Apparently an "Impetus for my Self-Aggrandizement" - whatever that means

Action Shot : the candids are always best...when you didn't even know they were taking a picture. By the way - that's water that I'm holding...because I'm already super wasted....but hey, at least I look like I'm having fun

It's NOT That Kind of Sorority

Vy, Betty and Adele all piled into a tiny double bed in NYC (Trisha is already passed out in the other bed)
We're sooooooo wasted

Les Halles: Tony Bourdain - I am your food slave!

Park Avenue South at 29th Street...At long last I am here...

OMG - Chef...you are so my rockstar!

After years of waiting and only imagining what a meal at Les Halles might be like...I finally went...on a not so sleepy sunday night - the evening after a monster snow storm dropped 4 feet of white fluffy stuff onto Gotham.

Straight up - unpretentious, good food. Simple, well seasoned and cooked to perfection. Nothing fancy...just seared foie gras and steak frites....but stick to your ribs and warming your tummy good.

The ultimate food-gasm

Sunday Night Meal: Seared Foie Gras, Steak Frites and Creme Brulee

Tuesday Night Meal: French Onion Soup and Steak Tartare (very good...but like a pound of raw meat...a little hard to digest)

Wine? St Emilion Chateau Le Fleur Bordeaux

P.S. I saved the corks

Greg's Meal: Filet with Bernaiser Sauce with Frites and Salad.
You basically could cut the filet with a spoon...mmmm

My meal: Steak Tartare...made tableside
So there is mustard, ketchup (not sure), a relish, chopped capers, chopped shallots, raw egg, vinegar, oil, salt and pepper. Pretty yummy - since I find raw beef absolutely fascinating.
However...you can't tell from this picture, but there is like a pound of raw meat in there...after about 20 minutes of chewing on raw cow...it started to get a little strange...

Randy's Meal: Mussels in a white wine sauce
Literally, they bring you this massive pile of steaming mussels in the pot it was cooked in and it ain't no wmall pot. The mussels are literally the size of your fist...they were HUGE.
Maybe they were Chernobyl mussels or something...but regardless, they were good.

Trisha's Meal: Salad and Grilled Calamari
I believe the salad was a mesclun or mixed greens with blue cheese and apple slices or something like that. Now the Calamari was FABU - lightly grilled...so not overly chewy...tossed in a vinegrette of some sort..yummy

Manhattan Part Trois

It's amazing, the city of Gotham has the same sort of effect on me as Vegas. I am totally in love when I land...I stay up all day and night cruising the city and taking in all the sights, sounds, food and beverage....3 days later - I want to claw my own eyes out because all I want to do is sleep...sleep without interruptions from all the life that wond stop pulsing around me... zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz


Keeping America Safe!
- from drunk girls like us hanging out at Pizza Parlors in the Upper West Side
Gotta love my cute litte Adeli getting "cuffed" while at Nick's Pizza at 3am on a Sunday night

BRRR! Look Ma, it's snowing!

Just like the thin blooded Californians that we are..Trish and I (photo by Vy) are super jazzed about the fact that it has started snowing in New York City. That's the World Trade Center site behind us....we were there briefly...then like the ugly americans that we are, we got some Starbucks and went discount designer shopping for 3 hours at Century 21.

It's about 11am right now and the snow has just started - notice how happy we are - a good 6 hours later, we are miserable and cold and hoofing it up to Midtown Manhattan while 4 feet of snow pours down on us.

Still pretty cool....

Happy Birthday Hollis!

annie & hollis on the trolley...Today is Hollis' birthday and I am a big loser - because I am on a red eye out to new york.