love!

I don't know if I wrote about this recently, but I had a muffalletta last week at a place in the Strip called Cafe Richard that was like a message from God, saying, "You always knew I was by your side." I ignored that--it was just the olives and pesto talking--but for anyone who has ever read this blog, it is reason to come to Pittsburgh. I strongly feel like a better muffaletta couldn't be had in New Orleans. Then again, maybe I'm just longing for a trip to Louisiana. I also made beignets last week at the restaurant (where else can I use a commercial deep fryer for them? I don't even have a dutch oven!).

I'm sitting inside Crazy Mocha in Oakland right now with my laptop, coffee at my left and courier bag laced with band names and political motifs at my right. I feel like a real live hipster, and I'm even dressed like one--Chucks, hoodie, artsy t-shirt. But even if I am a hipster doofus, I do maintain that my credentials are in order. I'm not a wannabe socialist going to a liberal arts college on my parents' money. I'm a hard-working scenester, damn it, and I eat meat!

I'm buying a pig's heart today, after I make another enlightenment to Sandwich Nirvana. Tonight, Diane (this girl I'm dating, who might be awesome, verdict's still out) and I will trim it, stuff its arteries with herb butter, and then roast it, in order to practice for the Valentine's Day feast we'd planned. I really don't know what to expect. I mean, chicken hearts are good, but that's about as far as I've ever gone. What if it's tough? Would it be better braised? It makes me kind of sad that we didn't do more crazy shit like this at the school, not just classical French that everyone's eaten like fucking Tournedos Rossini, but more tripe and kidneys and calves feet and... rillettes. We never even made rillettes. That could be a good book title.

On that same subject, Wholey's in the Strip rocks. Aside from being a famous fish market, their meat department is noteworthy as well for its wide selection of, well... interesting items. They have tripe of several varieties, beef liver, lamb kidneys, pigs feet, hearts, et cetera, but they even freaked me out a bit the other day when, in the "pig parts" section, there was a whole pig's head, wrapped up on top of a little Styrofoam tray, right next to the pork chops. I considered buying it, though even I don't have any recipes for the whole damn head, but then I realized my freezer is already chock full of oxtails and chicken stock.

I don't really want to go back to work tomorrow. Why must life be such a pressing issue? I love all the hard work, the food, clatter of pans and hot sizzle platters and wok tools, but damn is it hard to get time to myself! I'm a workaholic. Someone told me the other night that maybe I should just take it the fuck easy every once in awhile, and I suppose that's a good idea. When I'm not working, I kill myself at the gym and then feel lethargic the next day from muscle soreness. I'd love to take a vacation, and I'm really due to take another trip down South, but I kind of want to just escape to some foreign city by myself sometime, too. Just up and fly to Seattle or New York one Tuesday morning.

Another reason to come to Pittsburgh, and also fitting in with the hipster thing: CoCo's Cupcake Cafe. A few doors down from Soba on Ellsworth, the place recently opened up and is trying to make cupcakes a lifestyle, sort of a revolutionary movement. Of course they're immersed in the yuppie organic slow food thing that people like me both appreciate and get really pissed off about, but fuck those cupcakes are good. They really are made right from scratch, down to the very, very authentically made buttercream. They've got a few different kinds every day with catchy names like "The Audrey" or "The Ellsworth", and the place has become my new favorite place to go before--and amazingly, after work. CoCo's is the only bakery that I've ever known to be open until 12:30 in the morning on Friday and Saturday nights, and a chocolate cupcake with buttercream icing and little dried red currants on the top can be an uplifting thing for a burned out line cook from down the street. So, embrace the cupcake lifestyle with me!

I'm off to go get a sandwich, bitches.

I love life.