Well, back to normal. You won't have to worry about hearing about that K. any more (if you missed my update on that front, check yesterday's edited journal entry.)
Today was sort of hectic, actually. I had a whole bunch of stuff to do in the lab, and ran around like a chicken with its head cut off (an apt image for my lab, actually) trying to get things done before 6:45. I had dinner reservations with a friend to go to Fleur de Sel for restaurant week at 8 and I needed time to get back from Washington Heights, get changed and get to the Flatiron.
Dinner was amazingly good. Unfortunately, restaurant week only applied to lunch, so we ended up ordering off the regular menu. Fuck it. You only live once, might as well blow some money every now then. Especially on good food.
I started off with a lovely Grey Goose martini. For an appetizer I had lump crabmeat in a crepe with a thinned bechamel sauce with slivered asparagus and truffles on top. It was amazing. My friend had the seared foie gras, which I wasn't such a big fan of, but I don't really go for foie gras.
For me entree I had a sliced pork chop in a brown sugar glaze with pot au jus, served with spaghetti squash and sauteed porcini mushrooms. And yes, it was as good as it sounds. Recommended by the waitress, and she certainly earned her tip on that one.
For dessert we decided to splurge, since my friend is a dessert freak. We did the three dessert tasting, so the pastry chef made to order three different desserts for us, one was a banana mousse with carmalized sugar on top, another was rasperries in a thin sugar cookie with some sort of custard, the third was a cookie with sauteed pears and a different custard. All of them were fantastic. The portions were just right as well, so I didn't have that disgustingly stuffed feeling.
The people sitting next to us on either side were highly amusing as well. On one side was the girl who i believe the main character in the movie Clueless was modeled from, eating dinner with her father (whom she referred to as, of course, "daddy.") On the other side was a truly incongruous couple of a russian women and a british man who was going for the "Austin Powers" chic look - the crumpled velvet suit, the cravat, the whole deal. I felt badly for our waitress when they ordered though, they had the most ridiculous list of things that couldn't be in their food. I missed a lot of it, but I did catch "animal products, dairy products, avocados, cauliflower, carrots"
and a bunch of other things. Basically, they wanted a meal that consisted of no vegetables, animals or animal products.
At the end of the meal when we go the bill, I noticed that they hadn't charged me for my appetizer. The waitress was literally shocked when I pointed this out to her - she said that she couldn't believe how honest we were. It seems odd to me that people would go to a really nice restaurant and then try to cheat them out of a $15 dish that they had presumably enjoyed. Sorry, I worked in restaurants for too long - that's bad karma.
In other news, I'm seriously considering applying for the blog editor position here (check this thread if you have no idea what I'm talking about.) Obviously I'm not spending nearly enough time on SG as it is.
But I do think it would be a lot of fun, and a nice resume item. I have this fantasy about having my own column on Salon.com called "Ask the scientist" like Ask the Pilot, only people would e-mail in questions about science and I would answer them wittily. Sure. But I think if that's ever going to happen, that I need some experience writing for an audience larger than 15 people (I love you guys, but you know what I mean.) So what do you think?
Hope you're all doing well otherwise.
Today was sort of hectic, actually. I had a whole bunch of stuff to do in the lab, and ran around like a chicken with its head cut off (an apt image for my lab, actually) trying to get things done before 6:45. I had dinner reservations with a friend to go to Fleur de Sel for restaurant week at 8 and I needed time to get back from Washington Heights, get changed and get to the Flatiron.
Dinner was amazingly good. Unfortunately, restaurant week only applied to lunch, so we ended up ordering off the regular menu. Fuck it. You only live once, might as well blow some money every now then. Especially on good food.
I started off with a lovely Grey Goose martini. For an appetizer I had lump crabmeat in a crepe with a thinned bechamel sauce with slivered asparagus and truffles on top. It was amazing. My friend had the seared foie gras, which I wasn't such a big fan of, but I don't really go for foie gras.
For me entree I had a sliced pork chop in a brown sugar glaze with pot au jus, served with spaghetti squash and sauteed porcini mushrooms. And yes, it was as good as it sounds. Recommended by the waitress, and she certainly earned her tip on that one.
For dessert we decided to splurge, since my friend is a dessert freak. We did the three dessert tasting, so the pastry chef made to order three different desserts for us, one was a banana mousse with carmalized sugar on top, another was rasperries in a thin sugar cookie with some sort of custard, the third was a cookie with sauteed pears and a different custard. All of them were fantastic. The portions were just right as well, so I didn't have that disgustingly stuffed feeling.
The people sitting next to us on either side were highly amusing as well. On one side was the girl who i believe the main character in the movie Clueless was modeled from, eating dinner with her father (whom she referred to as, of course, "daddy.") On the other side was a truly incongruous couple of a russian women and a british man who was going for the "Austin Powers" chic look - the crumpled velvet suit, the cravat, the whole deal. I felt badly for our waitress when they ordered though, they had the most ridiculous list of things that couldn't be in their food. I missed a lot of it, but I did catch "animal products, dairy products, avocados, cauliflower, carrots"
and a bunch of other things. Basically, they wanted a meal that consisted of no vegetables, animals or animal products.
At the end of the meal when we go the bill, I noticed that they hadn't charged me for my appetizer. The waitress was literally shocked when I pointed this out to her - she said that she couldn't believe how honest we were. It seems odd to me that people would go to a really nice restaurant and then try to cheat them out of a $15 dish that they had presumably enjoyed. Sorry, I worked in restaurants for too long - that's bad karma.
In other news, I'm seriously considering applying for the blog editor position here (check this thread if you have no idea what I'm talking about.) Obviously I'm not spending nearly enough time on SG as it is.
But I do think it would be a lot of fun, and a nice resume item. I have this fantasy about having my own column on Salon.com called "Ask the scientist" like Ask the Pilot, only people would e-mail in questions about science and I would answer them wittily. Sure. But I think if that's ever going to happen, that I need some experience writing for an audience larger than 15 people (I love you guys, but you know what I mean.) So what do you think?
Hope you're all doing well otherwise.
VIEW 13 of 13 COMMENTS
And sorry I did not make it out yesterday. Wow, life has just started kicking my ass. Yesterday was spent holding a software client's hand all day, as we launch a new product.
And today, I will miss the Superbowl party I was invited to. It seems that, in addition to directing this movie, the backer is interested n my company producing it. Which will be good, as I would like us to build up a resume of producing as well. But it means today I am working up a proposed budget. I'm calling it: "How to get a complete stranger to hand you $3 million, so you can do what you love"
edited to say: because of these business things, social life is waning. I have hardly been on this site at all lately, either. But in this economy, being very busy is an incredible blessing...
[Edited on Feb 01, 2004 7:17AM]