Monday, November 29, 2010

New York Cheese Cake



I had to include one picture of me being me






I tried three different kinds

Cherry


Rating: 4 Bald Heads

Oreo



Rating: 5 Bald Heads

and Rockey Road


Rating: 3 Bald Heads


Overall the cheesecake was delicious! I will for sure find my way back here when I return to NYC.

Birdland Jazz Club

On Friday night we met up with Xhuli and she graciously volunteered to take my stuff with her to her house so that I did not have to travel to her house in Queens just to drop my stuff off.

Travis and I then headed to Birdland Jazz Club



It was a very fun night. It was the first jazz club that I had ever been to. i had a great time and the music was great.



The Club had a $20 cover charge and a requirement to purchase at least $10 off of the menu.

I order chicken, potatoes, and collard greens.







Enjoying the music!

Ratings:

Food: 2.5 Bald Heads

Club and Music: 5 Bald Heads

Saturday, November 27, 2010

New York Style Pizza

The first place I went to was called Angelo's Pizza.

It is literally right next door to the Ed Sullivan Theater where Dave Letterman films his show.

It was a white pizza with ricotta cheese, sun dried tomatoes, and pancetta.



Rating: 3 Bald Heads

The Second Place is at the end of the Brooklyn Bridge on the Brooklyn side.



At this place. You had to stand outside in line for about an hour just to get in and get a seat.



For this pizza I just got the regular toppings of pepperoni and sausage. It was super delicious and the better of the two pizzas.


Rating: 4.7 Bald Heads

I would give it a 5 but since I have only eaten at three pizza places in New York City I figure I need to try more places before I start handing out 5 Bald Heads.

The third place: Hot and Crusty



Hawaiian Pizza


This pizza was my last supper in NYC. It was a decent piece of pizza, but nothing to go out of my way to try again.

Rating: 2 Bald Heads

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Philapdelphia Cheese Steaks!

This is my first food blog post. I will be rating the places I eat at out of 5 bald heads instead of stars.

So here we go...

So while I was in Philadelphia I wanted to try an authentic cheese steak. So I went to three different places to get a variety and variation of the cheese steak sandwich.

The First Cheese Steak @ Sonny's Famous Steaks:





Rating: 2.5 Bald Heads

The Second @ Steaks on South:






Rating: 4 Bald Heads

This was the best because it had the proper ratio of meat to cheese to bread. The bread was fresh, not dry and tasted homemade. The best part of this sandwich was the meat. The meat was very well seasoned and on the peppery side.

The Third @ Gooey Looie's :





Rating: 3 Bald Heads

Although this picture looks unappetizing it was good. The downfall of this sandwich was that it was 80 percent meat, 15 percent bread, and only 5 percent cheese. It was more of a Philly Steak Sandwich.

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Victory Lap to Philadelphia and New York City

After my first victorious fight with cancer I went to Hawaii.

After round two I went to Philadelphia and New York City.

So I will give a quick play by play of the trip in this post. The following posts will focus on the food aspect of the trip.

So Tuesday night at 11:12 p.m. our flight departed for New York City.

We arrived in NYC around 5:30 Wednesday morning.

My roommate Travis and I then took a Taxi to the Port Authority Bus Station. We checked in our baggage and waited for until our bus for Philadelphia left at 8:30.

After arriving to Philadelphia we did a tour of the historical sites there.

The Liberty Bell


Benjamin Franklin's Grave



Independence Hall where the Declaration of Independence was signed



After a few hour of tours and pictures we set out to find some Authentic Philadelphia Cheese Steak Sandwiches. We ate at three different places during our search for the best cheese steak.

After our cheese steaks we walked to the Wells Fargo Arena to watch the Philadelphia 76ers play the Toronto Raptors. At this point we had only had about four hours of sleep two on the plane and two on the bus ride from NYC to Philadelphia.

The game ended around 9:00 p.m. after which we waited and took the subway to City Hall where we looked for somewhere to spend the next few hours waiting for out bus to leave back for NYC. Our bus did not leave until 2:55 a.m. so we had sometime to kill.


Low and behold around 10:45 we found Hard Rock Cafe



The kitchen closed at 11:00, but we got there in time to order some food and they did not kick us out until around 11:45.

we then needed to find somewhere that was open and warm to spend the next 2 to 3 hours. We did not want to go to the bus stop because it was not very big and there were a lot of odd people there. So we sneaked into a Hilton Hotel Lobby that was across the street from the bus station. We sat at a table that was around the corner from the front desk so that they could not see us just sitting there.

Reading and waiting for the bus to leave. Picture taken around 1:30a.m. on Thursday.



At this point in the past 48 hours we had not slept for no more than five hours. He got around 2.5 hours on our red eye flight to NYC and another two hours during the bus ride to Philly. Needless to say we were on the tired side.

We departed form Philadelphia around 3 a.m. and I did luck out to sit next to a pretty women my age. She tried to strike up conversation by asking which book I was reading. The conversation did not last more than 5 minutes because once the bus left for NYC the lights were turned off and I could not resist but fall asleep.

We arrived back in NYC around 4:45 or 5 a.m., however the place where we were storing out bags did not open until 7 a.m. so exhausted as we were we sat in the bus station fading in and out of sleep waiting for the place to open. Once 7 o'clock rolled around we obtained out baggage only to wait more.

My buddy Travis could not check into his hostel until 3 p.m. and the person I was going to stay with was not expecting me until 10:00 a.m. at the earliest. We were exhausted. Since we had zero desire to walk around New York City with our luggage and a target on our back screaming "Tourist!" so we waited at the bus stop and I took a two hour nap.

Here:



Around 9:30 a.m. I woke from my comfortable nap and realized that I had forgotten to pack a towel to shower with. This is usually not a problem when people travel because they are usually provided for you either from the hotel/hostel you are staying at or friends or family you are staying with.

This was a problem for me because I was going to stay with a girl named Parnika and other than a few email correspondence I had never met or talked to this person. She was a friend of a friend. So I figured bring my own towel would be convenient for her sake.

So after walking a few blocks I found a towel and met back up with Travis and off we went to Parnika's apartment to met her and drop of our things so that we could walk around the city.

Around 10:30 we arrived to Parnika's apartment and are very grateful to be out of the dreaded bus station and able to sit on a padded chair and couch and no longer for on the tile floor. After talking and getting to know Parnika we took showers. It felt great this was the first shower I had taken since the shower I took before heading to the airport to fly to NYC.

Parnika: She is from India by way of Dubai



After my shower a sat here


and before to long I realized that I had been sleeping for five hours.



So anyways, I am super long winded on this blog post but this is where the trip mellowed out and got more normal. We then spent the Thursday through Sunday in New York seeing sites and eating terrific food.

These first few days I thought were the most unique and exciting.

Thursday after leaving Parnika's

walked around the city at least 70 blocks worth.
Ate at Good Burger and Angelo's pizza. (more detailed blog post later)
Went to the top of the Empire State Building
Visited Rockefeller Square and called it a night.

After which Travis and I split up. He went back to his hostel and I went back to Parnika's. It turned out to be Parnika's roommates birthday and so they was a small surprise Bday party for her. It was put on by her friends and there were about 12 of her friends there. So there I was, not having known any of these people before, at a birthday party with 12 Indian females celebrating a birthday. It was a awesome time and she even had me help her blow out her candles.

Friday:

Grimaldi's Pizza (under the brooklyn bridge)
Times Square
Back to Parnika's house to pick up my stuff to take to where I would be staying the last two nights of the trip.
Then to the Birdland Jazz Club. It was awesome. My first time going to a jazz club and I will defiantly try to go again.

Then met up with our other roommate Mike in the financial district. Walked around Wall Street and then ended up at the Hard Rock Cafe in NYC.

Saturday:

Statue of Liberty
Eileen's Cheesecake
Pierpont Morgan's Library (If you have never heard of this look it up it is amazing)
The Musical Billy Elliot
Shake Shack
Watched the movie RED

Sunday:

We spent the day at the MET Museum
then took the taxi to the airport to return back to reality

So overall it was an amazing trip. I ate a ton of amazing food and enjoyed the time away from reality.

To close, I couchsurfed for the first time on this trip. There is a website called couchsurfing.org and it is a Internet community of people who offer up there couches free of charge to travelers.
So the final two nights of the trip I couch surfed at a Xhuli's house. She is Albanian and in English she goes by Juliana. So was super cool and very down to earth wonderful person.

I took a picture with her and also where I slept during my stay at her apartment.





Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Game, Set, MATCH!






So this past weekend I once again flew home to beautiful San Diego to have another go around with cat scans and doctor's checks.

First, let me flashback in time. Last go around in my cat scan there was an unidentifiable piece of something in between the two lobes of my left lungs. So instead of waiting the prescribed three months for the next go around with scans I was to have them again six weeks later.

So back to this past weekend. I was slightly nervous because if the object had grown bigger and was once again cancer I would not have had the best Halloween. Also it would have been the third month of October in which I was told I had cancer. The first two being Oct. 2002 and 2008.

So after going in for scans everything was CLEAR! So I will be having scans once again on December 20th and having my wonderful trusty port-a-cath removed. The port and I have been through two years of chemo, a month of radiation, and two lung surgeries. We truly have bonded and it will be a bitter saweet moment. It will be like leaving your longtime childhood friend to move in with Bill Gates.

Anywho, just thought I would update everyone. Also I will be keeping this blog going but will be shifting it from Chalk's Cancer Chronicles to Chalk's Culinary Chronicles. Because besides fighting cancer my second favorite hobby it eating good food.

Thank you to everyone who offered a prayer in my behalf, fasted in my behalf, used humor in my behalf, or just was there along the way with a smile and fist bump.

Many Many Thanks

I will be going to NYC to celebrate my new found freedom from the doctor's office. If you have a restaurant I should take a look at let me know.