflower puree, pickled cauliflower, bacon & black olive

Hrmm. Pretty much this was just a fine piece of fish with a very appley-sauce topped with ground bacon and olive. I guess you could say this was my least favorite dish, if I had to pick one.

Star Trek Food
Shaved foie gras, lychees, gelee, pinenut brittle

Ko's signature dish, it's real wild. What they do is they take this bowl and set some lychees in it, top them with pinenut brittle and jelly, and then they get out this big torchon of frozen foie gras and start grating it all over the dish until you have this great big mound of grated duck liver covering everything. It's looks like a big pile of cold parmesan cheese, but in your mouth it warms back up and gets all melty and, you know, tastes like foie gras (that means "good"). Add the tartness of the lychees and the sweet crunchiness of the brittle and you've got a crazy outerspace meal. Very wild.

Meat
Sirloin, smoked jalepeño puree, black trumpet mushrooms, pickled pear onions, brussels sprouts, cauliflower

Early on in the meal I watched a chef pressing garlic cloves into thick, beautiful pieces of steak and then sealing the steak into plastic bags. "Aha!" I thought to myself, "He's going to sous vide those steaks!" Sous vide means pressure cook sealed in a plastic bag, and then the chef placed the bags in this futuristic pressurecooker for maybe five minutes. (So I was right! He totally sous vide'd them!) Then, while we were having our foie gras Captain Picard food, they started searing the steaks. They were plated in enormous bowls with a spicy smoked jalepeño puree, some mushrooms, onions, a few brussels sprout leaves, and some more of that pickled cauliflower from earlier in the evening. Very proper, filling finish to the evening.

But something I couldn't stand about this dish was watching the chefs trim the steak before serving it and just throwing the steak pieces away. I wanted to yell "Stop! I'll eat that!" but I was feeling a little more civilized than usual.

Dessert
Guava sorbet w/ cream cheese glaze

When we got to Ko the nice lady in charge of the desserts at the Milk Bar was making desserts, but by the time we ate she was gone. Still, couldn't possibly complain about these desserts. Have you ever seen the care with which a top notch chef scoops a scoop of sorbet? It's astounding. So, yeah. This was just a little plate with a scoop of sorbet flavored after my least favorite fruit in the world (uhm, one that makes me gag, actually) that they covered with a glaze flavored after my favorite ice cream frosting, so it all equaled out pretty well.

Dessert 2
Funnel cake, lemon sugar, black sesame ice cream, lemon cream

Now this was cool. Big plate, they poured a layer of cream in the bottom and then placed an expertly-scooped scoop of dark ice cream in it and then the chef went over to a deep fryer and squirted batter in it and whipped up a long piece of funnel cake state fair style. The ice cream was black sesame and very excellent, the funnel cake hot and great.

So, yeah. That was my dinner. It was totally excellent. Almost too much to think about and make sense of...like, sort of the opposite of a natural disaster when you're like "How could something this awful happen?" and are in denial. Wait. That's what's happening here. This meal left me with the Five Stages of Grief, but with Happy? So I'm only barely approaching the acceptance stage. By next week I'll be talking about this dinner nonstop...right now I'm actually a little short on words when it comes to talking about this dinner, just ask Collin or Ali or Mom, they'll tell you.

ALSO

Like all Momofukus, the restaurant featured music courtesy of David Chang's itunes. You'll notice in my notes the occasional inclusion of songs that were playing. Highlights? Eating mackerel to "Search and Destroy" or chowing on my pork belly soup with "So Watcha Want?" thumping away (that's when I could tell that the spirit of Jeff M., a fellow Momo-lover, was with me). They played "Godzilla" during my egg & caviar and "Boys Don't Cry" during dessert...good advice, I may have gotten too emotional about the meal ending.

AND

Yes, no pictures in the restaurant...but what about the bathroom? Is that okay?

In Conclusion

10 courses of awesomeness, but I want more. Good thing there's a 16 course lunch, maybe I'll try that some day.

Next?

The bo ssam. Got to get some amigos together and kill that bo ssam. Then we can all move on.

Best Once Again I Warn You

Listen. Late Thursday night or Friday morning there's going to be a post about something really cool and exciting. (if you ask me) Ok. Now you can read my DC weekend post.

Best Last Weekend Is Making Headlines

So it's Friday afternoon and I get an IM from Niall (who we haven't seen around here for a pretty long time) saying he's in DC from London doing a little research at "the archives" and he's got a spare bed in his hotel and that I ought to come down for the weekend. I mull it. Why not? One Chinatown bus ride later (that makes it sound so simple, doesn't it?) and I was in DC, living the high life.

Niall's hotel was right next door to the Church's building called "The Barlow Center" where they have offices and dorms for interns.

A little further down the road I found the two patriotic paintings I'm most likely to someday hang in my home. When I took these pictures I thought they were identical paintings...sheesh, what was my deal? And it wasn't until days later that I noticed Honest Abe in the first one.


We met up with Brittany who happened to live down the street from the hotel and she walked us to the Lincoln Monument the secret way. We found ourselves intrigued by the frozen looking Potomac.

But just how frozen was it? We were dying to know. Because there were big chunks of ice frozen into new ice...it was tricky.

We searched for a proper rock but couldn't find anything of the sort (they probably all got cleared out from the city on account of the inaugurations) but Brittany did find a piece of wood (here's an action shot of the wood being tossed). Test Results: River was frozen enough to support a piece of wood.

This all happened in the shadow of this place. It has a Safeway. But there's a Trader Joe's across the street from Niall's hotel. Man! Could Niall's place have had a better location? (No.)

Along the secret path I found a secret door under a bridge that had been left open. Very National Treasure-ish, right? Turns out it was the entrance to an Indian burial ground. Full of cursed gold. Just the usual.

Here's a statue of a turtle. With a pegasus. Look hard, what do you mean you don't see the pegasus?

Destination reached!


Sorry, Abe. Sorry, sign. I tried so hard!

If you (like me) ever wondered what it looked like behind Abraham Lincoln, well, here you go. There's a plastic bag and an extension cord.

More frozen water. More wondering.

Brittany had to go teach cello so Niall and I were left on our own to survive in the District. We wound up on a tiny, uninhabited island with all the names of the signers of the Declaration of Independence engraved there. That's when I discovered my new favorite Planter, Button Gonzalez Gwinnett.

With nary a landmark in sight we continued our journey. Our desired final destination: the museum with all the planes and spaceships in it.

This is the Hirshhorn museum, not the Hiroshima museum, which is what I thought the map on the street had said.

At last! The Air and Space Museum! When I first visited DC (not counting trips as a baby) 5 1/2 years ago I went to the Air and Space Museum for about 10 minutes. This year's visit, almost as brief.




For the elderly cosmonaut.

Shane came to pick us up from lunch and while searching for his Passat I learned something very interesting: the Air and Space Museum has TWO sides!

Post Mexican I went over to the Holmes home. What a magnificent little reunion it was.

I asked Shane: "When you first heard 'No Sleep till Brooklyn' when you were in 5th grade, did you think that it would one day be your children's favorite song?" Also: there's another Holmes daughter (Adlyn), she's grown a lot since I first met her, she's awful friendly.

Listen. The DC Metro totally confuses me. I don't understand how to buy a ticket, I don't know the name of where I'm going, I don't know what direction it is in, I don't know where my ticket is going to pop out of after I insert it, I don't know why I had a ticket with pandas on it but when I went to refill it I wound up with an Obama ticket, and I especially don't know why there's pictures of Sasquatches holding coal in the Metro! Frustration!

Sunday morning, this was my breakfast: Irish oatmeal, just the way the leprechauns like it.

Then it was off to church with Brittany and her roommates. Did you know that people who live in DC sometimes live in houses? With multiple floors? And multiple basements? Like it's no big deal at all?

This is not where I went to church, but if I recognize it, it gets its picture taken.

So DC was totally awesome and I split right after church and very miraculously made it back to New York for Andy's birthday party which is another post for another time (even though I already sort of posted about it this week--but you're going to get more rigorous coverage than that.)

Thanks to all who made my spur of the moment trip excellent and if anyone wants to hang out with Niall, he's still down there for a few more days. And he's got a comfy extra bed (but the shower only works some of the time.)

Best Holy Smokes

John Updike, dead at 76!
He wrote many things, one of them the near-perfect short story.

What I said about it before.

Best Good Times for a Change: an Outline

Had a pretty fun weekend, but can't talk about it until I cover some miscellanea I've been sitting on from the last few weeks. When not searching for work or a home I've been having fun. Why mope? The following took place between December 31 and January 22. Some things are slight repeats. And wouldn't it be nice if I filled this with google images? Yeah, that'd be nice.

1. FOOD

a) Momofuku Noodle Bar once, Ssam Bar lunch once, dinner once, Milk Bar, err...4 times? In 9 days? I've found a favorite there, the pistachio cake.
b) Ippudo: a serious ramen establishment on 4th avenue. So popular the broth sometimes sells out by the middle of the afternoon, walked by one afternoon and it wasn't crowded and they weren't out of food either. Very fun, very Japanese, I was surrounded by people that knew a lot more about the proper way to eat ramen than I. Food was delicious, would have appreciated more than a few slices of the pork, though.
c) Rice: a mini-chain that's popping up through the city, went to their Elizabeth Street branch. You choose your flavor of rice, you choose your toppings--I had the tortilla soup instead. The options on the menu make 100s of combinations possible, I would like it better if there was a little more direction. I'd rather have something delicious right off the bat instead of having to guess and check every time I go.
d) New Taco Spot: Tapatio on 116th. Very excellent, they really took care of us there. I could feel so much love. I had a cheeseburger, I love it when Mexicans make me cheeseburgers...mine was covered in melted Oaxacan cheese, the sight of it was enough to completely change minds set on not having any lunch at all.
e) August: nice place on Bleecker in the West Village...felt like a Manhattanization of dear old Dumont (Question for myself: when did I last go to Dumont? Answer: absolutely no idea, probably been much more than a year). Opted for variety of appetizers instead of the hearty mains, I now crave a flatbead mushroom pizza with a runny egg spread all over it.

2. MUSEUMS

a) The New Museum: popped in to try out the Elizabeth Peyton show, enjoyed it. A lot of her paintings were a lot smaller than I had expected. Satisfying bit of entertainment with good wall text.
b) PS1: Finally went there for the first time, it's great. One of the best things you could do with a suggested donation of $5. There was this unicorn there that I could have looked at all day and lots of stuff by artists I had never heard of being treated real important. Oh, and good video installations, the kind I'd actually sit through.
c) The Bronx Museum: The Bronx has an art museum. I had no idea! And they also had a great exhibit called "Street Art Street Life" (unfortunately I tell you this now that it is long gone) about the history of street art. An exhibit of constant surprises and works that really pleased, I'll call it the best of these three museums I've mentioned.

3. MOVIES & TELEVISION

a) Penelope: The one about Christina Ricci being born with a pig nose, surprisingly good little movie and probably the cutest I ever found Ricci to be.
b) The Office: Wasn't last week's episode good? Didn't you expect to find out those people were Mormon? I liked that this episode just stood on its own, anyone could accept it and enjoy it.
c) Flight of the Conchords: Season two premiere bummed me out a little by going back on all the exciting turns of the finale. Episode two, however, was perfect (as this show so often is).
d) Ghost Town: The Ricky Gervais movie from the summer. Great job with taking a premise I wasn't interested in and turning it into a totally enjoyable movie.
e) The Bachelor: Er, yeah. Guess I'm still watching this. Because of DVR. Seriously, that's the only reason. But mark my words: Melissa will win. That other girl seems better, but Melissa. Will. Win.
f) The City: Filling heads throughout the rest of the country with very incorrect notions of how people live in New York. Oddly, found the apartment of the socialite girl to be the most realistic. At least it didn't have a dining room table (from what I've seen). Hate to see how Whitney has gone from being the responsible one at Teen Vogue to at least as dumb as Lauren.

4. FANCY THINGS

a) Antony & Cleopatra at Carnegie Hall: The opera. The guy who was Antony looked just like Daniel Craig's Bond and the lady that was Cleopatra looked just like Judi Dench's M. Interesting casting, Mr. Opera director. I'd never been to Carnegie Hall before and now I have and I didn't have to practice at all!

5. BOOKS

a) Haven't finished anything yet. But I've been at it.

Best Did You See This Commercial Too?

In Space Buddies all the puppies go to outerspace! For a rescue! Did you see this commercial? I can't remember what show I was watching when I saw it...it was something important. Maybe last week's really good Office? This thing is better than a Snuggies commercial and watching the whole movie while wearing a Snuggy would probably be the best thing any human being could do.

Come on. You know what I'm talking about.

Best Barnes Family Holiday

On this day, Dad would come home from work and, as he set down his briefcase, ask us if we knew who's birthday it was.

Shakespeare? Beethoven?

No, Mozart. It's Mozart's birthday.

Best Fair Warning

Friday morning (or late Thursday night?) I'll have something awesome to blog about.
Actually, many may just roll their eyes at it or feel inclined to skip over what will be a word-abundant post. But I'll be enthused. And effusive.

Best What We Do Is Secret: "You Just Playing Witchcraft Games With Your Soul"

If someone is acting crazy on the subway it draws attention if you get out your camera and start taping them.

But it doesn't draw attention if you get out your camera and start recording the floor.

The footage is just of my bag, but the words are a little crazy.


First in a series.

Best 2nd Collin Post of the Day

I think you already know Old Collin.


"Eh, Old Collin is no big deal. Whatever."

Well la-dee-da, what's this? New Collin?

"Oh my gosh! New Collin is blowing my mind so much!"

"Wow New Collin. I really like how you are!"


"Look at me! Now I'm just like New Collin when he reads a book!"


Then New Collin started accessorizing even more.


The only accessory I could find was a 1:30 am Slider...which he also had.


Here's a chart for the data from the research on "Old Brigham vs. New Collin: Who Do People Want to Be Around More?"


Once, I was given the job-finding advice to get a pair of glasses to wear to interviews. Now I understand why.

Best Hey, Look at This

People think Collin and I know each other so well, but the truth is I didn't even know he had made this video OR updated his blog until I happened to check just a few minutes ago.



There's some good ones in there.

Best Momentous Day

Today marks the 19th anniversary of a date upon which two important things happened:

1) My brother Greg was born
2) I used a Nintendo Power Glove for the first (and last) time.


It was Martin Luther King Day and my friend Jake came over for some Nintendo. He brought his Power Glove that he had gotten for Christmas. It proved to be super-complicated and absolutely no fun to use at all BUT, if you think about it, basically that day I was playing with the earliest incarnation of the Wiimote.

So, yes. It's a big day.

Best Ho-Hum

Academy Award Nominations announced this morning.

Yawners.

Absolutely no interest in a single one of these at all.

Well, that's only 98% true. I'll want to know if Wall-E wins over Kung-Fu Panda because that will get me riled up and I like a good riling these days.

Remember, people, Wall-E was only good for the first 20 minutes.

Best Hold Your Horses

Here's the trailer to the film that everyone will be talking about . . . eventually.


July 24 2009, that's a long time from now.

But what's the deal with the voiceover guy's voice?

Best Choose Your Words Carefully

The first thing I thought when I saw this video of the gattling gun that pops out of the roof of the Suburban that follows the Presidential Limo was that perhaps there's an exception to a certain famous Michael Corleone quote.*



The Dillon M134D Gatling Gun is "a six barreled, electrically driven machine gun chambered in 7.62mm, capable of firing 4,000 rounds per minute."

This thing looks and sounds more severe than anything in Goldeneye, that's for sure.

*Listen, I'm not going to print it here. I want no accusations of threatening the life of the President. But if you need to, google "Michael Corleone if anything in this life is certain"

Best Head Hanging Songlist

You got to know your audience and you've got to keep your ego in check, those are my song picking rules. For Jacinta's party, I tried to focus on playing dance music for girls...this means keeping it very hip hop and Top 40 (in spite of this rule, I had the additional personal rule of NOT playing the Put a Ring On It or Paper Planes songs because I was so tired of hearing these two at every party. You'll see how well that resolution went)

Here is the 2.8 Hour Battle:

"My Girl" by the Temptations
"Four Minutes" by Madonna

(see, my plan was, and I followed this plan, to play "My Girl" when Jacinta came in for the "surprise" and then launch right into real strong party music--no warm ups unlike last time)

"Boyz" by MIA
"Cyclone" by Baby Bash
"Get Low" by Flo-Rida

(People know Paper Planes, they don't know Boyz, and it bores them...so into the hip hop we go. Good thing I watched Real World last week or else I wouldn't have known that Cyclone song.)

"Kiss Kiss" by Chris Brown
"That's Not My Name" by the Ting Tings
"The Way You Make Me Feel" by Michael Jackson
"Take On Me" by Aha

(Almost as popular as hip hop? Singalong songs. Like Take On Me.)

"I Can't Help Myself" by the Four Tops
"Kiss" by Prince
"My Boo" by Ghost Town DJ's

(You can see here I am losing my ability to hold on to the Top 40 model, but I knew the army would be with me on My Boo. And originally I had thought to play Kiss right after Kiss Kiss, but that's not what I did.)

"Hot n Cold" by Kate Perry
"Womanizer" by Britney Spears
"Ching a Ling" by Missy Elliott
"Shake it to the Ground" by Rye Rye

(and here I take it back to hardcore party town, you give them enough hardcore party town, and then you can play Rye Rye)

"It's So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday"by Boyz II Men
"Hypnotize" by the Notorious BIG

(see, what I did was play a slow dance and then BAM! "take that...take that...take that")

"Crazy" by Pitbull & Lil John
"Heatless" by Kanye West

(do you know how rad Crazy is? Very rad. And I thought everyone loves Heartless. Nope. They don't. Sorry Kanye, your song is unpopular)

"Shoop" by Salt n Pepa
"OPP" by Naughty by Nature

(last party I had the 80s under my skin, this time, the 90s)

"Je Veux Te Voir" by Yelle
"Livin' on a Prayer" by Bon Jovi

(I started Silver Screen by Felix Da Housecat right after Yelle, which was a good linkup, but the song was rejected so I tried to win back favor with a singalong banger)

"Dancing With Myself" by Billy Idol
"Come on Eileen" by Dexy's Midnight Runners

(Bon Jovi, Billy Idol, Dexy...there were rumblings that I was throwing a dance party for boys SO I had to repent by playing the song I swore up and down I would not play. And it's a fun song)

"Single Ladies" by Beyonce
"Love Like This Before (Remix)" by Faith Evans & Fatman Scoop
"Don't Stop the Music" by Rihanna
"American Boy" by Estelle feat. Kanye West
"Fire" by Joe Budden
"What You Know (Remix)" by T.I.

(The lie was that Jacinta was being invited over to watch Mean Girls. Fire is a great song that plays in Mean Girls when Lindsay goes to the house party. Someone did not like Fire, so they ran over to my computer and clicked a new song...what they thought was "Whatever You Like" by T.I. Sorry! Wasn't Whatever You Like, it was a super awesome reggae remix of What You Know. And keep your hands off my laptop.)

"Lights and Music" by Cut Copy
"Let Me Clear My Throat" by DJ Cool
"Since U Been Gone" by Kelly Clarkson
"Move" by CSS

(It was getting late, the party was thinning out, songs were getting requested, leg wrestling occurred...it was getting real fun and loose)

"Bizarre Love Triangle" by New Order
"Paper Planes" by MIA

(Okay, okay. No biggie. I'll play it)

"Boys Don't Cry" by the Cure
"I Get Around" by the Beach Boys
"I Saw Her Standing There" by the Beatles

(I was asked if these were the songs I played to make people want to leave the party. But on the other hand, one of my post-party evaluation forms said "not enough Beach Boys" so, you know, it takes all kinds.)

"One Step Beyond" by the Madness
"Beggin'" by Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons

(party getting real sparse...most of the decorations have been taken down, and I'm just playing what my heart tells me.)

"Inside and Out" by Feist
"Can't Help Falling In Love" by Elvis Presley

In closing: Very good party, very fun partiers. Only a handful of party fouls.
And I still really want to do a party where I only play oldies, r&b, vintage reggae, and soul.

Further Reading:
The Setlist to Emily's Party in November

Best Teamwork = Victory!

When it turned out we'd be five last night at Momofuku I was a little plenty worried that we'd have to wait a long time for a table and that everything would just be chaos BUT we got seated right away! AND when there's five people, you can order a WHOLE lot of food.

Los Amigos:


We had:

2 orders of pork buns, the bread w/ sea salt butter and goat butter, burgundy snails w/ xo sauce, potato puree, and bok choy, either benton's ham or broadbent's ham, can't remember which, charred squid salad with ginger scallion and mizuna, the brussels sprouts, sichuan beef tendon w/ green mango and peanuts, the pork shoulder steak, and the pig's head!

I had never had the charred squid salad (which was magnificent) or snails (period). I found the snails to be very much like mussels--honestly, the dish wasn't exceptional, but I did it for the experience points.

Here's the pig's shoulder and the pig's head. I'm so proud of my amigos for gobbling up the pig's head with so much enthusiasm. Because it's delicious.

For dessert we slipped over to the Milk Bar where we again used teamwork to attack that menu, enjoying three of the new softserve flavors (graham cracker, orange julius, and rootbeer float), various cookies, the green curry banana bread, and a slice of the lemon pistachio cake.

My droogs (you'll notice an additional team member showed up for dessert):

Best Or Maybe I Should Give This Person My Money?

Regarding a 1100 s/f duplex "near" Central Park West:

Hello my name is Donna Hicks and the address is 350 east 62nd street, on the corner of 1st ave, New York, NY 10021,

Thanks for taking the time to look at my property. The apartment is available (kitchen displays finishes of marble, tiled glass, and stainless steel appliances, lroom is flooded with light through a domed wall of windows which climb 18ft high cats and dogs allowed).I've moved to United Kingdom with my job (i am a construction engineer) and decided to rent it because the rent is is very expensive here.The price is so low because I'm here and is very hard to find a tenant.I can rent you the apt for max. 5 years .I really want to find a good and responsible tenant for it, and I hope that you can send me some personal and financial information about yourself. I`m the owner and it's exactly like in the Pics.The rent of the apt for 1 month is $1100 including all utilities(water,electricity, Internet, cable,parking,air conditioning,fireplace,dishwasher, garbage) and I want to receive the money monthly in my bank account.You can move in the apt in the same day when you receive the keys. The only problem is that I`m the only person who have the keys and I have no one in United States that could show you the apt. In order to check it,see if you like it(I'm sure that you'll love it),you need to receive the keys and the contract. Obviously we need a way to complete this deal in a safe and fast way for both. The solution is provided by a company called Rent (www.rent.com) which will handle the payment and delivery of the Keys .A friend of mine moved here from California and used the company to resolve the same problem. This procedure allow you to pay the rent only after you will receive the keys,after you will see it, decide if you will stay in the apt or not( I will receive the payment after you'll check the apt).If you want to know more about how this deal can work please get back to me ASAP and I will send you the details step by step.
Let me know if you are interested because I really need to take care of this matter by the end of the next week.

Regards,

Wish I could have showed you the pictures, it's a beautiful apartment. I can't wait to move there!

Best We Hung Our Heads in Sadness

Well, nothing ever stays good forever and Jacinta is going home to Australia Tuesday. So, to deal with this terrible disaster, we did the only thing we could: threw a secret surprise dance party in her honor.

As the party assembled, I put the early attenders to work on our Jacinta mural...it worked for Ace, why not Jacinta?

These picture murals are actually a real pain and having plenty of hands to help was a real partysaver.


Shortly before 10, harbinger texts were received and the surprise was sprung!


The happy claps of a successful surprising! (although I have to say, Jacinta was awful dressed up for someone who had been told she'd be watching Mean Girls with her girlfriends)

And now, we party... (Cobrasnaking courtesy of Collin and Lexia)



I believe you already know Necessity. Let me introduce her son, Invention.














You'll notice that I'm wearing a t-shirt that says "T-Shirt!" I got it the day before from a dude whose apartment I was checking out. That's how you know when you hit it off with someone you just met, they give you a shirt. Actually, he gave it to me because this is his company and I totally knew all about them.

This Brit was our hostess/apartment sacrificer.

And this Brit wore the same shirt as Reghan.




Soon Ryan, Rustin, and Ali would get their hands on my camera...

The results...













File this under Totally Awesome: Lars was in town! We had two Brisbaners in the house. These photos were taken during the part of the party where I was accused of playing too much "Guy Music." But can you blame me? Look how happy they were! (to make it up to the girls I played that awful Beyonce song that I promised myself I would not play after the Guy Music reached its apex)





A little room on the floor was cleared for a few rounds of leg-wrestling. Naturally.

Did you know that poor Ellie has had to work every single day since coming home from her Spanish Christmas vacation? It's the truth. She has.

Bird dance, that's all.

So, yeah, that was the party and here's one last picture of Jacinta. What will become of us all without her? Who knows. Time will tell. Come back and a year and we'll see how we're doing.

Coming Soon: Annotated song list, because that's what I like to do.