These are a few of my favorite things...

This virus has kicked my bum though it has done wonders for my diet. I'm at the point now where my brain is getting reinterested in food but my stomach is still demanding rice and toast. To appease my brain I've decided to make a list of some of my favorite foods/dishes in no particular order and by no means comprehensive.....

lobster in the rough, tempeh teryaki sub from Mellow Mushroom Pizza, sichuan pickled long beans, Enchiladas Vallartas from Casa Manana, My mom's stuffed cabbage and grape leaves, pho ga, pho bo vien, nem cuon, grilled shrimp paste on sugarcane, summer rolls, Ihawan bbq, Ihawan canteloupe drink, lumpia sariwa, Shanghai lo mein, Thai ginger whole fish, frisee aux lardons, bagels with scallion cream cheese, Frank Gagliardi's pizza, Rhode Island style calamari, matzoh ball soup, Les Green's clam spaghetti, ribs, ma po dofu, crusty bread and butter, cheese and more cheese, real fish chowder, katsu don, ume shiso maki, greek salads, Mom's felafel, "the salad" from USC, dim sum, beef carpaccio, kibeh nayee from the old Middle East, gambas al ajillo, tres leches cake, jamon serrano, dosas, crab curry from Dakshin, chana masala, chile relleno, Sausage and Peppers from the guy outside Fenway, fennel, lychee, mango, dill pickles with peanut butter, half sour pickles, mom's latkes, thanksgiving food, chicken udon from Republic, grilled eggplant from Republic, the eggplant dish from the Afghani restaurant in Queens, eggs in a frame, grilled cheese sandwiches, salt and pepper shrimp, pear sorbet...

Naga Eboko

My beautiful boy is 3 now and a raging 3 year old he is. It's kind of like living with Sybil but all of his personalities are pretty damn cute.  I was hoping for a nice relaxing break but I've been sick the whole time which has stunk for me, Jacob, and Jeff. The one upside is that I've been doing a ton of reading which I love but never have the opportunity to do.  Quick Rundown:

The Weight of Water, Anita Shreve: Fantastic, great characterizations, heart wrenching at the end. I liked it so much I had Jeff get two more of hers from the library, Body Surfing and All He Ever Wanted. Neither was as good as The Weight of Water. Body Surfing was a great read though...can't say the same for All He Ever Wanted.

The Year of Living Biblically, AJ Jacobs. Tremendous...I laughed, I learned, go read it.

Tropic of Cancer, Henry Miller. I can't justly say that I read it because I got through 30 pages and gave up. Okay, I get it, it was groundbreaking. Modern writers owe him a debt, freed the genre, blah blah blah.  But c'mon folks. Go one deeper than that and you basically have a personal narrative of this guy who is by his own admission a total leech and completely scornful of/condescending towards everyone in his circle, including those whose money he so readily takes. Not to mention that he's under the impression that all of the women he beds "want it."  If anyone has read the entire book and can tell me that it is worth it to read to the end (and why) I will reconsider. Otherwise, I want my time back.

Go Tell it On the Mountain, James Baldwin. This one was a reread. Freaking brilliant. Still.

The Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad. I'm about ten pages from done with this. I love it. It is painful to read  because the themes are so present: the potential for darkness and light in every soul, man's inhumanity to man, etc. ...at the same time Conrad paces the narrative so well and the language is so rich that you never feel mired in the heaviness of the ideas.

Fatal, Michael Palmer. Eh.  I like suspense and this certainly was a page turner but it felt as though the author was writing it with the idea that it would be optioned by a network to become a TV movie. Still, good beach/sick in bed read.

A coughing jag woke me up and has me writing this at such an obscene hour. Ten points and lots of respect to anyone who got the reference in the title of this post (doesn't count if you google it).