Atlantic City

Today was a day of two firsts: 1) first trip to Atlantic City and 2) first casino experience.  Being the high-roller that I am, I went all-in for a total of five dollars, which was the comp money we received from the bus line we took to the casino. 

 

Between the two of us, Brandon and I came out with $10.30 which we promptly spent at the candy store below that has the world's largest gummi worm (note: we did not buy said gummi worm).

Experimental jazz and a chocolate carrot cake

Went to another free concert at the Lincoln Center atrium last night.  Kahil El'Zabar, described by the biography on his own website as "one of the most prolific jazz innovators of his generation" seemed very promising.  In the end, it wasn't really my style, but it was interesting.  My favorite piece was the one when he was on the drum  pictured below. Tonight's project was a chocolate carrot cake.  Sadly, it fell apart when coming out of the pan, but it was nothing that a good dose of frosting couldn't fix :)

 

Neighborhood spots

Had two good meals recently from two good neighborhood spots: Iron Chef House and River Deli

"Lemon cake from heaven" (quote from the waiter)

South China Garden

Caught up with some college friends over a nice Chinese meal at South China Garden.  Eggplant with salted fish, stir-fried green beans, and black pepper pork.

Success!

I haven't done a puzzle in years, so I picked up a 1000-piecer yesterday from Barnes and Noble.  Brandon and I put the whole sucker together in less than 24 hours.  It's a pretty nice one, and very New York, with all the Playbills from the 2009-2010 Broadway season.  I think this one might need to be framed...

A whole week of adventures

My uncle brought to my attention recently that this no longer seems to be a blog of my daily adventures in NYC.  True, I have been slacking the last week.  This is not because I have not been having adventures, I've just been a bad blogger.  In a weak attempt to make up for it, I will post an entire week's worth of adventures in this one post.  Here we go!

Monday 2/14: Tango at the Winter Garden

The winter garden on Monday hosted a free tango night, complete with a beginner tango lesson, followed by free dance with a tango orchestra (which you can barely see at the back of the picture).  There were a lot of people there who were definitely not beginners!

Tuesday 2/15

Nothing interesting to say about this day...sorry :(

Wednesday 2/16: Korean BBQ at Madangsui

Had some BBQ at Madangsui in Koreatown with my friend Anil.  The beef bulgogi (pictured) was delicious, the chicken was just...meh.  Definitely come hungry, because in addition to the meat they give you tons of banchan (Korean side dishes).  You will leave stuffed :)

Thursday 2/17: Paella and a concert

Used my beloved Scoutmob to score a 50% off dinner at Socarrat Paella bar.  Tasty paella and tasty sangria.  Following this, Brandon and I checked out a free concert at Lincoln Center's David Rubenstein Atrium.  Chiwoniso, a  Zimbabwean singer/songwriter gave a very nice concert.  The first half was acoustic, with just her singing and playing the mbira (African thumb piano), then her band joined her for the second half.  You can listen to her whole album at her Myspace page: http://www.myspace.com/chiwoniso/music, or listen to clips of it on iTunes.  (Tamar, if you are reading this, I think you should check out some of her music; she sings a lot about social issues and empowerment of women around the world.)

Friday 2/18: Banh Mi Saigon

Got a pretty good banh mi (Vietnamese sandwich) yesterday in Chinatown.  The sandwich was only $3.75 and the picture below is only half of it! (Although maybe it doesn't look as big in the pictures as it actually is--that half sandwich is about the length of my hand)

Snowboarding

Had my first go at snowboarding today and tomorrow I expect to be oh so sore.  It was a lot of fun, but I definitely spent more time on my butt and splayed out on my front than I did standing up gracefully gliding down the mountain.  We started out looking strong...

Then started looking a little more like this...

But all's well that ends well!



Almondine

Tonight Solyn, Brandon, my aunt, uncle and I shared some delicious desserts and bread from Almondine bakery.  If you are ever in DUMBO, I highly recommend stopping in for a baguette, a croissant, and a dessert.  They have the best baguette and pain au chocolat in NYC, in my humble opinion.

Jean Georges

Had a fancy pants birthday dinner at Jean Georges tonight which was very nice.  Not many of the food pictures turned out, as the lighting in the restaurant was too dim.  I did get an okay picture of the molten chocolate cake at the end, which may have been the best part of the meal anyway.

Chinatown New Year's Parade

Happy year of the rabbit!  May you have good health and prosperity in the new year.

BK museum

Every first Saturday of the month, the Brooklyn Museum has a special event where it stays open until 11, and anyone can come in free between 5 and 11.  Every month has a different theme, and there is usually a film screening, some lectures, and a big dance party.  And you can walk around and check out anything in the galleries.  This month the theme was Black History Month, so they showed the movie The Great Debaters (pretty good movie) and had a hip-hop/soul dance party.  It's a pretty cool crowd, including everyone from parents with small children, to teenagers, to people my age and on up.  Good times to be had by all.

Snow removal NYC style

I apologize for being a very bad blogger the last two days.  I needed a little blog vacation, but now I am back!  Today I witnessed an interesting scene outside of work and I snapped a few shots.  Perhaps this is a routine procedure that everyone already knows about, but it was new to me.  As you may have heard/seen, there has been a lot of snow in the city in the past week or two, and it doesn't look like it's going away any time soon.  So the city brought in some machinery to take care of business.  As pictured below, large front loaders would pick up a big pile of snow from the street or sidewalk and dump it into a truck which melted the snow and drained it back onto the street, to presumably find it's way into the sewers.  Seems to me like the city should put all the money they are spending on this process into hiring more teachers or paying city employees' pensions, but that might be too logical.

Talib Kweli

Went to a Talib Kweli concert at Brooklyn Bowl tonight.  Concert started at 9, but of course Talib Kweli didn't get on the stage until around midnight.  The concert was good, but now I'm tired and about to go to bed.