October 18, 2006: Erin's Visit, Osso Buco and Tasti D'Lite (& Angie Stone)

On October 18, 2006, My good friend from college, Erin Conelly, visited me in the city for dinner. She happeend to be about 40 minutes away from me in Jersey hyping up JMU and all its glory to highschooler's looking for a potentinal school. And may I ask, what is better then JMU? I mean seriously....so, of course Erin is perfect for the job since she really DOES bleed purple....trust me...I have slit her open and seen it run purple hahaha.


Anyway, she arrived shortly after 6pm. We had a few beres, sat on the balcony and reveled in the new apartment's fun times. It was great having her up here because she made me fall in love with NYC again. That actually happens on a daily basis but I can never point it out enough and remember enough to never take anything for granted while I am here, and that means something as simple as sitting on the coolest balcony that I will ever pay rent for or own.

After sitting and just "experiencing" for a while we decided food was in order and went on a mission in no particular direction to find food. Another great part about the city haha - just walk and find treasures everywhere! We ended up walking all the way into Harlem on Lexington and after a bit I think Erin got a tad nervous as did I. It was dark and we were walking away from the safety of my streets at this point hahaha. I don't know if I will ever verbalize the reasons why I feel unsafe at points because they are stupid mind games going on in my head and I know I am totally safe but then again YOU NEVER KNOW. I am ashamed of some of the reasons I feel unsafe sometimes and will never verbalize them. Nothing bad, just society's ideas flowing through my mind that shouldn't be because our perceptions of things are almost always 95% wrong.


Aside for reminding me of my first dinner date!!!, I am writing to talk about the place we had dinner and to remind myself of eveything we ate because I have have have to take more people to this place. We based our search on what Erin felt comfortable eating hahahaha. She was a little nervous about places we walked by and the menu's that had things she couldn't pronouce but I will break her..... I WILL GET YOU TO EAT INDIAN FOOD ERIN!!!!!!!! Anyway, if she hadnt veto-ed a few of the options we ran across then we never would have eaten at the place I am about to mention and never had those AWESOME dishes.


The resturant was called OSSO BUCO! It is located at 1662 3rd Avenue and 93rd Street.

www.ossobuco2go.com

Osso Buco is actually a Italian Dish but the recipie is too long for this blong.

It was very inviting and we were seated in the outside dinning area in the front of the resturant. The wait staff was nice, pleasent and on point. Our water was always filled, our food came out in a timely manner and we even ate by candle light and it was just cuteness all around.

I wanted to order a wierd appetizer since that is just something I do. I ended up ordering "Spiedini alla Romana" ($6.50) for the both of us. And now we come to the reason I am writing about this place: I FUCKING LOVE Spiedini alla Romana!!

I looked up the recipie for this appetizer on the Internet. It is apparently a very old traditional Italian recipie made with Italain Brad and anchovy sauce, among other ingredients. Osso Buco made the recipie thier own by changing up thier recipie with thier own touches and I thought it was divine.

The Spiedini alla Romana came out as this tall slice of Italian bread, standing tall and cut into four slices, but not cut completely through. In between the sections of bread they placed proscuitto, one of my fav meats. Then it was drizzeled with capers, white wine and lemon sauce.

I mean, I can't even discribe this dish to you. The flavors were powerful and the smell was intense. The dish itself was small but being that it was bread, it was filling. I was addicted in a second.

As for the main course, Erin had Penne alla Caprese ($10.50) which was Penne Pasta made with homade Mozzarella and fresh tomoato sauce. A safe, but excellent choice. Ok - Side story to remind me later in life - when we were deciding what to order the table next to us received thier food and damn did it look awesome. She saw a dish that she thought she wanted to order and we debated over what it was and what it was made of - of course, the food whore right here was right when the waiter finally came around to let us know what it was. It ended up being the meal Erin ordered in the end. And damn was it a good choice. For such a simple, safe choice, it was well worth it and I got to eat the leftovers the next day and they were even better!!!!!

I ended up ordering something that I didn't even think I like because I don't like hot vegetables but I had to just suck it up and try it cause i love sausage!! I hoped for the best. I ordered Chicken Paesana ($11.95). It was a breast of chicken with sweet Italian sausage and seasonal vegatables, in this case being steamed green beans. On the side, I got mashed potatoes and GOD IT WAS SO GOOD. IT was just GOOD!!!!



And then of course we had to have dessert. We walked back toward my place keeping our eyes out for icecream. We went to the Tasti D'lite. It was good. It was ice-cream. I have no intrests in desserts or sweets or pastries so you'll be getting no comments on stuff like that unless something knocks me on my ass. When they day comes, you better taste whatever it was I tasted haha.

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Angie Stone. I mean, how can I discribe this vision of pure soul. I just think you need to experience her for yourself. She samples music from oldschool players like Galdys Knight and the Pips (1972) and the O'Jays (1972).

Some fun tips though that might actually get you off your ass to listen to her, if not for her just being AWESOME------

She currently appears on the fourth season of the VH1 reality show Celbrity Fit Club which began on August 6, 2006. She also sings the theme song for the CW Sitcom Girlfriends.