Epilogue

So this round wasn't TOO bad -- a floating feeling of queasiness that hangs over me like the London fog, but no active, um, nauseated actions (shall we say). And I did sleep 16 out of 24 hours yesterday (yes, I was just a barrel of laughs for my engineer as a companion yesterday), but consider the alternatives.

In fact, I felt well enough last night to lobby for a visit to our favorite joint in Jersey City (I jokingly call it our Cheers since everyone in there really does know our name), where I had been pining for the gigundo bacon-wrapped scallops special for the past week. Note the size of the lemon wedge vis a vis scallops. Note that 10 of those suckers = 1 lb. Yummm... So huge that I didn't even have room for tartufo (!!!) for dessert, though I did nibble on a tiny bit of my sweetie's Italian cheesecake. Their food is simple but well executed, and you can ask for "rearrangements" of the ingredient combinations a la WW, so my engineer has created his own perennial favorite: fried calamari over linguini in a spicy hot marinara sauce.

And the night before one of my book clubs met for dinner at El Castillo de Jagua, on Rivington Street on the Lower East Side. Since the book is about a Dominican family, it seemed only fitting to meet at a Dominican restaurant, and this one sounded tasty, casual, and cheap -- the perfect trifecta!

The food was delicious but not exactly photogenic (brown stews tend to be that way) but I will show this photo of the Friday night pepper steak special which will give you an idea of the mammoth portions.

Once I again, I could not fit in dessert -- since we also ordered mofongo and sweet maduros for the table -- but my fellow book members did order tres leches cake and flan.

Okay, get this: I was so full that not only did I take home the leftover (mletingly tender) chicken stew I ordered but I did not even try a TASTE of the other desserts. Ponder that.

So considering the vast amount of food p*rn I have just posted, I guess you could say I'm not feeling so bad. Heh.