DO THA DONUT SWEEP.

OH hai everyone! You are all probably wondering if I was able to find my way to Queens to crash a Mets game, learn African dancing at the Brooklyn Museum, eat $1 ice cream cones at Ikea, design a few donuts, and change my name to Wihakayda Sioux over the past few days. Well, the answer to all of those questions is YES.


Yes, ladies and gentlemen, thanks to StubHub, I was able to snatch a few SICKnasty, skyline view, mountain-air seating at Citifield for their opening exhibition game last Friday! For a mere $8.99 (+ processing fees), I was exposed to the truly unique experience of watching the game from the vantage point of a bald eagle. Especially thrilling when it is raining!!!


But beyond learning what it feels like to be part of the aviary family, the main reason I was at Citifield was to try the FOOD. I had one culinary goal for the evening, and that was to find David Pasternack's Catch of the Day stand. It took some persistence and sleuthing, but we finally found the fish shack hiding behind the Budweiser sign on the 3rd floor of the stadium. The line for Catch of the Day was SIGNIFICANTLY shorter than the monster that had formed in front of Shake Shack. I think the initial glances at prices on the board were daunting to passersby that had no idea they were paying for lobster. But at $17, the lobster roll seemed like a bargain!! When I finally got my lobster roll, I realized why it cost half as much in Queens as it does in Manhattan. The sandwich is about a quarter of the size of a normal lobster roll, there is no trace of delicious tail meat in the lobster salad, an overwhelming black pepper flavor, and also the addition of an unfamiliar and unwanted crunch of CELERY in the mix. I am not eating a friggin' tuna salad sandwich, David!!! OH, and in place of a hot dog bun (which would have only made too much sense in the ballpark) they decided to serve the lobster salad on a FOLDED piece of WHITE TOAST. BLEACHED BREAD FLOUR MUST BE STOPPED!!!!!

The clam and corn chowder, on the other hand, was quite tasty!!! Maybe I am not a chowder connoisseur, and I do recognize the fact that there could have been a whole lot more CHOW in that chowder...but for under $5, it was a pretty good deal!!

My Citifield experience was decent and if I had frequented a ballpark more than twice in my lifetime, I would have been able to better compare/contrast and maybe even appreciate Citifield a bit more. If they had provided a map of different drinking and eating venues, I might have had a bit more culinary fun.

This past weekend's museum expedition was to the Brooklyn Museum - an unexpectedly large, beautiful, and encompassing museum!!! African art, Asian art, Egyptian art, Modern art, this museum had it all.


We especially liked Sun Kwak's Enfolding 280 Hours installation piece. The entire gallery space was covered with connecting streams of artfully ripped black masking tape, adding up to about 3 miles in length.


I can't remember this artist's name but she was definitely blog-worthy. Her installation piece was fun, obtrusive, impractical, and fanciful. It was fun to imagine the process of creating these nests of textures and materials.

The Brooklyn Museum was so large that we decided it was necessary to save the remaining unvisited floors for a second trip. We are going to make sure to check out next month's Target First Saturdays when admission fee and entertainment costs are waived and alcohol flows freely.

Sunday was such a gloriously sunny day that we were inspired to walk along Riverside Park. What a beautiful public space!! There is plenty of seating and lounging areas for readers, relaxers, and sunbathers. Sitting along the river made us inspired to cross the river via free water taxi to Red Hook Ikea!!!! We were only able to catch the last 7:40pm water taxi to Ikea (which closes daily at 9pm). The ride is a prompt and efficient 10 minutes in length and the last returning water taxi to Manhattan is at 8pm. This meant that after a quick breeze through the Ikea furniture maze, an unappetizing dinner from the cafeteria (which has turned MUCH more ghetto over the past few years), and a $1 squirt of frozen yogurt at the checkout area (which is no longer delicious, creamy, and a healthy shade of white), we had to find another means back to Manhattan. We hopped onto a random B77 bus and hoped for the best. We took it a few stops to Jay Street which connected with the A,C, and F train. Parfait!!! Going to and from Ikea was much easier than I had imagined!!! HUZZAH.

It was so wonderful that we were able to use the B77 bus last night but if this excursion had occurred on perhaps another night in the future, our commute home might not have been so easy. Plans for service cuts throughout the city in an effort to reduce costs has the B77 night-time service in jeopardy. This is a problem not only for Manhattanites that like to stay at Ikea past 8pm, but most of all for the residents of Red Hook West houses, the largest public housing project in Brooklyn, that potentially face a much longer walking commute to the subway.

This is why I vow that IF I WIN THE DUNKIN'S NEXT DONUT CONTEST, I WILL DONATE HALF OF MY WINNINGS ($6000 + TONS OF JEAN-DESIGNED DONUTS) TO THE B77 BUS SERVICE.


I am like unhealthily OBSESSED with this contest. I have been scrolling through the DONUT GALLERY all day!!!!!!! The unfortunate aspect of this contest is that you are only allowed to design THREE donuts. How can I be limited to only three different donuts!?!?!! My first one (picture above) was like OK at best. Nothing too original, but I was just getting my juices flowing.

Chunky Peanut Butter & Jelly Donut by Jean Hsu
Round shell
Strawberry Jelly filling
Peanut Butter icing
Reese's Peanut Butter shavings
Chopped peanuts

The next one I created was a bit more adventurous.

Very Vani-nutty Chai Donut by Jean Hsu
Stick donut
Vanilla Chai Kreme filling
Glaze frosting
Hershey's Vanilla shavings
Chopped roasted almonds

And my final one was a donut that I'm actually interested in eating.

Gimme S'more Donut by Jean Hsu
Round shell
Marshmallow Kreme filling
Chocolate icing
Hershey's Mini Chocolate Chips
Graham Cracker Crunch

I could design donuts all day. Why can't that be my daytime job??? Well, at any rate, if I win this competition maybe Dunkin' Donuts will hire me for a PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT position and I will be able to design NATIVE-AMERICAN INSPIRED DONUTS made out of corn-bread.

Native-American cuisine is actually quite interesting and with my recent intrigue in becoming Native American, I mean, getting in touch with my Sioux roots, I have decided that it may become necessary to drop everything I am doing and start a NATIVE-AMERICAN RESTAURANT. I would serve Fry Bread at every table to start and then offer an extensive menu of Native American dishes from a variety of regions. The Native Americans of Meso-America were actually the original founding fathers of tacos, tamales, tortillas, guacamole, and salsa! Southern Native Americans ate corn bread, succotash, and and acorn mush. The Native Americans of South America ate fried green tomatoes, ceviche, and quinoa (so on top of the grain trend!!!!). I thought I loved Native Americans, but now that I know they were the reason that tacos exist???? I love them even more. Which is why I have changed my name to Wihakayda Sioux (meaning "Little One").

ONE. TACO FOR ME.
TWO. CORNBREAD FOR YOU.
THREE. DO THE DONUT SWEEP.