Szendvics-túró (Sendvitch-tooru)

I discovered a strangely delicious food here in Hungary. It's called szendvics-túró and I love it. Now, let me be truthful and tell you that all it really is is cottage cheese. But it's "sandwich" cottage cheese (thus the szendvics) and somehow this makes it better than the other cottage cheese. The other cottage cheese is really bland and dry and has literally no taste. I eat it on salads at lunch sometimes, just because I know I need to get protein. But the szendvics-túró is dreamy. It's thick and dry, too. But it's so tasty and much easier to spread than the other stuff. Plus I discovered these really tasty rice cakes and I put it on those with some sliced tomatoes and I am telling you I can eat 10 in a row without pausing to take a breath. Now, I know cottage cheese is not a huge discovery. But this stuff is different. Trust me.

SUPREME COURT
I wanted to wake up last night at 3am to watch the announcement of the new Supreme Court nominee. But it seemed like a bad idea to wake up at 3am just to get all fired up and angry about W's choice (as I was sure to do) so I stayed sleeping. I was greeted by his whiteness/maleness this morning when I turned on CNN. I have a lot of work to do today but I am setting aside some time this morning to read Salon.com's "John Roberts, Jr. dossier." Even if I can't be in the US, I have to stay up to date on my loathing for George W. Bush and everything he stands for, don't I?

A DINNER PARTY
Last night Peter and I went for dinner at Natasha and Zameer's house. Heather (my boss) was there, too. It was a fabulous evening of great food and great conversation. What a treat to be able to engage with other people like that. And to have a home-cooked meal prepared by someone other than me! Our main course was sea bass cooked in a way I had never heard of but apparently is the latest trend in cooking fish. So, it only works with a fish whose skin remains in tact through the cooking process. Apparently you buy loads of salt and just completely coat the fish (in the baking dish) in piles and piles of salt and then cook it. I am not really sure how it works or why. But after you take it out of the oven, the salt has formed this kind of outer shell and you sort of break it off and underneath is the fish and it's mmm mmm good. Natasha's husband apparently does all the cooking. I know so many women with husbands who do the cooking. I remember Kate, my roommate in DC, whose boyfriend Joel was a masterful cook and in fact preferred to do the cooking and oftentimes ordered her out of the kitchen. I remember back then thinking how lucky she was. Not because I was always cooking for my boyfriends and would have liked a break (the most cooking I ever did was the occasional egg breakfast or this bizarre hamburger-y type dish I invented in high school), but precisely because I wasn't and therefore NOBODY was cooking!

I LOVE NEW YORK
And tomorrow I will be there. What a strange thought. I am really excited to see everyone and I know that I will miss Peter a ton but that will be good because then it will be like a reunion all over again when I get back! I will be in the city on Thursday staying with Vanessa and then will drive upstate Friday mid-day, possibly stopping along the way to see Peter Levy. Then it's Lake Placid for a long and surely exhausting weekend. The idea of waking up at 530am on Sunday and not sleeping again until 1am that night is kind of daunting at this point, only because it is preceded and then followed by five hours of driving and 15 hours of flying! Still, the energy and excitement of watching Robyn do Ironman will sustain me through the day. I never would have suspected that after ten years in the Bay Area, Robyn and I both would become Iron finishers! I mean, we were just reminiscing yesterday (over Skype, by the way) about one of our first footraces in San Francisco - we did the Marine Mammals Center Run for the Seals. When we first signed up we had committed to doing at least one of those kinds of events a month. By the time we crossed the finish line - 4 miles and I truly think it was something like 56 minutes later for me - that pipedream was long abandoned! And then in 2002 I remember Robyn calling me at work - we hadn't spoken in a few months at least - and telling me she was online and about to book her flight to NY and wanted to be sure which was the best airport! I couldn't believe it. But it meant so much to me. And then last summer we were in LA hanging out and talking about our lives and where they were going and Robyn said she was ready for something big and to really try something new. And so I suggested Ironman (which, by the way, as anyone who knows me can attest, I do all the time to anyone who indicated even a passing interest in triathlon. I think I even suggested it once to my mother!). I had suggested it to her before and usually she would say some version of, "that's not for me." But this time she just looked at me. And the next day, Robyn called me and said, "I have been thinking a lot about what you said. I am really considering it." And then she signed up. And now here we are. I can't believe it and I am so excited to be there and watch her take it on and finish it! By the way, this is the 5th time I will be traveling to watch a friend do Ironman. I think I will stop suggesting it to people.