Because there is nothing we wouldn’t do for food, we toured the tri-state area in search of the perfect pizza. After doing lots of research and taste testing, we narrowed the final two contenders down to Star Tavern in Orange, New Jersey and Naples Pizza in Farmington, Connecticut.
As we sat down to eat in the Sopranos-esque setting at Star, former hostess Ellen Doernberg informed us that it was perfectly acceptable to eat at least 3 pieces of pie. As if we needed permission—social norms rarely define the quantity of our food consumption. After careful consideration, we decided to order two pies, one with olives and one with mushrooms.
What a pie!!
*Note on vocab: Star Tavern, being the authentic second-generation Italian eatery that it is, strictly refers to its pizzas as pies. Pls abide by these rules when ordering.
True to Ellen’s word, the pizza was ah-mahzing. The waistlines of our jorts prevented us from finishing the pies during lunch, so we got the leftovers to go. Rumor has it that Alyssa finished the pizza in the backseat of the car on our way to fro yo. This has been confirmed.
Naples had more of a Gilmore Girls/Dawson’s Creek vibe than Star. In order to make an accurate epicurean comparison, Elaheh ordered a slice of pizza with olives. Not bad, but Naples simply sprinkled the olives on top of the cooked pizza, rather than cooking them into the cheese, as made at Star.
Luckily, there were plenty of house salads, eggplant fries, and kids’ portions of chicken parm to go around. The proximity of Naples to Alyssa’s alma mater, Miss Porter’s School, prohibits us from saying any negative things about the eatery. It had great food and an excellent ambience. Bias.
Last night, an SOEC benefactor gave us tickets to the musical Catch Me If You Can, starring Aaron Tveit aka Tripp Van Der Bilt from Gossip Girl. We read in our playbill that the show cost $13 million to produce. Huh? Compared to the monkeys in Wicked, CMIYC’s stage design was pretty basic for the Great White Way. Although we can see how the costumes may have raked up the budget. Our personal favorite was the male lead’s sequined pilot’s jacket and matching hat.
Definitely go see Catch Me If You Can if a. you can’t get tickets to see Harry Potter in How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying or b. you are truly a showtunes enthusiast. Each musical number had all of the components of a Broadway classic. Also worth noting that Tveit literally danced off the stage after the curtain call. There go Broadway stars, they love their jobs.
There’s nothing we like more than brushes of fame with minor celebrities, and we guaranteed one by going to the stage door after the show. We snapped some paparazzi shots of Tveit, got his autograph, and asked him to “give us a comment for our lifestyle blog,” to which he responded “you’ll have to go through our press department.” Despite being rejected, we still give Aaron a thumbs-up for being good-looking, talented, and charmingly awkward.
Can't touch this Broadway star...
Sartorial note on Aaron/Tripp: he wore imitation seersucker pants (what does that even mean?), laceless Converse, and a cryptic graphic tee—still not quite sure what was being portrayed on his chest.
Daily Picks, beetchez!
Movie: We’d like to pay homage to Mandy Moore and all of her artistic endeavors. Highlights include, in order of preference: A Walk to Remember, Chasing Liberty, and American Dreamz.
TV Show: Summerland, featuring a dashing young Jesse McCartney and Aunt Becky.
Book: In an intimate interview in the Cambodian jungle, Angelina Jolie admits that she lets her children eat crickets and even has her people package them in take-out containers. In honor of her efforts to preserve the cultural traditions of Pax and Maddox, we recommend The Clay Marble by Minfong Ho. Wait, do you think she lets her non-Indochinese children eat crickets too?
Song: California King Bed by Princess RiRi. Great song, but it’s slightly concerning that Rihanna has resorted to singing about pieces of furniture. Life after Chris Brown just isn’t so good. Don’t think it was that good during Chris Brown either…
SIDENOTE: Edge of Glory by Lady GaGa. We know you’ve heard the song, but with lyrics like “I need a man who thinks it’s right when it’s so wrong,” who would have thought it was inspired by her grandfather and Bruce Springsteen?!
After hearing about the up and coming Nolita neighborhood from an undisclosed hipster source, we decided to explore the downtown scene ourselves. One too many subway transfers later, and after a debacle in which water gushed from the ceiling of the subway car onto Alyssa, we made it to Nolita. We were starving by the time we ascended to street level but could not find a low-key place to eat. First complaint of Nolita: not enough dining options. We settled on sushi from a place so city chic it doesn’t even have a name (some like to call it Dean and Deluca—Felicity and Ben’s place of work in the previously endorsed WB hit Felicity). Although a warning to fellow Diet Coke addicts: Dean and Deluca only sells Pepsi products. If we wanted Pepsi, we would’ve stayed at Hamilton this summer solely for its vending amenities.
A Nolita alleyway
We also stopped by a Mr. Softee truck. Like chocolate dipped ice cream cones, dislike the limited soft-serve flavor options. How can they not sell chocolate-vanilla swirl? Offensive. O.O.N.L.Y.C. Our opinion, not like you care.
To conclude, we found ourselves unimpressed with the 4-block radius surrounded by SoHo and Little Italy.
Is anyone else extremely impressed with Diet Coke’s new ad campaign? “Another word for thirst is ambition,” or this one we saw in Nolita. Guess we’re the target consumers because we stopped at two vendors for dcokes in the course of the afternoon.
Can't talk, hanging out with Diet Coke.
Members of our loyal blogging community recently informed us of the dwelling locations of two larger-than-life celebrities and NYC residents. One of them is a twin who starred in Billboard Dad and the other one is a mom married to Ferris Bueller. Stay tuned for when we stake out their properties next week and observe them in their natural habitats.
Daily Picks:
Song: Best Thing I Never Had by Beyonce. Music video features real live footage of B at prom!!!
TV Show: Always felt that Will and Grace was overshadowed by Friends and Frasier.
Nail polish: Smooth Sailing and Looking For Love by Essie
Movie: Center Stage changed our lives. Also, does anyone else think that Stick It had the potential to do for gymnastics what Bring It On did for cheerleading…?
We are looking to join/start a support group for people torn up over J.Lo and Marc Anthony’s break up. Their marriage did great things for the world of Latin pop. See below. RIP.
We kicked off Fourth of July weekend by annihilatinga bag of Cheetos Puffs while sitting in traffic on our way to the Jersey Shore. It didn’t dawn on us until we arrived two hours later that we would be sporting patriotic bikinis all weekend long, so we drafteda 0 calorie lunch plan. Kidding—no we’re not—here’s what we came up with:
pickles/cucumbers
PAM cooking spray
lettuce
Diet Coke
celery
For the record, we are not a pro-anorexia blog nor did we ever consider eating this. We had hot dogs for lunch.
We also went to Surf Taco, a classic Jersey Shore dining establishment. We recommend the Maverick’s Burrito, a flour tortilla filled with char grilled chicken and the 5 basic burrito ingredients. Worth it to add guacamole for an extra $1.75. If you can’t name the 5 basic burrito ingredients, then you have no business reading this blog. TTYN.
Delicious lunch or small child...?
Unlimited fountain soda and a salsa bar give Surf Taco an A+ in quality, but the newbie busboy who spilled salsa on us gives it a D- (isn’t that just an F?) in customer service. Also, they were giving away free stickers—unlike the Millburn Deli, we stole those.
Being the multi-faceted bloggers that we are, we decided to try our hand at baking this week. After eating burgers at the Sherwood Diner (this never happened, but we did consider ordering them), we were inspired to bake a Big Mac cake. We researched different recipes and finally settled on one from Women’s Day magazine. If busy moms have time to make a hamburger cake, then why wouldn’t we?
Elaheh did make a three-tiered wedding cake once, so for the record, we are not novice bakers. But somehow our hamburger cake did not resemble the picture in Women’s Day. Safe to say that we are not going to tweet this post at the Barefoot Contessa Ina Garten. (in a garden?)
First of all, we’d like to issue a complaint to the mag for publishing unclear directions. We thought that two boxes of cake mix yielded two 9-inch rounds, but when assembling the burger we noticed that we were missing the top bun. Seriously, what’s a bowl cake?
We also took some creative liberties by opting for a yellow cake mix when the recipe called for a pound cake mix. Another factor that contributed to the disaster that came out of the oven could’ve been Justin Bieber softly crooning in the kitchen. *
*Justin Bieber wasn’t actually with us (or was he?). His songs were just on repeat.
Thanks Women's Day!
The Original Big Mac Cake
Compare to:
Wah-Wah
In conclusion, a waste of time and resources.
Things that keep us up at night:
Tara Lipinski’s guest roles on 7th Heaven
Either you’re a doctor or you’re not.
When Alyssa is 50, her resume will still say that she majored in Science in Society.
What do Pippa Middleton and Michael Jackson have in common? We’re not really sure either.
How many times do you have to tweet at Tahj Mowry to get him to retweet?
Daily Picks!! So uninspired
Song: Man in the Mirror. RIP MJ.
TV Show: Felicity. She followed her high school crush to college. That’s all we’re saying.
Movie: Just Go With It starring JenAn and Adam Sandler. Great cameo on Andy Roddick’s part. Wooo! Go Grand Slams!!
We celebrated Father’s Day by surrounding ourselves with attractive dads at the beach in Watch Hill, Rhode Island. See below for some paparazzi shots we snapped of silver foxes and the like. Sorry if your dad is featured…if he is, call us, we’re free on Saturday.
Armed with well-loved copies of the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants and accompanied by our personal publicists, we sat front row at Ann Brashares’ reading and signing of her new book, Sisterhood Everlasting.
Kind of confused at where Sisterhood Everlasting fits in with the rest of the Sisterhood books (there are four), but from what we gather it picks up on the lives of the characters as “they approach thirty, woof.” That’s a direct quote from the announcer/Barnes and Noble security guard. For celebrities reading this: weak security at Barnes and Noble at 86th and Lexington.
Quick bio/thoughts on Ann:
4 kids, the 3rd child is at least 10 years older than the youngest
went to Barnard; majored in philosophy, which she described as a “truly practical major.” We couldn’t tell if she was being sarcastic or not, but we do have to say that philosophy is saaaach a liberal arts major
doesn’t have any sisters but always fantasized about having some. Alyssa shares this sentiment, but Elaheh can’t quite imagine growing up without two high-strung look-a-likes.
very high cheekbones and GREAT complexion. Totally into her minimal makeup.
She began the reading with a quick round of Sisterhood trivia. We noticed that our enthusiasm was subpar compared that of the other fans (and to our own at the Glee concert), but Alyssa did win a bag of Cheetos for correctly naming one of the foods eaten at the annual sisterhood rituals. Possible answers included Cheetos, Gummi worms, or Pop Tarts.
We prepared unique SOEC questions for Ann, but Elaheh was too starstruck to ask. Alyssa asked her what books were on her summer reading list; she suggests short stories by Raymond Carver.
Daily/Weekly/Whatever Picks
Song: To Sir, With Love from Glee (phase isn’t over yet, sarry) and My Best Friend’s Brother by Victoria Justice. See below for the music video. BFB!!!
Book: Too Big To Fail by Andrew Ross Sorkin. Meaty and educational. Also, we hear that Girl in Translation is trending
TV Show: Zoey 101. “That’s what made me want to go to boarding school”-Alyssa
Movie: Cars 2. Who doesn’t like a talking car?!
Next post: If you’re wondering why we didn’t feature any food in this post, it’s because we’re doing a cleanse before we have ice cream for every meal!!!
Also, anyone in the media industry? Get at us. We’re looking for some press passes. People Stylewatch…?
Wow. There is no witty way to say this: we had front row seats to the Glee concert at Mohegan Sun.
Being the dedicated viewers that we are, we assumed that the only way to attract the attention of the cast on stage was to dress as they do on the show. So, standing in front of our respective closets we waited for outfit revelations that would make us look like residents of Lima, Ohio. Not interesting, but we both ended up wearing patterned shirts. Bear with us, we’re trying to create a build up for the main event.
Alyssa speaking to the people in her patterned shirt.
Anyways, we had a generally luxurious one-night stay at Mohegan Sun. Thoughts on the second largest casino in the United States:
Pros
Picturesque views of the Reservation and the Thames River
Great vanity kits in the bathroom (was in desperate need of a new shower cap)
Ben and Jerry’s, Starbucks and Johnny Rocket’s. Can’t go hungry at Mohegan Sun.
Cons
No E! entertainment channel, AND we couldn’t find a channel guide. We had to settle on Dr. Oz, where an audience member won a year’s supply of chopped liver. (Stay updated for a future blog post on Dr. Oz!!)
Must be 21 to gamble. We were hoping to see the central limit theorem in action on the roulette wheel. Sorry Larry Knop/Zachariah Dietz
As promised, we traversed the tri-state area for our third blog post. We had a lot of idealized visions of our excursion, but in retrospect most of the things we did aren’t blog-worthy/interesting in the slightest. We’ll try to highlight the most notable points from our day trip.
Traffic
We got lost in downtown Newark. However, the situation was easily resolved with a quick k-turn by some abandoned warehouses.
Note: Gas is cheaper in New Jersey than in CT. (NJ: 1, CT: 0)
Trains
Alyssa, the up and coming public transportation savant, got to ride both Metro North and NJ Transit today. Unreal!!
Alyssa on the sit. : “Air conditioning was broken on the train from Short Hills to Penn Station…It was 90 degrees out.” (NJ:1, CT:1)
We had a classic ice cream-deli combo today. Call us crazy, but we ate our frozen yogurt before we ate lunch.
Fro-yo, Westfield, NJ
Elaheh has been going here since infancy, but she is still unclear as to what the name of the shop is. Possibilities include I Can’t Believe It’s Yogurt (ICBIY?), TCBY, or just fro-yo.
We weren’t feeling adventurous regarding flavors, but girl about town Annie Fruchtman recommends tart blueberry. We both got chocolate and vanilla swirl; Elaheh topped hers with Reese’s while Alyssa opted for Sno Caps. Elaheh has heard from a source that used to work there that the Reese’s aren’t actually Reese’s brand but generic. They were still good. Even though Westport’s “Top That” had more flavors to choose from, ICBIY does give two servings of toppings, one in the middle and one at the top. Although, Top That is self-serve so we guess you could give yourself as many servings of toppings as you want. Since a rep for Top That did not confirm if their Reese’s were generic or not, the score remains tied 1:1 between NJ and CT. (cahn’t believe we just wrote 130 words about frozen yogurt…)
Millburn Deli
Back by popular demand, Alyssa Bawden joined us for lunch at the Millburn Deli in Millburn, NJ. One word to describe the Millburn Deli: overwhelming.
Alyssa K: chicken cutlet, mozzarella, roasted red peppers, and balsamic vinegar in a wrap. She got the peppers removed but does not recommend doing this—less flavor. A bag of Cheetos puffs added a nice deli-like touch though. Om nom nom.
Alyssa B, turkey trot: turkey, bacon, Russian dressing, and Swiss cheese grilled on rye bread. We all tried this sandwich and LOVED IT!!
Elaheh: grilled chicken with roasted red peppers, mozzarella cheese, pesto, and mayonnaise on a baguette. Delicious!! Could’ve gone without the mayonnaise because the pesto and red peppers gave it enough flavor.
Millburn Deli beats out Oscar’s in their sandwich creativity, and it had great ambience (NJ: 2, CT: 1).
Pickles
All of the sandwiches at the Millburn Deli came with a singular sandwich stuffer pickle. Oscar’s in Westport gave us a free pickle platter so CT beats New Jersey in the pickle arena. (NJ: 2, CT: 2)
Daily Picks
What we’re reading? Bel Canto by Anne Patchett (Thanks Nnej!), very captivating. Also, in honor of Alyssa’s semester abroad in Edinburgh check out One Day by David Nicholls. Great reads, great reads. Elaheh wants to go off on a tangent about how good One Day is, but she’ll wait to start a book club solely dedicated to the book and upcoming movie starring Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess.
Movies: Haven’t seen any movies lately but Martin Bawden said that The Hangover Part 2 got “awful reviews.” If Martin is skipping it, so are we.
On the playlist: EVERYTHING GLEE in honor of our super-special blogging event next Monday!!!
We also suggest listening to Get Me Bodied (Extended Mix) by Beyonce and checking out this inspiring video clip.
Addendum addendum!!! Psych major Ellen Doernberg is featured on the Hamilton News Feed. Crazy shit, check it out. Yes, she does play the flute.
In the name of blogging, we journeyed to 36th street for a Tibi sample sale. After waiting in line for half an hour (anything for fah-shahn), we were escorted into the Happy Monkey Studio! We fought our way through spandex-clad women in pursuit of summer prints. We couldn’t take pictures, but OMG was it crazzaaay! Dresses, skirts, shorts, shoes, etc. Twenty-dollar bathing suits were scattered in cardboard boxes; the chances of finding matching tops and bottoms were slim, so here’s a leisurely lifestyle fashion tip: mismatch is in!
The sale is happening for two more days, starting at noon at 348 West 36th St.
We left the sale famished and headed to Shake Shack at Madison Square Park (as seen in Something Borrowed) for some burgers, fries, and milkshakes. Wee!
Thoughts on the meal:
Fries were decent; could get them anywhere, nothing special.
The Shack Burger was DELICIOUS! We recommend skipping the sauce if you don’t like mayonnaise and opting for a regular cheeseburger or hamburger.
Shakes: Filling. Very filling.
People Watching: Great. Lots of European couples in Polo shirts. A generally good-looking crowd.
We asked James, quality Shake Shack server, if he had seen Rachel and Ethan from Something Borrowed strolling through the park. He didn’t know what we were talking about.
Local Celebrity Spottings:
Touran Nozari at the Tibi sample sale sporting a Gap floral dress and Aerosoles. What was she doing there?!?
Alyssa Bawden, with us all day, looking relaxed after her semester abroad in Lugano. What happens at Franklin College stays at Franklin College.
An unidentified recent Hamilton grad strolling through Herald Square. She was last seen by the Levitt Center in the Communication department. Huh?
A girl losing her balance while rollerskating. She proceeded to run into a delivery man and a white van. Halp!
Rumor has it that Claire Corroon is in the Big Apple. This has yet to be confirmed.
Daily Picks:
Song: Beautiful Love, The Afters: it might sound familiar from 8th and Ocean. Who watched that?
Summer Reading: We didn’t have a chance to read this week, but see below for a pretty selection of beach reads!
