arthur avenue

in fleeing the city and the crowd of marathon runners and their cheerleaders this weekend, i found myself in the bronx. specifically, on arthur avenue, experiencing a bit of italy for my carby-loving pleasures. i experienced my first mozzarella en carozza {most easily identified as a deep fried grilled cheese} and was introduced to a lovely savoiardi cookie. i tracked down some cavatelli and mini gnocchi, and entertained the idea of purchasing an espresso maker. and then before i knew it, i was at the other end of little italy and it wasn't even lunch number two time. it made me a little sad that it went by so quickly... so i went down to the village to sockerbit and cheered up with little sweets that have cute names like smultron ponny and sura blåbärsbitar. 

oh, and for the official record, i did not get butt boosting jeans.

-yeh!

in memoriam: m. wells

and also: reason for why i am only 99% vegetarian

last week i said hello and goodbye to my new favorite:

m. wells

{which closes today}

forever i will remember the breakfast sandwich and the spaghetti sandwich as two of the tastiest and doughiest sandwiches i ever had. ohh how i fancied their bread! english muffins, soft squishy hamburger buns, squishy squishiness everywhere. j'adore. have you ever had a spaghetti sandwich?? neither had i. essentially, it eliminates the element of feeling awkward when you use your garlic bread as a utensil for spaghetti {that is a common thing, right?}.  

oh and the breakfast sandwich! it is like a giant, puffier, more interesting sausage mcmuffin. and i say that in the best possible way because my last breakfast on earth would include a sausage mcmuffin.

other dishes included: the hamburger. a juicy, yummy one. the tortilla. with shrimpies. hmmm. the egg souffle. which was random. am-i-in-japan random. 

i was sad to see that the classic quebecois dishes they were serving when they first opened weren't on the menu. but that's ok. i guess it had kind of morphed into a superdiner where all sorts of classic diner things and international things were magnified and yummy-/homemade-ified. it was so great and i am so sad that it is gone now.

oh! and this is what it looks like to eat with three extremely awesome food bloggers. eating with brian, blondie, and donny was so silly because originally i was planning on finger painting pictures of the food when i got home, but then as each dish came out and no one could touch it until everyone had positioned and photographed it, i felt weird not taking pictures. 
so i did, and there they are.
i would say you should go to m. wells now... but sadly the best you'll be able to do is just think hard enough about the best breakfast sandwich that your imagination can come up with. and maybe, possibly, it will appear. 
frank the bunny-style.  
r.i.p. m. wells!


-yeh :-(

more homemade than this and there'd be a cow in my kitchen

this was produced in my home science lab yesterday.

it's ricotta!!

and alls it took was some milk and a lemon

and way more patience than my comfort zone could handle.

if ever you're looking for some good old-fashioned g-rated excitement, try pouring lemon juice into milk that has heated to 180 degrees and then watch the curds and whey separate. 

it is so cool i don't know why anyone would need cable television when they could watch curds and whey separate. 

 today i mixed the ricotta with an egg and some herbies and young broccoli leaves and encased it in whole wheat pasta dough to make humungo ravioli friends. i then introduced them to some tomato friends. and together they made the best dinner ever. 

take that, teensy kitchen!

yeh!!!

life, please give me lemons

surviving in the dining hall as of late has included this sad excuse for my favorite summery pasta. what i do is i hijack the plain noodles {that are at the salad bar for all of the picky eater kids}, pile on the tomatoes, and then shake on almost too much salt and pepper. if i were at home, i'd squeeze a lemon over it and then sprinkle on some freshly harvested basil. but alas lemons don't exist here, and the wall staff herb garden has yet to sprout. life is so tough.

-yeh!