Feeding Umi

This weekend was rough. I don’t know what it was, but the very idea of going ALL THE WAY to Port Jefferson to do my taxes was very… taxing. And in fact it was SO TIRING. And Sunday was just SO stressful… that the very thing I needed at the end of the day was a way to let off steam. For me, that very perfect thing is eating tons of pork.

All weekend, the two thoughts in my head were CREAM PUFFS and TAXES! I had it planned that on Saturday, I was going to plan for both, then we head into the city EARLY Sunday, come home, and then off to the dinner. I thought we would have some time in between and it wouldn’t be a big deal. Then certain things came up, namely WORK things, which were really annoying. I’m not going to get into what I do here, but I work in interactive online marketing, namely email marketing, and there were urgent messages that needed to go out Sunday morning and possibly Sunday night for two different properties within my company.

I feel like all I did Saturday was, cook brunch, bake some pâte à choux, egg custard, strawberry puree, and try to get stuff done for work. Those cream puffs… man. They aren’t too time consuming, per se, but you use SO MANY EGGS. Did I mention I went through 3 full carton of eggs for those things? I also have a tupperware filled with like 12 eggs work of egg whites. (the custard)

SUNDAY… I was still unprepared for. I usually always wake up right before 7am and go back to sleep… most days, even on weekdays. However, on Sunday, I forced myself to pick up my iphone and look up LIRR schedules. Fuck. I had to leave for the 9:42 train in order to make it for our 1:15pm appointment in Port Jefferson. The train ride itself is two hours, but the next train after that gets us in around 1:30 (at 11:20). Shitty, right? AND I was planning on making extra custard in the morning. AND I had to send messages to our database in the morning, but I didn’t have the lists I need. Regardless, I hop out of bed and I need to run out for more eggs and milk. CUSTARD requires like 6 egg yolks. Like wtf, right? There were no stores open in my neighborhood at that time, except for a 24 hour scary bodega. I take it. So at 7am, I’m making custard, and I calculate that we should get out of here at 8:30. I kick Ryan awake and of course we end up at Penn Station at around 9:25… like minutes after the train left.
: (

I call the accountant and I explain my situation and that I’m traveling 2 hours to see them on the weekend where there is a train only every 2 hours. They claim that they will see us as long as we come in before 2pm, so we decide to buckle up and find some breakfast. You know, not many places are open around 9:30-10am. We walk all the way to Resto, on 29th between Park and Lex, but they only open around 10:30. We spoke to someone who worked there and he suggested we go to Les Halles, because he wouldn’t risk waiting and missing our train. We weren’t very interested in Les Halles, so we went to K-town to have some Bibimbap and stew for breakfast. MAN. Delicious, filling, and hit the spot. The only damper to that situation is that I found a stray wifi signal and started trying to do that piece of work… I couldn’t log into marketedge and a coworker and I started to freak out. Yes, I could have gone to the office, but I didn’t want to subject Ryan to that and deny him his breakfast. That would be cruel and … you know, f it. Readers, I have my priorities in place. Bibimbap before slaving away for an annoying piece of work.

I always do my taxes myself… and last year I did Ryan’s taxes for him. However, I thought it might be beneficial for Ryan and myself (I had some questions about my mother) to have someone look over them for us. Gabby RAVED about this guy’s company (family owned) and he answered some questions for my mother’s old taxes for me months before… so I decided to check him out. I traveled over two hours, on two trains and a taxi ride to get there. They got me a good refund, AND they saved the day and put me in their conference room so I can work on my day job. YEAH. REALLY. I was like, “I know you’re doing my taxes, but… can I use your internet to finish my work? I have my laptop and everything” – yes, I’m a dork and a nerd. That piece of kindness allowed one of my coworkers to not have to go into the office (Oh yeah, something I did Saturday night … GRRRR – which added to my loss of time). It all worked out. The timing was good, but we were so close… like 5 minutes too close to missing our train back at 3:40, which would have meant waiting 2 hours until 5:30 and get back into the city by 7:30. DO YOU KNOW HOW PISSED OFF I WOULD HAVE BEEN? All these things are just… man. Got to me. Tired me out. I passed out for 2 hours back. Thankfully, we got back to our apartment before 6:30. I hadn’t drunk any water since 11am, and I was head achey and dehydrated. We were both pretty cranky. We would not have survived that trip without the Bibimbap to fortify us.

Ryan had to sit and he watched few minutes of Prison Break (like really? Is that what relaxes you? Seeing a prison inmate television show?), and I had to check up on a few evening work things. Then I had to fill the choux, which took a few minutes. I was stressing out that we were late and I couldn’t find the address to the place… etc. I just want to mention here that this morning I checked my personal email during a lull at work and there it was… his address in the last email he sent. DUH. I have a bad habit of not checking personal email in the weekend. I just… don’t. I usually don’t want to be near a computer on the weekend, so … yeah.

Ryan needs to be recognized for being able to put up with my Type A-ness sometimes. It crops up at times of stress and I have a list… and if things don’t stick to MY LIST, I freak the fuck out. And he just sits there and reasons, “Finish your Bibimbap, sweetie.” And he eats there in silence while I have my head buried in my laptop, and not once complains.

I didn’t have much to worry about, since everyone at Shai’s place is SO CHILL. They greet us warmly, I have a drink, and I feel a little better. Then, I saw it… the Porchetta… and angels sung and my shoulders relaxed… and my stomach grumbled. It’s so funny. I keep seeing Shai in that shirt, with the pig cuts. And he proceeded to demonstrate on his shirt (I guess that was the point), where the porchetta came from. It’s the area from the loins to the pork belly, and he rolled it up with delicious herbs, tied, brined, and cooked. It was SO moist and so juicy. I don’t think I have ever cooked a pork that juicy. (I NEED TO COOK IT WITH SOME PIG FAT, THAT’S FOR SURE) And everyone brought sides and there was SO MUCH food left.

The mac’ n’ cheese was awesome, haricot verts was refreshing, and all the potatoes with the pork gravy was great. I had like… almost 4 … technically 3.79888 plates of pork… Mmmm… I don’t need dessert, just pork. I’m not ashamed to say that I ate the big chunks of fat on the pork belly and it melted in my mouth. One of the best porks I’ve eaten ever.

Oh yeah, and there were cream puffs, and people seemed to like them. The best compliment of the evening was by the chef himself. Yay.

I might have been a bad guest and ate and run. I was exhausted, and it might have been too much of substances, like alcohol… snorting pig fat… pig coma… I got home, and in bed by 11pm. And this morning I was still tired, but in a much better mood.