Guest Post Extravaganza Part 2

The SO keeps bugging me to write the next guest post because he's too busy to update his blog. Don't be fooled, he's busy playing violent war video games against some greasy teenager nicknamed AK47FoReelz. So here's the continuation of my food adventure blog.

Cruisin' for crab. I hate cruises. I'd rather lick a hospital mop. However after watching Deadliest Catch, a documentary on the Discovery channel about the dangers of crab fishing, we were intrigued about Alaska and eager to get some crabs....to eat....sickos. Talking to you E.W.

Their risk is my reward.

Unfortunately the cheapest and easiest way to get there was via cruise ship. We did our best to book a smaller cruise liner.

There were a number of some safety precautions. As the SO always says, you can tell a lot from looking at your stool.

Don't want to end up like Concordia...

Fail.

Sadly we couldn't save ourselves from the old people and tacky decor.

We did however avoid booking an inside cabin,

so we could enjoy views like this...

Also dodged having to share a dinner table with complete strangers. Nobody wants to hear stories from the couple from Des Moines. Cruise ship tip: since you basically pay upfront for food, you can order as much as you want even though it's not a buffet. The waiter might look at you funny for ordering 3 lobster tails, but they can't say no. Speaking of buffets...

We booked multiple excursions. Alaska in 4 words...snow, ice, water and mist. Here are some highlights.

Helicopter ride to dog sledding

Flying through Misty Fjords...it's misty alright.

Hubbard Glacier and Glacier Bay. Saw a lot of calving, when massive pieces of ice melt followed by a loud booming sound and crash into the water. 

Finally on one of the last nights of our trip, we immersed ourselves in the deliciousness that is Alaskan crab.

Cholesterol never tasted so good.

Wino life in full effect

This is either an amazing idea or the start of a horrible downward spiral into alcoholism.

The SO signed us up for Virgin Wines wine club. They'll send 12 wines every quarter. For about 10 bucks a bottle the math works in our favor but my liver may disagree.

Guest Post 'Gravanza

After reading one too many rants about 90s nostalgia and zombies, I decided to give the readers a break and write a guest blog. If you've been an avid reader, you probably picture me as this overweight, food eating machine but on the contrary, I am a rather petite Vietnamese gal. I have no idea how I became such a foodie but it may be due to the generations of my people being deprived of meaty cows

and non-dog proteins that justify my current eating habits. I admit that I like to eat, but more than that I love the eating experience. So I'd like to share with you my most memorable food adventures.

Tiramisu in Tuscany. It was the summer right after college when a group of friends decided to embark on a month long tour through western Europe. Being unemployed at the time, we hosteled it.

Safe to say that'll never happen again.

Since it was such a beautiful day we decided to do a bike tour through the vineyards of Tuscany.

We drank wine along the way, but don't worry helmets were worn for safe measure.

Halfway through our tour we passed a farmer who for some reason was waving his hands vigorously at us. We cast him off as a crazy Italian and kept riding. Soon enough, the skies darkened and we got pelted with hail. We quickly sought refuge (please excuse the altered photo).

Sorry Italian farmer, we should have paid more attention to your hand waving.

Our guide finally came around with the van and we headed to lunch at a nearby restaurant. We were given a quick tour including the cheese and wine cellar.

Then it was time to eat. The real treat was the tiramisu dessert. However this was unlike any tiramisu I've ever tasted. You know, the super breaded lady fingers, stuffed with mascarpone cheese, topped with so much cocoa that you always tend to breath it in and makes you cough a little.

This Tiramisu was a loose custard. It was so rich and creamy, with just the right amount of sweetness from the grated chocolate on top.

The story goes that tiramisu was developed by Sienese pastry chefs in the late 1600s to honor Grand Duke Cosimo III De'Medici, who was known for his sweet tooth. It was especially popular among his courtesans, who took to calling it tiramisu or "pick me up." Nothing better than some pudding before intercourse. Then when mascarpone came into fashion, it evolved into what we know it as today. Hey, if the original was good enough for the duke, it is good enough for me. Anyway, fashion is so overrated.

Stay tuned for more food adventures...

Sunday!

The SO has promised that her guest blog post will be completed by Sunday. Stay tuned for the hilarity or lack thereof.

Weekends in NYC

The SO and I have been making sure that we take full advantage of our time in NYC. Thus, our weekends are quite busy. Since I've been bad at updating this post regularly, the following is a selection of our activities over the last month or so.

About three weeks ago we attended the Taste of Tribeca. A 70+ restaurant food festival to benefit two public schools in the Tribeca area. A bit ridiculous considering that the public schools in Tribeca probably don't really need additional funds.

I wish I had more pictures of the food but the SO and I were busy stuffing ourselves with food. We got two tickets that allowed us to have 10 plates. This ended up being about 7 lunch items and 3 dessert. I thought 2 desserts was enough but my SO vehemently voted for 1 more dessert.

To offset the gluttonous weekends that represents our typical weekend we decided to do something to satiate our cultural hunger instead of our food hunger. Because we're cheap and I want to make sure we milk the SO's work benefits as much as possible we went to the MoMa.



The SO is viewing a pictorial history of all the descendents of a particular person. I could've paid more attention to the description of exhibit but, well, I didn't.

I am not a big fan of modern art. I'm not creative or artistic enough to understand it. Reading this description for Jackson Pollock's work made me realize how much I don't understand it.

This painting is supposed to show his technical prowess? Calligraphic, looping cords of color animate and energize every inch of the composition? It looks like he just splattered paint everywhere and called it a day. Art is meant to invoke commentary and discourse. I get that. But come on. Does the fact that I'm blogging about it somehow validate the painting's appeal? I also blog about Steven Seagal. Does that validate his existence? Didn't think so.





Now for some reason at MoMa they had Van Gogh's Starry Night. I can actually appreciate this but it could also be that I've read and been taught more about it.

It looks like a cross? Bowing down to the Neon God?

This past weekend I went down to DC for a quick trip to say goodbye to one of my good friends from ESADE before he left for China.

The first thing that greeted me outside the DC Metro. I already felt welcomed. My friend said he saw that a car had plowed through the lobby of a building. He hypothesized that someone must've shot him while driving, he slumped over in the seat and proceeded to crash into the building. Or it could just have been that he had a heart attack and then plowed into the building but where's the fun in that explanation.

Since my bus got into DC about an hour late we had a later dinner at Zatinya, Jose Andres' take on Meditteranean cuisine. It was decent fare. Fairly inexpensive too. DC made me realize how freaking expensive NYC is. I love and hate you NYC.  

This bank right outside my hotel confused me. State Bank of India (California)? What are you? Okay Google had an answer. The State Bank of India is owned by the Government of India but the bank is headquartered in California to provide retail banking services in the US. I don't think the California is really necesssary.

The Washington Monument. The US's phallic momument to our First President. If I ever have a monument built to commemorate me I will definitely not choose a large, erect tower. I'm gonna go with a nice girthy round monument. Cuz you know, it's not the length of your monument it's the girth.

This is actually zoomed too. I always thought you could get closer to the White House but when I went they kept everyone about 1000 feet away.

I intended to visit some of the Smithsoniam Museums but the lines were ridiculous for some of the museums. Considering it was also 90+ degrees I had to settle for the less popular museums.

  

So, of course the Hirshhorn Musuem of Modern Art was empty. No lines whatsoever. No. Surprise. There. At least it was nicely air conditioned.

I saw that the Air and Space Museum was at the far end of the National Mall. I tried my luck and headed over to find that the line was only about 15 people deep. Score.

The main hall exhibited the pioneers of air and space travel.

They had a lunar module on display. So cool.

I was totally geeking out at seeing all the lunar modules and capsules from Apollo 11 and Apollo 17

They already had SpaceShip One, the first privately funded and managed space vehicle.

The Hubble telescope. Since the real Hubble telescope is still in space this is just a replica.

Some of the earlier rockets that propelled America to space. They had a very interesting exhibit about the Space War between the USSR and the US. Fascinating to learn that the reason the Russians couldn't get a human on the moon was because their rockets weren't powerful enough to propel the lunar modules far enough to get them on the tracjectory to the moon. USA USA USA!! 

Space suit.

Shuttle bathroom. I can't imagine the horror of zero gravity diarrhea. Am I the only one that worries about stuff like that?

The lunar module. They just took this from the set where they shot the moon landing.

Booster rocket. Power. Lots of power.

The white vest worn by Gene Kranz of Apollo 13 fame.

 Popularized by the great Ed Harris. The vests worn by Gene Kranz were hand knitted by his wife.

The instrument panel for the Apollo era lunar modules. It's a tad bit complicated.

The first speciments in space were monkeys. They supposedly all came back alive.  

The Spirit of St. Louis piloted by Charles Lindbergh. So much aeronautical history.

This B52 is only one of 10 B-52s left from WW2. It served in the European and Pacific theatres. The Smithsonian is currently building a bigger air and space museum. This B-52 will actually be fully reassembled when they move to the larger space.

The Mitsubishi Zero. Feared by Allied pilots during the initial stages of the Pacific War due to its maneuverability and speed. How were they so fast and versatile? The metallic skin of this plane was super thin leaving minimal protection for the pilot and plane. I guess useful when the Japanese resorted to kamikaze attacks.  

Is it bad that I kinda wanted this to hang in my apartment.

Before passengers were considered cattle by the airline industry.

This is the real Wright Bros. plane. The actual plane that flew in Kitty Hawk. I could not believe it. This is the first freaking plane. They re-canvassed the plane in the 90s so that's why it looks new.

A propeller from the original plane.

The historical significance of this plane and the fact that I got to see it in person was just pure historical ecstasy for me. I am such a nerd.

The underside of the Apollo 11 module.

I was in the Air and Space Museum for a good hour and a half and probably could've spent another hour there. The next time I'm in DC with the SO, I'll have to revisit.

The Capitol Building. Laws and filibusters and stuff

For my final meal in DC my friend took me to Henry's Soul Cafe to get some soul food. Mostly all fried foods. Good stuff.

I got the 1/2 friend chicken, stuffing and mac and cheese.

I was trying to not overeat.

I ate all of it.

After a weekend of fatty foods I thought to myself what could I do to balance out my weekend.

Big Apple BBQ Block Party of course.

Started off with some Salt and Pepper Beef Ribs. Beefy.  

Next up was the Smoked Sausage. Smoky.

Pulled Pork Shoulder. Porky.

So that completes an overview of our weekends. The SO has promised me that she will write a guest post so I'm anxiously waiting for her to submit the draft. It'll probably take me some time to translate the SO's written manuscript into something remotely close to the English language so we'll see when that will go up. July? August? 2013?