week 9: big pink

miami has three types of restaurants:

1. the kind that uses big boobies to attract customers

{such as... ALL of the restaurants on lincoln road}

2. little dives like la sandwicherie and el rey de las fritas that are a bit off the beaten path but worth it.

3. diners where the menus are the size of a four year old.

... and so when my best bribery efforts to get a ride to el rey failed,

big pink

saved me from having to endure big boobied hostesses.

the victims, left to right: 
sue, mark, brian, me, rob 
{five points if you guess which ones are related}

...it was your typical huge diner-y restaurant that apparently all of miami flocks to for sunday brunch,

and it has some quirky menu items,

such as a tv style dinner, complete with sectioned tray,

and various things served in buckets...

like the calamari and shrimp that i tried for the first time

and the calamari i kind of liked

and the shrimp made me want to puke my brains out.

{the men loved em though}

...so then our mains came.

and then about ten minutes later our silverware came.

like what?

rob wonders how he should eat his tuna sammich

brian showcases his lox pizza with caviar

which might as well have been a bagel & lox

too salty for brian's taste

{wimp}

a+ for creativity, i thought it was delightfully mediocre

when i couldn't decide what to get on the 4 foot by 4 foot menu,
mark told me to close my eyes and point at something,
and i got
the big pink hollywood breakfast
polenta fries topped with spinach, bacon, and poached eggs...
covered in cheese sauce
{cheese sauce on the side for me please, for the sake of my poor heart}




and i learned two things:


1. there's a reason polenta fries aren't more popular
2. having to watch your poor food lose heat while a sassy aloof waitress hunts down silverware is more painful than you will ever know. 


p.s. what self 'specting restaurant serves nacho cheese?

anyways.

in the end,

sassy waitresses and the absence of silverware 

did not ruin the meal

because

us midwesterners were in the sun,

graced with people we love,

and enthralled in good conversation.

...43 to go...

xoxo

yeh

big pink is located at 157 collins ave in miami

miami

played with two of my best best friends in the whole wide world 

{rob & brian}

annoyed rob & brian with a zillion million pictures...

celebrated rob's birthday!

found the perfect restaurant for week 9

{just kidding... that's not it}

saw pretty art deco

walked by the south beach wine & food festival

... saw emeril at a distance

took a pic for one of my fave blogs

made the customary trek to la sandwicherie

tried calamari for the first time

 {and sorta liked it}

at this week's new restaurant

also...

got burnt

{darn sun!}

listened to regina spektor and lady gaga and death cab on the beach

saw dear john when it rained

went to a few awesome yoga classes

ahh how nice it was to get a bit of sun in the winter...

xoxo

yeh

week 8: wafels & dinges truck

when i was 9 or 10,

i went outside of the country for the first time,

to 

belgium

and i was so taken by the little smart cars, 

the fries and mayonnaise, and of course,

the waffles.

and i have this memory of sitting down at a fancy schmancy restaurant with pops and sis and being so very excited to see waffles on the menu.

and i ordered a waffle.

for dinner.

and this was received by a very startled and almost offended look from monsieur waiter.

and a "uhhh myllo, why don't you wait until dessert for that" from pops.

whaaaa????

silly, belgium, 

{i ate waffles for dinner tonight, so there}

ok.

so this truck,

the 

wafels and dinges

truck

...i've got serious beef with it. 

i swear, it knows when i have zero cash.

i'll have just spent my last penny at the duane reade,

and i'll turn the corner,

and there you are, darn truck.

it just has this way of popping up in just the wrong places at just the wrong times.

at least the smells are free. 

so this week, i decided i was gonna hunt that truck down!

"jeremy what are you doing?"

"ummm about to practice timbales?"

"FALSE. the wafels truck is in front of our school. you're coming"

jeremy and i made friendsies with the wafelmen who were about to charge us five dolla for every picture we took.

and who made fun of me for thinking they didn't take credit card,

"eez the 21st zentury, zilly girl!"

"YEAH, but you're a TRUCK!"

typical food truck people,

they always have such sass,

and i'm so into it!

they gave us a sample of this wafel topping called 

spekuloos

which was a gingerbread house in paste form.

it was tasty,

but i wasn't sold,

and i began the day with

nutella

and so i ended it with nutella.

and strawbees

atop a liège wafel

which is chewier and sweeter than your typical belgian wafel,

giving you more time to savor

and more texture for your satisfaction.

jeremy finished his in the time it took to walk back across the street to school.

i spent my time lingering in the absolutely perfect texture. 

i think our choice to get nutella covered up the raw goodness of the waf.

maybe all it needed was a bit of powdered sugar.

regardless,

it was a tasty dinner

{better than the spinach i had last night blech BLECH}

and now that i know they take credit card,

i'll best be going back,

even though...

i've got 44 more restaurants to go!

xoxo

yeh

the wafels and dinges truck... is a truck.

but they do have a pretty accurate schedule of their whereabouts here

and looky, they have a blog!

p.s.

the side of the truck houses a blackboard that always asks a question.

today's was:

what's your favorite olympic sport?

see if you can find my answer, bottom right.

fig & olive

i knew it was going to be an eventful evening when friend peter showed up to music history class in a tie and vest.

he, miss maria, miss christel, and i sat together in the corner,

 giddy with excitement,

and planning our attack via menu research on our blackberries

{forget learning about chansons. sorry, mr. verdrager}

...add our friend jia,

and peter got himself a date

with 3 1/2 asian ladies!

fig & olive

meatpacking disctrict

is in one of my favorite little areas of new york. 

with its cobblestone streets,

and close proximity to the river,

it almost is more like a seaside village than new york city.

and i've only ever stumbled upon on it while aimlessly wandering the island,

so until that evening, 

it was merely a magical tangent universe that had no real relation to the city.

anyways,

f&o is total swank.

as in,

forget about good quality pictures because our dim mood lighting is more important,

and, 

let's put on some healz and grab some arm candy cause WE are gonna be SEEN. 

deciding what to order was more of a puzzle,

as it was our mission to order everything on the menu.

it went a little something like this:

peter: ok. i'm getting the veal and paella.

maria: good. i'm getting the fish soup and pork.

christel: BITCH i was gonna get the pork

peter: now, ladies, let's not cause a scene.

christel: fine. i'm getting the steak tartar.

me: i'm thinking of getting the chick--

jia: I'M GETTING THE CHICKEN!

me: beef. i meant i was getting the beef.

in the end it really didn't matter who ordered what because when the food was served,

a game of musical forks began.

...

you'd prepare a forkfull of the correct ratios,

and then pass it to someone across the table.

i mean talking about swapping spit.

eating your own dish was almost faux pas,

but i liked this style of eating!

i tried, for the first time,

salmon tartar

steak tartar

&

fish soup

and my favorites of the meal were,

the chicken which was herbed oh so verrry perfectly

my steak which i tried to order medium well but got death stares from peter and so i got it less well,

and it was tasty nonetheless and it had a full slab of butter on top of it and i almost keeled over and died 

the veal which was like butta. not butter, butta.

and the dessert...

...was a fabulous white chocolate mousse

and adorable dessert crostini with cherries.

they were so rich and the cookies so buttery,

so good,

and i was into the creativity of it all.

the meal was absolutely fabulous.

the food was so consistent and tasty,

and being with awesome friendsies made it one big party.

in the end,

though,

it was almost ruined by a butt face mid life crises manager.

the details are unimportant.

what is important,

is that thanks to this,

maria, jia, christel, peter and i, shall be returning to fig & olive

for

 peter's date with 3 1/2 asians, round 2

courtesy of fig and olive

...stay tuned...

xoxo

yeh

fig and olive has two locations, in addition to the one in the meatpacking district: lex between 62nd and 63rd, and 52nd between fifth and madison.