MMBF - 2/22: USA! USA! USA!

Before I begin, I'd like to address a comment I received two weeks ago from a reader by the name of "Rich Calabrese," or rcal as he's more commonly known. His comment was made on the post by Louey Colicchio, reviewing Blue Water Grill:

With all do respect do the chef of the century, sir louey collichio and the terrific writing and photography that has ensued, i cant believe this new jersey blog has turned into the hub to review restaurants for metros and the like. what happened to this respected man-blog? it used to be a blog about sports, greasy food, jack bauer, and epic weekend adventures.

This blog is nerfy. It has literally formed from a battle axe into a nerf ball. At this rate, next week i'm sure i'll read about scenes from the Tyra Banks show, and how well suited Ryan Seacrest's blazer looked on American Idol.

I feel the mission statement for this blog used to be written on a napkin with ketchup stains on it. Today, it's written in caligraphy on a white doily kept down by a bowl filled with lavender potpourri.

Ouch. First of all Richard, NEVER mention Ryan Seacrest on this blog. American Idol is the worst show on television, and from here on out shall never be spoken of in this forum. How dare you. Second, I must say the comment hit home a little bit. Perhaps I had strayed a little too far from the mission statement of this blog, but it's tough to keep focus when so many writing-worthy events pop up that I feel need to be covered, all while trying to juggle a stressful professional life, my mission not to be fat anymore, the need to watch as much sports as possible, and to continue to ride Pat White's hot hand in my Madden 10 franchise. But, as you can see, I've reverted back to my roots this past week, and will make a conscious effort to continue to do so. The restaurant reviews from The Chef of the Century and Louey Colicchio will continue as well, because I feel there is a need for this literature. But Richard, I hope you know and appreciate that your comment has forced me to look inward, and that things, as a result, will be going back to the way they should be from here on out. Thank you.

I learned a valuable lesson this past weekend: Do not use a Brillo pad when cleaning a stove, specifically the back section that contains the knobs for the burners and oven. My apartment-mates and I have put forth efforts best described as "lackluster" when it comes to cleaning the stove, so I decided to give her a good once over on Saturday. First I used a Brillo pad to scrub the shit out of it, then used Fantastik to provide the icing on the clean cake. When I was finished, I was mighty proud of myself - that oven was SHINING. Then I realized that a lot of that shining was coming from the silver coloring on the back panel that resulted in me taking a lot of the black finish off with the Brillo pad. Oops! Let this be a warning to you, so that you may clean your ovens in the correct manner and not repeat the mistakes of yours truly.

I was strangely riveted to Olympic cross country skiing on Saturday. Not sure why. It's not fast. There aren't any epic crashes. The Americans suck at it. It's just like watching a running marathon (boring) on skis. But for some reason I was fascinated by the Tour de France-like strategy involved, where teammates from the same country were shielding the pack from the leader, and other stuff like that. Somehow it was good television. And speaking of Olympic sports Americans suck at, holy shit is the US Men's Curling team bad. In their match against Great Britain yesterday, they had a chance to score 3 points at the conclusion of one of the ends (1 round in a 10 round match). So what did they do? Well, the guy who slides the rock screwed it up so bad that he knocked all the American rocks out, resulting in Britain scoring 1 point - a 4 point swing. And they ended up losing by 2. PATHETIC.

You all know about my affinity for McSorley's, the greatest bar in all the world, which also happens to be the 3rd oldest bar in America. The place truly embraces its history: no stools at the bar, sawdust all over the place, a wood-burning stove in the center, and only 2 drinks - light and dark beer. You order as many as you can, and the homeless looking Irish guy throws down 16 at a time on your table. Then you pound away and order another round. Things get silly, you sing, you chant, you chug... just a little slice of heaven, located but one short train ride away. If you haven't made the pilgrimage yet, I highly suggest you do so.

Sunday was a glorious day at the Olympics, but before the sporting glory occurred, glory of a different sort took place: a trip to White Mana, the diner whose excellence was documented in this here blog just this past Friday. What a phenomenal place it is. Louey Colicchio and I shared a sack of 20 of their delicious burgers along with a couple of orders of chicken fries. There are few places that satisfy a craving for greatness quite like White Mana. It's a little bit of Americana to fill your belly with.

The resplendence of the day that occurred in Olympic competition was the United States' huge 5-3 victory over Canada in Olympic hockey, our first victory over Canada in the Olympics since 1960. You had to have seen this game, it was so awesome to watch. The speed was incredible, players were slamming into each other every 5 seconds - it was really intense. The complete lack of commercial breaks during the periods added to the breakneck pace of the game as well. It was certainly one of the most entertaining hockey games I have ever seen. It also felt pretty awesome watching our boys play their hearts out for the name on the front of the sweater and shut up the packed house of Canadian fans. Chris Drury represented the Rangers nicely with a goal, Brian Rafalski continued his superb tournament, Ryan Miller was again incredible in net, and Ryan Kesler's empty-net goal to ice the game at the end was one of the more incredible efforts you will ever see. Now the US has automatically qualified for the quarterfinals and gets an extra day of rest, while the Canadians have to play Germany to actually make the next round. U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!

Ugh. Another week of work.