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Meat the Vegetarian

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Category Archives: Drinking

February 2, 2012 Zeppelin Hall and Barcade – Worth the Path Ride

If you live in Manhattan, you know what it like when some one suggests another borough – let alone Jersey.  The first thought in your head is, “UUUUUGHHHHHHHHHHH, REALLY?”  I am not even kidding.

If you do muster up the incredible amount of energy it takes to leave the finest borough in the ENTIRE world  (totally an objective opinion, of course), Jersey City isn’t a horrible way to go.  Now, hear me out – I know what you are thinking… Yes, I would choose to got to Jersey City over Brooklyn, at least occasionally.  (Although, the most visited “other borough” for me is the Bronx… GO YANKEES!!)  You also may be asking why I am treating Jersey City the same way I treat NYC’s other boroughs.  Simply, it is the same time and cost to get there.  Therefore, there is no difference to me.

We also went for a Lehigh Alumni Event – aka, to hang out with our friends, drink, and make spectacles of ourselves, all in the name of Lehigh.  (This event was also the source of the name tags… Great idea to give people name tags after 3 liters of beer.)

Anyway, Zeppelin Hall in Jersey City may be my favorite beer hall in the NYC area.  They have a ton of beers on tap, and for a liter of beer, it really isn’t that expensive.  I think the food is “meh”, but for meat eaters, I understand there is some great drunk munchies… like bratwurst… gross.

The after party took place at Barcade in Jersey City.  There are now a few Barcades… and I have actually been to the one in Brooklyn (I KNOW), but these bar-arcades are completely worth the intense travel.  (What is it, a 15 minute subway ride?)  This is the place to take the nerds in your life, so all of my friends LOVE it.  There is awesome beer on tap – including Bethlehem Brew Works Rude Elf!!  I mean, it was a Lehigh event, so I HAD to have some.  Also, Miss Pacman and Donkey Kong… IT WAS ON.  Until we had to take the Path home… UGH.

Interesting Links:
http://www.zeppelinhall.com/
http://barcadejerseycity.com/

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January 12, 2012 PBR Bull Riding… In NYC?

Giddy Up Cowboy and Say good-bye to my camera!  We went to the PBR bull riding event in Madison Square Garden.  It was awesome, until my camera bit the dust.

I was really weird to see so many fans of bull riding in the middle of NYC.  The stadium was pretty full.  It was also weird to see the floor covered with footing.  (For you non horse/rodeo people, that means dirt.)  We sat in the renovated section, which had great beers, that I drank out of a straw.  Drinking out of a straw is bad news.  BAD NEWS.  This is most likely the reason for my camera dying.  Granted, I have had the camera since 2004, and it made it all the way through college, study abroad in Europe, and many adventures in NYC.  I was said to see the old CyberShot go.  But, what a way to go out!

We didn’t fit in too well at the Rodeo, but we had an awesome time!!

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January 10, 2012 Happy 2012!!

We had another great NYE at the Greenwich Tree House!  Thanks go to JGo for organizing everything!!  This year, we seemed to keep it a little more tame…  No one blew up the toilets or vommed on the floor.  These things are always a plus.  We ushered in the New Year in style, aka I drank Bud Lites ALL night.

Eating went as such: We went to a cute little Italian place in the village for dinner – props to anyone that can remember the name or find it again!  It was yummy, and a nice base… JGo got everyone treats at the bar for a midnight snack – I didn’t even get to see what was on the table– I just saw people diving for the pigs in a blanket!! Given the time it took to consume 4 tables worth of food, I am thinking everyone loved the bar food.  After the bar, a couple of us went to Papaya Dog, one of the random ones in the village – I couldn’t eat there, so I really can’t remember.  They do have pizza, but the last time I had it, it tasted like Hot Dogs.  So, I began the New Year right – with two slices and a soda for $2.75 from the best drunk pizza place on our block…. Two Bros!

Happy 2012 Everyone!!  May this year be filled with epic adventures in Food, Travels, and Parties!!

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December 22, 2011 Ugly Sweater Extravaganza

This past weekend, we had our annual Ugly Sweater Party.  It was REALLY festive.  Max and I wore sweater vests this year.  Mine had some “beautiful” Christmas Stockings on it, and Max’s had pearl snowflakes.  They were something else.  A couple of other friends decided to go the, um, ridiculously large route.  Meaning, their sweaters could literally fit two grown men inside.

We served a TON of food, which not very many people ate.  They were more focused on the booze, including the Dirty Girl Scouts (peppermint schnapps and hot chocolate).  If people wanted to eat, there were pigs in a blanket, assorted cheeses, variety of chips, chocolate chip cookies, peanut butter cookies with Hersey Kisses, ginger snaps, and brownies with icing and strawberries on top, that were supposed to look like Santa Hats.

 

There was a lot of booze and a lot of sweaters.  Merry Christmas!!!

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December 16, 2011 Ghost of Christmas Parties from this Past Weekend

With another weekend of parties approaching, I thought I would reflect on last week’s parties.

Just a Few of My Mom's Santas

1) My mom’s Christmas Party.  Inspired by the depression era Christmas “parties”, my mom put together a themed Christmas Party.  I dressed as a hobo, and graciously accepted the donations to the soup/can drive.  My mom asked for donations for the local food shelters instead of hostess gifts.  She also made a ton of food (not all ’30’s themed, but still delicious) and served them on our antique platters.  She made a Ham and my brother made Eggnog Martini’s.  They had eggnog and rum in them, and the rims of the oversized martini glasses were dipped in molasses and gram cracker crumbs.  I stuck to the Rude Elf I brought back “for Max” from Bethlehem.

The Christmas Ham

2)  Fetivus for the Rest of Us.  After my mom’s party, being that it was in the suburbs and for a  more “mature” guess list, Max and I took the 9 pm train back to the City for Cass and Jordan’s Festivus Par-tay.  The details of this party are a little hazy for me… due to the 5 pm start to my drinking.  I know I had a blast, and I blitzed up the Wall of Grievances- I am sure with misspelled words and illegible phrases.  I then switched to “water” aka Coors Light.

Here is to another weekend of Making Merry.  As a teaser – my ugly sweater this year is an ugly sweater vest.  That’s right.

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December 7, 2011 Rockin’ Around and Right Past the Tree

So this weekend, we happened upon the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree.  Max laughs, since I pronounce it the real way, “Rock-A-Fell-A”.  When you pronounce it “Fell-ER”, it sounds like you are from Brooklyn or Staten Island and you just happen to change words ending in “a” to ending in “er”.

Anyway, we went to the Lego Store (which was AWESOME) and it just so happened to be by the Tree.  I am a Christmas NUT, so I was very excited.  The Tree was beautiful, but Thank God we live in NYC, so we could get the Hell out of there!  There were so many people just chillin, not really going anywhere, but still losing their family members and turning around without warning.

After all of the non New Yorkers, we decided to go to a real New York bar.  Pony Bar.  Pony Bar is one of my favorite bars in NYC.  Every beer is $5.  You order a Bud Lite – it’s $5, if you order the craftiest of the craft beers, it is still $5.  There are 20 beers on tap at all times and their beers are constantly changing.  Literally, three of the beers changed out when I was there.

Yes, it is a dude bar, and the dudes are on the nerdy side– But everyone there loves beer and it is a super chill spot.

http://theponybar.com/

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November 23, 2011 Lehigh Laf

It is that time of the year again, you know thanksgiving, family, soon it will be Christmas.  BUT FIRST, we have to celebrate the best rivalry ever.  EVER.  Lehigh-Laf. 

This is the best weekend of “football” in the fall.  I love football, don’t get me wrong, but at Lehigh, football represents so much more.  This is not the kind of weekend where you actually GO to the game.  (I think I watched one play on tv?)  This weekend is all about the spectacle.

There were some spectacles. (Sam)

But, apparently there was some food.  I think I ate a bagel, a roll, mozzarella sticks, maybe fries, at least one pizza, and a mini-rito from Tulum (best Mexican Food in Bethlehem).  The bagel was from D&D, the mozzie sticks and fries were from the Ho (the Tally Ho), and the pizza was Lehigh Pizza.  Just think of standard college bar food.  Yeah, I am pretty sure I damaged my heart and my liver.

Lehigh is where I started my love affair with Andre.  So, of course, I had to have bottle.  There was also nattie light, coors light, and bud lite, in truly unthinkable quantities.   Hence, this post is not very detailed.

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November 17, 2011 Happy FakesGiving!

There is a new trend in parties, and I am happy to announce that Max and I jumped on the bandwagon.  The theme of the party is “fake”sgiving.  Meaning, Thanksgiving is wonderful, but there are no friends involved, because friends tend to have their own families.  Fakesgiving is a time where your faux family (aka friends) get together to celebrate a true American holiday, simply meant for overindulgence.

This year, Max prepared the majority of the fakesgiving meal, with a little help from friends, of course.  The menu included:

-Turkey
-2 types of stuffing (sausage/cornbread and a veggie one for me!)
-a trio of cranberry sauces (yes, one of them came from a can to quiet the Ocean Spray purists, but when they tasted the homemade cranberry sauce… I will just say, there is no room in anyone’s belly for any canned anything.)
-Carrots
-String Beans
-Duo of Mashed Potatoes – one traditional, and one that will make even the biggest mashed potato skeptic fall in love (it happened this year!!), the creme fresh mash.
-Mac and Cheese
-Mustard Onion Monkey Bread (I think this is my FAVORITE thing to eat ever)
-Maple Thyme Biscuits

This meal was preceded by appetizers (artichoke-cheese roll, cheese plate, chips), and then followed my dessert.  I have to admit, I have been too full for the past couple days to have tried them all, but there was:

-Pumpkin Pie
-Apple Pie (with a lattice top… very impressive)
-Pecan Pie (Thanks Cassie!)
-Pumpkin Cheesecake
-Vanilla Bread Pudding (Thanks Rrabette!)

After this food coma, we decided to continue with the theme of overcomsumption, so we moved on to booze.  We did a good old-fashioned gift swap–  in which, all of the gifts were booze.  Some how, during this swap, we ended up with TWO bottles of Hpnotiq!  Also included in the swap were wine, jameo, some really big beers, makers mark, adult chocolate milk, champagne, and some more wine.

Please forgive me if I forgot anything… My memory is a little hazy…

Oh Yeah, then we played kings with all the booze.  That is probably why there are few brown spots in my memory.

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October 28, 2011 THE HUNT: I Love My Birthday Party

Hello Party People,

Welcome back.  I have recently got another 9-5 and have rejoined the boring ranks of another job in legal.  So here I am, pretending that you all care what I say. 

 

Let me tell you– about the BEST weekend of the year.  THE HUNT.  This is when 40,000+  people gather in a muddy field to drink, and maybe pretend there is horse race.  I like to guilt first timers into making the trek by calling it my birthday party. 

This year, Cass even made me cupcakes!!  You know, the chocolate cake with white icing… it doesn’t get any better than that! 

We were at Spot 989 in the infield and we had a killer tailgate.  People were shocked that we had some awesome childhood favorites, like shark bites, fruit rollups, and gushers.  We also had some college favorites, like Andre and Bago.  We also had some adult beer, too.  But the most exciting, especially to ETD, was the bowl of 5 hrs…
 
 

We all arrived to the grounds around 10 am; some of the festivities had already began on the walk to the train, the train ride over, and the walk to the spot.  Let’s take a moment to thank the Rrabette for some fantastic hot beverages, which may or may not have involved alcohol.  *All I kept thinking was, “Crap, Max has my PBA card… How am I going to talk my way out of an open container at 10 am?”  

As the beautiful day progressed, it got a little more muddy, and we got a little more friendly with our “special” neighbors.  The neighbors after spilling on my friend said, “Let’s get you out of those wet clothes…”  They were, well, a little creepy.  Oh well, let’s just chalk it up to drinking in Jersey.

 

Our Neighbors

Magically, we all made it back to my moms or back to the city.  (Major Props to My Mom… Major Props)  At which time, the real party people continued to carry on into the early morning.  There were many lame-o’s who thought drinking for the previous 8 hours was more than enough.  

Needless to say, I spent the following two days hung over.  Happy Birthday Party to me!!!

A shout out needs to happen to Rrab, Rrabette, and Shanimal for helping us move furniture the next day, as well as cramming into the back of the U-Haul, which was CLEARLY marked as life threatening.

Oh Yeah… Max had a Mohawk.

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March 15, 2011 St. Patrick’s Day in Hobo

Hello Party People,

I sincerely apologize for my absence.  I am now back and ready to go.  Last weekend seems like the perfect place to start.

Every year, Hoboken throws a kick ass St. Patty’s Day Parade.  This year was no different.  This whole event is like a Lehigh Football game– the pre parties are so awesome, very rarely do we make it to the actual event.  This year, I am only a tiny bit sad to say, we missed the parade, again.

We had three parties to attend prior to the parade, so who can really blame us for missing it? We went from party to party, stuffing our faces with green bagels, soda bread, and Guinness.   But my favorite food of the day, happened before we left NYC for the long and packed trek to Hoboken.  I made… GREEN PANCAKES.  I am pretty sure my mom made these for us when we were little, especially because they are simply chocolate chip pancakes with green food coloring.  But, these hit the spot and created a great base for a long day of day drinking.

To Conclude.  Green Pancakes + Green Bagels + Soda Bread + Friends + Guinness – a Parade =  AWESOME St. Patty’s Day!!

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