Any insights into this?

e5 is mu patzer's advice...

but what's the purpose?  it makes the white's bishop bad, and it's unlikely that white can protect the pawn.

believe me white can protect it... Fx with simple Ngf3 or f4 first. The purpose is a strong pawn center and a big space advantage. Bishop cant be considered bad as long white e5 pawn can move + a3 is still available for Bishop... 

okay.  is it better to castle queen side or king side in this situation?

king side since there is no pawn protection on the queenside

yeah.  that's what i thought.  thanks for the advice.

Magnus, that looks very risky.  I would be too scared to try that path.