• Asymmetrical Information believes "that contraceptive availability is not a major factor in teen pregnancy" ... and that "children are a special libertarian case" ...

• Downtown Dancer notes Fayard Nicholas's death on Jan. 25, 2006 ... "the Nicholas Brothers were absolutely inspiring movers and I felt lucky to be able to discover their film work" ...

• An Unamplified Voice reminds us that "popular music exploded in popularity with the advent of the microphone. Athletic and remarkably well-trained as any particular one may be, the live voice is a limitation: it (with its sibling, the physical stage presence of one body) ensures that characters in opera remain at a recognizably human scale even as they're kings or heroes -- or gods. This fits naturally with the aesthetic of high culture, which characteristically explores the (tragic or amusing) limitedness of individual man, his inability to throw off mortal bonds from even the highest point." ...

• The Malcontent's headline for the post about "Cindy Sheehan said she is considering running for the U.S. Senate against Dianne Feinstein" ... "Dear God, Let It Be So" ... THAT would be an interesting race ...

• About Last Night has an interesting discussion about e-books ...

• Clublife reminds us that online "relationships go bad, just like they do in the "real world." You don't get along, or someone does something stupid, and things take a turn for the sour. It happens. The difference in Blog World, though, is that one or both parties are eventually going to write about it. You can't help yourself." ...

• The Assimilated Negro believes "There is no situation where a wink is appropriate. There’s no biological, or physiological, or any-ological pedigree that supports a need for a human being to wink." .. and is starting the "The Blink Don't Wink™ Campaign" ...

• Liberteaser says "Weed culture is stupid" ... and "Helen Thomas has the President shaking in his boots" ... "Who wouldn't want to skip her and thus avoid having to hear her shrill, well-past-her-prime, 'isn't she dead?' voice?" ...

• Forgotten NY added a page about "mysterious names over apartment house entrances" ...

• spinachdip nyc is going to have to start hanging out with a different set of bloggers .. you know, the kind that pay their tabs and leave tips ... not the other kind ...

• The Dawn Patrol has news about an eBay auction by an atheist to go to a church of the winning bidder's choice, every day .. for $10 per day ... and spiritual adoption of the unborn ...

• New York Hack was on TV ...

• Ace of Spades links to story "Cindy Sheehan Considers Challenging Dianne Feinstein For Senate" ... and says the recent Palestinian elections were "almost like the Constitutional Convention. If I recall correctly, Governeur Morris threatened to "liquidate" anyone who suggested that Congress consist of only one House. He retracted his objections when John Jay kidnapped his son and began sending him severed fingers through the mail." ...

• 10,000 Birds reports that someone mowed the grass at Croton Point Park in northern Westchester ... "Why they had to do it at the beginning of this critical season is beyond me." ...

• NYC Stories had to help a cabbie determine if a half-eaten meal was beef, pork, or veal ... and they discussed trichinosis ...

• Atlas Shrugs declares "Iran is begging, pleading for war" ...

• Harleys, Cars, Girls & Guitars explains why he is no longer a Democrat ... likes satellite radio (4 years ago we wouldn't have believed we would happily pay $12 per month for it) ... and says "There is only one way to go now … the restoration of the Patriarchy" ...

• NewYorkology has the date and route for the "7th Annual Chinatown Lunar New Year Parade" ...

• Night After Night disagrees with Pinchas Zukerman ... "As far as I'm concerned, the historically informed movement breathed new life into 18th- and 19th-century music ... Zukerman's comments about the inability of HIP conductors and musicians to perform at any kind of professional standard do nothing more than make me think that he probably hasn't checked out a concert during the last decade -- especially given that he's still harping on Hogwood and Norrington." ...

• WhiteTrashBBQ wishes a "Happy Birthday to one of mankind's greatest inventions, canned beer. The first canned beer was released today, January 24, 1935 in Richmond, Virginia. It was Krueger's Ale and Krueger's Beer." ...

• greg.org links to an unusual video ... "Football team owner Gigi Becali [aka the Woody Johnson of Bucharest]'s car got sideswiped. So he and a henchman opened the door like they do in the old country: with a couple of crowbars and a sportsnews camera crew watching on." ... Ai yi yi ... don't let those guys near your car ...

• Brain Terminal compares search results for "Tiananmen" on Google and Google China ...

• Deadprogrammer's Cafe is unsettled by the fasces on the NYPD badge ... fasces are "a bundle of sticks with an axe inside - the ancient symbol of authority. Along with the swastika, fasces has been marred as a symbol of Fascism, to which it gave its name." ... get a grip DPC ... the design of the Mace in the U.S. House of Representatives is derived from the fasces ...

• exit zero points out the link between "cannibalism and clean air" ... "I don't know if they're still eating people in Uganda, but they do in the Democratic Republic of Congo, specifically UN representatives. The Congo is in a state of chaos, with a civil war that has taken millions of lives." .. and then asks, "Are these environmentalists suggesting that this is the sort of good governance we should copy in the US?" ...

• Ragged Thots agrees with Shelby Steele that "Republicans may be 'freer' of a certain 'political bigotry.' However, they do evidence a deep-seated need to do their own sort of 'alchemy' on the black members of their party, which plays out in its own demeaning fashion" ...

• The Politburo Diktat notes that the US win over Norway "was a good win, the U.S. absolutely dominated, but it’s important to note that this was not Norway’s first string. It was basically a U-23 team" ... we wondered why the Norwegians looked so cowed ...

• Kesher Talk runs a profile of former CIA Director William Colby ...

• Mona's Apple says she could watch "The Last of the Mohicans" over and over ...

• Metroblogging NYC asks "Dear Pervs: Why, why, why?" ... "my friend Mari told me that a few blocks after we said good-bye at the corner of Broadway and Astor Place, a car pulled up next to her at the intersection of 10th and Broadway. Some guy leaned out the window and started yelling something at her. It was even more obscene than what St. Mark's perv had yelled." ... and gets a link to the movie "War Zone" in the comments ... free screening, Tuesday, February 21, 6:30pm - 9:00pm, New Lantern Events, at the Whirlwind Creative Gallery, 330 West 38th Street, between 8th and 9th Avenues, Suite 511 ... cosponsored with Holla Back NYC ...

• jewschool, who is traveling in Israel, discovers "a Jewish hipster TV show" ...

• A Hamburger Today says he can help ... "Did you forget to make reservations for Valentine's Day this year? Does your wife/girlfriend have an obsession with hamburgers? Are you looking for a way to end your relationship without actually saying "it's over"? I think I may have the answer for you." ...

• elvira black got some grief for cross posting on her blog and at blog critics ... and likes mister snitch!'s "rules for internet trolls to live by" ...

• slashfood "would like to thank Hershey's for finally deciding that filled Kisses were a good idea" ... "But I must say that the new Peanut Butter filled Kisses might just be the best of the bunch" ... and suggests that Di Fara's post a sign: "Limit 2 Slices When Busy" ...

• blog NYC has "it on good sources that the owner [of Burrito Bar and Kitchen] is terrible to work for. Employees have told us that guests have seen him on the floor, dressed in sweats and a Brazilian soccer jacket, scolding employees while the guests ask, 'who's the dick?' Our source says that if the owner ever has to deal with a table and they don't know who he is, they ask the bartender or waiter, 'hey, who's the guy with no personality'." ...

• Drones Club makes a too-rare appearance ... "The old man came through town this evening, and I had managed a subterranean balcony, as it were. The view was not everything, but the acoustic quality of the space was remarkable, and Rostropovich himself was every bit his melancholy instrument" ...

• Dave Friedman's Soul of Wit declares "Googling "rent boy" doesn't constitute proof that one is looking to hire a hooker, any more so than googling cocaine proves that one is looking to snort some blow" ...

• mister snitch! advises "The biggest mistake people make with their resumes seems to be in parroting the language they see in the classifieds" .... links to some pictures: "Proof that your job COULD be worse" ... and says "Iraqis and Afghans are among the world's most economically-optimistic people ... they saw what happened to Japan and Germany's economies after we flattened THEM" ... and links to pics of "another cruelly-humiliated cat for your enjoyment" ...

___________________________________

The Big Apple Blog Festival is listed on the ÜberCarnival page and in Carnival News.

To nominate your favorite blog post about NYC, or if you have a NYC blog and want to see something in the next BABF ... or you have a NYC-related blog and would like to host an upcoming BABF ... send us a short write up and a permalink to aguyinnewyork [at] gmail.com ... or use the Carnival Submit Form ... see you next week ...

You are free to repost the Big Apple Blog Festival so long as you leave this URL attached: BigAppleBlogFestival.com.

Technorati Tags: big apple, big apple blog festival, New York, NYC, New York City, Manhattan

Newspapers need to worry about the best and the worst of the blogosphere

Like the long-gone typesetters, today's newspaper guild members believe that their job is somehow their "property," and that no amateur can step in to perform their difficult and arduous tasks. On one level, they're right. John Q. Blogger can't fly to Baghdad or Bosnia and do the work of a John F. Burns. But what a lot of guild members miss is that not everybody wants to read John F. Burns, not everybody who wants to read about Baghdad is going to demand coverage of the quality he produces, and not everybody wants Baghdad coverage, period. If you loosely define journalism as words and graphics about current events deliverable on tight deadline to a mass audience, the price of entry into the craft has dropped to a few hundred dollars. Hell, I can remember renting an IBM Selectric for $100 a month in the late 1970s just to make my freelance articles look more "professional" to my editors.

So, when newspaper reporters bellyache about shoot-from-the-hip bloggers who don't fully investigate the paper trail before writing a story or double-check their facts before posting, they're telling a valuable truth. Bad bloggers are almost as bad as bad journalists. But the prospect of a million amateurs doing something akin to their job unsettles the guild, making it feel like Maytag's factory rats whose jobs were poached by low-paid Chinese labor.

It's not just the best of the blogosphere drawing away big audiences that the guild need worry about. If Chris Anderson's Long Tail intuitions are right, the worst of the blogosphere—if it's big enough—presents just as much (or more) competition. Michael Kinsley made me laugh a decade ago when he argued against Web populists replacing professional writers, saying that when he goes to a restaurant, he wants the chef to cook his entree, not the guy sitting at the next table. I'm not laughing anymore: When there are millions of aspiring chefs in the room willing to make your dinner for free, a least a hundred of them are likely to deal a good meal. Mainstream publishers no longer have a lock on the means of production, making the future of reading and viewing anybody's game. To submit a tortured analogy, it's like the Roman Catholic church after Gutenberg. Soon, everyone starts thinking he's a priest.

I'm not about to predict what the collapsing cost of media creation will ultimately do to the news business, if only because my track record at prophesy is terrible. But this much I know: The newspaper guild (again, reporters, editors, publishers) can't compete by adding a few blogs here, blogging up coverage over there, and setting up "comment" sections. If newspapers, magazines, and broadcasters don't produce spectacular news coverage no blogger can match, they have no right to survive.

"Not Just Another Column About Blogging: What newspaper history says about newspaper future," by Jack Shafer, Slate, January 28, 2006

More

• "Read All About It! Newspapers Lose Web War," an interview of Prof. Clark Gilbert by Sean Silverthorne, HBS Working Knowledge, January 28, 2002
• "The 8-Step Cure for Old Fartism," by Jon Katz, hotwired, November 4, 1997
• "The End of Legacy Media (Newspapers, Magazines, Books, TV Networks)," by Jakob Nielsen, Alertbox, August 23, 1998
• "Niche Masters Who Can Kill You," by Randy Cassingham, Presented to The Online News Summit II held in Washington, DC, May 19, 1998
• "Why newspapers are in trouble," by Guy Kawasaki, Forbes, February 9, 1998

Travel blogs roundup - January 29, 2006

A Guy In New York is a member of the travel blog network at Blogads, a group of independent travel blogs. Check out some of this week's headlines from the network:

• Berlin: Toilet Walls of the Internet(shortcut)
  
• Rice Queen Diaries (Travel Blogs)
  
• Best Hamburgers in America? (A Guy in New York)
  
• Review of Keen Newport H2 Sandal (Treknologies)
  
• Archives: Sundance Dirty Little Secret (Jet Set Lara)
  
• A Winter Festival in Long Island Wine Country (NewYorkology)
  
• (no news - they're busy backpacking around Southeast Asia) (TravelBlogger.net)
  

"In Chinatowns, All Sojourners Can Feel Hua"

There is no consistent name for "Chinatown" in Chinese. Newspapers use one name, popular speech uses others. At the Canal Street subway station on Broadway the chosen translation is delicately pixeled together from colorful tiles: "huabu." Hua means "Chinese," but with a sense that transcends geography, independent of the nation of China. Bu means "place" or "town."
. . .
New York's Chinatown predates the Communist government, and even the one before that. When Chinese first settled in the crooked intersection of Doyers, Pell and Mott Streets, an emperor still ruled.
. . .
Chinatown exudes density. It not only rivals Times Square as the most crowded pedestrian area in the city, but also is one of the most visually cluttered, greeting you with a jumble of fire escapes, colorful store signs and streams of tattered flags. Like many crowded Asian cities, Chinatown has mastered the art of the vertical, inspired by languages that can be written up and down, not just side to side.
. . .
New York now has three Chinatowns — one each for Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens, though only the original can claim the name. In 1946, a small group of United Nations delegation members from the Nationalist Chinese government settled in Flushing, in what was then a largely white middle-class community. Since the 1980's, the neighborhood has flourished as the Chinatown for Mandarin speakers from Taiwan, Shanghai and northern China. More recently, Manhattan's working-class Chinese population has been squeezed down the N subway line, emerging on Eighth Avenue in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, and in other satellite clusters farther out.
. . .
Today Chinatown is large enough to have two main arteries: Canal Street, the tourist-friendly thoroughfare that is still predominantly Cantonese, and East Broadway, which has become Main Street for Fujianese immigrants.
. . .
Flushing has many more Chinese bookstores and more men in suits.
. . .
Where Chinatown is shrouded in history, Flushing is bright and contemporary. The broad, flat cityscape of Queens is spiced up with the shiny metal-and-mirror aesthetic popular in industrial East Asia. "In Chinatown, everything is right in front of you," Charlene said, putting her hand right in front of her face. "In Flushing, you can breathe."

The street food is more northern and western Chinese.
. . .
We trudged to Minni's Shabu Shabu, a hotpot restaurant off Main Street that is one of my mother's favorites for family occasions.

"In Chinatowns, All Sojourners Can Feel Hua," by Jennifer 8. Lee, The New York Times, January 27, 2006

More

• Chinatown Online
• Museum of Chinese in the Americas (MoCA), 70 Mulberry Street, 2nd Floor, 212-619-4785
• Asian American Arts Centre, 26 Bowery, 212-233-2154
• Asian Cinevision, 133 West 19th Street, 3rd floor, 212-989-1422
• Asia Society, 725 Park Avenue, 212 517-2742
• China Institute, 125 East 65th Street, 212 744-8181
• Taipei Cultural Center, 1 East 42 Street, 7th floor, 212-697-6188

Saturday catblogging

Luca ... sleeping in the climbing tree ... Loco may not fit, but I do!

Life in the City is good ... so many places to sleep and relax ... especially when Loco isn't here ...

Technorati Tags: catblogging

This Week in NYC Reviews - January 27, 2006

Each Friday, A Guy In New York publishes "This Week in NYC Reviews (TWIR)," with quick links to New York City restaurant reviews and mentions from the previous seven days in blogs, magazines, and newspapers.

Winter Restaurant Week starts January 23 and runs for 1 more week, excluding weekends: January 30-February 3, 2006 ...

Also see our roundup of Michelin 1, 2 and 3 star restaurants with links to reviews ...

For a roundup of DC restaurant reviews from DC food bloggers and media, see This Week in DC Reviews at Hobnob Blog ...

NYC Restaurant inspection results online

• Jeff Vandam looks at Uncle Paulie's Restaurant, "the only restaurant in a neighborhood full of hard-labor businesses" ... "The fare at Uncle Paulie's is a cut above most lunch-counter fodder, much of it cooked fresh by Mr. Pedro himself, who is, in fact, an uncle. He prepares his own veal Marsala, lemon chicken and grilled, roasted pork chops. A full plate costs $6." ... Greenpoint Avenue and Monitor Street, Greenpoint, Brooklyn, across the street from the Newtown Creek Water Pollution Control Plant ... we hope Twenty Bucks a Day checks it out ...

• Veal Cheeks compares 2 Filipino restaurants ... Cendrillon ... had "a goat curry, served with plantain and a tangy fruit chutney. The best feature was the light rice pancakes that permitted the belief that one was treated to Moo Shu Goat. It was the high point of the meal" ... as an entree had "Salt Roasted Duck with Mango and Tomatillo Chutney and Cellophane Noodles ... for which the chutney was a necessary accessory" ... (previous reviews: Amateur Gourmet (TWIR, August 26, 2005), and Frank Bruni (TWIR, August 5, 2005)) ... web site, 45 Mercer Street, 212-343-9012 [MenuPages | openlist | Gayot | Citysearch] ... and Ihawan, which "was local to the core" ... "lunch for two was only a bit more than an entree at Cendrillon" ... "Ordering a barbecue stick I imagined a small satay. What was served verged on being half a pig on a stick. The stick must have measured close on two feet with a large fillet of sweet and zesty thin cut pork." ... 40-06 70th Street, at Roosevelt Avenue, Queens, 718-205-1480 [Bridge and Tunnel Club | openlist | Citysearch] ... had lunch at Gotham Bar and Grill, "one of the essential New York restaurants" ... "this could well have been the impressive lunch during my New York stay" ... "Moroccan Spiced Rack of Lamb with Couscous Salad, Roasted Eggplant and Lemon-Black Pepper Jus [:the] lamb was superb, as was its jus. I was less impressed by the couscous and eggplant" ... web site, 12 East 12th Street, at 5th Avenue, 212-620-7810 [MenuPages | NYT | openlist | Gayot | Citysearch]

• eat drink one woman says one word describes Hope & Anchor: OVERDRAMA ... and even though her "turkey burger with avocado ($8) was pretty tasty, the fries were crisp and hot, my ginger cosmo (ginger vodka, grand marnier, lime, and white cranberry juice) nice and strong, and the singing proprietor Joe was amiable and adorable... I'M NOT COMING BACK" ... 347 Van Brunt Street, at Wolcott Street, Brooklyn, 718-237-0276 [NYT | openlist | Citysearch]

• Augieland gave Devi "272 Jaganmatillian stars" ... had "the tasting menu with its paired wines" ... not-so-great service, but "As for the food, it really was great." ... "dinner was exceptional and I will definitely be going back for the food. I strongly suggest against the wine parings, though." ... web site, 8 East 18th Street, between 5th Avenue and Broadway, 212-691-1300 [MenuPages | NYT | openlist | Gayot | Citysearch]

• Plate Of The Day isn't screaming for the ice cream at Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory ... "a cup of the vanilla with chocolate chips [was not] the very best ice cream i’ve ever had but for the scenic view and the amount they give you, it’s definitely worthwhile." ... Fulton Ferry Landing Pier, 1 Water Street, Brooklyn, 718-246-3963 [NYT | openlist | Gayot | Citysearch]

• The Girl Who Ate Everything had a Restaurant Week lunch at DB Bistro Moderne ... and had "indescribable duck raviole" ... but the best part of the meal was "the little, lovingly shaped frozen vanilla blop" that accompanied dessert ... web site (not the right use of Cab Calloway tunes), 55 West 44th Street, 212-391-2400 [MenuPages | NYT | openlist | Gayot | Citysearch]

• eating for brooklyn says the pizza at Fornino "was excellent. Not in the DiFara's/Grimaldi's league, Fornino is a wood-fired, artisanal league of its own. This pizza really reminds me of the kind you get in Italy. I love both New York style pizza and the Italian pies. Neither is better, just different." ... (previous review: slice (TWIR, January 13, 2006)) ... 187 Bedford Avenue, Brooklyn, 718-384-6004 [NYT | openlist | Citysearch]

• Bergers & More "could have had 3" of the spiked egg cream at Mo Pitkin’s House of Satisfaction ... "the food is good, but it is a little gimmicky" ... (previous reviews: Andrea Thompson (TWIR, November 11, 2005), Andrea Strong (TWIR, October 21, 2005), Peter Meehan (TWIR, September 30, 2005)) ... web site, 34 Avenue A, between 2nd and 3rd Streets, 212-777-5660 [MenuPages | Gayot | Citysearch]

• gothamist loved the Camembert Panini from Le Kiosk ... 75 East 1st Street, 646-234-1742 [Village Voice]

• Salli Vates made it to Gilt: "I found myself commenting that we were eating snowflakes - intricate works of art which melted in our mouths." (see reviews in last week's TWIR, January 20, 2006) ... and Mitsuwa Marketplace, "a sort of Disneyland for those who love Japanese food and culture (but especially food). The food court/grocery/shopping complex used to be known as Yaohan, but after changing names and undergoing renovation, it's even more of a food destination than before. Although Mitsuwa is not technically in New York, it's just a $2.00, 30-minute ride from Port Authority's Gate 51. The shuttle operates about every 30 minutes." ... web site, 595 River Road, Edgewater, NJ, 201-941-9113

• The Impetuous Epicure had "Szechuan Chicken Dumplings with chili and white soy beans" at Rickshaw Dumpling Bar, but "the filling wasn’t really up to muster. Sure, it tasted like chicken, just really bland chicken that was slightly spicy" ... however, the "Chocolate Soup Dumplings [were] actually pretty good” ... web site, 61 West 23rd Street, between 5th and 6th Avenues, 212-924-9220 [MenuPages | Village Voice | NYT | Citysearch]

• Robert Sietsema makes us want to try Minangasli ... "beef rendang ($6.95) has never tasted so good—in New York, at least." ... "the Sumatran satay turns these meat sticks (choose lamb, beef, or chicken) into a full meal. The brochettes arrive flung like pickup sticks across marvelous cubes of compressed rice starch called lontong, flooded with a sweet dark sauce and garnished with red chiles and fried shallots. A dish of more savor and delicacy can hardly be imagined." ... 86-10 Whitney Avenue, Elmhurst, Queens, 718-429-8207 [Mouthfuls | chowhound]

• Pascale Le Draoulec cautions readers to not be misled by an empty HQ ... "What makes [HQ's tuna tartare] rise above New York's tartare tonnage is the sticky brown nectar of curried honey that rings the raw fish. Spicy, sweet and so surprising." ... "Order the halibut, and you will be served a generous fillet riding a crisped hash-brown surfboard in a creamy sea of smoked mussels. Swiss chard makes a paltry (but delicious) attempt to cut the richness of this dreamy dish." ... (previous review: Moira Hodgson (TWIR, December 2, 2005)) ... web site, 90 Thompson Street, between Prince and Spring Streets, 212-966-2755 [MenuPages | Citysearch]

• Eric Asimov believes Spiga "has mastered the art of offering flavors associated with sweetness -- cocoa, honey, even licorice -- without the sweetness itself" ... "Too many dishes contained dried fruit, honey or chocolate. Fearing the worst, we tried as many as we could. Instead, we found compositions of exquisite balance in which the chef, Salvatore Corea, brought out the underlying flavors of the ingredients without permitting sweetness to intrude." ... 200 West 84th Street, Manhattan, 212-362-5506 [MenuPages | Citysearch]

• David Rosen gave 1 star to Taboon ... "The menu reads as enticingly as the decor, but the kitchen does a poor job translating words into plates. In fact, after the delicious homemade bread baked with tangy yogurt spread, there is little else that does not warrant critique." ... "whole sea bass and the chicken ... are irremediably dry." ... "steak is tasteless and stringy" ... "The bill for our large table already included a 20-percent gratuity, but our server informed us only after we had signed a credit-card receipt on we which we left an additional 20-percent tip." ... why did it get 1 star? ... 773 Tenth Avenue, at 52nd Street, 212-713-0271 [MenuPages | NYT | openlist | Citysearch]

• Mona's Apple was disappointed by the fried artichoke hearts at Pair of 8's ... "But the sweet potato puree was excellent, almost like a very thick apple sauce, but with sweet potatoes. Mmm." ... (previous reviews: Frank Bruni (TWIR, January 20, 2006), Gael Greene (TWIR, December 9, 2005), Pascale Le Draoulec (TWIR, December 2, 2005)) ... 568 Amsterdam Avenue, between 87th and 88th Streets, 212-874-2742 [MenuPages | Gayot | Citysearch]

• Joshua Bernstein says Palava Hut "is one of the warmest, most welcoming establishments I’ve visited in months." ... it carries "Guinness, Heineken and Beck’s in the stomach-pleasing 24-ounce size" for $4 ... "on one visit I tried fried rice, served alongside goat on the bone. It swam in a blandly named 'red sauce.' The okra-studded fried rice was savory and delicious--and large enough for two--while the goat was tender. The red sauce, however, was a five-alarm fire." ... sounds like a great place ... if you like music, read the entire article for a nice bonus ... 992 Atlantic Avenue, between Grand and Classon Avenues, Brooklyn, 718-623-3174

• Steve Cuozzo is "Sick and Attired" ... "a tip for the female managers at Spice Market who wander the floor in Club Med-like, back-exposing sarongs, and for certain women I saw dining at Jovia the other night: Butt cracks have their place. That place, however, is not a restaurant where the proper appetite is culinary, not carnal. Call me stodgy, but lots of what passes for casual today makes me want to puke." ...

• Peter Meehan writes that Falai Panetteria is "part patisserie, part bakery, part reasonably priced dinner spot. In fact, it's all those things at once, but it's hard to figure which is the most compelling reason to visit." ... "Veal meatballs ($7) are available as an appetizer and as a main course. And though ethereal is an overplayed adjective in food writing, it describes Mr. Falai's meatballs to a 'T.' They are light. They are impossibly tender. They are delicate in a way that most meatballs aren't." ... 79 Clinton Street, at Rivington Street, 212-777-8956 [Citysearch]

• Big Apple Dining Guide had the Scandia Meatball Burger at Smorgas Chef: "On one half of a Balthazar bun sat 8 or 9 (maybe 10) swedish meatballs with melted jarlsberg on top" ... (sounds like Ikea) ... "was also served with chive mashed potatoes that tasted exactly how my Tante Kari makes them." ... ... web site, 53 Stone Street, 212-422-3500 [MenuPages | openlist | Citysearch]

• Andrea Strong has a roundup of places serving melted cheese dishes ... Artisanal ... Home ... Craftbar ... Rosa Mexicano ... Mercadito ... Barbounia ... Country ... Christos ... Ama ... Butter ...

• Andrea Strong believes the food at Nobu 57 "is as good as I remember it from many meals at Nobu downtown, and in fact it is even better" ... "the Yellowtail Sashimi with Jalepeno ... is perfect" ... "we were not prepared for how insanely good the king crab tempura with 'Amazu' sweet ponzu ($26) would be. The dish is a new to the menu, and it is brilliant" ... "the beef tenderloin ... was simply grilled and simply divine" ... (previous reviews: Frank Bruni and A Brooklyn Life (TWIR, September 30, 2005)) ... web site, 40 West 57th Street, 212-757-3000 [MenuPages | NY Metro | Citysearch]

• Frank Bruni spent a week as a waiter ... "I learned that for servers in a restaurant as busy as the East Coast Grill, waiting tables isn't a job. It's a back-straining, brain-addling, sanity-rattling siege." ... but we agree with what Bruni's fellow-server Tina said, "Some people are interested in having the experience of being disappointed." ... Waiter Rant offers to trade places with Frank for a week ... and gave 1 star to The Spotted Pig ... "Two hours might in fact be an acceptable wait for the Pig's fantastic gnudi, which are soft, rich dumplings made of sheep's milk ricotta and topped with fried sage leaves, browned butter and Parmesan." ... "the roasted black bass [was] astonishingly moist, and the herbs atop it (cilantro, thyme, flat-leaf parsley) were so fresh that my companion wondered aloud if the Pig had its own roof garden." ... "Go for lunch on a weekday." ... "Skip weekend brunch." ... web site, 314 West 11th Street, at Greenwich Street, 212-620-0393 [MenuPages | openlist | Citysearch | Gayot]

• The Bruni Digest had a scoop: "The Count poses as a WAITER??" ... and looks at Frank Bruni's Spotted Pig review: "The Spotted Pig: Too Hot Right Now" ...

• NYC nosh wants a job near Cafe Zaiya, which "makes its own impressive selection of sweet treats and replaces them with fresh items throughout the day" ... "we are madly and passionately in love with the yakimochi. These little discs are made from pounded glutinous rice dough, flecked with black sesame seeds, and filled with a velvety sweet white bean paste. They are grilled or baked" ... also serves lunch ... (Salli Vates loves their sugar-powdered chocolate souffles) ... 18 East 41st Street, between 5th and Madison Avenues, 212-779-0600 [Yelp | Citysearch]

• Amateur Gourmet ate at Cafe Asean: the green curry was "pretty good food in a charming environment" ... 117 West 10th Street, between 6th and Greenwich Avenues, 212-633-0348 [MenuPages | NYT | openlist | Gayot | Citysearch] ... and "liked the burger" at Sparky's All-American ... 333 Lafayette Street, 212-334-3035 [NYT | Gayot | Citysearch]

• Twenty bucks a day went to the newly opened Hanco for banh mi, "the sandwich king of the eastern hemisphere, and one of the city’s premiere cheap eats" ... ordered the classic spicy (pork or chicken?) ... " the usual banh mi cold toppings were augmented by slivers of a green pepper, which presented some additional crunch" ... 85 Bergen Street, Brooklyn, 718-858-6818 ... and had an excellent Chinese New Year dinner at Grand Sichuan International in Chelsea ... "ordered something called a 'spicy lamb casserole' from the special Chinese New Year menu [that was] more like a stew than anything else" ... "could easily feed two adventurous people, provided they didn’t mind sucking the meat off of various bones (the meat is tender and flavorful enough to make this rewarding)" ... (note that Grand Sichuan International is a small NYC chain and they are different than Grand Sichuan on Canal Street in Chinatown) ... web site, 229 9th Avenue, at 24th Street, 212-620-5200 [MenuPages | NYT | openlist | Gayot | Citysearch] ... had dinner at Rocco’s Calamari (not the same as Rocco's Pizzeria on 5th Avenue between 78th and 79th in Brooklyn) ... "The calamari ($9), which arrived last, was by far the best dish, and the least generic. Fresh, perfectly fried, and flavorful, this was among the best presentations of that oft-abused shellfish I’ve ever tasted." ... "other than the fried calamari, none of the dishes were truly exceptional" ... 6408 Ft. Hamilton Parkway, Brooklyn, 718-833-2109 [Village Voice | Citysearch]

____________________________________

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Technorati Tags: New York, NYC, Manhattan, restaurants, restaurant reviews, this week in reviews, week in reviews

Important Old Master Paintings - at Sotheby's

Important Old Master Paintings, Auction Sale N08162, January 26-27, 2006, New York

• Lot 10, "Study Of An Elderly Woman In A White Cap," by Rembrandt Harmensz. Van Rijn, Leiden 1606 - 1669 Amsterdam, oil on panel, 21 by 14 3/4 in. ; 53.3 by 37.5 cm.

• Lot 15, "A Bearded Old Man," by Gerrit Dou, Leiden 1613 - 1675, signed middle right GDOV (GD in monogram), oil on panel, 7 by 5 in.; 17.8 by 12.7 cm.

• Lot 54, "Still Life With Wild Strawberries In A Late Ming Blue And White Bowl," oil on panel, by Du Mélezet, Active Mid-Seventeenth Century, 13 1/2 by 22 in.; 39.5 by 56 cm.

• Lot 72, "Flowers In A Terracotta Vase On A Marble Ledge," signed lower right Jan Van Húysúm / fecit, oil on mahogany panel, by Jan Van Huysum, Amsterdam 1682 - 1749, 31 1/2 by 24 in.; 80 by 61 cm.

• Lot 74, An Important Italian Terracotta Relief Of The Madonna And Child, By Donato Di Niccolo Di Betto Bardi, Called Donatello (1386-1466), Formerly Belonging To The Borromeo Family And In The Church Of San Giovanni Battista In Lissaro Di Mestrino, Circa 1450, Padua, modeled in half-length, the Child supported in her arms and on her right hip, His loose swaddling cloth partially covering His torso, the Virgin’s head inclined downward to the left; as He touches His cheek to hers, they gaze lovingly at one another, His left arm pulls at her neck and the right hand gently tugs on her bodice, the Madonna’s thin veil falls about her neck and shoulders revealing parts of her body beneath it, remainders of original polychromy and gilding. height 32½in; width 20½in; 81.2cm; 50.8cm

Sotheby's New York, 1334 York Avenue, at 72nd Street, 212-606-7000

Best hamburgers in America?

Slashfood looked at the GQ list of the 20 best hamburgers in America ... and suggests that they need to add another ...

the best fast-food hamburger there is: a double-double from In-N-Out Burger, the popular California chain. Actually, with its two juicy, 100% pure beef patties, hand-leafed lettuce, tomatoes, secret spread and two slices of American cheese (not processed cheese) on a freshly baked and toasted bun, the double-double is better than a lot of non-fast food burgers, too.

"D is for Double Double and the Top 20 Burgers?" Slashfood, January 18, 2006

We think they need to add another burger from NYC ... Tony Dragonas ... also see "Make Your Own Belly Bombs, a simple instructional course" on eGullet with many pics that will make you go Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, sliders ...

It may come big and ungarnished, the East Coast ideal, tender and untroubled by bones or gristle, everything you look for in a filet mignon but seldom find. It may be the West Coast model, swelling with vegetation, brimming with health and well-being, piled high with all that a seed catalog can provide. A great burger, regardless of regional differences, instills a sense of optimism and fulfillment, that all is right at the table or the counter or the woodgrain, screwed-to-the-floor, fast-food booth.

"The 20 Hamburgers You Must Eat Before You Die," by Alan Richman, GQ, July, 2005

The list included these NY-area burgers:

2. Luger Burger, Peter Luger Steak House ... (previous review: Andrea Storng (TWIR, October 7, 2005)) ... web site, 178 Broadway, Brooklyn, 718-387-7400 [openlist | NYT | Gayot | Citysearch]

9. Cheeseburger, Burger Joint, le Parker Meridien Hotel ... (previous reviews: Twenty bucks a day (TWIR, January 6, 2006), Plate Of The Day (TWIR, October 14, 2005), Rob Patronite (TWIR, September 30, 2005), Tables for Two and A Full Belly (TWIR, September 16, 2005)) ... web site, 118 West 57th Street, between Sixth and Seventh Avenues in the Meridian Hotel lobby, 212-708-7414 [MenuPages | A Hamburger Today | Citysearch]

13. Cheeseburger, White Manna ... 358 River Street, Hackensack, NJ, 201-342-0914 [A Hamburger Today | Holly Eats]

14. Hamburger, J.G. Melon ... 1291 3rd Avenue, at 74th Street, 212-650-1310 [MenuPages | Citysearch]

Here's CitySearch's list, Best NY Hamburger 2005 ...

Lots of other regional comments ... Texas ... our own NY ... all over ... all over, too ...

Davidburke & Donatella turns in to Circus

Last week I had hoped to impress a friend from out of town (the Dean of the Mathematics faculty from a well known university in Canada) by taking him to DavidBurke & Donatella. When I made the reservation they said I could be in the "lounge". What they didn't tell me was that I may as well have had a table in the middle of a subway car in rush hour.

Needless to say I had to run out of there rather than try a New York Jets offensive drive to get to my table. Fortunately for me and my out of town friend, Circus restaurant was just across the street. Great Lo had taken us there at one time (and I feel sure we shall return the favor one day soon).

At Circus we found a beautiful hostess with a great smile ready to seat us, a lively setting without the chaos, and a relatively quiet corner where we could carry on a conversation. The food was also a pleasant surprise. Given the late hour I asked for two appetizers - a tropical salad that included fresh fruit and was delicious; and a plate of steamed clams and muscles in a marvelous broth.

My friend had a well prepared halibut and we topped it off with a nice bottle of Chianti. The prices were reasonable, service was excellent (they were very pleasant about my two appetizer requests) and we appreciated it all the more due to our close call with disaster.

To top off a perfect ending for the evening I slept over at my old friend Peter Lo's apt. which was only 6 blocks away. Since I had a major round of events at work, this saved me a late commute and early morning return to and from Ridgewood. Not to mention the next day beginning with a nice cup of fresh brewed black coffee and a little chat with Lo before heading out into the concrete jungle.

Circus: (previous review: Forbes (TWIR, September 30, 2005)) ... web site, 132 East 61st Street, between Lexington and Park Avenues, 212-223-2566 [MenuPages | NY Metro | NYT | Citysearch]

Post by Roger

Big Apple Blog Festival - January 23, 2006

Welcome to the Big Apple Blog Festival (BABF), a representative roundup of this week's posts by NYC bloggers.

The Big Apple Blog Festival likes to go on tour ... if you don't like what we covered here, and if you have a NYC blog or you blog about NYC and would like to host an upcoming BABF, let us know ... The next BABF, on January 30, 2006, will be hosted by A Guy In New York ... Last week's Big Apple Blog Festival was hosted by Harleys, Cars, Girls & Guitars ...

RELATIONSHIPS

• The Apiary says if you're "tired of sauntering aimlessly around the Big Apple going food cart to food cart without any real life plan" or "meeting people on eHarmony who won't shut up about their stupid decaying ovaries' .. "Then it's time to join The Apiary Odyssey Club." ...
• The Anonymous Blogger says "All the dating services I know of are run by women. How come men don't run dating services?" ... what about eHarmony? ... see previous ...
• Clareified links to a post about which she says, "This is the best reason I've seen yet to get married." ... and has a good joke: "Friendship Between Women: A woman didn't come home one night. The next day she told her husband that she had slept over at a girlfriend's house. The man called his wife's 10 best friends. None of them knew anything about it." .. you'll have to click to see "Friendship Between Men" ...
• Ragged Thots discusses "a man at work rushes to the aid of his wife who seems to be endangered by strangers that may or may not have been drinking. What should be his reward? How about suspending him from work!" ...
• Daily Lunch thinks it's a positive sign that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Bashar al-Assad met in Damascus in a "defiant show of solidarity" ...

  POLITICS

• Asymmetrical Information hopes the Supreme Court overturns Roe "just so that we can all shut the hell up about abortion for a while" ... or take it up at the state level where it should have been decided in the first place ...
• Liberteaser says "Congressman Gary Miller (R, CA), who helped 'secure' $1.28 million of federal funds as an 'earmark' in legislation" is a "thief, and he ought to be removed from Congress and prosecuted" ...
• The Corsair says we can count on "Hillary versus Gore -- Centrist versus Civil Libertarian-Progressive" in 2008 ...
• Atlas Shrugs updates "You have Two Cows" with some new ones ...
• Jewschool says Jack Abramoff is "A Failure As A Jew" ... Quixotic Optimism wonders if Abramoff is a "Heartless swindler or spineless Republican lackey?" ...
• As I Please opines that "the argument that Democrats didn't take money directly from Abramoff is a silly semantic argument. Here we have a Senator in Washington State feeding at a trough replenished often by tribes in California, Michigan, Mississippi and Louisiana" ...
• Jossip asks "Politicians, comedians, everyone, do us a favor. Stop tarnishing the eloquent Dr. Martin Luther King Jr with your mind-numbing, nonsensical speeches that try to prove you're one of the people." ... sounds good to us ...
• Ace of Spades "just KNEW Bush was going to win" in 1992 ... "Oh well. Youthful optimism." ...
• Kesher Talk has a report with pics of a protest and counter protest with "Protest Warrior to protest a protest against military recruiters" "by the Youth and Countermilitarism Program of the War Resisters' League" (which has this as the only entry on its site's calendar: "1 AUGUST 2005: Calendar launched. This calendar will be updated frequently by the WRL Youth and Countermilitarism Project team.") ...
• The Daily Gotham says "Brooklyn politics is a complicated mess." ... and believes "A political machine can be a good thing, even though they tend almost unavoidably towards corruption." ...

  WAR

• Gone Underground agrees with "This Letter of Apology" written by Lieutenant General Chuck Pitman, USMC, Retired ... "I am sorry that most Arabs and Muslims have to live in squalor under savage dictatorship" ... "I am sorry that Muslim extremists have killed more Arabs than any other group" ...
• Alarming News points out that "most spiritual quests don't usually end with the seeker taking up arms against his own countrymen but that's neither here nor there to Dad Lindh. John Walker Lindh committed the most obvious form of treason." ...

  BOOKS and LITERARY TYPES

• Dawn Eden has a quote from G.K. Chesterton about literary style and believes it applies to Christopher Hitchens and Andrew Sullivan ...
• New York Brain Terrain notes that Julian Barnes, author of "The Lemon Table," will be in town from the 26th through the 31st ...
• Miscellaneous Objections has pics of "two fellow commuters ...reading James Frey's lie-tacular tome, 'A Hundred Thousand Or So Medium-Sized Pieces.'"... we like this plot summary of Frey's book by "hllib" on Amazon the best: "Spoiled rich kid with tough-guy attitude and severe alcoholism/crack addiction has his parents pay for a stay at the exclusive Hazelden clinic in Minnesota. Goes in a busted-up, addicted idiot. Comes out a semi-repaired, sober jerk" ...

  SINGING, DANCING, ACTING

• About Last Night has his weekly list "of recommended Broadway and off-Broadway shows" .... he clearly doesn't have a teenage daughter or Wicked would be on the list ...
• My Urban Kvetch reports "the princess of pop's hailing the Hindus" ... and she's off on a Caribbean cruise ...
• Downtown Dancer wonders, was "Alison Chase Fired From Pilobolus?" ... follow the Update link at the bottom ...
• Fisher-Price My First Opera Blog is thinking of changing the name of his blog because he's "feeling a little guilty about the number of searches I see that lead someone to this tarty little blog that clearly was looking for a Fisher Price toy" .. how about "My Second Opera Blog" ... 
• Night After Night believes "a gloomy, wet, steel-gray evening in Manhattan [is] a perfect day to listen to La Cieca's wonderful Birgit Nilsson podcasts, as well as the searing renditions of Hindemith, Mendelssohn, Dvorak and Shostakovich violin concerti found in a Brilliant Classics box set of radio recordings by David Oistrakh." ... on gloomy days we prefer Cab Calloway's "A Chicken Ain't Nothin' But A Bird" and "Everybody Eats When They Come To My House" ... we admit it: the Birgit Nilsson podcasts are worth listening to ...
• An Unamplified Voice ... "the unique quality of opera -- what, I believe, guarantees its market life as a niche luxury for as long as companies remain true thereto -- is what can't be so reproduced and extended: the costly, laborious, and very human live presentness of operatic performance." ...
• Cinema Strikes Back declares that "If a Stephen Chow sci-fi film is anything as wild as his lone horror outing in “Out of the Dark“… then I need to fly to Hong Kong opening day to see it!" ...

  TV

• Cake Or Death? "can't tell you how many times I've seen kids projectile vomit upon seeing commercials for cereals high in sugar. And the number of recorded cases where a toddler will spontaneously explode into a giant ball of fat when watching an ad for Fruit Roll-Ups is astounding" ...
• The Tin Man joined a gym and likes the elliptical ... because he can watch TV while using it ...
• blog NYC says "The only reason to watch American Idol is the auditions" ... and has a link to a, like, like, an orange, like, bimbo ... Simon Cowell: "You're 16, and it is the most strange look, make up tan I have ever seen in my life" ...

  FOOD and DRINK

• Englishman in New York got together with NYC nosh "to find a good meal for three including wine, tax and tip for $20 total." ... next he should talk with Twenty Bucks a Day ...
• New York's Sixth reminds us that the Hudson Restaurant Week begins today ... "meals starting at $15 for lunch and $30 for dinners" ...
• A Brooklyn Life is "in a good mood, and I think it's due to the copious amount of Boylan's sodas I consume. All of Boylan's sodas are good, but I'm a seltzer girl myself, and I'm convinced I have never tasted a better seltzer." ...
• A Guy In New York had the weekly roundup of NYC restaurant reviews ... and a reminder about Winter Restaurant Week in NYC ...

  MONEY

• rion.nu has pics of 20 Exchange Place in Wall Street ... "Its rich facade of bronzed depictions glorify both historic and modern transportation vehicles of the era. These are surrounded by elements of nature, as well as two allegorical figures to represent the balances of banking: abundance and prudence." ...
• Dead Programmer's Cafe took "29 1/2 lb of coins in a Strand bag" to the bank ... what was the $ value? ....
• dailyheights.com has a new definition for millionaire: "anyone who won't think twice about plunking down a record-breaking (for Brooklyn, at least) $1000+ per square foot for a condo" ... what if it's a really tiny condo? ...

  LIVING IN NYC

• The Urban Grind has no sympathy for Nixzmary Brown’s "parents" ...
• Bridge and Tunnel Club says "New York is the biggest, bestest city on the planet and we have the busiest Target store in the state -- no, country -- no! -- hemisphere! Yes, one of the busiest in the Northern Hemisphere" ... map ...
• this is what we do now tells the "the denizens of Billyburg thinking their little enclave is some sort of bastion of cultural relevance and that any invasion of a national franchise is somehow detrimental to the very fabric of the neighborhood" to "Get over yourselves already" ...
• NewYorkology has her usual great roundup of interesting things to do in NYC ...
• gridskipper NY links to "a helpful comparative chart on how to tell the difference between New York and Los Angeles" ...
• The People's Cube reports that "After learning that New York City police officers have been receiving Islamic-culture training, the Big Apple's largest street communities, the Bloods and the Crips, criticized the NYPD and Mayor Bloomberg for discriminating against the gangsta people. Furious gangsta community leaders demanded that a similar sensitivity training program be created to educate law enforcement members about the intricacies of 'gangsta-culture,' with its vibrant rituals, traditions, and etiquette." ...
• Lengths of comfy verdure is "not one of those people who thinks that everyone in america should speak english immediately necessarily. but if you wax eyebrows for a living, you absolutely should" ... well, Yeah! ... and she's engaged ...

  MISCELLANEOUS

• Sexless In The City has info about the "Love > Revenge" fund ...
• Exit Zero likens Britain's plans for the Middle East after WWI to "a colonial version of Star Wars 1, 2 & 3" ...

  SPORTS

• Steve Silver predicts "It'll be Seattle and Pittsburgh, squaring off in Detroit on February 5" ...
• spinachdip nyc says it will be Denver and Carolina ...
• SerandEz gives his reasons why he also believes "the Carolina Panthers will be playing the Denver Broncos in Super Bowl XL" ...
• Yanksfan vs. Soxfan says "for a measly 5K (or thereabouts), you can hobnob for 6 days with your favorite ex-mediocrities." ... heck, you can hobnob with Hobnob for less than that ...

  SCHOOL / EDUCATION

• Yet another weird SF fan has the Cognitive Reflection Test and says "The really interesting fact is that the test was given to a sample of Harvard students and to a sample of ordinary Bostonians at the Boston Fourth of July celebrations. The ordinary Bostonians did better" ... makes you want to turn the monitor upside down to check your answers ...
• Homeschooling in New York City is "convinced that Randi Weingarten (head of the teacher's union in NYC) is the one who doesn't care about kids. She only cares how well the teachers have it - herself included." ...
• My Urban Kvetch reminisces about reading all the Ian Fleming books ... in grade school ...
• this fish needs a bicycle also reminisces ... about middle school ... "On my first day of middle school, I accidentally walked into the boys' bathroom. I've never quite recovered from the humiliation." ... but after falling recently in front of a bunch of sixth-graders, she thought about calling her mom, “I hate middle school and I want to come home!” ... if you want to know what kids talk about, drive them around ... it's like you're not even there ...
• Brain Terminal writes that "Most cars cost far less than four years at college, which now averages over $100,000 for a four-year undergraduate degree. Yet, like the car that comes with a major part missing, many colleges provide educations that are unbalanced and incomplete." ... and wonders if college professors "feel the same way when 60 Minutes or 20/20 exposes the malfeasance of other businesses that are engaged in consumer rip-offs" ...
• Dave Friedman's Soul of Wit says innumeracy is a problem with college grads ... and takes Carl Bialik's math quiz ...
• tres chicas declares "80% of law students qualify for 'most annoying human being' status" ... seems high to us ...

  WORK

• Now What? started a new job and "nearly did a Sharon Stone to my new officemates" ... I'm glad I don't have to wear pantyhose ...
• The Daily Dump says "if my [law] firm had a motto it would be 'We sacrifice enjoyment so you don’t have to.' Although I would probably be in charge of making it our motto, so I’d likely shorten it to 'We sacrifice enjoyment!'" ... and his "job over the past few days has been to read blog posts and (I’m smiling just thinking about it) OTHER PEOPLES’ EMAILS looking for incriminating evidence." ... he finds some ...
• BuzzMachine has an interesting post about "The ghosts of newsrooms present and future" ... that applies to all kinds of organizations ...

  ONLINE

• Letters from NYC has a scary story about online stalking ...
• Mister Snitch! has "Rules for trolls" ... we find it interesting that there are people who believe a newspaper can "censor" anyone or anything ... get a clue, get a blog ... and mister snitch asks, "At what point did we become obliged to put up with obnoxious houseguests?" ... and has a post about "The coming collapse of income tax" ...
• As I Please links to the pissing contest that took place on one of the Washington Post's blogs also discussed by mister snitch! ...
• The Politburo Diktat, commenting on the WaPo thing, says, "From my own experience, Leftie blog-comment ‘dissent’ consists largely of vile name-calling." ...
• Clublife has had problems with trolls on his blog ... which is why he turned comments off ...
• opinionistas is anonymous no longer ... she turned her comments off, too ...
• Elvira Black tells us how to get blog traffic up ... "simply mention 'pro-life,' 'pro-choice' or 'sex' in a post, and you've got yourself a feeding frenzy like you wouldn't believe." ...
• tres chicas says the cheap way to increase hits is to write: "Osama's back in the news. I think he and Paris should date. They're both crazy rich people who don't care about anyone but themselves. W can be their adopted uncle, and Dick Cheney can play Grandpa." ...
• blog NYC shows us how it's really done ... "BlogBlitz: Sexiest Fetus Almost Alive is Already Wreaking Havoc" ... Madonna Dearest ... Angelina Jolie ... Kelly Clarkson ... Jennifer and Vince ... Leif Garrett ... Nick Nolte ...

  PHOTOS

• Express Train has a pic from the subway station at Smith and 9th in Brooklyn, ''the highest point in the subway system, you couldn't see the ground.' ... "It seemed like we were riding through the clouds." ... more pics from that station from Bridge and Tunnel Club ...
• Theater of My Mind has a nice pic of "The view down the East River from Long Island City" ... at night ...
• WhatISee has a pic and links to Clifford Ross' R1 camera and the gigapixel project ... and some shots of Cafe Americain ...
• Scriberoptics is "learning how to get the most out of my macro lens so that when spring, with its flowers and insects, finally does arrive, I'll be well schooled in taking macro shots" ...
• Melissa Medina at NYC Metblog is now "the building celebrity - the girl with the cursed apartment" after a pipe burst in a closet ... and Dhaval Mehta works with some wierdos ...

  ANIMALS

• Gotham Gal wonders why people take their dogs with them when they go shopping ...
• 10,000 Birds looks at the factors in deciding which species to watch ... and concludes that birds are the clear winner ... "birding is one of the fastest growing outdoor interests in the world. This is not to say that snail watching (best not to call it 'snailing') lacks its own charms." ... his count is over 350 ... one of my law school professors, the late Thompson G. Marsh, was an avid birder with a count of over 800 ...
• Living the Scientific Life has a big roundup of bird news ... including using evolutionary theory to modify the evolution "of New Zealand’s critically endangered parrot, the kakapo, Strigops habroptilus" ... and links to a story about how "a gossipy parrot split up a pair of lovebirds when a computer programmer discovered that his girlfriend was having an affair when his pet parrot kept repeating her lover's name" ... birds of a feather ...

  TRAINS, PLANES, AUTOMOBILES

• New York Hack is wondering why "the NYPD seems to think that placing two cop cars in the left lane at the beginning of the [Brooklyn] bridge will act as a deterrent to terrorism, when in fact all it does is create a long slow-moving stream of tired and angry drivers that reaches all the way up to the Williamsburg Bridge." ... and got a nice pic of the sunset "from underneath the FDR, facing the Brooklyn Bridge" ...
• New York's Sixth continues to follow the woes of the automatic parking garage in downtown Hoboken ...
• Forgotten NY added Part 2 of "The Original 28. The artwork of NYC's original subway stations" ... Part 1 is here ...
• Harleys, Cars, Girls & Guitars promises "a boatload of pictures" from the International Motorcycle Show at the Javits Center ... shouldn't that be "a sidecar full" or "a motorcycle trailer load" or something? ...

___________________________________

The Big Apple Blog Festival is listed on the ÜberCarnival page and in Carnival News.

To nominate your favorite blog post about NYC, or if you have a NYC blog and want to see something in the next BABF ... or you have a NYC-related blog and would like to host an upcoming BABF ... send us a short write up and a permalink to aguyinnewyork [at] gmail.com ... or use the Carnival Submit Form ... see you next week ...

You are free to repost the Big Apple Blog Festival so long as you leave this URL attached: BigAppleBlogFestival.com.

Technorati Tags: big apple, big apple blog festival, New York, NYC, New York City, Manhattan

Travel blogs roundup - January 22, 2006

A Guy In New York is a member of the travel blog network at Blogads, a group of independent travel blogs. Check out some of this week's headlines from the network:

Inside the Alcazar (Travel Blogs)

• At the Crossroads in Seville (Travel Blogs)
  
• What's Cooking in the Swedish Blogosphere (Shortcut)
  
• Waldorf plans new spa, ballroom renovation (NewYorkology)
  
• A Bite Out in the Big Apple (Jet Set Lara)
  
• New Big Wang Restaurant - Chinese (A Guy in New York)
  
• Custom Topographical Maps & Aerial Photos (Treknologies)
  
• Bug eating in Bangkok (TravelBlogger.net)
  

Saturday catblogging

Loco ... wondering ... "Do I fit in this?"

Life in the City is good ... so many places to sleep and relax ...

Technorati Tags: catblogging

This Week in NYC Reviews - January 20, 2006

Each Friday, A Guy In New York publishes "This Week in NYC Reviews (TWIR)," with quick links to New York City restaurant reviews and mentions from the previous seven days in blogs, magazines, and newspapers.

Winter Restaurant Week starts January 23 and runs for 2 weeks, excluding weekends: January 23-27, 2006 and January 30-February 3, 2006 ...

Also see our roundup of Michelin 1, 2 and 3 star restaurants with links to reviews ...

For a roundup of DC restaurant reviews from DC food bloggers and media, see This Week in DC Reviews at Hobnob Blog ...

NYC Restaurant inspection results online

• Michael Saul warns: "Before you eat at your favorite restaurant, the city thinks there's something you should read - and it isn't a menu. A new Web site unveiled yesterday by the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene allows diners to know what inspectors found the last time they checked out the kitchens of the city's 21,295 eateries. "New Yorkers obviously love food and they love all information about food that they can get - this is providing more information to people," Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden said yesterday as he announced the site, www.nyc.gov/health/restaurants." ... and has a list of "Golden Apple Award winners" ... "Readers, uh, digest: City restaurant inspectors dish up grades on Web site," NY Daily News, January 19, 2006

• Not a review, but we loved the title and lede from an article by Cynthia Kilian: "Good Nitro, and Good Luck" ... "LIQUID nitrogen isn't just for welders anymore. Some top chefs use it, too." ... "' It's very fascinating stuff,'" said Gilt chef Paul Liebrandt ... next hot culinary trick: oxyacetylene cooking ... welders use it and it's fascinating stuff ... bet WhiteTrashBBQ has some tips ...

• Joe DeSalazar of foodie is moving from gothamist to decentcontent ...

• Lauren Collins asks if 202 is "Restaurant, Bar, Boutique?" ... "Bubble and squeak, an ample casserole of cabbage and potatoes, is like a starch pie, browned on the top and creamy underneath." ... "missing the tuna burger--which, unlike most versions, never comes overcooked and is slathered with guacamole--would be the worse crime." ... 75 Ninth Avenue, between 15th and 16th Streets, 646-638-1173 [NYT | Citysearch]

• The Girl Who Ate Everything had dinner at Soba Koh ... "ordered the early dinner set ($16), which included savory egg custard, soba (hot or cold), a tempura medley, and broccoli rabe" ... "The soba was flat and thin with a light flavor. Of course, it was delicious" ... "loved every piece of tempura" ... "loved" the black sesame pudding ... (previous reviews: NYC nosh (TWIR, November 18, 2005), Salli Vates (TWIR, August 19, 2005)) ... 309 East 5th Street, 212-254-2244 [Citysearch] ... and says "the cakes are ADORABLE!" at the Golden Dragon Boat Cafe and Bakery ... lots of pics of adorable cakes ... 111 Bowery, 212-274-1822

• NYC nosh had dinner at Whym ... "the chopped salad, which here features asparagus, bosc pear, beet cubes, crumbled feta, and a basil vinaigrette ... works and is delicious" ... calamari, "served very lightly battered and dredged with a sweet chili sauce and a touch of harissa ... imports elements of Chinese and Middle Eastern cuisines in equal measure. The result is a genuine winner of a dish." ... stuffed pork chop with polenta "was very well-cooked" ... 889 9th Avenue, between 57th and 58th Streets, 212-315-0088 [Citysearch]

• Robert Sietsema had Greek mountain food at Metsovo ... "anyone who arrives intent on ordering seafood must be crazy, or ignorant of the treasures this joint is capable of." ... "Mountain food depends on sheep and goats for its main courses, and there's nothing better than the baby goat fricassee ($22), which the menu refers to as 'Ali Pasha.'" ... "Lamb Yannina ($19) is another mountain standard. While it looks good on paper, it turns out to be rather dull in execution." ... 65 West 70th Street, 212-873-2300 [MenuPages | NYT | openlist | Citysearch]

• A Guy In New York says the fries at Burke Bar Cafe are "incredible ...crispy, not soggy" ... also liked the margherita pizza and braised spareribs ... (previous reviews: Slashfood and A Hamburger Today (TWIR, December 16, 2005)) ... general web site, Burke in the Box web site, 1000 Third Avenue, 59th Street entrance, between Lexington and Third Avenues, 212-705-3800 [NY | The Strong Buzz | Daily News]

• Pascale Le Draoulec gave 1.5 stars to The Cafe at Country ... "flavor and vibrancy were often left out of the equation and food tasted well, flat. This, despite the many clever and interesting flourishes from the kitchen." ... (previous review: Frank Bruni (TWIR, October 28, 2005)) ... 90 Madison Avenue, at 29th Street (in the Carlton Hotel), 212-889-7100 [MenuPages | Gayot | Citysearch]

• Bergers & More had his first burger of 2006 at Paul's ... the burgers "were 8 ounces of delight ... greasy, flavorful and cooked to our specifications. They also got it right with the bun which was slightly smaller than the burger so you weren't stuck with a boring bun at the end. The shoestring fries were top-notch" ... the milkshake "was mostly milk and little shake" ... 131 2nd Avenue, between 7th Street and St. Marks Place, 212-529-3033 [MenuPages | NYT | Gayot | Citysearch] ... and did not like the sliders at Burke in the Box at Bloomingdales ... "the sliders which at $9.95 include 3 mini-burgers in haute-cuisine style ... looked terrific and tasted terrible. A serious miss." ... earlier in the day is better ... and what about the fries? ...

• Moira Hodgson gave 1 star to Heirloom ... "portobello 'foie gras' ... doesn’t taste in the least bit like foie gras. It tastes like portobello mushrooms, and they are perfectly nice in and of themselves" ... the tofu was "leathery " ... had "a lovely salad of local greens laced with pecans and topped with candied grapefruit on sticks. Another terrific dish was made with grits, smoked hominy, avocado and queso fresco, with a roasted tomato poblano adding just the right note of heat and acidity." ... (previous reviews: Frank Bruni (TWIR, January 6, 2006), Salli Vates (TWIR, December 16, 2005)) ... web site, 191 Orchard Street, 212-228-9888 [MenuPages | Citysearch]

• Veal Cheeks writes that his dinner at Per Se "was the best meal that I have yet eaten in this culinary capital. I will go one step further, before taking a step back. This was my first meal where all complaints deserve to be in small print." ... "failures are in the disposal, not on the tasting menu. The fact that this was the Chef's Tasting Menu, reconceived each market day, made its gaffe-free quality astonishing." ... "We selected the Chef's Tasting Menu: Nine courses composed daily, plus a few extras." ... "At the great restaurants, it is not doing the big things right, but doing the tiniest things astonishingly" ... web site, 10 Columbus Circle, at 60th Street and 8th Avenue, Time-Warner Center, 212-823-9335 [MenuPages | NYT | openlist | Gayot | Citysearch] ... and says that Heirloom "in its current incarnation has much to offer New York diners, but rethinking the menu could make this a destination restaurant, rather than a diverting curiosity" ... "the Stir-Fried Spicy Rice Flour Noodles and Root Vegetable Kimchee, created with broccoli stems, honshimeiji (beech mushrooms), and galangal (ginger-like) teriyaki sauce [was] a happy mixture" ...

• Julia Moskin has an overview of Bukharian restaurants in Rego Park, Queens ... the "kebabs, stews, noodles and dumplings are savory and satisfying" ...

• Mona's Apple likes Pommes Frites, "a specialty shop serving authentic Belgian fries" ... "highlight of PF is the plethora of sauces you can choose from. We tried the sampler of three: parmesan peppercorn, roasted garlic mayo, and "especial" which is onions on top of ketchup on top of mayo. You can't go wrong with either of these." ... web site, 123 2nd Avenue, between 7th and 8th Streets, 212-674-1234 [MenuPages | NYT | openlist | Citysearch]

• Rob Patronite and Robin Raisfeld gave 2 stars to Blaue Gans ... "blutwurstgröstl, or blood sausage, is all crumbly baked goodness, mixed with roasted fingerlings, mounded on a fastidiously molded circle of tangy sauerkraut and sprinkled with fresh grated horseradish" ... "In this unpretentious, urbane context, nothing seems the slightest bit overdone." ... "Pork schnitzel is just as delicately breaded, remarkably light and greaseless." ... "As good as the goulash is, the classic Austrian dish called kavalierspitz-boiled beef shoulder, topped with apple-horseradish relish and served with the velvetiest spinach purée imaginable-is better." ... 139 Duane Street, near West Broadway, 212-571-8880 [NYT | Citysearch]

• Steve Cuozzo asks some of the same questions we had in his Gilt review, "The Ego Has Landed" ... " Chefs don't come more charmingly full of themselves than young Paul Liebrandt, whose argument-starting, 'modern European' creations might easily set you back $250 a head." ... "But will customers whose checks are not picked up by a newspaper spend as much as they would at Daniel, Jean-Georges or Le Bernardin on a cult-figure, 29-year-old chef in a hotel dining room? Because, stripped of its hype, that's Gilt" ... "With magical dishes like ocean trout slow-cooked with clementines and sunchokes, it's even potentially great. But it makes you want to call 911 — and not because its $92, three-course dinner prix fixe comes with $18-$28 supplements. No, it's the shakedown wine list aimed at wow-the-babe high-rollers who won't know what to make of Liebrandt's cooking that made me scavenge like a vagrant to find anything under $200." ...

• David Rosen awards 2 out of 4 stars to Gilt where "Servers descend upon tables with a clumsy attitude that indicates the first sign of troubles to come." ... "Three of the amuse bouches carry descriptions that could be used to describe toiletries. Air, bubbles and foam are respectively employed in combination with the words lemon, oyster and chestnut. Fortunately, the only one that tastes like soap is the lemon air, whereas both the oysters topped with zesty bubbles and the chestnut foam are deliciously appealing." ... "At these prices we expect perfection, and Gilt restaurant is still far from it." .. which is why it only gets 2 stars ... we hope next week is Gilt-free ...

• Andrea Strong had dinner at Del Posto ... "Del Posto offers three things: magnificent design, impeccable service, and yes, phenomenal food. They had me at Posto. Indeed, the Batali-Bastianich Trio has a major success on its hands." ... "The vegetable fritto misto with bagna cauda ($15), a compilation of fried vegetables, is clearly the work of a fry-station genius." ... "salumi misti ($18) is also required eating, a selection of fantastic cured and dried meats served with a surprise" ... "There are 15 pastas to choose from at Del Posto, an overwhelming choice especially when you consider that they all sound amazing. ... The pastas are remarkable." ... "The only issue with the pasta tasting is that the courses are served one at a time, and this can add an hour to your dining experience." ... "The lamb three ways ($30) is a flawless dish" ... "the experience of dining there as a whole—the palatial design, the flawless service, the killer food, and the attention to detail—was extraordinary, unique and quite special." ... 85 Tenth Avenue, between 15th Street and 16th Streets, 212-497-8090 [MenuPages | Citysearch]

• Frank Bruni gave 1 star to Pair of 8's ... "For $25 [Monday's only], Pair of 8's, a modest new bistro that doesn't feel like a comedown from where you really wanted to go, presents you not only with a two-course meal - appetizer and entree - but also with a glass of red or white wine." ... "The chef, Bill Peet, who worked at Lutèce and Café des Artistes, must believe that less is more when it comes to seasoning. It's a religion he should lose" ... "But his most successful dishes are several notches above what you usually find at a neighborhood restaurant." ... "sorbets and ice creams are made in house, and the sorbets in particular (coconut, lemon, passion fruit) are terrific" ... (previous reviews: Gael Greene (TWIR, December 9, 2005), Pascale Le Draoulec (TWIR, December 2, 2005)) ... 568 Amsterdam Avenue, between 87th and 88th Streets, 212-874-2742 [MenuPages | Gayot | Citysearch] ... and tried Dani ... "I was impressed by some of what I ate at Dani, including a thick, juicy pork cutlet with a thin, crisp crust. I was less taken with other dishes, including cavatelli with braised veal cheeks, which was underseasoned." ... 333 Hudson Street, at Charlton Street, 212-633-9333 [Citysearch]

• The Bruni Digest looks at "Pair of 8's: Franklene's Basement" ...

• slice finally got to DeMarco's ... and compares it favorably to Di Fara ... "the DeMarco's slices this weblog had Tuesday night for dinner and yesterday afternoon for lunch were very good approximations of the master's [Dominick DeMarco at Di Fara] craft." ... "a similar well-proportioned balance of crust, sauce, and cheese." ... "DeMarco's is very good. And it's only been open a short while. We suspect it'll only get better" ... 146 West Houston Street, at MacDougal Street, 212-253-2290 [MenuPages | Gayot | Citysearch]

• Twenty Bucks a Day also went to DeMarco’s ... and had a "Pizza Margherita. It’s the simplest Neapolitan pizza out there – just crust, tomatoes, fresh basil, and mozzarella di bufala. It’s also the easiest to screw up – there’s not much margin for error with so few ingredients, and if any of them are off (or out of balance), the pie just isn’t the same. Fortunately, I was in the hands of a chef who was having an extremely good day." ... "The 12” Margherita is the most European pizza I’ve ever eaten in America" ... and had dinner at La Maison du Couscous ... "though it’s a little expensive, the food is worth traveling to try in any weather" ... "The couscous (interestingly also served in a tajine – I have no idea if this is typical) was sweet in an earthy kind of way, with golden raisins, prunes, and dates." ... web site, 484 77th Street, Brooklyn, 718-921-2400 [NY Metro | Go Brooklyn | Village Voice | Citysearch]

• Gael Greene titled his quick review of Gilt "Is it Gilt or just plain brass?" ... web site, 455 Madison Avenue, at 50th Street, 212-891-8100 [NYT | Citysearch]

• The Hungry Rose had dinner at Compass ... "salad of heirloom beets and ruby red grapefruit with Greek yogurt and pistachios ... blew me away ... a terrific combination of ingredients" ... "veal tenderloin ... was a rather large, tough and rather texture-less hunk of meat ... I felt I could find this in a diner" ... "mango mousse ... wasn’t the most impressive dessert I’ve had" ... (previous review: Frank Bruni (TWIR, November 25, 2005)) ... web site, 208 West 70th Street, between Amsterdam Avenue and West End Avenue, 212-875-8600 [MenuPages | openlist | Gayot | Citysearch]

• Amateur Gourmet has a list of the best things he's eaten in the last two years ...

• Big Apple Dining Guide says the 3rd time was the charm for wine at i Trulli ... Bucatini alla Guanciale ... really needs the chili flake. But the pasta was delicious and perfectly cooked. Also, just enough parmagiano." ... "Coniglio - Rabbit roasted in a clay pot with black chickpeas and rosemary ... The essence of rabbit simply wasn't there. The pancetta that wrapped the loin was too rubbery and added little to no flavor." ... "The desserts [Crespelle and Panzerotti] made everything just right for both of us." ... "Overall it was a good dinner. But a bit expensive for what we got. $107.50 before tip." ... web site, 122 East 27th Street, between Lexington and Park Avenues South, 212-481-7372 [MenuPages | NYT | openlist | Gayot | Citysearch] ... had a quick dinner at Petite Abeille: "ordered the Moules Jamaicaines (2 lbs of steamed mussels in a Jamaican curry sauce with apples) which was nothing short of delicious." ... bacon cheddar cheeseburger "was very good as well but the biggest disappointment was the frites." ...web site, 401 East 20th Street, 212-727-1505 [MenuPages | NYT | openlist | Citysearch] ... and had dinner at Cosette ... "escargots came out how I like them: slightly still sizzling (unlike the popping and overbubbling from La Petite Auberge). They were good and had a pleasant but not overly powerful garlic butter which I greatly enjoyed" ... "having tried the cassoulet at Park Bistro, Artisanal and now Cosette within the last few months, I found this to be my least favorite though all were quite different." ... web site, 163 East 33rd Street, between Lexington and 3rd Avenues, 212-889-5489 [MenuPages | openlist | Gayot | Citysearch]

• Joan Reminick visited Ali Baba 2 several times ... "would readily return for the borani badim jam, sliced eggplant cooked in tomato sauce with onion and spices, topped with a creamy dollop of yogurt. Hummus, the thick, garlicky Middle Eastern chickpea spread, was good slathered onto the ridged pita-like house bread. I especially enjoyed the sambuseh, crisp dumplings stuffed with a well-spiced hash of ground beef, vegetables and seasoning." ... 17-19 Broadway, Hicksville, NY, 516-931-7111

• Peter Gianotti gave 2 stars to Four Food Studio ... "Four Food Studio lands on Route 110 with the heat of a South Beach club, the cool of an upscale- downtown restaurant and the impact of an extraterrestrial. There's nothing like it on Long Island." ... "the crisp-tender combo of rock shrimp and calamari with citrusy aioli and the aromatic duck risotto are well done." ... "But steamed mussels turn up dry; and a shared opener of steamed Manila clams, while in savory broth, is overdone, too. The main course bouillabaisse, artfully arranged, is just bland and near soup-free." ... web site, 515 Broadhollow Road (Route 110), Melville, NY, 631-577-4444
  

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New Big Wang Restaurant - Chinese

A new discovery in Fine Cantonese cuisine ... the New Big Wang Restaurant ... no need to order from the menu, simply speak to the head waiter, a very pleasant middle-age man, always smiling (who resembles General Eisenhower) ... ask him to create a menu of the fresh sea-food (Dungerness crabs, lobsters, fresh water sweet shrimps, fish, razor clams), tofu, mushrooms and green vegetables ... the e-fu noodles and roast duck are very good ... BYOW or champagne ...

The breakfast menu is also very good ... with congee, fresh lo-mein, wontons, fried Chinese dough-donuts, BBQ spare-ribs, soy-sauce chicken, squid, and braised tripe or beef ...

... 1 Elizabeth Street, 212-219-3686

P/S: we are going there this Saturday to celebrate the New Year ... with a huge party of 40 adults and children!

Post by Peter

Posted January 19, 2006 08:37 AM  ·  Permalink   ·  Chinatown , Chinese   ·  Comments (0)   ·  TrackBack (0)

Winter Restaurant Week

Winter Restaurant Week starts January 23 and runs for 2 weeks, excluding weekends: January 23-27, 2006 and January 30-February 3, 2006 ... three-course prix-fixe lunches for $24.07 and three-course dinners for $35 ... beverage, tax and gratuity additional ...

Jennifer Steinhauer writes about Restaurant Week meals: "once a diner has added a glass of shiraz, some sparkling water and a side of spinach - not to mention tax and tip - the check swells far beyond what most people think of as economical." ...

In the list below, links are to restaurant web sites or to a MenuPages or Citysearch profile. These links open in a new window.

21' Club, Lunch/Dinner 66, Lunch Abboccato Ristorante, Lunch/Dinner Ada Restaurant, Lunch/Dinner Alfama, fine Portuguese cuisine, Lunch/Dinner Alto, Lunch Angelo & Maxie's, Lunch/Dinner Aquaterra Restaurant, Lunch/Dinner Aquavit (Café), Lunch/Dinner Aquavit (Dining Room), Lunch Arabéllé at the Hotel Plaza Athenee, Lunch/Dinner Arezzo Ristorante Bar, Lunch/Dinner Asia de Cuba, Lunch Asiate at Mandarin Oriental NY, Lunch Atlantic Grill, Lunch Aureole, Lunch Barbetta, Lunch Barbounia, Lunch/Dinner Barca 18, Lunch Beacon Restaurant & Bar, Lunch/Dinner Ben Benson's Steak House, Lunch Bice Ristorante, Lunch/Dinner Blue Fin, Lunch Blue Smoke, Lunch/Dinner Blue Water Grill, Lunch/Dinner Bolo Restaurant & Bar, Lunch/Dinner Bond 45 Italian Kitchen Steak & Seafood, Lunch/Dinner Brasserie, Lunch/Dinner Brasserie 8 1/2, Lunch/Dinner Bread Bar, Lunch/Dinner Butter, Lunch/Dinner Café Boulud, Lunch Café Centro, Lunch/Dinner Café des Artistes, Lunch Café Fiorello, Lunch Calle Ocho, Dinner Capsouto Freres, Lunch/Dinner Carlyle Restaurant, Lunch Caviar & Banana, Dinner Centolire, Lunch Centrico, Lunch/Dinner Chanterelle, Lunch Chez Josephine, Dinner Chin Chin Restaurant, Lunch/Dinner China Grill, Lunch/Dinner Church & Dey at the Millenium Hilton, Lunch/Dinner Cité/Cité Grill, Lunch/Dinner City Crab & Seafood Company, Lunch/Dinner City Hall Restaurant, Lunch/Dinner City Lobster, Lunch/Dinner Coco Pazzo, Lunch Compass, Dinner Craftbar, Lunch Cub Room, Lunch/Dinner Dawat, Lunch/Dinner DB Bistro Moderne, Lunch Dévi, Lunch Django, Lunch/Dinner Dos Caminos, Lunch/Dinner Dos Caminos SoHo, Lunch/Dinner Duane Park Café, Lunch/Dinner Eleven Madison Park, Lunch/Dinner EN Japanese Brasserie, Dinner

English is Italian, Lunch/Dinner Esca Restaurant, Lunch Estiatorio Milos, Lunch F.illi Ponte Ristorante, Lunch/Dinner Fiamma Osteria, Lunch FIVES at The Peninsula New York, Lunch/Dinner Fleur de Sel, Lunch Frankie & Johnnie's Steakhouse, Lunch Frankie & Johnnie's Steakhouse, Lunch/Dinner Gabriel's Bar & Restaurant, Lunch Gallagher's Steak House, Lunch Gigino Trattoria, Lunch/Dinner Giorgios of Gramercy, Lunch/Dinner Gotham Bar & Grill, Lunch Gramercy Tavern, Lunch Grotta Azzurra Ristorante, Lunch/Dinner Gusto Ristorante e Bar Americano, Lunch Hatsuhana Sushi Restaurant, Lunch/Dinner i Trulli, Lunch/Dinner Icon Restaurant - W Court & Tuscany, Lunch/Dinner il Cantinori, Lunch/Dinner Il Giglio Restaurant, Lunch Inagiku, Lunch/Dinner Isabella's, Lunch/Dinner Jean-Luc, Dinner John Villa's Dominic, Lunch/Dinner JoJo Restaurant, Lunch Josephs by Citarella, Lunch/Dinner Jovia Restaurant, Lunch KAI Restaurant, Lunch/Dinner Kittichai, Lunch Le Colonial, Lunch/Dinner Le Perigord, Lunch/Dinner Lenox Room, Lunch/Dinner L'Impero, Lunch Lucy Latin Kitchen, Lunch/Dinner Lupa Osteria Romana, Lunch Maloney & Porcelli, Lunch Mark's Restaurant, Lunch/Dinner Marseille, Lunch/Dinner Maya, Dinner Mercer Kitchen, Lunch Mesa Grill, Lunch/Dinner Métrazur, Lunch/Dinner Michael Jordan's The Steak House NYC, Lunch Moda Restaurant, Lunch/Dinner Molyvos Restaurant, Lunch/Dinner Monkey Bar, Lunch Montebelló Restaurant, Lunch/Dinner Montrachet, Lunch/Dinner Mr. K's, Lunch/Dinner Naples 45, Lunch/Dinner Nice Matin, Inc., Lunch Nick & Stef's Steakhouse, Lunch/Dinner Nino's, Lunch/Dinner Nino's Positano, Lunch/Dinner Nino's Tuscany, Lunch/Dinner Nobu, Lunch Nougatine at Jean-Georges Restaurant, Lunch Ocean Grill, Lunch/Dinner Oceo, Lunch/Dinner One if by Land, Two if by Sea, Dinner Ono, Lunch Opia, Lunch/Dinner Orsay Restaurant, Lunch/Dinner

Oscar's American Brasserie, Lunch/Dinner Osteria del Circo, Lunch/Dinner Palm Too Restaurant, Lunch Palm West Restaurant, Lunch Pampano, Lunch/Dinner Park Avenue Café, Lunch/Dinner Patroon, Lunch/Dinner Payard, Lunch/Dinner Periyali, Lunch/Dinner Perry St., Lunch Pershing Square, Lunch/Dinner Petrossian Restaurant, Lunch/Dinner Pigalle, Lunch/Dinner Pulse at the Sports Club/LA, Lunch/Dinner Rain Restaurant, Dinner Redeye Grill, Lunch Rene Pujol Restaurant Cooperative, Lunch/Dinner Restaurant Thalia, Lunch/Dinner Riingo, Lunch/Dinner Rock Center Café, Lunch/Dinner Rosa Mexicano at Union Square, Lunch/Dinner Roy's New York, Lunch/Dinner Ruby Foo's Times Square, Lunch Ruby Foo's Uptown, Lunch/Dinner Ruth's Chris Steak House, Lunch Salute!, Lunch/Dinner San Domenico NY, Lunch/Dinner Sarabeth's Central Park South, Lunch/Dinner Shelly's New York Steakhouse & Oyster Bar, Lunch/Dinner Shun Lee Palace, Lunch Silverleaf Tavern, Lunch/Dinner Smith & Wollensky, Lunch/Dinner Spice Market, Lunch Steak Frites, Lunch/Dinner SushiSamba 7, Lunch/Dinner SushiSamba Park, Lunch/Dinner Tabla, Lunch/Dinner Tamarind Restaurant, Lunch TAO Restaurant, Lunch Tavern on the Green, Lunch/Dinner Terrace in the Sky, Lunch/Dinner Thalassa Restaurant, Lunch/Dinner The Bull and Bear Steakhouse and Bar, Lunch The Modern - Bar Room, Dinner The Post House, Lunch The River Café, Lunch The Sea Grill, Lunch/Dinner The Water Club, Lunch/Dinner Tocqueville, Lunch Trattoria Dell'Arte, Lunch Tribeca Grill, Lunch/Dinner Trio Restaurant & Bar, Lunch/Dinner Tropica, Lunch/Dinner Tuscan Square, Lunch/Dinner Union Square Cafe, Lunch Vento Trattoria, Lunch/Dinner ViceVersa, Lunch/Dinner Victor's Café, Lunch/Dinner Villa Berulia Restaurant, Lunch/Dinner Vong, Lunch Water's Edge Restaurant, Lunch/Dinner Zoe Restaurant, Lunch/Dinner

Posted January 18, 2006 10:17 AM  ·  Permalink   ·  Restaurants   ·  Comments (0)   ·  TrackBack (0)

Burke Bar Cafe and Burke in the Box at Bloomingdales

Burke Bar Cafe and Burke in the Box at Bloomingdales ... serves a variety of dishes ... including the excellent sliders and incredible fries ... the margherita pizza was excellent ... as were the braised spare ribs ...

The bread basket contains excellent pretzels

Burke Bar Cafe sliders with fries


Burke Bar Cafe sliders with incredible fries - the fries are crispy, not soggy


Burke Bar Cafe fries are excellent - this is the bottom of the container


David Burke bacon flavor spray for use on the sliders - an interesting way to add bacon flavor with 0 calories


Burke Bar Cafe margherita pizza - Excellent! - Adam, come review this!


Burke Bar Cafe braised spareribs - very good


David Burke (r) stopped by - a very gracious host

(previous reviews : Slashfood and A Hamburger Today (TWIR, December 16, 2005))

general web site, Burke in the Box web site, 1000 Third Avenue, 59th Street entrance, between Lexington and Third Avenues, 212-705-3800 [NY | The Strong Buzz | Daily News]

. . . . . . . . .

Technorati Tags: big apple, New York, NYC, New York City, Manhattan, restaurants, restaurant reviews, hamburgers, hamburger, pizza, david burke

Posted January 17, 2006 01:17 PM  ·  Permalink   ·  American , Hamburgers , Mid-Town   ·  Comments (0)   ·  TrackBack (0)

Big Apple Blog Festival - January 16, 2006

Welcome to the Big Apple Blog Festival (BABF), a representative roundup of this week's posts by NYC bloggers.

The Big Apple Blog Festival likes to go on tour, and different blogs host it ... if you have a NYC blog or you blog about NYC and would like to host an upcoming BABF, let us know ... The next BABF, on January 23, 2006, will be hosted by A Guy In New York ...

This week's Big Apple Blog Festival is hosted by Harleys, Cars, Girls & Guitars.

Some excerpts:

• Why do we fear Friday the 13th? Suitably Flip has the answer.

• My colleague in multimedia, nyc stories, announces a two week theater festival based on the life and works of Edgar Allen Poe.

• Living the Scientific Life has been nominated for “Biggest Blog Whore.” Vote once every 24 hours.

• The Tin Man wants to impeach President Bush. “The wiretapping is the last straw.” Ain’t gonna happen. One of the delights of performing my turn as host of this blogfest is that I get to surf so many sights with pictures of men in their tighty whiteys sharing a kiss. You don’t see that at Harley shows.

• Ace of Spades suggests that the way to influence the Muslim world is to pay “… millions of dollars to get broadband internet there and all the free porn we can.” He also reports on the threat that a radical Muslim Iman perceives in the dancing of John Travolta.
  

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The Big Apple Blog Festival is listed on the ÜberCarnival page and in Carnival News.

To nominate your favorite blog post about NYC, or if you have a NYC blog and want to see something in the next BABF ... or you have a NYC-related blog and would like to host an upcoming BABF ... send us a short write up and a permalink to aguyinnewyork [at] gmail.com ... or use the Carnival Submit Form ... see you next week ...

You are free to repost the Big Apple Blog Festival so long as you leave this URL attached: BigAppleBlogFestival.com.

Technorati Tags: big apple, big apple blog festival, New York, NYC, New York City, Manhattan

Posted January 16, 2006 01:07 PM  ·  Permalink   ·  Big Apple Blog Festival   ·  Comments (0)   ·  TrackBack (0)

"Pizza's Next Act"

One of the nation's favorite junk foods is getting a makeover. Thanks to Atkins-style diets, gourmet chefs whose toppings extend as far as sashimi and heavy discounting by the big chains, the independent establishments that account for the majority of pizzerias have been getting squeezed for years. In response, many new places are dedicating themselves to the basics. Instead of stuffed crusts and Thai seasonings, the idea is to focus on pure ingredients: the dough, the cheese, the sauce.

"Pizza's Next Act: Buffeted by low-carb diets and chains that serve pineapple-topped pies, the local pizzerias that still dominate the business are fighting back -- focusing on basics like crust and cheese. Our look at the country's hottest joints," by Katy McLaughlin, The Wall Street Journal, January 14, 2006

According to a sidebar (1-page pdf) accompanying this article, the "pizza places that are getting buzz ["Hot"], as well as highly regarded but more traditional spots ["Classic"]" in New York and Washington, DC are

NYC

• NYC Hot: Pinch-Pizza by the Inch: "Crispy crust, subtle toppings ...unconventional by-the-inch pricing strategy inspired by the way pizza is sold in Uruguay." ... slice says "the pizza was good, and it was fun to get a long, sub sandwich–like slice. The crust was very thin, which is just how I like it. ... One of the few things we found to complain about was the convoluted ordering scheme. The price seems pretty inexpensive until you start adding various toppings willy-nilly." ... gave it a "Six-Slice rating out of a possible eight." ... web site, 416 Park Ave South, between 28th and 29th Streets, 212-686-5222 [Menupages | NY Post | NY Metro | openlist | Citysearch]
• NYC Classic: Lombardi's: "The real deal -- ultrathin-crust pizza made in the 100-year-old coal-fired oven" ... slice's take: "For the purists among us, sadly, Lombardi's has become another frayed page in Gotham's gastronomic history book. As loyal Slice readers know, Lombardi's is the elder statesman of New York pizza. Founded by Gennaro Lombardi nearly one hundred years ago, this is America's original pizzeria (even if it is a few doors down from the patriarch's famed beginnings). ... the pies at the Little Italy pizzeria were uneven." ... 32 Spring Street, between Mott and Mulberry Streets, 212-941-7994 [MenuPages | NYT | NY Metro | openlist | Gayot | Citysearch]

DC

Although we're not pizza experts (see slice) ... Chug made hand-tossed pizzas and "little hats" (a calzone) for 2 years during high school in a pizza place that made everything from scratch ... we wonder why Pizzeria Paradiso wasn't on this list ...

• DC Hot: 2 Amys: "Made with sea salt, Italian plum tomatoes and extra-virgin olive oil. Certified as authentic Neapolitan pizza by the Verace Pizza Napoletanna Association." ... D.C. Foodies says "Two Amys is hands-down, the most wonderful place in DC to get gourmet pizza." ... web site, 3715 Macomb Street NW, 202-885-5700 [Washingtonian | WaPo | NYT | City Paper | food-plan | Don Rockwell | openlist | Gayot]
• DC Classic: Ledo Pizza & Pasta: "A local taste. ... pastry style crust, sweet sauce and smoked provolone - and no mozzarella, ever." ... why didn't they list Pizzeria Paradiso, which has been around for more than a decade, or even Bertucci's? ... web site, 1721 Wisconsin Avenue NW, 202-342-0091 [City Paper | openlist | Citysearch | Gayot]
  
• Pizzeria Paradiso ... Thomas Head: "Pizzeria Paradiso is remarkable for its consistency." ... 2 locations: 2029 P Street NW, 202-223-1245 and 3282 M Street NW, 202-337-1245 [Washingtonian | City Paper | WaPo | openlist | Gayot]
• Bertucci's: "certified by Verace Pizza Napoletana as serving authentic Neapolitan pizza." ... web site, various locations (pdf), [Washingtonian | openlist | City Paper | Citysearch]

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Posted January 16, 2006 08:37 AM  ·  Permalink   ·  Pizza   ·  Comments (0)   ·  TrackBack (0)

How not to get sick on an airplane

According to an ABC News story, the way to avoid getting sick on an airplane is to wrap yourself in a sterilized bubble before boarding ... or don't fly.

Actually, some of the advice is just as impractical: don't sit within 5 rows of anyone sneezing or 3 rows of anyone coughing.

Other suggestions are a bit more under your control: Don't use the lavatory. Don't use the tray table. Use a hand sanitizer. Use a surgical mask. Turn the overhead air on.

The longer you're on a packed airplane, the greater the chance you'll walk off sick.

A lot of travelers blame stale recycled air. But scientists say that's not the problem. Most larger planes now have special systems that filter out germs and let some outside air in.

"The problem is actually your [fellow] passengers that are seated in proximity to you," said Dr. Philip M. Tierno, Jr., director of clinical microbiology and diagnostic immunology at New York University Medical Center. "The closer the passengers are to you the worse it is for you if they have some sort of illness like a simple cold."

"Fliers Must Dodge Hidden Germs: Where Are the Germ Hotspots? Hint: Avoid the Restroom," ABC News, January 14, 2006

The longer you live, the greater your chance of getting sick...

See "Products that promise to keep you healthy on planes," by Conor Dougherty, The Wall Street Journal, January 7, 2006

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Posted January 15, 2006 10:37 AM  ·  Permalink   ·  Tips , Travel   ·  Comments (0)   ·  TrackBack (0)

Travel blogs roundup - January 15, 2006

A Guy In New York is a member of the travel blog network at Blogads, a group of independent travel blogs. Check out some of this week's headlines from the network:

Badeschiff, or Bathing Ship, in Berlin

• Tony Dragonas - best grilled hamburger in NYC? (A Guy in New York)
• Berlin: swimming in a tub (Shortcut)
• The Top Ten Travel Blogs of 2005 (Travel Blogs)
• Morning in London (TravelBlogger.net)
• Brunton Kayak Deck Compass (Treknologies)
• Hotel architecture of Schultze & Weaver (NewYorkology)

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Technorati Tags: New York, NYC, New York City, travel, travel blogs, travel blog network, travel blogs network

Posted January 15, 2006 09:57 AM  ·  Permalink   ·  Travel   ·  Comments (1)   ·  TrackBack (0)

Saturday catblogging

Loco ... wondering where the water went ... but he'll be ready when it comes back!

Life in the City is good ... so many mysteries to solve ...

Technorati Tags: catblogging

Posted January 14, 2006 08:57 AM  ·  Permalink   ·  Catblogging   ·  Comments (0)   ·  TrackBack (0)

This Week in NYC Reviews - January 13, 2006

Each Friday, A Guy In New York publishes "This Week in NYC Reviews (TWIR)," with quick links to New York City restaurant reviews and mentions from the previous seven days in blogs, magazines, and newspapers.

Also see our roundup of Michelin 1, 2 and 3 star restaurants with links to reviews ...

For a roundup of DC restaurant reviews from DC food bloggers and media, see This Week in DC Reviews at Hobnob Blog ...