I have another new favorite restaurant. Surprise! But this one you have to make your reservation weeks in advance, which hasn’t been my style since Minetta Tavern. Not a huge fan of planning my dinners three weeks in advance, so who knows when I’ll actually get to go back. But anyway. It’s La Esquina and it’s Mexican, but not the Mexican you know… we had veal tongue tacos, for one… and they were delicious. The restaurant is located in the basement of a little Mexican cafe and you need that reservation to get downstairs and they are STRICT about it. So make a rez because downstairs it is so cool! I should have taken more pictures. Which, by the way has been the story of my life lately. I forgot my memory card for the second time this week and it was totally frustrating! I have no excuse for La Esquina, though, because as you can see my memory card was there.

Hmm. This week has been weird. Just feeling weird, ya know? But the past two nights I went to outdoor shows and they were lovely. First, The National at the Prospect Park Bandshell and second, The Wailin Jennys at Madison Square Park. Excellent and excellent. And I got to see a lot of people I really like. So life is good. And I’m looking forward to tons more things coming up too. I’ll just have to remember to bring my memory card.

I went home last weekend for about four seconds. Had a flight going out Friday night and sat on the plane for three hours before it was canceled. The earliest flight I could get on the next day departed at 2:40 p.m. So I ended up spending only a good 36 hours in Michigan. But I think it was worth it. It has been my little sister’s 21st birthday basically all month now and I think this was the cumulation: a dinosaur bounce. And my momma even jumped in it:

Then we deflated it and my cousin Danielle tried to ride it and failed:

And we jumped on the trampoline and laughed so hard we almost died. Me, my two sisters, and my mom. Hilarious.

And last but not least, Alexandra’s Alice in Wonderland cake:

If I knew how to spell the bakery it’s from enough to even find it on Google, there would be a link. Maybe somebody will post the name in the comments. :)

I apologize if you do not like oysters because I’ve been featuring them on City Mitten quite a lot lately. And what am I supposed to do? I work full-time for a seafood restaurant and I happen to be thinking about oysters for most of my day. Not to mention, it’s pretty much the only thing that sounds good all the time. If you’ve never tried them, I’m not going to make any promises, because not everyone likes them, but I think they are refreshing and delicious and if you’d like to try them, I’d love to be the one to take you there.

This is my sister’s friend Kelsey trying her first oyster. I don’t think she was *entirely* sold but I was a moron and only ordered enough for everyone to try two. What was I thinking!? They all taste different!

It was also Sambe’s birthday so she got an extra large pudding (did I mention yet that we were at the Mermaid Inn East Village?).

Love it. We had a super early dinner because 1) we didn’t have a reservation so I knew that was our best bet and 2) we were seeing Next to Normal afterward!

If you haven’t seen Next to Normal yet, I really really suggest that you do. I’ve seen it twice now and I just think it’s fantastic. So get some tix!

In other news, you got lots of my sister Samb this week and you might get more of her next week too because I’m headed to Detroit again this weekend for her real birthday party! I’m so excited to see my family. Who knows what we’ll be up to. :)

I have a new favorite restaurant. Isn’t that how I start a lot of these posts? Well, what can I say? Eating in NYC is nothing but impressive and fun all the time. Except not all of the time. 95% of the time. So here I bring you to my new favorite restaurant in Park Slope: Alchemy. I also bring you my sister, Alexandra, for the upteenth time, but that’s what happens when I have a visitor as fabulous as she. Plus I love her hair. So I’ll keep posting pictures of it.

Anyway, Alchemy. I went there for the first time last week with my friend Mara and had their amazing, amazing shells and cheese. Mara had the burger which was also fabulous since, like me, likes to share. We sat outside in this beautiful backyard and I had just charged my camera and somehow forgotten my memory card! Bummer!

So now you are getting indoor pictures instead, because it was hot as Hades. It was also brunch.

Yogurt, granola, and fruit for Val.

Eggs Bennie for me. And of course Alexandra had their brilliant burger. You know, I really like Park Slope. And I really like Alchemy.

Somewhere along the way I got the idea in my head that I needed to try the Noho Star. The pear and walnut salad, specifically, when ended up being only okay. The best salad in NYC is still the all chopped up from Cowgirl. Oh, Cowgirl. But I took the girls to Noho Star when they were here so we could check it out, and my little sis ended up getting a BLT sandwich with a fried egg and avocado on it, which kind of shocked me. She’s not into food like I am and I thought for sure the fried egg would turn her off. But it didn’t, so apparently what I should have done was take her to Crifdogs for a real fried egg experience (on a hot dog)!

Anyway. The other girlies got chicken sandwiches or something. More exciting is that afterward we went to karaoke at Japas 38 and after that we went on a boat.

The boat ride was interesting. We danced a bit and then snuck our way up to the front of the boat for the prime spot when we pulled up to the Statue of Liberty, which was cool. And then we got very tired.

This is my sisby. Her nickname is Sambe (Som-bie). It’s a long story. She turned 21 last week so she came to New York. One of her favorite things to do when she visits is go to Red Mango. So we went there twice. I mean how can it not be one of your favorite things, anyway?

Mmmm. Here is Sambe and her friends starring down some Red Mango:

It was a great weekend. Hope she comes back soon.

Have you ever had Ethopian food? Do you like it? Does it make you want to visit Ethiopia? Does it make you feel one with the earth? I think I’d rather use a fork.

We went to Bati this week for my friend Laura’s birthday. She loves Ethiopian food so 11 of us went to her fave spot in Fort Greene. We chose  meat and vegetarian combination platters. I was kind of stuck in my spot so I had Laura take this picture of the veggie combo for me:

The meat combo looked sort of the same. Different piles of sloppy stuff in all kinds of colors and consistencies. Underneath everything is a strange sort of rubbery bread that you tear off and use to scoop up the veggies or meat. Some things were really spicy. We all drank a lot of water.

I love group dining. We had some hilarious conversation which I will spare you of here. But I don’t know, I don’t really get the food. Everyone was talking about how great it was and how “satisfying” it was but at the end of the meal, all I wanted was a hamburger! I’m glad I tried it and it is fun and I’d happily go again… but only if it’s Laura’s birthday. :)

Seeing as how, I am City Mitten… when I go to certain places, I make people do certain things. When I was in D.C. this past weekend, my one goal was to go to Ray’s Hell Burger in Arlington, VA. There were a few grumbles from a few friends who wanted to keep napping (seriously) but I eventually got the clan together and forced our way over to Ray’s. I mean Obama ate there recently.

Here is a photo of two of my homeboys waiting in line to go inside Ray’s Hell Burger. The significance is this: Ray’s looks like absolutely nothing. I mean look at the sign, zero branding. This is a place you would just walk by if you hadn’t somehow heard of it or if you didn’t see the line. And you wait outside in line before they let you inside to wait in another line to place your order. But it works. Very efficient.

See inside: nothing much either. There is a fancy map to the right with push pins for where their guests are from. Once you order and pay, the cashier hands you a number card. In a few minutes, food runners come out shouting the numbers and you’d better respond fast cause they don’t have all day.

The burgers are huge:

I got mine Au Poivre, which I had no idea what that meant, but several @foursquare users recommended it and it was DANG GREAT and a little spicy! Kind of perfect! They have tons and tons of options, but I typically like my burgers old school: lettuce, tomato, pickle. And ketchup. That’s all you need, baby. Boy, were these burgers good. And juicy, which also means messy. Which also means I got burger juice everywhere. It somehow ended up on my left hip and my friend P was like, “Um, how did it get there?” because my hands had been above the table the whole time. Does that mean juice was dripping from my arm? Maybe? Does that sound disgusting? A little. Was it? Not at all.

Here’s P with his vanilla milkshake (and new tattoo, that you can sort of see on his wrist):

And here’s three more of my fabulous friends enjoying the fury of a Ray’s Hell Burger:

Now I know they were happy I got them out of bed.

If I had my own cupcake shop, it would have an awesome name. That goes without saying. When I say the sign for, “Hello Cupcake,” in D.C. I thought, “Hey, that’s me!”

In college when I was a designer for The State News, we created a page of valentines for people to cut out and I drew a picture of a cupcake for mine with the simple text, “Hey there, cupcake.” It was cute.

So I like cupcakes. Another thing I like: oreos. So a cookies and cream cupcake has got to be tried. Crumbs has some sort of oreo something cupcake but we all know what I think of that. This cupcake wasn’t just a cookies and cream on top, the batter was cookies and cream too. And that’s sweet. Anyway, Hello Cupcake is cute and the cookies and cream cupcake is pretty good. They have so many crazy options, my friend Ryan was blown away:

Sophia was pleased too:

Helloooo cupcake. In other news, today is my baby sister Sambe’s 21st birthday! So happy birthday, Sambe! She’s also coming to NYC this weekend with some friends and it’s gonna be bomb. :)

Last week I felt like I hadn’t gone out in a long time, so what did I do? Grabbed my girl Missy Kayko for some beers. We went to dinner and then our favorite secret spot, and then somehow ended up at McSorley’s Old Ale House. McSorely’s is famous because it’s been there since 1854! It’s OLD! And they only serve their light and dark McSorley’s Ale and they give you two smallish mugs for $5.

It’s super cute inside too, with black and white photos and newspaper clips covering the wall. The ladies restroom is a converted closet from when the days women weren’t permitted (which, by the way they weren’t permitted until 1970). Crazy. And Fun. Lots of characters inside, and on this particular day it was lots of characters mad at LeBron James for not choosing to come to New York. This huge man kept slamming down his glass and we thought for sure it was going to break. We also stole some saltines and a pickle from this man when we thought he left… but then he returned! Oops!

Good times. I will go back to McSorley’s, especially since the tables are communal if you have smaller groups, so you’re forced to meet new people. :)

Oh… and in regards to that picture of oysters I posted on Friday from Birmingham, Michigan – this is how oysters are supposed to be served:

From the Mermaid Oyster Bar, natch. Kumamoto, Shibumi, Wellfleet, and two more from Washington whose name I don’t remember. YUM.