Food Love

Chorizo tacos from Miski Gourmet truck

East Coast Weddings (Weekend II)

Tomorrow, I'll be heading to South Jersey reunite with some great UMBC friends in celebration of the nuptials of Desi Tubb and Tim Conway.

Miss Tubb, or should I say the soon-to-be Mrs Conway, is pictured at to my left. Many of my fond early-college memories of pasta and t-shirt parties, long runs in Patapscos and bus rides to meets include Desi and the additional lovely ladies of UMBC XC below...see you girls soon!

Food Love (& Localizing!)

Mint-lime (Vegan!) sorbet from Paradis Ice Cream

East Coast Weddings (Weekend I)

Today we're headed up to Street, Maryland to celebrate Cleo and Alex's wedding!

The lovely bride is pictured to my immediate right - she and Allison helped me plan a surprise visit for Feven and Emily one fall when I was helping to recruit at Maryland schools for GE IMLP.

Food Love (& Localizing!)

Sapporo-battered soft-shell crab and chips with vinegar and tartar sauce from Papa's Place

I absolutely adore this family-run business which is a short walk away from my apartment. Allison and I stopped in on a hot sunny day and were treated with amazing service and given samples of their heavenly watermelon-strawberry-pineapple lemonade during our lunch.

Headed Back East for Weddings!

I'll be East Coast'ing it for the next 10 days - attending two weddings (one in Maryland, one in New Jersey) and working from the NYC office in between. Aside from the obvious excitement about the lovely friends I'll catch up with, I am quite looking forward to Yuengling, Pub Dog pizza, being in the city during NYFW...not so much the head and humidity, but I'm sure I'll survive :)

Back to packing!

The City That Never Sleeps

A friend recently asked me what my favorite city was. I couldn't answer. As my blog header indicates, I've done my fair share of adventuring via plane, train, automobile and the occasional boat.

What better to do than use that question as a subject of a series of blog entries. But where to start?

Many thoughts later and after going through my past years' albums, I still can't rate the cities I've visited. They've all featured such unique memories. There are some that I'd like to claim pseudo-local status based on the volume of friends, family and stories...out of these, New York City takes the cake. Even if I can't rank my favorite cities, I can name my favorite places to eat, visit, drink and wander around within each. That should count for something right?

So here's my NYC rundown:

1. The High Line - thisconverted rail line (pictured above) is hands down one of my favorite places in the city. With Frying Pan not too far from the northern beginning of the park and Chelsea Market and the Standard (pictured at right) along the way, it's a one-stop shop for fun and food with a great set of views.
2. Bars and restos along and nearby St Marks Place - Bua, Rai Rai Ken and Polonia ...unrelated to food, but definitely a great stop inthe surrounding neighborhood is Galleria Nails - THE best manicure and pedicure quality and deals and are amazingly friendly.
3. Beauty Bar - Countless nights out in NYC have ended with a great dance party in the back room of this bar. Additional points because Artichoke pizza is so close.
4. Sunday brunches - Atlanta and the South gave me an appreciation for the Sunday brunch ritual, but New York has it refined to an art and the options seem endless. Braai offers a great South African spin on the brunch norm, and Prince Street Cafe became a go-to after one fun New Years Eve trip.
5. Russian baths - After all the eating and drinking and walking around the city, sometimes you just need to relax and decompress. In fact, its become the New Years Day afternoon tradition.

Ohhh memories. This entry makes me even more excited to be headed back to the city for a week of work in between weddings in Maryland and New Jersey. Also, while favorites and traditions are always good to have on deck, I'm always open to suggestions of new places to try out...so send 'em my way.

See you soon, NYC!

Three Things

This week's Three Things post is more of a Three Pictures Across Three Years post. One of the friends I'm excited to catch up with next week in NYC is Alana - we met via IMLP, the only two girls in our US Energy class...many cities later, we've both moved onto new professional adventures on opposite ends of the country but are only a tweet or blog away!

2008 - Atlanta, new roomies first night out on the town!

2009 - Shanghai, out of the classrooms

2010 - New York City, right before we flew out to Atlanta for IMLP graduation

(International) Food Love

Sacher Torte from Cafe Aida in Vienna

Localizing - LA Weekly's Annual Pancake Breakfast

As mentioned in my Runyon Canyon entry, much enjoyable grubbing was done while Allison visited me last weekend. We introduced her to In & Out, Papa's Place, food trucks, Fred 62, House of Pies, Wahoo's fish tacos...

...but best of all, we attended LA Weekly's First Annual Pancake Breakfast. The event was held downtown at the Vibiana, a gorgeous event space that had been the city's first cathedral - and there was already a long line when we arrived a few minutes before the event start time of 11am. The doors open promptly and the line moved swiftly; once checked in, we were greeted with awesome coffee mugs and handy forks with curved edges to help cut through the pancakes that awaited us.

And what a crazy amount of pancakes (and coffee and breakfast cocktails) awaited us. As we got in line for our first tasting, we came up with a strategy to take on traditional breakfast-type options first and then circle back for the savory types. LA Mill's line for individual pour'ed-over iced or hot coffee seemed endless, so we grabbed free water bottles and set off.

To recap:

• Tried 15 out of 20 restaurants
• Original Pancake House was actually visited twice becausethey served their apple dutch baby pancakes then refilled with a round of Kijafa cherry crepes
• Favorite traditional breakfast-style pancake? Fig's lemon-ricotta pancakes topped with blueberry butter and almonds
• Favorite non-pancake? Nickel Diner's Irish carbomb donut hole
• Favorite savory pancake? Kobawoo House's seafood pancake
• Runner(s) up? Square One's pancake topped with bacon and bacon-infused carameland Tiara Cafe's milk pancake topped with a chilled lemon sabayon and Maldon salt

So. Well. Where was I?

The event recap. Right. Well, obviously it was an amazing opportunity and sure worth the $25 ticket cost considering the sheer (unlimited!) amount of quality foods and beverages.

Who's coming into town for the next Jonathan Gold/LA Weekly food event?!