Well the last couple of days have been a bit of a culinary adventure. We went to one of my favorite restaurants for dinner yesterday and I introduced my companions to soft tofu stew and bbq squid. We also stopped at Carlos's Bakery (not to be confused with carlos bakery which is something completely different). For those of you who do not follow the food channel apparently this is the bakery of the guy who does the show Cake Boss. Good stuff there. Today we ventured to Brighton Beach and ate at Rendazzo's clam bar. Great steamers and wonderful red sauce on the lobster fra diavlo. This bit of food overindulge required us to retire to the RV for the afternoon so we could watch the games and groan a bit in private.
Tonight we went to a restaurant called Takashi. This restaurant serves Beef. All the beef you want in all the ways you never knew you wanted it. We had several unusual dishes. BRAINS - well we all need a zombie fix now and then. The first item served was calf brain cream with caviar, then some bone marrow and crawfish dumplings and steamed shank buns. This was followed by testicargo, and yes it is exactly what it sounds like. Then some stewed beef tendon and we were ready for the main course. Skirt steak (ok not so unusual), beef belly and I had a plate of sweetbreads, beef heart, second stomach, first stomach and lives. I can tell you the order presented is the order in which I enjoyed them. I didn't like liver as a kid and I still don't. But the rest was very good to great. The skirt steak I was told was very good and I can testify that the beef belly was excellent as well.
Now all this going to places required driving. People around here are nuts. I can best describe how well they drive by relating some of the signs that have been put up to help control traffic. There are the signs that say "Wait for green signal to go". I am pretty sure that should have been part of their driving lessons, but apparently people here need to be reminded. We certainly saw enough people go through red lights like they didn't exist. There are also signs like "Take turns merging". Ok, pretty sure that is how Merging is supposed to work. Apparently without reminders they don't know that here. Then there are the do not drive and/or park on shoulders and sidewalks (three different signs) I always thought the nature of sidewalks was they were not part of the road. Driving on them was restricted to the car chase sequences in action movies. And then there is the Light Rail system. Might be a good system, but is missing the Light part of the Light rail. Like no warning lights, gates, swinging somethings, horns - nope nothing like that. The trains just go on down the tracks and the cars go on down the streets and the streets cross the tracks and you hope your timing is good and you don't meet in the middle. Had one train about 10 feet from our car and we pulled up on the track and there he was. If I hadn't seen him and floored the gas we would have been run through. Would have said it was my fault and I should have looked for the train, but come on - it is a blind corner and there are tracks across streets everywhere. I would get rear ended by some car if I stopped before every track.
Now I am not saying everyone in New York and New Jersey is trying to kill me, I can't say that because I have yet to meet everyone in New York and New Jersey. But I can say that when it comes to driving, I am more than willing to think muggers in the subways must be the safer option.
Tomorrow the game. Packers lost today, Vikings lost today, and with our win tomorrow we go into a tie for the lead of the division with the Lions. Next week we crush the Packers and .... well maybe I am getting ahead of myself. One game at a time. Tomorrow it is J E T S lose lose lose.
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