The Adventures of Miss Tea: Not Your Typical NYC Sunday

Yesterday (4/26/09) Miss Tea put on her “goody-two-shoes” and walked the walk for the Pediatric Cancer Foundation at Riverside Park. Invited by some good ol’ friends, Miss Tea thought this 5K walkathon would take an hour or less, though she can do it in 36 minutes if she ran. (Yes, Miss Tea has been hitting the gym - bathing suit season is just around the corner and Miss Tea does not want to be caught with a muffin top over a struggling bikini bottom.)

While Miss Tea loves the little kiddies, it did not occur to her that they might actually be there. Miss Ivy highlighted the word “pediatric” to Miss Tea, who was already past the “duh” enlightenment. Anyway, so what should’ve taken an hour with 7 adults and 4 kids, turned out to be 4 hours of restlessness, ice cream/water pit stops, and of course, trying not to lose any of these wandering kids.

At one point Miss Tea felt rather slow because she did not understand what is called the “parent language” – spoken by full grown adults who fear speaking “trigger” words that will get their children riled up, and therefore triumphantly dupe the kids by spelling these words out loud. Obviously, this is something only parents understand because Miss Tea has some trouble figuring out why we were avoiding a path that crossed a S-L-I-D-E….oh. All joking aside, I loved all the little ankle-biters and their cute smiles. It almost made Miss Tea wish she had kids…almost.

After the walk, we had some free pizza in the rotunda (I’m sure we were the last ones there, scarfing it down). Miss Tea received a gift bag with parenting materials and glitter-lined false eye lashes and faux French nails (for the single ladies I guess?! Miss Tea needs to have a word with their sponsor recruiter).

Around 3pm, Miss Tea headed home and took a quick nap. Then it was off to

dinner at Kampuchea, a cute little Cambodian restaurant in the Lower East Side. Miss Tea had two gentlemen to meet: Rey was visiting from LA and Tone, a ‘same-circle’ acquaintance, both good friends and quite entertaining. Tone told me he loved the sandwiches at Kampuchea, which I trust because Rey and I split his leftover Hoisin Pork Meatball sandwich. Rey had the Chicken Katiev which was a type of stew with egg noodles, chicken breast, sweet sausages. Miss Tea couldn’t see much of the ingredients as it was buried under the broth, but Rey thought it was very good. Another bonus of Kampuchea: Sundays nights, wines by the glass and wines by the bottle are HALF OFF. Score!!!

Miss Tea has been to Kampuchea before with JBaby and enjoyed the P.E.I. Mussels, but this time

around it was the Chilled Rice Vermicelli (Grilled Duroc pork, Chinese sausage, egg over easy, sprouts, shallots, crushed peanuts, fresh herbs) that hit the spot. Now, I love all the chefs who believe in the herbs, but if it isn't actually in the dish or mixed into the dish, Miss Tea is going to take it out. Aside from the extra greenery that was plucked out the bowl, the Chilled Rice Vermicelli (actually not chilled, but at room temperature) was the perfect dinner for a hot summer night.

After dinner, we all took a quick tour of the LES and, out of curiosity, stopped at a store called Babeland, a fully-stocked naughty store. If you’re familiar with the LES, you know what this is. Now, Miss Tea promised herself she would keep this blog totally PG-13 so not one more word will be mentioned…except this: Miss Tea and company did get a kick out of toys for the naughty naughty!

And so Miss Tea went home, with a smile on her face.