Read More: In Cold Blood

In Cold Blood by Truman Capote always makes it on the list for must-read books so I thought "Well, I guess I must read this!" It was, what I consider, my first true crime book. Although I love scary movies, I did not enjoy reading about these murders. It felt ethically wrong reading about the horrors the Clutter family experienced. Although I loved books like Devil in the White City and The Monster of Florence, I don't feel like they fit into this sort of sensationalist genre - maybe because the focus was on the mystery? Maybe it affected me differently because these murders were not bizarro, but something that could easily happen to me?

Stylistically, I didn't see what the big ado was about this book. I thought the writing was fairly bland and straightforward. Maybe it was just because it was one of the first true crime books, and therefore shocking at the time, that it won all its acclaim. Which is not to say it wasn't a good book, just not a great book. I did like how for most of the book Capote led me to believe one was the more evil of the two murderers, but you don't find out until they are caught that it's actually the other way around. I didn't see that coming.

For this and that reason, I've decided that some books are not fit to read on the train. This one falls in that category too. Reading a book about murderers surrounded by people, most likely one of whom is having violent thoughts -- very scary.

- Megan Leigh

One New Thing: Mofongo

Kristin got a Groupon a while back for Alberto's Mofongo House, which has since changed it's name (probably due to all the bad reviews I just read on Yelp).  She asked me if I wanted to go. "Sure!" I said, excited to try a new thing. The next night I heard her inviting Ben to go. "Ok," he said. It went on and on like this for months, her asking one of us and then the other. Pitting us against each other. Well it seems I won out in the end, probably because Ben got tired of her antics. I, however, will never turn down a chance at free food.

Inspecting the Tiki Mofongo God

So today we went on a great adventure all the way up to Inwood! I've never been north of Columbia's north campus when visiting with Kristin. In fact, I thought that was as far north as you could go in Manhattan. Inwood seemed like a nice area. Cute little restaurants and a park (I think that's where The Cloisters are, which will make it into the blog one day).

Getting into the restaurant was also an adventure. We tried the door, but it was locked. So we went to another door, one under a sign with a different name, that led into a buffet area. The waitress heard we had a Groupon and escorted us a back way into a fancy dining area. We were the only people there -- the whole time, which was about two hours of prime lunch time. What does it mean when a restaurant in one of the most populous cities in the world has no people?

First the waitress brought us out little sampler piña coladas. Delicioso! Then we ordered our appetizer of crab cakes. This was a seafood restaurant so things I could/would eat were limited. Thank goodness they had crab cakes.  Crab cakes are a-o-k. But they didn't have them. So we ordered another thing. They didn't have that. Finally Kristin ordered lobster empanadas and they were in stock. I didn't partake.

Mofongo and Pork

Then our main entrees arrived: Tilapia and fried pork mofongo. The tilapia was pretty good. Worth the price without the Groupon good? Probably not. The mofongo was pretty tasteless. What is mofongo you may ask? Smashed up plantains. The pork was mostly fat and fried too much.

I don't think we'll be returning for another round of dining, but we'll definitely have to go back and check out some other Inwood restaurants. And I must add the food presentation was quite exciting. So that's something!

- Megan Leigh

Tilapia

Do some people like deep fried pork? Do you think that the pork was supposed to be big chunks of fat? I'm trying to figure it out. Did we get the worst pork ever, or does somebody actually want to eat that kind of stuff?

Anyway, I agree with Megan. I think they really messed up the mofongo, because instead of mashing the meat and everything up in it (which is the whole point of mofongo), the meat came on the side. I guess it turned out to be a good thing, since it was all yucky fat, but it still made for disappointing mofongo. Also, the sauce was on the side and it was kind of thin, so that also made for bland mofongo! Two thumbs down on the mofongo.

-Kristin

Read More: The Great Gatsby

I am sorry I have been away for so long! Work has been crazy, so not much time for blogging. Megan berates me every night!

I did find time to re-read the Great Gatsby. Now I know I read this book in high school. I even remember writing a review of it in my high school newspaper. Why I would have written about that book, I have no idea. I don't even think that the newspaper usually had book reviews, and it's not like this is some big favorite among high school kids. I think most of them are forced to read it, aren't they? But anyway, I do remember I read it, because I wrote this review, which I think focused mostly on the fashion. Turns out I remembered very little about the actual plot or characters, possibly because I was too bedazzled by the clothes for anything else to make an impression. So, to sum up, if I had been a character in the book, I would have been one of the shallow morons attending Gatsby's parties.

Anyway, I reread the book, and it is truly great--and about so much more than parties and clothes, of course! It kind of reminds me of a cross between The Lorax and The Sneetches. I wonder if it was a great source of inspiration for Dr. Seuss. The narrator, like the storyteller in the Lorax, recounts a series of events in which he participated--a confused jumble that ended in tragedy in Paradise. But of course, instead of the poor Barbaloots dying at the hands of the mean old factory makers, it was poor Gatsby dying at the hands of a couple of snobs. Those bad old richies, living like the star-bellied sneetches on East Egg, looking down on the new richies of West Egg.

Even without the Dr Seuss parallels, though, this is a beautiful book. It's such an easy read, but at the same time it's so lyrical it's like reading poetry. It's pretty near perfection, I think. I love you, F. Scott Fitzgerald!

Did you hear that a new Baz Luhrmann version of the Great Gatsby is coming out? Starring Leonardo di Caprio! Think it will be any good?

Also, for some reason I think about that P. Diddy quote a lot. "Have I read the Great Gatsby? I am the Great Gatsby!" It's given me all this sympathy for the guy, even though I know he takes pride in being a Gatsby-esque guy. But be careful, man. Don't let those flakes come to your white party! Don't let them play croquet on your lawn and splash around drunkenly in your fountain! They don't care about you. Stick with your real friends! Also, I wonder if he, like Gatsby, has a tragic, all-consuming love. Does he stare across the water at the blinking light on J Lo's dock every night? What a tragic figure he is!

-Kristin

One New Thing: Junior's

Saturday Cat and I went to an old diner-looking restaurant in Downtown Brooklyn called Junior's. We walk past it almost every weekend, but never go in. I'm always amazed at the amount of seating they have. This weekend we finally ventured in... and there was even more seating than I could have dreamed of!

I ordered the meat loaf with mashed potatoes and corn on the cob. Cat got a reuben. The meat loaf wasn't fantastic, but it wasn't terrible either. More along the lines of so-so. The corn, on the other hand, got two thumbs up. And dipping a potato chip into mashed potatoes was sadly exciting. I think Cat felt the same way towards her reuben as I felt towards my meat loaf.

Although evidently famous for their cheesecake, we could not stuff any more into our full bellies. As it was we would suffer from indigestion for hours to come. One especially gnarly burp Cat blew in my direction. It was awful, so I don't believe I'll be returning to Junior's... at least with that unruly eating partner. Cat will read this and say "Megan, why would you write that!?" All I have to say is don't blow burps in my face if you don't want the whole world to know. It's only fair.

- Megan Leigh 

Read More: IQ84

I am finally done with IQ84, the newest novel by Haruki Murakami. This was a monster of a book. It took FOREVER. I felt like I only had fifty pages left for weeks. Usually if it takes me a long time to finish a book it's because I'm just not that interested in doing so, but that wasn't the case with this one. I think it had something more to do with the magical, 'fantastical' if you will, powers that it possesses.

The story is about two main characters, Aomame and Tengo, who find themselves pulled into an alternate reality - from 1984 to IQ84. Q for 'question mark of the big fat variety'. They must find each other and escape before the baddies find them.

First, I'll say that this will be put towards the top on my Murakami list. Although nothing will probably ever beat The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, I enjoyed this story. It didn't go too far with the fantasy element, which has been a major put off with some of his other books.

A big downside to the book was that the dialogue was just awful. All of the characters spoke like robots and kept insisting on how logical they are. I get the point - logical beings brought into an illogical world, blah blah blah. 900+ pages of this style of dialogue was overkill. If it were any other author I probably would be tearing him down, but since it's Murakami I was able to overlook it. I don't remember any of his other books having this problem?

And back to another thing I liked so I can leave this review on a good note. Like in Wind-Up Bird, Murakami left a number of things unanswered. Sometimes it's better not to wrap things up too nicely and Murakami is great at this.

- Megan Leigh

Read More: The Telephone Gambit

The Telephone Gambit by Seth Shulman is another book I heard about through NPR (Woo Woo Science Friday!). Basically it's the story of a researcher who starts out with the aim to write a book about Alexander Graham Bell, because he's pretty awesome, right? What would our world be like had he not invented the telephone?? Let us celebrate him! Err....

During his research Shulman stumbles across a bit of evidence that seems to indicate that Bell may have not been the inventor after all. That he perhaps stole a fellow engineer's idea (Elisha Gray's to name names). Shulman digs deeper and uncovers more and more evidence that has been overlooked and covered up for this reason and that over the years.

Does Shulman prove his theory? I think so. Unfortunately it's definitely not unusual for a scientist to be a sneaky, rotten, lying, idea thief - so I didn't need a whole lot of convincing to begin with. The real mystery for me was how in the world someone's mind could come up with how to invent a telephone in the first place. I don't care if it was Gray or Bell -- It's so amazing that people's minds can work like that! Thank goodness there are people like that out there! What if the world depended on someone like me? I think my best invention idea over the years was to replace missing toes with toothpicks and grapes.

As for the quality of writing in this book, I wasn't too impressed. I found it pretty dry and although the subject is interesting I don't believe there was enough pertinent information to base a whole book on. To fill space Shulman continually wrote about his research process, which I found more than a little annoying, especially as it exposed him as a bungling researcher. 

- Megan Leigh

Goodbye St. Louis Tour

This past week I've been home in St. Louis house/dog sitting and sifting through all of my junk to try and make the move to Tennessee a bit easier. I had a lot of things planned this week for my 'Goodbye St. Louis Tour', but accomplished remarkably little (at least towards that particular goal). As if I didn't know it before this tour began, I now fully appreciate the role food plays in my life.

- Megan Leigh

Goodbye Hacienda. I could eat buckets and buckets of your rice.

Goodbye slinger

Goodbye most beautiful cherry tree in Webster

Goodbye toasted ravioli and Fazio Sicilian Style Sauce

Goodbye Steak n' Shake burger and fries, the way you were meant to be

Goodbye Pasta House. Sorry I took such an awful picture

Goodbye bedroom view