Passover: An Excuse to Get The Family Gossip

Happy Passover! A holiday where you are suppose to drink at least four glasses of wine by the end of the meal and no one can get mad at you. I know every jewish family is big, but every year my family seems to multiply and the seder table gets longer. Here's how I sum up family time, it makes me grateful for my friends. Forget websites like TMZ and Perezhilton, I've got Nona Lucy, my great-grandmother, who is the sharpest woman I know, not only does she know whats going on with every member of her immediate family of 35, but she always has time to put on lip-liner and lipstick before a picture. My cousins have better networking skills then facebook, being strategically placed at different schools all over the city and all a few years apart to cover all their bases. Now its fun, but growing up I hated it, everyone knew everything about everyone, which my parents loved. Even living across the country my family knew about every roommate fight, night I went out, and snow storm I battled. Although it can be overwhelming, I honestly don't think I would have it any other way. I kinda feel bad for all those people with quiet, some what normal families, they miss out on all the stories. I could write a novel on just my relationship with my mother and grandmother, the three of us together are crazy, but we can't go a day without calling each other. Even though they drive me crazy sometimes, I love them all, I wouldn't fly back and forth just for weekends if I didn't. My family is my number one priority, which I have to explain every time I am half asleep in class tuesday morning after a weekend at home. To which ever relative is reading this right now, your my favorite, don't tell anyone! Sending out some family love on this holiday, have a good one.

Hanging On Bourbon Street

ITS FINALLY SPRING!! So we chose to go to a fun restaurant where we could sit outside. Bourbon Street Bar & Grill has such a fun vibe, with a huge bar and balcony with a DJ playing some fun music. We chose to sit outside and listen to all the street noise, because it was the first night we could! Since it is a southern style restaurant we started with hush puppies and then my friend Dave order a great filet and I ordered a pulled pork sandwich. Of course we finished with pecan pie and donuts, which were amazing! We sat for hours just enjoying the beginning of spring. We will be going back very soon!

Weather Teaser

After a beautiful week of sunshine, not wearing boots and being able to walk through Central Park again, the weather decided to abruptly turn. The monsoon outside had me fighting to get to work on time and still looking cute and kept me inside my room the size of a box during the night. I finally got to watch "When Harry Met Sally" and to everyone who told me this is my life in a nut shell, I got the message Deej and Jess, thanks . It also gave me some time to think about how I feel about New York. I've been so busy with school, work and flying back and forth. I have no idea what I want to do, I know the things I enjoy, but how do you choose just one thing? My biggest passion in life is music, but I don't know what to do with it. Its just not a reliable career choice to follow. I grew up going to work with my grandfather and being surrounded by the business world, and I think that is why from a young age I always enjoyed being at work. So I have a business brain, but all I want to do is sing, where does that leave me? It leaves me with no answers, and if you haven't already figured it out, I am a complete control freak, and not knowing my next step is makes me a nervous wreck. So after chewing on some Tums and seeing a college counselor to decide on a major, she tried to calm me down and explain how being undecided is okay. After thinking about it, I started to believe her and feel better about the whole thing. I just need to learn that I can't be in control all the time, and just have some fun. There are no consistency in my life right now, but what I've learned the last few months is that I can get through anything and be okay anywhere I go. So even though I don't know whats next, I know that I will be okay and find a way to, as Tim Gunn would say, make it work. Does this mean I'm growing up?

Friday Afternoon Ritual: French Roast

Dave and I go to French Roast every weekend, and basically can't function without it. Not only do they make the best coffee I have ever had, but the food is always perfect and the service is always great. There croque monsieur is out of this world! We always sit at the bar and throughly enjoy people watching. The crowd is an interesting mix of local regulars and tourist who are smart enough to find something amazing off the map. Juan, the coffee barista, always makes me a perfect cappuccino and never fails to make the foam on top a work of art. A visit to French Roast always starts my weekend off right!

Late Night at Cafe Frida

After deciding that we were all craving Mexican food, we decided to go to one of my favorite restaurants, Cafe Frida. It a fun, authentic Mexican restaurant, right behind the Museum of Natural History that I stumbled upon with a friends who was visiting from out of town a while ago. During the week it has a fun, laid-back vibe, but don't plan on showing up on the weekends without a reservation. I went on a friday night for my birthday and the place was completely packed. Your not going to find any burritos or nachos on the menu, but you will find tacos al carbon and enchiladas suizas and pitchers of sangria. We all ordered different kinds of tacos and quesadillas. The food was so good and they have great Mexican desserts that my dad raised me on and made me feel right at home!

Cali Girl in the Big City

Although the main focus of this blog is great food in the city, I also want to use it to be able to look back at my experiences during school. I was lucky enough to be able to get the opportunity to move across the country from Los Angeles and a young age and start a new journey. I moved here not knowing a single person and hoping for the best. After stumbling through my first semester and struggling with the idea of sticking out another semester, I decided that I couldn't give up on the amazing city and that I was going to make the next chapter a better experience. So I decided that thursday nights would be a night for me and a few close friends to dress up and go somewhere fun and new and just sit and chat about the stressful week and forget about it over dessert. For me, food is memories, family, friends, celebration, comfort and so many other things and thats why I love talking about it. I am just a young woman trying to enjoy the journey more often by keeping track of every bite of it...

This is why "Sex In The City" is filmed here!

Can't even to begin to describe how amazing our meal at Cafeteria was! Well worth the wait! First off the restaurant was just filled with a great young crowd and lots of fabulous gays. So we started off with Mac n' cheese spring rolls with gouda dipping sauce, nice and light beginning. Then I ordered roasted chicken with cauliflower puree and brussel sprouts, Dave ordered catfish with jalapeno cornbread and Neysa had fried green tomatoes. Just when we thought we were full, it was time for dessert. How about some DEEP FRIED OREOS and apple pie raviolis? Cafeteria is a must! I now dream about those ores! This is our new favorite restaurant, and its open 24/7 which is great