Happy "something on a stick day!"

Or better known as, Emily's Birthday! Yes, March 28th is officially known (other than my birthday) as Something on a stick day! So, grab that fudgecicle or hot dog on-a-stick and let's celebrate today!

To find out what special day, your special day is, click:
http://library.thinkquest.org/2886/INDEX.HTM

I spy..

The Empire State Building


photo credit: me!

Happy Easter!

Happy (belated) Easter!! Good friends Erin & Andy are staying with me from the UK, and we decided to throw our own Easter celebration.

Erin and I are getting prepared for all our upcoming expat adventures in cooking for American holidays! Erin cooked this amazing Pork with carmalized pears and a cream
sauce and roasted potato, I got a last chance to make our family green bean casserole.

As you can see, I still have a lot to learn! But, Giancarlo doesn't mind being my guinea pig. Easter down... next up, Thanksgiving! HA.

Five star hotel.. $5 burger

Le Parker Meridien in NYC has a secret... and I just discovered what it is. This five star luxury hotel hides the most amazing, rock 'n roll, grundge burger joint.
Look out IN & OUT. I actually have to give the props to Giancarlo for showing us this hidden gem. It's a word-of-mouth place hidden behind these huge, long curtains.

A line wraps around the outside, and thats how you know you're in the right place. You walk from prim and proper into CBGB style burger joint.

The walls are lined with famous autographs and vintage movie and music posters. The space is tight, and you have to be a vulture in finding seating, but its WELL worth it... and I don't even eat red meat!


"Burger Joint" at Le Parker Meridien
118 W. 57th St. (btwn. 6th & 7th Aves.)
(212) 708-7414

Let's get LOST!

This is the great thing about New York, and one of the things I miss the most about living in the East Village... LOST at Professor Tom's. PT is right around the corner from my old apartment on 13th street, and they do a LOST nights on Thursdays (also Wii bowling on Wed. nights.. I mean could it get any better!?)

We scored the big comfy sofa in the corner with one plasma TV and one projector screen. New Yorkers file in to watch the show, and the place gets packed and surprisingly the bar gets dead silent when the show is on.


Everyone converses during the commericals to figure out what the heck just happened, and then back to dead silence once the show is back on. Now we have to wait till April 24th for our next LOST night...until then, Wii bowling anyone!?

The cat's out of the bag!

WE'RE MOVING TO ITALY!!! Yes folks, Emily's Adventures in New York will be coming to end on May 5th!

For more deets, check out: http://www.casadipacheco.blogspot.com

We've been secretly hiding.javascript:void(0)

He's a keeper!

These beauties arrived at my office yesterday. No reason, just because. And, I LOVE it! (and him!)

Holy dumpling date!

It isn't often that GC and I get a chance to get out and enjoy the New York night life (lately) mainly because it is expensive and we've got a lot of expenses in the next two months- which we are definitely not complaining about! Last night we went out to New York hot spot Chinatown Brasserie. We've been trying to go for ages (GC went once and fell in love, now it's my turn!) and finally made it there last night.
This place is known for their dumplings. I've never had them, but we ordered two kinds of dumplings. This was all in the "let's get Emily to try new foods" events which, I have to admit.. I've been getting a lot better at. I sorta eat red meat now, so it's a step in the right direction. The first set of dumplings were pork dumplings that were what I think baked into this sorta puff-pasty style. I tried it... that was good for me. I let Giancarlo polish those off. The other set of dumplings that we ordered were a pork/shrimp mix that were wrapped in the won ton paper with a broth inside. There is a traditional way of eating these (which I learned last night) They give you soup spoons in which you put the dumpling on, and then with your chopsticks, you poke a hole and let the steam come out and sip the broth.. then eat the dumpling. Quite the activity!

We also decided if we're going to go out, we're going all out... therefore DESSERT! Again, in the spirt of "trying new things" we picked the only thing that we didn't understand on the menu.. Cinnamon bao. What the heck is a "Bao" well ... we found out. Here is a picture of these tasty little nuggets. Inside there was a frosting-custard cream. It was like little miniture Cinnabons with frosting inside. Little perfect pastry puffs of heaven.. really, need I say more?!

(my apologies for busting out stock photos. Sadly, it was too dark inside for me to take good pictures)

My fortune cookie read: EXCUSE ME
lucky numbers: 4. 22. 32 12

www.chinatownbrasserie.com
380 Lafayette St. New York, NY 212.533.7000