Rating 3 on Little Audrey’s “scale”: the Serial Dater!

A man who claims giving women their chances. A lot of them. Women and chances.

Where to find him: The Serial Dater is a very common specie in the United States. Less common in Europe where serial dating is considered cheating.

How to spot him: He’s hard to spot because he’s blending pretty well in the general male population. You can spot him in his favorite restaurant, several time a week with a different date each time, or hiding at a barbecue because two of his dates happen to be on the guest list.

How to seduce him: Tell him that you’re taking a break from relationships and just want to take things one day at a time.

What’s the catch: After going out with him several times, seeing him fairly regularly and feeling that things are developing into something good, the Serial Dater might surprise you by mentioning that he’s dating other women. He doesn’t see anything wrong with that because he never made any promises and never said that he was looking to settle down.

Something a Serial Dater would say: “You know that I’m seeing other people, right?”

1. strange, and mysteriously unsettling (as if supernatural); weird

   He bore an uncanny resemblance to the dead sailor.

2. The Uncanny is a Freudian concept of an instance where something can be familiar, yet foreign at the same time, often being uncomfortably strange. Freud describes the uncanny in his work as analogous to the German Unheimliche or unhomely. The uncanny is “something that was long familiar to the psyche and was estranged from it only through being repressed. The link with repression now illuminates Schelling’s definition of the uncanny’s ‘something that should have remained hidden and has come into open”

Definition: Wikitionary

Font: WhoopAss

Photo credit: Jan About Town

Per Wikipedia’s definition, “Ratatouille is a traditional French Provençal stewed vegetable dish, originating in Nice. Ratatouille is usually served as a side dish, but also may be served as a meal on its own (accompanied by rice or bread).” In my family you’ll find in on the dinner table at least once a week. It’s the “go-to” side dish for any grilled meat. However, my favorite version is a nice full plate of Ratatouille covered with sunny side-up eggs… Oh heaven!

Ratatouille

For 4 servings

Ingredients

• 2 lbs ripe tomatoes
• 1 lb eggplants
• 1 lb zucchini
• 1 red bell pepper, 1 green bell pepper, 1 yellow bell pepper
• 2 jalapeno peppers
• 1 onion
• 3 or 4 garlic cloves
• 3 or 4 tbs olive oil
• 1 strand Rosemary
• Salt, pepper

Boil the tomatoes for a couple minutes, pass them under cold water and peel them. Cut the tomatoes in half, remove the seeds, and chop them.

Clean the eggplants, dice them (about 1/2 inch wide). Place the eggplant cubes in a strainer, powder then with salt and put them aside. Slice the zucchinis; cut the slices in half if too big. Clean the peppers, open them, remove the seeds and white inside parts and dice them.

Open the jalapeno peppers and remove the seeds and the stalk, and mince them thinly. Peel the onion, cut it in half and slice it. Peel and chop the garlic. Rinse the eggplant cubes and dry them with paper towel.

Heat 2 tbs olive oil in a large saucepan. Drop in the garlic and onion and sauted on medium until they become translucent. Add the vegetables in the following order: peppers, eggplants, zucchinis, jalapeno peppers; adding the remaining olive oil half way through.

Salt and pepper generously, then add the tomatoes and the rosemary. Cover, simmer for 45 minutes on medium heat. Add salt & pepper to taste.

Bon appetit!

Those feet (and this time it’s a group pic!) are made for walking. Guess whose feet they are! Just put your answer in the comment section! Nothing to win this time, let’s just play for the fun of it…

The little corner convenience store / deli, by my apartment building, doesn’t have a logo, even less of a website. It barely has a name, I had to hunt on one of my credit card receipt to find something. But, after living in the neighborhood for over 4-year, and stopping in several times a week, Jimmy (the owner) knows me, says hello and asks how I’m doing. In 4-year, I never tried their Egg & Cheese on Bagel. The truth is, I didn’t even know they were making hot breakfast sandwiches. But for the sake of research (hahem…), I had to check and to give it a try.

For the first time since I started the quest of the best B.E.C in the city (and surroundings), someone asked me “How do you like your eggs? Runny or dry?” That’s what I call personalization and good customer service. So, the bagel might have been a little too toasted, and the cheese completely tasteless, but overall, the experience was not too bad and deserves a kudo.

★★✩✩✩

Yang’s First Food – 21st between Walnut & Sansom streets

Rating 2 on Little Audrey’s “scale”: the Player!

A man who thinks he can have all the women he wants and is on a mission to prove it.

Where to find him: The Player navigates in different seas, but you’ll always find him in crowded places, where the choice of women is the widest: trendy bars on weekends, down the shore during the summer, or in a sports-bar during football / base-ball season.

How to spot him: He generally operates alone, sometime with a wing-man, rarely with a girl on his side. He takes care of himself, is often attractive and knows it. If he’s not trying to close a deal yet, he’s nonchalantly sitting at the bar and his eyes wander around.

How to seduce him: He’s probably the most easily seducable of the men out there. The Player LOVES women in general, especially when they show him some interest. A pretty smile and a cute dress, the job is done!

What’s the catch: Women for the Player are not about quality but about quantity. He often feels that the grass might be greener somewhere else and he won’t know if he doesn’t try. His little seduction game can be a way of dealing with a perpetual insatisfaction or simply an addiction to the ego boost he gets every time a girl surrenders to his charms. Don’t expect him to be available for you when you need him to, his busy dating agenda might get in the way!

Something a Player would never say: “Sorry, I don’t have a condom…” (or at least we hope so!)

Photo courtesy of Mulgoa Valley Receptions

In my (short so far) career as a dance instructor for Society Hill Dance Academy, and along my (longer) “career” as a dance-addict, I came across many soon-to-be-married couples that were struggling finding the right song for their first dance.

My advice: pick a song that’s meaningful to you and your story together. Don’t worry about the dance, that’s why you hire professionals to help you. We’ll always find the steps that work with the music. But if you’re really clueless, here’s the top 10 most popular wedding songs:

10. From this moment on by Shania Twain
9. Everything by Michael Bubble
8. Lucky by Jason Mraz
7. Better together by Jack Johnson
6. You are the first, my last, my everything by Barry White
5.  Let’s stay together by Al Green
4. Unforgettable by Nathalie Cole
3. It had to be you by Harry Connick Jr
2. The way you look tonight by Frank Sinatra (sorry, I couldn’t find the original, this is the Tony Benett version)
1. At Last by Etta James

A destination that you can’t do without if you spend more than 24 hours in Beach Haven, NJ. This place is an institution where tourists and locals find their fix for cheap diner food. Their branding is fabulous (although their website needs help with SEO), their price hyper competitive ($1.99 breakfast) and their food… well…

My sandwich was so greasy that I could feel oil dripping down my fingers. I came to wonder if they fried the bagel as well as the eggs! The result is poor on the taste scale and feels like chewing on a rubber band. Not so good!

★✩✩✩✩

The Chicken or the Egg – 207 N Bay Ave – Beach Haven, NJ – www.492fowl.com