Oops I Did it Again...

Only this time it wasn't with Chelsea, and it wasn't with Lorraine, it was with Bruce - the grilled chicken sandwich with chipotle mayo. It seems that I am having a bit of a problem . I have eaten lunch at Cheryl's three times, and have nothing to show you but pictures of empty plates.

My latest negligence began with one of my favorite food blogs, All Cup Cakes, All The Time. Recently they posted a picture of the board outside of NYC bakery Sugar Sweet Sunshine.
Now, if you are like me, you don't need an excuse for cup cakes, but seeing as I was on my way to Cheryl's to try one of her Red Velvets I figured I would put my rationalization skills to the test and come up with ten reasons of my own.

The Gourmet Peasant's Top 10 Reasons To Eat a Cupcake

1.) It's your day off
2.) Your Boss is Crazy
3.) Cause you have to spend those extra calories burned from exercise somehow
4.) Just, because
5.) Because in Turkey they have a saying: A woman without a belly is like a house without a balcony
6.) Because they are just so edible
7.) Because cup cakes are cool
8.) Because who needs an excuse
9.) Because a man with furry ears followed you down the street to hit on you

I managed to dodge the furry eared man but, a little distracted and very grossed out, I was unable to come up with number ten before arriving at Cheryl's. Once inside however, I was broken-hearted to find my tenth reason for eating a cupcake,

10.) Because if you don't eat one when you have the chance, there may not be any left
later :(

The waiter bowed his head when I inquired about the red velvet cup cakes, " yeah, they never hang around long when we have them," he told me with a sympathetic smile. No more cupcakes! I was crushed. I had spent the entire morning fantasizing about them. What was I to do? I pulled myself together and did what any foodie would have done, I consoled myself with Bruce.

Perhaps it was the distress of the stalking incident that caused me to forget my blogging obligations, or maybe it was my grief at the hands of the cup cake shortage that distracted me from my photographic duties. Who knows and who cares, the moral crux of story is clear, don't ever put off eating cup cakes or you may just find that there are no more cup cakes. Lucky for me Cheryl told me herself that tomorrow she would be making a fresh batch of cup cakes. Looks like I know what I'll be eating for breakfast.

The Perfect Restaurant

Did you ever try to imagine the perfect restaurant? What kind of food would it serve? What kind of ambiance would it provide? What kind of music would they play? And perhaps most importantly, how good would the coffee be? For many of you the notion of the perfect restaurant is nothing more than a fantasy, but luckily for me, this fantasy has become a reality. Cheryl’s, the new neighborhood restaurant focusing on “global soul’ may well be my dream come true.
It first grabbed my attention because of its innovative, funky, and comfortably minimal design. The brick walls are painted white, and covering the right wall are grainy slats of wood that reach and curve toward the back of the restaurant and continue up onto the ceiling creating a warm and rustic atmosphere. The first time I ate lunch at Cheryl’s I was running some errands and figured I would stop in for a quick bite. Even though it was my day off, it had been a stressful one so while ordering the Chelsea (all the sandwiches have names, as in human names) I spontaneously tacked on a glass of Rioja. The sandwich was simply perfect! Just the way I like it, with two fabulously fresh slices of nutty grain bread lightly smeared with fresh tarragon mayo, and stacked with just the right amount of turkey, greens, and delicately sliced cucumbers. Jenny Lewis’s soft and breathy voice echoed in the close to empty dinning room, “I’d rather be lonely, I’d rather be free, I’m as sure as the moon rolls around the sea…” I sipped my Rioja, boldly flecked with fragrant oak and fresh fruit, and took turns eating/sipping, sipping/writing, and writing then gazing out the window at the picture framed street corner on the other side. By the time I finished my perfect sandwich and polished off my glass of the wine I had decided to trashed my to do list and instead relaxed and got some writing done. It was altogether a flawless experience except that, when I went to use the bathroom I was almost stunned to find that there was no mirror.
Call me vain, but there was something unsettling about a bathroom trip without a mirror.

My second visit I wanted to put Cheryl’s to the true Gourmet Peasant test and that would have to involve morning coffee. I went in clean (without morning coffee or even a whiff of breakfast.) Moody and jonseing for my morning brew, I made a b-line for the counter and ordered the quiche Lorraine and a latte. I took my seat and prayed that the coffee would arrive before the coffee monster awoke from its peaceful slumber. I was overjoyed when the coffee arrived swiftly and with the perfect espresso to milk ratio. I took a sip, moaned then took another before noticing that the person next to me was staring. Oh well. I was jacked up on coffee and starving by the time the quiche arrived and devoured everything on the plate before I remembered that I had planned to take a picture.
Oh Well :(

So fare Cheryl’s has proved to fit the bill for my dream restaurant. Even the mirrorless bathroom adventure turned out to be a growing experience. There will be further testing before anything is set in stone of course. There is brunch to try, dinner to eat, and we musn’t forget about these cuties,
I can’t wait to give them a try. I think I may have an opening for dessert tomorrow, shall we say around 8pm?

Check out other reviews for Cheryl's Global Soul

It's My Party and I'll...

eat all the Rose Water and Pistachio ice cream for breakfast if I want to.
I wish I had a better picture of this wonderful ice cream that I made, but unfortunately
I ate it all before I had a chance to snap a couple

It is fairly obvious that I have an obsessive personality, and so why should you be surprised to learn that this aspect of my personality carries over into all of my relationships, namely my relationship with ice cream. I love ice cream. I love it so much that I have a tremendously hard time not eating an entire pint in one sitting. When I am eating ice cream, it is as though I am transported to a lusciously hypnotic state of delirium. As I focus on the texture and flavor components of each bite I fall deeper and deeper into the well of this meditative state; there is no yesterday, there is no tomorrow, there is only here and now and this rapturous sensation that transforms time and space.

The problem arises after this rapturous sensation comes to an end. As soon as I have swallowed my last bite, my spiritual condition quickly disintegrates leaving me in a frenzied state of withdrawal. I may decide to stop, to put the pint down and to walk away. 'I don't have to eat the entire thing' I tell myself unconvincingly. However, somewhere, in the back of my mind I understand that the battle has already been lost. As I move on with my day, attack chores, relax, exercise or what-have-you, I am all the time aware of that half eaten pint sitting in the freezer, lonely and deserted. Before dinner I sneak a bit. Two more after dinner. 'Oh what the hell!' I exclaim, 'I can eat it now or i can eat it later, whats the difference?' I ask myself as I surrender to the "now." Sometimes, like last night with my rose flavored ice cream, I muster the strength to restrain myself, to set the pint down and to forget about it. But, the next morning, as I brew my coffee, my keenly sharpened skills of rationalization (KSSR) go to work on finding some kind of logical reason for eating it all for breakfast. Lucky for me, this morning my KSSR did have to work too hard to find a reason as I had already woken up with the perfect excuse, my thirty-first birthday. Happy Birthday to me!

Now it is off to the gym - I won't have to search too long or hard to find a rationalization for that now will I?