I'm on the east coast, eating.

I'll have a review of Blue Hill at Stone Barns way up in Tarrytown, and Cafe Grey in the Time Warner Center in NYC, but for now here's a shot of lunch at Battery Gardens, in Battery Park. Battery Gardens apparently has changed owners and name from the American Park Cafe, which was evicted by the city. It's right on the waterfront, looking out towards the Statue of Liberty.

Peekytoe crab cakes daikon salad, asian peanut sauce, lotus root chips
These were awesome, but there was no sign of lotus root chips and the daikon was overly intense with salt and vinegar. Didn't stop me from eating them though. $12.

Prime House Ground Sourdough Burger
Sourdough bun, grilled bermuda onion, apple wood smoked bacon and havarti cheese

While it's not the best burger I've ever had, it's definetely one of the largest. This thing was much bigger then a half pounder. It's not often I can't finish half my meal. And at 19 bucks, I felt guilty leaving it. Most other items on the menu (lunch and dinner look identical) are expensive as well, and the best cheap alternative looked like the individual Margherita pizzas, which looked huge on the other tables, for 13 bucks. The view is worth paying a little extra, and it's probably really worth it to sit on the patio outside in the summer for a sunset (see the current KIPlog main image for a view of a sunset over New Jersey). In any case, bring sunglasses if eating lunch inside when the sun is out, this place is ultra bright because of the huge windows.

More food blogs to add to my food blog list.

Eating L.A. Eating out, cooking and shopping for delicious foodstuffs in the City of the Angels.

Cheat Eat Eat Well Stay Thin

Karen's Food Log I'm a San Francisco foodie attempting to keep track of culinary adventures in SF and wherever I travel. Look for restaurant reviews, culinary experiences, book recommendations and home tested recipes.

Holy Shitake

I'm Cookin' Here from Sarasota Florida.

Kitchen Monkey not to be confused with this monkey in the kitchen.

Minor Gourmandry from Philly.

Something So Clever from Montana.

Tiny Fork My favorite among this group. Great photos, unique recipes and funny writing. From Kentucky, which she says, "isn't really all that bad".

Wifely Steps.

Speaking of cheesesteak, by some amazing stroke of fortune, I had a couple of them fall in my lap last night. These were the real thing, delivered directly from Philly. There was no way I was stopping to take pictures.

Hey, I like Philly's Best, they're the closest thing you can get here and they deliver to me (they make a mean stromboli too, another rare thing in the midwest), but there's something about the thinness of the meat, and just the right amount of saltiness that they can't duplicate, even though they claim to import their meat from Philly.

So I've upgrade to Movable Type 3.12something to deal with some comment spam and database problems, and now i have a 2 dozen database, template, css, perl script, server error, and utf-8 problems.

I've also deleted a dozen legitimate comments, by attempting to delete a dozen illegitimate ones after the first try gave me server error. I know a few of these problems are due to my server, some Berkely DB problems and my own clumsiness, but I know most of these problems are Movable Type 3.12's fault. But I'm not going too complain since I'm using the free version.

I'm not sure what happened, but after my normal comment spam clean up around here, I noticed posts themselves were replaced with spam.

So I've done just about everything I can think of to fix that, including a Movable Type upgrade. So bear with me until the repairs are done.

I apologize to the internet for creating hundreds of dead links. When I rebuilt everything I changed the format of my archives. Maybe I'll go back and do it again, maybe not.

I said it more than a year ago - "Kerry just ruined his political career because he didn't know how to order or eat a cheese steak. If he wasn't briefed on the Chez Whiz thing, he should get himself some new handlers."

I wasn't the only one who thought so - Cheesesteak Veterans for Truth.

Speaking of wine, I just got an email from a publicist about a new movie SIDEWAYS - "Writer-director Alexander Payne�s fourth feature film starts with two old friends setting off on a wine-tasting road trip�only to veer dizzily into a wry exploration of the vicissitudes of love and friendship, the damnable persistence of loneliness and dreams and the enduring war between Pinot and Cabernet. SIDEWAYS is �a bit of a love letter to the wine country,� says director Payne."

The official SIDEWAYS movie site has a cute little wine tasting 101 guide and a handy, printable, snob-free guide to wine.

Some wine blogs I need to add to the list.

Huge Johnsons World of Wine "Various ruminations and observations regarding the bizarre and otherwise incomprehensible happenings in the wine industry."

Red is Life

Spittoon.biz "A quick slurp. Wine, beer and spirits in the UK"

Turn the Screw

Vine Sugar wine blog

Vinography "Wine and food adventures in San Francisco and around the world."

Wine Whys "Two Women Find A Place in the World of Wine."