Harvest Time!
We’ve been enjoying the fall in NYC again! Crisp cool air, blue skies, flaming trees! It’s the best time to be here, in my opinion. Certain people, like Mark, may try to convince you that it’s best in the summer. But hot in NYC means hot and sticky and muggy and stuffy and stinky. Don’t be fooled.
Why is fall considered the time for harvesting? It seems like at least as much stuff is harvested in spring and summer. Maybe it’s because stuff you gather in the fall is stored to help you get through the winter. But then they should call it storing time, not harvesting time.
We’re going apple picking this weekend to do some harvesting of our own. In the meantime, I’ve been gathering lots of goodies from the farmers’ markets. Summer may have the tastiest produce, but fall has lots of stuff that is fun to cook with. I made a pumpkin-pear cider-apple cake. And delicata squash with swiss chard and cipollini onions (spiced up with coriander, turmeric, and cinnamon). Yum! And some “Lakers soup” – butternut squash-corn-leek soup with purple cabbage. And it’s not even Thanksgiving yet!
And since we’re on the topic of harvests, my pepper plant is growing fruit! I think there are 3 baby peppers growing! It’s a little late, but it’s probably just confused because it’s in a yogurt container inside an apartment.
All the good stuff is coming!
Cupcake truck! It debuts on June 3! I don’t actually like cupcakes all that much. I like making them. And I like the idea of them. And I love the idea that there’s a cupcake truck!
The Union Square Greenmarket is finally showing some spring goodies! Winter is over! And the first (albeit expensive) strawberries are showing up! I know you guys out in California will mock me for rejoicing over leeks and peashoots, which you have had for months now! But you have to imagine half a year of just onions and apples!
And Mark’s coming home from Paris soon! Just in time for summery BLTs and tomato-bread salads!
New York City vs. San Francisco Round 9: A life update
The previous comparisons between NYC and SF have been more about sharing observations and opinions. But I thought people might be curious about how we’re holding up with our lives. So this round is more about how we’re doing.
We’re pretty adaptable so we’re adjusting to life in NYC. For example, it’s a lot colder here so we’re wearing more clothes to compensate. Actually, I probably spend more time being too warm here because you bundle up to go outside, but if you’re inside a grocery store or something, it’s too hard to hold your coat while you grab groceries, so you keep your coat on inside and then overheat. Plus, if you’re wearing a hat, your hair doesn’t look very good after you take the hat off, so you have a tendency to leave it on indoors. I guess this is turning into a post about observations opinions. I can’t help it.
Mark’s been working for about a month now and he’s doing well. He gets to travel to exotic and romantic places for work, but they’ve been keeping him busy with work. But at least he gets to do his work in exotic and romantic places.
My various gigs are going well. My students (who are actually teachers or teachers-in-training so the terminology gets really confusing) are great. And doing research in science education has been a great learning experience. The terminology there can get confusing too. I’m learning to do research about teaching and learning and about teaching teachers to help their students learn. Got that?
And if you haven’t heard, Mark and I are betrothed/engaged/planning to get married. So our official relationship status has changed, but we’re still us.
In Ireland w/ the personalized tree stump that the leprechauns prepared for us
The summary is that our lives are progressing and we’re learning new things. But we were also progressing and learning new things when we were in San Francisco. So you can’t really compare and the score is unchanged.
NYC: 3
SF: 5
The city in Legos
This is a Lego version of what my life is like now. At least the things that I see now.
I recommend checking out all the photos, but here are my favorites:
I was just wondering about the subway seats this morning. The orange and red are actually pretty similar in color. So it was really hard to tell if they were the same or different on the real subways. I came to the conclusion that they’re different. I guess the NYC Lego guy agrees. Also, this is exactly what Manhattan looks like. I live in the column of dots on the right side, and I’m near the 5th dot from the top.
Ha ha, this one is just very amusing.
Substitute “woman” for “man” and this is how I spend much of my time waiting for the subway. In my version of this scene, I’m also looking around at the other people waiting on the platform, wondering why they’re not seeing the rodent, and wondering why they don’t look completely grossed out by it. But maybe they accept that man and nature must live in harmony, which means we have to share the subway. Maybe I’ll get to that level of acceptance sometime.
New York City vs. San Francisco Round 8: Subway musicians
I’ve heard the worst subway musicians in NYC. There’s one guy that seems to always be playing violin in the Union Square station. He’s usually playing something Vivaldi-esque with a recorded accompaniment. He can’t keep up with the accompaniment and as you might imagine, it’s not a good outcome. But I admire his persistance and I expect that his frequent “practicing” will lead to great improvements.
But I’ve also heard the best subway musicians in NYC. Many of them are pretty amazing, actually. Last night I heard a flautist playing beautiful baroque music. I gave her an extra big donation because the music was so lovely. I was sad when the subway arrived and I had to go, but I was pleased to see that there were some drummers on the car. They were quite amazing and they had much of the subway car dancing. Last night was an exceptionally good night for subway music, but it’s often really good. And I love that people play such funky interesting instruments that I’ve never seen before.
If it weren’t for the Union Square guy, I would have thought that they hold auditions for musicians to play in the subways here!
Maybe if my cousins get good enough at Rock Band, we can try out!
NYC: 3
SF: 5
New York City vs. San Francisco Round 7: Egg custard tarts; And housing news!
I had some dan4 ta3 (egg custard tarts) from Egg Custard King in Chinatown today. I tried a regular one and a Portuguese one. They had a bunch of different types and flavors – maybe about 8. Ha ha, I couldn’t read any of the Chinese characters so I had to ask. At least I was able to do that in Chinese. And at least I was able to read one of the labels – the almond one. I pointed to the Portuguese ones and asked what they were, and they said “pu2 tao2.” I asked “Grape?” and thought to myself “what an odd flavor for egg custard tarts.” The woman looked confused and then I realized my mistake and said: “Oh, Portuguese! They’re Portuguese tarts.” Portuguese is also “pu2 tao2.” I’m such an ABC.
These are supposed to be one of the best places for dan4 ta3 here. So how do they compare to Golden Gate Bakery in SF? It’s definitely close, but I’d still give it to GG Bakery. The crusts are similarly light and flaky and tasty. The custard at GG Bakery, which is light and smooth and tasty, is definitely superior to EC King, both the regular and the not-grape kinds. But EC King’s custards are still better than every other dan4 ta3 that’s not from GG Bakery.
I don’t have any photos of EC King’s dan4 ta3. Here’s one of GG Bakery’s, with my cuz:
EC King had no line, while GG Bakery always has a line, often going down half the block. And GG Bakery often runs out or doesn’t have any that are ready. EC King also has many more flavors. So if those flavors turn out to be amazing (though I doubt it because the classic dan4 ta3 is pretty much perfect), I might give this round back to NYC, but for now, it goes to SF. There’s a reason the lines are so long and it’s definitely worth the wait.
Hmm… actually it’s a lot easier to get to Chinatown in NYC by public transportation than Chinatown in SF. So that’s another issue, but maybe the public transportation issue is for a separate post. So after Round 7:
NYC: 2
SF: 5
The other news is that Mark and I found an apartment. It’s in the Upper East Side. The landlords seem quite desperate to fill the apartments – many were offering 1 month free and no fees. When we first told our broker (thanks BCG!) our desired price range, she was very nervous that there would be nothing for us and wasn’t sure what to do with us cheapskates. But it turned out to be no problem, we found a lovely place that’s well within our budget.
We move in right after Christmas! I’m so excited!
There’s a gym in the building, with no extra fees! And there are individual TVs on all the machines. So because we won’t have a TV in our apartment, I’ll have to exercise to watch any TV! That’s a good healthy setup, I think.
The lobby of the building is really tacky. I’m hoping that a lot of the tackiness is due to the holiday decorations, but we’ll see how it looks in January.
So if you want to see this apartment, you’ll have to come visit! But if you’ll have to prepare yourself for the tacky lobby.
New York City vs. San Francisco Round 6: Filling out online forms
I used to type ‘C’ when entering my address online and California would be selected from the list of states. And then I could tab on to the next thing I had to enter.
Now I have to type ‘N’ 6 times. Six times. And I have to double check that NY was selected because I’ve seen cases where things are screwy and six doesn’t get me to NY. Or maybe it’s just that there’s a lot of room for error when you have to type things 6 times and I often get it wrong.
So this is a big enough issue for me to write about. But probably not big enough of an issue that I’ll move to Nebraska. Or Alabama.
NYC: 2
SF: 4
Happy Gingerbread House Season!
Wow, NYC is really into the whole holiday spirit thing. They mean business here. Huge light displays sucking up electricity everywhere, chopping down big trees. NYC might be the most Christmas-y place in the world, or at least for the modern consumerism Christmas. I’m torn about it… stuff makes me grouchy. And crowds make me grouchier. By the way, don’t go near Rockefeller Center in December. If you are going from point A to point B and the shortest path goes through Rockefeller Center, don’t do it. You’ll run into a bunch of people who don’t move because they don’t have room AND they don’t know where they’re going. It’s easier if you make a big loop around it. So that all sounds bad, but a lot of the decorations are quite pretty. Sparkly lights are appealing. And at least some places use LED lights.
Sign says "No Standing" but it was so crowded that standing was the only option.
My sister and I tried to see the tree on the night of the lighting. We figured we had nothing better to do so we might as well go. Spectacular mistake. They had the sidewalks blocked off and you couldn’t go directly to Rockefeller Plaza. There was some secret way, but we never figured it out and no one would say. We just kept running into dead ends. I don’t want to talk about it anymore.
The one thing that I’m least conflicted about is gingerbread houses! I haven’t made one this year. Yet. But I thought I’d reminisce about the Gingerbread House of Christmas Past. Made by me and my sister Da. I’m the baker. She’s the structural engineer.
Eco-gingerbread house
Yes, those are solar panels. And a living roof… we had this baby before the California Academy of Sciences. And a gingerbread Prius.
Back of the eco-gingerbread house
The full album (includes photos of the planning and construction stages)
If NYC’s Christmas is way more Christmas-y than SF’s Christmas, does that mean I have to make a way more Christmas-y gingerbread house?
New York City vs. San Francisco Round 5: Egg puffs
I had a fun NYC adventure with sister Da, cousin Hehe, and He’s friend Shine. We ate bread and spreads at Le Pain Quotidien. Hehe’s funny – she couldn’t stop smiling while we were eating. We also went to FAO Schwartz – ridiculously crowded on Thanksgiving weekend, but we weren’t in a hurry. We stopped by an exhibit of can sculptures. It’s to raise awareness and money about hunger and all the cans are donated in the end. Here’s my favorite:
We finished the day by going to Chinatown to get dumplings – 4 or 5 for $1. They weren’t the best dumplings ever, but for $1, how can you complain?
We also collected some rice pudding from Rice To Riches. It’s like a gelato or yogurt place, but with rice pudding. It’s pretty overpriced, good idea, and pretty good. The best thing is the cute containers that they come in.
But on to the egg puffs. We found an egg puff cart vendor in Chinatown. $1 for a bag of puffs. I can’t remember how much they were in SF at Genki crepes, but definitely more than that. The egg puffs in SF had better texture, but the NYC cart puffs had better flavor – they had a bit of orange to them. Plus, they’re $1. From a cart on the street. Despite the vastly superior texture of the SF puffs, I think this round still has to go to NYC. I was smiling like Hehe by the end of the day.
NYC: 2
SF: 3
I found the perfect cupcakes
Remember how I said that all the cupcake bakeries that I’ve tried don’t make ‘em the way I like ‘em? Well, I’ve found a bakery that makes cupcakes pretty darn close to what I think is ideal… Dessert Club ChikaLicious. Ignore the too-long and slightly annoying name. They’ve got the right amount of frosting, right level of tenderness, right level of lightness, right intensity of flavor, and the right frosting texture – fluffy, but still smooth and rich. They are slightly too sweet, but that’s really my only complaint. And that’s a tricky one because if you decrease the sugar in cakes or frosting, it can adversely affect other things like the texture.
We tried the banana, mocha, red velvet, and the s’mores cupcakes. The banana cupcake was outrageously yummy. My banana-hating sister would really hate this one because the banana flavor is so intense and perfect. I’m not a huge fan of red velvet cake, but this one was the best that I’ve ever had. The other two, mocha and s’mores, were pretty tasty, but because they had a chocolate ganache filling, there wasn’t enough cake for me.
I heard about this place from Serious Eats: New York. Here’s a series of photos that they took of DCC’s cupcakes. Yummy looking, yes?
This cupcake discovery is not included in the whole NYC vs SF competition because, even though there are plenty of cupcake places in SF, I haven’t really tried very many of those. But if it’s a NYC vs DC bout, NYC wins this round. But so far, DC holds the gelato title. That may change after I try some gelato around here, but the DC gelato was mind-blowingly amazing. It’s going to be tough to surpass Dolcezza’s gelato and their use of local/fresh/in-season ingredients.
In other news, I ate the best apple that I’ve had in a long time. I think it was a Jonagold apple, but I’m not sure. I grabbed a bunch of different varieties and put them into the same bag. I wish there were a way for me to reduce the bags that I use and allow me to keep track of what type of apple is what. I guess I could try harder with my memory…
