Music (and Beer)

Today I met with Oskar and had four pints at Flight 151 where Tuesdays is "Flip Night". They flip a coin every drink you order and if you call it right, your drink is free. We were batting 50%. Considering beers were $3, even the ones we lost were pretty cheap.

Anyway, he went uptown and I stayed at home, put on some headphones and started listening to some music. Here are the songs I re-discovered:

• N.W.A. - Fuck the Police
• GWAR - Sick of You
• Glass Candy - Candy Castle (FYI THIS SONG IS AWESOME)
• Black Flag - Six Pack
• Murder City Devils - Boom Swagger Boom
• X - Los Angeles
• Shiny Toy Guns - Ghost Town
• Clipse - Wamp, Wamp (What it Do)

It was a pretty crazy dance party up in this.

RAIN!!!!

Everyone who says that Seattle is rainy has never lived in NYC. Here it constantly floods when you are about to leave the house. Funny thing is that everyone still laughs at you for coming from the "rainy city".

R.I.P. MJ

The day Kurt Cobain died, I was in Hawaii with my family. My grandfather and I went for a walk and the entire time I was in a subdued state of shock. My feelings for MJ are not as strong, but they are close. After all, I have been trying to Moonwalk for the last ten years.

R.I.P. MJ

Bing

Microsoft released Bing and I laughed because all of Microsoft's search engines have sucked. Today I sat down and tried it out and incredibly it actually seems to work.

I tried the following queries:

1. CreateFile -> Actually links to MSDN!


2. Weev -> EncyclopediaDramatica (that's pretty good).


3. Ugg slippers -> Had good context sensitive ads and pointed me to the right page.


4. Visualized Sorting Algorithms -> Took me to the page I wanted.

Maybe there is hope, although I have a ton of "Google" momentum and don't really see why I should switch.

RibEye

A new meat market just opened up around the corner from me on 9th Ave between 20th & 21st in the spot where the Chelsea Meat Market was. They sell only Prime beef and the prices are pretty great. Yesterday I swung by and picked up two RibEye steaks @ $9.99 a lb. Pretty good for USDA Prime, considering a similar style RibEye is $40 or $50 in a restaurant.

Flash forward three hours and a little bit of grease smoke and you have one of the most delicious dinners I have made in a while. I topped the steaks with a compound parsley butter and some sauteed Vidalia ovens that I cooked in the pan with the steaks. While the steaks were resting, I deglazed everything with a shot of red wine. So good.

Because I am healthy, I steamed some broccoli on the side.

Bank of America (Everywhere except WA & ID)

I just signed up for a NY BofA account and signed into online banking. Basically, if you have a WA or ID BofA account then you are a sucker because the online banking experience has not been updated in approximately 100 years. Everywhere else in the country has all sorts of features for paying bills and accessing accounts. If I had known this I would have switched a year ago.

Cooking from the Farmer's Market

Today is Wednesday which means that it is the best day of the Union Square farmer's market. The weekend is nice but it is more crowded, slightly more expensive (I'm convinced), and the turkey sausage vendor isn't there.

Arugula Salad and Escolar

I haven't blogged about it in a while, but I have been cooking up a storm in my tiny NYC kitchen. Kat has been a dutiful photographer and I actually have some pictures this time. Of course, they have been sitting on my camera and are now many months old. Maybe I have even more mad skillzzz now.

First Course - Arugula & Pear Salad

Pretty standard salad consisting of Arugula and Pears which I dressed with a homemade balsamic vinaigrette. The salad really tastes good because all of the flavors are extremely intense and it appeals directly to the arugula, pear, balsamic, olive oil, and salt lover in me. Definitely not balanced at all. Still looks pretty and I am sure that my dressing recipe will improve (as soon as finish this bottle).

Second Course - Escolar with Mango Salsa

Well doesn't this look fancy? Unfortunately, too much of this dish can cause anal leakage. Escolar has the same oils as those Olean potato chips and I was pretty scared to eat it. Unfortunately, its not very green or respectful to throw proteins away. Thankfully all it resulted in was a restless night of worry.



Kat and I have been loving the mango salsa, it is pretty easy to make and takes almost no time. Mango, Red Wine Vinegar, S&P, Red Onion, and Cilantro. I think I put some red bell peppers in it this time as well. Pretty darn simple, for added richness add avocado.

My camera has many more meal pictures but they are all of seafood. I'll try to get some other proteins in there before posting.