My trip to Streetbird!

Oh sweet chicken, how I love thee. I was a vegetarian for two years, what was I thinking?! Although I will admit, I gave up the vegetarian lifestyle because of some home cooked pork my Titi threw down in her backyard during a family event and I really couldn't say no to the fresh killed juicy roasted meat of the swine. Mmmmm. 

Chicken is third on my list of delicious food I like to ingest. Steak, pork, chicken then everything else. Naturally when a new establishment named StreetBird opened around my way Mr. S and I had to visit and give it our personal rating. 

As you can see from above, the menu is pretty simple. Everything, aside from the sides, is made as an entrée. We ordered the half Rotisserie bird, an order of the Old Broadway Wings with a side of savory sauce, Sho'nuff Noodles, Return of the Mac, Collard Greens, and for dessert the Sweet Dog and Ooey Gooey Cookie.  I am terrible blogger and did not take pictures of my food but I did take pics of the decor which is a bit thrift store meets tasteful junker, a bit of everything. My favorite part of the decor was the wall of boomboxes which you can actually listen to while waiting 90 minutes for a table of two, fun! 

Back to the food. The rotisserie was crazy good! The chicken was tender, juicy, well seasoned, totally worth the wait. The Old Broadway Wings were a bit too spicy for my palate. Mr. S finished them and matter of factly stated he would not return for the wings. 'Nuff said. The Sho'nuff Noodles were a gourmet take on your standard Chinese corner store order of Lo Mein with a twist on the seasoning and less greasy, they were good but not phenomenal. The Return of the Mac was my favorite, I have yet to meet a macaroni and cheese dish I don't like so I'm a bit biased in this field but hey, try it for yourself. It comes in a bowl, cooked with rigatoni pasta, and four cheeses melted into a perfect gooey sauce covering every noodle. I was in heaven.  The collard greens were our least favorite. No no and no. Either they did not cook them with ham hocks or they just boiled them with the least amount of flavoring possible but, yuck. I mean, if you're not into traditional "savory with kick" collard greens then you might be into this but unless your palate is sensitive to the slightest amount of seasoning you really will dislike this. Again, try for yourself. 

We ordered the Ooey Gooey Cookie and were gifted a Sweet Dog alongside it. WIN! If free food doesn't make you happy then you have no soul. Neither Mr. S nor I am a fan of marshmallows so we swiftly scraped the melted marshmallows off the cookie in our dessert and proceeded to ingest the crunchiest cooked I have ever tasted. CRUNCHY, like over cooked crunchy. I was disappointed. 

The Sweet Dog looked well, like a hot dog in dessert form. A dressed up twinkie. Very sweet, better than the cookie but the almond paste was lost in the chocolate and didn't blend into a nutty chocolatey flavor like I thought it would. 

On the upside, my waiter was Kareem Savinon, who was the doorman in HBO's Girls and the whole time he served our table I felt like I knew him in a sexual way when oddly enough I KNEW I never had sex with him. He was super cool and a cutie pie. 

Final verdict: three out of five "oh my god, my belly is going to explode from so much good food!" 

Have you been to StreetBird? What was your experience like? Tell me below dammit! 

NC

 

That one time I sort of did cocaine...

Photo: dea.gov

First thing is first, I was a badass teenager. Not badass in the way that people use it for women like Malala Yousafzai, no. I was fucking terrible. Including but not limited to, cutting school, getting arrested, having ACS try to remove me from the premises because I was so bad, getting pregnant, doing drugs, drinking, suffering from anorexia nervosa, and generally being a demon.

So let's get to it. I grew up with two sisters, my mom and a stepfather. Both parents really loved to party, both literally and in the drug addict sense of the word; although if you ask my mom LSD was more her thing. In addition to that, my biological father was a steady heroin addict on the fast track to being a junkie all before I was 12 years old. So, exposure to drugs and alcohol for me was no big deal. I honestly thought all kids were exposed to drugs and alcohol like I was and in retrospect can totally understand why many parents did not want their kids staying at my house for sleepovers, ugh.

I was 14 and totally in love with a fucking psycho. I mean this dude would question the hairstyles I did because Lord forbid I looked decent for standard civilization. Anyway, he was a 17 year old crack/cocaine dealer and generally bad news.

One sunny day, cutting school, smoking weed, drinking, fucking, repeat... I decided I wanted to try cocaine. This motherfucker made me record (on a cassette tape!) that he was not forcing me into it and it was my own volition, touché to you sir. Boom, he procures the product, now I am scared.

"I can't do it. Is there another way to do it besides snorting it?"

"You can eat it."

"OK."

I ingest what must be about a 1/4 of a teaspoon of cocaine.

Luckily, so fucking luckily, I didn't feel anything. Probably because I didn't snort it like a person usually does but thank the fucking cosmos because if I did I'd probably be in a drug trafficking ring I couldn't escape, ugh. Maybe I didn't feel anything because I was already high? High and drunk?

I ended up just playing video games and actually relaxing through the day of playing hooky. 

Point is, thankfully I was such a fuck up that I fucked up on becoming an official fuck up. The one time being a fuck up works out for you!

Let me know your thoughts....what was your first experimental drug experience like?

Nadia Chanté

Life with food allergies

In December of 2014 I was officially diagnosed with food allergies, of all the best foods, which is the worst thing that could happen to me. I love food. I have always had a great relationship with food; it is the longest and happiest relationship I have been in, until now. I have yet to meet a Mac 'n' Cheese I didn't like. Yet to scoff at a plate of arroz con gandules, pernil, tostones and yucca frita. I devour cheesecake as if my blood is made of it and needs a new slice at least twice a week to keep my body alive. You get the point now. 

Let me share with you, what I'm talking about, below are all the foods I cannot eat:

Spices:
anise
caraway
celery
chervil
cinnamon
coriander
cumin
chamomile
dill
fennel
ginkgo
honey
mustard
paprika
parsley
parsnip
pepper
poppy seeds
sunflower seeds
tarragon

Fruits/Veggies:
apples
carrots
hazelnut
kiwi
lettuce
mango
almonds
peanuts
pistachio
tomato
banana
cucumber
melon
watermelon
zucchini

garlic
onion

Drinks:
herbal teas
beer

Food:
Shellfish

That last one is important because I will go into anaphylactic shock when I ingest just a smidgen of that shit. When I ingest all the other foods on this list, I suffer from what I call Exploding Ass Syndrome (EAS). Fuck. My. Life. 

Now, my life is filled with bland fucking chicken, bland fucking rice, bland bland bland....I'm dyin' out here!

Pepto Bismol is always on deck. Always. Otherwise I'm straight up curled up on the floor of my house rocking back and forth in the fetal position, crying like I'm in labor - I am in labor, getting ready to birth a shit baby. 

The picture above is homemade ramen I made seasoned with turmeric, ginger, rosemary, and a bit of soy sauce and my ass was much less explosive the next day, so it was a good turnout I guess. 

I reached out to my close friend who lives in Hawaii and is also a chef who has graciously accepted a challenge to create recipes to fit my now very strict diet, so stay tuned for some delicious blog posts with recipes and pictures as time goes on! 

Diagnosed with serious food allergies? Let me know below! How did you cope if they were diagnosed after you were used to eating all those delicious foods? Help a sister out! 

Nadia Chanté

I am ...

I have had this Blogspot for a while, haunting me in the Gmail apps section, laughing at me with its emptiness. The main reason this started was for a school project to blog about social justice but once school was over, I just didn't have the passion for that type of writing anymore. I wanted something more in line with my personality. No agenda. No muss, no fuss. Just a small door into my mind and lifestyle. I over analyzed on the look, the language, the marketing techniques until I said "Fuck it, just do you." So here I am.

I am a Puerto Rican Bronxite. I work for - you know what - I'l leave that part out for now. I live in NYC with my two hairless cats, one (going on two) dogs, and a Red Eared Slider named Tina Turtle - oh yes and the love of my life Mr. S. I have no kids, not planning on having any - I have a large family which includes a really stellar nephew and is quite possibly the biggest love of my life to date, sorry Mr. S.

I fucking love to travel. I love food - no, I fucking love food! How else can I keep my chubby girlish figure in tact? I really love makeup and hope to hone my skills this year. I love to express myself through creative means, via fashion, makeup, collages; I have been known to sketch here and there. Generally I like to express myself like most people do; curled up at home binge watching Netflix while re-blogging Tumblr posts. Mmmmmm.

I am a sorority Hermana. I once was a nude/vixen model (escandolo!) and for a brief period in time worked as a freelance journalist for Rap-Up Magazine, Luxladies.com, Right On! and Black Beat magazines. I had a brief stint as a cocktail waitress in a cabaret - more on that later. As well as experience bartending, worked at a Bronx Zoo for one summer, and as the world's worst babysitter. I'm pretty sure I've helped dig a grave as well but that's neither here nor there.

I am aiming at providing a fulfilling experience here. Whether I'm trying new food, checking out exhibits, seeing new attractions, places, people, things, maybe even a little politics. I like to live tweet new movies while in the theater so definitely follow me on Twitter for that comedy.

I always welcome comments and trust that as a responsible society you will respect myself and others who comment as well.

I do hope you stick around and if you don't, all good.

Nadia Chanté