This weekend my future sister in law Maka had her bridal shower. Very cool thing to be a part of. Her family is fairly large and went all out in throwing her a party at Cosimo’s in Poughkeepsie (120 Delafield St, right off of the highway). Mama Amherst and I were there reping the groom’s side! Girly weekend! One of my girlfriends used to work at a location further down state, and I’d never managed to try it, so I was excited to give it a whirl. Salad. Little heavy on the dressing for me, but lots of flavor. It was some kind of a prosecco vinaigrette. Tasty.

Got a margherita pizza. Nice thin crust and chewy edges with cornmeal on the bottom. It was a large “personal” pizza. I ate about half of it and took the leftovers with me. Tomatoes were nice and bright. I’d get it again.

Dessert! They brought in a cake for the bride, and the menu came with tiramisu. Good tiramisu. Lots of kahlua flavor, hee hee.

And then we packed my car with all of the gifts Maka received. I wish I’d taken a shot of the car. It was so packed! We drove from Poughkeepsie to Queens. She never would have made it on the train with all of that stuff.

See? I told you. It was a LOT of stuff! haha. Thank goodness for granny carts. We made it within three trips.

Then we met up with some of my bro-in-law CVS’s friends who were VIPs at 5 Burros (7205 Austin St, Forest Hills, NY). I’d been there once before for drinks and it was jam packed. It was pretty much impossible to get a table for more than two people during prime time hours (like, the only time I’m ever there to visit)… unless you knew someone.

We still had to wait about an hour (brr!), but man. I don’t even wanna know how long we’d wait if we didn’t know someone.

We crammed into a table in the back and got a pitcher of strawberry margaritas. Frozen. Yum! I only wanted half a drink because I’ve got this stupid head cold that won’t go away, but they were way too generous and gave me a full glass. They give you a little toy in the drinks. I got a goldfish, he he.

I got tacos al pastor ($14). Three tacos stuffed with deliciously moist pork meat and some minced red onion and cilantro. So freaking good.

At first, I was kinda like “Eehh, $14 for three tacos?” But the tacos were so good and so generously portioned, AND it came with a side of rice, beans, some mild salsa, guacamole and sour cream. I quickly changed my tune. Everything was flavorful enough for me to taste something, even with the nagging head cold. I even liked the rice! It was like fried rice, but Mexican. And really good. Sadly, I could barely make a dent in the sour cream and guac because of the cold (texture weirded me out).

Albany John was hanging with his folks in Amherst, and I missed his dish nibbling. I don’t think I’m used to eating an entire meal on my own when I go out to eat! I had a whole taco left. It seems kind of wussy (who can’t eat three tacos?), but they were so big! If Albany John were there, he could have helped me out.

Oh, and Maka gave me some goldenseal, and that stuff really helps drain your sinuses! I could actually breathe through my nose that night!

The next day I went to Flushing to meet up with my Dad, Uncle, and Yeh-Yeh.

I checked out a Chinese Medicine doctor guy before we went to breakfast just because this stupid cold won’t go away and nothing is working, and it’s one of those colds where if I go to a Dr. Dr. they’re just like “Yeah, you’re sick, drink some Gatorade, there’s nothing we can do.” I figured why not? Worst case scenario I spend some money on some herbs that won’t hurt me any way, and best case scenario is that I get a homeopathic cure that’s been used by people for thousands of years.

So they said we should get breakfast because of blood sugar levels or whatever, so we went to Jade Asian Restaurant for yum cha. Got some har cheung (shrimp rice rolls). Oh man, those were good. Really silky and tender noodles. They must make them there.

Joong. Maka and CVS joined me, and they really liked this dish.

Steamed chicken and rice. I wasn’t really hungry because of the cold. I just don’t get as much motivation to eat when I’m sick because I can’t really taste anything and my throat hurts, so what’s the point? But I guess that’s what family is for, because Yeh-Yeh and my dad were piling food on my plate and encouraging me to eat. That was really sweet of them. You’ll never go hungry in a Chinese family.

Steamed spare ribs, tripe, and shrimp dumplings.

Chow fun to end the meal. Again, really silky noodles. I want to get more fun dishes here. And by fun I mean rice noodle, although eating good food is fun too. Hee hee.

Oh, so this is the place I went to see the Chinese herbalist. Shing Fat Trading, Inc., located on the corner of Prince and 39th Street. Who’da thought, right? They’d readied my herbal “prescriptions” for the next couple of weeks and gave me some quickie accupuncture. I’ll do another post on this in a few days with some more detail.

The short of it, though, is that I did start feeling a little bit better. Still sick, but just not as sick. But at that point who really knows if it’s the work or just the psychosomatic effects? I mean, either way, whatever works to get rid of this cold. Seriously. Cold. Go away.

Then it was time to head to Amherst to pick up Albany John. I cut through Connecticut on I-95 to I-91. It wasn’t much longer than my normal route home. It usually takes me about 4 hours to get home from Queens with the routes I take, and this only added, like, an extra hour (maybe) of total travel time. Plus I always like trying a new way home. Keeps the drive more interesting. Unless there’s traffic on the way to the Whitestone Bridge. It took me about half an hour to go like, two miles. Ugh. C’mon. Let’s speed it up! But slow goings on a Sunday around the city isn’t exactly surprising.

Funny thing is, after this E-ZPass sign was another sign saying “No Picture or Video”. Hmm. Okay.

It was still a little slow once I got on I-95, but not as bumper-to-bumper.

Once we got into CT it was a lot faster. Yay! Although CT drivers: WTF. Can no one maintain their speed on the highway? I know some of you have cruise control.

Blessedly, I made it to Amherst and was greeted with happy faces. And Maple Bacon Ice cream. Albany John picked up the weirdest sounding flavor from Maple Valley Ice Cream.

Can I just say how much I love MA dairy? They nail dairy products. I love getting ice cream in MA. It’s always so ridiculously rich and awesome.

Ingredient list. Cream, milk, cane sugar, maple syrup, bacon, vanilla extract, and some unnamed natural stabilizers. I like the local lables. Too cute.

I still couldn’t taste very much, but the texture was great. Creamy with bits of bacon in it. I’d get it again. It really wasn’t all that odd.

And then I got FLAN ON A COOKIE!!! Papa Amherst made them. SO DELICIOUS! And then I made Albany John drive back so I could nap in the car. Good man.