Ode to White Castle

I don't like White Castle...I love it. I truly, absolutely, and completely adore it.

Some of my happiest memories from growing up are sitting in a car in the crime-stricken neighborhood of East Orange, pounding burgers from sleeves out of a "Crave Case" and listening to sports talk radio. Exchanges would go something like this:

Me: Pass me a burger
G: (Chewing) With cheese or without?
Me: Cheese
Joe: (Chewing) Regular or Jalapeno?
Me: Regular
Mad Dog: Vinny from Queens you are on the fan
Vinny: Benny Agbayani is a bum. I have a trade for you: Agbayani and Rick Reed for Manny Ramirez.
Mike Francesca: I like Inge a lot

And that is the way it went. After school, late night, it didn't matter. Sometimes we would just get a couple each to hold us over between meals, and other times it was our actual meal. We routinely finished a crave case (for those of you who don't know, a crave case is a cardboard suitcase consisting of 30 burgers).

This weekend when I was home, I got to have White Castle again. There is one in the city, but I save this for a coming home tradition. I even got to try their new pulled pork (not that great). The original cheeseburger is the best- little soft bun, steamed burger, minced onions, melted american cheese, warm ketchup, and a pickle slice. Man, do I love white castle.

City Restaurant in the Suburbs

It is fairly common knowledge that on the whole, city restaurants are of a higher quality than those found in the suburbs. Whether it is for the talent, the real estate prices, or quality of ingredients, this has always seemed to be the case. However, once in awhile, a restaurant of "city" quality can be found to the suburbs. This is what my family found with Osteria Giotto in Montclair, NJ. I have been hearing rave reviews about this restaurant from my family for months, so this past weekend when I was home I finally had the opportunity to try it.

First off, if you live in North Jersey, you need to check out Montclair as a food destination. I have been to some fantastic restaurants in this town, ranging from Thai to Italian. It has a college town vibe with some awesome culinary spots.

Osteria Giotto is on a quiet side-street right off of Bloomfield Ave, the town's main street. It has the feeling of a "Tuscan Farmhouse" inside, with high ceilings and red brick. Looking back on the meal, three things stuck out:

1. The restaurant is BYOB (something you find a lot in Montclair). Apparently, there are a fixed number of liquor licenses for each town in NJ, so the more restaurants that open, the more BYOB places there are. I love BYOB- it is cheaper and you get to bring exactly what you want to drink. Nothing not to like about this.

2. They serve one hell of a bread basket. Everything is baked on premises, and each basket contains a variety of breads including foccocia, a flaky coissant like roll, and olive bread (which I hate).

3. The pasta is fantastic. I had fettucini in a cherry tomato sauce with crab, lobster, and shrimp meat mixed throughout. The pasta is homemade, and the seafood was fresh and plentiful. Very delicious.

This is a restaurant I would definitely check out again next time I am home. I highly recommend it.

Winded from the Windy City

We came, we saw, we conquered.  Thanks to our gracious hosts, Cara and Andy, and the moral support of Diana, we were able to set out to accomplish all of our goals:  blues, baseball, hot dogs, and baseball.  It was a great Memorial Day Weekend... here is what transpired:

Music

After a great dinner at Tocco in Wicker Park, we headed to a great old-school blues club, Kingston Mines.  We got to listen to the sweet serenade of the Backstreet Candy Lickers (this was actually the band's name).  Cheap beer and solid music = good times.

Food

Sunday was officially the self-proclaimed food tour of Chicago.  However due to time constraints, this tour extended well into Sunday.  Regardless, some of the best food Chicago had to offer was consumed.  The tour began with breakfast at Eleven City Diner, a NYC-style deli that is unlike any place I've been to NYC.  Now I admit to being a NYC food snob, especially when it comes to pizza, bagels, and deli, but this was excellent.  I had the pastrami egg scramble, and this was top notch pastrami.  I was impressed.

Later in the day, we hit up Gino's East, a famous deep dish pizza place.  This was a failed mission of mine from 3 years earlier when I was in Chicago for training for work.  Lets just say our group was denied access due to the excessive fun we had at an open bar earlier in the evening.  Anyways, it was worth the wait.  I thought it was better than the original Uno's, which I went to last time I was in town.  I still prefer a thin crust slice, but this was authentic and delicious.

Sunday brought a much craved visit to the Wiener Circle, home of Chicago style hot dogs.

Without hesitation, I went for the one with everything on it.  I think I blacked out at one point, but I have a slight recollection of a pickle spear, tomatoes, onions, hot peppers, relish, cheese, and some other stuff.  It was truly excellent- Chicago knows hot dogs. Unfortunately, I did not find out about ordering a chocolate milkshake until after the fact.  Cara then brought us to her favorite Chicago food destination- Molly's Cupcakes.  These were better than Crumbs even though they were smaller.  Interesting flavors- I had ones stuffed with cookie dough, peanut butter, and caramel apple.

Sports

So I finally got to visit Wrigley Field, one of my lifelong dreams.  This is one stadium that I have always wanted to go to.  You cannot be a baseball fan and not visit this park.  Is it the nicest stadium?  No.  Is it the most enjoyable way to watch a game?  No.  But it is part of history, and brings you back to a simpler era of baseball.  There is no Jumbo-tron, and no fancy food- just straight up baseball.  The ivy walls are beautiful, and its incredible how small the park is- takes up one small city block.  It truly is a baseball cathedral though- one of the last of its kind.  I think that I prefer Fenway as it is an old-school park with somewhat modernized amenities, but I'm still glad I got to go.  I even got to see Mr. T throw out the first pitch and sing "Take Me Out To The Ballgame", a Wrigley tradition.

Great city and great friends.  It was a great Memorial Day weekend!

It's The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

That's right, it is vacation season.  Over the next month, I will be taking 3 trips, all of which are to locations that I have been to before.  While I won't be the most adventurous this year, I am looking forward to some R&R and most importantly, enjoying life outside of my office.

Tomorrow I leave for the city that never sleeps, the sunshine state- Chicago.  Now, I visited Chicago back during first year training in the fall of 2006.  I spent 24 hours there, and probably remember about 4 of those hours.  This time around, I want to see and experience more of the city.  The good thing is that we have two Chicago-ians showing us the sights- Cara and Andy.  So far we have a couple of things planned (any other suggestions are encouraged):

1.  Deep Dish Pizza

2.  Cubs Game

3.  Hot Dogs

4.  Blues Club

5.  Chicago Food Tour (see items number 1 and 3 above)

When I get back a full review of the city, its food, and its baseball stadium will be provided.  Hopefully I will be "blown away"...off to the Windy City.

Take a Bao

A decent amount of time has passed since I last posted about food, which is an absolute travesty. I've eaten at a bunch of good places recently, but one place that I particularly wanted to discuss was Baoguette, a Vietnamese sandwich shop about 3 blocks from my apartment.

This place is great. It is just counter service, so I would recommend picking food up and bringing it to Madison Square Park to eat. I had the BBQ Chicken sandwich, which is one of the best (and cheapest) sandwiches I have had awhile, rivaling Defonte's (althought not surpassing it). The BBQ Chicken sandwich had a large quantity of small, marinated pieces of chicken on it, and included pickeled Daikon, fresh cliantro, cucumber, and garlic aoli. Just a fantastic combination of flavors. What made the sandwich was the long, fresh baked sub roll.

The negatives: The restaurant was about 117 degrees, and by the time I left I was dripping with sweat. Also, the woman behind the counter who takes your order isn't exactly the friendliest, but I'm not complaining. I'm not there to make friends, I'm there to eat a great sandwich.

We're Going Streaking!

There are many things in life that I have a very strong opinion on (i.e. restaurants, buying medicine, sports).  However, one thing that I am still undecided on in streaking.  I can't figure out if it is hysterical, asinine, or somewhere in between.  I think it's really a case by case basis, and in this case, this guy did it the right way:

I bring this up because on Tuesday night, this guy became the first streaker in Citifield history.  I think he did a fantastic job for 3 reasons:

1.  It looks like he waited for a foul ball to come his way before he derobed and made a run for it.  His timing was deliberate and impeccable.  This maximized his exposure and allowed for the most people to appreciate his performance.

2.  He slid into 2nd base naked.  Do you know how much that must hurt?  He is going to be finding dirt in some disturbing places for weeks to come.

3.  He surrendered in the outfield.  He didn't fight back or cause a problem.  He accomplished what he set out to do, made the most of it, and knew when his time was up.  It was a graceful exit.

What do you think went on behind the scenes after this guy was removed?  You think Omar interrogated him with a single light bulb shining over his head?  Did they send Gary Sheffield in to teach him a lesson?  Did Castillo show fake bunt?  All I know is, this act was premeditated and executed perfectly.  Well done.

Something S-Whine About

Disclaimer:  I have done absolutely no research to back up the following post.  For the most part I have read nothing and had zero intelligent conversations on the subject matter.  What I write is based on my own perception.  Reader beware.

I'm simply not understanding this whole swine flu thing.  I just don't see how it is that big of a deal in the United States.  I'm not talking about Mexico, I'm talking about here.  I don't understand why schools are closing and proms are being cancelled.  I'm still going to work everyday and riding the subway- are high school kids more important than I am?  Why is there such a discrepancy in how this is being treated between high school kids and adults?  I am confused.  How can these kids have weeks of school off, while everyone in the workforce is going about their business like nothing out of the ordinary is happening?  Trust me, at work they have packed 15 of us, all between the ages of 22-28 onto a 30 foot long bench.  This is just as contagious of an area as a high school gym.

I just don't see how this is different than the regular flu.  The flu is contagious, it sucks, and every year elderly/sickly/young people probably die from it.  I'm not saying its not a big deal, but I just don't understand why this is so different from the usual annual flu.  We don't close schools for that, do we?

The worst of this whole thing are the people with the SARS surgical masks on their face on the subway.  There are 200 people on a rush hour subway car- are you really that more important than everyone else that you need to wear this thing?  No one else is wearing it.  It just makes things seem so much worse than they really are.  How am I supposed to feel that you are protecting yourself, and I'm just hanging out there breathing in the swine?  We need a uniform approach on this whole thing.  Either we all wear it, or none of us wear it.  Otherwise, we are just going to have mass hysteria at some point.  I'm already starting to freak out.