Cheeky

2010-03-30T20:20:00.000-07:00

:Cheeky:

An addict to New York's Time Out, when an up and coming restaurant named "Cheeky" was mentioned as a trendy sandwich take-out spot for LES residents, I just couldn't stay away. Even if that means an hour train ride on the Weekends. The prices for sandwiches ranged from 6.50 to 9 dollars, a tad bit steep for me, but after a quick scan of featured sandwiches with ingredients like home made butter milk biscuits,braised short ribs, fried oyster (and even ginger tea!!!), I was sold. Located on 35 Orchard Street, which is now my new favorite area to shop for groceries and vintage clothing, Cheeky stands out from its neighbors not in a luxury setting, but complete opposite: beach shed style. The exuberant blue and white on wood panels is the first thing you'll notice about Cheeky. As I stand in front of the sandwich/brunch take out, it almost seems like I was taking a break from the beach and the sun down in Miami, even though the weather here was gray and gloomy. I quickly stepped in, and voila! A long and tiny Cheeky is consisted of kitchen, cashier, bathroom ( a real wooden- made shed!!), and a diner-bar like sitting area for customers. The vibe was friendly and reminded me of a hint of Greek white stones meet spontaneous graffiti and hand-drawings.

Wall decor in Cheeky

Yes, the bathroom.

Since I avoided the brunch crowd, the sandwiches choices were limited. I chose the butter milk biscuit with fried chicken, coleslaw mix, and gravy while my friend aimed for braised short-ribs with arugula, cherry tomato, and horse radish sauce on challah bread. The chicken sandwich was everything I imagined, except the size. I'm a girl with an appetite, and the biscuit sandwich probably counts as a snack in between meals. I know, living in New York=higher appetite and expanded belly.

Butter milk Biscuit with fried Chicken, coleslaw mix and gravy

Braised Beef with Arugula, horse radish dressing and challah bread.

Okay, the chicken sandwich looks pretty awful here, but as I recalled, the biscuit was fluffy while the fried chicken was tender and well seasoned. My friend's beef sandwich was equally yummy. The braised beef was a little dry, but the horse radish sauce with grilled challah bread were a hearty combination. After a delightful chow down, we started chatting with the owner and some loyal customers. We even got some free fried dough topped with powder sugar when he found out that we hailed from upper west side. Anyway, for future reference, I would definitely come back to try out the fried oyster sandwich....or two...

cheap and sophisiated dans le meme temps, mon ami.

2010-03-14T21:14:00.000-07:00

HELLO WORLD~~

First Blog of 2010!! very excited to be sharing with the rest of the universe about my life as a , YOUNG, beautiful, and poor New Yorker. For starters, let's get one thing straight: This is a blog about being healthy, happy, and living as cheaply( but healthily) as possible. There may or may not be content that includes being shamelessly cheap in order to pay rent and survive. ex: eating free food at Whole Foods, friend's apartment, and sometimes churches. However, I will cover mostly fun and cheap events happening around the city, really ridiculously cheap food, and once a month, a "splurge moment" where I stupidly and impulsively purchase something that I will love and regret for the rest of the month. So what have I been doing to play and save pennies?

1. Whitney Museum Biennial 2010 (Free)
Rule number 1 of being cheap: social networking.

How did I get into Whitney Museum for free? Connection. If you have friends who work for corporate companies with free events and benefits, totally hit them up and get the network going!!!! My fellow Taiwanese friend happens to be one of these lucky employees, and with her help, I got to see some pretty alarming and amazing new art. Located on East 75th and Madison, this year, Whitney museum included some pretty fantastic artists. My favorite? Aurel Schmidt's drawings on humans filthy creations and self-destruction to a symbolic and alarming message. With simply color pencils, graphite, acrylic, beer, dirt, and blood on the paper, Schmidt beautified this political message about men's ugliness by fusing a half man, half bull creature that explodes beer cans and cigarettes. With a soft palette of colors, Schmidt managed to make grotesque flies, plastic maxim condoms, worms, and beer cans look...well....pretty.

Aurel Schmidt ( pictures courtesy of Whitney Museum)

Another of my favorites was Lorraine O'Grady''s comparative photographs between French poet Charles Baudelaire and American pop sensation Michael Jackson. According to O'Grady's hypothesis, even though the two artists share opposite family background( Baudelaire: french aristocrat, Jackson: youngest of a poor family), they are both aspiring performers, perfectionist, ambiguous with their sexuality, and addicted to drugs. It was really interesting to see their photographs together arranged by age. From Jackson's rise to fame to Baudelaire's fall to poverty, they are also 150 years apart from each other. In my opinion, it would've been cool to see them as great friends and jamming to MJ tunes in the modern society.

early days

later days: imagine Baudelaire in metallic gold?

(pictures: courtesy of Whitney Museum)

A photography fan, I couldn't helped but notice this artist who brought back many of my childhood memories: mainly on watching my idiotic brother sink battleships and whistle the choo choo train. Tam Tran's vision on photographing different identities continues with these series of pictures where every boy (or girl) at some point fantasied about : being a hero.
Yes, a blanket and a stick in this little boy's mind is the perfect heroic outfit. I particularly love the photo where the boy's back was captured. We see the the robe flowing, the sun setting, the stick rooted firmly on the ground with his little hand, and the "watermelon" haircut just adds more hilarity and adorableness to the imaginative child. Well, these are all the artists who captivated my attention, and impressively, stuck with my long term memory. However, there was also a pretty cool wooden made architecture space next to the sandwich bar on the bottom floor of museum. We can hear the repetitive Buddhist chanting that brings the atmosphere tranquility. Well both my friend and I were enjoying the peaceful and monotone chanting, we were more distracted by our creativity to document history. i.e. taking loads of Asian style pictures with peace signs all over the place. Unfortunately we got caught. too excited about the possibility of endless angles and natural potential to be super starz~~~

Tam Tran

Bare Necessities

Cheeky

cheap and sophisiated dans le meme temps, mon ami.