Cutting Edge Comedy

Last night, relatively unexpectedly, I found myself going to see the free Sunday night show at the Upright Citizens Brigade (www.ucbtheatre.com). While this is not a particularly hidden event going on every Sunday night at 9:30 (get there by 8:30 for standing room seating or 7:45 for tickets-the free tickets are distributed at 8:15), it is something that I have never made the time to go to before. While there, I laughed, a lot. The comedy is smart, moving smoothly from person to person, as ideas continue to connect throughout the show. They ended with a bit about substitute teaching that was particularly amusing. If that isn’t reason enough to go, I also drank $2 beer (so cheap…). It’s funny. It’s free. It’s an all around good time.

A Scoop of Summer

One thing that I think of when envisioning summertime is ice cream. And nothing is more indulgent than ice cream of the gelato variety. Yesterday, I went on an adventure in Brooklyn, and while there were many enjoyable elements to my trip, walking down the street in the beautiful Memorial Day weekend sunshine eating gelato with a good friend was a true highlight.

I wasn’t even quite in the mood for ice cream at the time, but my friend was insistent that this was the right late afternoon snack. We walked into Tempo Presto(http://www.tempobrooklyn.com/home2.htm). This is the little café that is associated with Tempo Restaurant and Wine Bar on Fifth Ave in Brooklyn. My scoop of gelato was a bit pricey at $3.50 for a single scoop, but where else are you going to get Banana Bourbon Pecan Gelato. It was extra decadent, creamy and unique. While I was very impressed with the flavor of my gelato, my friend was less impressed with her vanilla, so I would recommend going with a more unusual flavor in order to make the cost worthwhile (although she also swears by the virtues of vanilla ice cream, which I think is very respectable). Furthermore, if you eat at the actual restaurant and get gelato for dessert, it is $7.00, so this $3.50 version of the same product is actually a steal.

Food Festival Fabulousness continued…with less fabulousness

On Sunday, I made my way over to the NYC Culinary Festival at Pier 94. This festival had a $20 entrance fee, but I thought the cost would be worth it to learn information about and taste food from the more exclusive restaurants in the city. Not to mention, there were some interesting lectures scheduled. However, at the end of the day I would have preferred to pay money to walk around the free International Food Festival in Hell’s Kitchen-there the crowd was interesting and the food hot. At the NYC Culinary Festival, the food was expensive (on top of the fee) and often cold and unenthusiastically presented. I did find one restaurant that I definitely want to check out soon, Gobo. Gobo has two locations in nyc, the UES and the West Village. I had the opportunity to try its avocado carpaccio, and it made me want to go back for the entire restaurant experience. The food reminded me of the Green Zebra in Chicago, a restaurant that I highly recommend if you are ever in that fabulous city.

The food tasting at the Culinary Festival was okay, but the real highlight of my experience was the talk entitled “Outsmarting Wine in Restaurants” given by Mark Oldman. I now want to go all over nyc and order Prosecco throughout dinner. He calls it Prozaco. His website www.markoldman.com is full of all sorts of interesting information about wine. I went home from the festival and immediately checked it out. Furthermore, this man is not only into wine, but he also has his JD from Stanford, is co-director of a company and has books out on internships. Now, he tours the country to talk about wine. I am just a little bit impressed… and/or want his life.

Food Festival Fabulousness

This weekend in NYC is all about food festivals. Yesterday, I attended the NYC International Food Festival on 9th Avenue in Hell’s Kitchen. This festival was filled with so many different types of food. The streets were packed with people. Just a heads up, the crowd and venues change depending on where you are along the festival path. The food is much more upscale at the northern end and then becomes more carnivalesque once hitting the upper 30s.

I discovered a new food obsession…the arepa! These tasty treats are a staple in Venezuela. It is essentially a corn pancake sandwich. On the inside of mine was mozzarella cheese. Griddled to perfection, the arepa is hot and crunchy on the outside and gooey on the inside. One of my new missions for the summer will be to find my favorite in the city, and possibly try my hand at cooking some of my own. If you have never tried an arepa before, now is the time.