Food with Soul

If the eyes are the window the soul, then my stomach is the revolving door...

Last night Jamie and I went out to eat. We wanted to go somewhere fun, and I really wanted to go somewhere I hadn't been before. And that's when she suggested ACME. That's also remembered that she was a genius.

I've always been a huge fan of soul food. Coincidentally, I also seem to be one of the few white people who crave collard greens. DELICIOUS. ACME is beyond mouthwatering. Every table is set with cornbread and butter, and while I wasn't in the mood for a drink last night, the mango margaritas sounded like heaven in a glass. What I did end up eating was a half-shrimp-half-oyster po boy sandwich. Well, I ate half of it. That's the only thing missing from my undying love for soul food: a bigger stomach. I guess I only have half a soul?


Ciao Bella!

Matteo "Po Boy" Yazge

The Greatest Form of Flattery...

YOU CAN'T COPY AN ORIGINAL!

OK, so let's just throw aside the fact that the whole premise of my blog is very loosely based around a pre-existing literary classic. Instead, I'd like to focus on how Comedy Central is already trying to loosely base a show off of my blog, which - while in my head I'm convinced is ground breaking and awardworthy - is not even a household name yet! Seriously? Ugly Americans? Total rip off. Let's look at the details a bit:

• The show focuses on a normal, well-balanced guy who has to deal with zombies and a girlfriend who literally comes from the 7th circle of hell. My blog is about me, a (sometimes) well-balanced guy who has to deal with all kinds of crazies/hellions.
• Ugly Americans is set in New York City. The Ugly American is written by me, and I live in New York City.
• The main character leads group therapy. I could probably use some group therapy.
• The main character has brown hair. I HAVE BROWN HAIR!

When will the content stealing end?! Shame, shame on you Comedy Central! The least you could do is pay me some royalties. Ugly American OUT!

Ciao Bella!

Matteo "The (semi)Original Ugly American" Yazge

Glee's coming back... in over a month.

There are other things I could write about, but when there's new Glee, who wants to hear about anything else?

For starters, I'd just like to say that FOX is a sick network for repeatedly dangling something as amazing as Glee in front of our faces and then making us wait unnecessarily for months before we get to see full episodes. That being said, I can't wait. 

One thing I still can't figure out though, is how they managed to get the rights to a Beetles song. I thought that when Michael Jackson died, he had the rights to the music buried with him. Touche Mr. Jackson. You have thought of one more way to make a scene, even postmortem. I'm impressed. But your shenanigans are no match for Glee, some shovels, and a lot of illegal day-laborers who were willing to break all kinds of laws in the middle of the night to get us our Beetles music back. As a consolation, I will vouch for you and say that Glee should do an all-Michael tribute episode. They're already doing one for Madonna, and she's not nearly as dead as you are. Close, but not quite there.

Ciao Bella!

Matteo "Glee-ful" Yazge

Lend a Helping Hand

It makes me want to be a dad... or have a human seatbelt. Can't decide.

I found this posted on someone else's Facebook yesterday, but thought it was good enough to pass on again. I'm not entirely sure how ethical such an advertisement is. It comes really close to the putting babies in car safety commercials situation, but as a piece of art, this is pretty cool. And while I think sometimes it's not good to play with people's emotions to get them to purchase something, this is more of a PSA. So, in that sense, using a bit of guilt isn't the worst approach. It definitely got to buckle my seatbelt every day, and I walk everywhere. Effective.


Ciao Bella

Matteo "Michelin Man" Yazge

Wino Wednesday: Stuck on Argentina

I left my heart (and the more functional parts of my liver) in Argentina...

I am seriously considering just up and moving to Argentina after another awesome week of Argentine wine. Who knew they had so many to choose from? Not to mention there are several varieties of grapes that are almost exclusively grown in Argentina. There are close relatives of the Torrontés grape grown in southern Italy and parts of Spain, but these are distinct in flavor. Really, I think the moral of the story is that I'm latin at heart. Give me anything with Spanish or Italian influence, and I'll run with it all week. Or multiple weeks in the case of wine. And yes, that would be a CASE of wine.

OK, per usual, it's detail time:

Wine Name: Urban uco

Type: White - Torrontés

Bottler: Bodegas y Viñedos

Country: Argentina

Price: $8.99/bottle

Notes: floral (though it could have just been the bouquet of white roses at the table that made me think there were floral notes)

Best Occasion for Opening a Bottle: When you have really good friends from Kentucky in town, and you've grown tired of drinking bourbon. 

Kat and Jaclyn were in for the weekend from Louisville, and while we really enjoyed our Manhattans with Maker's Mark (Kentuckians really do make the best Manhattans) Jaclyn and I decided that we should open up a bottle of wine with our dinner. They went really well together. We had a whole wheat pasta with sauteed onions, red peppers, and mushrooms. Delicious. Then Kat and Nick got back from a movie and helped us finish the bottle. And really, that's the best pairing for a good wine: good friends!


Ciao Bella!

Matteo "Argentine-friendly" Yazge

The Native Tourist

So stressed out I can't even handle it. Sorry I didn't write this weekend, but here's what was keeping me busy. I gave all the items awards. I'll come back to some of them later this week. It was great feeling like a tourist again, getting to do all the fun stuff with some good friends. Thanks Jac and Kat for a great time!

Best Jogging by a Pundit in a Park: James Carville

 

Worst Parent/Child Combo: Dylan's Candy Bar

 

Best Thing Ever in the History of Everything/Best Celebrity Appearance in My Life This Weekend: Miss Kathy Griffin

Best Movie I've Seen for the Second Time: A Single Man

Best Belgian Fries: Pommes Frites

Best Latenight Dessert Fix: Veniero's

Best Housewares from Houseguests: Crate & Barrel

Best Housewares from Myself: Fishs Eddy

Best Bourbon in my Manhattans: Maker's Mark

(Kentuckians really do make the best Manhattans)

Ciao Bella

-Matteo "Weekended-out" Yazge

El Mundo Enfuego

Evan Lysacek, one of the many things that were "enfuego" in the past 24 hours.

So many things have been aflame recently. I feel that list form is the only way that I'm going to be able to remember everything. Here it goes:

1. Evan Lysacek - He won gold. So that's awesome. It was all very moving, especially the fist pumping during his final spins, and then once the music stopped. To be honest though, I was looking for more footage of him melting onto the ice in a joyful, teary-eyed mess. Oh, and did I mention he's Orthodox? Because he is. That's cool too. You know what's not? Evgeni Plushenko blaming his loss on the point system. Go cry to someone who cares.
2. Tiger Woods' Guilt - He had a news conference about his bad decisions. Some people think he was actually contrite, some people think he was full of it. I'm just glad he's out of sex rehab or whatever and we can start to stare at him like a train wreck again. 
3. My Office Building - So as I was getting to work this morning, people were pouring out. Why? Because the building was on fire. There's construction on the 8th floor, and I guess something went wrong and then there was a fire? Details... I'm not a fan of them. Anyway, instead of working for the first two hours of my shift - because they wouldn't let me into a burning building - I got coffee, shopped for wine, and got lunch. That's a beautiful day of work. After the firefighters said we could come back in, I then spent an hour and a half editing videos and making smoothies. Not a bad afternoon if I do say so myself.

Ciao Bella!

Matteo "Enfuego" Yazge

Isn't that just precious?

Would have liked it more if it weren't so heartbreaking.

Talk about a serious movie. There were so many depressing themes in this movie, it made my head spin. It's hard to believe that things like this actually happen to people. At some point in the movie you begin to ask why you haven't done anything to help someone in that situation. This poor girl saw more in 16 years than most see in their entire life: sexual assault, two teen pregnancies, poverty, hunger, illiteracy, physical abuse, HIV. The list goes on.

While the story was moving, the execution of the film was a little rocky. There were dream sequences that didn't really fit with the overall timber of the movie, and I'm not sure how I feel about the message with which it leaves the viewer. While I don't have any answers on how to handle teen pregnancy, I don't know that I can 100% support a 16-year-old raising two children on her own (one with Down Syndrome) while living off of welfare. Yes, I understand the very emotional nature of the decision, and how she thought she needed to be a better mother than her own, but being a good parent also entails realizing when you can't provide for your children and figuring out how to remedy that. Sometimes that remedy is adoption. Needless to say we had a in depth discussion about all this over dinner after the movie!

Ciao Bella!

Matteo "Prayin' for Precious" Yazge

Wino Wednesday: Don't Cry for Me Argentina

If that sign had an arrow, I'd follow it!

I may be going to Singpore, not Argentina, for my International Studies class, but that doesn't mean I can't drink their wine! I've heard people rave about Malbecs before, and now I know why. Some brief stats before I delve in:




Wine: Agua de Piedra (Malbec)

Year: 2008

Notes: spiced plum

Ideal Argentine to drink this wine with: Borges (you can discuss poetry)


The characteristic that I find the most pleasing in a good wine, is it's smoothness. While this is the only Malbec I've had, I've read that they tend to be smoother on the whole. Either way, this one was fantastic. It wasn't too dry, wasn't too sweet, wasn't too bitey. It was just right. If the three bears had to pick a wine to drink, it'd be this one. What's really cool about this wine though, is that the Malbec grape is only found in Argentina and a small area in the south of France. That's why it's become known mainly as an Argentine wine. The bottle also says that it goes well with meat (Argentine steak?) but as the resident vegetarian, I can't really speak to that. You'll just have to trust the bottle. And you know what? I would, because it's a literary play-on-words. Anyone read Como Agua por Chocolate? It's not a direct connection, but that's what it reminded me of. Probably just because of the use of "agua". I'm so cultured.


Ciao Bella!

Matteo "pour chocolate, vino, or agua - it doesn't really matter" Yazge

Curl your way to happiness

Happy little curling family... doesn't it make you want to pick up a broom?

You have no idea how excited I am that curling has started! There will be many hours wasted in front of a television watching 40-pound rocks go sliding down a 150 foot sheet of ice. Could there be anything more pleasing?

Yes! Yes there could! Being able to watch it on my laptop anywhere I want! Thanks to nbcolympics.com, I can watch live olympic coverage online! That means on my breaks between classes, I can catch a quick curling fix. Just think of it as the olympic-addict equivalent of hot boxing or chain smoking. OK, commercials are over. Back to watch the US men's opening match!


Ciao Bella!

Matteo "Curling Iron" Yazge

Why is everyone obsessed with older men?!

Very different movies... that were almost the same.

When Hollywood finds a theme it likes, it doesn't tend to stray too far away from it. Apparently this year is all about the shattered romance, especially that with an older man. Oh, and great soundtracks. They love great soundtracks.

Yesterday I saw An Education and A Single Man. Both were really good, and there were a lot of common threads. Both main characters are searching for purpose, oddly enough both are British, and both are/were in relationships that had a 10 year+ age difference. And even though one is a school girl and the other is a grieving, suicidal professor in his 50's, I couldn't help but feel that the two would have a lot to talk about if they ever met.

As far as direction and the movies themselves, they were very well done. I think it may be because I'm huge into the 50's/60's era, but I'm was a huge fan of the setting/music/aesthetic. The costuming was great, but again I would be fine wearing postwar attire. Skinny ties and huge Raybans just seem to fit me so well. The cinematography was great, moreso in A Single Man though. They did a lot with color, which was fascinating. Beautifully done.

Last but not least, I would like to note that Colin Firth's student in A Single Man is played by the guy that was the awkward kid in About A Boy. He's all grown up now and hitting on his professors. See what you can aspire to kids?

Ciao Bella!

Matteo "A single man getting an education" Yazge

The way to my heart

I don't want to leave the cheeeese!

I find it ironic and fitting that Valentine's Day and the beginning of Lent fall on the same day. There's something very poetic about a season that centers around abstention being kicked of by a day that most people construe as being all about sex. Lucky for me, abstention isn't a huge problem for those who don't participate to begin with. It is a problem, however, when we get to the more serious things: cheese.

Right now I'm scarfing down cheesecake for lunch. Since I'm forgoing cheese and desserts this Lent, I figure it's a double whammy on the last day I'm allowed to eat any of these things. Dinner is going to be SMAC (Sarita's Mac and Cheese). I'm going whole hog, and eating like one too. 

To make matters worse, I'm going to not one, but TWO movies today: An Education and A Single Man. Both are really depressing movies. So, I'm pretty excited about that on Valentine's Day. You think I'd want to see a happy movie, but that just reminds me how not happy my own dating life is. I'd much rather see other dysfunctional relationships that make me feel better about myself. I'm going to see both movies with my local Valentine, Helen. But I also have an out of town Valentine, Lauren (left; she's sad because I can't be with her, hence her turning to the statue for support). You know, it's not Lent just yet. I'm still allowed to have multiple partners. 

Ciao Bella!

Matteo "Different Area Codes" Yazge

THE OLYMPICS!

OH NO!

The Olympics are upon us. After a rather hysterically unfortunate lighting of the torch last night, I think we're all ready for a real Olympic event.  Enter Apollo (Anton) Ono. You know what I'd like to know, where that Anton went. I know he didn't sell it, because he's loaded. He's not one of those winter olympians that falls into obscurity, then has to sell all their personal possessions so they have enough money to get their next heroin fix. Mr. Ono is a man of dignity, a man of class. He was on Dancing With the Stars.

But if I thought I didn't have a life before the Olympics started, I'm definitely not going to have one now. What will I be doing? One word: curling. YES! I said it. And no, I'm not going to take it back. I will be watching the Winter Olympic version of shuffle board, and I'm going to enjoy every minute of it. In fact, Liz and I are starting our own curling team. Our name? The Curling Irons.

Ciao Bella!

Matteo "Curling Iron" Yazge

Three Little Siblings from School are We

The resemblance to the midglettes and me is striking...

Yesterday was magical, and it all started with a snow day! Who knew that I'd get one of those in college? To celebrate, I decided I needed a movie to keep me company while I sat by the window and enjoyed the warmth of my apartment... I would have played in the snow, but the wind and ice was threatening to make my face bleed.

ANYWAY! I ended up picking up the first season of Brothers & Sisters. In one afternoon, I watched an entire disk. It's that good. I've seen the show before, but this is the first time I've watched the episodes in succession. So much better that way. One of the main reasons I probably like it so much is that I miss having that day in and day out contact with my family. It's like watching Lexi, Mark and I running around the kitchen laughing an yelling at each other... only there'd be about twice as many of us if we were on that show. You know a show has good writing when there's this many characters and you're never lost. Kind of like my family, full of characters and wildly hilarious.

Ciao Bella!

Matteo "The Brother" Yazge

A Wine of a Different Color

Green with envy?

You should be! I first discovered vinho verde when I went to Lisboa (Lisbon) Portugal over a year ago. My first instinct was that I was a tourist being taken for a ride. Clearly, I thought, there were only two types of wine: red and white. Well, that was only kind of true...

Vinho verde, or "green wine," is a Portuguese variety of white wine. There is only one section in the northwest of the country that produces this type of wine, but despite the limited production space doesn't necessarily mean a higher price. Some of the best bottles only cost around $8, and trust me, it's worth the extra $5 over a bottle of Trader Joe's wine. One of the best parts is that - while it's not champagne - it's naturally effervescent. How cool is that? This is probably one of the reasons why I love to drink it with dessert or on a hot day (good luck finding one of those anytime soon!)

The woman at Union Square Wines was really helpful in picking out a bottle. While most varieties are really good, some can be a tad tart. Personally, I think that's just the price you pay for a cheaper bottle of wine... The one I bought was Ouro Verde, or "green gold." It's just that. At $7/bottle, I'm seriously considering always keeping a bottle on hand, especially considering how much seafood I eat! (Another great food pairing, by the way.) This bottle also kept its fizz after two days in the fridge. I wouldn't test it much longer than that though. I took a taste after 5 days, and it was not an enjoyable experience. Just make sure that if you're going to open a bottle, you have a friend and some good conversation to help you finish off the bottle!

Ciao Bella!

Matteo "Very-Verde" Yazge

Sandwiches and the Gift of Tom Selleck

Oh Tom, you know exactly which sandwich goes with which waterfall.

So there's an entire website dedicated to waterfalls, sandwiches, and Tom Selleck. More specifically, "photos" in which all three are present. Pure Genius. I seriously couldn't stop laughing for a solid 3 or 4 minutes as I was looking at these. I mean, why wouldn't Tom Selleck be lounging around Victoria Falls, eating a classic BLT? It just makes sense. I found this blog through Mashable, one of my favorite techie/e-trend sites. There were several other hysterical blogs listed, but this was by far the best. It just proves how amazing simple ideas can be. (For the other blogs, click here!) Nothing says standards like Tom cozying up to a PB&J on the brink of the Niagra. Beautiful.

Ciao Bella!

Matteo "Ham & Cheese" Yazge

Always look on the ridiculous side of life...

Fido doesn't care that the Colts lost, he's just shootin' the breeze...

So yes, the Colts lost. It's a sad day for our nation. But my good friend Helen decided to cheer me up with a link to the funniest picture-blog I've seen in a while. It's on tumblr, which I don't completely understand, but whatever. All you need to know is that it's a website. Somewhere. That does something, and as a result of doing that something, you get to see really hysterical dogs dressed up like hipsters.

I've also noticed that that's what's missing from my life lately. Granted, I can't say hipster dogs have ever been a huge part of my life to begin with, but the underlying message (be awesome, smile, do something really weird and quirky and feel like a better person because of it) is something that I need to start striving for on a daily basis. I used to be absolutely ridiculous. Now, I'm only moderately so. This needs fixing. I need to hold myself to a higher ridiculous standard, and that standard needs to be ridiculously high. I promise from here on out, I will devote myself to being at least slightly more than moderately ridiculous, definitely maybe once a day. Or more. Probably. I don't know, but we're going to try. A lot... sometimes.

Ciao Bella!

Matteo "Redonkulous" Yazge

Pigs EVERYWHERE!

Swine flu watch out. This pig's on a mission.

So I went to see The Enchanted Pig at the New Victory last night. It was magical... heh heh, get it? No but seriously, it was a lot of fun. And there were lots of hair pieces involved, which never fails to please. Enchanted Pig was the show I worked on for lobby exhibits during my summer internship last year. Talk about seeing something come to fruition. But I after last night I couldn't help but have my mind stuck on pork. Since I don't eat it, I decided that I'd just track down some funny videos of Miss Piggy. This one was priceless. Leave it to a pig puppet to keep cracking jokes at Tiger Woods' expense!

Ciao Bella!

Matteo "Pigs in Wigs" Yazge

Oh hey Aziz!

Yeah. He looked pretty much like that.

He was in awe of how famous I am...

So I had my first celebrity spotting of the year! It's really funny, because I ran into one of my friends on the way home from the gym this morning. In my head I just kept thinking how much he reminded me of Aziz Ansari (and no, not just because they're both Indian). Jump ahead in my life by about an hour, and who do I run into walking down Broadway? AZIZ ANSARI! True story. I'm starting to believe that this whole doppleganger week on Facebook is a lot bigger than any of us know...

This is a good opportunity to plug Parks and Recreation (the most recent show Aziz is on). While a lot of people hammer it for being a rip-off of The Office, I'm a huge fan. I think it's better than The Office and here's why:

1. Amy Poehler is hysterical. Enough said.
2. It's set in Indiana, and is hysterically accurate in its depiction of the State, the government, and its citizens. Things don't often make sense, but they are pretty darned funny.
3. It's still fresh. The Office is suffering from being around to long, and not really knowing where to go. It needs an exit strategy, like what Lost did.

Ciao Bella!

Matteo "Celeb Spottin'" Yazge

Chow Time

My latest obsession...

So after meeting with the CBS recruiters at the job fair, I got turned on to chow.com. Essentially, it's everything the inner foodie in me yearns for on a daily basis. It's got recipes, restaurant recommendations, blogs, videos, and an online foodie community. One post involved a woman asking for help with a skim milk béchamel sauce (which I had stellar advice for btw).

As much as I love the graphics and the site overall, my favorite part is the videos. They taught me all about proper keg procedure - you have to put it in ice and let it sit for a few hours before you tap it. There's also an entire series about coffee and espresso. It's like this website was engineered for me. It went perfect with a glass of this week's wine. Oh, you thought I was going to give away what type of wine I'm writing about this week? False. I will say that it also went really well with my leftover paella though!

Ciao Bella!

Matteo "Chow-down" Yazge

Wino Wednesday: Spanish Flare

¡Qué maravilla!

Our first wine of this semester is a white Spanish blend. Normally I'm not a huge fan of white wine, unless it's sparkling, spumante, or champagne. But this was really good. One of the reasons I probably liked it as much as I did is because it was half Sauvignon Blanc, my favorite variety of white wine. Before I start gabbing too much, let me share some of the basics about this bottle:

Color: White

Type: Blend (Sauvignon Blanc and Verdejo)

Origin: North-central Spain

Notes: citrus, pepper

Price: $12/bottle

Ideal Pairings: Seafood (shellfish especially), fruit desserts, a second glass

Ideal Superhero to Drink Said Wine: Aquaman. He could drink it when he grills the fish that he gets too tired of protecting.

So since this wine is both Spanish and goes well with seafood, I decided to make paella. Brilliant choice. I used the wine in the paella. Then for good measure I drank a glass while cooking. Sheila came over and we had a wonderful dinner over the remainder of the bottle. It also went very well with the crêpe creation I made for dessert. Think of a layer cake, only instead of cake it's 24 layers of crêpes, and in between is dark chocolate and berries. What I liked best about this wine is that it had a smooth finish and the pepper notes complimented the spiciness of the paella, and the citrus was perfect with the dessert.

My overall rating: super awesome caliente.

Ciao Bella!

Matteo "Vino Spagnolo" Yazge

LOST!

So lost, but so amused.

I'm exhausted, but it needs to be said: Lost is back, and all is well with the world. Our world. Not the world that this story takes place in. All hell is breaking loose in that one. There's smoke monsters, people coming back from the dead, people going BACK to the dead. It's a damned mess. And yet, I love every minute of it. So here are my predictions about potential plot developments in this, the final season of Lost.

1. Jacob reincarnates. I'm not sure if it'll be through Sayid, or what, but it's going to happen. He'll also return with a vengeance. There's a more likely probability that the season will be all about the hunt for Jacob, who once found will restore sense to the world, but I like the idea of more body possession.
2. We discover there are parallel universes. This one's a little obvious, but clearly we can't be on one plane of existence, otherwise everyone on the island would have to be swimming around at the bottom of the ocean. They'd just drown. Unless you're Sayid, in which case you'd come back to life.
3. People start remembering. We were given hints about this at the very beginning of the episode when Found-Jack "meets" Found-Desmond. I call them the "Found" versions, because otherwise it gets really hard to differentiate. Add some more blunt force trauma, and people will probably start remembering.
4. The return of "You All Everybody". This is really just wishful thinking, but I'd love for that song that Charlie's band sang to come back. It made no sense, just like the rest of the show. It just seemed to fit.

Ciao Bella!

Matteo "Lost and never Found" Yazge