Pride

An actual weekend in New York City! No, let me rephrase that: an actual weekend in New York City with mi Cariño. It was also Pride Weekend; practically perfect.

We didn't "do" much. Kept busy Saturday Morning and early afternoon in the Upper West Side with messy burgers, singing-while-walking, smiling at twenty-somethings learning to ride a bike on Riverside Park, stories, ice cream, the agony of USA losing to Ghana, book stores, and more stories. We got our gay on down by Bryant Park, where we joined the Dyke March.

Afterward there was Broadway Heartbreak, movie laughs and pizza - pretty low key, but wouldn't change a thing. Sunday was just as good, just as hot, just not as sunny. First stop was Pridefest '10.



We caught a bit of The Red States performance. They were alright, although I wished they would've move about the stage a bit more - or stood in a more organized manner. I've always been an acappella fan - no instrument like the human voice! They looked like they were having fun.

Vanessa Valtre was MC'ing and was not funny at all. Luckily Menage A Twang got on the stage rather quickly. They were rather a great surprise, as I didn't know they'd be performing. Go Emily! Not just a talented writer and teacher, but also a pretty good singer. Their songs are really laugh out loud funny.



We couldn't listen to their entire set, though, since we had limited time at the 'Fest, and so we walked on to find some comida. Enter Empanada Mama.

Typos aside, their shredded chicken was delish. Empanada Mama is in the 50's on ninth and it's a good quick spot for some really tasty empanadas.  We kept on walking, making a beeline to what I consider a NYC Street Fair must have: Mozzarepas.

This Colombian piece of heaven is perfect for the eating and walking of a fair, and it's quite filling. But they will make you thirsty. And so, we walked to the next Fair must have: Sugar water with a hint of lemon. Also known during this day as "Lemonade."

Tastes just like the kind Fabi and I used to make as children. Perfecto!

After the Fair, a mad dash to Times Square, and some Gypsy Kings "Hay un amigo en mi" accion (Yea Toy Story 3!) Cariño, her good friend Mariah and I headed to Ninth for some nourishment. Wouldn't you know it, we chose Thai Food (Ha!). We stopped by one of the Yum Yums.

The meal began with a glass of lychee sangria and some Vegetable Tamarind Soup

which was followed by some Vegetable Dumplings

and in a surprise move, Tofu with Thai Basil Sauce with white steamed rice

Dessert was Red Bean Ice Cream, which I will not show you a picture of because I did not like at all. Yuck.

We walked off the meal by heading to Junior's for some promised Cheesecake before stopping by the craziness that is Toys R'Us.

No, I did not ride "La Estrella" (although I wanted to). I did get me a Parcheesi Board, and the night ended with me showing mi Cariño how to play; unfortunately she's a pretty quick learner, and she beat me. But I'm not worried, there's always next time.

The only shadow during this weekend was the passing of Love personified, Ms. Lillie of ATL. She was one of the best facilitators I've met, and just an all around awesome person. This is an extremely overused expression, but to have known Lillie was to love her indeed, and I will miss her sweet deep voice as she walked in the office, demanded a hug and would proclaim "We'll make a Southerner outta ya yet, wait and see." Listen to an excerpt of her SC Interview here.

The Center's Garden Party

Soooo I finally attended the Garden Party. The weather was perfect. Everyone walked around happily, the food for the most part was delicious. I had my camera with me. But I was actually having too good a time to actually remember to stop and take pictures of what I ate and liked.

So, some of the restaurants/places that stood out: Bedford Gourmet had this wonderful goat cheese thing with beets that was perfect. I didn't taste their tuna, mostly because I'm not into raw. This Chick Bakes was in attendance and their cookies were perfect. Pinche Taqueria with their clever name had excellent chicken tacos. Klee Brasserie was also great, but right now I only remember the name, since I had to throw out my "menu". At some point I tasted some deep fried goodness - but I don't know where from. A chicken Asian Salad was given to me towards the end of the night and I do not know from which restaurant - but I'm sure Steph and Alex remember them, so I'm not worried about not eating at that place again. Ketel One was all over the place - the best one was the Ketel One Orange and Seven Up drink one of the volunteer bartenders suggested.

My only regret is that I filled up rather quickly. Or rather my disappointment. I am indeed ashamed of myself. Guess I'll have to try again next year ;)

De los paises

So I mentioned in my last post, my Tio is visiting from the Dominican Republic. My sister took advantage of his plane ticket and sent me masa de empanada de yuca (the dough to make yucca empanadas.) We fried them this morning.

This is unadultered empanada - that is, no added colorants to make it reddish. To make this you take Yucca, peel it (they're really fun to peel), grate it. When you grate yucca, you get this soft, actually kinda wet result.  I don't really remember the following steps to make the dough, though (ha!) and don't feel like faking knowledge by looking it up. But if you search for "empanada de yuca" you'll find plenty of results. Fried Yucca soaks up oil, however, so if your stomach is not the kind that can take oily foods well in the morning, I suggest you eat this for lunch or dinner. In any case, thank you Manita!

A girl worth fighting for

Went to my Abuela's house for Sunday dinner and to visit with my uncle, who's here from the Dominican Republic. We had a nice walk over to Grandma's house, but did not run into a wolf, which actually was kind of disappointing.

Abuela made some Salmon, White Rice, Ensalada Verde (your regular lettuce, tomato, onion, broccoli, please don't give me avocados deal) and black beans with auyama. (That's pumpkin or your basic winter squash for you, anglos.)

Dessert was courtesy of Tio, who brought it from the D. R.

I know it looks a little suspicious, but don't be deceived - this is REALLY better than what it looks like. It's called Jalao, and its Coconut and Honey Candy and it's super easy to make. Literally, it's just dry ground coconut, honey, and a smidgen of oil. I used to make these all the time as a child, and it's great fun to do so because they're gooey and sticky. You boil your ground coconut with the honey, stirring often. After 2 to 3 minutes, you turn the stove off, you let the gooey goodness cool a little, and then you make little balls. The oil is literally just to place it on your plate or cookie sheet so it won't stick too much. You can eat it cold or just room temperature. The only other Dominican Candy that's even easier to make than this one is dulce de leche cortada, (and granted, this might be a Caribbean Candy instead of just a Dominican one.) If you'd like to know, dulce de leche cortada means "Ruined Milk Candy." And you take your Milk that has gone bad/sour, you boil it with sugar, a cinnamon stick and a bit of lemon rind and you've got yourself delicious goodness. I often got in trouble for "souring" the milk on purpose (pour some lemon on it and it's screwed up right quick.)

But back to the present. Jalao? Really good! My nephew and I finished the day by first watching Mulan as the "adults" talked and lounged. That's right. Mulan. I love me some Mulan. I will sing "Be a Man" at the slightest provocation, and "a girl worth fighting for" is not far behind. But even Eddie Murphy couldn't drown out the "adult" talk, so Nephew and I took a breather and went to the park.

Not bad.

Homework

Alright! I seem to have posted everything I needed to post for the last week or so. Sorry for the avalanche of updates. Just a reminder that tomorrow is the LGBTQ Center's Annual Garden Party! You should go!! The awesome Bedford Gourmet is one of the food participants.

Go get your ticket!!!
Later peeps. 

Girl's Night

So Heather's in town! Perfect reason to get together, eat tons, dance some, drink some. We began the night at Gnocco's.

I got there a bit earlier than the rest, and so I sat outside to wait. While waiting I was roped into dogsitting for a bit... Puppy's name was Josie, and she seemed to be quite able to sense that I'm not much of a small dog lover. In the meantime mi Cariño arrived and we did some chatting while waiting for Heather and Steph.

Once everyone was there, we got to seat in the Garden out back, and the weather was perfect for it. We began to whet our appetite by toasting with some Prosecco, and it was perfectly fruitty. We liked it so much we soon decided to ditch the "by the glass" we had started with and asked for a bottle. Laura arrived and our party was complete. Steph chose our appetizer, which I think consisted of Burrata Cheese, cherry tomatoes, toasted italian, evoo and black pepper goodness.

Entree for me: Caserecce al Pesto. A very simple but quite mouth watering good plate - pasta with basil pesto, string beans and potatoes.

Dessert was Steph's favorite: Tiramisu.

It was all extremely good. We go to Gnocco's often because a good friend of Steph's works there, but the food really is worth the visit.

The rest of the night will be told mostly in pictures, some of them really blurry. First, there was Eastern Bloc.

Eastern Bloc held beautiful posters, plenty of pictures of penises, and an extremely amateur three way male pole dance. Then there was the Pyramid Club

Since it was Friday night, there was no DJ and they seemed to stick to their "only music from 1984" rule. We took a cab to what we thought was The Annex, but has now been renamed, The Doghouse.

Huge disappointment.  Music's changed. Place was empty. We walked some more, this time close to Delancey Street until we hit Los Feliz. The place moonlights as a club/lounge, has three kinda tiny floors, serves as a Taqueria in the daytime.

Either the music was better there, or we were tipsy enough to enjoy ourselves regardless, because we stayed there for the remainder of the night. Good Times.

Union Square

I love New York City - you can walk out of the subway and then run into this piece of awesomeness. This is Larry and His Flask - a hillbillie band from Oregon in a "tour" around the States. CD's were available via honor system - drop a buck, pick up a CD.

Le'ts leave work early

What an afternoon off looks like.

Foray into the Upper West

So, I'm stuck in New York City until the middle of July - this could be really good. I hope it ends up being a really good thing, in any case.

Work sent us out to the Upper West Side, Morningside Heights to be exact. Work was long and strenous, so no time to go outside for lunch, but Carolina and I decided to treat ourselves to dinner before going home. Besides, Matt severely insisted that we stop by this place, as he loves it dearly, and if there's one thing I trust is Matt's culinary's recommendations. Enter la Taqueria y Fonda, La Mexicana on Amsterdam.

Real hole in the wall place. Has a tiny kitchenette area out front, and a couple of tables towards the back. A TV was set to the news in Spanish and we sat down next to the big fridge. They brought us great home made chips with three delicious salsas to munch on while we deliberated on what to eat. In the meantime, several "neighborhood characters" stopped by to scream a little, ask for some change, and to remark that 6:30 was not too early to be drunk. I chose the Vegetarian Quesadilla.

Carolina was kind enough to eat the mash avocado that was on top of the tortilla before I took the picture. The vegetarian Quesadilla was delicious - made out of three corn tortillas, it was stuffed with, yes, cheese, peppers, mushrooms, tomatoes, lettuce, caramelized onions, and possibly more goodness that I just can't remember. Picture me moaning with the happy for about 20 minutes. When we finally finished and paid for our meals, it took us a good five minutes to find the strength to get up and leave. Then we made the decision to walk an extra 5 city blocks to the nearest subway, since we were both just too full to consider sitting down. All in all, not a bad way to end what proved to be a challenging work day.

Nuyorican Redux

Two more nights at the Nuyorican, one more night at Cafecito, even more Tofu Pad Thai.

Yup, that's pretty much this whole post. First: Stop at the Nuyorican

Watched a one man show called "Cuban Joe" with Gabe Dorado. It was pretty good - although I admit that most of the funny parts came more from familiarity than from actual jokes. The house was packed though, which was nice, and the crowd was nice and responsive. Afterwards, we once again headed to Cafecito, and this time we sat inside. I feasted on el bistec de palomilla, con arroz blanco, habichuelas negras (Frijoles if you're mi Cariño), tostones, y el mojo de ajo that I loved the last time I was there.

I'm sorry the pictures are so dark - I didn't want to use the flash. The food was worth the second visit. Although the restaurant part is a little bit cramped, the service was excellent and my bistec was done to perfection. I enjoyed this second foray into Cafecito, very much.

On Saturday, we began the same way: head to Nuyorican's. This time though we watched a production of Twelfth Night, set in East Harlem. Frankly, I don't think this one was worth the entry price: The play / story didn't gain anything by being set in East Harlem, except for random club dancing scenes and several Coños and other Spanish phrases included within. A cross-dressing fool was included, to match Cesario/Viola, and aside from a kinda funny interlude between Cesario and the Fool lip synching "That boy is mine" over Orsino, I was pretty much underwhelmed. To boot they mixed Shakespearean with modern English and then slang Spanish in a way that was just too confusing. I'm sure that people that hadn't read the play before were probably severely confused while watching. However, the little Spanish interludes as well as the dancing were good enough for the audience, since they laughed loudly and frequently. To each their own, I suppose.

For dinner however, I chose thai, and wouldn't you know I did not order dumplings. Instead: Curry Puffs. My apologies for the flash -this place was even darker than Cafecito.

Mi Cariño describe these as little Thai empanada's. That's a pretty close assesment, methinks.
I was not, however, strong enough to not order Tofu Pad Thai.

I liked the peanuts on the side idea. The tofu could've been better, but the noodles were great. Plus I had a little Mai and a little Thai (or two) to help me enjoy the evening better.

Goodbye Austin, Hello New York

All things come to an end, and so did our Austin trip. We decided to make sure that we ended the trip with a bang and so woke up early for some breakfast before heading to the airport. Enter El Mesón Taquería.

We were there so early we had to wait in the car for 10 minutes for opening time. (7am on Saturdays.) You order and pay right away. I got the Chorizo con Huevo plate, which consists of Chorizo, egg, black beans, potatoes, corn tortillas.

I wasn't expecting ground chorizo, so I was very pleasantly surprised. It was also good and spicy and just pretty much perfect. Well worth almost missing our flight for.

Speaking of our flight - we flew American, from Austin to Newark, via Chicago. We stayed on the same plane, not even getting out in Chicago, so that we wouldn't have to take our stuff out, too. You know what didn't stay on the plane though? Our luggage. But we didn't find this out until we hit Newark, stand by the Carrousel, see everyone else pick up their luggage, and then suddenly the thing stops churning out suitcases. Uh oh. Everyone that flew from Austin had their luggage left in Chicago. It's the first time that has ever happened to me... the suitcase has stuff I want, of course, but since I travel with the real essential things with me I wasn't as upset as some of the other passengers were. American promised to ship it to my house by 10pm Saturday night, but that looks like it'll turn into Monday morning between 7 and 10. You know what was in the Newark airport and that someone forgot to pick up, for some reason?

A couple of boxes of donated human tissue, that's what. I have no idea what that means... is it skin? Dead skin? A little gross, but also funnily fascinating.

I had to rush back to Brooklyn to drop off the equipment and then run home, shower, get prettified, and meet mi Cariño at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe to see parts of the Ultimate Latina Theater Festival. It was pretty interesting - these group of women played lines from a bunch of different movies, using all kinds of props and situations to give them different meanings. Only downside was that the whole program was too short: less than an hour. Really enjoyed it.

Afterwards we walked all over LES and found this place called Cafecito, for some Cuban Food. Not a real big place, but had a great set up. We sat at the bar, but outside, on stools facing the inside of the bar. The bartender was cute and friendly and quite personable. Mi Cariño declared that the food was the closest thing to Cuban Miami food, and the sitting outside and the mojitos probably helped. I had the picadillo (which is ground beef) with white rice and maduros.

Although I really enjoyed my meal I wasn't bowled over by it - I was more impressed with the tostones and garlic mojo that came with mi Cariño's meal. However I really enjoyed the ambiance, the Sol's and the Presidentes I had were great and perfectly cold and the music... well the music made it the entire visit worth it. Good, old school Salsa that made us wanna just jump up and start dancing.

Speaking of dancing, after la cena that's what we went off to do. First we met up with some friends, then ran into some other friends, and then the whole mess of us walked to a friend of a friend's birthday party before meeting with more friends and walking to Sin Sin for some more birthday partying celebrations. (Ha! Try making sense of that.) Good Times.

Austin Pride

Friday! Our last full day in Austin. Work was a DRAG, despite some very cool stories of activism and writers. But we got through it, packed up our equipment and headed to our hotel to drop it all off. There we met up with Ben before heading to North Austin for some Thai. Chow Down recommended Titaya's.

When we got there it was chock full. Our waiter was a trip, with what we decided was an exaggerated "work" accent that made everything she said come out in a sing song. In any case, appetizers: Spinach Dumplings. (Because one must always have dumplings when one can.)

BTW, those are bits of fried garlic on top of the dumplings, not peanuts. It made for an interesting and yummy change of flavor. One of these days I'll be able to go to a Thai restaurant and not order Tofu Pad Thai. This was not one of these days.

It was delicious - I cleaned that plate gladly. During dinner we entertained ourselves with World Cup chat. Ben and I disagreed over who sang the official World Cup song this year. For some reason I thought it was Daddy Yankee. Ben said it was Shakira. We bet ice cream. Matt spurred the bet on, knowing the answer full well as he was looking at his iPhone. I should've known better. If you must know, Shakira sings this years' official World Cup Song. Stoopid South Africans, choosing Shakira. We drove to Amy's Ice Creams. All three of us got scoops of Coffee Oreo. I paid for Ben's.

One lick of that and I didn't care one bit about losing the bet. It was fracking awesome. I didn't eat the napkin out of pure luck, cuz I sure ate everything else.

Dessert taken care of, the boys decided to meet up with their friends and head South. Luckily, the Long Center was near our hotel so I chose to stick around town and walk to listen to some music. Austin Pride is this weekend and one of the many activities was an outdoor concert.

Chick at the front was pretty friendly and kept calling me Ma'am, which I thought was funny. For 10 bucks I got to buy this general admission bracelet that if I had stayed around Austin for the weekend would've gotten me into several events.

It was all good. There was more space than Lesbians, and there were mostly lesbians, which I expected since three women were scheduled: Robin Smith, Tribella and Patrice Pike. DJ Chris Cox was scheduled at 11pm, but as you know by then all the lesbians will be beddy-bye and the boys will take over. There were a lot of them - just not enough to fill up the area. The VIP's got to sit at tables set out for them. The rest had to make do with lawn chairs and blankets. I used a blanket from my hotel. I feel kinda sorry for my cleaning lady.

Having missed the first two acts I waited for Patrice Pike, who was one of the grand Marshall's for the Austin Pride Parade on Saturday, but whose music I had never heard. She was scheduled to start at 10pm - but didn't. Her music was good but nothing to go crazy about to be honest. Frankly I was more interested in the dynamics going on around me: There were very few women of color present, which surprised me a bit because, hello, Austin TEXAS? I didn't stay for the whole show one because again, Patrice Pike: feh. Two: Not a very friendly bunch. While waiting for Patrice to show up I made the rounds and attempted to establish eye contact with several groups in an effort to introduce myself but it didn't fly. I guess that lesbians are lesbians, even in a town as friendly as Austin. Three: flying back to good old NYC way early in the a.m. y'all, where I got some lesbians that do want to meet me. I think. They might just be trying to act nice. But nice is good. I wish I could've stayed for more of Austin Pride's festivities, though - Saturday morning they had a Pet Parade going on. How cute is that?!

Somnio's Cafe

Thursday in Austin! My body hasn't been cooperating, and sleep: not so good the past couple of nights But I worked and worked hard, as I'm wont to do, in this case until 8pm. I learned something though, while working at the Austin History Center. Wanna know what it is? I'll show you!

You're thinking "pretty" right? Or interesting? Let me give you a close up.

Yup, you read that right. That there is a little exhibition from the Texas Barbed Wire Collectors Association. The little signs under the different types of barb wire detail the name of the creator, the name of the wire specifically and when it was patented, as well as who donated it. But most importantly, you didn't know there was a Texas Barbed Wire Collectors Association, did ya? Because you thought there was only one barb wire and that is barb wire! It's okay. I didn't either. Thank you, Austin History Center!


In any case after work Matt, Natalia, Ben, Virginia and I put ourselves in the hands of Bill, Matt's friend, who suggested we'd go to Somnio's Cafe. And so we did.

Little tiny place. Since it had been raining and the tables in the yard were wet we stayed inside. Appetizers all around! Enter the Spicy Shitake Pan Fried Dumplings.

And Sweet Potato Fries

People, let me tell you two things I love: Sweet potato fries, and dumplings. These made my belly sing. Since Somnio's is BYOB we brought along some local blonde ale.

And it was much better than the Bootlegger Brown Ale that they drank at the other side of the table. Finally, my entree was the Spicy Singapore Vermicelli Bowl, with Tofu. That consisted of stir-fried carrots, onions, egg ribbons, vermicelli, green onions, cilantro, and a yellow curry sauce. (YUM coconut milk!)

My puny camera does not make that meal justice.

After all of that I requested to be rolled over to my room and skipped the rest of the evening's plans. Yup, I went to bed at around 10:45 pm. Deal with it people! Listening may be an act of love, but it is also draining. Friday Pride starts in Austin, and if it weren't for some plans I have in NYC I would be changing my flight so that I could see their Parade on Saturday Night. In the meantime - to listen some more.

Un chín de Sazón

Hump Day, y'all, was OK. Began with a no-show at work, which is not my favorite situation, but after that the day went by fairly quickly - with the help of an ibuprofen or two.

Natalia came to meet us at the end of the day and after breaking down the equipment and a couple of pit stops, we went off to find another swimming hole. 

 
This one was a bit more accessible and also part of Barton Creek, but just higher up and next to a man made pool that harnessed the spring a little. Since it was cloudy and the water was colder up there, I decided to just enjoy the shore with Natalia while Matt swam. Although we did get our feetsies wet at some point.

The swimming and relaxing was cut abruptly when some ominous clouds started to move in. We hightailed it to the hotel and Natalia and I watched Toddlers and Tiaras in TLC. It really is like looking at an accident wreck - you really don't want to look, but you can't take your eyes away from it. It was a little disturbing, to say the very least. Just as we watched, the clouds made good on their promise and an awesome thunderstorm started - quick and loud and bringing in the fresh air and even a power surge that left us in darkness for a short bit.

When the rain moved on a bit (lightning kept going) we headed for dinner. Natalia's choice? Real Mexican food. "None of that Tex Mex Stuff," She said. Given that Natalia grew up in Mexico, we believe her when she says she knows the difference and where to find the goods. Enter Sazón.

Which of course, made me think of mi Cariño, but also made me think "YUM." And Yum was right, the food was delicious - and without all the dairy that makes Tex Mex a pain in the butt. Because you see, in the past month I've been having a lot of Tex Mex food that I've been calling Mexican food. Bad me!

I went for Alambres de Res, which is grilled bits of beef with peppers, pineapples and onions and charro beans in a bed of rice and bits of bacon and peas. I opted to not have the guacamole salad and instead chose a Corona.

Add some extremely fresh corn tortillas and my belly was happy indeed. We spent the rest of the evening sharing Rage Stories and Driving Stories (I didn't have that many to share), before I decided to skip on the bluegrass concert that was happening later on and went back to my room.

In any case, I write this on Thursday morning and I'm not sure what the day holds for me, but I hope it involves un poquito de Sazón in one way or the other.