Great Find: Murray's Cheese Shop

Just got home from my Cheese 101 course at Murray's Cheese Shop in Greenwich Village.

I've been trying to take this course for a while, but if you don't sign up right when they post their new class schedule, the course fills up quickly and you're SOL. Anyhow, I did it right this time. City Guy was supposed to go with me, but he had to work. :(

I had never actually even set foot in this store before tonight. It's a world of cheeses, breads, olives, dairy...lots of specialty yumminess here. And the best thing is if you're a newbie to cheese, like I am, the guys behind the counter will advise you knowledgeably and even let you taste the cheese before you decide to buy.I thought Cheese 101 was going to be a comprehensive course in cheese and selecting cheese, but I should have known you can't cover all that in 2 hours. It was different from what I expected...but still good. The instructor, Jessica, was very sweet, energetic and knowledgeable. She had picked out five representative cheese, as seen here, and used them to teach us about cheese types:Starting with the mayonnaise-y looking one at the top and going clockwise, we have:
1. Burrata, a fresh cow's cheese from Italy, a lot like mozzerella
2. Haystack Peak from Colorado, a goat's milk bloomy rind cheese with the characteristic tanginess and chalky texture of goat cheese
3. Epoisses, a washed rind "stinky cheese" from France with a complex milk sharpness and saltiness - my favorite
4. Nisa, a raw sheep cheese from Portugal, semi-firm
5. Gourmino gruyere from Switzerland - sweet and nutty - my second favorite
5. Persille de Mazieu from France, a blue cheese with a major salty, spicy, sweet kick. I usually hate blue cheeses, but this was pretty good.

They provided champagne, red wine, water, baguette slices, walnuts and dried fruit to pair with the different cheeses. The class runs from 6:30-8 and afterwards they let you shop for an hour before closing the store. I bought the Epoisses - $17.99. Expensive, but I wanted City Guy to try it.
...and some yogurt from White Cow Dairy - mostly b/c the packaging was so cute, but then Jessica the Instructor told me the farmer who produces it is trying to save his farm by making yogurt. Apparently, you can email him and he'll email you back. She highly recommended the Vanilla, so I bought one for me and one for City Guy. Ever since our trip to France, we've lamented how hard it is to find good yogurt in the US.
As I was coming home, I thought, how cool that in NYC you can find rare cheeses, yogurts, and other from small farms around the world. How amazing that there are all these niche stores where people with such specialized knowledge work to share their passions with you.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I've been up on the City lately. It comes and goes. Right now, I'm excited to try all this dairy! Bon soi!

Stuff I've Learned:Why the Sex and the City Movie Made Me Love NYC Again

Last night, Miss Fashion and I saw the Sex and the City movie at the Loews Village 7. It was 5:30 on a Thursday, but the theater was packed, which shows me that no matter what the stodgy old bald critics say, we girls love what we love. And our verdict? We loved it!! Seriously, you'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll think deep thoughts, you'll think superficial thoughts...

As we walked out of the theater, I kept gushing about how surprisingly good it was, how it was now officially one of my most favorite chick flicks--rivaling my love for Bridget Jones' Diary. It was like I'd just had a moment of grace or something. Maybe I had. I'd been in the doldrums for a couple days, but by the time I left the theater, I swear my face muscles were sore, as they say, from all the smiling I did throughout the film.

Why? I don't want to give anything away, and I think it helped that I had low expectations going in, but to begin with, how can you not love the candy-colored, perfectly lit parade of fashion, friendship and fine-ass men that is Sex and the City?

In what other city do women take their fashion so seriously? Yes, you can say it's superficial and materialistic, but the way I look at it, it's wearable art, and when you're confronted by beauty, even if you yourself can't afford it, you have to gives props.

You can't help but imagine yourself living that life. I also appreciate how real they kept things - the girls are married, have kids, are older now, and the movie explores the challenges women face at this phase in their lives. It's like we've grown up--all of us girls. Then again, Sex and the City has always aired the issues, problems, feelings we girls don't like to talk about, except with our best friends. This is a movie that will make you glad for your best girlfriends. I wished mine were all here in NYC with me.

And of course, there's Big, out modern-day prince charming. You know what I'm talking about. (Oh, and the massive eye-candy that is Samantha's next door neighbor in LA--oh my...)

Most importantly, the movie reminded me of how optimistic and excited I was before moving to the City all those years ago. When I was in LA, I used to watch the series and imagine finding love, success, friendship...great fashion in the City. I imagined my life would be exciting, stimulating, that I would grow my wings and really take flight here.

Carrie says in the movie, 20-something girls move to New York to find the two L's: Love and Labels (fashion, that is)--which is a clever line, but somehow struck a chord with me. I did find my love in NYC, so at least I got that right. And I guess I found my labels too, to a degree, because when I was watching the movie last night, I could identify so many more "insider NY" things than before--like the fashions, the restaurants, the characters, the looking for a perfect condo. This time, it felt like a movie about my city, not just a city I wanted to be part of. And I'd never felt that way before.

Samantha actually lives in LA for most of the film, and I was thinking about how much I do still love LA--the house she lives in on the beach is what my dream home would look like. But the character arc that she goes through reminded me that in NY, even though the city has kicked my ass many times, I'm probably a stronger, more dynamic person and in some ways, more my true self than I would be anywhere else. It's a straightforward city, like a true New Yorker. It tells you what you have to do in order to achieve your dreams. Those who can't ante up can leave, I guess, but then you'll never know who you could have been.

For the time being, I'm still basking in the glow of the movie and dreaming of the day when I can have Carrie's 5th Avenue closet...fully stocked, of course.

On My Mind: Why I Came to NYC and How I Made It My Enemy

So, here's my confession. Friends who've heard my latest theory, bear with me, but today, I'm feeling this to be especially true. I'm starting to believe my dissatisfaction with my life here in NYC is due to the fact that I still haven't achieved the goal I set out for myself when moving to NYC. I wonder if this is the case with other transplants who never quite settle in here. Don't most of us move here with a dream? And how many achieve it? How many let it go? How many can't live with letting it go and leave?

Without giving away too much , I'll say that I moved here for graduate school in the arts, and the idea was that I would not leave until I made it in my chosen field of art. In every field of art, there is a point at which you know you're legit, when you can go to a party, meet some strangers, and when they say "What do you do?" answer, "I'm an artist" and know you've got the goods to back it up. And what better city to become an artist than NYC, the birth place of so many of the world's most revered artists?

I'm close, but still no moose head. And being close never got anyone any respect. The closer I get, the more impatient I get, and when I'm all tangled up in my dissatisfied energy, I think maybe I'm just not happy because in some part of my brain, I think this city is a taskmaster who is keeping me from my dream. I know it's irrational, but I associate NYC with this grand dream that brought me here, with all the hard work, rejection and suffering I've felt because of it, and sometimes I blame the City for keeping the bar so high, and making it so hard to achieve. Because the thing at the core of my life here is unfulfilled, it's hard for me to look with love upon the things that surround the core. And so, until I conquer the city by making my dream come true, I don't know if I'll ever be content living here.

I fantasize that when I do achieve this dream, the city will suddenly transform. All the rats will turn into footmen and the taxis into carriages, and so on...I guess I won't know until I get there.

On My Mind: Beauty From Ugliness

I was re-reading one of my favorite little books, Wabi-Sabi for Artists, Designers, Poets & Philosophers and came across a powerful quote:

Beauty can be coaxed out of ugliness...beauty is a dynamic event that occurs between you and something else. Beauty can spontaneously occur at any moment given the proper circumstances, context or point of view. Beauty is thus an altered state of consciousness, an extraordinary moment of poetry and grace.

A reminder, perhaps, for me and others struggling with the lack of natural beauty in this city...You can call NYC a lot of things--exhilarating, fascinating, energizing, awesome, cosmopolitan, majestic--but I don't think most people would consider it one of the world's most beautiful cities. Still I know what this quote is getting at. I've had those moments. So, here's to opening myself up to more "poetry and grace."

A Lovely Weekend in the City

Just a dispatch before winding down for the night. City Guy and I had a great weekend. Really great. No external commitments. No work. Just time spent together and perfect weather.

Yesterday, we ran errands. City Guy got a haircut at a salon in Tribeca that I think I might try. Since moving downtown a couple years ago, I've continued to trek up to the Upper East Side to get my hair cut. It's getting to be a drag, though I do love my stylist, and the salon is Tribeca is more expensive - probably $100 for a haircut, without tip. I guess it could be worse.

We also went to the new Bed Bath and Beyond in Tribeca and bought some new flatware. It's so shiny and beautiful. The spoons have an especially beautiful teardrop shape and a lilt to the handle. Small things can make me happy...sometimes. The BB&B was so empty, though. I guess not a lot of people know about the new store. I hope business picks up for them. The really exciting thing is that right in the same building, they're going to be opening a Whole Foods. You can already see the sign up. I can't wait until it opens! It started to pour when we were about to leave the store, so we took the escalators right back up and bought ourselves a very cool blue and brown two-person umbrella. You have to understand how cool a two-person umbrella is. Before, I'd always complain to City Guy that I was getting wet when we shared an umbrella, but now we're beautifully cozy and dry, walking together in the rain. Like I said...it's the small things.

We also went to our favorite eyeglass boutique, Disrespectacles, to get our glasses and sunglasses adjusted. It's been on my to-do list for a while, so it felt good to check it off. Then, we went to our favorite neighborhood brunch joint and had pancakes. Yum.

This morning, I ran another race in Central Park. The Japan Day 4m race. The entrant field was only about 2500, so it was a really lovely small race. A bit hot for my taste, but I improved my pace! Yay! Progress is a good feeling. I'm working my way back to marathon shape. I do love running, and I guess the New York Road Runners is one thing I do love about New York.

We came home, showered and got some groceries at Gristedes, and I cooked brunch. Then we read the Sunday Times....print edition....I hadn't done that in a while. Usually read the paper online. It was kinda nice.

Got to go beddy-bye now. The city's beautiful right now....