Who are 12 people who have never been in my kitchen?

[jmanic]

Yeah, that was a fun night- glad you enjoyed too, and that my guess about the group was right.
And really glad for the second chance at convo in the morning. Was great to catch up leisurely, sans chaos.

Ha! Death Tongue. Ima get him a spiked leather collar with that on it.

And one of the reasons I hate cooking for veggies is that it invariably ends up being the tastiest thing on the table.

Sorry for hitting you guys with that relish again. Seeing as it was the first time you were coming over, I didn't even bother to consider what I/we had cooked for you before.
You won't see it next time, I promise.
But probably again at Kingdom.

Please don't do the Scottish dance thing. I have successfully deferred on that for years. You doing it will compromise the whole operation.

 

[Norm]

Shows (6 of 12)

Last night we left off with us heading into NYC on Saturday morning to embark on our next adventure, a Broadway show. We parked up near Riverside (I think) on the street for free. Plan was to stay the night and we didn't want to pay to park in a garage overnight. We found a spot, hit the subway for 15, then hopped in a coffee shop to wait for the matinee to start.

Barely into February and we are halfway done with the shows. I am going out on a limb to say we will obliterate this one.

Book of Mormon

Reviews on this one were sort of all over the place. You have a bunch of good reviews which is why the show has been around for a while and seen by so many people. Conversely, I had heard some lukewarm reviews of it, from people we know to people we had met the night before. So I wasn't sure what to expect but I was open to whatever. I think often times expectations play a big role in how much you enjoy a show.

Waiting outside for the doors to open. Beautiful day to be in the city.

We entered the theater and took our seats. As is often the case, we never buy the best seats in the house. In this case, well, we pretty much bought the worst. Still, she seems happy, no?

However, as I have said before, there really are no bad seats in these theaters. The view for the afternoon.

As usual, you can't take pictures of the show so this is all you get. Imagine people on the stage, singing and dancing and swearing a lot. Unlike some shows, this one was absolutely NSFW and NSFKids. And frankly, NSFGod-Fearing-Individuals. That was sort of the complaint from the night before. Not that it offended someone specifically, but that it could be offensive to certain people. Personally, I did not mind it at all and thought it was pretty well done (the offending, that is).

Having said that the whole musical had a gratuitous smattering of the F-bomb, as if they were trying to cater to 16 year olds at times. I am absolutely a believer in profanity in writing/arts, but this went beyond useful and well into the gratuitous realm. That would be my biggest complaint about the show.

The first half was decent, moved along well enough, though at times maybe got a hair slow. I thought the beginning had the best musical scene when the villagers were singing (the well-used profanity song). I thought they were the most talented group of singers and were not used enough in the show.

Intermission. After a pee break, D took a pic of us. Note the proximity of the wall behind us.

D liked the second part of the play better than the first (IIRC). I'm not sure if I agree or not, I thought they were both fine and they both suffered from the gratuitous F-bombing. But the story did come together better in the second half, which was a point of confusion to me at one point, as the story seemed to have no direction at all to end on a reasonably positive note. But they reeled it in pretty well and in the end, it came together well. Included in this was the villagers reenactment of the beginning of the Mormon religion, which was legit LOL-worthy at times.

And ironically, in a sense it was an endorsement of religion in a way.

If you were to ask me if it was worth it I would say yes. It was not the best show I have seen nor was it the worst. I think it was worth the trip and would recommend it, with a caveat. If you are highly religious or are going in with the kids, I'll go ahead and say to skip this one. Otherwise, I would say it's a decent way to spend an afternoon/evening in the city.

 

[Magic]

Seeing as it has the influence of South Park, the cursing was expected. My gf and I saw it last year-ish and both thought that the first half was pretty slow and the second brought everything together and made the show worthwhile. She wasn't a huge fan anyway because she doesn't enjoy SP, but still enjoyed the experience. In my opinion, Cirque Paramour was one of the best I've seen so far.

 

[UtahJoe]

Im not going to say I didnt like it...but being a south park fan...I was disappointed. The best part..to me..of what they did with the topic is recreating the story of how the religion was founded....The play goes through this in what seemed like 1 min. Then the story of the mission was just not what makes the whole mormon mission thing comical to a non religious person like myself....It was very generic...For example: I have 8 mormon step brothers, 6 of them went on their missions to:
Washington DC
Watts in LA in 1992 during the riots
Uraguay
Detroit
nicaragua
Brazil

ALL of them have told me more entertaining stories of their missions then the story in the play. That was my major gripe, story was meh. Watch the south park episode, its 10 times funnier and no NYC traffic.

That said, acting/singing...great...Agree with you about the language...it was way over the top and took away from the story I thought.

 

[Norm]

Restaurants (4 of 12)

No trip to the city is complete without a food stop. You guys knew I love food. So here we are on a Saturday night and it's about time to eat. Original plan was for something else but we decided we wanted to find some Japanese Fusion Tapas. This was the best we could do.

Nippori

Why Japanese Fusion Tapas? When we were in Toronto last February we got what may be the best meal I have had in quite a few years. There was one dish in particular that was out of this world. It reminded me of the night market squid balls you can get in Taiwan, but like high class. So we got this bug to try and find something like that and this is the best we could do.

This is roughly in order of appearance,.


Steam Buns: Charshuu pork belly

Somewhat different take on your standard pork bun, this thing was at least as good as it looks and if they gave us 50, I would have totally Homer Simpson'ed these and ate all 50. The bun was perfect, the meat was perfect, this was fantastic.

Kanitama: Japanese crabmeat omelette covered w/sweet & sour sauce

I guess there is no surprise that a lot of the foods I loved in Taiwan had their roots in Japanese dishes. This is something along the lines of what I have had in Taiwan before. A little less "street" than the night market but it was good nonetheless. I probably liked it more than D but I will say that it was good, not great. If we went back I don't think I would get it again but I would recommend it as this is non-standard food for most people.

Nasu Agedashi Tofu: Eggplant & tofu deep - fried w/dashi sauce

I think a lot of people have had Age Tofu before but this was maybe a bit more extensive than the usual. I would say it was as good as you normally get but I like this dish either way. I don't know if D liked it a lot, or it was ok for her. I know there was nothing she didn't like but some stuff was better than others. I dig the tofu & broth.

Sashimi: 3 kinds of assorted sashimi

I put words here. What am I going to say? It was raw fish. You know the drill.

Quail Eggs: Quail eggs wrapped with bacon

You know I totally love this because a) I love eggs and b) I love bacon and c) I love eggs and bacon. This was one of D's "like not love" but I will say this falls into the Homer Simpson 50 Rule where no amount would stop the intake. Having said that, if you go here, there is no reason to get these as they are not particularly special and they are, at the end of the day, eggs & bacon.

Miso Yaki Niku: Thin sliced pork belly w/miso sauce

I am not 100% sure this was the dish we got but it's close enough. Even though this looks like a chicken dish it is pork belly, which is what bacon is before they slice it thin and salt the ever-living-shit out of it and add liquid smoke. I liked this, though it was more of a barge than a speedboat. What I guess I mean by that is it had a solid flavor that carried the meal and filled you up as opposed to being a sharp/distinct flavor. It was good.

Happy camper, mid meal:

In all this was a very good meal. Was it as good as we remembered Toronto? No, I don't think so. I think both the vibe and the food was better up north, but like I said above that was damn exceptional. This meal was excellent and I could certainly see us going back one day. Even though there were a lot of dishes we did not really feel overfull as they were all pretty small. We got the last dish because the waitress pretty much said flat out that we didn't have enough food. So we added one more thing.

This would be a great place to go after a 100 mile bike ride as you could order like 18 dishes and easily wipe them all out.

If you are in the area, I definitely recommend this.

 

[rlb]

Please don't do the Scottish dance thing. I have successfully deferred on that for years. You doing it will compromise the whole operation.

Your days are numbered!

 

[Dominique]

I don't know if D liked it a lot, or it was ok

Everything was good. And the broth with the tofu was amazing.
If we had to go back I would skip the bacon and eggs because it was just... bacon and eggs.
I probably would skip the sashimi as well, not that it wasn't good because the fish was very fresh, but it lacked the flavors that the other dishes had.

 

[qclabrat]

don't underrate fresh quail eggs
what other egg can you eat and talk without spewing yolk on your companion?
I love those little guys, too bad fresh ones are so hard to find even in Chinatown

 

[Patrick]

don't underrate fresh quail eggs
what other egg can you eat and talk without spewing yolk on your companion?
I love those little guys, too bad fresh ones are so hard to find even in Chinatown

Griggstowns Farm Market ?

 

[ktmrider]

Im not going to say I didnt like it...but being a south park fan...I was disappointed. The best part..to me..of what they did with the topic is recreating the story of how the religion was founded....The play goes through this in what seemed like 1 min. Then the story of the mission was just not what makes the whole mormon mission thing comical to a non religious person like myself....It was very generic...For example: I have 8 mormon step brothers, 6 of them went on their missions to:
Washington DC
Watts in LA in 1992 during the riots
Uraguay
Detroit
nicaragua
Brazil

ALL of them have told me more entertaining stories of their missions then the story in the play. That was my major gripe, story was meh. Watch the south park episode, its 10 times funnier and no NYC traffic.

That said, acting/singing...great...Agree with you about the language...it was way over the top and took away from the story I thought.

I have a few friends in Utah that are MO MOS , why is soda and alcohol taboo , but the wife can get het breasts enlarged and it's no problem ?

 

[UtahJoe]

I have a few friends in Utah that are MO MOS , why is soda and alcohol taboo , but the wife can get het breasts enlarged and it's no problem ?

Great question...funny bc I know a couple of wives there who fit that description.

 

[w_b]

I don't even like eggs and I'm hungrey now

 

[qclabrat]

Restaurants (4 of 12)

No trip to the city is complete without a food stop. You guys knew I love food. So here we are on a Saturday night and it's about time to eat. Original plan was for something else but we decided we wanted to find some Japanese Fusion Tapas. This was the best we could do.

Nippori

Why Japanese Fusion Tapas? When we were in Toronto last February we got what may be the best meal I have had in quite a few years. There was one dish in particular that was out of this world. It reminded me of the night market squid balls you can get in Taiwan, but like high class. So we got this bug to try and find something like that and this is the best we could do.

This is roughly in order of appearance,.


Steam Buns: Charshuu pork belly

Somewhat different take on your standard pork bun, this thing was at least as good as it looks and if they gave us 50, I would have totally Homer Simpson'ed these and ate all 50. The bun was perfect, the meat was perfect, this was fantastic.

View attachment 48117

Kanitama: Japanese crabmeat omelette covered w/sweet & sour sauce

I guess there is no surprise that a lot of the foods I loved in Taiwan had their roots in Japanese dishes. This is something along the lines of what I have had in Taiwan before. A little less "street" than the night market but it was good nonetheless. I probably liked it more than D but I will say that it was good, not great. If we went back I don't think I would get it again but I would recommend it as this is non-standard food for most people.

View attachment 48116

Nasu Agedashi Tofu: Eggplant & tofu deep - fried w/dashi sauce

I think a lot of people have had Age Tofu before but this was maybe a bit more extensive than the usual. I would say it was as good as you normally get but I like this dish either way. I don't know if D liked it a lot, or it was ok for her. I know there was nothing she didn't like but some stuff was better than others. I dig the tofu & broth.

View attachment 48115

Sashimi: 3 kinds of assorted sashimi

I put words here. What am I going to say? It was raw fish. You know the drill.

View attachment 48118

Quail Eggs: Quail eggs wrapped with bacon

You know I totally love this because a) I love eggs and b) I love bacon and c) I love eggs and bacon. This was one of D's "like not love" but I will say this falls into the Homer Simpson 50 Rule where no amount would stop the intake. Having said that, if you go here, there is no reason to get these as they are not particularly special and they are, at the end of the day, eggs & bacon.

View attachment 48112

Miso Yaki Niku: Thin sliced pork belly w/miso sauce

I am not 100% sure this was the dish we got but it's close enough. Even though this looks like a chicken dish it is pork belly, which is what bacon is before they slice it thin and salt the ever-living-shit out of it and add liquid smoke. I liked this, though it was more of a barge than a speedboat. What I guess I mean by that is it had a solid flavor that carried the meal and filled you up as opposed to being a sharp/distinct flavor. It was good.

View attachment 48113

Happy camper, mid meal:

View attachment 48114

In all this was a very good meal. Was it as good as we remembered Toronto? No, I don't think so. I think both the vibe and the food was better up north, but like I said above that was damn exceptional. This meal was excellent and I could certainly see us going back one day. Even though there were a lot of dishes we did not really feel overfull as they were all pretty small. We got the last dish because the waitress pretty much said flat out that we didn't have enough food. So we added one more thing.

This would be a great place to go after a 100 mile bike ride as you could order like 18 dishes and easily wipe them all out.

If you are in the area, I definitely recommend this.

look norm squid balls

 

[Norm]

Shows (7 of 12)

We had these tickets from the same night that we met @jmanic and E in the city for dinner last fall. They were a "use anytime" kind of thing. So we used them, at this time.

LOL Times Square Comedy Club

I am not going to make this post a long one because frankly, there is probably not a lot to tell. As I mentioned we had these tickets and we had some time. Dinner was over and we had a room in the city. We had the tickets with us and figured that if time worked out, we'd go check it out. As it turned out, things did. We got into the club and ordered a bottle of wine to cover the 2 drink minimum, then sat back to watch the show.

First up was the host, who was moderately funny. He had been on some TV show before but I cannot remember what. Like maybe Roseanne?

The show consisted of 5 comics, each getting about 15 minutes on the stage. The first one was absolutely horrendous. He more or less just pointed at people randomly in the crowd and yelled, "WHAT ABOUT YOU?" and would ask them questions about themselves. Then he would try to say something funny in response. I mean, I think that was his bit but he never said anything funny really. He was a mess.

Second dude was a black guy from England. Honestly how can you be a black comic from England and not be at least a bit funny. He was ok. Not great but he did some good stuff.

At this point we figure, ok, they'll get better as they go from front to back. This theory was quickly disproven by #3, who was frankly so unremarkable that I cannot even remember a single joke he made, or anything he talked about at all. Oh wait I think he had 4 moms, as he was parented by lesbians that got divorced then remarried. Thus, 4 moms.

So the 4th guy was from Guatemala. Honestly he told interesting stories but they weren't especially funny. Maybe he needs to find some sort of spoken word thing to hang out at. His notable thing was that he had setup a little camera to film himself. He reminded me a little of Aaron.

Thankfully the last guy was the best, like by far the best. I could imagine him actually making a career of it one day, he was pretty good and got more laughs than all the other comics combined. Also gotta love the Empire Strikes Back shirt.

In all it was fine, not amazing but it was something to do and we had the tickets already. I know this is not Caroline's so you kind of get what you pay for here. After this we decided that we'd like to go see a real show one day. The one we had seen in Toronto last year was far better than this.

Ok, so that was about our night. We left the bar and started to walk back to the hotel...

 

[jmanic]

Ok, so that was about our night. We left the bar and started to walk back to the hotel...

Is this going "choose your own adventure"?

 

[seanrunnette]

You had me at

night market squid balls

 

[Norm]

Filling in the Gaps: February 4th in the City

So we woke up at Jason & Elizabeth's house Saturday then drove in just after 11:00. Obligatory shot from the GWB. The drive in is super easy.

I previously talked about the parking & subway, but in between the subway and the show we went to a coffee shop around the corner and hung out for a bit. We tried to chill out and use the Internets but as is often the case, NYC sucks for signal so we mostly just hung out waiting for the time to go to the play. Here's what was hanging from the ceiling.

After the show we walked to the hotel which was 2 blocks south of Central Park. We had gotten a weekend hotel for something like $120, which seems preposterous to us but is apparently not abnormal. Hotel rates skyrocket during the week apparently. Here D checks in to the no-frills place that would serve as our home for the night. It didn't even have a coffee pot but the room was huge for the city.

After the LOL club we hit the streets with the intention of going back to the hotel. This is where we left off last night in the blog...

And in a way, sure, it was a choose-your-own-adventure game because we were like...so let's go get one more drink at that bar up there on the corner 2 stories up. So we got our drinks and took this picture which caused both our mothers (and Kirt & Glenn) to ask if we got married while nobody was looking. While we have discussed it recently, and it does look as if we are showing off her hand in this, this was just a picture of her wearing a different ring she occasionally wears. Eventually we'll get her a real lunch box.

So 1 drink turned into like 8 and we ended up randomly talking to strangers and eventually we ended up hanging out with these 2 (who had not come together but ended up leaving together). We had been observing this guy's friend talking to 2 girls at the end of the bar trying really hard to get their attention and we found it entertaining. Eventually we sort of all watched and observed on & off, and making conversation as the night went on.

This girl is like 21 and she dropped out of college to become a nanny with the aspiration of getting married.

We got the the bar at 8:30 and we kept saying that at least we would get to bed before the previous night, when we stayed up with Dan & Victor until 1:30. At 2:30, we closed out the bar and headed back to the hotel, having failed at going to bed earlier than the night before. But it was a good night in the city and frankly we never get to do this stuff. So what the hell, might as well try to enjoy things while we're there. At least until we wake up in the morning.

 

[pooriggy]

This girl is like 21 and she dropped out of college to become a nanny with the aspiration of getting married.

Hmmmm.

Nanny- I wish I could get married and have someone take care of me.

Dude- I wish I could bang nannies every wknd.

Norm- I wish I could eat 24/7 and never get fat.

D- I wish Canada and my family were 10 miles away.

 

[Dominique]

You mean.... your lunch box, right?

 

[Carson]

Hmmmm.

Nanny- I wish I could get married and have someone take care of me.

Dude- I wish I could bang nannies every wknd.

Norm- I wish I could eat 24/7 and never get fat.

D- I wish Canada and my family were 10 miles away.

You'll have someone taking care of you soon, Iggy. It's called a home health care aid.