The Girl Who Ate Everything

Blogging about food and whatever since 2004.

sex, drugs, and alcohol

"Beware college, for your children shall become drunken, crack-addict whores!"

I'm sure somewhere out there has said that, or something like that. Certainly no one's said it to my parents, who have less than nothing to worry about when it comes to such supposed horrors of college (I'll admit though, I barely know anyone who doesn't get into some drunken debauchery every now and then.)

However, someone should give my parents some kind of warning. Like this:

"Beware college, for your child shall become a bakery addict, snaking through streets in search of windows displaying mounds of bounteous golden things made of dough."

Or something. No one in their right mind would actually say that, I hope.

Today while walking home, I had bakeries on the brain. However, shortly after speaking to my supervisor at work, I became asthmatic. Why? I DON'T KNOW. I like my supervisor and he's a cool guy to talk to. Asthma uncovers weird hidden stresses, practically nonexistent ones at that. I had thought about going to a meeting that night for a club my friend helped organize (the restauranteur's club, new this year) but when I realized the possibility of wheezing lung syndrome from talking to random people, I figured it would be best to stay away from events that involved forced mingling. (My friend "warned" me about it and didn't expect me to show up anyway.)

So, I started walking back to my dorm. Being wheezy seriously lessens the desire to eat baked goods. I wanted to check out Once Upon a Tart, but I didn't really want anything. Moving on, I went past Sullivan Street Bakery (*sob*, I haven't been there in months) and went to the next door Yoghurt Place II. I love Greek yoghurt and just realized today that they sell Greek yogurt (well, I already knew they sold Greek yogurt but I forgot that the place existed), the only other convenient Greek yogurt purveyors being gourmet supermarkets (Whole Foods has good prices). I bought a 1 pound container which should last at least 4 meals, unless I decide to eat nothing else (it's something like 500-600 calories for a pound, man; I could easily eat the whole thing...over the course of a day).

Plodding on (plodding being my form of walking), I went to Fay Da Bakery because my lungs had cleared up and I felt fine by that point. Damn. I forgot about the wheezing for a while. While I had planned on getting a mango rice ball, I walked out with a sweet potato bun instead.

sweet potato bun innards
sweet potato bun innards, ish

I was surprised by how good it was. It was almost a Yakitate kind of moment when I first bit into the bun, with the exception of me not going insane, flying, collapsing in some kind of fluffy wheat induced stupor and going into a dream-like state. Cos that'd be weird. So, what was so nice about this bun? It had a buttery flaky-esque (most Chinese pastries don't fit under the "flaky"category) crust on the bottom that somewhat extended around the whole bun, but was mainly on the bottom. You can see the layer from the photo above. While I could go for more filling (unless it's something like a knish, I could always go for more filling), the filling was excellent, as in...very sweet potato-ee. As far as I could tell from my experience of eating sweet potatoes, it tasted and looked like mashed sweet potatoes. Only problem with that, as much as I love sweet potatoes, is that they're overall not really sweet, but sweet for...tubers. If it were more sweet though, that would kind of ruin the sweet potato-ness, in that it shouldn't be sickly sweet.

Oh. Buns. Filled with goo. How tasty.

For lunch after my wine tasting (which I'll talk about later), I went to Chez Brigitte, a place I've wanted to go to for a while (although I can't recall how I first heard about it) but haven't gone to just...because. I knew I had to go there myself since I figured it was unlikely many of my friends would go for a hole-in-the-wall homey French-style place. Or maybe they would. Oops.

A lookie at the lunch menu presented the option of $6.50 for a plate of some kind of meat with potatoes or rice, soup or salad, and bread. Sounds like a good deal. When I walked in I was immediately greeted by the woman working there and presented with a menu, from which I chose...BITS OF BABY COW! And by that I mean veal stew.

it's small inside
innards

It's small inside. 11 seats in all line the counter and the mirrored wall where I was sitting (the photo is a reflection in the mirror).

bread
bread

I wasn't expecting a bread basket for myself. Jeez. Not great bread but I ate half of it. Um. I LIKE ALL BREAD, okay? It was good at soaking up the stew.

veal stew, potatoes, and peas
veal stew, potatoes, and peas

Mmmm, food groups. Good food groups! I love potatoes but honestly rarely eat them because wheat products are more readily available. BUT TATERS! MM, GIMMEH. I like peas, surely, and I thought the veal stew was great. I can't think of anything bad to say at least; the meat was tender and juicy (duh, it's stew, what do you expect?) and the sauce was...um, tasty. Obviously, it was tomato-ee, but now like pasta sauce or something. I'm a big fan of comfort food, which usually means "simple stuff that you can easily plop onto a plate", so I'm sure I'll come back here, possibly next week.

I went to Tea & SYmpathy just down the street after that for no real reason besides that it was there and I was there and HEY, that's convenient. I walked into the store with the intention of getting something, but no idea of what the something was. You can't really browse the shop as most of the candy is frustratingly behind the counter. Hmph. I told the guy at the cashier that...

"I kind of just want some candy, but I don't know which one."
"How about fruit pastilles?"

Hm. That doesn't sound like chocolate. My reply?

"...okay!"

Of course, I don't care. At least I know it's fruity! So how was my Fruit Pastilles experience? Rather good. They're fruit gummies but they don't taste exactly like anything else (I can't think of an easy comparison to make, such as Polos and Lifesavers). The fruit flavor is better than most average candy. My favorite one was blackcurrant, although maybe that was due to it being the least familiar flavor. Then again, the most popular flavor is blackcurrant, so maybe not.

I ate the whole pack while at work for four hours. Oops. I rarely eat candy so I wouldn't say that's a big health hazard, not like bakeries at least (but I did resist Lafayette bakery, which is also on Greenwich Ave like Tea & Sympathy and Chez Brigitte).

Oh, my wine class. Well. I really can't figure out what wine smells and tastes like besides fruity (no duh, it's made from fruit) or alcohol (another no duh). Every time the teacher asks us what the wine smells or tastes like I just want to shout, "ALCOHOL, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD THAT'S ALL I SMELL, NONE OF THIS FLORAL SPICY BS!" I know, my senses are obviously underdeveloped, but I think it's clear that I'll never become a wine connoisseur at this rate. Actually, a recurring smell besides fruit in wines that I've noticed lately is CHEESE. I kid you not. No one else seems to think cheese besides me though, and I'm not all that fond of drinks that smell like cheese.

Maybe my nose is messed up and makes wine smell like cheese.

Today my friend became red-faced after class was over. She drank a bit of the off-dry wine, *ahem*, and felt the effects rather quickly. I wonder what would happen if I actually drank the wine, but I can try that some other day. Of course, I have drank (drunk?) wine before when I was little and I don't recall feeling weird afterwards, just wanted to clear out the crappy taste from my mouth.

Yesterday was a bit of a fooding day of muffin and focaccia eating from my favorite Union Square greenmarket vendor, Buon Pane.

apple maple muffin
muffin!!

I swear that they make my favorite muffins.

Afterwards I roamed around Alphabet City to do my wine list interview at Zum Schneider. I passed some interesting things on the way, like...

Belgian fries
Belgian Fries, anyone?

...semi-sketchy Belgian fries stand! They also sell milkshakes. I suppose that's a yummy combination. Next time I'm on Avenue A, I'll try it...(or not).

Zum Schneider is a very cute, homey feeling indoor beer garden. It would've been nicer without the gloomy rainy weather but there were a good amount of customers in the restasurant considering it had just opened (at 5 PM).

people eating
inside the restaurant

I had to wait a bit so I stared at people eating food. YUmmy looking food. Yummy looking colorful food. With potatoes. And various cabbagey things. And meat. I'd love to go back sometime to try it out.

After doing the interview with the manager, Natascha (a really nice woman who probably thought I was strange for interviewing them about a wine list when they specialize in beer, and maybe moreso for not being of drinking age), I got a complimentary apple spritzer. It's more fun to drink in a beer mug. ;) I got a pretzel to go just so I could say I ate something from there. Yummy pretzel, although I'll admit I have nothing to compare it to since I rarely eat soft pretzels (that's the second one I've had in maybe 4 years).

I really need to stop eating wheat because while I don't have scientific proof, I'm sure it has something to do with my asthma. ...But it's so hard. (And no, I'm not thinking about taking medication for the purpose of eating all the bread I want; that would make me less bread-inhibited, if you could imagine.) I wouldn't say I even ate a crapload of wheat today, but it was easily 4 servings with that bread at lunch and the sweet potato bun. I should limit myself to...less.

Tomorrow I have my cooking class, aiiiee! Let's hope I don't make a chicken explode.

Comments

Kathy / September 28, 2005 12:48 AM

Neato! I went to that Belgain Fries place, only I had a chili dog and an egg cream. Nothing exceptional but it was a fun, reasonably priced place. That sweet potato bun looks soooo good, man I love sweet potatoes! How is the Yoghurt Place II? I've walked past it before but never tried anything from there.

Eileen / September 28, 2005 1:09 PM

hello! i just wanted to say i recently found your website and i have to say it's one of the few food blogs i actually read through (not just oogle at the pictures of food). you're a very entertaining writer and i look forward to more entries about your eating adventures! :D

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