This afternoon, the 2nd Annual Singapore Chili Crab Festival took over a block of Water St. in DUMBO, selling chili crabs, Tiger Beer, and other Asian foods, and the Western grill standards for the unadventurous. A large, fairly young crowd took advantage of a beautiful summer day, eating, drinking, and relaxing out in nearby Brooklyn Bridge Park.

Also, a relevant Foxtrot cartoon (courtesy of Chase).

Work has moved to Chinatown, making any attempt to stick to an Atkins diet completely futile unless I want to starve myself. Goodbye diet, and goodbye painful mood swings and chocolate cravings! I may gain some weight back, but at least I won’t be miserable while I’m doing it.

Forget normal lunch, today I get to go and sample a culinary institute class worth of pates and mousses!



I ate more things than I can remember, but the smoked trout and smoked salmon mousses (on cucumber or a small piece of bread for the trout, and a vegetable I asked about and then immediately forgot for the salmon) stood out. So did the lobster tabbouleh, because I got a nice chunk of lobster tail to eat, paired with a little ball of mango and some tabbouleh in a tiny little pastry cup. I’d never eaten foie gras before, either, and really have no idea when I will again, as it’s very expensive; it was shockingly buttery.

Not so bad today, although grocery shopping is pretty miserable if you walk down the juice aisle at all. This is what $40 worth of Atkins-allowed food looks like.



Actually, the lemon isn’t particularly allowed, but I want to be able to use the zest in things, and that can’t be that high-carb, and it was like 35 cents.

Not having to schlep large bottles of juice 7 or 8 blocks from Key Food is pretty nice, as I don’t seem to drink much other than water (and tea made from water) these days, but I still miss cranberry juice a lot. That’s something I’m looking forward to bringing back into my meal plans.