|
SubscriptionsSites I Read
|
|
|
|
| Reaching for something in the distance
So close you can almost taste it
Release your innovations
Feel the rain on your skin
No one else can feel it for you
Only you can let it in
No one else, no one else
Can speak the words on your lips
Drench yourself in words unspoken
Live your life with arms wide open
Today is where your book begins
The rest is still unwritten * Where does my book begin?!?! I wish someone else could feel it for me. It's SO CLOSE, I can taste it. How do I start writing the unwritten? * I've gained so many unnecessary pounds from researching, analyzing, forum-reading, hoping, and basically just sitting in front of my computer for hours being unproductive * It's getting lonely in the apartment over the holidays, without Karen, Victor, and without work to pre-occupy my mind * What to do? Where to go? Where's my sign? Stop looking for signs, I tell myself. Trust God. | | |
| I was bored at work today, waiting for comments, and was going through my co-worker's zagat guide and stumbled onto a highly rated Shanghainese restaurant: Jai Yun.
Intrigued, I made reservations and dragged Victor along with me. The meal was... let's just say... quite an experience. While i can't quite explain it myself, luckily I found a blog (google "jai yun") that describes this experience pretty accurately (see below) and had to share:
Chef Chia-Ji Nei isn't from Shanghai, he's from Nanjing, but it's pretty damn close, hence the title.
His restaurant, Jai Yun is in Chinatown, in a little non-descript hole in the wall. Getting there is half the battle, but once you do, you'll be glad you did.
First, you need to call for a reservation. They are open for lunch and dinner Fri. - Wed. The restaurant is run by Chef Nei, his wife and his son. And that's the entire staff. They all speak very little English, so count on your reservation taking about twenty minutes to make and resembling the drive through scene in "Dude, Where's My Car?". Then when you arrive at the restaurant, count on them not really being sure if you are on the books. But it's all good, I promise.
It's a pretty small dining room, seats about 30 peeps, total. Decor consists of some Christmas lights, a calendar and a drink cooler. You get handed a menu. This is not a menu with food on it, however. That wouldn't make any sense. It is a menu that explains the chef's heritage and philosophy. You then tell the server (his son) how much you want to pay ranging from $35-$150 (cash only). We've never done more than $45 and with what you get, I can't imagine what the $150 meal looks like. They must need a stretcher to get you out. After you tell them how much you want to pay, the food starts coming. And coming. And coming.
You start with some cold bits. These include but are not limited to: a delicate little cucumber salad, vegetarian chicken (cold layered tofu that really *does* taste like chicken), lotus root salad, cold duck tasties, braised beef slices with spicy peanuts, cold fish, spicy cabbage and many, many more. Then the entrees start coming.
One of his signature dishes is foo yung abalone. This is egg whites and abalone and it's fucking delicious. You just can't believe it. Then comes shrimpies with veggies and gingko nuts and then some tofu noodles with edamame and more veggies and it's crazy good. Crispy spicy beef and crispy spicy mushrooms. Winter melon with finely minced pork in another spicy sauce. Pig's leg. Chinese sausage with sticky, chewy delicious noodles (I have no idea what they are made of, but who cares? They are amazing). Whole fish with citrus and herbs. And more and more and more and more and more and more. And the fucked up thing? It's all so friggin' good that as each dish comes, you can't possibly believe it's better than the last, but it is.
They send out the perfect amount of each dish for the number of people in your party. And by the end of the night, all the tables are somewhat in sync, receiving many of the same dishes and leaning over to each other to say "oh-my-God-can-you-believe-how-fucking-good-this-is?"
PICTURES :)
 | | |
|
|
Bic Runga
|
|
Don't stray
Don't ever go away
I should be much too smart for this
You know it gets the better
Of me sometimes
When you and I collide
I fall into an ocean of you
Pull me out in time
Don't let me drown
Let me down
I say its all because of you and here I go
Losing my control
I'm practicing your name
So I can say it to your face it doesn't seem right
To look you in the eye
And let all the things you mean to me
Come tumbling out my mouth indeed its time
Tell you why
I say its infinitely true
Say you'll stay
Don't come and go
Like you do
Sway my way
Yeah I need to know
All about you
And there's no cure
And no way to be sure
Why everythings turned inside out
Instilling so much doubt
It makes me so tired
I feel so uninspired
My head is battling with my heart
My logic has been torn apart
And now
It all turns sour
Come sweeten
Every afternoon
Don't come and go
Like you do
Sway my way
Yeah I need to know
All about you
Its all because of you
|
|
