Harsh / Oh Brother II: Vegan VVeekend / Master Plan 2021
Good week. Busy week.
Saw Harsh for the first time in two years. I can’t believe I’ve known this guy for almost 8 years. We met my freshman year at Berkeley where we both lived on the first floor. What a time.
I didn’t particularly like freshman year. I think it was a year of insecurity and wandering. Trying to figure out who I was as a person and the people I wanted to be friends with. Not to mention it was a lonely year. Didn’t have many close friends and found myself floating from friend group to friend group using each group as an excuse not to get closer to the last group.
I bring up this tangent because as I was talking to Harsh I found myself wondering at how little he’d changed. Maybe there were some inward changes in him that I hadn’t sensed over the years but on the outside he seemed like almost the same dude I knew back in freshman year.
Made me wonder how much I’d changed from freshman year. I’d say I’ve changed a lot.
Definitely happier. More confident. More certain of what I want. More debonair (wink wink). But then again I wonder if my friends would think the same thing. Maybe I appear the same unchanged Woody from freshman year to them as well.
Anyways, it was great catching up with him. We ordered some ramen from Tatsu which I’d been looking forward to trying again since I returned to New York. Unfortunately the courier forgot to pack my soup so that was a bitter disappointment. Harsh kindly split his veggie soup with me so the meal was partly salvaged. We went up to the rooftop lounge of his swanky temporary Midtown apartment that Facebook’s covering while he settles into New York. Them views man… Pretty fun night.
Later that night Harry (a.k.a. Chimpy Chimperson a.k.a my brother) came to visit from Pennsylvania.
He’d mentioned over messenger that he was trying out veganism and this weekend I was able to experience that veganism in full force.
We started Saturday afternoon at Guevara’s with some vegan nachos. Veganism aside it was a great plate of nachos. Super crispy chips (always always always gotta start with great chips) that—hallelujah—stayed crispy despite the load of toppings. Didn’t find myself missing the meat at all. We also ordered the chilaquiles which were also good but unfortunately got a little soggy. The chilaquiles came with some vegan egg which fascinated me by tasting decently eggy.
The fun thing about eating vegan is seeing how close they can get to the real thing.
In this meal alone we had: vegan cheese, vegan sour cream, vegan eggs, vegan beef crumbles… all of which were pretty convincing and tasty.
After Guevara’s we walked over to Heatonist in Williamsburg to pick up some hot sauce. This elusive flavor escaped me yet again as I discovered the Williamsburg location was sold out as well (the Manhattan location was sold out when I checked last week).
The view from Williamsburg close to Domino Park
Later that evening we went to Two Boots to get some pizza. I got the Bayou Beast (spiced shrimp, crawfish, andouille, jalapeños & mozzarella) and the Hogwallop (bacon, BBQ chicken, scallions & cheddar on a white pie) while Harry got the VCBGB (Vegan Chicken, Broccoli, Garlic & Basil pesto and Daiya non-dairy cheese). My slices were fire. Would try again. The vegan pizza was interesting. The cheese was slightly gummier than regular cheese (oddly not in a bad way… almost more satisfying texturally to chew through) and I wasn’t a huge fan of the vegan chicken but I could see it satisfying the pizza itch for a newly turned vegan.
It snowed again! Our walk back from V Spot. So BEAUTIFUL
We rounded out our vegan feast the rest of the weekend with vegan cookies and cream from Van Leeuwen’s and a Chicken Parm/quesadilla from the V Spot. Harry also turned me onto this documentary about veganism. Pretty interesting watch with the TLDR that veganism is healthier than meat eating in almost every way possible including: lower cholesterol, faster physical recovery, and better sexual health.
There’s a scene in the documentary where they draw a parallel between smoking and meat eating. How back in the day tobacco companies created misinformation promoting the claim that tobacco was safe and even healthy for you. I wonder if we’ll look back on meat eating the way we look at smoking now. I’d guess not. Maybe excessive meat eating can be a problem but there are plenty of elderly people that have lived long, healthy lives even as meat eaters.
In any case I might go partly vegan. Harry’s doing it for a month to see how he feels. As of this writing he claims feeling healthier (which he acknowledges might be the placebo effect) and also reports a rising sense of vegan based moral superiority 😂.
Also spent some time working out my 2021 Master plan (linked on the In Progress page as well). My plan for the rest of the year is to check in weekly on my different priorities and update what I’ve done towards each priority (probably in a Google Sheets that I’ll link next week). I shall be as meticulous about this as possible and see where this year goes.
In other final news:
Got an Apple Watch! Pretty happy with it so far and wonder if I’ll be able to fully replace my phone with it someday (no need now because I’m stuck at home most the time anyways)
Watched the Super Bowl with Tony, Annie, Karen and Karen’s roommates. Also ordered Mala Project which was delicious but I was punished digestively the next day :’(
Caught up with some ex work friends (Chris, Chynna) and Naveen over Google Hangouts. Was fun seeing everyone again and I’m glad we’ve kept in touch despite not working together anymore.