Phillies, food, futbol
I was nervous about enjoying the weekend when I thought about how many miles I would be driving. It didn't help that I had a work assignment that would require a lot of attention over the weekend, since one of my supervising attorneys just left for her annual 10-week vacay. But the summer intern did all the work, and it was a goooood weekend after all.
Friday night, we tried a cool restaurant in north, north Philly called Tierra Colombiano. It reminded me of Norristown, complete with men wearing bedazzled black t-shirts, voluptuous women in too-tight dresses, and a metal-detector at the entrance to the upstairs dance club. Classy! The menu was extensive, with Dominican, Cuban, and Columbian features. We ordered a pitcher of red sangria (too sweet for my taste) and way too much food. Thankfully, a papa rellena was part of the spread - a fried ball of potato with ground beef in the center. I used to eat them a long time ago when I went on home visits with the social workers at TUCMC, and was happy to see it on the menu. It was just as tasty as I remembered, but one was definitely enough.
I had no idea my red snapper was going to be served whole, and ended up taking half of it home with most of my plantains and rice. Alex and I have been giving leftovers to the homeless people we pass on the way home. Some people disagree with it, but I don't think anyone is making his or her life decisions based on receiving the occasional random meal from people like us. This weekend, the people in the park got tons of great hispanic food and some Vietnamese food from our Saturday lunch with Bob and Sue, at Nam Phuong.
Instead of the classic clay pot fish and tamarind-based fish soup, we branched out a bit, skipping the soup and trying beef carpaccio, chicken satay, and a roll-it-yourself spring rolls. The chicken was a total disappointment, resembling chinese take-out with its limp slivers of chicken breast, and zero flavor from the supposed lemongrass and satay. Chicken fail! (That is why I never order chicken from a restaurant. Same is true with salmon. Always better at home.)
After lunch, C. Trinh, Travis, the boys and I went to the Goshen Country Fair, a summer staple of yore. It was crowded and fun, and still featured my favorites - the petting zoo and fresh firehouse donuts. We did not pet any farm animals or eat any donuts this year, however; we just walked and talked as little sprinkles of rain dotted our clothes. A pretty black goat wandered up to Khai and we pet her. She was so cute!
From West Chester, I drove to Chester for the Union game to meet Alex. It seems like everyone I know has season tickets to these games, but I had never been to one before Sunday. He was supposed to catch a ride to the stadium with his soccer mates, but they left without him and he ended up cabbing it there from center city (!!). I parked 75 miles away for $5 and walked in the pitter-patter, non-commital rain for 15 minutes, passing millions of perfectly available, probably reasonably priced parking spots. Oh, well.
Of course, Alex's seats are amazing.We played Houston. Jack McInerney, who had just turned 19 the day before the game, scored our one and only goal in the 1-1 draw. 19!? And Roger Federer just turned 30 this week. How did I manage to squander my years? I assumed I would enjoy the match, since I love watching sporting events generally speaking, but I had an incredibly fun time. I'd even ruin it by saying it was kind of romantic. Kind of like when we got those sweet Phils tickets and watched baseball together after a sating meal at Mercato.
Speaking of the Phils, there was a badass brawl in Friday night's game against the Giants. Not that you can win when players are booted and fined, but I'd say we "won". I thought I wouldn't hate the Giants so much this season after Buster Posey was injured but I still hate them.
Sunday, Chris Henty was back in town for the weekend from San Fran so I drove over for his momma's good cooking. Sue made a four cheese quiche, tossed some greens with fresh herbs and citrus, served up lox with the works, and even baked a pound of bacon for the guest of honor. For the first time in our friendship of about seven years, Chris did not clean his plate because there was so much food! Another reason to love this lady: she served dessert at the same time as everything else - a super tasty coffee cake with the crunchiest crumb topping.
I made it back to the city just in time to pick up Almaris from her dance class at Koresh and enjoyed a glass of prosecco while she and Alex had tapas at Tria. Even though I had been eating for the last 48 hours straight, I may have had a bite or two of the asparagus salad and the white bean spread. I didn't eat much because two hours later we met Rochelle for dinner at Monsu. She is one of Alex's friends from law school who is super-passionate about women's rights causes, and actually does something about it.... all the time. It's her day job, her second part-time, and her volunteer work. Check out Hollaback Philly. We talked about a Slutwalk she attended on Saturday and how amazing HBO is while we - for once - ate a reasonable amount of food. One episode of True Blood later, we finally ended the weekend with a yawn and a pat on the belly.
Off to the gym!
Friday night, we tried a cool restaurant in north, north Philly called Tierra Colombiano. It reminded me of Norristown, complete with men wearing bedazzled black t-shirts, voluptuous women in too-tight dresses, and a metal-detector at the entrance to the upstairs dance club. Classy! The menu was extensive, with Dominican, Cuban, and Columbian features. We ordered a pitcher of red sangria (too sweet for my taste) and way too much food. Thankfully, a papa rellena was part of the spread - a fried ball of potato with ground beef in the center. I used to eat them a long time ago when I went on home visits with the social workers at TUCMC, and was happy to see it on the menu. It was just as tasty as I remembered, but one was definitely enough.
I had no idea my red snapper was going to be served whole, and ended up taking half of it home with most of my plantains and rice. Alex and I have been giving leftovers to the homeless people we pass on the way home. Some people disagree with it, but I don't think anyone is making his or her life decisions based on receiving the occasional random meal from people like us. This weekend, the people in the park got tons of great hispanic food and some Vietnamese food from our Saturday lunch with Bob and Sue, at Nam Phuong.
Instead of the classic clay pot fish and tamarind-based fish soup, we branched out a bit, skipping the soup and trying beef carpaccio, chicken satay, and a roll-it-yourself spring rolls. The chicken was a total disappointment, resembling chinese take-out with its limp slivers of chicken breast, and zero flavor from the supposed lemongrass and satay. Chicken fail! (That is why I never order chicken from a restaurant. Same is true with salmon. Always better at home.)
After lunch, C. Trinh, Travis, the boys and I went to the Goshen Country Fair, a summer staple of yore. It was crowded and fun, and still featured my favorites - the petting zoo and fresh firehouse donuts. We did not pet any farm animals or eat any donuts this year, however; we just walked and talked as little sprinkles of rain dotted our clothes. A pretty black goat wandered up to Khai and we pet her. She was so cute!
From West Chester, I drove to Chester for the Union game to meet Alex. It seems like everyone I know has season tickets to these games, but I had never been to one before Sunday. He was supposed to catch a ride to the stadium with his soccer mates, but they left without him and he ended up cabbing it there from center city (!!). I parked 75 miles away for $5 and walked in the pitter-patter, non-commital rain for 15 minutes, passing millions of perfectly available, probably reasonably priced parking spots. Oh, well.
Of course, Alex's seats are amazing.We played Houston. Jack McInerney, who had just turned 19 the day before the game, scored our one and only goal in the 1-1 draw. 19!? And Roger Federer just turned 30 this week. How did I manage to squander my years? I assumed I would enjoy the match, since I love watching sporting events generally speaking, but I had an incredibly fun time. I'd even ruin it by saying it was kind of romantic. Kind of like when we got those sweet Phils tickets and watched baseball together after a sating meal at Mercato.
Speaking of the Phils, there was a badass brawl in Friday night's game against the Giants. Not that you can win when players are booted and fined, but I'd say we "won". I thought I wouldn't hate the Giants so much this season after Buster Posey was injured but I still hate them.
Sunday, Chris Henty was back in town for the weekend from San Fran so I drove over for his momma's good cooking. Sue made a four cheese quiche, tossed some greens with fresh herbs and citrus, served up lox with the works, and even baked a pound of bacon for the guest of honor. For the first time in our friendship of about seven years, Chris did not clean his plate because there was so much food! Another reason to love this lady: she served dessert at the same time as everything else - a super tasty coffee cake with the crunchiest crumb topping.
I made it back to the city just in time to pick up Almaris from her dance class at Koresh and enjoyed a glass of prosecco while she and Alex had tapas at Tria. Even though I had been eating for the last 48 hours straight, I may have had a bite or two of the asparagus salad and the white bean spread. I didn't eat much because two hours later we met Rochelle for dinner at Monsu. She is one of Alex's friends from law school who is super-passionate about women's rights causes, and actually does something about it.... all the time. It's her day job, her second part-time, and her volunteer work. Check out Hollaback Philly. We talked about a Slutwalk she attended on Saturday and how amazing HBO is while we - for once - ate a reasonable amount of food. One episode of True Blood later, we finally ended the weekend with a yawn and a pat on the belly.
Off to the gym!
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