North Adams

WOW! I was not expecting to find awesome barbeque in western Massachusetts but I did! More on that later but yeah, I’m still dreaming about the brisket.

We finally took our MASS MoCA trip at the end of April. It’s been on my to-go list for quite a while and I definitely needed the time off from NYC. I love Mass MoCA, it’s 200,000 square feet of art and barely a soul around. Maybe because we went on a Monday? It just felt like we were alone…and was free to roam the entire museum.

My favorites were James Turrell’s Perfectly Clear and all of Sol LeWitt. I have seen Sol LeWitt at Dia: Beacon but not at this scale. We were treated to 3 whole floors of his work and it was just amazing.

Trenton Hancock

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Ahhhhhhhhh………A-OK Berkshire Barbeque. Another reason to love MASS MoCA, great barbeque. A-OK sits at one of the entrances to the museum. It’s a tiny shack but you can bring your food into the brewery across the driveway. I was super looking forward to this meal, not just for the meat, but also the bread. The owner bakes her own baguette and I strongly recommend getting one. It was crispy, crusty, and soft. Oh the brisket ($13 for half a pound) was amazing. Flavorful, soft, and peppery. It’s up there next to Hometown BBQ as one of my favorites. Another great bite was the mac n’cheese! I ended up dipping the baguette into the cheese. YUM!

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We stayed at Tourists for two nights and really loved it. It was beautiful, cool, and quiet. My favorite part was napping on the window nook daybed after a long drive on our first day. The check-in/out and common space were lovely as well.

Although the food was a hit and miss. We ordered a pizza, salad, potatoes with miso aioli, and a pasta on our first night. The salad was kind of weird and we ended up not eating it. The potatoes were great and the pasta (red sauce with 'nduja and ramps) was fine. The pizza…hmm….I wanted to like it. The crust was nice but there was too much cheese and a little too salty.

But dinner on our second night was great. We had the cheeseburger (delicious), crispy chicken over a bed of barley (it was some time of grain) risotto, and a beet and fennel salad.

For breakfast we shared a rye waffle (SO GOOD!) with sweet ricotta, maple syrup, and sour cherry compote on the side.

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On our way home we stopped at The Clark Art Institute. You can get a combo ticket that gets you into both MASS MoCA and The Clark for $6 less. We didn’t spend too much time at The Clark but we definitely want to come back later in the year to see their Ida O’Keefe exhibition and to hike up to Stone Hill (right behind The Clark).

It's February And It's Going To Be Okay

So I’m about a month late into talking about my 2019 goals. Not resolutions but goals. Goals are things to improve myself on a daily….monthly basis. Which hopefully will become something permanent. I’ve been trying to go to the gym at least 3 times a week, that’s one goal. Another goal is to blog more (HELLO!) which I kind of failed already by waiting till February.

And then there are 2 goals that are related. 1 goal is to read more and spend less time on the phone. Another goal is to stop using Amazon to buy books. Let me tell you. Few months ago after seeing Jenna Wortham and Wesley Morris, hosts of Still Processing, interviewed author Samin Nosrat about her new Netflix special Salt Fat Acid Heat, my girlfriend and I quickly wanted to get her book. As we were walking home, down 10th Street in the West Village, we came upon Three Lives & Company. We decided to go in to buy the book instead of using Amazon. Wow wow. We had the MOST wonderful experience at a book store. The owner was a fan of Samin and we ended up chatting with him about Samin and her book. After that brief encounter, I decided to stop using Amazon and begin to support local bookstores.

The human connection is so powerful. We definitely live in a world where people are losing that by being on social media. Social media was created so that we could connect with other people but instead it’s doing the opposite.

Anyways, I just finished “Fashion Climbing“ Bill Cunningham’s memoir and currently reading “Number One Chinese Restaurant” by Lillian Li.

Bill Cunningham’s book is very inspiring. He wrote about his childhood when his mom wouldn’t allow him to express himself through his clothing choices. And when he was struggling as a hat maker in New York City and no one gave him any attention. Every obstacle he faced, he found a way to turn it into an opportunity with 100% optimism.

When I get stuck, I get stuck. I should start seeing everything as an opportunity and be optimistic about it.

Beef Rice Bowl And High School

It only happened twice every year during high school. I would wake up (forget when....) 3am, 4am and drive to my school. The air was crisp and I would carry a light jacket just in case. By the time I get to school there would already be a line of people. Talking, sitting, waiting. We had to do this because that was the only way we would get the classes (or summer classes) we wanted and the schedule we wanted. Basically a bunch of high school kids sitting and waiting till 6am (or was it 7am?) to talk to our counselors and hoping to be early enough in line to get the classes we wanted.

Do you remember Yoshinoya? There was one in Times Square but it's long gone now. It's pretty common in LA and back in high school, I would go there a lot. They make a pretty darn good beef bowl, gyudon. I remember one time, while we were all waiting in the dark at our high school, someone had the awesome idea of going to Yoshinoya and grabbing beef bowls for some of us. I think it ended up me driving but when it's chilly and it's 4am and you're hungry. Man, that beef bowl was like heaven in your stomach.

I rarely eat beef bowls nowadays, I'm more an oyakodon person but when my friend, Benson, posted a video recipe on his Facebook for a beef bowl....I decided to give it a try.

Funny how you memory works. While I was eating this, I couldn't stop thinking about that one time in high school.

You can find Benson's recipe for gyudon here.

I like to redo high school.

Behind-The-Scenes At Bang Bang Pie & Biscuits

Thank you to Michael and the entire crew at Bang Bang Pie & Biscuits for letting me into their kitchen. It's such a magical place, I'm totally in love. Awesome biscuits! Awesome bacon! Awesome fancy grits and awesome pies! People of Chicago, you're pretty darn lucky.