Toasts | four years

© Photograph by Alice Gao Photography

I can hardly believe that I've been with this crazy awesome guy for four years.

Time -- it's quite a remarkable thing; it can fly by so quickly before your eyes, yet it can feel static at times, permitting us as human beings to live entirely in any and all given moments. I always experience that surreal feeling whenever I think about our relationship and how long it has been. There are times when I feel as if the day we'd met had only just happened the day prior (and that same spark is still ever-present) while similarly feeling as if we've known each other way longer than four years, possibly forever. To share that level of comfort with someone is so special, and I am thankful for it every day. 

As a young girl, I had always dreamt of what it would be like to have someone as your other (read: better) half. I wondered how it would happen; when it would happen; and more importantly, who this mysterious someone would be. Would he be cute (read: would he think I was cute)? Would he choose me in the same way I would choose him? Would he love me for all of my quirks (read: would have have similar ones)? Would we inspire each other to be the best version of ourselves? Would he know exactly how to hold my heart?

Fast-forward through the days of being unlucky in and wronged by love; of lost confidence and bruised self-esteem; and of endless longing to feel a little less impatient and alone. The singular word that brought us together -- crepuscular (i.e., of, relating to, or resembling twilight) -- is a constant reminder that having faith in where this life will take you can be tough at first but can be so rewarding down the road. The stars aligned for me on that fateful day four Aprils ago, when I received my first e-dating match (you know, for this guy named Marcus, hehe). Funny enough, it happened seemingly like twilight -- that destined meeting -- and suddenly, it was hook, line, and sinker. He was indeed cute then as he is now; loves me for all (errr, maybe most, haha) of my quirks; inspires me to be a better person each and every day; and holds my heart exactly how it should be held -- with warmth, care, and purpose.

Of the albums I've had on repeat lately, Sara Bareilles (who is no stranger to be mentioned here at Four Tines) and her most recent album The Blessed Unrest is one that truly resonates with me. There was one song in particular that got me right in the heartstrings, entitled "I Choose You". I'd recently discovered that she as a songwriter wanted to explore the idea of "creating space for love" -- an idea sparked incidentally by a fan who came up to her after a show and shared, "My wife and I love your music, but your music is always so sad, and we had nothing to play at our wedding..." So she didn't want write a song "simply to fill that niche" but to think about what a song like that would sound like and how she could manifest that feeling and sentiment inside herself. To her, that meant "a love note to the other half of your heart":

There was a time when I would have believed them--
If they told me you could not come true,
Just love's illusion;
But then you found me and everything changed,
And I believe in something again--

My whole heart
Will be yours forever;
This is a beautiful start
To a lifelong love letter--

Tell the world that we finally got it all right--
I choose you;
I will become yours and you will become mine--
I choose you, I choose you;

[...]

We are not perfect,
We'll learn from our mistakes--
And as long as it takes,
I will prove my love to you;
I am not scared of the elements,
I am under-prepared, but I am willing--
And even better,
I get to be the other half of you--

While I love the playfulness of the song and how her message and lyrics are strung together so seamlessly, that last line really is the real tearjerker for me because it rings so true. I get to be the other half of someone else, and if I get to spend the rest of my life being this someone's lobster, rock, soup snake, and heart-holder -- then I will know that I've lived my life wholeheartedly.

Happy Anniversary to Marcus, the guy I will always choose indefinitely -- I love you more than words can say, and I look forward to celebrating another wonderful year with you!

Toasts | 3rd blogiversary

Guess what?! Four Tines and a Napkin is officially three years old today. I can hardly believe that all of my eating/cooking/food adventures have been thoroughly documented in that long of a span! Four Tines has come a long way since then -- photography and resulting skills slightly different (hope you're liking the more condensed, viewer-friendly grid format); dining experiences running the gamut; plus, a new header/logo -- and I hope it can only move on up from here (fingers crossed!).



I realize I have been more absent now than I have been during the first two years of Four Tines' life, but counting beans has demanded more of me than it ever has, and I've somehow found a happy balance between that and marauding for morsels. Thank you for being patient with this change of direction -- it really means so much that so many of you have maintained your readership loyalty after all of this time. This past year, I have been focusing on not just my current city (NYC, baby!) but branching out to include a more meticulous rundown of my travels this year, including Charleston (a WAY overdue post is in the works, I promise!), Washington D.C., Chicago, Maine, Philadelphia (coming soon!), St. Louis (also coming soon) and a couple other places I'll be visiting in the next few weeks. I've realized that it's something that I find myself to be quite good at -- that is, creating dynamic travel itineraries filled with great food and drink along with other noteworthy sights and sounds. It is with these Wanderlust posts that I summarize the highlights of things I did in a particular area/city that I hope to share with my friends, family, and readers so that they'd have the best experience in another city as I did, knowing what they NEED to see/do/eat and what they should most likely bypass.


With all that being said, I celebrated this three-year evolution of Four Tines and a Napkin with a few nearest and dearest to me with a Busy Bee cake from Black Hound New York, which is incidentally one of the bakery's best sellers and signature cakes.


It is comprised of three layers of chocolate butter cake, two layers of almond butter cake, two layers of bittersweet chocolate mousse, and one layer of marzipan -- all covered in marzipan and bittersweet chocolate and decorated with marzipan-and-almond petal bees. Yup, it was even better than it sounded and looked -- no wonder it's one of the bakery's bestsellers. And it wouldn't be the proper blog birthday celebration without sparklers!

Big, big thank yous to Marcus, Lisa, Jess, Jen, Linda, and John for helping me celebrate -- Four Tines wouldn't be where it is today without you! Here's to another fantastic year of eating! :D

Price point: $31 for a six-inch Busy Bee cake from Black Hound New York, $45 for 288 ten-inch sparklers from Sparkle.

--August 13, 2013

Black Hound New York
170 2nd Avenue
New York, NY 10003
http://www.blackhoundny.com

Sparkle LLC
http://www.sparklersonline.com

Toasts | three years

Today I celebrate being with Marcus -- the one who knows exactly how to hold my heart -- for three years. That's a whole lot of kisses goodnight, crispy chicken tacos from Dos Toros, silly fights over who stole the covers from whom, shared French macarons from La Maison du Macaron, crossword puzzles, and hot beverages at Argo Tea. In the past, we had celebrated in grand ways with dinners here on the actual day and continued the celebration months later, once in the Napa Valley and another time in Chicago. This year, we're doing something a little different as the date falls on a Saturday evening -- we've decided to explore Washington, D.C., over a long weekend, planning our three days in the Capital City through meals and morsels (essentially how all our trips turn out to be -- an eating expedition). I'll definitely be blogging about our time there and all of the fun and delicious things we will have encountered -- so expect full, robust posts in the next couple weeks!

© Photograph by Alice Gao Photography

Marcus and me at Madison Square Park enjoying some French macarons, September 2010.

I am unbelievably lucky to have such a wonderful guy in my life -- one who always finds a way to calm me down when things go crazy and awry, whom I can talk to about literally anything, who will give me a tummy rub when I have an upset stomach, who is always down for a midnight snack even after we've brushed our teeth. I find myself (as cheesy as it sounds!) close to pinching myself, just to see if I'm dreaming all of this, dreaming I've found the one person that completely understands me and my quirky ways. It is hard to find the words to express the happiness I feel to have finally realized the love that we are all destined to find in this universe, this lifetime -- but I'll try anyhow. I stumbled upon a letter written by the late novelist John Steinbeck in response to his son, Thom, where he spoke of Susan, a young girl with whom he had fallen in love during his time at boarding school. This letter, which can be found in Steinbeck: A Life in Letters (editted by Elaine Steinbeck, the writer's wife during the last eighteen years of his life), embodies how I feel about my relationship with Marcus, so here I dedicate the following excerpt to our love, a love that still gives me butterflies and turns me into the giddiest girl ever, even after sharing an apartment and adopting a kitty together.

New York
November 10, 1958

Dear Thom:

First—if you are in love—that’s a good thing—that’s about the best thing that can happen to anyone. Don’t let anyone make it small or light to you. 

Second—There are several kinds of love. One is a selfish, mean, grasping, egotistical thing which uses love for self-importance. This is the ugly and crippling kind. The other is an outpouring of everything good in you—of kindness and consideration and respect—not only the social respect of manners but the greater respect which is recognition of another person as unique and valuable. The first kind can make you sick and small and weak but the second can release in you strength, and courage and goodness and even wisdom you didn’t know you had.

You say this is not puppy love. If you feel so deeply—of course it isn’t puppy love. 

But I don’t think you were asking me what you feel. You know better than anyone. What you wanted me to help you with is what to do about it—and that I can tell you. 

Glory in it for one thing and be very glad and grateful for it.

The object of love is the best and most beautiful. Try to live up to it. 

[...] It sometimes happens that what you feel is not returned for one reason or another—but that does not make your feeling less valuable and good.

Lastly, I know your feeling because I have it and I’m glad you have it. 

[...] And don’t worry about losing. If it is right, it happens—The main thing is not to hurry. Nothing good gets away.

Love, 
Fa

Happy Anniversary, Marcus -- thank you for being you, for being my best friend, for being a great listener, for being my rock in the stormiest moments, for making me a better person, and for being the good that never got away. Love you always! :)

Toasts | 2nd blogiversary!

Two years ago today, I found a little home for myself here at Four Tines and a Napkin. I've learned so much over the last two years of writing, sharing, documenting, researching, and shooting food, activities bon vivant, and all such things that perpetuate my love for gastronomy, gourmandise, and epicurean delights. All this learning includes (but isn't completely limited to) writing better, shooting better, cooking better, eating better, and sharing better. I can't believe I've come this far since that very day I decided to make my musings and ruminations not only public but shared regularly. I can only hope that I continue to become a better storyteller in writing and in photographs.

It means so much that you all take interest in my adventures as a morsel marauder and a seeker of culinary and gastronomic knowledge. So a big thank you to all my readers for coming on this journey with me -- I wouldn't be here without you!

Here is a little milestone cake I got for myself to celebrate from Lady M topped with some gold sparklers from Sparkle with the East River as the backdrop. Finally put our balcony to some good use -- love this shot!

Lady M's signature mille crêpes cake has twenty paper-thin handmade crêpes layered with light pastry cream. So delicately delicious -- can't go wrong with several layers of crêpes and cream! Undoubtedly one of my favorite slivers found in this luminous city. Thanks to Marcus and Lisa for celebrating with me (and helping me finish the entire cake, of course :P)!

Happy 2nd Blogiversary, Four Tines -- looking forward to celebrating many more! :)

Price point: $40 for a six-inch mille crêpes cake from Lady M, $45 for 288 ten-inch sparklers from Sparkle.

--August 13, 2012

Lady M Cake Boutique

41 East 78th Street

New York, NY 10075

http://www.ladym.com

Lady M
41 East 78th Street
New York
NY
Must order: any of the cake shop's mille feuille/crêpe cakes. It is such a marvel to behold and taste every single time I go to have a sliver.
Four Tines and a Napkin

Sparkle LLC

http://www.sparklersonline.com

Toasts | two years

Marcus and me at a friend's wedding, March 2012.

Today, Marcus and I will have been together for two years. It seems as if we've known each other for many lifetimes, yet it also peculiarly seems as if it were yesterday that the online dating enterprise, eHarmony, matched us with its "mysterious" algorithms resulting in us finally deciding to meet face-to-face. I suppose that is what happens when you meet your other half (after all, I had only been active on eHarmony for barely an hour when he was dubbed my first "match"). Call me cheesy, call me a dreamer, call me delusional -- whatever you like. For me, it is just how our story unfolded into where our lives lie today.

Our relationship began, and continues to thrive, on our love for words -- words themselves, puns, homophones, crosswords, and Scrabble, just to name a few -- that can be best explained by the little anecdote I shared last year (that is, the one I wrote about our visit to the Swanson Salon at Swanson Vineyards in the Napa Valley). But more importantly, our relationship also grew with something so very basic to life: food. The first conversations we had were inevitably about my love for food and how it has an important aspect of my life and how it has been for him as well. Who knew that this common interest would carry on to blossom us into a food-obsessed couple? The trips we've planned and taken together are, for the most part, pretty much focused on eating and nomming away -- what we'd be eating, where we'd be eating, when we'd be eating, with whom we'd be eating, and how we would make it feasible. It was never something we argued over -- there was an unwitting understanding between the two of us. I'll call it the wavelength of food lovers because with this, we have been in total synchronization without skipping a beat. And while I'd like to think that I've exposed him to all kinds of dining experiences (whether it be with a particular ingredient, at a new location, or just learning together about something new), I'm happy to say that he's the only one with whom I've first experienced the gastronome's ultimate milestone -- that is, dining at Michelin tri-starred establishments (namely The French Laundry, Le Bernardin, and Eleven Madison Park, with Alinea to be added to this *hopefully* ever-growing list later this year).

I am so thankful to be able to look back on these two years, only to say, "Damn, have the two of us eaten well!" Which brings me to why I'm sharing all of this with you. If you've been following my dining reviews and the tales of this gastronomy-focused life, you'll know quite well that Marcus is much of a star as I am. Most of the meals I have are with him these days, and I'm very fortunate to share my life with someone who completely understands this foodie madness that continues to live and breathe inside me. With that being said, instead of just talking about starting a blog, I have Marcus to thank for the existence of Four Tines and a Napkin today, mostly in part because he strongly encouraged me to finally pursue it. He was the final push that sent me head first into the world of food writing and blogging, and I have not looked back since. While Four Tines is where I record and share my life in meals, it also documents the story of our relationship, one that is also measured in meals. May Four Tines continue to grow along with us. :] To continue this spirit of meals, we're celebrating with our tradition of a "dual-dinner" as we did last year -- that is, one dinner near us (this year's in Philadelphia; last year's in Manhattan) on or near the actual date and another dinner that aligns with our travel plans during the year (this year's in Chicago next month; last year's in the Napa Valley).

While I bring this dedication to a close, I have one last thing to share. There is a song that I heard (don't judge!) while I was watching an episode of Dirty Sexy Money on Netflix some time last year. It featured the indie duo, The Weepies, as guest stars, performing their song "Somebody Loved" for two of the show's characters. While I didn't really care for the story line, it was the lyrics of this song that really resonated with me:

Rain turns the sand into mud,

Wind turns the trees into bone,

Stars turning high up above,

You turn me into somebody loved--

Nights when the heat had gone out,

We danced together alone,

Cold turned our breath into clouds--

We never said what we were dreaming of,

But you turned me into somebody loved--

Someday when we're old and worn,

Like two softened shoes--

I will wonder on how I was born,

The night I first ran away from you--

Now my feet turn the corner back home,

Sun turns the evening to rose,

Stars turning high up above,

You turn me into somebody loved--

Happy Anniversary, Marcus -- I cannot express completely in words how much I love you, but hopefully this will be a start. Thank you for being my lobster and for turning me into somebody loved -- here's to many more years filled with delicious meals and memories together!