~*~ Oh, The Food We Ate ~*~

Five days of food, fabulous food in NYC. What a delicious way to get to know this cosmopolitan city. Scroll slowly and savor the experience. Dream of future scratch-and-sniff technology.

Japanese at Geido Restaurant in Brooklyn. Yam & pumpkin tempura, beef negimaki (broiled strips of beef marinated in teriyaki sauce and rolled with scallions), okononiyaki (a savory pancake), and warm sake. Seems I was too hungry and excited to remember to take a photo of the food before we devoured it all, but at least I got a picture of Katie and the graffiti walls :-)

Chinese at Nom Wah Tea Parlor in Chinatown. Scrumptious steamed pork bun, shrimp & snow pea leaf dumplings, scallion pancake, veggie spring roll (not pictured) and a delightful oolong tea.

Can you say Dough? The breakfast of champions! Mine was hibiscus (left) and Katie's the blood orange. Don't even try to imagine how yummily delicious and nutritious they are!

Hmm. I'm feeling a little hungry. What say we grab a lobster sandwich before we finish checking out the Brooklyn Flea market? (I stole the photo)

Shwarma, anyone? Yes, please! That's a Middle Eastern pita sandwich with garlic aeoli, rotisserie chicken, onion, tomato, and pickle - all mooshed into a sandwich press. Way better than these simple ingredients could possibly convey.

Time for some American fare at Shake Shack. Burgers, fries, a caramel shake, and a creamsicle float. Don't worry. We didn't eat it all by ourselves. We shared a fry with one of the local squirrels.

If you've had one doughnut, you've not had them all! How about creme brulee (sm), blackberry jelly-filled peanut butter glazed (sq), hazelnut filled (sm), or maacha green tea (cake)? A nice glass of iced hibiscus tea on the side.

Not much time left, but it wouldn't be a trip to New York without some Jamaican patties. I went with the traditional beef and a Ting (grapefruit soda); Katie had jerk chicken and Pineapple soda. Ah, Jamaica. I miss you, mahn.

Are you getting hungry? Or feeling stuffed? Let's wrap it up with some cream puffs from Beard Papa's. They're oh so light. You can do it, I know you can!

As a reminder, we ate this food over a period of 5 days, and we did a whole lot of walking! Why am I trying to justify this tastiness? You're just jealous :-P

~*~ Thinking & Writing ~*~

The inside of my head is a very active place; no fear of the dust settling anytime soon. But I do wonder where all my memories have been stored. I know they're in there somewhere, but I fear the corpus callosum has somehow run amok and perhaps the hippocampus, thalamus, and amygdala have, themselves, forgotten their work.

Seriously, I find it quite amusing that while I'm in the barn doing chores, I have the best ideas ever. One-liners to post on facebook, names of chapters for my book, inspiration for another yet-to-be-written book. But by the time I get to the house, I can't remember a single one of them. Or, I just find that real life gets in the way and, "Who do you think you are, anyway, thinking you could write a book that anyone would want to read. Hah!"

I'm guessing that a typical woman might have the same sense of her brain being too darn busy. (I am not including men in this discussion because I understand even less about how their brains work.) But what do the rest of you do with all that activity? What does your brain say you want to do but you don't find time to do? Why is it that I say I want to write but don't do very much writing?

I have at least a dozen books on my Kindle in a collection I have named, "Writing - How to." I've started reading one of them, and you know I'll have to read them all before I even begin to write. Can you say "procrastinate?"

Why am I telling you all this stuff? I like to write :-) Oh, and to get back to my second sentence above, about my memories ... I want to write a memoir, but then I realized that means writing about things I remember. Ahhh, there's the rub. My memory sucks! and always has. It's not like loss of memory is a product of my aging process. I still plan to write some sort of memoir ... I'll just ad lib as the need arises. Who's gonna know?

In closing this silliness: I hope everyone is happy in your head - we're all doing pretty well in mine!