When Smokers Jog: First things first.

I want to review the last few days, but first things first. I went to Boston with my good friend Maria on Tuesday and got to eat at my former chef's restaurant.

Bear with my iphone photos

Josh Ziskin owns La Morra in Brookline, Mass. I worked for him nine years ago at The Tuscan Grill in Waltham, and I still make some of the food from that restaurant to this day. He's very talented, and I've been following his goings on for years, and now, I finally got to eat his food again.

Clockwise from top: Arancini, fried olives, salt cod with toast, anchovies wrapped in sage leaves and fried, and polpette (meatballs).

We started with 5 small plates, chef's choice. The arancini were stuffed with braised beef and mozzarella and were easily the best arancini I've ever had. The rice was amazingly creamy.
The fried olives were good, but nothing amazing. The salt cod, the anchovies, and the polpette were fantastic. The man's always had a way with meatballs.

After a rather forgettable salad (but what can you do. It's March), our half-order of gnocchi with braised oxtail appeared. This is only my second time eating oxtail, my first being on stupid Valentine's Day at the celebrated Purple Yam in Ditmas Park. It think it's fair to say that was one of the top three worst eating experiences of my life, and even fairer to say the oxtail we had that night was disgusting. It just tasted gross. My friend wound up taking it home and feeding it to his dog. I'm not even kidding.
Anyway, so I knew I had to remedy The Oxtail Situation. And Josh Ziskin made some damn good oxtail. The gnocchi was amazing, too. I believe it was toasted first. Or panfried. Added some nice complexity to the dish. Oxtail Situation remedied.

I wanted to get dessert - I used to love the desserts at the Tuscan Grill (particularly the run raisin gelato), but nothing on the menu looked all that appealing. Maria and I decided on the panna cotta. Not sure why, panna cotta always bored me. But you see that cookie up there next to it? That cookie was great.
Tasty cookie.

Also, I left my number for the waitress on the check. Hilarious. She was lovely.

Now. I'm staying in tonight. I realized today I have been out every single night for the past week and a half, and I'm starting to feel a little unwell. So I'm trying to "relax" or whatever. Sitting still is not my forte these days. But look at me, I'm sitting in my apartment at 8:30 pm. I'm basically a monk.

But, let's see. I went to a tasting on Monday and got to eat some great Thai food, including a very spicy salad. NYC restaurants sometimes have difficulty bringing the heat, so it's always a nice surprise when I find something actually spicy.

After the tasting, I walked 3 miles to my buddy Andy's house where he, my brother, and I enjoyed a plate of Hot Cheeze, Andy's specialty. He slices up some cheddar and drizzles on some Sriracha. Delightful.

Then met up with some friends at Lincoln Park Tavern or something and bourbon was consumed. things got a little hazy.

Don't forget to look up.

Yesterday, I met my friend Keavy in Union Square. I grabbed three bunches of greens and some Fuji apples from the greenmarket and convinced Keavy that walking home was a very, very good idea. I said things like, "You're gonna feel GREAT!", and "All we've GOT is time", and "Let's just walk for a little while and see how we FEEL". Also, I promised a beer at the end of our multi-borough stroll.

Keavy had never walked over the Brooklyn Bridge before, so this we had to take that route. Biking over the Bridge is one of my very favorite things to do, but walking is also lovely.
It did not disappoint.

Turkey with comte. I forgot how much I like comte.

Two hours and six-odd miles later, we were three blocks from our destination and I was experiencing a mini-meltdown. So we got sandwiches from Brooklyn Larder headed to Washington Commons.