Sunday, August 30, 2009

And It Starts Again...

Fire Alarm Count: 13

Today we had 2 fire alarms literally within 30 minutes of each other. This is getting absurd. Yumi is not pleased.

Furthermore, it has interfered with my cooking. E asked for my chicken teriyaki for dinner today. I can't tell you how happy I was that someone actually liked my cooking enough to specifically request something.

But after the second fire alarm today, the dorm room RAs announced that to prevent further fire alarms, we were not allowed to cook for the rest of the day.

The idea that I could potentially get in trouble for being able to cook was just ridiculous to me.

On a separate note, my room mate, L, moved into our dormitory for good today. So since we couldn't make dinner we decided to go out to eat. The Coffee Shop is a cozy diner and bar on the corner of Union Square. Unfortunately, I don't have any photos of the tasty burger (they're willing to make them rare! Some restaurants don't do rare meat for fear of health problems) with guacamole I enjoyed. But the restaurant lighting was so dim any photos would have come out crappy anyway.

You would be getting a recipe for crab and cucumber salad today, which was supposed to be a side dish for my teriyaki chicken, but since I wasn't allowed to cook today that didn't happen. I plan on making it tomorrow, so...till then.

Midnight Snacks Episode 1

I would first like to congratulate the other inhabitants of my building for not setting off the fire alarm today.

Second, yes, I am indeed making a post at 4 AM. The reason for this is because I am staying up atrociously late to boil water.

Yes. That's right. Boiling water. Not even with an egg or two in the water. Just water. To drink. Because I have personally always felt that buying large quantities of bottled water was a bit stupid when you had a perfectly good kitchen tap right there. I know there is a group of paranoid people who will immediately warn me "Don't do it! Tap water has lead and contaminants and blah, blah blah..." whatever. Past generations have grown up just fine on just water boiled over the stove. If you're that worried, do what everyone says and run the tap for 2 minutes before consuming any of it. I refuse to use bottled water for all my cooking and drinking purposes, and people who are still paranoid can just go here and read up on tap water safety and then come back and inform me of it.

Those of you who wonder why the hell I am not boiling my water while the sun is actually up do not know me well. Which is understandable, because those who do know me know that I like to stay up late. A lot. Really late. And these late-night vigils often involve a snack. Maybe even snacks. And therein lies the reason for my late-night-ness.


Yes, I actually do this. You may laugh.

Tonight, the snack is the leftover margherita pizza that I had as a parting meal with The Boyfriend before he embarked upon his journey back home. Yes, we are totally serious about this long-distance relationship thing. And those of you who can only offer pessimistic comments about the imminent outcome of this endeavor can suck it. Now now, Yumi, be nice!

Ahem. Anywhoo...this margherita pizza by Brooklyn's Tomato N Basil, I would say, is not quite on par with the one I enjoyed on two occasions at Cranbury Pizza, which I just discovered is famous for their margherita pizza (I might be biased, but this is my blog and I'll be biased if I want to). But it was definitely yummy, and dammit I'm no food critic--The Boyfriend and I got a whole pie and had three slices apiece, and wrapped up the remaining two and brought it back to my dormitory. I would gladly eat this pizza again in a heartbeat. Which I am now doing. And with a mug of Arizona Iced Green Tea, I am content.


On a random note, on the way back to my dormitory after pizza, I bought four beautiful vine-ripened tomatoes that actually smell like tomatoes from a street cart by my building for $1.50. As opposed to the two tasteless beefsteak tomatoes Whole Foods fleeced me $2.95 for a few days ago. I am so never buying produce at Whole Foods again. I don't care how organic their food is, if I can't afford it it's not happening.