a seal, a piano, & oscar's of st james

after work on friday i went to the music building of stony brook to meet up with the sister. this little guy reminded me of an article i read about russia banning the practice of seal slaughter. and i figured i needed a pretentious artsy shot of the fluffy thing.

i also came across one of these. which for the life of me would not focus in macro, reminded me of my childhood and is called....something somethingerator.


for dinner, leah and i went to oscar's of st james. since it was smithtown restaurant week last week, we ate with the rest of us plebians instead of the usual crowd. and unlike some douchebags, we tipped the appropriate amount instead of 5% cos it "wasnt enough food."

from the tapas menu, i had the buffalo tostada [very rich but inspired me to buy ground buffalo meat at the grocery store next trip], fried smoked calamari with thai dipping sauce [delicious spicy sauce, calamari rings are fine but the tentacles, while crisp and tasty, definitely weird me out], oven roasted chorizo with onion compote [not an onion fan, but an avid chorizo fan], and moroccan merguez wrapped in potato chips [lamb was also very rich and the potato chips were a very interesting complement, although i spent most of my eating wondering how they were wrapped but still crunchy]

the pic is a little dark as i didn't want the flash to blind everyone in the restaurant. on the left is the chorizo and the right is the merguez. in all i had the real man's meat dinner [meat with a side of meat] and it was a bit too rich, although delectable. i had the berry dessert [mini raspberry napoleon, pannacotta w/ blueberries, and strawberry sorbet] as i felt a molten chocolate cake, hot chocolate milk w/ cookie, and a chocolate truffle would have put me into a food coma under the table right then and there. as it was, i went home after, donned sweatpants, and then rolled around on the couch for awhile like a trussed turkey.

that being said, after i get a raise at work [not holding my breath], we will return to oscars. or more likely during restaurant week next year.

leah had grilled octopus with warm fingerling potatoes, frisee, and orange aiole viniagrette; scallop crusted salmon [minus the scallops] with sunchoke cream, fingerling potatoes, pearl onions, asparagus, and shallots [pic below]; and apple beignets with maple syrup and vanilla ice cream

im hungry now...