Saturday.  Saturdays now mean 7 am brick workouts at Riverside Park.  Honestly, I like it.  I like the team training, I like to see everyone else out there, I like the tips from coaches along the way, and I like pushing myself. Four miles running and about 25 on the bike, not so bad.  And a bunch of hills mixed in.  Oh, and they made us do all these core exercises at the end.  I wish I had the picture of me in my snazzy Team in Training shorts and singlet.  Next week.


But I also like to enjoy good food after some tri training.


This week we headed east towards Alphabet City, with the goal to try something new.  I have this Food Network Guide to Summer Dining a colleague sent me...so when we walked by one of the falafel places in there, Cafe Rakka, I threw that out as an option.  I'll admit, that guide is interesting, there are some places in there I would definitely disagree with and it tends towards commercial or larger names.

I'm not lying when I say I felt like I was in a little place in Cairo. The music, the decor, the back kitchen.  Our falafels were handmade to order.  And crispy on the outside.  I took everything on it.  It was pretty good and you couldn't beat the price.  It's a little different than Taim, which is Israeli, and comes with some sort of salad mix inside.  The pita is a little thinner here.  Delicious, though.  But I think my go-to is still Taim in the West Village. Check out my April 2010 post for more details.

And as I have a sweet tooth the size of Texas. I couldn't resist Butter Lane when we walked by.  This was also in the guide.  I've made it known that cupcakes are hit or miss with me.  They can be really pretty and very dry.   They can be too big with too much going on (um, Crumbs?).  These were very moist, just the right size. And the cream cheese frosting won me over.  I wasn't smiling in this shot, but I was certainly a happy girl.