Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Tunnel to Towers




It was wonderful to have my cousins Nathaniel and Jon in town to run the Tunnel to Towers Race. Nathaniel and his buddies are Fire Fighters in Rochester Hills Michigan so they ran the race in some of their gear. The bummer was that we did not see them in the race (bummer, don't think that's ever happened to me in a race) but it was fun nevertheless and the guys are already planning for next year.




Saturday, September 25, 2010

No recent posts

Because I still can't figure out what is cooler than a clandestine grilled cheese. Hmmm, what about a clandestine coal oven to make pizza?

BUT, the next cool adventure is just around the corner. Nathaniel, Jonathan and two of their firefighter buddies arrive in NYC today to run the Tunnel to Towers run tomorrow morning. The race honors Steven Stiller, a firefighter who ran through the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel in all of his gear to help at the Twin Towers on 9/11. Nathaniel recently became a fire fighter and plans to run the race in some of his gear in honor of Steven.

Photos on Monday, promise!!

Sunday, September 05, 2010

Do you tip a drug dealer?

I have no idea... but I did tip my grilled cheese sandwich dealer who showed up on a random street corner with a perfectly cooked grilled cheese sandwich in his man bag. Really! Okay, here's the story...

A few weeks ago, the New York Post ran a story about Mr. Bread Butter Cheese, who has started a mini grilled cheese empire by making sandwiches in his apartment for people who text him orders. His business has grow from a few friends to a following so large that he had to take his number off of his Facebook page. I was lucky enough to get a hold of the number, and took it for a spin on Monday.

I texted at noon to ask if I could get a sandwich at 6pm. Sure thing, he texted right back. "I'm making pepper jack and bacon today. Sound good?" Since text is no place to explain my complicated relationship with bacon, I decided to ask for a veggie option-- cheddar and jalapeno it was! He told me which corner to be at and the deal was in the works.

He texted again at 10 minutes to six to make sure I was going to show up. OF COURSE! "But how will I know you," he asked. I texted a brief description of myself and the deal was set. The appointed street corner has a gas station on it. Not exactly the dark alley I was envisioning but whatever. I saw a guy on a skateboard approaching. Was this him? My grilled cheese delivered on a skateboard? Rad! No, the skateboard scooted by. But before too long, a guy in sunglasses carrying a black messenger bag approached and asked if I wanted a sandwich. Um, YEA!

Mr. BBC was incredibly nice and seemed quite excited about his growing empire. He promised to remember that I am veg and I promised to text again soon. He said the sandwich would reheat nicely in about 5 minutes in the oven. But there was no way I was going to wait that long. I high tailed it to a park and unwrapped the cheesy goodness! As the "low bluesy tone of a saxophone" played nearby and skateboarders took a break on the step next to me, I dug in! A true New York adventure!

The sandwich was wonderful! The bread is white and slightly thicker than your average store bought slice. It is nicely buttered and browned. The cheese was a flavorful white cheddar that had melted lovingly around the peppers, which had a kick but weren't spicy.

And of course, in a city of over 8 million people, who walked by as I was stuffing my face... an intern from work. What was I doing? Where do I begin?

If food trucks were 2010, home cooked specialties must be 2011. A guy was doing the same thing with lobster rolls...until the DOH shut him down. Bummer! Unfortunately Mr. BBC is running the same risk. I hope the city doesn't catch up with him anytime soon. With grilled cheese that good, he's got to be running a safe operation, right!? Got to be cleaner than those yucky restaurant basements, whose open door you're liable to fall down as you walk on any sidewalk in the city!

Thursday, September 02, 2010

The OC...

The PA Taylors headed to Ocean City New Jersey over the weekend to enjoy one last summer weekend. Perfection!!

The weather was awesome and this year, for the first time in 18 years, we exchanged the 14th street bath house for a 1 bedroom suite at the Flanders Hotel. What an improvement!

Our old tradition was to drive to OC, spend the day on the beach, boogie board our hearts out, clean up at the bath house, have an early dinner at the Beach Club and then brave a 2 hour ride home... at least we were able to shower off the yucky salt water and sand but it made for a very long day.

Instead, this year we enjoyed a flounder dinner on the boardwalk, at the Beach Club, and then headed for Johnson's Carmel Corn (another tradition) and were able to leisurely stroll on the boardwalk and then retire to our lovely room.






























Saturday, my mom felt that part of the experience was getting up at 6am to watch the sun rise over the boardwalk. I did not agree, but I caught a beautiful glimpse as I rolled over in bed!


After a boardwalk breakfast at Clancy's, it was time to hit the beach. I'm happy to report that 4 Taylors went in the water, 3 Taylors walked the beach, 2 Taylors went in twice and we only saw 1 jelly fish!! Between swimming, snoozing, reading and people watching, we could have stayed on the beach all day. The waves were big because of Danielle a couple hundred miles off shore. Amazing!







For lunch, my dad heard that Mack and Manco was THE place for pizza. Others obviously heard that too because the line was crazy...not DiFara crazy but longer than we wanted to wait for a slice. Thankfully, the line wasn't long at DeFuscos (think that's what it was called.) It was a classic, solid NY slice. I would definitely be a repeat customer if I was a local!

We headed a bit inland to the Crab Shack for dinner. Another recommendation, it did not disappoint. The jumbo lump crab cakes were top 2 or 3 in my book and they were served with a baked potato, which I haven't had in ages and apple sauce that tasted like Christmas!

The evening went up and down from there. Dad, Katie and I decided a ferris wheel ride would be a fun way to see the boardwalk. Unfortunately Katie and I are big sissies and slightly freaked when the wheel started to move. But we enjoyed it in the end and even suggested a spin on the Tilt-o-whirl, because "they were so fun growing up." Or were they?

This is the pre-tilt-o-whirl photo. I planned to take photos during the ride but since I screamed and closed my eyes approximately 3 seconds after the ride started that was not possible. And one of the three of us spent the rest of the night feeling a bit under the weather:-o

Breakfast the next morning at Chat and Chew and then we headed home. Thanks mom and dad for a fun end to the summer:-)