mango salad with avocado and tofu

Sticky, is how I’ve been feeling lately – sticky, thirsty and in constant longing for a shower. Little tank tops and shorts don’t help, neither do gauzy dresses. It’s not so much the heat as the humidity. Feels like the air is liquid.

We spent the greater portion of the Saturday swimming in such air, wondering various locations spanning Cobble Hill and Park Slope. We walked through a house party in Boerum Hill that used more sub woofer power than I ever imagined possible and my insides vibrated – it’s a unique feeling you should try it sometime. I wanted to find out what that hip-hop song was – because it would have made a great addition to my running mix, but it didn’t feel like the right move in asking.

We also learned that just because it’s a new construction, doesn’t mean it’s already construct-ED. It’s a bit of a downer walking up to a building that’s got scaffolding all around it, and is missing, say, walls and windows. While I’m good at visualizing, when it comes to real estate I need to see if for myself, no thank-you, autocad. Oh and upon turning around you realize it’s located right across the street from a correctional facility. Right. Next. Door. Or “f*ck da police” graffiti sprayed on the construction site. Lovely, just lovely. Real estate woes notwithstanding, we still got a good and enjoyable walk out of our Brooklyn real estate research, stopping by at Oko and sampling their frozen yogurt, which was good, but still not as good as making your own at home. Our consensus on Brooklyn prices – in-friggin-sane – the cost of living in a decently renovated apartment is not a bargain by any stretch of imagination. And when you already have visions of a backyard where you can grow your own vegetables and a door with a special doggy door at the bottom, urban living begins to look less and less sparkly and seductive. Or maybe I’m just getting old.

Even with all this schlepping around, when it’s this humid out, I stop eating. I long for ripe fruit, sorbet, lemonade. Traditional meals don’t hold much appeal and I become much like a fruit fly, eating a peach here, nibbling on blueberries there. When I saw Louisa’s post on a mango salad with tofu, I remembered that back in college, when I didn’t want to eat anything (and I was a vegetarian back then) – I would make a version of a mango salad I had in a Thai restaurant once – with avocado, mango, a tangy/spicy dressing! I could live on that salad all summer, and often would make it for several days in a row. And while variety is the spice of life, I cannot place enough premium on tried, true and much beloved. And while the salad didn’t make up for lack of a/c in those summertime days, it certainly made the livin’ more easy.