One Year Anniversary!!

We celebrated our first wedding anniversary yesterday!! I can't believe how quickly this year has passed. It's been a whirlwind--full of constant activity, major life changes, and planning for the future. We basically went straight from wedding planning to our honeymoon in Italy to planning our move back to NY. In one year, we got married, moved across the country, found a new apartment, and we both got new jobs. Now it's October and we're starting to attend open houses. When will things slow down? Strange because for years, not much happened. Then literally everything changed. I guess you really can never predict what life has in store for you.

We took Friday and Monday off for an extended celebration. Four days of fun in Long Island and Queens??? We contemplated going somewhere exotic but since we're currently obsessed with buying a house, we decided to celebrate budget-style. So Friday, we went East Coast wine-tasting. We went to a few wineries on the Northern Coast of Long Island, aptly described as the anti-Hamptons. While there were some very quaint towns and beautiful vineyards, it's definitely not Sonoma or Napa Valley. Maybe it has something to do with the massive King Kullens and box stores littering the highway. And unfortunately, many of the wines we tasted were slightly metallic and underdeveloped.

Saturday we went to Zinc, a small jazz bar in Soho and listened to Bossa Nova style jazz. And then on Sunday, we went to dinner at Lupa, one of my favorite restaurants in the world. We started the meal off with a delicious sampling platter of cured meats-proscuitto, fennel salami, Coppa, headcheese and the most delicious pickled veal tongue. Scrumptious!!! Then we had an unbelievably good bowl of Roman style trippa--tripe stewed with tomatoes and mint and topped with baked bread crumbs and cheese. It was unreal. Chewy and slightly gamey but redolent of cinnamon and spices. We cooked tripe at home once--while it was delicious, there's something to be said about not having to clean it yourself. Not recommended for most folks--plucking hairs out of the lining can really turn your stomach--pun intended.

Next up was coda alla vacinara--oxtails cooked with raisins, celery seed and celery. Also scrumptious. The pastas were a bit of a disappointment. The bavette cacio and pepe was overly salted and lacking in depth. The pork stuffed raviolis were great but a bit overcooked--though I now know why black truffles are ridiculously expensive.

Today, we went to Flushing, Queens. Insane. I've been going to Chinatown in Manhattan my whole life, but this was another world. Just as bustling as Manhattan but way less touristy. I felt like a visitor since most people spoke Mandarin and all of the menus were written in Chinese. We managed to find a few food courts that served awesome regional foods--handmade dumplings stuffed with pork, shrimp and leeks, spicy noodle soup with braised meats and tons of Shanghai specialities. The food courts are definitely authentic and cheap--though only recommended for those with iron stomachs and no cleanliness/sanitary hangups. Don't say I didn't warn you.

To at least seventy more years of love, discovery and good food...