salt + charcoal

happy hump day!

it's been a while since wednesday has actually felt like a hump day, but this week (and parts of last week) has been a bit crazy so it was good to get through hump day. some of my anxiety was due this recent constant feeling of being behind at the office. playing catch-up annoys me and on top of that, i interviewed two candidates for the junior index analyst role. they were both very nice, though neither seemed to be the right fit.

a few things outside of the office did brighten my day however: 

a trip to the apt: updates ... glass shower doors and washing machine installed! it will be the first time since high school i can do laundry in my home. multiple times a week if i want! :) :) though that probably won't be necessary.

a light three mile trot through williamsburg and greenpoint along kent ave. it was the first time we went that far north on kent and we saw lots of lovely restaurants, bars, and shops in greenpoint. it feels very residential there and i could totally see us living there as well.

interesting how our tastes change as we get older and while the suburbs of brooklyn never appealed to me before, i find it very quaint and love the neighborhood feeling in greenpoint. we definitely need to check out the polish food here sometime as it's supposed to be quite authentic.

then we treated ourselves to dinner at salt+charcoal, the japanese robata restaurant across from our apt which had its soft opening last wednesday. the restaurant exterior has piqued my curiosity for weeks now with its clean, gilded industrial look - white bricks, black steel, retro brushed bronze and white lamps. the interior was equally impressive, with marble counters and simple wooden seating along the left side, low hanging industrial lamps over booth seating along the right side, and a handful of seats along the yakitori and robata grill in the center.

we were seated in front of the grills and the view was great! all the chefs were japanese and very hard at work during our hour-long dinner, meticulously preparing sashimi, yakitori, robatayaki, and side dishes. we ordered kimpira, asparagus gomae, half a dozen yakitori each, kanpachi kama, and tsukune which came on a large paddle. service was a bit slow, but it seemed like they were still working out the kinks due to the soft opening. while the dishes were all tasty, kevin and i both thought the tsukune and the kanpachi kama were oustanding - they were also the two robata dishes.

with laundry to pick up (because we are doing laundry at a laundromat these days), we weren't able to stay for dessert, but i would have definitely gone for the matcha shiratama anmitsu!

best: running in light rain - it's a little romantic and it cools you down!

worst: not being able to buy lunch until 1:30pm, and then not being able to eat the lunch until 2:30. doh!

smile: our general contractor foreman told me that we can move it on friday, but we won't have any vanities in the bathroom. boo! but hopefully he's joking, otherwise, we'll just have to work with the kitchen sink!