Sarasota Dreamin'

Day 68 of the T-90 Project (Thursday)

Once in a while I get invitations to events in my blog e-mail. Rarely do they seem interesting, fun or worthwhile. I'm sorry, but I will not be making it out to your restaurant in New Rochelle for a $100 prix fixe with an accordion accompaniment.

As my days in New York are dwindling, however, I've been paying a little bit closer attention to PR e-mails and the Taste of Southeast Asia night sounded interesting, Kuma Inn's chef would be there, they were offering me two complimentary tickets and Fashionista was free. Done and done.

We showed up at 6:30 for what we thought was a cooking demo, but when we opened the door to the Bennett Media Studio on Washington a woman quickly informed us they were not ready and they were having a staff meeting. The cooking demo never happened.

"Want to go grab a drink at Automatic Slims?" I asked Fashionista.

"Yes, definitely. Let's do it."

Automatic Slims is one of my favorite old hang-outs (we've had many a debaucherous night there, including one of my birthday bashes) and it was fitting to grab one more cocktail there before I leave. We were hesitant to order martinis in the dive spot where we'd notoriously chugged only vodka and Red Bulls, but we went for it. The bartender made us a shockingly delicious dirty martini that was only $6/piece and we headed back to the event.

It took a while for the place to take off. We swarmed the table of Chris Johnson (chef of Bao Noodles and Wa Sake) who was brewing up cocktails. He seemed a bit reluctant to hand out the goods, but after staring him down he got the hint and poured us two half-glasses of dark and stormies. They had a ginger root beer and vodka with some mint and lime and they were fantastic. A delicious fresh summer drink.

Fashionista and I both were surprised people dished out $100 for this event. Even if I still ate meat the food selection would have been disappointing. There was really nothing to eat as a vegetarian. There was fried rice, pork belly, shrimp, some veggie dumplings and that's about it. I was expecting a southeast Asian feast and we barely got a few nibbles. Fashionista loved Chef King Phojanakong's pork belly and she shared the sides with me which were delicious.

A co-worker had asked me what I was doing Thursday night and when I sent her the link, she responded, "That's bizarrely random. A night of feasting to commemorate the Cambodian genocide?"

"Well, when you put it like that..."

It was sort of an awkward evening, made even more awkward by a former co-worker who I couldn't recognize for the life of me. He introduced himself to me and then proceeded to stare at me without offering me any assistance in how I knew him. This back and forth banter of "How can you not know me?" and "Wow, you must meet a lot of people!" went on for, no joke, roughly 15 minutes before it finally dawned on me he was a tech editor at ABC for a hot second. Fashionista and I were both incredulous throughout the whole exchange and we were happy to chug our last sip of vino and call it a night.

Days 67-66:

I will be off in Sarasota, Fla., celebrating my friend MustLoveFrenchies' wedding. I can't do new things in New York while I'm in Florida so I will return Sunday with an adventure in mind, and on another day I'll try three new things to make up for it.

Until Sunday, friends. Have a wonderful weekend.