eating Pittsburgh: day 1

Today. I awoke naturally (sans alarm)in Pittsburgh and began day 1 of eating Pittsburgh. After a banana and a cup of coffee with chai creamer, Aimee and I set about our day together. Our first stop was lunch at the Spice Island Tea House with Aimee's friend Kristin. It was a small shacky pan-asian spot with everything from Malaysian to Thai food on the menu. I ordered the green tea of the day.





We all ordered the lunch special which was called Nasi Goreng Platter. It came with soup or salad, spring rolls and a side of java fried rice.





I had the mango pork, Aimee had the Chicken sate and Kristin chose the Chicken curry. All of our meals were yummy, but Kristin's rice came full of shrimp, to which she is allergic. She quickly swapped for coconut rice and a new plate and we were good as new.







Kristin later remarked that her meal wasn't as enjoyable as it could've been due to the fact that there were bones in her meat. Its hard to eat with reckless abandon when you're not sure what you're going to bite into next. Its also embarassing to pull bones out of your mouth when you're dining with a new companion. I completely agree with her.

Next, Aimee and I walked to the new green space, Schenley Park, where you can purchase sushi, pizza, and bubble tea within feet of each other. In fact, as Aimee remarked you can buy sushi and funnel cake in the same booth. They have live music every day at lunch, so we sat underneath the tent and listened to some jazz while I drank my bubble tea and aimee enjoyed her sprite.





Behind us, is the Cathedral Of Learning--sounds quite imposing doesn't it? Its the second tallest University buidling in tbe world (the first is somewhere in Moscow).



I sat in the sun and read my book (Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain) while Aimee went to work for a while. Then, on the way home from the park we stopped at this quaint farmers market and I saw some giant garlic. We purchased some pepperoni bread and a doughy cinnamon raisin bun for later.







More Pittsburgh eating later!