We've had 2 consecutive refreshing and productive weekends so far in July which is always a good thing worth blogging in my book!
Last Friday, Christine, Diana, and I went to a zumba class in Midtown prior to heading uptown to Harlem for some Dinosaur BBQ. We order green tomatoes, shrimp, and their famous wings to share as appetizers. For our main course, we order a family meal that consisted of ribs, lean brisket, a whole chicken, with sides of mac & cheese, fried rice, cornbread, and salt potatoes. We also order 2 pulled pork sliders for a party of 6 to share. My favorite were the fried green tomatoes, salt potatoes, and wings. I think the moist brisket over at Hill Country BBQ beats Dinosaur's lean brisket any day, but then again, that's not a fair comparison since Hill Country also has a lean brisket (called regular) that is comparable to that of Dinosaur's. On Saturday, I did some yoga with Diana to burn off that ginormous meal overnight. Dinner on Saturday was a brisk walk over to Jack's bistro and a movie from Blockbuster express: Sherlock Homes 2. We watch too much TV. Sunday, Andrew and I stopped by Sleepy's and got sold hard by the chatty salesman and later regretted making a deposit so soon, but they have a good refund/price match policy so we are not overly concerned. We later met with Josie, Jin, and Benny for some cookies that Josie has been raving about over at Levain Bakery in the UWS. The cookie was just how I usually like my cookies - thick and gooey. We watched Ted after which I completely loved - I can always appreciate some light humor. We did some more furniture shopping after and called it a nice long weekend. We find that weekends feel extended when you do something subtantial or go out on Friday night!
Andrew and I had our coop board interview on Thursday which we thought we went well. We should hear back on the final board approval early this coming week. Can't wait to schedule closing! Cross my fingers!
This weekend, I joined Diana for some intense yoga after work. I was sweating like it was hot yoga; to be fair, the room was definitely a lot more humid and warm than most other yoga vida classes. I went back to Andrew's and we went to grab some ramen at Ramen Takumi. I actually like this ramen spot, it's no Totto, but to me, ramen is ramen unless it's really bad. I can't really tell good ramen from great ramen. Maybe it's all the salt. After dinner, we grabbed some ice cream from the Van Leeuwen truck parked across the street and got the earl grey tea ice cream. Andrew fell in love with it and said it's one of the best ice creams he's ever had. And trust me when I say the guy has had a lot of ice cream in his lifetime lol. We passed by a movie theater at Union Square and decided we should finally see Avengers. He's been wanting to see it for a while and what better time now when no one's fighting us for seats! We saw it in 3D and I personally think these movies are the best for paying the extra $$$ for 3D. It was also BOGO for Visa Signature cardholders since it was Friday - score!
Saturday, Andrew missed his basketball routine and I missed my yoga routine. Oh well! We substituted some physical exercise with some kickass brunch at Maharlika for filipino food. Diana and I noticed this name at the Googa Mooga event and she had since came to the restaurant and loved it. The staff was attentive and super friendly. She took the time to explain the menu to us as well as introduce us to the condiments and how they're used with the food. We ordered the chicken and waffles to share and the pig ear, snout, cheek, belly sizzling platter with garlic rice to share. The waffle was simply out of this world, so moist and unique being that it was made with taro. Agree with Diana, chicken was well fried and tasty. The pig dish was also delish. Andrew actually preferred this one over the chicken and waffles. There was so much texture going on in this dish that it really was interesting to eat bite after bite. I loved pairing this with the vinegar they recommended as the acidity really cut through the pork nicely. The garlic rice was good too - I think I will attempt to make my own version some day by frying up some minced garlic and just mixing it in with white rice.
After brunch, we passed by abraco and remember we loved their olive oil cake and coffee last time and decided to pick some up since we were here anyway! I love walking around the city with an ice coffee equipped at hand :) We ran some errands and window shopped at a few furniture places along SOHO. We tried to price shop at 2 Sleepy's again but that didn't work out as nicely as we imagined. We are just the worst bargainers.
Andrew wanted to meet up with his friend, Mike for some kayaking so we went home quickly to change and took a cab over to W56th on the Hudson for some free kayaking. It was surprisingly no hassle and a lot of fun! The Hudson did gross me out a bit but it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. The day wasn't hot and since we went around 5pm, the sun was just cooling down. It really was a great recommendation by Mike. The staff was helpful and patient. I would definitely come back. We had plans to meet up again for dinner after going our separate ways to shower and change for the evening. Andrew and I took the subway down and did more window furniture shopping around 5th Ave before heading home to shower and change. We had dinner with Mike and Mayer at 5 Napkin in Union Square and I ordered a grilled shrimp salad. It was light and refreshing. Dave came to meet us and we headed over to Sing Sing at St. Marks for some karaoke.
Sunday, Andrew and I headed over to Carroll Gardens (painfully since it was hot and humid and the F train wasn't running so we walked over 40 mins to get there!) to have brunch with Josie and Jin at Buttermilk Channel. This place is simply awesome. Everything was delicious.
