Lamb, Karaoke, and A Cold Quest for Cocktails (or NY Winter Adventure pt. 2)

I woke up at the crack of 2:22 p.m. today.  After the shenanigans of last night I didn't even feel guilty.


Yesterday Megan and I took what was quite likely the coldest walk to the grocery store in the history of cold walks to the grocery store to stock up for the week and prepare for our dinner party.  It really is impressive how New York (well, and most of the rest of the urbanized world outside of this country, but I digress) has figured out how to fit So Much stuff into So Little space.  Other than my favorite brand of polenta we found everything we wanted and more, and the huge cold room with a whole lamb aisle pretty much made up for the polenta failure.

We cut time too close to make mani-pedi's but then were able to actually get dinner done in time.  The menu consisted of soft parmesan polenta, roasted brussel sprouts, red and golden beets tossed with green beans and lots of black pepper and vinegar, a salad of spring mix greens and arugula with pears and roasted almonds, and lamb shoulder chops with a rub of salt, pepper, and chopped rosemary done under the broiler.


We had a smaller group for dinner than we expected but quite the mix of folks.  A few best friends from elementary/high school, best friend from college, roommate from Puerto Rico, roommate, Megan's school friend... and almost more importantly we had quite a diverse selection for, oh yes...  Karaoke.

We got to Koreatown almost an hour late for our private room reservation, so wasted no time in getting that machine cranking.  Who would have known that Bon Jovi (Bed of Roses) could be such pure poetry?  Or that we all knew all the lyrics to Jagged Little Pill?  Or that Self Esteem (by The Offspring, by way of Leah and Caitlin) could really just plain rock the hardest?  Now we know.  Be advised.

After a couple hours and many drinks we exited to what should have been a much easier quest for an open cheesy bar in times square.  We finally found one that was underpacked and overpriced, drank some more, knocked a chair over a few times, found no strangers to hit on, and came home.

Today was mostly recovery, as evidence by my wake-up time, but we managed to fit in a lot of spectacular in the few hours we were awake.
I will write more on this later, but leave you with this tidbit that I learned by experience this evening:
Lardo can be whipped to the consistency of soft butter, and has the flavor of smokey bacon.  Oh sweet lord yes.