Whirlwind Weekend

My mom came to visit last weekend, and it was incredibly lovely not only to have her around, but really to have anyone around. I've said it before and I'll say it again--living alone is a bit weird, and during this transition, while nice, definitely a little bit lonely. She came down on Thursday while I was at work, treated me to a quick lunch on my hour long break, and then wandered about on the UWS until I finished. We had a delicious dinner at Sarabeth's with my Aunt Jane (the 80th and Amsterdam location), where I chipped away at my continuing New York mission: trying as many burgers as possible at as many locations as possible!

On Friday, when I actually don't have work, we spent the day shopping, visiting the Met, and of course, eating. I had only been to the Met once before, on a quick trip with the Wesleyan Classics Department, so it was great fun to go again and see a bit more. Given the state of the US dollar right now, it seems like everyone and their entire extended family has hopped on planes to come visit the states...that being the case, the museum was insanely crowded. I dragged my poor mother around to look at all of the Greek pottery and sculpture, and we roamed a bit on the way to the Room With A View exhibit (it was exceptional, so if you get the chance, definitely go and see it) and the Temple of Dendur (which I declared I had to see before the end of the visit). It was full of people, but still absolutely stunning. If anyone wants to build me a huge wing like the exhibit room to live in (water feature and windows included, please), I'd be eternally grateful.

The gate, which spent a large chunk of its modern life partially flooded post-dam construction.

The temple itself, with part of the winding line to get in to see the small room that's open to the public. The temple was originally covered with graffiti, at least as far as I understood, and I'd be curious to find out what kind of restoration and preservation work they had to do to clean it up.

The view from the front. Columns. They get me every time.

We also did some serious eating this weekend: post-Met we made a quick pit stop a a cart outside called "Cake and Shake". The cupcakes were fantastic, and I highly recommend them. Lots of fun flavors (I had a chocolate cupcake filled with white buttercream and covered in nougat ice cream. It doesn't get much better!). Then we decided it was time for real lunch, and headed over to a place called "Le Pain Quotidien" (there are a gazillion locations; see here ). I'd been here once before and their open-faced tartine sandwiches were so delicious, I knew I had to take my mom. Not only did I get to have my sandwich again, but I tried their 'watermelon cooler', which also had agave and cucumber blended into it. It was great fare for a hot day, and I'm going to have to find to make it for myself, because I definitely can't afford to trek over for and buy one on a daily basis!

Yum!

My mom reminded me to snap some pictures for the blog, so here is my sandwich! Black bean hummus, avocado, and a little bit of lettuce and tomato with spicy tahini on the side. Yes please!

Sunday was filled with more walking and shopping, topped off by a delicious dinner at Gabriel's (11 W 60th, right near Lincoln Center), which never fails to disappoint. I've had several things on the menu now, and am blown away every time. If you haven't been to this place, you need to pay it a visit (and if you're a poor, recent college grad, make sure to *ahem* invite your parents). I had their sausage and peppers pasta dish this time (Hil, I'm looking at you here), and while it was phenomenal, you really can't go wrong with anything. Try it out!

Our final--and perhaps most important--food discovery was a place just down the street called Teresa's Restaurant (80 Montague St out here in Brooklyn Heights). We had several breakfasts here, and although we stuck to the standard egg dishes, they have a real selection of what looked like (and if they're anything like the rest of the food, should be) delicious, traditional Eastern European fare. Pierogis, potato pancakes, borscht...I'm making plans to go back and try most of it, so if anyone is interested, do give me a call. If we're feeling particularly hungry, we could even go for the babka french toast...

Gulab Jamun

I went out for a delicious Indian meal with my very old friend and teammate, Beryl, yesterday after work. You see Beryl and I played volleyball together in high school (and dare I say middle school? man..), but I hadn't really seen her since she came to visit during my sophomore year at Wes when she was touring colleges. Well, on my first Friday in the city, I was supposed to spend the afternoon looking at apartments, and went in early in the morning to do some shopping and walk around the West Side. My first stop, of course, was the Rockefeller Center Anthropologie, and who should I see in the sale section (because honestly, where else in that store can I safely go), but Beryl! We finally got our meal yesterday and had a wonderful time catching up, and Beryl helped me solve a mystery that has been bothering me for quite some time. Those wonderful, rich, little dumpling/doughnut/balls of deliciousness soaked in syrup that they serve for dessert at Haveli in Middletown? They're called gulab jamun (pronounced, as Beryl explained to me, like "glub", as if you're drowning, and "jummin", sort of like jammin' on some reggae). Well, I was incredibly excited because they are way too delicious, and I found a recipe online with zero difficulty. These are up next on my creative cooking menu, so anyone who wants some, do come for a visit!

http://indianfood.about.com/od/sweetsanddesserts/r/gulabjamun.htm

One Week Down

Well I've been living in New York or exactly one week, which is both a little astonishing and terrifying. Living along is a weird transition but, having spoken with many friends in the same post-graduation boat, I think it's less the living alone in a big, strange, city, and more just this point in all of our lives itself. I've gotten around the city quite a bit, though, and have had the chance to make some interesting observations as well as try some new things:

1) Proximity: It's funny, because growing up in Hanover--and even going to school in Middletown--some people's reaction is, "Oh wow, that's in the middle of nowhere," somehow implying, that we have access to absolutely nothing. Now, I will happily concede that the opportunity for cultural experiences, shopping, and generally acquiring things is greater in a place like New York (though between Dartmouth and Wes, cultural experiences in the arts abound for the community), but I have to say, access to necessities is surprisingly similar. People are shocked when I say that I have to drive 25 minutes (with traffic) to get to Best Buy/Home Depot/big chains like that, but honestly? To get from my apartment to pretty much anything not in my neighborhood, it takes me about that much time! For me, it feels like no time at all, because I'm used to it, but I think this situation is similar almost everywhere. You have your neighborhood, and then you have the rest of the city, and getting places requires use of public transportation and/or your feet, and those things aren't instantaneous. Maybe this just strikes me as interesting not having grown up as a 'city child', and it didn't necessarily surprise me, per se, just struck me in general.

2) Gray's Papaya. Okay, so the hot dog...perfectly yummy, thank you very much for the sauerkraut, nice and cheap. But. The Papaya Drink. Praise the universe for the "Papaya Drink"! Last weekend, I spent much of Friday walking (and subway-ing) around Rockefeller Center and the Upper West Side checking out apartments I'd found through various people and shopping to kill time (woe is me). I hadn't been in the mood for lunch, it was probably 90 degrees, and as 4:30 rolled around, I was feeling exhausted, dehydrated, and ready to collapse in a heap. I'd heard about Gray's Papaya from my Aunt Jane and figured it was as good a time as any to cross the street and try it (it's conveniently located next to the 72nd St. subway stop I use to get to and from the museum so...yes). I ordered a small 'papaya drink'--whatever 'papaya drink' means--thinking it was the styrofoam cup I saw behind the counter. When the man at the counter handed me my order, I realized I'd overestimated, but happily took my food to the counter to munch. I took one sip of my drink and was blown away. BLOWN. AWAY. This thing was frothy, it was sweet, it was so ice cold I thought I had passed cloud nine and ascended straight to cloud 147. Well, I finished everything in record time and contemplated another drink, but the line was getting long. On my way back to the subway an hour later, however, I stopped in for a larger size to take with me. The hype, people, is real. If you haven't gone, please, please do, and take me with you!

3) Work. Ahhhh work. Life at the museum is pretty interesting. There are 8 interns, and I think we're finally starting to get our bearings around the place without traveling in a chaperoned pack! We just got our badges, which allow is to swipe the sensor in the elevators and hit the "Staff Only" 5th floor button in front of the poor visiting public confined to the first 4 levels. I doubt they notice, or care, but hey, I feel cool, so don't take this away from me. Ironically, we need to be swiped into our actual lab since a bunch of collections are housed in the hallway between the lab and the door at the top of the stairwell, but we won't get into that. I'm just a little bitter.

Life in the lab consists mostly of sorting. Well, consists entirely of sorting. We've been told we'll get to start cataloging and washing this week, about which we ware all extremely excited. We have a bunch of samples that have been put through 1/4" and 1/8" screens, and we essentially dump one bag at a time onto a lunch tray and sort through it to separate fauna and artifacts from other organic materials. This means lots of fish vertebrae, unidentifiable bone, some cool fish ear parts (otoliths), whelk, a few ceramics, and some burnt clay (and the very occasional bone pin, of which I found one highly-decorated specimen!). It sounds uneventful, and is, but the information on amounts of fauna in particular levels can be used to determine a lot about diet and population density at the site, which is really important. Fortunately, everyone is incredibly nice and we do a lot of pandora-listening and chatting while we sort. The museum also hosts a big dance party/club/bar night on one Friday of every month in the big planetarium cube, so we have serious plans coming up for this week. Word on the street is it's epic, so we'll have to see.

Tomorrow I plan on actually visiting the museum to poke around and using my handy dandy badge to do so admission-free. I can do this at pretty much any cultural institution/museum in the city, so if anyone wants to go...the guest vouchers...I have them.

More Take-Out

Given the amount of free time currently on my summer schedule (I work Tues-Thurs, 10-5), I think I'm probably going to be doing a lot of cooking. I'm fortunate in that the woman whose apartment I'm living in has an excellent stock of cookbooks and various pots, pans, utensils, etc. I was feeling a little melancholy yesterday--not really feeling like doing much and also a bit under the weather--but was suddenly struck with the desire to make Chinese food. The last time Gilder and I tried this, we met with great success, so I figured hey, why not give it another go. Well, cooking for one (plus the all important leftovers), I decided to go with something a little simpler and smaller than our last menu. I had a look through some of the cookbooks on the shelves and found a recipe for chicken with broccoli that looked reasonably easy and delicious. I figured I'd make another batch of bao as well, since those were SO fantastic the first time around. I neglected to bring Martin Yan's book with me (hellooo lack of space), but found an adapted version of his recipe on epicurious. Since I failed with some photos last time, and because Becca was so enthusiastic about the food photos (thanks Bec!), I took a bunch more this time!

The chicken with broccoli was incredibly simple, and a stop at the local grocery store (I was too lazy to make the few block trek to Trader Joe's...hey, they're long blocks and I'm sick!) provided me with all of the sauces I needed. My only switch next time would be to buy low-sodium soy sauce; I'd never really thought of it before, but realized afterwards that that is, in fact, the kind we have at home, and the resulting product was just a wee bit "seasoned" for my tastes. Nothing to deter one from serious enjoyment, though!

At any rate, the chicken gets a half hour marinade in a mix of soy and fish sauces, sesame oil, and garlic, and then dusted with corn starch. I couldn't tell from the recipe if this is indeed what is supposed to occur--my corn starch was quickly absorbed by the marinade on the chicken--but the whole point is to make it crispy when fried, and that happened, so I'm going to run with it.

The recipe called for 8 minutes frying in hot oil in a standard wok...I left mine in for 2 or 3, flipped them around in the oil (just barely enough to cover them), and then cooked them for another 3 minutes or so. They were starting to look dark, so I took one out to cut in half and check on. Lo and behold, they were done, so I'd say with the extremely vague "very hot oil" direction, just set your stove somewhere between 8 and 10, and keep an eye on things (as with pretty much anything of course). Here they are out of the wok and draining on a paper towel...I had to try pretty hard not to just eat them all sitting right there...
Most of the oil gets tossed, and into the wok goes some onion (since my grocery store didn't have scallions...I know, I really need to head back to TJ's), garlic, fish and hoisin sauce. After a couple of minutes, the broccoli (blanched for several minutes and rinsed with cold water to stop the cooking process) is added in as well, plus 1/2 cup or so of water (I think I'd leave the recipe and add a little less next time). Things cook down just a bit before the chicken goes in as well to coat with sauce.

And that's it! Incredibly easy and really tasty. Next time, I think I would add some more veggies and, if I could find them, water chestnuts. I'm also curious to try doing this with tofu instead of chicken. Maybe that will have to wait for Anya's help in Tuebingen..
Next up was the bao. The dough needs a bit of time to rise--it's supposed to double in size--but it's about 2 1/2 cups of flour added to a warm milk and water mixture that's had a few minutes to nurture some yeast into bubbles. (This recipe said it made a dozen bao...I made six, so either something happened with the dough, or the guy was crazy. I'm leaning toward the latter, but hey, I have leftover filling in my fridge and the dough is incredibly easy, so these are on the docket for later this week again).
The pork filling starts with a marinade of--shockingly--garlic, ginger, soy, fish, and hoisin sauce. I had six of these slices in here originally. The recipe calls for pork butt (which we used last time), but my neighborhood grocery store isn't as award-worthy as the Hanover Co-op, so they only had pork chops and tenderloin (And they certainly didn't have a meat counter with friendly staff to wait hand and foot on and advise a young woman shopping for burgers/steak/etc alone. Very sad.) The pork tenderloin worked just fine, but the butt was much cheaper, so if you can get it, use it!

Everything gets a nice 40 minute stint in the oven. Roasting at 400, basted halfway through with the marinade plus a little bit of honey, this could not be easier. I made extra to have around for fried rice and/or general snacking later this week. Gilder and I both agreed that, since it's so easy, it should be made in big batches, but I figured with just one of me this constiuted a 'big batch'. When the pork is done and cooling, some shitake mushrooms, onions (again, no scallions at my grocery store, but use them if you have them), and garlic go into the wok. More sauce is added (fish, sesame, and hoisin again, I believe, or some combination thereof with soy..it's really up to you!), and then the pork is tossed in. A bit of cornstarch mixed with water to create a paste can work as a thickening agent. The recipe called for it, and I couldn't remember if we used it last time, but it didn't hurt. The dough is rolled into a log and cut into even pieces (I started with 12, decided my recipe-adapter was crazy, and adjusted to 6, so do whatever floats your boat in terms of the bao...bow? hah. okay. It's late). Each piece is rolled into a ball and flattened with a rolling pin. A portion of filling (also judgment...I do whatever fits) goes into the center, and to make the roll you pinch the sides up to collect them between your two fingers. Twist and smoosh it to close the roll, and place them twist-side down on the baking sheet.

Normally these get an egg wash, but the eggs at my store weren't cage-free AND looked a tad questionable, so I went with just a bit of milk over the top. The're a little better with the wash for sure, but still wonderful without. When they've been in the oven about 20 minutes at 350, you get these babies!

I HIGHLY recommend trying to make Chinese food at home, or, for that matter, anything you'd typically take-out. The set-up can be a little more expensive, what with buying sauces and things, but once you do that, it's so easy to experiment or try recipes with fresh produce!

The Mark of a Real Wesleyan Alum

Well, I did it. I am LIVING IN BROOKLYN! I'm sure John Wesley (or his great-great-great-great hipster grandchildren) would be proud. I am relocated to New York, I have my first real day of my internship tomorrow, and I am finally housed somewhere that does not require a 2hr bus/subway commute to the Museum! Thanks to my wonderful Aunt Jane and some serious work on 'The Catie Campaign' on her part, I am borrowing a phenomenal apartment in Brooklyn Heights ! As I told my mother, the apartment's located in a great neighborhood with a Trader Joe's and an Ann Taylor Loft, so it's absurdly safe and nice with lots of fun things to do just down any number of streets (and did I mention the gym is down two blocks?). Adjusting to living alone in a place that doesn't have 27 of one's closest friends just down a road or through Exley is still a bit strange, and to be quite honest very lonely, but I have a wonderful dinner with my teammate (of three years. man that was fast) Yara tomorrow night, and I'm excited to get back into the Wes-socializing swing of things.

It's been a very long last few days, so right now I'm just trying to process everything and lie low for more than a couple of hours at a time. The whole thing started with a 7 1/2 hour bus ride from White River Junction down the New York. Funny, both the website and the man from whom I bought my ticket on the phone said to show up an hour early for the bus (to check bags. check bags? what is this, an airplane?), and so, being the good person that I am, I showed up at 7:30 with my mom. We arrived and the attendant at the mini-mart/gas station/bus station building said, "Oh, you're here for the Greyhound? The ticket counter doesn't open until about ten after 8." So, exasperated, I sat there with my wonderful mother who stayed to keep me company, finally boarded a bus with one other person, and began what is possibly the longest, windiest, slowest trip I have ever had through Vermont, Mass, and Connecticut. The only straight shot we took was from Hartford to New York. I passed some time in a questionable Port Authority cafe with Gilder before getting all of my stuff onto a commuter bus bound for Montclair, where I was enthusiastically greeted by my grandfather with Thai food and Perrier (and I have to say, if you're me, it doesn't get much better than that).

I spent the next few days going in and out of the city for orientation, apartment-visiting, and the like, and Jane and I calculated that I've spent approximately 16 hours on buses since last Wednesday. Needless to say I'm thrilled that one subway and a few blocks of walking can have me to work in under 40 minutes :) On an even less whiny note, I had the incredibly unexpected pleasure of running into a very dear old HHS volleyball teammate of mine in the Rockefeller Center Anthropologie! I was wandering the sale, she was wandering the sale, I heard my name, and we had one of those shared, "Oh my god, what are you DOING here?" moments. Yet another friend in the city this summer who I did not know was going to be around. I think it's going to be a good summer.

Here's hoping tomorrow goes as well as orientation did, and hey, if you're in the city, do look me up!

More later!

Make-Your-Own-Take-Out

Okay, okay, so I'm stealing the term from Rachel Ray and one of her cookbooks (actually, for the purpose of citing things semi-properly, I believe it's from "365: No Repeats" (http://www.amazon.com/Rachael-Ray-365-Repeats-Deliciously/dp/1400082544/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1307149897&sr=8-1). That's the, err...New Internet MLA (NIMLA), for all your persnickety citation users...it's totally in the new edition of the manual. Totally. Anyway, back on track. My most-valuable-accessory (or most priceless) spent a week or so here and man, did I take advantage of having someone else around all day who likes to cook, really likes to eat, and really really likes to watch The Cosby Show on Netflix. The greatest accomplishments by far were the cake I threw together on a whim and the enormous chinese food feast we attempted. I say attempted, but I really mean blew out of the water, because it was SO. DARN. TASTY.

Here's the cake. I did a standard KAF white cake (see the King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion for the recipe) with a lemon swiss meringue buttercream on the outside, and pastry cream with berry preserves between the layers. It was humid and I was tired and low on the SMB, so I didn't do much to the exterior except try to make it remotely presentable (I do NOT like to make ugly things).

And here are it's lovely insides with some quickly-absorbing lemon curd sauce over the top.

Next on our agenda was dinner. Gilder announced that he wanted to make something "delicious and complicated", and after perusing a number of french cookbooks (including Mastering the Art thereof), he got into my copy of Chinese Cooking for Dummies by Martin Yan which I had cracked but never made good use of. I had to persuade him that the ten-dish feast for 6 (beef, pork, chicken, tofu, veggies, dumplings, fried rice, mango pudding, etc) was way too much food (even though there were, in fact, six of us), we settled on pork buns (bao), pork fried rice, gingered chicken, egg rolls, and mango pudding. The bao didn't get finished until the following morning because we were tired and some of the other men in the household had to be up early for crew and crew-chauffering. We had them for breakfast and they were phenomenal fresh out of the oven.

Here is Gilder hard at work on the bao. The dough is quite yummy and sweet on it's own. Into the center goes a filling made of various sauces, onion, and roasted pork (more on that below). They get glazed with some egg yolk and bake for 12 minutes or so and BAM. Heaven. I'm telling you, Martin Yan will steer you right! (http://www.amazon.com/Chinese-Cooking-Dummies-Martin-Yan/dp/0764552473/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1307149855&sr=8-1). Gilder announced they tasted actually kind of sort of authentic. I'll take it!

Here's the fried rice during actual consumption. Not hard, exactly what you'd think in terms of preparation, and oh-so-worth-it. We even got to try out my family's new-ish (to me) rice cooker.

This is the pork that went into the bao and the fried rice. It was also unbelievably easy to prepare; it gets a 30-minute marinade in some sauces that you admittedly might have to go to the grocery store for, a 20-minute oven stint, some glazing with the marinade-plus-honey, and 20 more minutes. It came out perfectly and we decided that one should really make it in enormous quantities and keep it around the house!

I couldn't find any great photos of the egg rolls or gingered chicken or mango pudding, but the egg rolls were of course beautifully folded by yours truly and the chicken came out like any other boiled and sliced chicken you may have seen. (I actually didn't know you could boil chicken until a few weeks ago when my friend Sam taught me. She did chicken breasts in water that had been brought to a boil and then turned off and covered for 20 minutes and they were stunningly moist and delicious. We did the whole chicken this time (again, see Martin Yan) for about 30 minutes, and it was easy and delicious. Next time you want to do chicken, give it a try!) The mango pudding is essentially pureed mango (courtesy of your blender) with gelatin, sugar, and a splash of milk if I recall correctly, and it is so delicious that I will likely make it weekly as long as mangoes are available thankyouverymuch.

I'm home alone with my family again, but have had the chance to catch up with a few people in Hanover, which is always wonderful. I received news yesterday that I've been accepted for an internship (or rather, a volunteer position opportunity) at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, so I'm moving there on Wednesday! Everything is happening quite quickly, but I have a few very, very helpful people on the hunt for me for a place to live and I'm getting more and more excited---such a fantastic opportunity!