I've been to this restaurant once before, for lunch -- but I was always too scared to go for dinner (high prices, fancy people, pressure to get appetizers... yikes). So tonight's dinner with my mom was something of an achievement for me, as pathetic as that is. Fortunately the people weren't fancy at all, and aside from a ridiculous $50 pork thing, the prices weren't that bad, either. The Breslin is absolutely worth it.
Run by April Bloomfield and known for its $21 lamb burger, The Breslin is one of the many fixtures of the Ace Hotel on 29th and Broadway: Stumptown, the John Dory Oyster Bar, Liberty Hall, and a number of expensive oddity stores (you know what I'm talking about). Bloomfield also runs the more well-known The Spotted Pig over on the west side, but that jump I'm definitely too scared to make, at least right now. Not ready for a suckling pig dinner!
I'm not usually a food blogger, but the flavor combinations at this place were inspirational. I'm going to list them, in case they inspire you too:
blood orange-grapefruit salad over bibb lettuce with fried red quinoa, chives, and arugula, in sheep's milk dressing
smashed ozette potatoes with sauerkraut and mustard seeds
spiced parsnip panacotta with parsnip cake "croutons," fresh pear, and pear sorbet
It goes without saying that The Breslin also has a made-exclusively-for-The-Breslin saison by Sixpoint.
All this gets me thinking about potential food projects and combinations:
homemade yogurt + cara cara oranges
different milks
jerusalem artichokes + vinegar
root vegetables as a silkener: celery root, hawaiian sweet potato (celery root rice pudding with granola?)
prickly pear + graham crackers
lychees + cream
12.4.13
7.4.13
March
I tried taking a break from writing, thinking I could reflect more without analyzing so much. I just fell asleep instead.
I did do some things in March which broke the sleep-notsleep cycle:
went to Garden Spot for Easter
made a 10 gallon batch of beer (to make two smaller batches: Fat Wizard Wheat and our new Reconstruction Ale, an American wheat)
I also went down to Delaware for an alumni thing; visited Kelly in Philly; enjoyed some fancy bitters cocktails at Amor y Amargo; saw Bach's Mass in B Minor at Lincoln Center; and attended my first New York City Homebrewers Guild meeting.
Seems very exciting on paper! But I can't help but feel as if I'm trying to distract myself from the reality I dislike: the one in a cubicle, the tired one, the uncreative one.
Maybe when the weather is nice I will get outside and feel like a human again.
I did do some things in March which broke the sleep-notsleep cycle:
braided Emily's hair
went to Kinokuniya (and found the Tattoo/Children section)
ate a Japanese green tea-flavored Kit Kat
made a 10 gallon batch of beer (to make two smaller batches: Fat Wizard Wheat and our new Reconstruction Ale, an American wheat)
I also went down to Delaware for an alumni thing; visited Kelly in Philly; enjoyed some fancy bitters cocktails at Amor y Amargo; saw Bach's Mass in B Minor at Lincoln Center; and attended my first New York City Homebrewers Guild meeting.
Seems very exciting on paper! But I can't help but feel as if I'm trying to distract myself from the reality I dislike: the one in a cubicle, the tired one, the uncreative one.
Maybe when the weather is nice I will get outside and feel like a human again.
2.3.13
Notes from New York
An ad for a gun-related amendment in the subway... by the Guardian?
The Rec Room (Bushwick)
The Williamsburg Cask Beer Festival, part of NYC Beer Week
I've been concentrating quite a bit on my beer-related activities, with a semi-serious intent to really do something about it. I went to a networking event that was part of Beer Week on Monday night: "Women in Beer." About 20 women from the beer industry -- brand reps, account managers, salespeople, labelmakers -- gathered at Taproom 307, a gastropub whose (female) beer sommelier helped organize the event and get everyone introduced. It was a little daunting -- I didn't know anyone, and I was the only homebrewer there -- but I got some great advice and met really wonderful people who love what they do (which is so refreshing -- and so much rarer than I used to think!).
I'm enjoying the beer exploration so far, so though it's nearly destroying my ability to stay awake at work and get my homework done. I've been searching for a way to balance everything in my life for about 3 years, and I've come to the conclusion that's just not the way people live their lives in New York!
20.2.13
Third Place!
We won Third Place in one of our categories!! Check it out:
The stout and cider didn't place, but this was above and beyond our expectations. We brewed a 10-gallon batch (largest ever!) of Fat Wizard Wheat this weekend in celebration -- one 5-gallon batch with the standard German Wheat yeast (Wyeast 3333), and another 5-gallon batch with an American Wheat (Wyeast 1010) yeast. Yeast has a huge impact on flavor and style in beer -- the biggest, really, in comparison to the malts and hops -- so this change in yeast might make a big difference.
Our next big beer step would either be: a) getting a big fancy steel brewpot (our current one is actually an aluminum, 12-gallon lobster pot we bought in the "Spanish" section of the grocery store... not ideal) or b) a kegging set, which would reduce the amount of time we spend post-fermentation dramatically.
Onward and upward to bigger and better and more experimental batches!
The stout and cider didn't place, but this was above and beyond our expectations. We brewed a 10-gallon batch (largest ever!) of Fat Wizard Wheat this weekend in celebration -- one 5-gallon batch with the standard German Wheat yeast (Wyeast 3333), and another 5-gallon batch with an American Wheat (Wyeast 1010) yeast. Yeast has a huge impact on flavor and style in beer -- the biggest, really, in comparison to the malts and hops -- so this change in yeast might make a big difference.
Our next big beer step would either be: a) getting a big fancy steel brewpot (our current one is actually an aluminum, 12-gallon lobster pot we bought in the "Spanish" section of the grocery store... not ideal) or b) a kegging set, which would reduce the amount of time we spend post-fermentation dramatically.
Onward and upward to bigger and better and more experimental batches!
10.2.13
Notes from New York
Don got flowers delivered to my office on my birthday
This is my leg
The East River on a very cold day
Tri-Borough Bridge
My nook
Top 10 2012
Top interesting things of the past year. Most of 2012 was universally awful for me, so these are certainly the highlights...
1. Hiked in one of America's most beautiful landscapes: Yosemite National Park
2. Started on my master's in Linguistics at a great grad school: CUNY Graduate Center
3. Got back into reading sci-fi and playing video games: The Mars trilogy, The Algebraist, Zelda: Skyward Sword, Mario Galaxy, Civilization 4
4. Became an actual, real-person editor: Oxford University Press
5. Attended the first two weddings of my friends and did some major U.S. traveling as a result: Salt Lake City, St. Louis, Finger Lakes, Rochester
6. Saw some baller live music: Crystal Castles, HEALTH, Beach House, Dirty Projectors, Dan Deacon
7. Owned (and subsequently witnessed the death of) a pet hedgehog... RIP Sax Russell
8. Entered homemade beers into our first competition: Homebrew Alley 7 (results announced today!)
9. Hosted our second annual Penultimate Day of the Year Party (and subsequently established it as a yearly tradition)
10. Did a lot of thinking
It doesn't sound like an awful year, but something about August through December was hellish. I have been more stressed during these months than at any other point in my life, and for the first time have experienced a real, very intense "Am I doing the right things with my life?" moment. Life has been a lot more complicated than I thought it was going to be.
The silver lining of what I realize is a very privileged-person struggle to be having ("oh no... my job as an editor at a prestigious publisher isn't what I thought it was going to be") is that I've developed a better sense of what I don't want in life, and have become more skilled at dealing with the non-structured pace of life outside of an educational institution. It's both difficult and exhiliarating to not have to answer to an advisor (though you do have to answer to a landlord); to make decisions and hope that they're OK; to try to enjoy life and not go broke. My only one universal dislike of this whole adult thing is not having enough vacation time.
1. Hiked in one of America's most beautiful landscapes: Yosemite National Park
2. Started on my master's in Linguistics at a great grad school: CUNY Graduate Center
3. Got back into reading sci-fi and playing video games: The Mars trilogy, The Algebraist, Zelda: Skyward Sword, Mario Galaxy, Civilization 4
4. Became an actual, real-person editor: Oxford University Press
5. Attended the first two weddings of my friends and did some major U.S. traveling as a result: Salt Lake City, St. Louis, Finger Lakes, Rochester
6. Saw some baller live music: Crystal Castles, HEALTH, Beach House, Dirty Projectors, Dan Deacon
7. Owned (and subsequently witnessed the death of) a pet hedgehog... RIP Sax Russell
8. Entered homemade beers into our first competition: Homebrew Alley 7 (results announced today!)
9. Hosted our second annual Penultimate Day of the Year Party (and subsequently established it as a yearly tradition)
10. Did a lot of thinking
It doesn't sound like an awful year, but something about August through December was hellish. I have been more stressed during these months than at any other point in my life, and for the first time have experienced a real, very intense "Am I doing the right things with my life?" moment. Life has been a lot more complicated than I thought it was going to be.
The silver lining of what I realize is a very privileged-person struggle to be having ("oh no... my job as an editor at a prestigious publisher isn't what I thought it was going to be") is that I've developed a better sense of what I don't want in life, and have become more skilled at dealing with the non-structured pace of life outside of an educational institution. It's both difficult and exhiliarating to not have to answer to an advisor (though you do have to answer to a landlord); to make decisions and hope that they're OK; to try to enjoy life and not go broke. My only one universal dislike of this whole adult thing is not having enough vacation time.
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