Anna "Professional Spinster" B.'s Profile

Maybe the waitress recognized me....

All I can say is that at 11:25 am, I decided to give them another chance.  I was starving.  I sat down @11:26, my order was taken at 11:35.  I ordered Lentil Soup and Quiche Lorraine (both daily specials).  I walked out at 11:54, still starving  - there were less that 15 customers in the restaurant and there was plenty of staff.  My waitress was having a great conversation with the bartender though.  (I went to Vine, good service - no problem).  Sigh...

A wine tasting event at the Fatty Crab.... $37.86 (including tax and tip).

What you get:  A warm greeting from really nice staff.  A loud, rocking restaurant with a semi open kitchen (fun to watch the tall chef do his thing - kinda like being a foodie voyeur).  14 wines, a few nibbles from the kitchen (replaced often by attentive staff).

Although the selection of wine was very good, it was more of a "come drink some wine, hang out with your friends & maybe meet someone."  Which is a great thing if you are in that vibe.  

The space for the tasting is long and narrow (and got very crowded), a banquette runs along one wall to sit (for a few), the four pouring stations are crowded, but efficient, the pourers are young and fun, and use all the right words to make drinking wine a romantic event.

I'd call if more of a high end bar night.  I do want to find that Croatian Red (Collalbrigo Cabernet/Merlot/Refosco) though, it was GREAT.

The nibbles were limited, but good and plentiful.  I ate a few of the deviled eggs between sips (great flavor topped with a crispy piece of pork - very good!), some smoked fatty (Pork? Duck? It was a slab of smoked meat with glistening layer of fat, so I wasn't sure, but it was yummy) - I'd skip the green mango with chili-sugar-salt; crunchy but yeah, it was crunch with a taste of sugar/chili.  And some sandwiches that were really good,  one was goat, one poultry (I didn't take notes on the food).

A good night out, a loud, bustling vibrant place, nice staff.  A-OK.

After kicking in my bedroom window, the thief used my suitcases to steal my stuff.  He trashed my bedroom (tossing everything looking for secret treasures - hah little did he know that I am the secret treasure in my bedroom... but I digress, and this guy was an idiot).

He stole my laptop, docking-station, monitor, keyboard and mouse... but forgot the battery or the power supply. Then he went through everything else looking for valuables.  A couple of cameras, some small stuff.  An ice cream container from Buckingham Palace filled with British coins.

I called 911 from my doorway.  My door was open when I got home.  I looked into my apartment, and my monitor was gone.  I pulled out my Blackberry and called 911 for the first (and hopefully last) time in my life.

The operator stayed on the phone with me was I walked from room to room.  She was great.  My bedroom looked like a cyclone hit it, and my Teddy Bear was crumpled under broken glass.  The thief left the light on in my bathroom. I was very angry.

Soon enough, a cruiser pulled up with two patrol officers.  They were very professional and kind.  I was still very angry. When we were walking through my bedroom, assessing the damage, one asked in a concerned tone "Is it usually this messy?"  I resisted the urge to slap him, but then realized that these people see the worst of society on a daily basis.  I said "No.  I made my bed this morning before I left."

As we filled out paperwork, their supervisors came.  Three plainclothes officers, who were also very kind and they listened to my anger.  I was advised not to touch anything until forensics came.  I wanted a drink, and one officer suggested that I just wear gloves and have a drink.  I couldn't do it.  I sat in my chair and never took of my coat.  At 11, a detective came to let me know that forensics would come in the morning.

I slept in the sofa that night - still angry, I pulled some spare pillows from the closet, and my emergency heater and I closed the door to the bedroom. I slept well, anger is exhausting.

In the morning a team of forensic officers came.  They got a footprint from my pillow (size 12 boots - just like the guy upstairs) and a print from my desk.  I was fingerprinted to rule out my own prints, and after they talked with e for a while, they left and I started cleaning.

That evening, the detective who is handling the case came to visit me.  He had called a few times during the day, and when he and his partner arrived, I felt like I knew them already.

This is just a brief sketch of what transpired over my Friday and Saturday.  The upshot is, the police were AMAZING.  

I'm sorry that they ever had to come into my life, and my stuff is gone.  It may be a miracle that I can get it back, but my computer was password protected, the majority of my stuff was backed up using dropbox, and x-marks.  Yeah, it's going to cost me some money (I don't have renter's insurance).  

If you stumbled across this review, take a moment and think about how your life would be affected by a robbery.  Make a list of your stuff and their serial numbers. (you might on a long shot get your stuff back).  Some of my digital pictures are gone forever.  But the majority were saved.

I'll update this if the NYPD come through with finding my stuff - but until then, life goes on....  My life has officially become a cautionary tale....

I had a bad day.

I have a cold, my nerves were at their limit and rather than go straight home after a disappointing appointment, I stopped at Lime Leaf, a restaurant that I have been wanting to try for a very long time.

5:00 on a Wednesday, the place was deserted. The staff were attentive and nice, the menu was very familiar.  (I am a Thai aficionado - from my days in Boston at the King & I on Charles Street.)

The waitress brought me prawn crackers and a peanut dipping sauce to start - we were off to a good start.  (I love prawn crackers!)

As an appetizer,  I had Tom Kah - a great soup and a glass of Gewurztraminer.

Then the waitress brought me my main course, Chicken Pad Thai - well, I was already full, but I took a few bites to taste, and it was good.  I was critical, looking for the five flavors of Pad Thai:  spicy, sweet, salty, sour and bitter.  Well, I didn't get those.  What I got was a filling noodle dish with crunchy peanuts, and savory chicken with a hint of lime.  It worked.  I wasn't spinning cartwheels, but hey, I had dinner (with wine - and lunch the next day) for just over $20.00 - who am I to complain?

And the atmosphere and service?  Sublime.  The waitstaff were amazing, and they allowed me to sip my wine and read my book and think about my friend John, who would have loved their other restaurant on 72nd.

It was a good impromptu meal, and the atmosphere and service were an oasis of calm on a day when I really needed it.

I just took their "Introduction to Wine Tasting" course - $75.00 is a luxury, but when you like the crowd you are with, you like cheese (my only critique - put the names of the cheeses on the plate... knowing their real names would be better than the way I named them:  Nutty, Creamy & Stinky), you like wine, and just want to have a good night out and learn something - well, DO IT!

Talk to the instructor, ask questions, listen and enjoy.  It is a fun night out, I got a 10% discount on what I bought that night, a couple of Riedel multi purpose wine glasses, some handouts to make notes on and reference when you pop your next bottle of wine at home.  

This class at Bacchus does not make you a wine geek, it makes you appreciate and understand a bit better what you are already drinking.

Their logo is Wine Made Simple--- all I can say is that Simple is GREAT.

Have you ever just had one of those moments, a moment when you are sitting at your window table on a rainy day, the background is the chatter of the people at the next table talking about lithium mines in Argentina and collecting photographic prints and art in a barn?

Outside, on the sidewalk is a cross section of Morningside Heights, trundling through the rain, on their way to who knows where, oblivious to the fact that they are background players in your memories for years to come.

I had a too sweet bowl of hot chocolate.  The sweetness was overlooked due to the amazing froth and size of the bowl.  A small tumbler of ice water cut the sweet when I needed a palate cleanse.  Three scrambled eggs - not fluffy enough for my taste, but good, and three eggs is a huge portion.  I paid an extra $2.00 for bacon, and they plopped a pig on my plate.  It was a lot of bacon.  I appreciated it, and will be having my leftover bacon and pan roasted potatoes for breakfast in the morning.

Huge portions, attentive staff.  I was there for a late breakfast/early lunch at 11 am on a Tuesday morning, the place was empty.  (I love restaurants during their off hours.  I don't like herds...)  If I had ordered a glass of wine, I may have given four stars.  But as it stands, it is a solid 3, and it provides a great faux European atmosphere as a background to watch the eclectic parade that is Morningside Heights - another reason why I love NYC.  Hot coco, 3 scrambled eggs, pan fried potatoes and bacon, $13.88 plus tip.

Wow - to go back in time, back to the times when we would pile into the car on a Saturday night and drive to an "Authentic" Chinese restaurant (Where I would always fall asleep under the table after I became bored with the blue flame of the pu-pu platter).  After all, Polynesian was all the rage (the Brady Bunch went to Hawaii) and wasn't Polynesian also Chinese?

This memory of my first homogenized ethnic mismatch of peseudoculture changed me.  It made Tiki Bars, Scorpion Bowls, Pu Pu Platters, sweet and sour chicken and fried rice comfort food.

After seriously screwing up on my parking  - that parking lot is scary to navigate, and motorcycles are the bane of my parking existence.  (If that was your motorcycle George Clooney, I take it back - but anyone else, I just say... sigh...)  Well, upon walking in, it is dark and definitely atmospheric, so I couldn't see if that really was George Clooney in the booth over by the wall... oh well, that's Hollywood.

Twin Dragons is also Hollywood with the faux tuxedoed waiters, the fast service, the large portions and the authentic "You've stepped back in time" feel that you get when you slide into one of their deep wooden booths.

Good honest, filling food.  I had Hot & Sour Soup and Sweet & Sour Chicken.  My date had Egg Rolls and Egg Foo Young and Fried Rice.  We had enough in our doggie bag to have lunch and dinner the next day. (And Tim took an extra Lipitor that night!)

Twin Dragons is an experience, bring a creative mind, an empty stomach, a good friend and you'll have a great retro time - by the ride home, you'll be thinking about writing film noir, talking about '60 - '70's tv shows and smiling at memories of Americanized Chinese Comfort Food.

Let me tell you about my secret life in the suburbs....  When I need to escape to my happy place and can't afford a ticket to Europe, I go to Nassau County.  I drive a borrowed Mini-Cooper (great car!), and my first stop is Razzano's.

The smell when I walk into their store warms my heart.  The sight of a shop stuffed to the ceiling with EVERYTHING that I would want to own, cook and eat - well, it is Nirvana.  Real Nutella, good olive oil, frozen pasta, dry pasta, hand made sausage, meats, precooked food in cases.  Arancini - my downfall. Fresh bread behind the counter, sausages, dry meats and cheeses are suspended form the ceiling - dried mushrooms in bags are on a boards asking to go home with me and be made into steak braised in mushroom & Madeira... (yes, food speaks to me!  (DON'T JUDGE!!))

Oh, and since one of my best friends is Italian, and his mother writes to me (in Italian) the guys at Razzano's translated the letters for me when I was just learning Italian.  Phew - they saved me from some embarrassing replys.

And for the hot foods and sandwiches?  Let's just say that I bring worldly people here, grab sandwiches, and drive to Sea Cliff to watch the boats on the ocean.  I've had people profess undying love for me while eating those sandwiches and looking at the view  - I know that it is really the endorphin rush from the food & the view - but it is safe to say that a trip to Razzano's and parking by the beach is in my feminine arsenal, and no man can resist it..... Well, until they are hungry again the next day -  hopefully, one day the magic will stick.

Have you ever been the third wheel on a date?  Have you ever sat and watched two people flirt, giggle and run off to the bathroom to wash their hands?  Have you ever watched a woman giggle, decide to not order dinner and say "You know how food tastes so much better when I steal it off your plate..." (Henceforth, I vow to NEVER use this phrase in mixed company)

Yeah, if this tableau is going to unfold in front of your eyes, you had better be sitting at Duke's drinking a stiff drink and eating some awesome chowder.  The food and the view of  the mountains majestically framing the sun glint water will save you from thoughts of slitting your wrists.

Now for the food:

My two Chowder Sampler: The Dungeness Crab in one bowl and the Lobster Pernod in the other  -  both amazing. The crab is a subtle chowder, and the Lobster is a rich deep chowder.  Together, they were a great pairing and after eating both, I was hankering for more.

The pistachio pesto salmon was delicious and perched atop a bed of creamy veggie orzo that was very filling.

The Long Island Iced Teas meh - not the greatest BUT - the Waitress who saw me suffering in silence, and quickly offered to get me another drink - well, she was AMAZING!

Comedy ain't pretty....  Comics are some of the most depressed people I know and I know depressed - you try being cheery while taking transplant anti-rejection meds and sorting out insurance issues.

Of course, when you live in NYC and you have friends who are in "The Business",  you go to a lot of shows.  I am a veteran seat filler, a shill....some even call me a muse (the pay sucks, but my ego loooves it.)

On Monday night, I was a shill in the audience while some friends and politicians were taping a pilot, "Town Hall Schmooze".

The place was great, the room holds quite a few people, yet is still intimate.  Yes, it is dingy, yes, those are subway tiles on the wall, and the pictures & albums that decorate from the 60's- 70's - 80's (a golden time in comedy) in the Bar area are dated - but gang, it is the EAST VILLAGE, between Bowery (THE Bowery) and Second ave.  I like my East Village grimy, I like my comics dirty, and I like my drunken evenings messy - that's just how I roll...

Lower your expectations, do what I did, pay the $34.00 for 2 Long Island Iced Teas and a plate of fried Calamari, laugh, enjoy being with friends and being in New York City.  You can't do this in Topeka.