Tag: picturing food

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Our birthday month 2025

Coffee was a mistake

Me: How’s my old lady today for her birthday?!
Her: Ooch, my back hurts.
Me: (laughing) That’s the appropriate answer. You’re getting older.
Her: Well, you are the authority on all things old, Logan Lo.

Sara and I both have April birthdays so her sister and brother-in-law took us both out to brunch with all the kids the other day.

We went to The Ribbon, which is this fancy joint near Central Park a little south of us.

I’d never been and always wanted to go.

Me: I dunno what I should order; it’s brunch so I want coffee, but I also want a drink.
S-SIL: Get an Irish coffee – best of both worlds!
Me: That’s not a bad idea!
S-BIL: It’s late, I can’t have coffee after 11AM.
Me: I usually can have coffee up to 2PM.

Turns out that coffee was a mistake

I forgot that I drink half-caf coffee at home, so I ended up significantly regretting my decision later on that evening as I had an almost completely sleepless night that night, especially since I was worrying about my mom.

But, at least at that moment, it was worth it.

Sara and I – and my sister – share a birth month.

Sara’s having a milestone birthday but I’m just having a regular one.

Still, after a certain age, all birthdays become milestones in some way.

I’ll be 53 before this month is out – it’s really hard for me to comprehend as I don’t feel like I’m 53, and yet, I do.

Suppose I’ll figure out some way to explain it to you in the coming entries.

Location: all up and down the west side
Mood: sore
Music: the memory of late nights and coffee in bed (Spotify)
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Fried Chicken and Jenga

Not failing again

Him: Papa, that looks like fun. Can we play?
Me: (laughing) Yes?

The kid and I were watching something the other day and, on it, the people started playing Jenga, which I’ve not played with him since we found some oversized pieces in the middle of the street that one time.

So, we dusted it off and I played with both boys while Sara took care of some work around the pad.

I feel this will be the kinda thing that we’ll look back on and remember fondly.

That’s the hope, anywho.

I won one round and the kid won one round.

Me: I bought 11 pounds of chicken.
Her: Why did you buy 11 pounds of chicken?!
Me: I’m trying to cut down on my cholesterol. Plus, it was on sale. (thinking) Now, what are we gonna do with 11 pounds of chicken?
Her: I dunno, what do you wanna do?

Me: Man, I wish we could fry it.
Her: Fry it? I could fry it.
Me: Wait, are you serious?
Her: Sure, why not?
Me: You know how to do that?
Her: Logan Lo, I’m from the south. Of course, I know how to fry chicken.

Now, if you’ve been keeping up with blog for any amount of time, you know that the following are crack to me:

I’ve made pan-fried chicken a buncha times, but I’ve never made actual deep-fried chicken before.

In fact, I believe that this would be the first time in my (adult) life I had home-made fried chicken before – my mom had made some for me as a kid, but it was decidedly Chinese in nature not American/Kentucky…

So, with that, Sara cut up 11 pounds of chicken.

Marinated it in some seasoned buttermilk for a few hours and then mixed up a killer flour dredge.

Used an entire bottle of oil.

And got to frying 11 glorious pounds of fried fowl.

It turned out pretty amazeballs.

That’s her with the very first batch, which looked and smelled just perfect.

After the four of us – the two boys were pretty jazzed to have homemade fried chix for the first time as well – she and I chatted as we cleaned up the colossal mess together.

Her: So, I have a confession to make.
Me: What?
Her: This is only the second time I’ve ever deep fried chicken. The first time, my apartment filled with black smoke, so this was a much better result.
Me: I’ll say!
Her: I know my stubbornness is sometimes one of your least favorite qualities of mine, but here it played to your favor. I was NOT going to fail again.

Works for me.

Location: home, wondering if I should take apart my computer now or not
Mood: exhausted
Music: you know i like my chicken fried cold beer on a friday night (Spotify)
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New Year’s in Chinatown (2X)

Papery/Paper/Plastic

Me: Can’t believe that the kid’s going to college in just seven years or so.
Her: You’ll be 60 then.
Me: Whoa! (thinking) Man, I look amazing!
Her: Eh, your face is getting a little papery.
Me: …
Her: What? It’s true! (laughing) You and your ego…
Me: …
Her: Happy New Year?

Sara and I had to run down to Chinatown twice in a week because it was Lunar New Year.

The first time around, it was Sara, her kid, and me. We went on New Year’s itself.

It’s been at least 30 years since the last time I was here for Lunar New Year.

We didn’t actually go for the festivities – that’s too much chaos for us – but we did see the aftermath, which was just as interesting.

Sara and her kid marveled at the sheer amount of debris left over the festivities.

There was so much that the street sweeper got clogged.

For serious.

Me: Look at all the plastic, this terrible.
Her: They should do something about it.
Me: It used to be a lotta paper. Now it’s all plastic.

I mean, we ended up going to another classic dive called Big Wong, which had a 45-minute wait, the longest I’d ever waited to get into a dive, ever.

But, man, was it worth it.

We both tried some new food – and her kid really liked all the new food as well.

Then, a few days later, we had to head down there again because I forgot to grab something the last time we were down there.

This time, it was just the Sara and me.

We ended up going to the House of Joy.

Me: This is one of the few classic Chinese banquet restaurants left.
Her: It’s so cute!
Me: A lotta Chinatown used to be like this. The last time I was here was for [my college buddy’s] parent’s funeral. So, this is a much better reason to be here.

We went at a really off time, so it was just us and a handful of other patrons.

Me: OMG, I haven’t had this in years!
Her: Oranges?
Me: Well, back when I was a kid, after a meal, the waitstaff would bring out sliced oranges and fortune cookies just like this. Man, I can’t remember the last time I had this…

Stuff like this makes me wish I brought the kid.

I’ll have to do it when he’s back.

Location: home, watching this insane snow come down
Mood: exhausted
Music: No one on the corner has swagger like us (Spotify)
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Simple is anything but

Some good reason

Boy: It was unexpectedly warm today.
Me: Man, do I talk like that?

I’m not sure how five-year olds talk but my son looks like a five-year old Chinese kid but acts like a 65 year-old Italian man.

Him: Do you want to listen to Linda Ronstadt or Neil Diamond?
Me: Uh…

I forgot to mention that, when I went to pick him up last time, Mouse was nice enough bring the whip to get him. But we first stopped off in NJ to meet up with Pac and his girl for some Korean food.

I look way too excited to get some food into me in this pic.

The restaurant we went to was actually a branch of the place we normally hit up.

Me: (to Pac’s girlfriend) So, in the Queens place, there’s a sign that says 90+ people eat for half off and 100+ people eat for free. When Mouse and Chad turn 90, we’re going to make them regret that choice.
Her: That’s some long term planning.
Me: Gotta have goals in life.

And in the middle of dinner, someone had a birthday party there. Man, I miss indoor dining and birthday parties – can’t remember the last time anything memorable happened for mine.

Pac: When are you gonna move outta your Upper West Side basement apartment and into NJ?
Me: I will stab you in your eye, man.

Speaking of the Upper West Side, Lviv’s back in town. She was away for a spell and hit me up the moment she walked in her pad.

She’s been thinking about new living arrangements and asked about my building.

Her: I doubt I’d move to UWS unless there was some good reason to.

I was gonna tell her that it’s the Upper Best Side but my life is needlessly complicated as it is.

And trying to simplify it is anything but…

Location: home, making ribs
Mood: hard to say
Music: you don’t know it all (Spotify)
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The disappearing watercooler

Emerging from winter

Sushi on the UWS
The weather’s been slowly getting better so I’ve been emerging from my winter shell.

Met up some college buddies for sushi around the way the other day and, yesterday night, headed over to my local tailor with my buddy Paul to get some clothes fixed.

Regrettably stopped off at Grey’s Papaya after dinner to get a dessert of two hot dogs.

Her: TWO hot dogs? After you had a dinner of ribs and potatoes?
Me: I’m not proud.

Rum on the UWS
The post I wrote about the HIMYM finale seems to have struck a chord with people because I received several emails and a few mentions by others in social media.

It’s interesting because an opinion just came out in the NYTimes where the author notes that the water cooler is disappearing, both literally and figuratively.

It’s disappearing on the figurative front because there are just so many shows to watch and we all have such divergent interests.

So to find something that so many of us can actually discuss is rare.

On that note, I’m finding that more and more people are reading this blog, but less and less are leaving comments here – when you do comment, it’s either to an email to me, a comment on FB or somewhere else, or no comment at all.

I miss the old LiveJournal account mainly for that reason; because people were such active commenters there.

Leave a comment below from time-to-time!

Location: Staten Island
Mood: rested
Music: all right, I got no time for private consultation
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PieFace and the Philippines

The lazy man’s way to help the Philippines

I was out the other night attending a seminar that my buddy was giving about internet marketing.

Went there mostly to support him but ended up learning a great deal about it. It’s always interesting when you see another side to people that you know.

Afterward, was heading home when I saw the Pieface food chain across the street and picked up some pies. Meat pies are something I would think would be a huge hit here and yet it’s not. They were so @#$@#$@# good.

Now I want another one. Pie. Made of meat. Brilliant.

The wife thought it was a pleasant surprise, which is also good because I tend to bring home things that are usually not so.

Her: If you’re going out, can you pick up paper towels?
Me: Paper towels, got it. (leave, come back)
Her: (looking into bag) So, by paper towels you thought I meant a bag of Doritos and a bag of Cheetos?
Me: Dammit!

On a more serious note, I present another very easy, lazy way to help the world – in this case the Philippines.

I just sent a few bucks to the Philippines Red Cross via PayPal and it took about two minutes here.

$5 would help greatly and is about the cost of a nice cuppa joe. $5 and two minutes a small price to pay to help save the world, I think.

Location: my safe home
Mood: concerned
Music: Crossed the sea to find a brother
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Pizza vs. Chili

Having endless pizza in NYC

Me: Can I ask you a question?
Her: (continuing to stare at computer screen) Sure.
Me: What does the fox say?
Her: (turning to me) Ring-ding-ding-ding-dingeringeding!

My brother was in town last week and it was a (relatively) light work load so I managed to spend some time with him.

He lives out in LA now so each and every time he comes out here, he has the same thing for almost every meal: Pizza.

Although we did try and balance it out with a salad. But still, it was mostly pizza.

Her: Are you ok?
Me: (coughing) I just had a *huge* piece of anchovy in my salad.

It’s a bit like when I go out there and have chili. We are very different but very alike at the same time. It’s a sibling thing, I suppose.

We did break up the pizza-fest with the occasional – equally nutritionally-bad – fro-yo. This one was from when we visited his friend out in Queens.

Him: (sitting at table) OK, I’m done.
Me: (pointing to his cup on the far right) Are you sure? I still see some space in your cup where you could still put in more stuff.

After he left, tried to eat a little more healthfully. The wife had made some homemade granola – pumpkin for her, regular for me.

Me: Which one’s mine?
Her: (calling out from other room) I wrote it on the label. The one that’s not my name.

Location: waiting for the phone to ring
Mood: fatty-fat-fat
Music: Wa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pow! Wa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pow!
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Travelogue: Comic Con New York City 2013 Pt. 2

More pictures of cosplayers – now with beer

My Twitter post from last night at 3AM:

“Are you sure it’s decaf?” I asked the waitress.
“Yes,” she replied.
#liars #insomniastinks #hate #rage #chili

Continuing from my Comic Con post yesterday, after walking around for a few hours, we decided to try to get some food.

Him: Check out the Korean food stand over there. Ever since I came back from teaching in Korea, I have been craving so much Korean food, I love Korean food.
Me: Me too. (thinking) Actually, I love food in general.

Me: There’s a German food joint about 10 blocks up.
Him: 10 blocks? That’s a walk, man.
Me: We can work off the beer we’ll be drinking.
Him: Good point.

When we get to the exits, the escalators are broken.

Cosplayer: You all have to turn back, the escalators are broken.
Me: (irritated) Escalators don’t break! They become stairs! (see video below)


After two sets of broken escalators, we eventually, we make it out and head over to Hallo Berlin.

Him: What’s good?
Me: What are your thoughts on fish?
Him: I like fish.
Me: Maybe an order of sausages and an order of fish?
Him: We’ll need more food than that.

Me: Wanna try a Berliner Weisse flavoured beer? It’s a little girly but who’s gonna know?
Him: Sure.

Me: Hey, that was cool. Thanks a lot, man.
Him: No problem.

Mitch Hedberg: An escalator can never break, it can only become stairs.

 

Location: in front of coffee #6
Mood: so tired
Music: You conform to what society says and I conform to me
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