the list

i keep a list of the restaurants i want to visit and those where i have already eaten. (disclaimer: i keep a lot of lists, but i am only going to divulge this one so i don't seem nearly as crazy). not too long ago, i was reading one of the many nyc food blogs i follow, where i saw a small entry discussing wd-50, a small restaurant on the lower east that has been around for a few years. the chef/owner is fairly famous for his bizarre take on common foods and wd-5o had been on my list for some time.

the blog hinted that wd-50 was shrinking its hours and staff and might not exist much longer. not wanting to miss the chance to eat there, i made a reservation for s and i the following friday night.

the restaurant has been written about a lot and as i was recently told, i am pretty late to the party. my two cents - the food and wine were great (and in correlation quite expensive) and the service was mostly good. s and i had a fun time trying out these dishes and chatting with the people sitting to our left who were visiting from out of town and eating the tasting menu. the best thing i ate was the chef's take on eggs benedict.

the cubes are the hollandaise sauce, next to the cubes are the eggs (the yellow curls) and the crispy brown bacon. the chef truly loves eggs. and so do i.

the award for the most interesting presentation had to go to s's appetizer - the octopus.

sadly, it didn't taste nearly as cool as it looked. but it looked pretty damn cool.

wedding planning galore

the first of march came around and suddenly s and i were bombarded with reminders that the wedding is TWO MONTHS AWAY! the world is ending, the planning must begin and i must stop ignoring the emails from the knot telling me about all of the things we are not doing.

in an effort to head off future meltdowns, s and i sat down one fine sunday night and made a list of everything we needed to do over the coming weeks. our tasks mostly entailed checking in with our vendors to make sure that everything was ok (i.e. they remembered who we were, that they were still in business and ready to show up looking clean and shiny on may 17th). all of our vendors are top notch and got back to us quickly and with much enthusiasm to be part of our day.

that being said, the award for most committed vendor must go to our photographer. i emailed him to say hi and to start discussing scheduling for the morning of the wedding. in response, i received an out of office message stating that he was out of the country on a photo shoot and would return emails on march 21. no biggee, i am ahead of the curve so i could have waited.

two hours later i get an email from him apologizing for the brevity of his email and letting me know he was traveling from ethopia to dubai on a photo shoot. seriously. he emailed me from some very far away country about my wedding in may and even remembered who i was? amazing. add to the fact that he can actually take pictures and i am feeling really confident.

as a side note, where do i find the job where i can take pictures in ethopia and dubai?