Club 21!

Hello world. Another update from my mother's trip to visit me. So in my last update, I blogged about our day trip to Chelsea Piers, golfing in the crowded city that is New York, and realizing that yes, I am a natural at golf. Well, in the evening, my mother and I had a reservation at an uber swanky restaurant, Club 21. What defines a swanky restaurant?

According to the Evan Lee dictionary, a swanky restaurant (n) is defined as an eating establishment that forces its male patrons to wear a sports jacket. Failure to do so results in being banned from the premises.

Club 21 definitely meets that definition. Yet, why do people still eat at these types of restaurants that impart such a strict dress code? I'll tell you why: it's because the food they serve is absolutely delicious. Ridiculously scrumptious. No words in the english language will ever do their product justice, as the next few pictures will prove.

1) To add to the definition of a swanky restaurant, the lighting must also be very dim. In fact, the candle may be the only source of light available....and even with the aid of a candle, you still can barely read the menu.

* Can you read those words? Didn't think so

2) This was my appetizer: tuna tar tar with a very nice sesame glaze that sits on top of a bed of fancy lettuce. There's also fancy chips with the dish. It was very delicious. My mom looked disgusted as a slurped the tar tar from the bowl :)

3) That is foie grois. My mom ordered duck liver. Eww! I can't believe my mom likes that stuff.

* From this angle, the foie grois looks like tofu.

4) What I had as a main course was a man's meal: I had pork chops with creamy corn and roasted vegetables. You can't see the vegetables because the pork chops are covering the veggies, but I swear, they are present on the plate. The pork chops were well seasoned, juicy, moist, and overall, had a very nice finish to them.

* Manly meat!

5) The next two pictures are our desserts. My mother had profiteroles (for the first time), and I had a lemon pudding cake. My mom's profiteroles were clearly the better of the two. Not to say that my cake was horrible, it just attests to how delicious my mom's profiteroles were. Plus, she never eats sweets, and even she finished the dessert. That just speaks volumes to how amazing that dessert was.

* The profiteroles. They contained vanilla ice cream...and were drizzled with chocolate sauce. Oh my god it was like I was entering heaven after my mom let me try a piece.

* My lemony pudding cake. It was delicious and lemony, the two most important things I was looking for. Alas, this dessert was much smaller than my moms' dessert.

All in all, this was a very great restaurant. I will be taking people who treat me nicely to Club 21 in the future, so please guys, treat me with respect, class, and dignity.

Chelsea Piers w/ el Madre

I've made a post earlier about going to Chelsea Piers. This one is different in that my post to Chelsea Piers revolves around my trip with my mom...not with Angela, my girlfriend.

My mother is an avid golfer; a affinity she's developed in the past 3-4 years. Since I live in golf, finding a decent golf course in the city is about as easy as finding a needle in a haystack. Suffice to say, it's damn near impossible to golf in Manhattan. Yet, being the great son that I am, I remembered that Chelsea Piers was home to a driving range...while it's not a golf course, it's a venue where playing golf can actually become a reality. Chelsea Piers has a driving range that gets crowded pretty quickly, much like a can of sardines, so if you don't want to be a sardine cramped up in a little aluminum container, you better arrive early. And that is exactly what my mother and I did. We arrived to Chelsea Piers at 12:30 pm. Mind you, that's not a normal early hour, but for a Saturday, that equates to 7 am on a weekday. Did I golf well? Mi madre said that I'm a natural...which in my head sounded more like this: "you are a prodigy evan. Anything I can do, you can do better"
 :P

 * my mom is golfing. look at that pro swing!

 * mom again...she's a good golfer now. she now consistently makes contact w/ the ball.

 * the final pose...looking good

* this is me...look at how awesome my swing looks.

 * Us outside of Chelsea Piers. Look at how pretty the Hudson river looks. Like a scene from Titanic

 * This picture was from my mom; she loves taking picture, and decided she wanted to take a picture of the entry into Chelsea Piers.

 * Pier 59! The Golf Club!


So after we were done golfing, I took my mom to check out the Hudson River Park. It's a nice park that has a huge field where people can throw the football, take a nap, or even get a nice tan. Here are some pics from that excursion:

 * I'm standing behind flowers. The flowers match well with my pink shorts!

 * The welcome sign!

 * On our walk, we spotted a couple holding hands with each other. The couple turned out to be both men...and I wanted to take a photo to capture the gay pride. Don't hide your love...let it free like a bird!

* As well, there was a very nice view of the Hudson River being framed in by the foliage and trees that I thought would make a very nice picture. Alas, the picture was ruined by two girls tanning.... Way to ruin the picture girls! :(

All in all, this was a very fun trip. I'm glad I got in touch with my golfing roots and was still able to tap into my limitless potential and golf extremely well. My mother had so much fun as well...and really enjoyed the exercise she got my walking around the beautiful Hudson River Park. 

Yay for well planned trips!!!! :)

Dame's Chicken And Waffles

When you think of the "South," what type of food immediately comes to mind??? Salads? Pork chops? Steaks? Well, if those are the edibles that come to mind, then you're wrong! Sorry.
Eating in the south consists of a lot of fried food...and waffles! Therefore, my mother and I decided to visit world famous "Dame's Chicken and Waffles." 

I was a bit skeptical when we first went to eat here. I mean, how mouthwatering can waffles and chicken wings be? ....I'll let ya'll decide based on these pictures:

1) This is the background of the restaurant.

2) Here's a history lesson for ya'll: how did chicken and grits come to be? Well, read this menu and you too can be well educated. 

 * you probably need a magnifying glass for this

3) The MENU: so everything on the right side is a combo of chicken wings and waffles. The left side contains a la carte items such as fish, wings, salad, and breakfast items.

 
4) I ordered the "Dueling Roosters - Rd. 1." I don't know why they decided on that name, but whatever. This dish was seriously legit. It came with four fried chicken wings that sits on top of a "classic" waffle. The waffle was super light and fluffy...not too dense yet still leaving me pleasantly full. My dish also came with 2 "schmears," so I chose the vanilla almond and chocolate hazelnut. To my surprise, the chocolate hazelnut was not my favorite...vanilla almond all the way! Just definitely elevates the dish to a whole entire stratosphere. In addition, I ordered a side of "spicy greens." As you can imagine, it's a very imaginative name...but boy, was it flavorful! I'd definitely recommend eating it.

* a schmear is a sweet creme butter that have been delicately whipped with the freshest natural ingredients. In other words, it's light and fluffy butter.

Verdict: I'm a believer. Seriously, I am truly a believer. I want to go back to this place....that should pretty much sum up whether this establishment lives up to its sterling reputation.

High school wedding

Holy crap! The thing that I least expected to happened...happened. No, pigs haven't started to fly yet. I haven't won an unlimited supply of popcorn. Instead, my high school buddy, David Unwin, got married. Matter of fact, he was the first of my high school group of friends to tie the knot. HE WAS THE LAST PERSON WE ALL EXPECTED TO GET HITCHED.....aaaaaaah!

Anyways, the wedding weekend started off on the wrong foot. I got off of work and hurried home, to pack and make sure I had enough time to eat dinner before I left for my flight to North Carolina (where the wedding was being held). With enough time to spare, I was all ready to leave when I received the dreaded phone call from American Airlines:
                           "AA Flight 3034 has been delayed 1 hours.."
GAAAAH....All that frantic rushing for nothing! Yet, instead of feeling dejected, I decided to embrace the downtime I was given and catch a quick baseball game. Little did I know what I was in store for:
                           "AA Flight 3034 has been cancelled...."

UUUUGH. Why does this always happen to me? Why? Well, moving quickly and swiftly, I got on the phone with an AA representative and spent the next 30 minutes sweet talking my way onto a flight that would get me to David's wedding on time. In the end, I had to wake up at 3 am for a 6:00 am flight. Was it worth it??? Most definitely. I spent the past 24 hours sleeping in an oh-so-comfy hotel bed, saw one of my good bros getting married, and I ate like crap.

 * me and my high school buddies catching up. The red headed person is Walter. The other young white guy is Ryan. I'm the handsome lad in the grey suit.

 * this amazing retro car that the bride and groom (now husband and wife) drove off in.
Before the couple actually made it to the car, it started raining, and the hood had to be let up.

 * another shot of the tres amigos!

 * doing what I do best: blowing bubbles. real manly.

* just can't get enough of us...i mean...that girl can't stop looking at us haha

* getting tired of us yet?

* so in this photo, we're actually talking about life...and how delicious the sandwiches provided were.

* oh hello, Fontaine. This is Walter's sister....she decided to bro out with us

* oh, hello Mama Lee's camera. You caught us at an unexpected moment.

* BUBBLES! And DAvid and his wife look so happy about the bubbles blowing into their faces.

* one more delicious look at this sexy car. They even have a chauffeur!!! Lucky people. At my wedding, I want a chauffeur to drive me back to the hotel.

So yep, there are my memories and photos of the wedding. Stay tuned for more updates on my exciting weekend. Sayonara!