Fried Chicken...for the Upper Class?

Anyone who knows me knows that I LOVE me some fried chicken - KFC, home made, Bon Chon, Kyo Chon, even the questionable fried "chicken wings " from the local Chinese take out...YUM-LICIOUS!


So imagine my excitement when I read NY Mag's feature on fried chicken! It has officially replaced the burger as the current food du jour being featured at fancy restaurants all over NYC. The one that really caught my eye though was the special Fried Chicken Mondays that Locanda Verde was running for a limited 4 weeks. For $55 (includes dinner, 1 drink + tax, tip) you get:



I just drooled a little at my desk uploading those images.

So here's the thing: Next Tuesday will be their LAST chicken prix fixe fest...but its sponsored by Eat Out and tix are $75. I understand eating out in NY is pricey, but $75 for fried chicken? I pay $3.50 at Baby Buddha you know? *sigh*

It's just so hard to be a girl with an appetite. If I were normal I'd starve myself for a week to buy the knee high suede boots I'd been coveting (and keep nice and thin as a side perk!) but I'm a sucker for anything edible and fried! What to do...anyone want to convince me that fried chicken for 1 night is better buying some more hair product for my newly permed hair? :)

1 sheep, 2 sheeps, 3 sheeps....

First, I'd like to apologize for starting this blog and then abruptly disappearing. In all fairness, I was blogging about my detox diet and by Day 2 I was fatigued and had to stop in order to reserve my energy resources for other things like blinking and swallowing. Just as a brief follow up: I did successfully finish the detox. I lost 5 lbs (plus another 3-4 when I got my colonic but I'll talk about that some other time as I'm in the middle of eating my lunch) but gained it all back plus some in less than a month. Final thoughts on detox? Not worth paying someone to starve myself. If I weren't so lazy I should be able to do that on my own for free. The irony.

Now. The reason why I'm jump starting my blog again is because today is the start of a new era in my life. Actually it officially started last night. The SETTLERS OF CATAN LEAGUE:

For those not familiar, this is a board game. You build settlements and cities and trade resources like sheep, ore, wheat, wood, etc with other players. No, really. It's REALLY fun. I'm actually quite addicted. I dream of making really lucrative trades like 1 sheep for 2 brick. (Actually, this would probably not really happen in an actual game).

Also, to make things nerdier, a friend of mine set up a google doc to keep a tally of wins/losses. This is an official tourney! Here are the rules for those who haven't exited out of this blog yet:

• you can play as many times as you like but each player must be a part of the league. if you play with members outside the league you cannot count it on the spreadsheet
• each league member must play a minimum of 10 games.
• games must have 3+ players.
• season ends 2/28/10
• winner will be the player with the highest AVERAGE. (there's more on scoring but I can't figure out cut and paste on html writing so pls contact me if you're interested in that)

Let the game's BEGIN!

What goes in...keeps coming out...

Day 1

8:45 am - 1 glass of room temperature water. Delicious.

9:51 am - Juice #1: Romaine, celery, cucumber, kale, parsley, green apple, spinach and lemon. It's one of those green drinks! But oddly tasty. You can taste the apple and the lemon which give its a tang. No, I won't voluntarily drink it again after this detox but not bad. I've already been to the bathroom twice and about to get myself a cup of green tea to help with the caffeine withdrawal....also scheduled my first colonic for tomorrow evening (this will have to get its very own post!!!)

12:00 pm - 1:08 pm - Juice #2 was really what i'd call a juice: pineapple, apple + mint. I'm sure this is probably the favorite among most of the 6 juices but for me it was too sweet to chug down. I nursed it like a bad cocktail at a lame bar. It's not bad tasting at all, don't get me wrong. I'm just not partial to juices in general unless it's sour (i love grapefruit!) and maybe has just a tinge of the hard stuff. (sorry. i'm not an alchey but i'm starting to fiend like one during the home stretch of this lent fast). Bathroom trips since last posting: 2 and on my way to the third. This brings total bathroom count for today to 5.

Are you allowed to chew gum? Have a cough drops? Drink emergen-C? Anyone? Bueller?

2:42 pm - Juice #3. Same as the first juice of the day. Notice that my cup has gotten noticeably smaller. For the first juice, the goal was chug-a-lug and try to bypass the fact that I am drinking vegetables that normally I don't even eat in solid form. However, hunger is slowly creeping up on me and now I want the experience to last. Another major observation: the day seems to span eons when you don't spend time thinking of what to eat for lunch, ordering lunch, eating lunch and then thinking of what to eat for dinner. I'm not sure if you can see clearly in this picture, but on my desk in the back left i have 3 things of chocolate goodies I keep around for that 3 o'clock sugar fix. I also have a gold and green tin of green tea chocolates I got as a gift in the back right of the photo. haha. What ironic juxtoposition.

5:11 pm - I had another green tea earlier to stave off the mini caffeine withdrawal headache I feel lurking in the back corners of my mind...I'm about to drink juice #4 - water, lemon, cayenne and agave - but honestly even though I'm HUNGRY (like a crazed hippo) I'm just sick of drinking juices. My belly feels like a water balloon. Each time I walk to the bathroom I hear/feel the juices sloshing around. And I'm really tired. Not like sleepy tired. More like just void of energy. Patti tabulated the daily intake of calories at 1050.

CRAZY. I'm sure I eat 2000+ easy (fried chicken alone is probably 2000).

Hrmm. I just took a sip of #4. Not bad. It's refreshing. Like a cool lemonade that does a little drop kick at the tail end in your throat (the cayenne?). I can do this....