staycation: late week eats.

Between Wednesday night and Friday afternoon of my staycation, I had the following meals:

1. Frankie’s 457 with my pal Sonya (meal not pictured, alas).  It was Sonya’s first time there; I nudged her towards the cavatelli with sausage and brown butter, definitely in my top 5 best comfort food dishes in NYC.  Sonya was instantly converted.
2. Lunch at Peels with Donny.  (That’s him above, with his Hasselblad.  Between the Leica and the Hassie, it was quite the powerhouse film camera lunch.)  I got the cheeseburger and a biscuit with a wee smear of red eye gravy; Donny got That ‘Lil Piggy, a sandwich filled with roasted pork, pate, a fried egg, and coleslaw.  It was a most pleasing lunch.
3.  Lazed the early afternoon away at Virage with a couple of glasses of white wine.  Read some Ranciere. 
4.  Went to Brucie for a solo dinner, only to run into my friend Mark and his brother and sister visiting from the west coast.  Ended up joining them for a gut-stuffing meal of pastas and some wine afterwards at Black Mountain Wine House.
5.  Friday lunch at Jean Georges with the lovely Lady K.  The day started out grey, but about twenty minutes into lunch, the sun finally came out, filling the JG dining room with wonderful light.  We split a great bottle of Gruner, and feasted on crab, steak, salmon, trout, and a caramel dessert that was to die for.  Afterwards: well, this. 

It was a pretty spectacular way to staycate, I have to say.  Though, to be sure, such affairs are a rarity, and probably ought to be, if I’m going to save up the necessary funds for a Leica of my own.  On a technical note: these were taken with the borrowed Leica, using my now-standard Kodak Ektar 100, but pushed one stop.  Though the darker shots have a bit of grain, I think that by and large the tones remain fairly consistent with the Ektar 100, with the blue tones peeking through ever so slightly (especially in the shadows).  I might try to experiment a bit more with the Ektar, see if it can replace the Portra 400 if pushed and metered properly. 

I’d like to say that this week back has been an austerity week for both the stomach and wallet, but alas, I clearly have some problems.   More on that in a post or two to come.

Above: Donny’s opening night reception for his Foodaissance photo show at Minibar in Carroll Gardens.

Note: Lest anyone think that all I do is burn through my paycheck eating at nice restaurants, my shelf in the fridge tells a different story.  A really cringe-inducing one.

Chef Boyardee, my friends.  The sad part was, I really wanted the spaghetti and meatballs, but had to settle for pasta shells.   And yes, that’s totally a tub of Crisco in the back.