Aviva's a Doctor

So last week, my wife finished up her five years at the Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology and is now a doctor - I am so incredibly proud of her. And even more excited about the fact that now, when people write us a formal greeting, they address it to "The Doctors Gaskill", which just sounds awesome.

The celebration for Aviva's graduation actually lasted a lot longer than just the day, as we spent the weekend with Aviva's sister Rachel and her adorable kids Dylan and Joey. We went hiking at Ward Pound Ridge on Saturday, which was great, we walked up to the Leathermans' cave and caught frogs and dragonflies (you can see Dylan and I hunting for more frogs here on the left, and Dylan and Joey playing on the trail to the cave below). And then I went and did the AIDS walk Sunday with my cousin Julia before meeting Aviva, Rachel, Dylan and Joey in Brooklyn and heading over to my aunt Debbies in Long Beach to celebrate my cousin Toby's birthday and take the kids to the beach. The best part of this afternoon was watching Dylan have an incredible time playing with my cousin Amanda's daughter Sarah, chasing dragons all over the house and the beach.

The big day (graduation) was on Tuesday, and we started with brunch at Norma's with my parents David & Peg, Aviva's parents Bucky & Tanya, her aunt Irene, her sister Rachel and our nephew and niece Dylan and Joey. Breakfast was fabulous, I had a incredible duck confit hash that replaced the potatoes normally in hash with duck, making it essentially a delicious mix of duck, peppers and onions ... having said that Tanya's gigantic belgian waffle covered with fresh fruit was unbelievable.

Being together with family is pretty awesome, and just breakfast would have made for a pretty great day - but obviously Aviva's graduation made breakfast essentially an afterthought. After breakfast we all headed up to Washington Heights, to the main campus of Yeshiva University, where we met up with Koffman (who quite thoughtfully brought the flowers which all the rest of us forgot) and my Aunt Debbie and Uncle Steve and we all watched Aviva and a number of the wonderful friends we have made (really Aviva made and I just kind of inherited) over Aviva's time at Ferkauf walk and get hooded. I have to say, I have seen a number of graduations and been in two of my own, and generally they were fairly boring. And structurally this one wasn't really any different from those other graduations, but it was awesome ... I was so thrilled and proud of her that the ceremony was fantastic. Afterwards we all headed over to a reception put on by Yeshiva, where I got to watch with delight as my parents and aunt & uncle mixed almost seamlessly with Aviva's parents, aunt and sister. That (and watching my wife smile enormously as she was hooded) was really the best part of the day for me. We all hung out for a few hours and then headed back downtown, where we visited my parents hotel room in the crazy, modern hotel Andaz with Debbie & Steve before heading home.

While most people went home on Tuesday night or Wednesday morning, Aviva and my celebration continued for one more night, as we met up with Tanya and Bucky in the city for an unreal dinner at Nobu. Fantastic sake (YK35 - which apparently means that only the best 35% of the original rice grains were used to make this sake that was so silky and flavorful I didn't believe it was actually sake) and ridiculous sashimi. Incredibly thin and so well flavored, all four of the sashimi that we tried (yellowtail with jalapeno, fluke with ground red miso, tuna in salad with ginger-onion marinade and another fabulous tuna) we just wonderful. And the hot dishes and sushi, particularly the rock shrimp with a tangy kind of orange-spicy aioli and the unagi, were also tremendous - though nothing compared to the sashimi. All together, dinner was awesome, entirely satiating and an incredible amount of fun, as it often is when we go out with Bucky & Tanya. A fitting and wonderful end to a fantastic few days celebrating Aviva's graduation.

My Belated Birthday

So this year for my birthday, Aviva organized a picnic with two of our friends Amy and Max, who happen to be fantastic photographers, so that they could teach me more about photography, particularly of waterfalls ... which are a minor obsession for me. I have been pretty excited about this all year, and when we finally went it was fantastic ... Aviva not only organized the picnic, she also made all the food, all of which was fantastic. She made a series of amazing salads; curry chicken, a crisp, not mayonaise-y potato salad with bacon, a corn-black bean salad and an amazing fruit salad. But I think the best thing of all was dessert, which was an unbelievable sea salt chocolate tart (it was actually huge, more like a cake) - it was ridiculous.

The place we went was also pretty fantastic, the YMCA camp at Frost Valley, about 2 hours north west of Westchester. It was really beautiful, and there was a fantastic plunge/punchbowl type waterfall about 1.5 miles from the picnic site, which was perfect. High falls was fantastic, and I think we got some pretty good shots, and there was another wonderful 4-tiered waterfall on the side of the road .. And best of all, it was a fantastic time, great company incredible food and a beautiful setting. Wonderful birthday all around ... I love my incredible wife :)

... farther from California ...

So I have been living on the East Coast for about 4 years now, having arrived on September 11th 2006 ... when I was first living here there were so many things I missed about California ... most notably my family and friends, but also the weather, the lack of humidity, the fruit, the rollerblading, the hiking and mountains, the ocean (not the beach, don't love the beach), the thousands of burritos, the tap water in the Bay Area (San Diego has shitty tap water), the relaxed atmosphere and attitudes ... and I am sure there was more that I cannot think of right now.

But I was recently in California, camping in the Sierra National Forest, and I realized that I was thinking about how dry and bare the area looked. And as I thought about this, and how dry my lips were, I realized, to my great surprise, that I missed the outdoors in the Northeast. So I have started to take stock, and as I have spent more time here, and settled into my life (got married, bought a house, got promoted, new friends, explored the city and Westchester), I see that where I live now really provides a lot of what I have been missing.

The best super market I have ever been to, Fairway, just opened on my commute home from work last spring. On the whole, the super markets in California are far better, and I really miss Henry's, but with Fairway and Trader Joes and the great asian market down the road, things are pretty good here.

The mountains here are more like hills, and the foliage is very different, with crazy ground-to-sky green ... but the Hudson Valley, the 'Gunks, Catskills and especially the Adirondacks have incredible opportunities for hiking and nature photography that are closer to where I live now than they ever were in California. I still miss the majesty of the Sierras, but the mountains here are spectacular in a wholely different way.

The city, really Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens, have such a rich variety of amazing restaurants that I am constantly shocked at the incredible eating opportunities that I am presented with ... still, the burritos will never hold a candle to El Zarape, Cotixan or even Robertos or Santana's.

I have often deplored the lack of good trails for rollerblading here; I used to spend every Sunday year-round skating around Mission Bay, an 8 - 16 mile loop. I love it. Except for the wonderful bicycle sundays where they close down the Bronx River Parkway near our house, the best I could find here was Joe Michael's Mile. But recently, I discovered the North County Trailway, which stretches the length of Westchester County, which is by far the most beautiful, longest rollerbladeable trail I have ever skated on.

Sure, Californians are much more relaxed and low key than New Yorkers, sometimes the tension here can feel physically oppressive. But in terms of low key-ness, I was never the most relaxed guy in California, while now I am one of the calmest people around. Its kind of nice to be the voice of calm most of the time ... although there are definitely times I wish everyone would just chill out.

There are many more examples leaning the way of the East Coast and all of them leave me tremendously thrilled with my life ... but also sad because they leave me much farther from California.

The weather right now

Its hot. And it has been hot for like 2 weeks. It is so hot that when I get home, it takes more than 10 minutes to break a full sweat, I say it feels pleasant. Ridiculous.

I could say it is like Africa hot, but I have not spent enough time in Africa to know if the whole continent is this miserable. I could, with accuracy, say Thailand hot. But whatever, it is too hot ... I looked at the forecast for the next month, and there is not a day below 88°F with high humidity ... WTF ... I mean, for three months out of the year the place is abhorrent, so hot and humid that walking outside is like putting on a thick, body-sized wool scarf. When we came home from the finger lakes, it was 106°F here in the afternoon. That meant it was 15°F cooler, 91°F, when we left Seneca lake ... 91°F should never be 15°F cooler than anywhere. 91°F is definitely a 15°F warmer number ...

Finger Lakes on the Fourth

So, over the fourth of July weekend, we took off out of the city with our neighbors and we spent three days camping at the south end of Seneca Lake, the deepest of the Finger Lakes. Overall it was a fabulous weekend, with plenty of hanging out on the lake (horse balls and beers), good food, good wine, a solid, if unspectacular hike (it would have been a lot better if it had not been so hot/buggy or if the waterfalls had been running) and, most importantly, some of the most beautiful waterfalls I have ever encountered. In the center of Watkins Glen, a small, tourist town at the south end of Seneca Lake, is Watkins Glen State Park, wherein a fabulous, paved trail winds its way around 19 gorgeous waterfalls ... which have cut their way down through hundreds of layers of rock creating an incredible, striated gorge which highlights the flowing water like nothing I have ever seen (you can see more pictures on my Facebook page). As you can see by the pictures, the running water and the shadows and sunlight mix to make up a really magical place.

But before I got to the waterfalls on the first evening at camp, we explored Cool-lea camp ... a nice, grassy parking lot of a camper area, with some wooded areas (one of which we camped in) by a smallish, algae-filled but pretty lake (Lake Cayuta). Just after we arrived, the neighbors got embroiled in a horse shoe competition and I headed out to see the falls. Dinner and drinking followed on my return, and afterward we enjoyed some local fireworks (which almost, but not quite, set the forest on fire).

The next day (the 4th)we spent the wine drinking good reisling and poor to average red wine at a variety of different wineries along the Eastern shore of Seneca lake. The area is known for its reislings, and we had a number of good ones, most memorably at Standing Stone vineyards, where the wonderful woman helping us taste was far and away the most pleasantly talkative person we met. She was also a great saleswoman (or it could be that that winery had the tastiest wines), because between the many tastes and the dips and spreads we were eating we ended up dropping a pretty penny for some excellent vidals, reislings and ice wines. All in all we hit I think five wineries before lunch, but Standing stone was definitely the most fun. After picking up lunches at Stonecat (catfish sandwich for me, quite good), we swam in Seneca lake, stopped back by Watkins glen and then enjoyed another excellent meal (burgers and chicken kebabs), before drinking our way late into the night. A fun and fabulous day, you can read more about some of the other wineries in this article my friend Ali wrote.

On the fifth, we got up relatively early, ate a quick breakfast and went out to a near-by hike ... which was nice but probably would have been a lot nicer if it had not been 97°C and really huid and buggy. And if the waterfall we were supposed to be hiking too had been running. Give huge props to everyone for sticking it out, because even though it was a pretty forest and a nice trail, it was a hot, tough day for that kind of exertion. I heard several "I cannot remember ever sweating this much" comments, and I have to say I was myself fairly disgusting. After the hike we rampaged an ice cream store and ate far too much (at least I did, the large was aggressively so) and then headed back to the lake, where everyone but Aviva and I relaxed and took a powder while we went back to see the waterfalls again. Still absolutely stunning. The last nights dinner was an excellent crab risotto Aviva masterminded, and then we turned in relatively early before heading back to the city. Great place, great food, great company ... fantastic weekend!!

Mini-hikes near Home

Today we had planned on going hiking, but after I got back from work and Aviva got back from the gym, it seemed like there were going to be thunderstorms, so we elected to do a short hike in one of the parks near our house. We chose Sprain Ridge Park, which is about 4 miles from us, nestled in between the north and south bound branches of the Sprain Brook Parkway. It has a pool and a lot of picnic facilities, but also has a nice little network of trails which we spent an hour or two enjoying this afternoon. I love that we live somewhere so beautiful that even the space between a highway can make a lovely hike. To get to Sprain Ridge Park, head up to Jackson avenue in North Yonkers.

Joy

Spring in Westchester is fantastic. The trees out our window are blooming, bright and green but still bright because the sunlight is still filtering through the thin leaves at the tops of the trees. The grounds around our place are growing green and lush. The trees along the Bronx river parkway are bursting with bright white and pink flowers, air is crisp and feels light and bright and driving home to Hartsdale simply makes you smile.

Joy is spring in Westchester.

Frutti del Mar for New Years!!

So last year, Aviva and I did not go out for New Years. We took advantage of the cheapness of lobster and had a lobster/shrimp/scallop extravaganza, drank too much prosecco, watched Kung Fu panda and passed out around 1045 ... although I woke Aviva up at 1155 to watch the ball fall. And thus a tradition was born.

This year, on New Years eve, after work, Aviva went my Stew Leonards and Morton Williams and picked up a pile of seafood, including these two delicious lobsters or the right, as well as crab legs, shrimp and mussels. When I got home around 2 hours later, she had just finished consolidating this fabulous variety of seafood into a large platter of risotto liberally filled with Frutti del Mar ... mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. It was kind of incredible, I had a lot of trouble not wolfing it down as soon as I got home, but instead we got the water boiling and got ready to cook up the lobsters. We romanced our lobsters a little bit , you have to treat them nicely if they are going to treat you nicely if they are going to treat you nicely , and then dumped them in the boiling pot to cook them up for our 1st course.




While the lobsters were cooking we put the finishing touches on the table, and when they were done we sat down in our beautiful living room and tore into the sea food extravaganza, spraying lobster bits and mussels all over the table as we devoured the butter soaked, incredibly tender and delicious sea food. After we ate, a process which we savored over about an hour and a half, we retired to the den and watched The Brothers Bloom, a quite bizarre movie, on the computer. Then exhausted and slightly drunk, we brought up Times Square live on the computer, looked at the poor, cold people standing for hours in the freezing rain, and decided we were thrilled not to be there. Then we went to bed around 11, falling asleep at around 1130 and not waking up until 8 or 9 hours into the next year.

Welcome 2010

So last year, Aviva and I did not go out for New Years. We took advantage of the cheapness of lobster and had a lobster/shrimp/scallop extravaganza, drank too much prosecco, watched Kung Fu panda and passed out around 1045 ... although I woke Aviva up at 1155 to watch the ball fall. And thus a tradition was born.

This year, on New Years eve, after work, Aviva went my Stew Leonards and Morton Williams and picked up a pile of seafood, including these two delicious lobsters or the right, as well as crab legs, shrimp and mussels. When I got home around 2 hours later, she had just finished consolidating this fabulous variety of seafood into a large platter of risotto liberally filled with Frutti del Mar ... mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. It was kind of incredible, I had a lot of trouble not wolfing it down as soon as I got home, but instead we got the water boiling and got ready to cook up the lobsters. We romanced our lobsters a little bit , you have to treat them nicely if they are going to treat you nicely if they are going to treat you nicely , and then dumped them in the boiling pot to cook them up for our 1st course.



While the lobsters were cooking we put the finishing touches on the table, and when they were done we sat down in our beautiful living room and tore into the sea food extravaganza, spraying lobster bits and mussels all over the table as we devoured the butter soaked, incredibly tender and delicious sea food. After we ate, a process which we savored over about an hour and a half, we retired to the den and watched The Brothers Bloom, a quite bizarre movie, on the computer. Then exhausted and slightly drunk, we brought up Times Square live on the computer, looked at the poor, cold people standing for hours in the freezing rain, and decided we were thrilled not to be there. Then we went to bed around 11, falling asleep at around 1130 and not waking up until 8 or 9 hours into the next year.

Westchester in the Fall

You would be hard pressed to find anyone who would tell you that the weather in New Yorks beats the weather in California at anytime of year, but if their is a superior season on the East Coast, it has to be the two or three weeks in the fall when the trees put on a show, shimmering and waving deep red and bright gold leaves in the crisp, autumn air.

We are in the middle of that time right now, and I have spent the past two days wandering along the Bronx River parkway near our house in Hartsdale. While these pictures cannot truly express the beauty here in Westchester, they do give a sense of how glorious it is here right now.

My awesome friends

So I have not seen a lot of my friends recently, as things have been really, really busy for me, but one of my friends, a certain Mr. Koffman, has been far less available, so much so that I was beginning to doubt he still lived in New York. However, it turns out that he has been that busy doing something really amazing and admirable, securing funding for a cool, green (solar panels) affordable housing project in Brooklyn. You can read about it here, and this is what it will look like,

As crappy as reality seems sometimes, it is always inspiring to me when people give up as much of their time and energy as Koffman has to make something worthwhile a reality. Huge props dude.

Castles In New York

So it has been raining an awful lot recently, but one needs to get outside, rain be damned, so last Sunday, despite an inauspicious start to the day, Aviva and I drove up to Eastchester, met up with Cheo and his son Danny, and then grabbed Joy in Garrison on our way to a hike in the Castle Rock unique area nearby. Castle Rock was originally built as an estate for central railroad president William Osborne, and is currently the center of the Castle Rock Unique Area (also known as Osborne Castle) basically a park with a funny name. The area is beautiful right now, very green and lush, like many of the hiking areas around the Hudson valley we have been to recently. I think that one of my favorite things about nature in New York is that going back to the same places at different times of year can yield incredibly varied landscapes and experiences ... yup, I like seasons ...

Anyway, the hike was supposed to be about 6.5 miles but ended up being more like 4 or 5 due to numerous stops to take pictures, gawk at the deer or large snakes or the many small ponds, eat lunch overlooking the hudson and bear mountain bridges, play with the dogs frolicking in Lake (more like a pond) Elizabeth and get lost a couple of different times. And to worry about ticks. A lot. We must have run into four or five different people who lived in the area and walked up there all the time, and everyone of them said, "Hi. Hope you folks are enjoying this beautiful place. Be careful, there are lots of deer ticks up here." We also passed fascinating mosses, lichens and funghi, including a particularly bright group of orange funghi covered with large black and yellow insects. And the whole path was dotted with cute chairs carved from stumps, or small gazebos, or little gardens on top of stone pillars designating the trail. Even though the signs of man's handy work were everywhere, they did not seem to detract from the wildness of the area ... the light and dark greens of the canopy closed us in and made the place feel much more distant than it was in reality.

The day had started off cloudy but tailed into a beautiful afternoon, and we all very much enjoyed frolicking in this surprisingly lush and secluded woods in the shadow of the old castle. At some points, like when everyone left me to take pictures of this pond, the woods got really quiet and the way the light filtered through the trees onto the water seemed almost mystical. It was a really beau just across the river from west point. After the hike, we dropped Joy off at the train station and Cheo, Danny, Aviva and myself stopped at a dinner for some good grease before heading home to end a satisfying sunday.

Directions : To get to Castle Rock Unique Area, take the Sprain Parkway north until it becomes Taconic Parkway, then exit at NY-100N/NY-9AN and then stay on NY-9A until you reach US-202/US-6/US-9. Turn left and soon after you will reach a traffic circle, from which you will follow Roa Hook Road/US-9 until you turn left and Cat Rock Road/NY-403. Follow 403 until you hit NY route 9D, turn left and find the entrance to the park about 0.3 miles down the road on the left between two large stone pillars.

Burrito Box

My quest for meaningful Mexican food in New York continues ... now that I have a partner in this quest, Russell, who agrees with me that the burritos in New York are sadly lacking, I will venture to the farthest corners of the city to fulfill my burrito hunger. Last night did not take me so far, but it does take a while to get from the Bronx do to 58th and 9th, so I am putting in the effort.

The burrito box, which I found on the burritophile (a must see site for all burrito lovers) looking for good burrito places in New York (a rarity) is a pretty small place, which, like many whole-in-the-wallish restaurants, is all about the food. In this case, this is a good thing, as the food is pretty good. Moving here from San Diego a few years ago, I have been somewhat embittered by the deplorable burritos found around New York, where the tortillas are flaky and flavorless and the beans/rice are just ... off somehow. Maybe that wonderful water thats good for the pizza and bagels just kills burritos.

This place was a welcome change, with a nice selection of standard offerings and interesting alternatives, and the burritos were a good size and well made and wrapped, so they were not falling apart after eating a quarter of the burrito. I very much enjoyed by BBQ seitan burrito and a bite of Russell's chicken burrito. Unlike most places in New York, the tortillas were tasty and soft, and the filling was excellent with the being seitan was well cooked and flavorful, and not too chewy. Importantly, all the filling was well distributed, so I did not get all the sour cream at the start and all the beans at the end.

We sat at one of the 3 or 4 tables/counters , and while we were there munching the chips and then our burritos, we had an interesting coversation with our fellow burrito eater sharing the counter. Russell later confided in me that he was sure this guy was a serial killer and was going to off us, but I think he just seemed a bit bitter and out of sorts. It was an odd conversation, as the guy only talked to Russell, and when I spoke to him or disagreed with him, he stopped speaking for a minute, only to jump in later about something entirely unrelated. And only talking with Russell. I mean Russell is a lot cuter than I am, but still ...

After a very satisfying meal, we left, stopped by a wine store in columbus circle to ogle scotch and have some free wine, and then walked up through the park to 86th, where I caught the bus back home. Overall it was an excellent night and one of the best burrito experiences I have had in the city, and even though it is a schlep for me to get there from the Bronx, I would definitely go back.

PS - You can check out my review of the burrito box at burritophile here.

New York Jews

Simply put .. being Jewish in New York is awesome. You all the Jewish cultural benefits, like knishes, holidays on Rosh Hashanah and Passover, random yiddish in the street and hot Jewish girls everywhere (although that is not really important for me anymore but it was when I moved here). So, all the benefits, but not really many of the constraints, because, like in Israel, there are so many different types of Jews in New York that you can feel comfortable being Jewish any way you want. Any way you want to do Jewish, lots of others want to do Jewish that way too ...

This was brought home to me tonight, when I went to my cousins birthday party at my aunts house on Saturday night. My Aunt Debbie cooks a meal for you (whatever you want to eat) on your birthday, and as she is an amazing cook, it is always fabulous. As we all sat down to dinner, nine Jews around a huge pile of mussels and a pork roast, and listened to my cousin talk about how she only likes the traif from the ocean, I thought, I love being Jewish in New York :)

Malagueta

So this weekend was mostly devoted to working, although Aviva and I did have a wonderful Shabbat dinner with Paul, Maia and Mordechai on Friday night. Paul made fantastic brisket and Maia made an even better challah, light and fluffy, the half she sent us home with sustained me through much of the weekend. Still, I worked a long day on Saturday and a bit on Sunday, after we had brunch with Aviva's friend Abbie, so Sunday night was a good time to get out and relax.

Fortunately, we had made plans to meet Stacy at Malagueta in Long Island City/Astoria, so after a relatively quick trip to the Fairway (I simply love that market) in Red Hook with our friend Koffman, we headed back up to Queens. Stacy had given us a couple of options for dinner, and I had immediately wanted to go to Malagueta because of my blissful memories of brazilian food from my trip to Rio in 2002. Ah Rio, such a blast ... I had hair then ... In particular, I was interested in the moqueca (seafood stew with coconut milk) and acaraje, a street food made of ground black-eyed peas shaped into balls surrounding a shrimp paste or meat and garnished with salsa and veggies. Kind of like a hamburger, only not at all. I know the acaraje sounds like it would be terrible, but it is really hard to describe (take a look at the picture on the left to see what it looked like in Brazil) and really good.

Anyway, we got a bit confused about the directions and were about 40 minutes late, but fortunately Stacy lives around the corner so she was just hanging out and actually showed up about 10 minutes after us. Just after she sat down the acaraje I ordered was just coming out, and while it was a little fancier than the street food in Rio, it was definitely worth it. Little yucca root pancakes topped with vatapa (that shrimp paste I was telling you about) and a single shrimp. The main courses came pretty quickly after the acaraje, I got the moqueca I had been dreaming about, and although it was not really what I expected (on the right, courtesy of the bridge and tunnel club, not quite as thick or soupy as I expected), it was a beautiful dish and really, really good. Aviva and Stacy got pork loin and top sirloin respectively, and their dishes were also quite good. I was particularly pleased that everything was served with rice and black beans and farofa, a ground root poweder that you sprinkle over just about everything. Overall, dinner was extremely filling and very good, and soon we were all wiped out just from the food, so we paid up (very reasonable, the three of us ate for 74$), said good night to Stacy and headed home so Aviva could make beef jerky. I will let you know how that turns out :)

Racquetball, finally ...

So it has been years since I have last played racquetball. Literally. I have not played since I left San Diego, but while I lived there I was playing 2 or 3 times a week. And since I moved to New York, I have been looking for for a place to play ... but had not been able to find one until recently, when I found the one New York Sports Club in the city with racquetball courts ... which happens to be in Brooklyn, right by the Belt Parkway. This is a bit far from me (not in terms of distance but in terms of time, this being New York driving 13 miles takes 45 minutes), but not too far to go for racquetball.

So last Saturday I drove through Brooklyn to pick up Koffman, and then we headed down to the Belt. The NYSC was pretty big actually, and a bit nicer than the one we have in the Bronx, and most importantly, it did have 5 racquetball courts. Oddly, the racquetball courts were not fully enclosed, there was some netting instead of plastic on the upper back wall. This wasn't such a big deal, although we did end up spending a bit of time waving at the people upstairs to pop our ball out of the netting.

So finally, after a relatively long warm-up, we got to the playing ... and the whupping. We were both pretty out of practice, and the games were a bit sloppy, but despite this, I pasted Koffman five games to none, no game particularly close. In Koffmans' defense, the games were a lot more competative than the score. And more importantly, Koffman had not played racquetball since the last millenium.

I love racquetball. I did not even know how much I had missed it.

So the games were fantastic and will need to be repeated. And soon. And after the 2 and 1/2 hours of racquetball, we were, as expected, righteously hungry ... we had planned on going to Di Faras, the incredible pizza place in Brooklyn. Because there is nothing as good a gorging on pizza after a serious workout. However, Dom, the owner of Di Faras, recently broke his hip and the place is currently closed down. So we went to another incredible pizza place nearby, called Spumoni Gardens. The place was a kind of chintzy Italian place with a separate oven area devoted only to pizza. That area was full of a half-dozen guys bustling around behind a long counter, yelling and serving some of the best thin-crust pizza I have ever eaten. We got a full pie, with sausage and mushrooms, and tided ourselves over while it was being made by splitting a piece of the ready made square pizza they had at the front. After about 15 minutes, the pie was ready and we settled in to eat.

By the time Aviva and her cousin showed up 45 minutes later, we were stuffed and there was only one piece left. They got some more of the square pizza, finished that, and we went next door for some fantastic homemade ice cream ... Koffman also got an eggplant hero to warm his nether regions. Sated and happy, we headed back to the Bronx, stopping off at the Fairway in Red Hook on the way to pick up the groceries for the week.

I love Scotch, Scotchy, Scotch, Scotch ...

So yesterday was quite a Scotch day for me, imbibing nine different varieties over the course of the afternoon and evening. As I am rapidly sliding down the hill toward full-fledged Scotch collectors addiction, the tastings were a real treat. The context, or excuse for this tasting was that some friends of ours, Dan & Karla, were in town for the weekend, actually on their way through to Obamas' inauguration in DC. They, like 5 million other crazy people, all way to freeze together on Tuesday standing on the mall while Obama makes a likely profound but inaudible speech on the Washington mall. I have heard that the crowd at the inauguration will be the largest gathering of people in human history ...

Anyway, Dan & Karla got in around 9 am, starving after a red-eye, and I picked them up around 11 am because I am a dick ... and because traffic in Brooklyn kind of sucks, sorry guys. I did have bagels for them in the back seat as a peace offering. We met up with Aviva and her friend Ilana, who I absolutely adore, at the Chelsea Market. Dan and Karla are serious foodies and wanted to visit because Dan had seen it on the food network.

The market is a great space, kind of long tunnel between 9th and 10th lined with interesting sculpture, waterfalls, lights, pillars and most importantly a variety of fancy food shops and restaurants. After persusing the place, drooling over interesting salts, fig sauces and mustards, we settled on lunch at Chelsea Thai wholesale, delicious and very cheap. After lunch we gawked at seafood and ate some cupcakes and split up, Aviva, Karla and Ilana heading to Lohmans to shop and Dan and I walking to St. Andrews in mid-town. My uncle, who knows my love for Scotch, recommended this place to me a couple of weeks ago and I have been dying to go. I was not disappointed. An unassuming Scotish pub on 44th, you can tell these people are serious about scotch drinking because the walls and bannisters are lined with scotch bottles and packages, and because waiters wear kilts. St. Andrews boasts the 2nd largest collection of single malt scotch in the city, more than 200 varieties. And most importantly, they understand the importance of tasting scotch and allow you to order one ounce tasters of each scotch you want to try !!! I did not know this going in and almost danced a jig (which would have been terrible since I cannot jig) in joy when I saw this.

Over the next, wonderful 2 1/2 hours, Dan and I each tried four different scotches, sampling each others as well. Isle of Jura "Superstition" was very smoky, much more so than the Jura 16 year that I adore. Edradour 10 was quite plain, a bit of fruit and peaty, but very light. Springbank 10 was warm, the vanilla and bite only appearing in your mouth after a minute or two. For me, the hands down winner was the Aberlour a'bunadh, a delicious cask strength (around 60%) Aberlour matured in sherry casks that was so smooth and sweet it tasted like it was filled with alcoholic molasses. Amazing. Tomintoul 12, is a like a lighter, slightly sweeter Macallan, and was delicious. Talisker 10 and Clynelish 14, both among the classic single malts, were too smoky/peatly and with a bit too much bite, respectively. I actually like Clyneish but tend to drink it on the rocks. The last of Dans' tastes, the Glenmorangie Quinta Ruban, was exceptional, a rich, smooth and round finish with a nutty sweetness that comes from aging in ruby port pipes. Really wonderful.

A phone call around six led Aviva and Karla to pick us up, and after we dropped Dan and Karla off we went to my bosses holiday party, where we had excellent food and good company. It is also here that I had the last of my Scotches, when my bosses husband offered me a glass of Macallan 18 to finish off the evening ... who can say no to that. I drank it slowly with Juan, whom you last saw hiking Norvins Green with me in November. I finished the scotch as we watched the Knicks get beat down by the 76ers, not an entirely unsurprising result. About an hour after the game I braved the frigid temperatures, the scotch helped with that, to go and get the the car and Aviva and I picked up Dan and Karla and headed home.