Midtown Mediterranean Mmm

I've decided I don't qualify as too much of an adult because I still get really excited when friends' parents come to town for a visit and take us young'uns out for dinner at at a swanky restaurant. A friend from Seattle was in NYC last week and his lovely parents treated us to a delectable meal at Milos, a Mediterranean restaurant with a philosophy to always serve "the best the world has to offer: the best produce, the best honey, the best yogurt, and certainly the best fish and seafood." I read this description on their website and the first thing I did was pull out a dress from my closet--this being New York, after all, and not the chilled-out PNW where one can wear torn-up jeans to the nicest eateries in town--and the second thing was to make sure I was good and hungry by the time I arrived in Midtown.

Milos did not disappoint. Among the awesome items that were just out-of-this-world delicious were: grilled octopus appetizer; Greek spreads sampler; roasted beet salad; Greek tomato salad; and the baklavah (laced with the "best honey" in the world!) was just killer. The fish was fresh and fantastic (though we had some issues with their incomplete de-boning process) and the service was, unsurprisingly, very gracious. The funniest part was as we were getting ready to order, the waiter walked us over to the fresh fish selection for the night, laid out in a huge display of ice, and proceeded to pick up every type and give us an explanation of its origin and flavor. Since there were a good 15-20 types of fish on display, and none of us were taking notes, it didn't help anyone in the selection process of their entree--but it certainly was a colorful way to take Michael Pollan's sage advice about knowing where your food is coming from and appreciating it had a face at one point. (Btw, plug for The Omnivore's Dilemma: 464 pages of literary orgasm-inducing writing about food in America. Good writing about food, I mean, what more could you ask for?! Buy and read now--or borrow my copy!)

So if you enjoy seafood and are a) someone with money; b) dating someone with money; c) sleeping with someone with money; or d) know a McKinsey-ite who's working a NY project and has an expense account with some cushion--check out Milos. It was yummy.

A New Home in Cobble Hill (!!!!!)

Alright, people. It's official. I am now a resident of Brooklyn.

My last post about housing was not a very happy one. The first apartment my roommate and I found was in Clinton Hill, and was lovely--but we discovered that the landlord was being indicted for Medicaid fraud, and decided to pull out of the lease. (Thankfully, there were no financial repercussions on this front, except that Corcoran has yet to give us our broker's fee back. Let that be a lesson to anyone who reads this to stay the hell away from Corcoran.) Needless to say, this was a complete debacle, immensely stressful, and it crossed my mind that perhaps this was was God's way of telling me: Go back to Seattle, wench. You no longer have what it takes to make it in cities with populations greater than five million.

So, we were back to Square One in our search. Thankfully, we managed to snag a beautiful apartment in Cobble Hill for about the same price, with a July 1st lease, after just one more day of real estate trekking. Move-in happened last Saturday, and voila! Home. I'd forgotten what it feels like to have a place to return to every night that is filled with my favorite things. Call me a homebody or sentimental or whatever, but the psychological toll of living out of a suitcase for nearly four months was quite significant. Or maybe it's the notion of living out of a suitcase and only a suitcase, that really kicked my ass, since this wasn't such a monstrous issue during my travelin' days at McKinsey. Either way, I'm thrilled with the new place (what up, central air!); crushing hard on the new neighborhood (mmm cute little brunch places); falling head-over-heels for Brooklyn (Brooklyn Brewery & BAM: 'nough said); and can't wait to invite people over (no guarantees on the quality of food served). There is also a backyard, which I am told must be leveraged for much bbq-ness, as some of our neighbors are doing even as I type type away...

Pics of the place are on Facebook, for those not in NY and unable to come take a look in person.