Thirties

above: sake served in traditional square containers at satsko; below: we ate belgian fries at vol de nuit
I certainly didn't enter the age of 31 quietly. In fact, if I had to assign a description of this birthday celebration, I'd identify it as one of the very most memorable in the past several. Last year at this time, my parents were visiting NYC, which was also a really good time. This year, however, the majority of my special day (and the days surrounding it) were spent mainly with only Craig, plus a miscellaneous additional cast of fun characters such as Jen from the French Culinary Institute, Ricardo from Satsko, three New Yorkers we met sitting at the bar at Satsko plus a New York bird (will explain), Alison and Scott, and varying native Vermont flavor in Burlington. But all that said, I had a lot of quality Craig~Kristin time, which makes all of the struggles of daily life completely worthwhile! Wednesday night we dined and drank at Satsko Sake Bar, a place we've been to once before but not to eat. I can't say enough about this place - the food was maybe the best I've had in New York, no kidding, and the sake was smooth and Ricardo (who runs it) was ever hospitable, filling our glasses with bottomless Sapporo and doing "sake bombs" with us. We met three people plus one bird (the married couple of the three we met owns a parrot who is evidently welcome at Satsko) at the bar (see our other page for pictoral details) and had an overall amazing and fun time there. We will be back. Thursday morning (the day I entered what I've deemed "real" adulthood, or, the Gateway into Real Adulthood - age 31) Craig gave me a really sweet birthday card and in it was my birthday gift - reservations for us to take a wine course together! Exciting!! That takes place in two weeks. We ate bagels and jumped in a cab and headed to the License Xpress Branch to finalize (two years later) our induction into New York City by obtaining New York City Drivers Licenses. It was shockingly and brilliantly easy - we were shuffled about various windows signing various forms and having our mugshots snapped, and $46 later and only a matter of maybe 25 minutes it was official - our Georgia licenses were removed from our possession. As Craig reminded me, No more White Trash Wednesdays at Brother Jimmy's! (Southern ID discounts at the neighborhood BBQ joint on Wednesdays no more!) Then we traveled one stop on the subway to grab lattes at West 11th Street Cafe. We walked our way to the French Culinary Institute, whereupon we learned that the woman I've been exchanging emails with regarding a tour is a native New Yorker but studied at IU in Bloomington! Go Hoosiers! She's a few years older than me and over the course of time wound up in culinary school so who knows - there's hope yet for that avenue to open up! Really, I've been intrigued by culinary arts heavily more recently, and in addition to that, I want to take the food writing course this fall. Anyway, the facilities were amazing. There were students adorned in white coats, hats and pants running all over the place carrying dishes, dicing, dressing, plating - it was fascinating. Each "level" has its own specific area/kitchen. The place is huge! I believe the school is four floors. Craig was impressed as equally as I. Jen was great - really personable and helpful. Following that, she had asked me if I'd like reservations at the students' restaurant called "L'Ecole" located in the same building. So we walked in through the Level 5 (I think) kitchen which belongs to the restaurant and we were seated by a host who slipped a card to the waiter - lunch was on Jen! How nice! We ate very well, too - an open ravioli seafood appetizer followed by seafood entrees. After lunch, we walked about and ducked in a couple of bars. It was a great day - beautiful weather, relaxing, very fulfilling to see the school and to be with Craig on my day. Around 5 we headed back to the apartment to take naps before dinner at Land on the East Side with Alison and Scott. They were so sweet - gave me a serving platter and a wooden placard with a Lucille Ball quote about the secret to staying young. We ate delicious Thai and then headed over to the Auction House, a secret tucked away unmarked bar that we've discovered recently and find endearing. Friday morning we woke up early again, and Craig picked up the rental car and we were off to Burlington. We didn't make it out of town until 9, but by abut 1.30 we were at the Essex Ferry on the New York side boarding the ferry in the PT Cruiser we had landed in (wait until Jen and Pete get a load of that...we were stuck in a PT Cruiser in Illinois to drive to their wedding a couple of years ago - it was black then and this weekend again - like driving a hearse!) and before too long, we were rolling into South Burlington, where we stopped at the Magic Hat Brewery for beer tasting and Magic Hat garb. The brewery is under construction so we only hung out for a few minutes in the shop, where we tasted Hocus Pocus and Circus Boy, both which wound up being flavors of the weekend, primarily Circus Boy. Then we traveled into Burlington, easily found our B&B, and parked the car for the duration of the trip. The B&B was super nice, called The Lang House - an old giant house with beautiful wood and large rooms and cozy smells and sounds. The house is situated right on Main Street, a quick 5-minute walk from Church Street which is a happening pedestrian mall filled with eclectic shops and bars. We hadn't eaten lunch yet, so we freshened up and walked to the ped mall. It was about 3.30 by this time and Friday early Happy Hour goers were already filling the outdoor seating spaces at all of the restaurants. Church Street is blocked off to vehicular traffic its whole length - it was very reminiscient of the ped mall in Montreal where we've been a couple of times, only maybe longer and better. We wound up at a place called Sweetwaters and I ate a Kobe Beef Burger with Goat Cheese while Craig tried the chicken sandwich. We were already beginning to realize what a relaxing day and a half we were in for, as people strolled by calling out to one another (everyone knows everyone in that town!) and tables filled with patrons wanting to enjoy the gorgeous blue skies and temperatures. I came back to New York with a sunburnt nose and pink cheeks, that's how divine was the weather for us! Anyway, the remainder of the afternoon we spent wandering around, trying a beer here or there, watching the locals and forgetting about real life for a while. We were both just terrifically happy to be away from the pace of here, for a bit, and to be anonymous in a new town (we really like that). Friday night we ate dinner at Smokejacks. The food (as Alison and Scott, who have been to Burlington twice before, have said) was incredible. The flavors were well-balanced, and we even scored free mesclun salads because of a "ticket mix-up" so we left full - but ended our night there, early, before 11. It had been a long day, and plenty of beers and ample food later, we needed to get a good night's rest to have a full Saturday. Saturday morning greeted us with a heat wave in the B&B (they had explained that they hadn't pulled out their Air Conditioners yet - ill-prepared for the quick wash of heat over the weekend, I presumed) but also with the wafting scent of breakfast. We've been to B&B's before - a stinky trashy one in Montreal years ago, a quaint and well-manicured one in Maine - but this one was far and away one of the best in terms of everything (aside from the cooling issue). The breakfast options (I'm recapping from memory so I'm going to use my fictional memory powers but this is close) included Frittata with Potato, Sausage, Goat Cheese and Roasted Red Pepper Sauce or Whole Grain Flapjacks with Apple-Almond Butter topped with Vermont Maple Syrup - I nabbed the Frittata and Craig opted for the Flapjacks - we were both stunned at the results. Oh, and once we sat down, immediately after we sat down, we were each dealt a plate of Chocolate Banana Bread - so fresh, I didn't even use butter and fell in love with it. Needless to say, the place has its act together as breakfast goes (this morning's offerings included Whole Grain Waffles or Onion-Dill Popper with Eggs, Vermont Cheddar and a side of ham after slices of warm coffee cake- delish!) Anyway, we spent the morning wandering in and out of unique shops. Craig gets quickly bored looking at item after item but he hung in there while I browsed cool stuff. The stores were often handcrafted gift things - Craig bought me a pewter necklace at a pewter specialty shop called Danforth, native to Vermont, and there is a home goods store which used to be a Pier 1 but the owners disengaged from Pier 1 to offer more unique things, and there we purchased a picture frame that is surrounded with a white notepad containing removable notepad pages so that you can write creative junk all around the perimeter of a photo and change the "frame" when you change the photo. Moreso neat for a kid, but I will have fun decorating frame "pages" with my funky handwriting and little sketches. So, we aimed to hit most the stores, and did, and really just did a lot of wandering and browsing. We ducked into a place off Church Street called American Hearth (where we will eat next time because rumor has it the food rocks the town) and drank a beer and met a bartender who is a dead ringer for Matthew Perry. Then we navigated back to Church Street to Ri Ra, which is the town's Irish pub, with a wait of more than 30 minutes for outdoor seating. We didn't mind, and waited, and waited and waited...then were seated and waited for an endless time for our food (there was something peculiar going on with the kitchen there - sounded like the kitchen was understaffed for the gorgeous weather) but we didn't care because we just drank beer and people-watched again. It was glorious to sit and feel without a worry and to be 31 and to not have much stress for the afternoon! We did finally get served food, then headed over to the Red Square for more outdoor seating and a beer, but Craig wanted to hit the B&B to freshen up for dinner and the "nightlife". We ate Thai at Bankok Bistro, and it was okay (maybe Thai isn't Burlington's specialty, though we loved the ambience in there) and then we headed to the Nectar Lounge to experience Konami Kode (a band that plays Nintendo Game Theme songs in techno fashion) but to be honest, the band was just O.K. We then toured a couple of other spots with live music but before too long, we were ready enough to be done for the night - I'm not sure if Burlington is exactly famous for after dark, perhaps. But we did see the faded mountains across Lake Champlain, we experienced good Vermont brews, incredible Vermont food, and the laid back nature of the Vermonters is nice for a change from what we get in New York. Our pictures will reveal more of what we saw. Then today we drove back, and I read the March issue of Cooking Light cover to cover. We made it back to the City in great time - I came right to the computer to download pics but may or may not have them up by tonight. Craig wants to catch up on TV shows from the week. We're ordering Indian again but tonight is the end of the overindulgence road - I've gained an unacceptable amount of weight since going on "hiatus" from Weight Watchers and now it must be worked off, with better eating and some exercise.*More soon. It's Sunday which means close to Monday which means back to the grind, but I think I don't mind going back after how relaxed I feel right now. Next big trip: Myrtle Beach at the end of May with Craig's family. We've got the whole week at that time - how comforting, knowing how good it felt to be away only two days!!*