Bao!

Finally! Some awesome Asian food (Taiwanese, to be exact). Last week we subwayed down to the East Village to sample the fare at BaoHaus, which specializes in...you guessed it...bao. (Bao = a steamed, filled bun popular especially in China and Taiwan.) I've always loved them--home made by a friend's grandmother, at dim sum houses, anywhere, really. We ordered three each, five different kinds in total. They were like dim sum-inspired sliders!

Chairman Bao (my favorite, and most reminiscent of cha siu bao)--braised pork belly, cilantro, crushed peanuts, pickled veg. A word about the actual buns: Awesome. Good texture, chew, and flavor.

Left: Birdhaus Bao (Devin's favorite)--spicy fried chicken, cilantro, crushed peanuts. Right: Oyster Po Bao--fried oysters, lemon aioli, jalapeño, pate, pickled daikon and carrot, cilantro.

Left: Haus Bao--braised beef, cilantro, crushed peanuts. Right: Broccolino Bao--Tempura broccoli, bean paste, shiitake mushrooms, julienned daikon and cucumber.

We weren't hungry enough to try the taro fries, but we'll definitely be back for those, and for a few more bao!

A Full Day

Devin's Thanksgiving-themed tie.

Thursday was Devin's last day in NYC until we both return after winter break in January. I'm sticking around until the end of my semester, which is in mid-December. We took an early afternoon walk to Riverside Park and also ate a lot of delicious food.

My new coat. I'm pretty in love with it.

The view down our street, with St. John's in the background.

Food time! This was the most beautiful, velvety bunch of sage ever.

Devin pouring the celebratory sparkling apple cider.

I made everything myself and from scratch, except for the Pilsbury biscuits, which were Devin's domain. We roasted a chicken rather than a turkey, because our oven is miniature and there were two of us.

From bottom left and clockwise: whole cranberry sauce, sage roasted chicken, biscuit, sage and onion stuffing, green beans, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes roasted with cinnamon, salt, and olive oil, and my famous fresh pickled cucumber salad. This was before everything was smothered in gravy.

I forgot to snap a picture of the finished apple crumble, so here it is in its various stages. Above: the filling (Suncrisp apples, cinnamon, sugar) and below: the topping (flour, salt, oats, brown sugar, pecans).

After filling our tummies we watched the Wes Anderson adaptation of one of the best Thanksgiving-ish stories ever, Roald Dahl's Fantastic Mr. Fox. It's all about eating, and the colors are constantly autumnal. I hope everyone had an equally fantastic holiday!

MIDTOWN

The Chrysler Building is the most beautiful skyscraper I've ever seen. Art Deco is such a glorious style.

The marbled interior looks like petrified wood. Lovely.

Face-off between Grand Central Terminal and the Chrysler.

The Ghostbusters branch of the New York Public Library!

A 1911 photograph of the ongoing construction of St. John the Divine (the cathedral by our apartment).

Looking like a Picasso is not generally complimentary. I'm a little disconcerted by the neck similarities. Fitting that I'm wearing his favorite kind of shirt.

Bubbles from the 1940's.

The beginnings of Christmas trimmings!

One of the reading rooms.

A lovely pigeon...or, more like a dove with a smattering of pigeon.