For a sorta out of the normal visit in Paris, one can try the Mosquée de Paris. It's the largest Mosque in France, and by wikipedia's estimation, one of the five largest in Europe. There's some ginormous one that just opened in Rome, and two other larger ones opened in Russia (2005) and the UK (2003). Unlike its modern counterparts, this mosque was completed in 1926 after WWI. This is an unlikely visit in Paris simply because it's not about butter or pastries, or even about classical European architecture. What's amazing about the Mosquée de Paris is that once you walk in, it's almost like another world. Everything about the building looks spectacular.... [Continue reading]
One thing I've never done in my life is engage in a physical fight. But just as Steph and I were about to get on an airport shuttle, I was close to getting into it with a Parisian cabbie who jacked 3.40 Euros from me (yo, I'm cheap, 3.40 euros is like over $5 bucks). And let me tell you, I was scared. This is how it went down, the cab fare to the Opera was 16.60 Euros and I just thought, "Hey, I can just give him a 20 and get change..." Instead, the dirty motherfucker gave me back 0.80 euros. Like... WTF dude? Give me my damn money back. This is France and your lazy fucking ass took the long way to Opera, so you don't deserve a tip." So the thief is about to drive off and I slap his passenger side window and yelled 'fuck'. He gets out.... [Continue reading]
I tried something new this time in France, and I'm curious why it's not more popular in the U.S. The thing is andouilette sausage. It's French sausage that's made out of tripe and intestines. Steph and I tried this delicious creation at Vivant in Paris. We got pretty luck with the restaurant because it's a bit of a pain to make reservations from New York. We thought we had a reservation but as it turned out, they didn't have it down on record, but they had tables empty and we got to try this tasty sausage thingy.... [Continue reading]
The Brittany portion of the France vacation has now come to an end. I just never get tired of seeing animals though. We took another walk around the neighborhood of Steph's parents' house one last time before leaving. We were charmed with a sunny day, and that's one thing you should know about Brittany, which is that they get cloudy weather often, much like southern Great Britain. It is nice to be in the countryside for a period of time, but vacation doesn't really start when you're in your parents' home. And for Steph it was not like it was for me, which was full of, "Awesome! cows!" or "Awesome! donkeys!" I did learn something new though.... [Continue reading]
Growing up in this era (at least in the Western Hemisphere) usually means that you try to leave the coup after eighteen years of age, and only to return to visit your parents for holidays and long weekends. You develop your own life and you become consumed with your own aspirations and desires. Whenever I go home to visit my parents in Detroit, there's usually a lot of eating, and often there would be meals that's not what my parents eat normally. Maybe there's an extra dish or two, or maybe the dish is done up in a special way. At Steph's parents house in Brittany, we've been eating the kind of meals that's fit for kings on holiday. For example, at lunch the other day we had pigeon. Not just any pigeon... a pigeon they bought from a neighbor. Really, we live in New York City. Buying pigeons from a neighbor is not only impossible, but might be a weird city pigeon. And it's not just a randomly cooked pigeon, it has a reduced wine sauce that was cooked down from an entire bottle of wine, and figs from southern France that we got on sale at the farmers market for like a euro. We drank a Bordeaux in those big curvy wine glasses. All this for lunch. We then took a walk because there's some animals around here.... [Continue reading]
Apparently there's a lot that goes towards making an apartment a home. This shit never ends. Recently I installed some window air conditioning units.... [more]
After two weeks of Seattle posts, I think it's about time to sunset this dying category since it's just killing my page rank from shitty to shittier.... [more]
You ever do this thing where you enjoy a meal, think it's OK on the price, then later on when you think back, you realize they gave you an order of... [more]
Sometimes it's very difficult to quantify the premium you pay for being in New York City. Even within city limits, pricing changes rapidly from one... [more]
Aaaaaand more pictures from Seattle. Not much of a surprise there huh? I'm trying to go through them as fast as possible. When's the last time you saw... [more]
