A couple of weeks ago, Joe and I went to see “The Irish Curse,” a play at the Soho Playhouse. Neither of us had any idea there was an Irish curse, but apparently it’s so well known that they made a play about it. The synopsis: “The Irish Curse” is a revealing portrait of how men, and society, define masculinity.
In the play, a small group of Irish-American men (all professionally successful New Yorkers) meet every Wednesday night, in a Catholic Church basement, at a self-help group for men with small “privates”. It examines the fundamental question on the minds of men since the beginning of time… “how do I measure up to the next guy?”
So, Joe and I thought the play was kind of funny and now I want you to see it and tell me what you think!
I have 6 tickets to give away (3 sets of 2) – to enter, just leave me a comment and tell me what you like (or dislike) about my site redesign! The tickets are good for THIS WEEK ONLY (Tuesday – Friday at 8pm) – so the contest ends Monday night at midnight! If you don’t live in the New York area, leave a comment anyway and I’ll pick 3 winners to get a surprise package from me!
(Full disclosure: I was given 6 tickets to give away and 2 tickets for a preview of the show).
WINNERS of The Irish Curse: 3, 4, 1 (look for an e-mail from me shortly!)
WINNERS of the surprise package from me: 2, 7, 9 (send me your addresses so I can ship something out to you!)
By
grace.g.yang
· April 25, 2010
Under:
Uncategorized Last November, I met with a friend to discuss my blog redesign. My friends Dorren, Dante, Todd, Lou helped me turn my ideas into reality. Todd came up with the original design, Dante made all of the assets, and Dorren put everything together! Thank you so much to all of them – I really do love the new site and I hope you do, too.
A huge thank you to Dorren for working on this project – you are THE BEST!
A few weeks ago, one of my fans invited me out for dinner in Chinatown. I’ve never met up with a reader for dinner so I jumped at the opportunity! We met up at Shanghai Cafe in Chinatown for their soup dumplings:
Their soup dumplings are hand made in the front of the restaurant and quickly steamed before being brought to your table:
I was suffering from really terrible allergies when we met up, so I probably grossed Cesar out with my coughing and sneezing (sorry!) The soup dumplings were delicious; their skin was much thicker than the ones from Joe Shanghai, but the filling was a good combination of ginger and pork. Cesar and I after our meal:
In addition to being sick with allergies, I was also on my way to work out (hence my work out clothes!) Thank you very much, Cesar, for showing me a new restaurant in Chinatown!
Recently, I’ve been on a huge beet kick. I saw them on sale at Whole Foods and picked up 6 (3 red, 3 golden) and took them home to roast for a salad. Beets contain lots of folate, magnesium, and vitamin C and are perfect in an arugula salad (with a sprinkle of goat cheese!) They’re also really easy to cook – you just need a little patience because they do take a while in the oven.
Oven Roasted Beets
Heat the oven to 375°F and arrange a rack in the middle. Rinse the beets and trim off any leafy tops. Drizzle with some olive oil:
Wrap each beet in aluminum foil and place in the oven. Roast until tender and easily pierced with a knife, about 1 hour (depends on the size of the beets – mine took about 1.5 hours). Remove from the oven and let cool. When the beets are cool enough to handle, peel by pushing the skin with your fingers. Slice the beets, drizzle with olive oil, and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper:
By
grace.g.yang
· April 19, 2010
Under:
Asian,
Cheap Eats,
Dinner,
Drinks,
Japanese,
Lunch,
Midtown West,
My Life,
seafood,
Snacks,
Sushi,
Tapas,
Things to do in NYC 
After learning how to make focaccia bread from Carl, we went out for Japanese food near Times Square. When I mentioned that I wanted to eat near Times Square, I could tell Carl was very hesitant (I would be, too), but I reassured him that there are small pockets of Japanese restaurants throughout the city that are worth visiting. Two bloggers mentioned Sake Bar Hagi and I tried going a while back with Laura, but the wait was so long on a rainy Sunday night that we ended up going next door for ramen at Sapporo. I arrived early and had a chance to put our name down, which was a good thing since the wait ended up being an hour (however, they’ll take your phone number and call you if you want to walk around Times Square/Rockefeller Center). By the time we sat down, we were pretty famished, so I started ordering right away. The first thing that caught my attention was the soft shell crab:
Some people compare Sake Bar Hagi to Sakagura and I think Sakagura has one of the best deep fried soft shell crab dishes in the city, so I decided to give Sake Bar Hagi’s dish a try as well. The crab was lightly coated and quickly fried and had a great combination of ponzu sauce and flakes of sea salt. It’s a special, but definitely worth ordering.
The next dish that came out was the tofu soup:
The tofu was too firm and looked like they just took it out of the tofu wrapper and plopped it in water (it tasted like that, too). I thought it would be smoother, silkier, and much more appetizing. It wasn’t terrible, but there are so many better dishes at the restaurant that I’d definitely skip this soup in the future.
Next came our yakitori skewers – an assortment of meats (pork belly, steak, meatballs, and chicken):
The pork belly and steak were my favorites – a nice hint of grilled flavor with a squeeze of lemon really amped up the flavor of the meats. Also, the garlic was surprisingly tender and sweet.
Next came our fried eel:
Similar to the fried soft shell crab – quickly fried, seasoned with salt, and eaten with a dash of soy sauce. The fried eel was good, but the soft shell crab was a lot better.
Our last dish was the spicy roe with fried rice:
My friend Eunice raved about this dish so we tried it and both really enjoyed it. I’ve read that the spicy roe also comes on top of spaghetti with some soft of cream sauce and it gives me a reason to visit again.
The drinks are really cheap, there are televisions to watch in case you go alone (or you can sit at the bar), and the restaurant is open late. The food is definitely better than the other yakitori places on St. Marks (another plus – it’s not filled with a lot of underage NYU kids that are super loud and obnoxious). If you ever find yourself looking for a place to eat near Times Square, you should definitely try Sake Bar Hagi.
