backtracking

 okay, i've finally updated my picasa food album with my cooking adventures over break (starting with the paella). go look.

and now on to more important things.

spring break is over. i am now back at school, but it is warm (not so sunny) so i can't complain too much. i also restocked the fridge, so i'll be a cooking fool (no more "what-can-i-throw-together-out-of-the-fridge" nonsense. back to real, planned meals) for a few weeks. 

i spent the last few days of break (thursday-saturday) in new york city with best friend roomie. we stayed with her cousin at her uptown apartment (GORGEOUS and HUGE), so we felt less like tourists and more like natives. we were born to live in the city, and as soon as our diplomas are in our hands, we're peacing out of the small town pennsylvania!

so i got in late thursday night, and we were both tired from traveling and whatnot. curled up on the couch with some food ordered from downstairs (tuna melts from the city diner at 10pm? stellar), hot tea, and a REALLY bad movie. do not see the house bunny.

friday morning we woke up early, enjoyed some hot and crusty sesame bagels, and headed into town by way of central park. someday, we, too, will walk our little burberry-sweatered puppies through the park, but for now we just sipped coffees and admired the sunshine.

we spent the morning ducking in and out of shops, taking a small starbucks break at trump tower, and went to find 'blanc de chine,' the designer/clothing store where lyss will be interning this summer. it's right next to debeers. we're set. 

by now we'd worked up an appetite from schlepping all the way from 90th street to midtown, and we were WAY excited to try out tom collichio's 'witchcraft (obvi huge top chef fans). it was perfect -- pretentious enough to satisfy our egos, but not ridiculous. i got the marinated anchovies with salsa verde, frisse, and carmelized onions on sourdough, and lyss enjoyed a grilled cheddar, pear, and mustard on cranberry walnut. absurdly good. 

we made our way to times square to kill some time before getting in line at tkts. it being barbie's 50th birthday and all, we had to go into toys 'r us and see her palace. we're both quite a fan of the vera wang wedding barbie and 'i can be a tv chef' barbie. ohh boy. my barbie was a pilot.

after an hour of waiting in line, we snagged allegedly 5th-row tickets for guys and dolls with LAUREN GRAHAM. considering that i have all 7 seven seasons of gilmore girls on dvd, and we've seen every episode at least three times each, we clearly couldn't pass up lorelai's broadway adventure (more on this later). needless to say, we were way more than pumped at our good fortune.

so we went back to the apartment to freshen up for dinner, which is now on my top 5  list of most favorite italian meals ever consumed (maggianos, lia's, la tomate, and melt). after checking some reviews and blogs, i ended up making us reservations at scarlatto. it was underhyped, but got rave reviews, and close to our theater so we decided to give it a try. STELLAR. we started off with some fantastic crispy calamari and zucchini, which looked like potato chips. they weren't heavily breaded, and the perfect texture. i made lyss a believer in the wonder of calamari. i am proud. she got pumpkin-ricotta ravoli with a brown-sugar butter sauce and asparagus, which would kill me, but looked fabulous. the mmm's and eye-closings from her side of the table make me think it was pretty damn good. i got thin linguini with mushrooms sauteed in garlic and truffle oil. no cream, no butter, no frills. i'm a huge mushroom fan, and this was the best mushroom dish i've ever eaten. it was salty, creamy, and perfect in its simplicity. we felt bad because our bill was so cheap (the downfalls of only being 20 years old), but neither of us could feasibly consider an espresso, let alone dessert. we walked off some of our coma and chilled with some cappucinos in a little cafe near bryant park until the show.

THE SHOW! so the box-office man told us we had 5th row. WRONG. FAIL. FIRST ROW, BABY! it was AWESOME. we were so pumped. i can't go into all the details because it would just be a lot of exclamation points and excited slurs, but the show was amazing. we rushed out to the stage door right after and snagged some autographs and photos. and lauren graham has our pen. it was our proudest moment =).

saturday morning we again hit the city diner (this time we actually went downstairs) for eggs (yum yum) and then headed down to the fashion district to go to mood (yes, that one, from project runway -- we're not obsessed with bravo or anything). i also wanted to see the NYTimes building, since my dream is to work there someday. but yeah, back to mood. it was so shady, upstairs in this building, but it was SO FUN! we bought buttons and i got some supplies to make a hip, rugby-inspired belt. totally pumped.

after mood, we ventured over to chelsea market to be even more obnoxiously tv-obsessed and drooled over the cupcakes and chocolates and fresh produce galore. we rounded out our tour with a stop into pinkberry for fro-yo. lyss enjoyed a lovely pink pomegranate variety with raspberries and coconut, and i went plain with blackberries. i will be indulging in this daily this summer. thank you for bringing one to dc!

and then our adventure ended, and we trekked with our MASSIVE bags to the port authority and headed to allentown. sushi with my parents, watched casino royale, and headed back to state college yesterday morning.

the rest of my pictures are on picasa, too. 

trips into the city make me so anxious to get out of college and into the real world. i can't wait to be a native, not a tourist. to have my little personal delis and coffee shops and takeout joints where the waiters know what i like to order... to knowing how to navigate the busy streets and finding the lesser-known bars and clubs and where to find the best old books and vintage clothes and cooking supplies.

but alas, i am trapped in the end of my junior year in the middle-of-nowhere pennsylvania. at least i'll have a brief stint this summer. can't wait for that. 

and speaking of getting out... i turned in my thesis rough draft one hour ago! it still really needs some work, especially on the end, but i've reached the peak and it's all downhill from here. i'm not quite coasting yet, but we're almost ready to let go of the handle bars and finish out the ride. let's hope it doesn't end with me in the hospital.

ciao!

J