Pork Roll! You Wicked Temptress

On a recent visit to Ocean City on the Jersey Shore I tried the most wonderful food: Pork Roll. I loved it so much I consumed it for breakfast (egg, cheese, and pork roll on english muffin), as a side to pancakes, on a roll as a lunch snack and a chaser to pizza. Is there anything this delicious meat can't do?

The flavor is slightly spicy falling somewhere between bacon and spam (but totally awesome). Using my secret connections to the state of New Jersey I was able to secure 2 packs to smuggle across the NY state line. It was worth the risk. As it turns out, you see, they don't sell Pork Roll outside of Jersey and parts of Pennsylvania. Taylor and Trenton are the two big companies that manufacture it. Apparently for the many Jersey expatriates you can have it shipped. A few sites that do it are:

http://www.jerseyporkroll.com/products.htm

http://porkrollexpress.com/

An egg on a roll just isn't the same.

Sad or Awesome #2

...Being drunk by 12:30pm on a Wednesday? The company was officially closed in order to catch the Manchester United versus FC Chelsea championship match this past Wednesday. We went around the corner to, where else? Nevada Smiths of course.

We got there right at noon or so and the top floor was already quite full. Turns out that at Nevada Smiths the Chelsea fans always go to the basement and the Manchester fans to the first floor. Not being a regular football watcher I had to decide who to root for based on sound reasoning:
1) The first floor consisting of 90% Man U fans smelled really awful
2) Chelsea appeared to be the underdog team (granted, not by much) being 2nd ranked and at the particular venue I was at had a much smaller showing.

Conclusion: Being drunk by 12:30 and very drunk by 4:30? I would have to say Awesome.

Rajbot Restaurant Review: Devi

My company was nice enough to treat me to a fancy meal at a restaurant of my choice. Since I'd wanted to try it for some time, Devi was a pretty easy final choice.

The restaurant is well designed. As soon as you walk in, you appreciate the high ceilings and wild colors. The effect is to walk into a chill palace of sorts.

We settled on Bhel puri and the crab cake appetizers. The crab cakes were tasteful but not much by way of Indianness in the spices. The Bhel Puri was nicely presented shaped in the form of a triangle. My colleague found it a bit spicy. I thought it was spot on sweet versus sour.

For entrees we made two big mistakes:
She got the Chole Bhature which was quite spicy by my standards and not terribly filling either
I got the Turkey Keema which had an unhealthy dose of salt rendering it difficult to eat.
We also got a side of Dal Makhani - this however, was fantastic. It had just the right amount of cream. Both main dishes were probably not ordered terribly often.

The cocktail I ordered was actually quite good. I believe it was called a Cilantro tonic. It was light and refreshing. It was worth noting that they bartender gave a healthy poor.

For desert we tried the Mango Cheesecake. As somewhat expected, it was very, very intense. I recommend having some coffee/espresso to go with it and you can enjoy it. Points though to the desert chef for attempting something tricky.

Overall the presentation of each and everything was great. (When you stepped away to the bathroom, you'd find your napkins refolded on the table). The next time - and there will be a next time, we will try to order something more staple.

Sad or Awesome #1

The way my living room is configured the broadband connection faces the TV. In effect, I have the TV on oneside and the computer the other way.

Since 30 Rock wasn't on yesterday, I decided to go to nbc's site to watch an episode online. Coincidently, the TV was on in the background playing 'the Office.' Also a fine show.

Thanks to the magic of my living room and broadband, I was able to watch the 30 Rock episode while the Office went to commercial. Why haven't I tried living this way before? Please advise. I'm leaning more towards Sad than Awesome on this one.

First 5k

Yesterday's weather was quite cloudy and cool with the clouds occasionally spitting at us. We left pretty early since its a bit of a hike from Brooklyn to Harlem (Riverside Park). Arriving right on time for registration (though haven't take a wrong turn or two) we waited about an hour for the official start time of 9am. Turnout was strong with a total of close to 300 registered. Thankfully it didn't rain at all during the run itself.

This was my first 5k mind you, so I'd set the expectation low. I'd hoped that there would be a good showing of portly folks who would surely be slower than I. Sadly, few if any of these people showed up. In fact, 99% of the people were in great shape. I was even more disconcerted by the various runners club jerseys. It was clear we were to be outclassed and outranked - and we where. While the dust the other runners left behind was indeed eaten and enjoyed by yours truly I definitely picked up the pace myself versus past attempts. I ended up finishing out at 35:15 which is an improvement from my loops in prospect park (generally 10 minutes longer on average).

Overall, I loved the event and am planning on taking part of several more 5k in the next few month. The point afterall is to better yourself - so it's not worth beating yourself up over not being in first place (at least not yet?)

Pre Run Foods: Banana, Coffee and home. Maplet Nut Clif Bar (in transit)

Best Post 5k Food to Eat?

Cannoli from Ferrara's of course.

Eating With Anger on Bad Days

The week has moved along with great haste. Technically, that's not true. It has gone at the same pace as always, but the week has been the busiest at work since I started.

We've recently got a chunk of business which is fantastic but certainly makes work complicated and demanding. My job entails working in front of the computer all day which is fine (nothing to boohoo) except there has been no pause for a break outside. As is standard in whatever industry you work in everyone needs things as quickly as possible.

Because I've been working hard and probably because I look a little strung out, sales has bought me lunch a few times this week. This I realize is my reprieve. Yesterday we had a sub style sandwich and....what can I say? I attempted to stare down my sandwich. How could it challenge me? Was the sandwich a manifestation of the irritating aspects of my job? Hell, yes I realized. I tore it to shreds with my suddenly fang-like teeth. It felt good and just. I was done with the sandwich in less than 4 minutes.

Today we had prosciutto sandwiches on crunch/chewy french bread. I swear the sandwich cried for mercy - but it was just too delicious and I was just too angry. I chewed my bites beyond necessity (Part of the appeal of crunchy / chewy textures is the stress relief). I finished the sandwich is about 3 minutes.

Anger though is all consuming (get it? wacka wacka wacka!) Once I decimated the prosciutto sandwich I scoped the room only to realize there was no more food willing to take me on.

I'm not sure angry eating is healthy. I really should get out more.