The Girl Who Ate Everything

For the past few days I've had the tendency to burp, or feel like burping more than I usually would (as in, not very often). I don't know why this is happening...did I eat too much? Too quickly? Huh? For the past two days I've eaten one meal...er, okay, kinda like two meals, but I skipped lunch since I realized I didn't need it. I feel fine without lunch and after the uncomfortable burping (during which I hold my breath, thinking something's going to come up, and then nothing happens besides me getting less oxygen) I feel like I'd rather do without dinner also. Drinking water makes it worse, but I can't NOT drink water. Dammit, I'm thirsty.

But before I talk about how I stuffed my face with stuff, some interesting food things happening elsewhere...

Begin the Chinatown Ice Cream Wars! I thought it was safe to assume that Nolita Ice Cream Factory was affiliated with the Chinatown Ice Cream Factory because of the SAME DRAGON MASCOT, but apprently it's not. Or rather, it's not very apparent. If they're indeed not related to each other at all, then wouldn't it be easy to get the other ice cream places to stop using the logo? If it were, say, a phoenix instead, then it would look like a sucky imitation. Using the same mascot is just stupid. However, I tried their ice cream and found nothing wrong with it. So even if it's a "fake" ice cream factory, I can't deny that the ice cream tastes good.

I don't understand what's with all the CIFC haters on Gothamist; it's not bad! Have these people tried other ice cream? Yeah, there's better (there will always be something better), and there's much much worse, but for the unique flavors and price, it's not bad. Not that the commenters on Gothamist are going to read this, but some thoughts:

To the person who said "BTW...asians are generally lactose intolerant...that should tell you about what they know about ice cream." I know that Asians (Chinese, at least) generally don't drink milk and haven't done so for ages, but if you've been to Asia (in my case, Taiwan or Japan), you'll notice that they REALLY LIKE ICE CREAM (actually, they just like food in general). I can think of three ice cream places that were near my apartment. I have fond (although fuzzy) memories of Swensens. There was also a Haagen Dazs-sounding ice cream counter in a nearby supermarket. Sure, ice cream isn't deeply rooted in Chinese history but lactose intolerant people like ice cream! OH WELL.

As for the "enter the ice cream dragon" bit, is that supposed to offend me? Cos. I DON'T CARE! Maybe it takes a lot to offend me. In a semi-related thing, when Mulan was out, one of my relatives talked about how McDonald's Mulan promotion was offensive (which I read in an Entertainment Weekly blurb) and I thought it was funny because...I wouldn't have noticed (I wonder how American food is marketed in foreign countries). There's a Chinese restaurant in Greenwich village called Wok N Roll; is that bad?

I suppose I'm more white than Chinese, but ...uh, I did spend most of my life in America, so that's not a surprise. Something that I've always found a bit weird is how most of my friends are Asian, especially the people I meet online, aka PEOPLE I WOULD NEVER KNOW ARE ASIAN BEFOREHAND. Is there something telepathic going on? Vibes? I can't explain it and it's kind of creepy (you'd think so too if I were to spell out all the good Internet friends I've had over the years). Those are almost entirely female friends though; male Internet friends aren't usually Asian.

Whoa, digression.

Mother feeds child Diet Coke. Oh. My god. I've heard about babies/young kids drinking soda but I had never seen it. Isn't that just a tad fucked up? (sigh) Dear adults: DO NOT FEED YOUR KIDS SODA. BAD IDEA. WATER IS A GOOD IDEA! Alrighty.

Waiter Rant got a facelift. In my opinion, a botched facelift. Inside, I went "NOOOOO!" as the webpage unfolded in front of me. Some people like it but most people don't seem to. However, the general consensus is that his writing is so good, it doesn't matter what the design is. It's true; a bad design would never stop me from reading his blog. I actually preferred the blogger template though since it was so basic and I didn't feel like wine bottles were attacking me. Something that irks me about the new design (besides that I don't like it) is that it doesn't match the quality of what's on the page.

Oh well. Now...what have I been eating lately? (Wow, are you still reading this? Haven't I rambled enough? YES.) I'll do a semi-quick photo tour of what happened on Sunday around Hell's Kitchen.

cheesecake

First stop with TAS-ers, Jesse and Shea, was at the D'Aiuto bakery that Carol recommended to us. It's a small place but it's chock full of yummy sugar filled things. However, my cheesecake almost prompted a gag reflex, which I'll talk about later.

Aushe Burida

Jesse, Shea, Carol, and I ate at Ariana Afghan Kebab. Click on the photo for a better description. Overall, it was good, a tad pricey for what you got but it was a good-sized portion because it's something anyone can finish without wanting to puke afterwards. We had some friendly and semi-confusing banter with the owner of the restaurant. I say semi-confusing because he said if we told him what meat we liked, he'd make us a entree with it and if we ate the whole dish we'd have to pay double for it. Joking, obviously...well, we weren't that sure.

ice cream exploding

You probably wouldn't think of going to the Little Pie Company for ice cream, but while Carol and I wanted pie, Jesse wanted ice cream. So he got ice cream and they have inexpensive ice cream (around $2 for one huge scoop, from what I saw). Jesse got a strawberry sundae, aka "small bucket of ice cream and strawberry goo with volcanic properties, judging from the way it mooshes around". Mooshed, it did.

peach pie

A lovely pie. eh? Carol and I split a peach pie. Crust was good, filling was good...isn't it hard to have a crappy pie? Why would anyone MAKE a crappy pie? If you like pie, it's worth trying out.

banana bread

After checking out Macy's and K-town, Jesse had to leave and I went to Carol's dorm on the upper west side to hang out and MAKE NANER BREAD! It was delicious! BECAUSE WE RULE! And it was easy. BECAUSE WE RULE! And even if it came out bad, we still rule...for some reason. I don't have to make sense. I love banana bread, especially when it has nuts and chocolate chips in it. It's still good without any extras though. This is one of the easiest things I've ever made (well, it helps to do it with someone else).

On Monday and Tuesday I decided to skip lunch because 1) I wasn't very hungry and 2) it was more convenient to not eat anything. Humans probably don't need to eat everyday, at least the sedentary ones like me (although part of the reason it wasn't convenient for me to eat was because I spent most of my days in NYC doing stuff not related to eating). For dinner on both days, I went to Kofoo, a fast Korean food place in Chelsea. It's fast, tasty, and relatively cheap. Last night I got two things from there and two baked goods from D'Aiuto (the one on 30th Street and 8th is a bit roomier than the one on 52nd and 8th) for about $15. This was more than enough food to feed two people, hence...uh, me being very stuffed at the moment.

Eel Dup Bob

I LOVE BROILED EEL, so that was the first thing I tried from Kofoo. At $7.55, you can't go wrong with this. It was as good as any other eel I've had in Japanese restaurants, with the addition of vegetables and a small container of kimchi. (I'll admit, I don't have a discerning tongue when it comes to eel. The only reason I wouldn't like it is if it weren't cooked right and thus wasn't soft enough, but I could say the same about any food.)

Last night I got the bibimbob and spicy tuna kim bob. GAAAH so much food! My mum and I finished it all but we really shouldn't have. Next time I think I'll just get two kim bobs, which are like super-filling sushi (partially because one order of that is more than most regular sushi, but that's not the only reason).

Oh, I never did talk about that wayward cheesecake.

cheesecake of doom

I think this was called "celebrity mousse cheesecake", although I have no idea why. The reason my tastebuds started screaming bloody murder as I ate this (yet I kept on eating it, a true testament to my stupidity and love of desserts) was because there was alcohol in the mousse part. IT RUINED THE MOUSSE! The bottom white part was yummy, but the top was unsalvageable. It took me a abnormally long time to figure out it was alcohol. Once I had a chocolate mousse cheesecake from Junior's and that was heavenly (Junior's has a lot of haters, but I thought it was pretty good...damn, maybe my standards are insanely low). Too bad I couldn't finish it since the slice was so huge.