The Weekend in Review

Friday

Eli and Matt Lief stopped by Chinatown: the Apartment. Since I wanted to get a snack at Dom's and Eli wanted to stop by our friend Sarah's bookstore, we decided to stroll up to Soho. I got two delicious meatballs and a San Benedetto lemon iced tea. The first meatball was amazing and just what I needed, but the second one put me over the top. Eli had a bite and agreed that it was seriously delicious. After wandering around the store for a bit, we decided to stroll over to Anyway Cafe (2nd and 2nd, East Ville) to meet up with Cooper, who left for Antarctica yesterday.

After several carafes of infused vodka, we (Adrienne, Sean Murphy and Donovan met up with us too) headed over to Awash (East 6th Street between 2nd and 1st) for some Ethiopian food. I went to the uptown location years ago and hated it, so was really bummed that Cooper was so hell-bent on eating there for his bon voyage dinner. Especially since the original plan was to eat at Dominick's on Arthur Avenue in the Bronx, which I was super excited about. Oh well. Anyway, the food was pretty tasty, but the portions were miniscule, which is why I don't like Ethiopian fare in the first place. You're supposed to get all filled up on injera, the spongy bread which also serves as your eating utensil. I don't like the way it tastes, so I always leave Ethiopian places feeling ravenous and ripped off. Friday night was no exception. I think that lobster salad and Ethiopian food are the two biggest food shams out there.

Saturday

Matt and I decided to go to Joe's Shanghai for some lunchtime soup dumplings. As it turned out, Matt's brother Jake and Lindsay were already there, slurping up the soupy deliciousness that is the steamed tiny bun. Jake is a serious Joe's soup dumpling addict. He once told me that he ate something ridiculous, like a dozen orders of soup dumplings on the one year anniversary of September 11th. I think I ended up eating six dumplings or so, and then we also shared an order of salt and pepper shrimp (shells off) and Shanghai fried flat noodles (wonderful, almost smokey flavor). Naturally, everything was delectable.

Youthlarge and I went to Shea for the 20th Anniversary Reunion of the 1986 Mets Championship team. The F (I detest this train, it has no backbone) took forever, so we made it just in time for the pre-game ceremony. I felt the sport emotions coming on pretty much from the beginning, but when they announced Darryl Strawberry I totally lost it. If they had managed to break Doc out of jail for the event, I'm sure there would not have been a dry eye in the house. Anyway, by the time we could finally get food, I was STARVING. I got my requisite chicken fingers and french fries AND a Bubba burger, which had great seasoning by the way.

Sunday

Brunch at Freemans (Freeman Alley, LES) with Sus. People are always raving about the hot artichoke dip, so we decided to share it as an app. The people were right to rave - it was delicious. For my main, I ordered the roast pork sandwich with pickled zucchini and garlic mayo on a nice toasted sourdough. The sandwich came with a choice of green or herbed potato salad. I opted for the latter, but regretted my decision. The artichoke dip really filled me up, so I didn't eat most of the bread from my sandwich, instead making yummy combo bites of pork, zuke and potato salad. To drink I had a black iced coffee and a French 75, which is basically gin, champagne and lemon juice. V. refreshing and reminiscent of a Tom Collins, one of my all-time favorite summer drinks. Years ago, there was a bartender at O'Connors who made pink Tom Collinses. I never did figure out what that was all about.

For dinner, Sus, Matt Lief, Tolas and I went to Lil' Frankie's, which you have probably deduced by now is one of my favorite East Village haunts. We started with a $25 antipasto plate and mussels. For dinner I ordered the Tagliata Toscana, since I was so jealous of Newell's on my last visit. It was succulent and perfectly medium rare. To drink we split a bottle of rose. No surprises there I'm sure.