SATURDAY DAY

Saturday morning. Man. Isn't it the best? There's nothing better than waking up and just lounging. Enjoying the sun pouring in through the windows. Eating food you probably shouldn't eat but you do anyway just because it's Saturday morning and you don't have to go to work. Or do anything. At all.

Yesterday morning Meena ran out to take care of a couple quick errands and came back with two lovely bagel sandwiches. Sandwich feels like the wrong term here but I guess that's what they are. Technically. Whatever. She came back with some lovely bagels from Bagels By The Park. She had an onion and I had an everything. Sandwiched between the halves of these wonderfully doughy breads were copious amounts of smoked salmon, cream cheese, red onion and tomato. Mmmmmmmm.

For lunch we went wandering around the hood and wound up at Ted and Honey over by our old apartment. I may have mentioned it before but Ted and Honey can be a VERY stressful place. What we had assumed was just opening month jitters would end up being just general disorganization that seemed to rear its head every time we stopped by. And honestly, we just never wanted to go back despite the fact they have simply awesome food. Because we watched these guys transform our corner from a nasty old deli to its current charmingly hippy dippy space, we wanted them to succeed. We liked their mission. We liked that they made all their own stuff. We liked all the stuff they were selling. We liked their vibe. We liked to say, "Man, wouldn't it be cool to do this someday?"

But it was always so stressful in there! Orders seemed frantic, the physical layout seemed counterintuitive and there is something weird about the way you bus your own tables. Not that I mind taking care of my plate when I'm finished, there's just something stressful about where you place your stuff.

God. I don't know. Maybe I'm just too critical. Probably. But I guess I just WANT things to be better there because I like the idea of this place so much.

Anyway, my point of this long-winded rant is that when we stopped by for lunch at 4:00 on Saturday, there was NO STRESS AT ALL! In fact, it was totally rad. Smooth sailing. The clean up thing was still annoying. And the layout is still jacked. But because there weren't many people there, things just worked. And the food ... was glorious.

Meena had:
- the fidel (it's a cuban sandwich)

Alec had:
- the BLAT (bacon, lettuce, avocado and tomato)

Simply awesome food. My BLAT was one of the best I've had. Maybe ever. And Meena's Fidel had tons of pickles, cheese and luscious pork.

One hell of a lunch.

I'M LIKE HENRY ROLLINS

That's right. I'm a liar. Clearly. I told you I was going to make dinner last night and I was not able to hold up my end of the bargain. I got home late. That was the problem. And Meena wasn't home. Normally this leads to TOTAL experimentation meals where I can just get nuts with whatever I find in the fridge. But last night, my heart wasn't in it. I was tired, still feeling a little sick ... and cold. So I just pulled a Henry. I called Zaytoons.

I ordered pretty standard stuff:
- shish kebab sandwich
- hummus
- zaytoons mix

I don't know why I got the hummus. I just thought my order felt slim and I should make it all worth Zaytoons' while. I don't know why I thought that. But I did.

Anyway, it was good. It's always good. It's typically great. It's Zaytoons. And like I said about Cube 63 yesterday ... they know we love 'em.

Tonight I will NOT be cooking. Work thing. But I'll try to get come slicing and dicing back on the blog soon.

SPICY FINISH

It wasn't really a LONG day, it was just such a hot one that by the time dinner rolled around, we didn't want anything but some Joya. So we ran out into the heat one last time and picked up some of the neighborhood's finest Thai.

Meena kept it real with her usual:
- chicken pad thai (sorta spicy)

And I tried something new:
- chicken with broccoli (really spicy)

It was just what the doctor ordered. I don't know why, but sometimes, cheap Thai is just the best. And this spicy little number was exactly what we needed to close out another awesome weekend. Big flavor, little prices. Just the way it ought to be.

TACOS FOR ONE

Meena had to be with the Glamour girls last night so I was on my own to watch the Yankees, answer some eBay questions and of course, eat.

I had to run some errands in the city before I could make it home so by the time I got back to Brooklyn, the Yankees were in the fourth inning and I didn't feel like cooking. So I made a quick stop at California Taqueria to pick up a couple tacos.

I kept it real and picked up a fairly usual order for me:
- barbacoa taco
- pollo taco

They were pretty steamy when I got them home and ended up breaking out of their doubled up corn tortilla shells, but that was fine. I threw a little sambal oelek on there and mostly ate these dudes with a fork. Not very authentic, but it was incredibly realistic. That's what you do with take out Mexican, y'all.

SAME OLD

Nothing out of the ordinary last night. I needed Meena to help me fill a room for an event, so after our stint in Midtown, we hustled back to the house and grabbed some Joya takeout on the way. Meena wasn't feeling all that well so we tried to keep everything as simple as humanly possible.

Orders were super simple:
- chicken pad thai (spicy!)

And that's it. We just had a glass of wine and watched some college hoops. I'm fully aware it's not really the most exciting evening in the world, but whatever. I enjoyed it throughly.

GOOD MORNING

I had every intention to make what you're seeing up there with my own two hands, but when I started to think about it, it was much more cost efficient to just have Court Street Bagels do all the heavy lifting.

By the time you buy all this stuff, you spend a fortune. And have a bunch of leftover. So we just figured, let's just do take out.

We kept it mostly traditional and Meena had:
- baked salmon salad
- cream cheese
- red onion
- tomato
- onion bagel

Alec had:
- lox
- red onion
- cream cheese
- everything bagel

Mmmmmmmmmmm.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, AMERICA

In what I feel is a rather strange development, I've become a baseball fan. I'm not sure how it happened, but I watch nearly every game I can get my eyes on. And with Meena out of town, I've really pushed even further into this new hobby. Too bad the Yankees are horrible. I haven't watched a win in weeks (they've won ... I just never seem to watch those).

Anyway, for some stupid reason, I bought sushi for my 4th of July lunch. Real American, Alec. I had an IPA from upstate NY, though. That sorta cancels out the Japanese part.

Anyway, the sushi was from Whole Foods. I'm not sure why I went there. Or why I bought it. But it was ok. And it filled me up.

Now I'm going to hit billysburg for some grilled goods and a couple cold brews before the fireworks kick into high gear.

LATE NIGHT

Last night was ready to be another slow evening spent in front of the telly watching some dumb movies, but my friend Cassie from my Miami days gave me a call and we grabbed a couple drinks and chatted about the impossible nature of securing living space in this wonderful city.

We had a couple drinks at Tile bar (which is actually quite affordable and very quaint) and then I hit good old Cinderella for a delicious gyro to go.

They forgot hot sauce, so I ended up slathering this puppy in sambal oelek. It was subsequently VERY spicy. And completely delicious.

THE AFTER PARTY

This year's Indianapolis 500 will best be remembered by a ton of delicious food at the track (giant smoked turkey legs, sandwiches, beer, cookies and chips), Dario Franchitti and plenty of rain.

We spent most of the day in Speedway, IN going to and from the car and dodging buckets of rain, so when we finally got back home, we weren't in the mood to go anywhere. Lucky for us, Mom anticipated such a mood and picked up some Puccini's Bar 20 pizza and delicious salad.

I worked at Puccini's for a time when I was home from college. It's a nice little pizza place. And the do a barbecue chicken pizza better than nearly any place I know. And their fat-free Italian dressing is awesome (TONS of garlic).

So the gang pounced on the spread with the quickness and it was all eaten up before we knew it.

No surprise, race day was awesome yet again this year.

AMAZING FIND

Oh my. We've found a winner.

While we were rolling casually through the Lower East Side, we came across some kids buying sorbet from this dude on Delancey Street. It was just a random cart manned by a guy who didn't really speak English right outside the Duane Reade.

Well, Meena wanted some. I figured, why not?

BEST DECISION EVER.

Meena had some rainbow sorbet and I had the coconut.

AMAZING.

I'm not really sure what it was. I'm not sure where this man came from (heaven, obviously) or where he gets this stuff, but I'm probably going to crave it every day for the remainder of the summer.

The best part was that it only cost 2 bucks. Total. A dollar for each! I quickly gave homeboy two more for his troubles.

This may be some standard operation I haven't come across in my time in NYC. If so, I'm not sure how I've missed this stuff. It's made of dreams and rainbows and love and happiness!

A NIGHT OF RANDOM EATING

Last night was a great food night ... it was just really random. Meena went to Williamsburg to have dinner at Zenchiki and hang with Diana and Mariel. I have no photos, but Meena had a 12-course tasting menu. She reported that all 12 were quite delicious.

Before she left, we ordered a couple quick bites from Hiro. Meena had:
- chicken tempura roll
- shrimp shumai

Alec had:
- miso soup
- hamachi & jalapeño roll

I really liked my roll. Very spicy. Very nice.

While Meena was having dinner, I went out with James, Matt and Ed for some wandering about town with the bros time. We hit Tara Thai for some quick bites because Mr. Naddeo was starving. While I was there, I had a a nice summer roll and a couple Singhas.

Meena and the ladies finally met us for some beers at Hi Fi. We had plenty of cheap suds and decided to call it a night. On the way back, though, we made a quick stop at Falafel Star, a spot we hadn't hit in a long, long time. Their gyros aren't the best, but they have the most amazing hot sauce.

Meena had:
- falafel sandwich

Alec had:
- gyro sandwich with tons of special hot sauce

Like I said, it was seriously random. Lots of great eating though!

MMMMMM GYROS

Guess what? We have Monday off! That's right. An entire extra day to lounge around, watch crappy TV and run errands whenever we feel like it.

So in honor of this glorious Monday, we decided last night would be decadently simple - gyros and Children of Men.

We'd been a little lazy during the day, so rather than having Cinderella Falafel bring our sandwiches to us, we thought getting out of the house and walking up a few blocks would be good for us. Probably a little sad that's acceptable activity, but it's a lazy Sunday, get off my back, OK?

Anyway, we decided to keep it simple and stick with the sandwich only:
- gyro meat
- lettuce
- tomato
- red onion
- cucumber sauce
- hot sauce
- pita

Folks, it may look like a mess (and I guess, actually, it is) but it's delicious. The Mediterranean hot dog never disappoints.

And while Children of Men was depressing (but so so so so good), we had a delicious meal in our cozy apartment to help us cruise on in to a lovely work-less Monday.