A-B-C it’s as easy as 1-2-3

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ABC Kitchen makes me wonder if the fancier Jean-Georges is any good. Nobody captures “sustainability” and “locavore” as smugly as the Bay Area. Food was either under or over seasoned. I did enjoy my gazpacho. Blended salsa eaten with a spoon is always okay in my book. I think I’ll stick to their brunch menu next time. Kudos (do they still make those candy/granola bars?) to the East Coast for trying, but West Coast FTW.

Coffee and Doughnuts

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To be economical, I’m trying to give up $4+ espresso drinks and drip my own coffee instead so I ventured to Chelsea to scout Ninth Street Espresso.  They only had blends and one Guatemalan available, so I decided to head over to Stumptown instead and walked away with a nice-smelling bag of “Mordecofe” from Ethiopia.  Two caps (Ninth St. had good flavor, Stumptown’s foam was richer) and a stop at Doughnut Plant later, I had quite the coffee buzzzzzzzzz and kind of defeated the purpose of trying to save money.  Oops!

I can see why the “blackout” cake doughnut is so popular especially since it’s filled with chocolate pudding, but it felt like more cake than doughnut.  The PBJ was ok but nothing special.  Even after eating these two halves, I still have a buzzzzz.  To quote Alice, “lalalalalalala I love coffee!”

Inaugural team pow-wow

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Eataly!

Correct pronunciation: eeeaatttalllyyy + generic Italian hand gesture

Team Chiang & Chong gathered at Mario Batali’s second home to see if Birreria was worth the hype. Ambiance is awesome-possum, extremely airy space with a glass ceiling that when opened, provides a wonderful view of the Empire State Building. A perfect setting for two West Coast transplants living out the best Alicia Keys song ever written.

We each sampled a house brewed beer, unfortunately they were out of the seasonal special. Someone may have made a face at the waiter that delivered the bad news (and I’ll let you guess who) but all was not lost, for there were cheese and meats galore!

Actually it was a pretty small selection and some of the cheese tasted gamey. Whenever things taste gamey I feel like I’ve just licked the fur of a wet hairy animal. I’ve never actually done this, but one time a dog’s tail caressed my lips and it was unpleasant.