music, media & other random musings

Where Are The Milk Duds?

It's a big question for a small post.

Where are the Milk Duds? 

One of Hershey's best candies and yet the only place you can buy them is at the movies. 

Last week - while not sitting in a theatre - I had the Milk Duds craving. But they weren't at my local deli. Since then, I've been keeping an eye out - looking at every newsstand I pass, deli I walk into - even checked out a 7-Eleven on 14th Street, figuring they had to have them. I live in New York, for fucks sake. How it it possible I can't find them? 

I'm guessing from the lack of availability, they aren't one of Hershey's best sellers. Which I personally don't get at all. But then why the jumbo size in the movie theatre? 

Alas, because I'm still having the craving, and apparently it's the only place I can get me some Milk Duds...yes, it's true, this afternoon, I'm off to the movies. Figure I'll stay for the show too. 

More Thanksgiving

 Big family meal, excellent food, but always too much of a good thing... Thankfully it's only a once a year thing. Here's my sister cutting the beautiful, extremely large turkey - but in our family, it's not the bird, but the good stuff coming out of it that's the real treat.

Thanksgiving

Not my best effort... but I'm fairly certain no one at our dinner will go hungry...

 

Good Eats

Pretty much anyone and everyone who has been to Viet Nam raves about the food. But somehow we hadn't found anything we thought was all that special... until we hit Hoi An. We thought maybe we'd just been going to the wrong spots (which is possible) or ordered the wrong things (which is probable), but the only meal that I really enjoyed, oddly enough, was the one which gave me a bit of the dystentery. (After that, for a few days, even the site of Pho made me ill.) . 

First night in Hoi An, we ate at our hotel - too beat to go into town - and it was truly awful. We jointly decided if we didn't have a good meal with all of the many of recommends we were given, then we had to chalk it up to the fact that either we just didn't like Vietnamese food, the people recommending to us didn't know from good, we were expecting too much or we were bigger food snobs that we thought. Admittedly, it takes super good food to wow us over, but I think we're pretty judicious when differentiating between bad, good and exceptional. 

Thankfully, here in Hoi An we found it. (Thankfully because I've just about hit the wall and interest in Asian fare of any kind, so I needed something in the exceptional category to keep me going.) Three truly wonderful meals, one not so great. (My mom thought it worse than I did.) I sense that a few more days here and we would have found others as well. But here's the one's we hit - if you happen to be in Hoi An... 

Brother's Cafe - Although I'm not possible, I'm pretty sure this was the restaurant that the couple from San Miguel, who I met in Ephesus, were raving about. "It's on the canal, at the far end." And this was that... Our dinner there was certainly more expensive than most places here - $80 for the two of us, including a drink a piece. Yes, cheap in our world, but not here. We had the local specialties for appetizers - White Rose (dumplings) and Cau Lao (yellow noodles). Miles - even kilometers - away from the White Rose we had at the hotel. The entrees we shared were Spicy Beef with vegetables and Shrimp in Tamarind sauce. This time we took the recommend of our waiter to ensure our choices weren't off. All of it, excellent. We were thrilled!   

Streets - Here we had lunch. Great little menu. (Not too small - concise and focused just how I like 'em.) We shared a Vietnamese baguette sandwich - chicken salad with veggies and herbs - and a spicy shredded beef mango salad. Salad was awesome, sandwich was very good. Meal was also very enjoyable as we sat next to, and talked with, a cute, interesting couple from Holland. The other really nice - and worthwhile thing about the place.. it's a non-profit initiative for street kids and other disadvantaged youth. They combine restaurant operations with education, housing and lifestyle support. Seems to be a very well run effective program. 

Mango Mango - (That's my mom standing in front of the the restaurant - I will restrain myself from commenting on the outfit.) Here we had lunch, our last meal here, and probably our best. Again, we split a salad and a baguette sandwich. The salad was phenomenal - duck, watermelon, green apples, watercress and a melange of herbs and spices that were quite unique - and thoroughly tasty. With every bite we tried to figure out what 'flavors' were included. They have two restuarants here - similar but varied menus - sorry we won't be able to try the second. 

Greens!

I don't think I'd ever been more happy to eat a salad. At home, I pretty much eat salad with chicken, in some variation, 6 times a week. And for 2 months, not a one. (Okay, in some side salad incarnation while in Turkey, but not the real deal.) It's true, you never never really do know how much you miss something until it's not there - even lettuce...   

I was aimlessly wandering around last night looking for dins, hankering for something on the non-Asian tip... but somehow I knew that a hot dog, burger or burrito (even though the place was called Diablo..) just wouldn't be the real deal. Then I saw a sign for Mediterranean and a girl eating a falafel - the place was packed, I didn't even hesitate or look at the menu, just walked right in. I must admit the kebabs were tempting, but had to go for the salad. So good, I came back again today for another. Not sure when I'll find one again. Asia for another 4 weeks... 

Oh, and I'm on my way to Luang Prabang in Laos. Pretty psyched about that too...!! 

I'm Mad As Hell

My brother's Facebook status today read: "I'm hoping to avoid a Howard Beale moment this week."

I haven't seen Network - or this scene - in a very long time. It's so incredibly fantastic. It's also, sadly, how I feel much of the time these days... While watching this clip, I found myself actually fighting the urge to get up out of my chair, go to the window, open it, stick my head out and yell "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore!"  But instead, decided to just blog it.

Making pies

Note to self:  Get "regular" size pie plates for next year. Both plates I have are the deep dish variety. Which, although great for apple pies, aren't really right for either pecan or pumpkin. I had planned on making only the pecan, but my niece Emily was quite up in arms that there wouldn't be pumpkin this year, so I said I'd make both.  Which isn't really the best idea - making two at the same time.  But Ems was incredibly sweet and offered to come over and help.  I must say, the crust tastes fantastic.  Knew it would when I made the dough last night. But I decided to pre-bake the pie crusts, which I tend to think is the better way, and it turned out to be the wrong call.  Because of the flakiness of the crust, the constant in & out of the oven and the fairly cramped oven situation I have, making it difficult to maneuver, lots of the crust broke off. So, in the end, the pies didn't turn out so "beautiful" but I"m hoping what they lack in presentation, they make up for in taste. Certainly better than, then the other way around. Being a dessert loving gal, nothing worse than the sweets looking fantastic and turning out disappointing.  And aside from myself, we've got a harsh food critic crowd. Hope they end up being pleasers...

Lower East Side evening

Starting off early, my "out of town" friends and I met at the Bowery Ballroom. My niece, Emily and three of her friends wanted to go to see Little Jackie.  But as it is an 18+ club, they could only get in by being on the label list, and accompanied by an adult.  (Thankfully for Emily and her friends - age, not maturity is the requirement!)  Emily and her buddies went to the front immediately, while we hung back.  Towards the end of the show when she sang "The World Should Revolve," I moved up to the front with them.  As I told Emily and her friend, Claire, there are two very important things to learn early in life - how to get a bar seat and how to get to the front of a crowded show... The picture above, terrible and blurry as it may be, was from the show.  She's obviously got some retro in her - from a few different generations. Her "backup singers" and their moves were reminiscent of the Supremes, while she's also got some retro soul going on.  All in all, she's absolutely adorable, has great stage presence and puts on a fun show. 

Afterwards the three of us headed down to Bacaro on Division Street. It was supposed to be pouring out and wanted to go somewhere I knew we could walk to quickly. My sister had told me they had a great bar. It wasn't what I imagined, but the place was very cute, as was the bartender, so we were all very happy. Mellow, good lighting, good tunes. Food was delicious too.  After sharing a bunch of appetizers, a few entrees and a few rounds of drinks, I was beat so we decided to called it a relatively early evening... My friends wanted to absorb more of the city before heading back to Europe today, so I joined them on a long walk back to my place, ending up walking on a few blocks I don't think I'd ever been on - after almost 20 years here in NYC... I don't spend all that much time in this neighborhood, but when I do, I'm always amazed at how much it has changed over the years. Same sort of vibe, but just a bit different - new, richer and more populated - like the rest of the ever evolving neighborhoods in the city.  In the end, that early evening ended up to be another late one. 

The Spotted Pig

I've been to the Spotted Pig countless times - lunch, dinner, drinks - both early & very late night.  And I've never had a bad evening or a bad meal.  It's a great neighborhood place - even if it's not always just filled with the locals.  Great lighting, good music, decent bartenders.  And again, the food - so so good.  I've never been a huge fan of vegetables, and I don't know what they do to theirs exactly, but they are so yummy I consistently get the veggie plate most times I go. 

Last night I brought along a friend who is visiting from Dublin and her friend, in from London.  It was PACKED.  Packed like I don't think I've ever seen it.  I thought the economy had gone to shite!  Well, you wouldn't have known it there.  We had to wait hours for a table, but we happily stood having many drinks before we got a table upstairs - good vibe, interesting people to chat with, we were very happy.  In addition to the veggies, we had their Gnudi - incredibly rich gnocci-like pasta and Devils on Horseback (dates wrapped in bacon) - decadent!.  We were quite chatty & I naturally, as I'm prone to do, l ended up staying out way past my bedtime, making it very difficult to get up for jury duty this morning...  But all in all, a fun night & glad my friends got a good taste of the west village - literally and figuratively...

Eisenberg's

Eisenberg's is a sandwich shop that's been around since 1929.  The food is mediocre at best.  Although the tuna, eggsalad and meatloaf are all pretty tasty.  But that's not what makes this place great...it's really about the atmosphere.  Once you walk in the door, you literally feel like you've gone back in time.  It isn't a new restaurant with the "faux-retro" look, but it's truly authentically old.  The counters, the grill, the growly waiters.. just takes you back to an era... well, one that I didn't live through.  But it's nice to visit once in a while..

Outside of the restaurant they have a blackboard sign, always with a wry, timely, relevant message that seems to change pretty often.  I pass by there every night on my way home from work & used to make a habit of taking a photo of the board, but then my camera phone died...  As I was able to get it up & running again last week (took out the battery for a reboot!)... I took this shot.

The owners are apparently well aware of what they are all about....