TORRISI ITALIAN SPECIALTIES-LUNCH

I finally went to Torrisi Italian Specialties for lunch today. The house roasted turkey sandwich with lettuce, onion, tomato and spicy sauce was excellent, but stressful. It wasn't even that it was that crowded, I expected it to be. They just don't seem to have an organized system down to get people their order... in order, which is something that can drive a guy like me crazy. A number of people in front of me had their orders misplaced which added to the stress, wondering... did they forget mine? or is it just taking a long time? I want to go back for lunch when things calm down. I'll probably still attempt dinner, even though I bet that is stressful too.

For dessert, I needed peace and comfort so I went to Blue Ribbon Market for chocolate chip cookies. When I snapped a photo of the cookie jar, the nice guy who works there insisted that I reshoot the photo with his food styling.

WALL VACUUMING

This is probably one of those things that everyone just does. This morning I vacuumed my walls and ceiling for the first time ever. There has been tons of dust collecting on them for years. It seems weird that it would stick to a vertical surface, let alone an upside down surface, but it does. Sometimes it even "snows" down from the ceiling when I have a fan on. Vacuuming it all up was very satisfying.

BREAKFAST

Sometimes I also eat something sort of healthy. I love this breakfast, the Seven Star Farms yogurt is really runny and sour (the opposite of the creamy Greek yogurt that is very popular) And Ezekial's cereal is nutty and crunchy, it's a nice contrast.--Note the sneak preview of the contents of my refrigerator--I am planning an in-depth report with a critique by Pumpkin.

BEARDS

Andrea was nominated for a James Beard Award. It's like the Academy Awards for food. We went last night. There was a big ceremony at Lincoln Center hosted by Alton Brown. Before even going in there was a giant table covered in pieces of Green & Black's Chocolate (my favorite is dark chocolate with mint), you were supposed to take whatever you wanted, and they even gave you a little pouch with pieces to munch on during the show. Afterwards, was a giant reception where you wander around eating little bites of amazing food and drink wine and champagne. I didn't know anybody, so there was no schmoozing, just eating.

This was one of my favorites, salmon mousse with yuzo and trout roe.

Afterwards we went to a bunch of parties (Ma Peche, Eleven Madison Park, Colicchio and Sons all hosted them)... then we went to dinner at Blue Ribbon, I feel gross.

JUICE

I'm a little too concerned with juice. Being seen and treated as a regular at a restaurant is more important to me than it should be, but it can make going to the same places over and over feel special. Everyone wants to feel a little "Cheers". After a few years of being obsessed with all things Momofuku, I was lucky enough to meet and hang out with Dave Chang in Chapel Hill, NC a few months ago at my friend Andrea's terrific restaurant, Lantern. Today I went to lunch with Mac, Andrea, Oona, Arthur and Kelly at the noodle bar. They have juice. It was the first time Arthur tried the famous pork buns.

bass

spicy noodles

ginger scallion noodles

fried chicken

COTTONELLE

I'm a big fan of toilet paper. Cottonelle is my favorite brand (I was lucky to be able to work on the commercials that are on their website). If you ever go to India, I recommend bringing along some of their moist wipes.

RICOTTA

She had said that she loves ricotta. At the farmer's market I saw some great looking sheep's milk ricotta at the Dancing Ewe stand, so I decided to make a meal where it would be the star. It started out OK, the cheese was great, we had it and pecorino with honey and lemon. But right before she showed up I broke my pasta roller. I had put a lot of pressure on myself to make things really nice, I was probably trying too hard. I tried to readjust and switched to orecchiette while she was in the elevator.

I also made pork/veal meatballs with ricotta but they dried out by the time I served them. The pasta was rubbery and with all the stress, I forgot to add the ricotta at the end to make it nice and creamy. The salad was OK and the expensive cookies were a nice ending. Sometimes the stars don't align and things just don't work out.