Lunch Worth Blogging About

Since I left 285 Madison Avenue for 708 Third Avenue I have been a wandering soul in terms of breakfast and lunch. These are the two meals that I eat at my desk Monday to Thursday. Occasionally I have a rep lunch that can take me away from my desk, but times are tough and getting a freebie in this town is near to impossible. When I was at 285 Madison Avenue I went to Homefront for breakfast, everyday. I hardly went anyplace else, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. (We got free bagels on Wednesday.) I split lunch between Homefront and Cafe Zaiya.

Now at 708 Third Avenue I have had a very hard time finding my breakfast and lunch spots. Places around the office are fine. But none of them have hooked me in, until last week, when I started getting lunch at Crisp. It is blog worthy in itself that I finally found a lunch spot that I really enjoy. But I found as I was enjoying my falafel sandwiches, seven days in a row, that Crisp was worthy of a blog for a number of reasons beyond my own desperate search of a lunch default.

Reason #1: Quality of the food. I find the ingredients to be fresh and delicious. I enjoy falafel. As I said to a well known picky eater, "you will like falafel, it is fried and comes with toppings, there isn't anything not to like." I have enjoyed many levels of falafel. Street falafel, take out falafel, fancy falafel. It is all good in its own way. Crisp doesn't have the best falafel I have ever eaten. (Fatoosh in Brooklyn Heights have the best.) But I enjoy the entire package. The pitas are fresh. The falafel is not greasy. The toppings are varied and enjoyable.

The Crisp


Reason #2: Variety. Sure it is all falafel, but it is all different at the same time. There are 7-8 sandwich choices. I ate 6 of them. They all have falafel. The Parisian: Sundried tomato spread, goat cheese, roasted peppers, garden greens and red onions. The Mexican: Cilantro pesto and avocado, corn, salsa, nachos with jalapeño dressing. The Mediterranean: Sundried tomato spread, eggplant, parmesan flakes and garden greens . The Crisp: Layered with hummus, cubed salad. The Athenian: Herbed yogurt, greek salad and green onions. The African: North African peanut sauce, sweet potatoes, corn salad, cherry tomatoes, green onions, habanero harissa sauce.




The Mexican

Reason #3: Technology. You can order online and pick it up like 5 minutes later. They even give you 10% off for ordering online. You totally skip the line. I love it. The less people I actually have to speak to in my daily life the better. I have to talk to a lot of people.







Reason #4: The packaging. You unzip your sandwich out of a paper handbag. I kinda get a kick out of it.



Reason #5: Nice People. Even though I don't have to deal with them, (reason #3) they are very nice. A coworker had a complaint once and they gave her like 2 sandwiches for free and they were very attentive and open to her comments. I hear they also give you extra sauce and they don't charge you.

Reason #6: Illusion of Health. It is all vegetarian and generally healthy. They are still fried balls.

Reason #7: Its got a Kick. I lika-da-spice. Most of the sandwiches have a kick to a lot of kick to them. Not too over powering, just the right amount. It tastes really good it what it comes down to.

Nothing is ever perfect, sometimes there is a distribution of the ingredients issue. Like all of the hummus is on the bottom and all of the jalapeños are on the top. And it is pretty pricey for falafel, but I like to think that I am paying for fresh ingredients and friendly people.

So thank you lunch gods for giving me Crisp, I will enjoy until I decide to start walking west to Homefront and Cafe Zaiya.

All of the things I said I wouldn't do as a parent, an evolving list...

1. Let my child slept in my bed. Yep she is there right now, I am looking at her right now, sleeping in my bed. I don't know what I thought it would be like to put a baby, now toddler to sleep. I think I thought I was going to kiss her on the forehead, tell her "nite nite," toss her in the crib, and close the door. Yah, that doesn't happen. She sleeps through the night and doesn't cry when she is in our bed. Sold.

2. Nurse a child that can ask for it. I wrote many a blog about nursing. We had a hard start. Ruby has a lot of teeth, she is 16+ months old and we are still at it. She nurses once a day now, at night. Soon we will be done. "Soon" is relative.

3. Let my child cry on the plane. Ruby screamed. Really really loud. I didn't necessarily "let" her cry, but I couldn't stop her either. I tried. But honestly, I can say that the dirty looks from strangers didn't bother me that much. In other words, bite me.

4. Have the kid with the snotty nose. Unless I follow her around with a tissue 24/7, it is impossible to stay on top of the snot. It is just not possible.

I don't believe in parenting techniques or parenting philosophies. Following anyone's advice to the letter just doesn't work. Every kid and every parent is different and nothing is the same day to day. You can go into the world of parenting with all of the ideas you want, but you will just drive yourself nuts trying to live up to some doctor-from-a-book's expectation. Dr. Sears, Dr. Spock, and Dr. Whoever isn't helping me when the diaper explodes and it is 2AM. Even saying that "following your instincts" is your philosophy is a bunch of bunk. Sometimes your instincts are wrong, and on 2 hours of consecutive sleep, you can bet that your instincts suck. Derek's father said to us, "you can't figure anymore." He was right.

Derek and I have taken a "by any means necessary" approach to parenting. We got a toolbox worth of tricks, we have a little patience (Derek more than me), and we have the basic goal of keeping Ruby alive. That is about it. My list of things I never thought I would do will grow and grow and grow. I have learned to be okay with that, and I think that helps me get back to being a healthy and functioning adult and not a child crazed loon.

I just love when I hear someone without a kid talk about, "well I wouldn't" or "I will never." I roll my eyes and say, "good luck with that."