lower east side delights

yesterday, after a somewhat painful and very exciting trip to ny adorned, i decided to treat myself to some edible goodies.

the temperature was dropping and light snow started to fall so i went in search of hot beverages. since i was still a little jittery from my procedure, i wasn't up for anything caffeinated. i passed by max brenner's "chocolate by the bald man," but wasn't really enticed by the prospect of cocoa. after walking about for another 10 minutes and finding only starbuck's and ice cream shops, i gravitated back and decided to try some bald man chocolate. it's been reviewed by the venerated columbia spectator, after all.

the interior of the shop really is a mini-wonka factory, if not a sickening chocolate love explosion:



i waited at the cramped "bar" (basically a 3-foot wide counter space) for my order. i had wanted the "orange chocolat" (funny pseudo-european spelling = thick hot chocolate beverage), but they were out (hmph! frustrated asian face! >_<). i settled for a small dark chocolat ($3.90). serving sizes are quite small: regular = 6 oz, which is wise for such a thick chocolate beverage, but i couldn't help thinking that i wasn't getting my money's worth.



taste wise, i was initially really disappointed by the chalkiness, but this mellowed out (or i got used to it) by the third sip or so. not the best hot chocolate, not by far. i liked how they didn't sugar it to death, but there was just no excuse for the blandness of the actual chocolate. especially for a dark chocolate, which should be characterized by a deep, coffee-like richness. sadly, this was just a plain thick chocolate with an unimpressive, one-dimensional flavor.

once properly warmed up from the quickly cooling cocoa, i walked over to 9th street and caught a late lunch at soba-ya. they kept rushing me to order, but that was my fault since i sauntered in 10 minutes before the kitchen was scheduled to close. service was pretty quick and i was quite happy with my hot "chirashi" soba with inari zushi ($14.95):



i especially liked the little tray of side dishes that came along with this lunch special (hidden behind the giant bowl): some kind of fish cake, some kind of tofu thing and two delicious slices of japanese sweet potato marinated in what i think was mirin.

the soba itself wasn't inspiring. i don't think i got the hand-made kind (do they not serve that at lunch?). the broth was nice enough, though i'm not a huge fan of the sweet-sour dashi stock + mirin combo. the thick slab of fish cake floating on top was unexpectedly flavorful and the tempura battered tiny shrimp was rich and added just the right amount of oil to the light broth. the slice of sweet omelet was a little out of place.

i'd like to go back and try their plain homemade soba, zaru soba style--served cold on a bamboo sieve with cold dipping sauces. i'll have to test all the features on their toto toilet next time as well. i'm still kicking myself for not trying out that damn bidet (it had 2 spray settings!).

re-working recipies

my love of carbs is going to be the death of me.

i made pizza again today. finished up the last bit of mozzarella i got at zabar's. this time, i added onions to my tomato sauce and sprinkled some white truffle oil and shaved parmigiano reggiano over the assembled pizza before it went into the oven. truffle oil (olive oil infused with truffles) doesn't taste all that crazy delicious in its raw state, tho it does perk up a bowl of pasta like nothing else. but once cooked a little in the oven, the sharp earthiness of the oil mellows down and all you taste is an inexplicably rich flavor. it was like i deep-fried the pizza or something. THAT DELICIOUS. and then i had to take a nap for 3 hours.

earlier in the week, i purchased a copy of bon appetit (a decent read, but does not compare to the gourmet for hoity toity recipes), which did a feature on pizza. giada de laurentiis (that hot italian chick on food network) offered a painless recipe for making your own pizza dough:

1. mix 1 packet yeast into 3/4 cup warm water
2. pulse 2 cups of flour (i used unbleached), 1 tsp sugar & 3/4 tsp salt in a food processor
3. throw in 3 tbsp olive oil and the yeast mixture into the flour and mix until a ball of dough forms, then knead smooth (it's a very nice, soft dough)
4. let dough rise in a big oiled bowl (covered with plastic wrap) for 1 hr
5. punch down and roll out for pizza (makes 2 snowshoe-shaped crusts)



i sort of made up my own sauce: cook ½ a diced onion in olive oil, add minced garlic, add 2-3 peeled, diced tomatoes and season with salt & pepper. put a lid on and let that simmer/cook down for 15 minutes or until thickened, stirring occasionally. add oregano and basil if you feel like it.

preheat oven to 475°F. sprinkle cornmeal on some foil and put your rolled out pizza dough on it. spread the sauce and place your fresh mozzarella on top (cut it in big slices rather than go through the mess of grating). sprinkle with olive oil (or a flavored/infused oil) and shove it into the oven. in 15 minutes or so, you will get a nice thin crust pizza:



earlier this week (same day as pizza day #1), i also made another chocolate truffle tart so i could taste what i missed at the secret lovers party:



this time, instead of using overpriced nabisco famous chocolate wafers, i used anna's thins. i was hoping they had a chocolate flavor, but it was chocolate-mint. i'm not a huge fan of that combo, so i went with cappuccino:

image found on the internets

unfortunately, these cookies have much less mass and so, didn't hold up to the 3/4 stick of melted butter so well (lack of foresight on my part). i ended up pressing the crust mixture into a pie pan and soaked up the excess fat with napkins (went through about 8 or so).

in keeping with the mocha theme, i ground up some coffee beans into a powder and added that to the mixture. i also used a microplane and added a bit of very fine orange zest as well. ultimately, it was the orange that everyone really noticed. next time around i'll go with an orange cookie crust and an entire orange worth of zest.

i'm a little torn in deciding on the cooking time. cooking the tart for less than 20 minutes gives me a velvety truffle texture but this is a little too dense for my tastes. however, cooking it longer than 20 minutes gets you a lighter texture, almost reminiscent of soufflé. however, this is disadvantageous since one's likely to eat more of this highly caloric tart, thinking that its texture is so light (the edges of the tart were the first to disappear).

hmm... what would bourdain do? i know exactly what he would do. that hedonist would never count calories! taste over waist! praise butter!

my brief affair with chocolate

so i've flagged a couple of recipes in my Gourmet mag and showcased my dessert creation at the 906's secret lovers party. in the spirit of the choco-aneurism that is saint valentine's day, i decided to make the highly recommended chocolate truffle tart:



i’ll have you know that i'm not a baker at heart. i'm far from that girly-girl typecast. i don't particularly care for chocolate or ice cream nor do i ever bake choco-chip cookies or cupcakes. no, that kind of sugar orgy never seduced me. i've also never had a thing for george clooney.

but in the spirit of romancing my fellow valentine-minded party attendees, i made the bold decision to try my hand at some baking. i spent all week researching and buying the best (overpriced) bittersweet chocolate in the neighborhood. i learned that lindt rox, ghirardelli is crap (waxy and tasteless) and hershey's is of laughably poor quality (supersweet and metallic indeed!). i concluded on 2 bars of lindt swiss bittersweet and 1 bar of lindt excellence 70% cocoa (grand total: about $8):


image found on the internets
i also had to forage through 3 groceries before i finally tracking down a box of Nabisco Famous chocolate wafers ($4.00):

image found on the internets
having never heard of this particular product and having my expectations heightened by the $4 price tag (for only 1 sleeve!), you can understand my disappointment when i discovered that the wafers taste almost exactly like cream-less oreo cookies.

while hunting for ingredients took up quite some time, actual prep of the tart was a cinch. making the crust consisted of grinding the cookies in a food processor (another use for my beloved Cuisinart), combining the crumbs with melted butter, pressing that into a pan and baking. all pretty painless stuff. the filling part was a little more work-intensive:

1. melting the chocolate (a perilous task since you're supposed to do this directly in the pot, no double boiler action!)
2. whisking together eggs, cream, sugar, salt and vanilla (this took extra long because a suitemate lent my whisk out and i had to wait for her to retrieve it. in the end, i realize i could've just gone with a fork.)
3. whisk chocolate and egg mixture together (so fun! it was the consistency of puddin'!)
4. pour the filling into the crust and wait for air bubbles to settle out

baking was rather foolproof: there was no risk of burning since you bake until the filling is half-set, then let it finish cooking as it cools.

now the description of the dessert (in the magazine) praised its ease of prep, citing: "the easy cookie crust, which requires no rolling, takes only minutes to make, and is completely foolproof;" "we've added butter and eggs to the standard chocolate and cream (without adding significant prep time)." what they don't tell you is that the actual recipe calls for nearly 6 hours of cooling and chilling time! most of which proved to be utterly pointless since i had to cool the tart to room temperature, chill it in the fridge, then bring it back to room temperature since it got too cold. seriously, just let the thing rest on a counter for an hour, sprinkle some cocoa powder on it and EAT. i really don't understand all this unnecessary sitting in the refrigerator nonsense.

a couple minutes before i headed down to the party, i removed the aluminum foil (a breeze of a task, thanks to a ¾ stick of butter in the crust!), slid it onto a big platter and garnished with a sprig of mint and fresh flowers. since i was worried about airborne contaminates, i fretted about how to properly cover the dessert without ruining its delicately crafted surface. an overturned pyrex mixing bowl proved to be the perfect improvised cake dome!

at the party, i kind of lost track of my tart after placing it in the kitchen, along with a bouquet of plastic spoons. i kept bragging about my creation and encouraging everyone to eat it, but no one was willing to take that first destructive bite. some hours into the party, i hovered back into the kitchen area and got to sample a couple spoonfuls, but by that point, my senses were so dulled by vodka that i couldn't make out the taste of the chocolate. i do remember, however, that the texture was pretty top-notch: satiny smooth and dense. i can only assume that others approved of it, judging from the ravaged remains:

inspired by the february issue of Gourmet magazine

i've been meaning to make french onion soup for some time now. there was a really romantic article in Gourmet about this woman's Le Creuset. all her talk of sunny cast iron, golden gratin, and yellow fingerlings inspired me to action.

i wanted to go through the whole complicated process (save for making my own stock, which i will save for another rainy day). i finally had every last ingredient together: vermouth (which i now try to keep on hand perpetually), cognac, worstershire, parsley (which i still sometimes confuse with cilantro), thyme, peppercorns, bay leaves, butter, onions and gruyere (a very stinky cheese, i discovered).

i spent forever chopping up 1.5 pounds of onions (= 10 medium onions). i tried the candle trick but don't know how effective that was cuz i began to build up a tolerance as i went along. i also think i cut the onions too thin cuz some of it cooked down into mush so i had to be super vigilant, making sure that they didn't burn during the caramelization process. i was also quite proud of the fact that i made my first bouquet garni:



actual cooking took FOREVER:
1. softening the onions................15 minutes
2. caramelizing the onions...........20 minutes
3. cooking the soup....................30 minutes
4. making the toasts...................15 minutes
5. baking & broiling the soup........20 minutes



2 hours of sweating over a hot stove later...



quite delicious, though i went a little too heavy with the salt. also, a little too boozy. my potluck dinner buddies seemed to enjoy it well enough. i really liked the toasts floating on top. one's supposed to use baguettes, but i just sliced up my last bit of rye from orwasher's, which worked just as well. buttered and toasted for 15 minutes, i then rubbed a garlic clove on both sides, which imparted such a nice, sharp garlic flavor.

the next day, i decided to travel across the mediterrean and cooked up some turkish-style braised green beans. the recipe called for 2/3 cup of olive oil, which i cut down to a half cup (still too much for my tastes). into that i threw in a sofrito of garlic, onions (scallions actually since the gratinee ate up my entire onion supply) and tomato. next went frozen green beans. i figured since they were going to be cooked down it wouldn't matter too much and it was a good way to get rid of frozen green beans that i never eat (they're tough and taste horrible if not stewed down).

as i was waiting for the liquid to cook down, i decided to jazz up the beans and make it into a heartier stew. i threw in some cubed potatoes, baby cut carrots (SO convenient to have in your fridge!), and what was left of my frozen spinach. served with a soft roll, it made for a pretty tasty light dinner:

adventures with sugar

so other than help old ladies dust off their libraries, i also work as a personal assistant on the upper east side. yesterday i trekked over to my boss's gorgeous apartment and helped her organize and run errands. afterwards, i decided to poke about the neighborhood in search of material for a yet-to-materialize column for the school paper. i've got a lot of ideas, the main one being: "find the best ______ in the city." i'd go on adventures, seeking out the flakiest croissant, the juiciest fruit tart, the creamiest crème brûlée, and the like.

last week i went to the new bakery near campus, Chokolat patisserie. the interior of the place is somewhat small, with only a narrow bar with 4 stools for seating. i ordered a mixed fruit tart ($4.50):



seeing as how it's not the right season for fruit desserts, i forgave them for their fruit, which was not quite the peak of freshness one would expect in a fruit tart. the strawberry was way overripe, the blackberries & blueberries tasteless, but the kiwi was alright. the pastry cream was also nothing special: bland, a little dry. the saving grace, however, lied in the crust, which was very well-executed: light in texture and sweetness, buttery with a nice crumb, and yielded easily to my fork without losing its form. really an exemplary crust. overall, the buttery crust overpowered the dullness of the other ingredients, but i'd like to go back when the weather gets warmer and produces some decent fruit.

yesterday, after work, i came upon Corrado bread & pastry, a small chain bakery with locations in chelsea and grand central. the interior was really cute and cozy (see pix via the link), with small mosaic tables lined against an upholstered bench built up against a wall of windows. i ordered a cranberry scone ($2.00):



sigh, what can i say? it was cold, tough and dry. really buttery, but suspiciously so. i'm guessing something artificial in the flavoring. nothing that buttery can be so stiff in texture. as for sugar content, they could've spared a little something to counterbalance the extremely tart cranberries hidden in the scone. all precious three of them. i was muchly disappointed.

next stop on the list (yes, an actual, physical list of nyc bakeries) was Payard patisserie & bisto. after asking the entirely useless pastry counter man for a recommendation ("they're all good"), i spent some time poring over my choices and decided on the "sweet relief" ($5.75, but $6.50 if you eat in and $8.00 if you're nice enough to shell out tax & tip. >_<). the overly long-winded description of the dessert read: "mango mousse, pineapple soufflé, roasted pineapple, swiss meringue."



hmph. again, really lovely décor coupled with utterly disappointing food. i didn't even finish this dessert (and for $8, it really pained me to do so). the meringue was sickeningly sweet and what supposedly passed for mousse and pineapple soufflé was distinctly stale and overwhelmingly dry. the roasted pineapple was nonexistent. i washed down what i could with my giant glass of water and concluded that i should no longer spend my pennies on desserts i'm not even interested in. from here on out, only fruit tarts and custards for me!

oh, and i also embarrassed myself by picking off the little Payard tag and tasting it, assuming it was made of chocolate. wrong! good thing no one was looking as i gingerly removed the piece of plastic from my mouth. yarg, what's up with inedible garnish? i thought top chef taught america that that was no longer acceptable!

sigh, is it so difficult to find a decent patisserie in the city? will someone kindly step up and set a proper standard for the sugar content of pastries?

right now i'm coping with my patisserie disappointments by eating what was once my favorite cereal, basic 4 ($5.00):

image found on the internets

basic 4 now faces stiff competition for my cereal love from costco's cranberry macadamia nut crunch (a cereal so elusive there exists no photos of it in the vast network of the internets).

i have a passionate love of breakfast cereals, especially as a substitute meal for dinner. although tonight, as i was happily crunching my way through my second bowl, i got to thinkin: why is it called basic 4? the byline on the box reads: a delicious blend of sweet and tangy fruits, crunchy nuts and a wholesome variety of grains, with those four words in boldface. now, i dnno about you, but i don't think "delicious" counts as an ingredient. no, i don't think the FDA would be cool with that at all.

saturday fooding

yesterday's freezing temperatures did not make for good conditions to food forage on the upper east side. i've done good by taking odd jobs in the early morning to force myself to get up. this particular day began by helping a certain nice old dame organize her late husband's dusty old book collection. i help her carry stuff, fetch things from high shelves, shoot the breeze. all in all, a pretty good gig. i work only for an hour or two, since the entire dusty affair tuckers her out. afterwards, i get a few pretty pennies for spending on my beloved baked goods.

having finished "work" at around noonish, i decided to forgo a conventional lunch and nourish myself on bakery treats instead. on my way to lady m (more below), i stopped at the very cramped anneliese's bakery and had a cold, tasteless (and overpriced!) pumpkin tart.

moving along, i was quite lucky to come across orwasher's handmade bread. when i first stepped into the place, i was pleasantly surprised by the wafts of fresh yeasty goodness. located in a quiet neighborhood on 78th street, it's really a lovely place. very warm and inviting. apparently, it was named one of the top ten bakeries in america by epicurious.com (i fully intend on visiting the rest of the list sometime in the near future). i bought a loaf of their lightly seeded rye. the rye flavors were lighter than i expected, but the bread was delicious and excellent, i expect, for sandwich-making. the texture, though, was really something quite special. delightfully chewy, but neither heavy nor dry.

so onto the main event! after discovering and reading through the entirety of the hungry hedonist, i was itching to try the mille crepes at lady m confections. the caramelized crepe that topped off the cake was very flavorful, a smoky toffee. i was pleased by the layers of incredibly thin yet impossibly fluffy crepes and highly impressed by their light-handed, prudent use of sugar in their signature cake:

image courtesy of lady m

unfortunately, the vanilla crème spread between the layers wasn't anything to write home about. another disappointment was the fact that the caramelized top crepe got a little tough and wouldn't yield to my fork. i really wanted to get a morsel of that caramelized crepe with each bite of cake (for a uniform flavor), but couldn't do so without destroying the structural integrity of the neatly layered crepes.

the worst of the experience was their terrible espresso. numbed with cold from the long walk to madison ave, i wanted something strong and warm. my tiny little serving of espresso came in a very charming gold-rimmed cup. one sip, however, and i grimaced at the terrifyingly acidic brew.

despite lady m's shortcomings (the hungry hedonist really pumped this place up for me), i'm definitely going to make a return trip to try their tarte aux fruits, which is the only dessert i really strongly care for. sweets aren't really my thing, but i do have a special place in my heart (and gullet) for a good fruit tart:

image courtesy of lady m

a subway and a FOUL bus ride later, i walked on home and decided to concoct a reviving soup for dinner. having not gone on a proper grocery run for weeks now, i made do with what i had left in my fridge: onions, potatoes, frozen spinach.

i caramelized onions and kept them moist with little splashes of vegetable stock (from bouillon). in another pot, i boiled potatoes in stock with thyme springs and a bay leaf, then dumped that to the onions. BIG MISTAKE. i didn't cook nearly enough onions for the high volume of potatoes and MSG-laden stock and thus, lost all the delicate flavor of my painstakingly caramelized onions. next time i think i'll concoct all flavors from scratch. maybe boil potatoes in stock, but then drain the stock and add milk. next, i mixed in half a package of frozen chopped spinach (too much), which contributed an expected metallic-ness, but also an unwelcome sour taste to the soup. i tried to balance this out with a cup of whole milk, but the spinach taste was overpowering.

texture wise, the potatoes came out really nicely and the bits of spinach just kinda disappeared into the soup. i ate my concoction with slices of orwasher rye, toasted with a sprinkling of olive oil. all things considered, not a bad attempt for something whipped up out of leftovers:

gastronomical adventures with M, international man of mystery

lately i've had my share of food escapades but haven't really been so good about photographing them. the main reason for the lack of updates is the dubiously named M, a devastatingly charming young man who has stolen not only my heart but also a pair of my panties. you see, M visited last week and captured every bit of my attention, much to the chagrin of my academic and social life on campus.

during his glorious week-long visit, we roamed new york and conducted a rigorous investigation of several reputable dining establishments. being a vegan, M's dining options are even more limited than my own pescatarian pickings. still, we occasionally turned a blind eye to certain unavoidable animal products in the interest of politeness and happily ate our way through most of midtown.


going out for afghan was M's idea. after a quick scroll down citysearch.com, we decided on Ariana afghan kebab restaurant (rated 9.0), located in hell's kitchen. as per the recommendation of some idiot on said citysearch, we ordered the pumpkin appetizer, which was tasty and tender, but really nothing more than a couple of cooked pumpkin slices + yogurt. our entrées, however, were well worth its long journey to our table. M and i hedged our bets and ordering two veggie combos for a total of 4 vegetarian curries: okra, spinach, pumpkin and eggplant. surprisingly, the okra was my favorite, despite my usual indifference to the slimy vegetable.

most notable about this particular experience was our zany host/waiter/chef. since we had dined in on a weekday night, there were only two other parties in the restaurant. after we had finished our meals, the chef came out and chatted awkwardly with us. he was even so kind as to offer us an experimental batch of hummus he had concocted, which, though chunky, was too dry to really be a hummus. it was also dangerously garlicky. nevertheless, a heartwarming touch.


the best chirashi i've ever had in my life was at Chiyoda, which was memorable mainly due to their perfectly prepared rice. i intended to take M there to at least try some of their vegan-friendly cucumber or pickled veggie rolls, but unfortunately the sushi side of the eatery was closed! we made do with picking up some onigiri and super delicious stewed renkon in the cafeteria-style section of the shop.


when M was in the mood for a bowl o' ramen, i hit a foul while trying to find a new joint instead of sticking to the tried and true. a second bad ramen experience with M, the first being at the usually reputable Menkuitei (east village location pictured above). we ended up going to Sapporo, as recommended by the highly useful JETAA guide. upon entering the place, we were greeted by an immediate wave of rich broth aroma. then, we stood around awkwardly until the hostess waved at us, indicating that we could sit wherever.

M and i each ordered a version of the vegetable ramen. i regret not ordering more corn in mine (i love biting into sweet corn that contrasts with the salty miso broth it swims in). while the noodles were tasty, there was something off about the broth... it tasted vaguely of misused vinegar? also, way too much scallion nor did i welcome the unsavory addition of cabbage to the mix.

all in all, should've headed to david chang's Momofuku noodle bar instead, regardless of how long it takes to get into that cramped little bit of heaven.


M's stay in new york exposed him to some dreadfully cold weather. we sought refuge from the bitter winds by indulging in sweets and snacks. our late evening foray upon Ted's montana grill capped off one of the best dates either of us could remember.

M ordered us a plate of monstrously large onion rings, served with nearly a bowlful of horseradish sauce. M's glass of knob creek bourbon was a big as a bucket. but somehow, i was served barely a squirt of cappucino. it was M's theory that there existed a direct correlation between serving size and how cowboy-worthy one's food choices were. thus, whisky:bucket::pretentious coffee:thimble.

somewhere after we polished off the onion rings before the long-awaited arrival of dessert, i began to take in the atmosphere of the place. what i had initially taken for a kitschy family-oriented cowboy bar was really quite a romantic eatery. while our table was situated under a giant buffalo head, the appropriately dim lighting, faux leather tablecloth topped with butcher paper and comfy booth-style seating made for an unexpectedly upscale feeling. the soothing 20's music, with the occasional vinyl crackle and pop, was incredibly endearing. M and i were even tempted to get on the floor and softshoe a little. but what really did for this place was... the gorgeous bathrooms. the frosted glass on the doors were something straight out of a dick tracy movie.

right when i came back, our waitress stealthily snuck away to the kitchens and returned promptly with a sizzling platter of apple crisp a la mode. for $7 (seriously, $7!), we were treated to a sumptuous, freshly made-to-order heap of apples, nutty crumb topping, and light vanilla bean ice cream. the thing was big enough to serve 4 people. quite a step up from your local applebee's sugar-a-thon.


one of my favorite things in the world is the activity of restaurant hopping and there's no better place in the city to do it than chinatown. unfortunately, this particular romp proved to be somewhat disappointing due to overly greasy pan-fried noodles at our second stop which led to an inopportune inability to stomach dessert.

we started off well enough at my favorite thai place: pongsri thai restaurant. apparently the oldest thai joint in the city (dubious), this place will eternally warrant a gold star in my book. cute decor, cheap prices, uniformly delicious dishes (except for one bad run in with the "vegetarian duck," but that's just cuz i don't care for seitan), and unbelievably quick service = a must eat!

a few notes:
*their pad thai is tasty but the quality has deteriorated in recent years (still, a good fill for $6)
**a spiciness level of two stars is the perfect amount of heat, in my opinion (you can shoot for three if you feel the need to impress someone)
***any curry with the peanut sauce is rich and delicious

on a down note, their dessert guy is out of the country and as a result, no more water chestnuts in pink tapioca. =(


Chickpea by st. mark's was a much needed unexpected surprise. i've passed by this place so many times yet never bothered going in cuz the facade looked too corporate-spiffy to house any decent ethnic food. NOT TRUE! my falafel sandwich was assembled in seconds by a pita-stuffing expert, who was clever enough as to stuff falafel, greens and veggies in batches! no chewing through half a sandwich of salad to get at the falafel, every mouthful is perfectly balanced! what a lovely, lovely sandwich man!

as an added plus, i just found out (via their website) that their pita bread is made in house! no wonder it was so perfectly moist and chewy!


during one of our many exploits in the city, M and i chose to take afternoon tea at our local Hooters. being resourceful, we ordered dr. pepper (spiked with M's emergency flask of whisky), curly fries and key lime pie.

for some reason, our adorable petite waitress gave us forks when serving our fries and then steak knives (i kid you not) for our pie. though puzzled, M and i had not the heart to bring this to her attention. instead, we turned our attention onto tiny orange shorts. as any patronizer of hooters restaurants knows, this establishment is really not so much about the t's as the a's. apparently some kind of trade secret.

* all images in this post courtesy of the internets