Big Sweet Tooth

I Think I'm Done with Eating Out For a Minute

Was hauling back from AZ for the holidays and popped onto Roadfood.com on my iphone and happened to zone right in on a soul food restaurant in downtown Phoenix.  Done. 

Looking back - I mean, REALLY?  Who needs this much food in their tummy?  All veggies, which is good, but I killed that plate of food in about 5 minutes.  With cornbread.  That cannot be right.  Cannot be healthy, even. 

If I eat a meal I made, I feel like a billion dollars.  If I eat out, well...once I'm over the initial excitement - I'm always exhausted and need a nap immediately.  It might not fit into my upcoming program at all.  I need to nest, to cook, to putter a bit.  And, for real - to finally master organize my life.  I think eating out will just slow me down.  I read yesterday that it takes 40 days to break a habit.  Could I possibly go 40 days without eating out? And, let's toss in no sugar to that mix as well - except in rum and coffee!

OK - no eating out, but I can drink out.  Which is even harder, cause after a few Cuba Libre's - all I want are some salty fries with ranch.  That's the resolution thought and I'm sticking to it.  Interesting to see how my mood will flow with only homemade in the system.  

And, you know what - though the meal was "good," in no way, shape or form did it compare to the spread my Granny can make in her sleep.  Nothing from a restaurant ever quite does. 

I already miss my fave Vietnamese joint, and the pupusas I can't have for 40 days.  What to do when I'm traveling then? Which is coming up in a few weeks for work...OK - whilst traveling, I'm good if I just eat right.  None of this wild pizza fiasco, everything all smothered in ranch nonsense.

Prepare for me to finally achieve health.  I'm really serious :)

2010 Is All About The Shed

It was on a bitter day in early December that I realized that much as I adore NYC, that most def. ain't the city for me.  Por que, you might ask?  Well, for starters - there is no Pacific Ocean rolling around in its back yard.  Yah, there's the Atlantic, but that's not quite the Pac, you know?

Then there's the up factor.  Everything just goes up, not out.  No space, no spread.  No out.  Just this constantly throbbing machine working at all hours in an attempt to unite masses of strangers.  Guess I love being in bed by 8pm.  Or at least in my pajamas.  Love being up by 5 am.  Love sunrise, love the moment just after sunset. 

On that same day I snapped the bridge leaving Brooklyn, I thought to myself.  Nah, MST girl, it's water, it's tropical, it's away from anything normal and plain.  Which oddly, big cities now seem that way to me.  Just hum-drum.

What isn't normal and plain is a sailboat. Neither is a little tow behind travel trailer rigged out with solar panels down in Mexico. I'm seriously contemplating a full upgrade to the new Airstream International - with the solar package and paprika interior.  That thing is fierce. 

2010 is about mobility for me.  Not as in homebase, but just mobility in the mind.  Total freedom to spread my thoughts out like a pile of coins and pick up the shiniest penny I can find and run with it.  Make it even shinier, with more sizzle.  All these ideas, all these plans.  Some stick.  Some morph.  Some roll away.  Some just marinate and blast out again when least expected. 

New decade.  Make it all about The Shed.  Ditching all that was and embracing all that can be.  What a wonderful world we live in, full of mad, mad opportunity around every corner.  The good life is literally in every Toothie email I get from random folks who are just looking for something a little different.  And, if I show you that in some small way here on BST, well...salut*

3 Combo Meal at Samosa House - Can I Just Move On???

There's not much in the world that $7.99 can buy.  Not much at all.  But, at Samosa House on Washington - an Indian restaurant/cafe/deli/market, you can get your pick of a dozen or so 100% vegetarian Indian eats.  With garlic naan, mind you. 

Yah, I was ill once I left the joint, but that was only cause I inhaled some veg fried fritters and a potato samosa in the span of about 1.5 seconds.  Then, mixed in my combo with Lisa's combo and it was enough food - for real - for a small army.  That just ain't right.

So, now...I'm on a mad health food kick.  Like crazy for 2010.  All organic.  All vegetarian.  Maybe even some vegan madness thrown in for good measure.  I got my awesome Vegan Table cookbook, I got mi casa all sorted.  I got my new MAC rockin' in the office.  All is well for the new year.  Gotta stay away from Indian, I think.  

PS - so many of my pals are doing some sick, sick stuff this year.  Enough to make the masses bawl and bawl.  I'm gonna lay some of it out in the coming posts, just to inspire the Toothies.

 

 
   

Back to Food, Back to Mexican, Back to All that May Matter in the World - A Satisfied Belly

After tumbling out of the new and incredibly blissful Wilshire Spa (if you're into Korean spas and treatments, pony up the $130 for 2 hrs of massages, scrubs, body wraps and a cucumber facial extravaganza--its open 24 hours), me and my bud Lis happened upon my new fave Oaxacan restaurant in Koreatown.  Crazy, mad, deliciously good.  In fact, I now love Koreatown.  8th St. is where it's at for street food style grub.

Guelaguetza (look at the dish gallery on the website, I would not steer you wrong...PLEASE go out of your way to hit this spot) had quite possibly the best mole I've ever devoured.  I know for certain the horchatacantaloupe will never be forgotten, and seriously, the teaser plate of warm chips doused in coloradito sauce and crumbled cheese was sick.  Sick to the point of I ate 'em so quick, I was honestly sick!
with cactus juice, chopped nuts and

Why can't there be joints like this over in MDR?  All brightly lit with blaring bandito tunes.  Valet parkers that charge $3 just to back your car up 16 inches.  Chubby Mexican kids racing around chasing a bruised ball.  Ginormous vats of food on the cheap.  The stuff belly dreams are made of*

True love found, once again...perfect Mexican in the heart of a Korean hood in the middle of loca LA.

 

A Bird and The Pacific

Here I was on my way to the tip of the Marina del Rey pier and I lazily strolled past a bird just gazing away across the Pacific.  Exactly what I was on my way to do.  Whipped out my iphone and off he went. The picture turned out better than if I'd gotten his mug in it.  Just a nothing but wings and a full take off to distant lands (Santa Monica pier, I'm sure).  

All that said, I'm finally back from the mess of New Jersey and life is finally straightening back out. My poor shambled, sloppy, sassy life is on the ups once again and I can't wait for the new year.  Plus, can't be happier to get back onto the Tooth and really assess what the hell is shaking down in 2010.

Salut to birds, wings, water and faraway places.