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Big Apple Blog Festival - February 27, 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 March 6, 2006, will be hosted by A Guy In New York ...

This week's Big Apple Blog Festival is hosted by Suitably Flip.

Some excerpts:

• At Metroblogging NYC, Lisa Beebe managed to find the hands-down scariest theme bar in New York. Even the sign creeps me out. Meanwhile at Metroblogging, Chris Trent is feeling that pang of guilt we all feel when we find ourselves squandering the privilege of living in the Big Apple.

• New York has the most dramatic, most recognizable skyline in the world. But it's far from blight-free. Harleys, Cars, Girls, and Guitars wants to get to the bottom of one of the more pervasive rooftop eyesores.

• Amy at NewYorkology and Pamela at Atlas Shrugs reflect on the 13th anniversary of the first World Trade Center attack, which came to pass this Sunday

• It's hard to screw up a restaurant whose central theme is cheese. Artisanal is one of my favorite gastro-indulgences in the city and the Big Apple Dining Guide gives us a compelling reason to make reservations tonight.

___________________________________

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

Saturday catblogging

Loco ... I may look relaxed ... but I am a killing machine ... especially when it comes to small stuffed cat toys ...

Life in the City is good ... when I have enough toys! ...

Technorati Tags: catblogging

This Week in NYC Reviews - February 24, 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 ...

NYC Restaurant inspection results online

• Waiter Rant liked the service and the fluke at Mary’s Fish Camp ... "My fluke’s encrusted in a thick lightly spiced panko coating which delivers a satisfying crunchy resistance before reaching the moist succulent filet. The fish is served atop a chiffonade of brussel sprouts and bacon, accompanied by mashed sweet potatoes and a side of slow roasted elephant garlic. It’s outstanding." ... web site, 64 Charles Street, 646-486-2185 [MenuPages | NYT | NY Metro | Village Voice | openlist | Gayot | Citysearch]

• A Guy in New York likes Tangra Restaurant ... "the Okra Tangra Masala is a truly outstanding dish" ... 3923 Queens Blvd., Sunnyside, NY, 718-786-8008/8181 [mnemex]

• Augieland gave 1,649,728,211 xings to Xing ... "As for the food, Xing claims it is making Southeast Asian cuisine, and I can pretty confidently say you won’t find food like this in Southeast Asia, unless of course you are in a Western hotel that caters to ex-pats pretending they are enjoying the Far East." ... "What Chef Rexhepi is really doing at Xing is reinterpreting the foods Americans consider Chinese, and in some cases Japanese or Thai. This reinterpretation is very well executed and, in a sea of mundane General Tso’s chickens and spare ribs from a foil bag, fills a huge hole that needed filling." ... web site, 785 9th Avenue, [MenuPages | NY Metro | Citysearch] ... and gave 693 Boobbillian stars to Alto ... "The food is truly great and the restaurant takes it's place among other worldwide greats" ... (previous review: Forbes (TWIR, October 7, 2005)) ... 520 Madison Avenue (entrance on 53rd Street between 5th Avenue and Madison Avenue), 212-308-1099 [MenuPages | NYT | NY Metro | Village Voice | Gayot | Citysearch]

• NYC nosh also went to Xing ... "favorite dishes of the night were the sliced hamachi in mandarin and sweet chili sauce appetizer, an uncooked preparation of soft triangles of white fish that had us and our two table companions wishing for a larger portion." ... "BBQ Chinese Spare ribs [are some] of the most tender pork we’ve eaten in a long while" ...

• Pascale Le Draoulec says the food at Industria Argentina "delivers as many peaks and valleys as the Andes" ... "had the most luck with dishes that were Argentine to their core, starting with the piping hot empanadas 'saltenas' [and] the sopita, a generous bowl of seafood 'chowder' made sweet and thick with Andean sweet corn, or the roasted pumpkin salad with watercress croppings" ... 329 Greenwich Street, between Duane and Jay Streets, 212-965-8560 [MenuPages | Citysearch]

• The Girl Who Ate Everything had a "blackened with cajun mayo burger, which came on an English muffin bun with tomato slices and baby greens toppings on the side" at ZOZO's ... "really liked the soft, chewy English muffin bun and would love it if more sandwiches came that way. One problem I see with this burger is that it's rather small and I think many people could easily eat two...except for $7 a burger (probably more depending on which one you get), people probably won't do that" ... skip the mint milkshake ... web site, 172 Orchard Street, 212-228-0009 [MenuPages | NY Metro | Citysearch]

• Steve Cuozzo asks if you're "weary of buzzy, brand-new restaurants, which are often as dysfunctional as they are hot" ... and recommends 5 "established restaurants where everything actually works" ... Churrascaria Tribeca: "meat roster leapt from 12-15 at a time to 15-18; new entries include skewered grilled duck legs and pork tenderloin" ... 221 West Broadway, between White and Franklin Streets, 212-925-6969 [NY Metro | Citysearch] ... db Bistro Moderne: $50 hamburgers and "delicious, unabashedly French dishes" ... 55 West 44th Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues, 212-391-2400 [NY Metro | Gayot | Citysearch] ... Sushi of Gari: "It's the only place I know where, when you order the night's special sushi combo, you're cheerfully asked, 'Is there anything you don't like?' - and not have it held against you if you say yes" ... 402 East 78th Street, between First and York Avenues, 212-517-5340 [NY Metro | Gayot | Citysearch] ... L'Impero: "it's better now than when it opened" ... 45 Tudor City Place, near 43rd Street, 212-599-5045 [NY Metro | Gayot | Citysearch] ... and Tamarind: "is more seasonally oriented than Indian places where menus read like museum pieces." ... 41-43 East 22nd Street, between Broadway and Park Avenue South, 212-674-7400 [NY Metro | Gayot | Citysearch]

• Rob Patronite and Robin Raisfeld say "fine Israeli dining isn’t an oxymoron" at Miriam ... "it does not shove its chicken into pita pockets but rather arranges it just-so atop the flatbread in the manner of a delicately composed salad. To drive home the point that the kitchen specializes in what the menu describes as 'modern Israeli' cuisine, the chef layers the marinated and grilled strips of chicken over fresh spinach, surrounds it with a piquant moat of mango chutney (amba, to shawarma cognoscenti), and tops it with an oven-roasted tomato." ... 79 Fifth Avenue, at Prospect Place, Brooklyn, 718-622-2250 [Citysearch]

• Leo Carey eats raw chicken and goo at Yakitoti Totto ... "raw chicken is best served with an accompaniment--a marvellously aggressive wasabi, chopped very coarse, or pickled plums that impart a smoky flavor" ... "the strangest thing on the menu is not chicken at all, but seaweed. Forget crispy fried nori or pliant hijiki: mekabu comes in a coating of--there’s no other word for it--goo." ... 251 West 55th Street, 212-245-4555 [NYT | NY Metro | Citysearch]

• Moira Hodgson gave 1 star to Dani ... not impressed with the appetizers, and "Things went further downhill when our main courses arrived" ... (previous review: Frank Bruni (TWIR, January 20, 2006)) ... 333 Hudson Street, at Charlton Street, 212-633-9333 [MenuPages | Citysearch]

• Peter Meehan says dessert has grown up at Room 4 Dessert ... (previous review: Pascale Le Draoulec (TWIR, February 17, 2006)) ... 17 Cleveland Place, between Spring and Kenmare Streets, 212-941-5405 [eGullet | gothamist (pics) | JoonBlog | Citysearch]

• Robert Sietsema reviews two ... Baobab "still rocks. Though the restaurant has pressed the delete button on the palm oil, the bluefish remains well stuffed with herbs, and the orbiting veggies now include cassava, carrots, plantain, eggplant, cabbage, and okra" ... 120 West 116th Street, 212-864-4700 [harlem world news | Citysearch] ... Africa Kine: "lunch features traditional tribal fare, while the evening meal is quasi-French, showcasing wonderful grilled lamb chops (debe, pronounced "dibby," $10), an astonishing eight to a plate; whole grilled porgy with mustard-onion relish; and lackluster chicken brochettes. Still, the most interesting thing we ate were nems. Offered with a fishy-tasting vinegar, these fried spring rolls, bulging with vermicelli and ground meat" ... 256 West 116th Street, 212-666-9400 [DineSite | NY Metro | Veal Cheeks]

• Plate Of The Day disagrees with WhiteTrashBBQ and says Dinosaur BBQ is "great" ... and the plates are "enourmous" ... (previous reviews: WhiteTrashBBQ (TWIR, December 9, 2005), David Rosen (TWIR, December 2, 2005), gothamist (TWIR, November 11, 2005)) ... 646 West 131st Street, 212-694-1777 [NYT | Gayot | Citysearch]

• Mona's Apple said lunch at Dinosaur Bar-B-Q "was a meat-lover's dream" ... and the fried green tomatoes caused her heart to skip a beat ...

• The Hungry Rose ate "'The Big Cheese', a three cheese (Muenster, provolone, Swiss) sandwich with roasted red peppers and garlic, red onions on olive bread" at Say Cheese! ... "but I think I prefer a plain grilled cheese sandwich on that Wonder Bread, even ones with *gack!* Kraft singles" ... 649 9th Avenue, between 45th and 46th Streets, 212-265-8840 [MenuPages | openlist | Citysearch]

• Veal Cheeks writes that at Cru "the simpler the dish, the more satisfying" ... "three small bites, a lovely, startling, inspired one-bite Cubano "sandwich," miniaturism at its finest; a squash truffle with Fontina and cocoa nibs, light on the chocolate but a pleasant starter; and an ordinary goat cheese cup. This trio was followed by a salmon spring roll with creme fraiche, simple, clever, profound, and very satisfying." ... but said "a trio of crudos: Kinme Dai (with Micro Shiso, Red Salt, and Olive Oil), Arctic Char (with Smoked Pepper, Apple, Endive, and Vanilla Oil), and Langoustine (with Green Papaya-Truffle Salad, Gooseberry and Gin Sauce) [were] the most elegant and compelling moment of this winter night." ... (previous review: Augieland (TWIR, February 17, 2006)) ... web site, 24 5th Avenue, at West 9th Street, 212-529-1700 [MenuPages | NYT | NY Metro | openlist | Gayot | Citysearch] ... and had dinner at Babbo ... "With the exception of a failed dessert, the dishes were in the upper quintile: 650 culinary SATs. Yet, not a single dish proved astonishing, although the combination of ingredients - as well as Mario's buzz - indicated that this was the goal. True, my companions and I - tough graders all - did not assay the Tasting Menus (either pasta or 'traditional'). Ignore the buzz, and this is a respectable and amiable restaurant that uses Italian ingredients (and Italian labels) to persuade diners that something 'big' is at work. Yet, at the end the dishes are neither transcendent creations nor sublime Italian renditions." ... (previous review: Big Apple Dining Guide (TWIR, October 28, 2005)) ... web site, 110 Waverly Place, 212-777-0303 [MenuPages | NYT | NY Metro | Village Voice | openlist | Gayot | Citysearch]

• Frank Bruni gave 2 stars to The Orchard ... and notes: "Its menu sticks to English. The kitchen, without a wood-burning oven, is hidden from view." ... 162 Orchard Street, between Stanton and Rivington Streets, 212-353-3570 [Andrea Strong | Gayot] ... and his description of Il Mulino has us scratching our heads as to why it's so crowded ... "But the prices! The swordfish was $55, as was conventionally lovely, unsurprising and unspectacular Dover sole. A side of broccoli rabe was $14, and according to our unspecific check, four desserts plus a double espresso and a cappuccino totaled $85" ... web site, 86 West Third Street, between Sullivan and Thompson Streets, 212-673-3783 [MenuPages | NY Metro | openlist | Gayot | Citysearch]

• The Bruni Digest is enjoying Christmas in February ... "Last week was a shame, a crying shame. Frank Bruni is clearly keeping very close tabs on me, and JUST when (for once!) I get all busy, he launches his massive treasure-trove of satire-hunter’s bounty: his own BLOG. And he throws in for good measure one of the funniest starred reviews in recent memory, where he basically describes the restaurant Telepan as a 17th century Dutch peasant" ...

• Amateur Gourmet had breakfast at Balthazar ... "it's wonderful at breakfast. Not crowded, not noisy, and bright with the morning sunlight, the food is terrific and the prices are way reasonable for such a trendy, hard-to-get-into-at-night sort of place." ... web site, 80 Spring Street, 212-965-1785 [MenuPages | NY Metro | Village Voice | Gayot | Citysearch]

• Kris Ensimger has a list of restaurants near Public Theater, on Lafayette Street between East 4th Street and Astor Place ... Public Theater, 425 Lafayette Street, 212-539-8500 ... Butter, 415 Lafayette Street, 212-253-2828 [Citysearch] ... Colors (previous reviews: Frank Bruni (TWIR, January 13, 2006), Leslie Casimir (TWIR, January 6, 2006)), 417 Lafayette Street, 212-777-8443 [MenuPages] ... Five Points, 31 Great Jones Street, 212-253-5700 [MenuPages | Citysearch] ... Hedeh, 57 Great Jones Street, 212-473-8458 [MenuPages | Citysearch] ... Il Buco (previous review: Eric Asimov (TWIR, October 21, 2005)), 47 Bond Street, 212-533-1932 [MenuPages | Citysearch] ... Indochine, 430 Lafayette Street, 212-505-5111 ... [MenuPages | Citysearch]
  

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Subway MTA map | Straphangers interactive map | schedules | HopStop | Interactive Transit Map

Did we miss your favorite review?

Let us know: aguyinnewyork [at] gmail.com ... we're especially interested in hearing from NYC bloggers ...

Link to TWIR

If you want to place a TWIR logo with a review that was featured, feel free to link to one of the banners on the TWIR page.

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

Tangra for excellent Indian-Chinese food

Tangra Asian Fusion Cuisine opened in late-September, and according to Rob Patronite and Robin Raisfeld is the much-larger branch of Tangra Masala at 8709 Grand Avernue in Elmhurst (menu here) ... Chef-partner Peter Lo is no relation to Peter Lo of A Guy In New York ...

This is a big place, and the food is excellent ...

the Okra Tangra Masala is a truly outstanding dish ...

Tangra Restaurant : popcorn chicken is very popular (every table we saw ordered it), but we thought it was just OK - too much cornstarch


Tangra Restaurant : salt shrimp was excellent


Tangra Restaurant : puffs


Tangra Restaurant : Tangra Masala lamb was also excellent


Tangra Restaurant : spicey green beans were very good

When we left at 10:00 pm or so on a weekday night, large Indian families were still coming in, a real testament to the popularity of Tangra ... conveniently located just across the street from the 40th St./Lowery St. stop on the 7 train.

A mneu from the original Tangra in Elmhust is available from the BridgeandTunnelClub

3923 Queens Blvd., Sunnyside, NY, 718-786-8008/8181 [mnemex]

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Subway MTA map | Straphangers interactive map | schedules | HopStop | Interactive Transit Map

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Technorati Tags: New York, NYC, restaurants, restaurant reviews

Big Apple Blog Festival - February 20, 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 February 27, 2006, will be hosted by Suitably Flip ...

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

Some excerpts:

• 2Blowhards has published so many good pictures of cars recently. Michael Blowhard put up some great pictures of Bugattis. Donald Pittenger wrote a great article, with pictures, about concept cars.
  
• Is it bad manners to clip you fingernails on the Subway? How in the hell else are you supposed to pass the time? Englishman in New York has an opinion.
  
• NPR decided against publishing the cartoons that outraged Muslim fundamentalists on its website. brain terminal calls this “veto-by-murder.”
  

___________________________________

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

People and Animals - photographs by Yann Arthus-Bertrand

Yann Arthus-Bertrand, a French photographer, has taken some fascinating pictures of people and animals ...

PIMPERNEL SIMMENTAL BULL

Whitemine Vampire; accompanied by Laura Morris; owned by Bernard E. Kenney of Leicestershire, England (Royal Show, England)

He has also posted numerous portraits of people of different occupations ...

. . . . . . . . .

Notes to a friend - February 2006

These are some notes for a friend visiting NYC ...

Do not forget to visit the new Abercrombie & Ftich on 56th Street and Fifth Avenue (pic) ... great experience, even for a jaded New Yorker ...

For lodging, I recommend the Embassy Suites at Battery Park (web site, 102 North End Avenue, 212-945-0100), a very good location with a great view of the Statue of Liberty and the harbor ...

Liberty Suite at Embassy Suites, Battery Park, NY

You can take long walks along the Hudson River Park ... the Museum of the American Indian is at the old US Customs house (One Bowling Green), you can take the free ferry to Staten Island and back for a great view of the Statue of Liberty without paying the big fees and all the crowds ... many cafes and restaurants within walking distance ... also the Regal movieplex is next door ... Tribeca, SOHO, Little Italy and Chinatown are all a short walk away ... starting in April, the New York Water Taxi will again offer its hop on hop off pass ...

I can take you to the Nice Restaurant for a covey of quails cooked in two ways ... firstly: a covey of five-spiced rubbed skinless quails deep-fried with their heads included, you will have to suck on all the bones, a very important Cantonese delicacy that we eat for Chinese New Year ... secondly: a boneless, meat only plate of quail meat served with hoisin sauce on lettuce leaves. Yummy ...

Soho / Tribeca / Financial District Restaurants - from Menupages

Post by Peter

"Student 'girlcott' protests Abercrombie t-shirts," by Jimmy Greenfield, NewsDay, November 2, 2005

Technorati Tags: big apple, New York, NYC, New York City, Manhattan, chinatown, Battery Park, travel

Saturday catblogging

Luca ... don't sneak up on me like that ... I was meditating ...

Life in the City is good ... when the humans leave us alone ... after we've eaten of course ...

Technorati Tags: catblogging

This Week in NYC Reviews - February 17, 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 ...

NYC Restaurant inspection results online

• Waiter Rant says Valentine's "night was one of the most lucrative nights I’ve ever had as a waiter" ... and thanks everyone for their prayers and good wishes ...

• slice's "own unscientific research here at the Slice Institute for Pizza Research suggests that if your dearest doesn't like pizza at all, you should consider relationship exit strategies" ...

• Salli Vates recommends Supercore Cafe ... "the marinated ginger-and-radish-topped mackerel [of] which there were three moist slabs. My spinach was smothered in sesame sauce, and there was a nice portion of seaweed-sprinkled white rice. And the latte was terrific." ... 305 Bedford Avenue, Brooklyn, 718-302-1629 [Citysearch]

• NYC nosh recommends the "combination platter, served with six takoyaki and the okonomiyaki of your choice" at Otafuku ... 236 East 9th Street, between 2nd and 3rd Avenues, 212-353-8503 [MenuPages | NYT | NY Metro | Village Voice | openlist | Gayot | Citysearch]

• CityRag says the French Fry-Encrusted Corn Dog is "Possibly the BEST street food EVER invented" ... Seoul, South Korea ...

• Robert Sietsema kind of liked Indo Wok ... "The spiciest and also the strangest thing my pals and I encountered on three visits was beef Mongolian ($12.50). Mantled with crisp fried noodles, the seething crimson stew reeked of vinegar [and] like a vindaloo, it was fiery as hell." ... 106 Lexington Avenue, between 27th and 28th Streets, 212-684-1645 [MenuPages]

• Opinionated About Dining "was looking for an ethereal meal that only a top three-star chef can serve and that is exactly what I got" at Arpege ... 84 Rue de Varenne, Paris, +33 1 45 51 47 33 [food tourist]

• Joshua Bernstein proposes a takeover of McGinn's ... "Trust me: Look beyond looks to find McGinn’s beauty: It’s a blank slate to fill with your friends. All of them. Plus their friends. And their enemies too. Let’s dub this proposed action 'takeoveritis.'" ... 916 Manhattan Avenue, between Kent Street and Greenpoint Avenue, Brooklyn, 718-383-9768

• Pascale Le Draoulec describes Naka Naka as a "bento-box-size gem, literally dwarfed by nearby Morimoto" ... "when my tuna sashimi arrived, artfully arranged with broad shiso leaves, it tasted as though it had ridden a wave onto my plate and landed belly up." ... "I highly recommend the crunchy lotus-root salad, as appealing to the eye as to the tongue, and the pan-fried burdock and carrot slivers (kinpira gobo), one of the tastiest coleslaws I've ever had" ... 458 West 17th Street, between 9th and 10th Avenues, 212-929-8544 [NY Metro | Gayot | Citysearch] ... and was "totally charmed by the white-chocolate "margarita," a martini glass layered from bottom to top with Meyer lemon gelée, white-chocolate mousse, yogurt-tarragon sorbet and coarse apricot salt" at Room 4 Dessert ... 17 Cleveland Place, between Spring and Kenmare Streets, 212-941-5405 [eGullet | gothamist (pics) | JoonBlog | Citysearch]

• Adam Platt says of Gilt: "The food ($92 for a three-course prix fixe dinner) is a comparative bargain" ... "If you order only one dish, however, make it Liebrandt’s foie gras (another $18 supplement), which is encased in a thin membrane of beets, served over a nori tuile, and eaten on segments of brioche toast, which you can spread with truffle butter served in a tiny silver pot." ... (previous reviews: Frank Bruni (TWIR, February 10, 2006), Steve Cuozzo, David Rosen, Gael Greene (TWIR, January 20, 2006)) ... web site, 455 Madison Avenue, at 50th Street, 212-891-8100 [NYT | Citysearch]

• Augieland, after living at Morimoto NYC: Omakase Bar for a week, has a roundup and gave it 903 ryorillian stars ... "if you do not appreciate delicacy and grace in food this may not be the place for you" ... "A big part of the genius of the omakase bar isn't only the creativity that made every single dish completely different, but tying them all together so that they were even better as a whole. Each night had its own flow and its own logic, and at the end of each night the creativity and continuity came together to make it unique and fantastic." ... web site, 88 10th Avenue, between 15th and 16th Streets, 212-989-8883 [Citysearch] ... and had Valentine's Day dinner at Cru ... "the fact that it manages to stay so special, in spite of my being there quite a bit, is a testament to how well its team executes their mission" ... "robiola tart is awesome" ... "Roasted Diver Scallops with Cauliflower-Almond Purée, Wilted Baby Spinach and Hon-shimeji Mushrooms [were wonderfully] golden and crisp on the surface, the scallops were rare enough to maintain their bite." ... web site, 24 5th Avenue, at West 9th Street, 212-529-1700 [MenuPages | NYT | NY Metro | openlist | Gayot | Citysearch]

• A Guy In New York says the xiao long bao (soup dumplings) at Shanghai Cafe "are so good we ordered more ... and don't forget to eat the cabbage leaves" ... (previous review: Robert Sietsema (TWIR, August 26, 2005)) ... 100 Mott Street, between Canal and Hester Streets, 212-966-3988 [MenuPages | Add Your Own Column | Citysearch]

• Steve Cuozzo says of Del Posto and Morimoto: "So far, though, the heralded 10th Avenue showdown of 'Molto' Mario Batali and 'Iron Chef' Matsaharu Morimoto seems a clash, not of titans, but of kitchen crash-test dummies." ... "Squandering bazillions on architecture with scant regard for common sense, both new joints are overbuilt, over-hyped - and at risk of being just plain over." ... "While the great Morimoto himself fussed over Martha Stewart, the rest of us were getting indifferently cut, generic-tasting sushi and rolls." ... (Del Posto previous reviews: David Rosen (TWIR, February 3, 2006)), Andrea Strong (TWIR, January 20, 2006)) ...

• The Hungry Rose enjoyed her dinner at Bistro Du Vent ... "a wild stripe bass with a side of gnocchi in a shrimp-bouillabaisse sauce ... was cooked just long enough to render it soft and flakey which allowed the sauce to shine through instead of the fish" ... 411 West 42nd Street, between 9th and 10th Avenues, 212-239-3060 [MenuPages | NYT | NY Metro | Village Voice | openlist | Gayot | Citysearch]

• Joan Reminick looks at "The ethnic restaurant's dilemma: Keep it real or tone it down?" ... and reviews The Wreck Chowder House ... "enjoyed a special of pecan-crusted mahi-mahi, a felicitous union of fish and nuts that, unlike some nut-encrusted piscine dishes, wasn't the least bit oily" ... "liked the beef satay, burnished strips of well-marinated meat on wooden skewers, served with chimichurri and a ramekin of tamarind peanut sauce" ... 37 Shore Road, Port Washington, 516-767-7878 [AOL Cityguide]

• WhiteTrashBBQ announces "NYC's first BBQ contest - Grillin On The Bay!" ... March 25, 2006, St. Mark Sports Association, Corner of East 18th Street and Avenue Z, Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, 718-769-5374

• Big Apple Dining Guide says i Trulli "is the ultimate first date place in Gramercy/Murray Hill but is well suited for your midweek night out with the wife/girl/boyfriend or even solo dining" ... "fresh pasta was cooked perfectly al dente and the stuffing was very flavorful...the veal making its presence known and not hidden in a veil of spinach" ... web site, 122 East 27th Street, between Lexington and Park Avenues, 212-481-7372 [MenuPages | NYT | openlist | Gayot | Citysearch]

• Gael Greene liked some things at Spiga ... "I can smell, and my mouth senses chocolate adding depth and luscious richness to the gnocchi with porcini and juicy ribbons of wild boar. It’s the hit of the night. A simple mushroom-and-Gorgonzola lasagne, an almost-classic zucchini parmigiana, and garganelli pasta with broccoletti and pig cheek also stand out." ... (previous review: Eric Asimov (TWIR, January 27, 2006)) ... 200 West 84th Street, Manhattan, 212-362-5506 [MenuPages | Citysearch]

• Moira Hodgson gave 2 stars to Blaue Gans ... "The wursts, supplied by a German sausage-maker upstate, are terrific. Weisswurst, bratwurst and burenwurst (pork and beef sausage laced with cheese) come with the most delicate sauerkraut this side of Canal Street, tasting as though it had been braised in champagne." ... (previous review: Rob Patronite and Robin Raisfeld (TWIR, January 20, 2006)) ... 139 Duane Street, between West Broadway and Church Street, 212-571-8880 [MenuPages | NYT | Citysearch]

• David Rosen gave 1.5 stars to Blaue Gans ... "Traditional Austrian dishes such as pork schnitzel and kavalierspitz (boiled beef) benefit from superb potato salad and silky spinach puree respectively" ...

• Andrea Thompson also liked Blaue Gans ... "in the Kavalierspitz, the boiled beef has the perfect texture between tender and mushy, and the creamed spinach turns out to be a bowlful of addictively buttery, neon-green purée." ... but the "most pleasing discovery might be the dessert list" ...

• Peter Meehan likes Stir It Up ... "there wasn't a single dish I tried on any visit that was a clunker. Not that Ms. Gordon's cooking is some unbridled expression of culinary brilliance; better, perhaps, is that it is the carefully considered product of a diligent home cook who happens to be cooking in a restaurant" ... 514 Atlantic Avenue, at Third Avenue, Brooklyn, 718- 643-3716

• Frank Bruni debuted a blog, Diner's Journal, and reviews David Burke at Bloomingdale’s ... he complained that the "Braised short ribs were a perfect example -- dry, dull" ... maybe the kitchen is trying to send Frank a message, because when we had them they were very good ... but what we liked best was this comment by Melvin Snyder: "Mr. Bruni, it’s a good thing for you that Food & Wine’s Pete Wells already published his column about food blogs because you’d effortlessly make his 'tiny empires of boredom' list." ... 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] ... and gives 2 stars to Telepan ... "It shuns trickery and puts its faith in fundamental virtues: its freshness; the pureness or punch of its flavors; the skill with which it's been cooked." ... (previous reviews: Adam Platt (TWIR, February 3, 2006), Steve Cuozzo (TWIR, January 13, 2006), Andrea Strong (TWIR, January 6, 2006)) ... web site, 72 West 69th Street, between Columbus Avenue and Central Park West, 212-580-4300 [MenuPages | Mouthfuls | Citysearch]

• Veal Cheeks says Devi "rides high in comparison with Indian restaurants throughout the five boroughs. I was fully satisfied with what might well have been the best 'ethnic cuisine' of my New York stay" ... "crispy fried strips of okra were magnificent" ... "crab cakes were suffused with pleasure" ... (previous review: Augieland (TWIR, January 27, 2006)) ... web site, 8 East 18th Street, between 5th Avenue and Broadway, 212-691-1300 [MenuPages | NYT | openlist | Gayot | Citysearch]

• The Girl Who Ate Everything "ate nearly everything" at Teresa's ... the pierogies "were full of doughy deliciousness, nor can I pick a favorite because I LIKED EM ALL" ... "gigantic blintzes, oozing with cheesy, fruity delight [were] awesome, soft inside with crispy edges" ... 103 1st Avenue, between 6th and 7th Streets, 212-228-0604 [MenuPages | NY Metro | Village Voice | openlist | Gayot | Citysearch] ... and also liked Tiny's Giant Sandwich Shop ... the "buffalo chicken sandwich ... was delicious" ... web site, 129 Rivington Street, 212-982-1690 [MenuPages | Cheapo Travel NY | Village Voice | openlist | Citysearch]

• Amateur Gourmet says the pizza at 44 & X is "Gourmet pizza. And somewhat reasonably priced at $12 for an individual pie" ... 622 Tenth Avenue, at 44th Street, 212-977-1170 [MenuPages | NY Metro | Citysearch]

• Mona's Apple had dinner at Barca 18 ... "nothing remarkable about either of the appetizers," which were crispy calamari and marinated shrimp ... "The calamari didn't stand out and the shrimp, while glazed in a nice citrus coating, was forgettable." ... "the paella de langosta y camaron [was] enormous and had lobster, shrimp, clams, mussels, chorizo, saffron rice, peas and peppers." ... (previous reviews: Frank Bruni (TWIR, December 23, 2005), David Rosen (TWIR, November 18, 2005)) ... web site, 225 Park Avenue South, between 18th and 19th Streets, 212-533-2500 [MenuPages | NYMetro | Gayot | Citysearch]

• Plate Of The Day says Metro Diner "certainly beats Denny’s any day." ... 2641 Broadway, at 100th Street, 212-866-0800 [MenuPages | yelp | openlist]

• foodie pleads for help ... "After 10 years of reading restaurant reviews with bated breath and careful attention, I have come to loathe the recycled language and random crap that fills many of the reviews and food writing that I read (and write. Ha.) Food and restaurant reviewer, please help alleviate my pain." ... "Thank you, reviewer, for totally overlooking the $20K line cook who spends their entire existence slinging hot pans in order to fade into an oblivion of underappreciation. Also, when was the last time you've heard about sous chefs in a restaurant review? In many cases, those dudes are impacting the quality of the food more than the executive chefs. Get off your lazy asses and find out who they are - you are probably looking at the next executive chef at a trendy new restaurant coming soon." ...

• The Food Section writes, "As restaurants question the inherent value of the Michelin star system, some establishments are even seeking to have their stars removed" ...

• Plate Of The Day had Chinese New Year's dinner at Sweet and Tart ... "favorites from the New Year’s dinner were the garlic fried chicken, the fish and lobster and the Red Bean Soup dessert. The chicken was steam cooked just under tender then rapidly broiled over high heat to produce an extremely crunchy crispy skin." ... 20 Mott Street, 212-964-0380 [MenuPages | NYT | openlist | Gayot | Citysearch]

• Slashfood declares that "The search is over" for the perfect Bahn Mi ... at 5 Ninth ... "What arrived in front of me was bánh mì as art. Roast pork and tendrils of carrot and daikon spilled out of the sandwich that was kept company by a pile of what are surely the best shrimp chips I've ever had. The bánh mì itself was perfect. The crisp baguette shattered, a perfect foil to the roast pork and creamy sweet mayonnaise. The only downside of 5 Ninth's sandwich was the price. At $12, it's not cheap, but it's a price I'm willing to pay to my end my search for a top-notch Vietnamese sandwich." ... (previous reviews: Veal Cheeks (TWIR, February 3, 2006), foodie nyc (TWIR, December 16, 2005)) ... web site, 5 Ninth Avenue, at West 12th Street, 212-929-9460 [MenuPages | NYT | openlist | Gayot | Citysearch]
  

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Did we miss your favorite review?

Let us know: aguyinnewyork [at] gmail.com ... we're especially interested in hearing from NYC bloggers ...

Link to TWIR

If you want to place a TWIR logo with a review that was featured, feel free to link to one of the banners on the TWIR page.

. . . . . . . . .

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

Feb. 16, 2006 - Song's Inn World Premiere or Sarah Bernhardt?

This Thursday night is tough for me because there are so many conflicting events ... I have to decide which to attend for the time-slot!

• Screening at MOMA, February 16, 2006, 8.30 pm ... "Song's Inn" (2004, China) 52 minutes, US premier.
  Directed by Yang Yun. China’s Three Gorges Dam, one of the largest dam projects in history, is scheduled to be completed by 2009. In the meantime, many villages will be flooded to accommodate its construction. This documentary reveals the effects of the dam on townspeople living in a soon-to-be-destroyed Chinese village.
  11 West 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues, 212-708-9400
  
  
• Free lecture, first-come-first-seating, door opens at 6.30pm ... "Sarah Bernhardt: The Art of High Drama" at the La Maison Francaise of NYU, Thursday, Feb. 16, 2006 ... 7:00 pm, Prof. Kenneth Silver and Prof. Carol Ockman. A conversation with the guest curators of the Jewish Museum exhibition devoted to the great French actress (1844 – 1923). 16 Washington Mews, 212-998-8750

• or one of the Free Concerts at Manhattan School of Music ...

decision, decisions ...

Free Concerts at Manhattan School of Music

Upcoming free Concerts at Manhattan School of Music ... tickets are not required ...

Thursday, February 16, 2006

• Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra with Bobby Sanabria, Music Director
  John C. Borden Auditorium - 8:00 PM

• Faculty Recoital Series: Lucie Robert, violin; David Geber, cello; Jeffrey Cohen, piano; Joanne Polk, piano
  Featuring works by: Copland, Strauss, and Dvorák
  Greenfield Hall - 8:00 PM

Friday, February 17, 2006

• Philharmonia: Kenneth Kiesler, conductor; Judy Kang, violin
  Featuring the music of Brahms and Shostakovich. This concert is dedicated to the memory of distinguished bassist, Homer Mensch. Mr. Mensch was a member of the School’s bass faculty from 1980 to 2005. His legacy as a performer, teacher, coach and mentor lives on in all whose lives were touched by him.
  John C. Borden Auditorium - 8:00 PM

Manhattan School of Music, 601 West 122nd Street, northwest corner of Broadway and 122nd Street, Concert Office: 917-493-4428 (directions)

Shanghai Cafe - soup dumplings / xiao long bao

Shanghai Cafe - excellent xiao long bao (soup dumplings)

Shanghai Cafe - 100 Mott Street


the xiao long bao (soup dumplings: on the menu as "Steamed tiny buns with pork") are excellent ...


the braised noodles Shanghai style are very good ... so good that we started eating them before we took a picture ...


the xiao long bao are so good we ordered more ... and don't forget to eat the cabbage leaves ...

(see our post on how to eat a soup dumpling)

(previous review: Robert Sietsema (TWIR, August 26, 2005))

100 Mott Street, between Canal and Hester Streets, 212-966-3988 [MenuPages | Add Your Own Column | Citysearch]

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Technorati Tags: New York, NYC, New York City, Manhattan, chinatown, restaurants, restaurant reviews

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Brooklyn Museum of Art - free first Saturdays

the Brooklyn Museum of Art on the first Saturday of the month is free and provides so much entertainment for the whole community with films, musical concerts, DJ"s playing dance music, and art history lectures.

A rainbow of the whole world can be seen on that evening ... the museum has succeeded to bring into their halls the whole community of Brooklynites with all their children in tow ... what a wonderful sight. A free, safe and peaceful enviroment for everyone to enjoy the evening.

The last time I was there I concentrated on the archeological artifacts of the Egyptians during 3,000 B.C. - 1,000 B.C. ... the Brooklyn Museum has one of the finest collections of Egyptian art in the world ...

Target First Saturdays

Brooklyn Museum, 200 Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn, 718-638-5000 (directions)

. . . . . .

Big Apple Blog Festival - February 13, 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 February 20, 2006, will be hosted by Harleys, Cars, Girls & Guitars ...

DETAILS, DETAILS

• lowercase L risked a run-in with security at the Makor Café ... "Excuse me, sir, what are you taking a picture of?" ... a ClOSE CAll ... a VErY ClOSE CAll ...

• copyranter thinks "journalists who use their middle initial in their byline are self-important Dweebs" ... what if their name is John Smith? ...

  PHOTOBLOGS

• untitlednamedotcom has a picture that will warm you ... Palms in Winter Garden, Battery Park City ...

• WhatISee has a roundup of NYC Photobloggers 6 ...

  WEATHER

• Exit Zero was Blizzard Blogging and has pics of the snow on Sunday ...

• rion.nu also pics ... Two Feet of Winter White Covers Manhattan ...

• Karlo.org has Bethesda Angel in Snow ...

• WhatISee has Night Photos in the Snow ... and Sledding in the Blizzard ...

  FASHION and BEAUTY

• Express Train has a pic of a fashionista in a fur coat waiting for a train ... lucky she didn't run into the all-caps unhinged commenter MEllANY ...

• writersbloc does not like stretch jeans: "Stretch jeans, while hugging every curve and boasting closer fit than their all-cotton cousins, hug a little too well. So well that the lack of gym time shows." ...

• Jolie in NYC says "Sephora.com and Drugstore.com are two of my" favorite beauty web sites ...

  CELEBRITY

• The Dooryard is "not sure if I want to hang around Martha or if I want to be Martha." ...

• My Urban Kvetch, in "An Open Letter to Zach Braff," writes: "We want to believe that our Hebrew homies will date and marry closer to home, but the reality is that once they move to Hollywood, it's all over. Music swells, big-screen kiss, interfaith wedding, the end." ...

  HISTORY

• jewschool says that "the Islamic problem of the State of Israel are not the ones stated, such as the mistreatment of Palestinians (real and exaggerated) or their national aspirations. It is the awesome theological problem presented by the existence of the State of Israel." ... "For instance, most Jews consider the punishment of amputating a thieves hand under sharia law as an example of how Judaism is superior to Islam. The fact that many Jews do not understand that the Torah’s insistence of an “eye under an eye” to be one of economic compensation instead of the frequent Christian misinterpretation of the Torah demanding physical retribution does not diminish their own belief that in practice, for as long as anyone can remember, Judaism did not and does not advocate a punishment of amputation of limbs, even if they are not aware that according to most interpretations the Torah explicitly outlaws executing such a punishment even to gentiles." ...

  POLITICS

• The Dawn Patrol has a "new slogan for the pro-life movement here: 'Life. Inflict it.'" ...

• The Politburo Diktat declares that the War in Iraq "shouldn’t even be called a war, maybe a war-let." ...

• Dave Friedman's Soul of Wit has another example showing "that politicians love nothing more than cosmetic fixes to intractable problems" ...

• The Daily Gotham said about Dick Cheny accidentally shooting a fellow hunter, "Don't just treat this as a hobby, Dick. Go pro." ...

• Asymmetrical Information declares that budget "deficits are not doing anything bad to the economy now; if they are having any noticeable effect, it is probably keeping the housing bubble from further inflating, which is to my mind a very good thing indeed." ...

• Yet another weird SF fan declares, "You have a right to life if your death can be somehow blamed on capitalism." ...

  SINGING, ACTING, DANCING, MUSIC

• A Guy In New York reports that jazz legend "Benny Golson is 77 years old and he is still very good, healthy, full of humor and life!" ...

• Night After Night says Wade Schuman is "a musician to be reckoned with. Pulling out a harmonica, Schuman played an unaccompanied solo of stunning imagination and skill. He made the tiny instrument sing and growl; he blew multiphonic lines punctuated by sharp, percussive pops. During one stretch, he created a doppler-like effect; the closest comparison I could make would be a speeding train winding through a hilly countryside, the sound shuttered by trees and swallowed by the occasional tunnel" ...

• Harleys, Cars, Girls & Guitars says "If it ain’t the truth, it ain’t the blues" ...

• Clareified has her list of "Top 20 Greatest Movies of All Times" ... there must be a mistake ... I don't see "Hulot" in any of those titles ...

• Liberteaser has a warning for "all you filmmakers out there. If you get a call from 'Stacy,' hang up. Quickly. Unless, of course, she's taken out that personal loan." ...

• Suitably Flip gives "Two idolatrous thumbs up" to Showtime's Sleeper Cell ...

• Ragged Thots explains "why SNL isn't as funny as it was 'back in the day.'" ...

• listen. says that "the multi-cultural polystylism of Golijov, whose Ayre has received reviews both rapturous and reserved--is not the future. It is a future, one of a thousand stylistic flowers that will bloom." ...

• An Unamplified Voice believes that Placido Domingo's conducting "of the current Met run of Rigoletto ... seems a very, very poor deal indeed for the house, but even worse for its patrons." ...

  DOT COMS

• Amy's New York Notebook reports that Amazon has "more than 1,500" product wikis ...

• Dave Friedman's Soul of Wit and says "Google bulls are partying like it's 1999" ...

  OFFENSIVE CARTOONS

• Atlas Shrugs comments on the "offensive cartoons" [Ed., link here], "Most U.S. newspapers have opted not to publish the images. These are the same newspapers that sued the federal government for the right to run the dead floating bodies in the Katrina afternmath. But run the hundeds of bodies hitting the ground after throwing themsleves out of the World Trade Center? Never" ... and notes that "Cartoon rioting continues unabated across the world" ...

• elvira black declares that "calls to 'understand' how 'deeply offended' the Danish cartoons depicting Mohammed are to Muslims-- frankly offends me to the point of fury. The reasons for this are, literally, graphically clear. The source of my rage is not hard to locate--it is readily available on websites which offer up the richly perverted tradition of antisemitic cartoons and televised antisemitic and anti-American propaganda disseminated throughout the Muslim world on a regular basis." ...

• Mister Snitch! looks at "Daniel Schorr's free speech problem" ... we didn't realize Schnorr is still around ... and has a link to the "Anonymous Muslim Man Complaint Box" ...

• Brain Terminal declares: "To a frighteningly large number of people on this planet, freedom is the enemy." ...

• The People's Cube reports that "Western terror labs have finally produced a weapon so horrific that it has shaken Islamic world to the core, making over a billion people from Morocco to Indonesia fear for the survival of their freedoms, morals, beliefs, cultures, governments, and the very life itself." ...

• Alarming News notes the comparison of "the Muslim rioting over a cartoon to Christian anger over the removal of 'Christmas' from American life. Gib says it best in Clarified's comment section: 'I once called the Danish embassy during December. They said 'Happy Holidays.' So I burned it to the ground.'" ...

• Englishman in New York says "Denmark’s Crime Is Ignorance Not Malice" ... uh, what crime? ...

  TRANSPORTATION

• Bridge and Tunnel Club blog comments on the NYPD puchase of muscle cars that "it is absolutely necessary to be able to attain speeds of 150 mph while patrolling the wide-open streets of Manhattan" ... New York Hack: do cabs go that fast? ...

  CRIME

• Bridge and Tunnel Club blog notes the first undercover kitten, used to arrest a "a back-alley, unlicensed veterinarian" ...

• Cake or Death?'s headline about the 16 year old kid who stabbed his mother 111 times: "‘Cause 110 Just Didn’t Get The Job Done" ...

• Ace of Spades says "FEMA Aid Fraud [is] rampant" ...

  LAWYERS

• opinionistas has "a list of observations from an experienced legal secretary" ... our favorite: "15. You don’t know how to spell demurrer." ...

  ANIMALS

• Express Train has a pic of a fashionista in a fur coat waiting for a train ... lucky she didn't run into the all-caps unhinged commenter MEllANY ...

• Living the Scientific Life (Scientist, Interrupted) reports that the "Lost Bird of Paradise Found, In Paradise" ... by "the recent Conservation International (CI) expedition to Indonesia. This month-long expedition was the brain child of scientist and CI vice president, Bruce Beehler" ... check the post for many pictures and lots of interesting details ...

• 10,000 Birds writes about the CI expedition to Indonesia: "sometimes we have bad days when we lose a bird forever and sometimes we have good days where we discover a long-lost friend or a brand-new one. With the recent discovery of a whole bushel of species in a remote part of Papua New Guinea in eastern Indonesia, we've just enjoyed an extremely good day." ...

  FOOD

• eat drink one woman reports that James Oliver Cury orders in "from Doyer’s Vietnamese and Café Habana when we are too busy, or tired, to cook" ...

• NYC nosh says Rice Krispie Treats are "everywhere, pre-cut into hefty bars, gussied up with sleek sans-serif logos, and stickered with a price tag that might make Snap, Crackle, and Pop blanch" ...

  LOVE

• Greasy Guide has the exclusive "Greasy Guide to Valentines Day 2006" ... hmmm, somehow "Chocolate Guide to Valentines Day 2006" sounds better to our ears ...

  I CAN MAKE THAT!

• CaiLun.info turns his book making skills to a business card holder ... he could sell tons of those ...

• the daily isolato is "totally addicted to" Paper Doll Heaven ... "My only criticism is that the wardrobe selection is not as humiliating as I would like." ...

• The Urban Grind has a pic of "Another Interesting Japanese Invention" ... looks good to us ...
  

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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

Good Malaysian food in San Francisco

We went to San Francisco for a trade show last week where we exhibited. Stopped in Daly City, just 4 miles south of SF on the way in and had a delicious Malaysian lunch at Banana Island with Roti Canai, squid, Hianese Chicken and Lady Fingers (311 Lake Merced Blvd., Daly City, CA, 650-756-6868), before checking into our hotel.

Had some real Spanish tapas the first night there - Bacalao, Serrano ham, Blood sausage, Butternut Squash Gratin at a place called Ramblas on Valencia. Did Le Colonial for some upscale Vietnamese, Kokkari for lambs tongue and some of the best Octupus and Greek food and wine that I have ever had, Slanted Door for oysters and more upscale Vietnamese, Japanese Dinner at Mifune and Japanese Breakfast at the hotel (after the show we moved to a hotel in Japantown), Korean, more Malaysian at Penang Garden at 728 Washington Street, 415 296-7878 in Chinatown (a tasty Duck and squash curry), Dim Sum at Canton Seafood and Dim Sum, 655 Folsom Street, 415-495-3064, and Moroccan at a place called Marrakech near Union Square which had a decent rabbit dish, and show (but was more of a tourist trap), and a nice Pot au feu with duck and pigeon at the market on the Embarcadero.

From an email to Peter from Cindy and Mark

. . . . . . . . .

Benny Golson and The Juilliard Jazz Orchestra

last Thursday evening, I heard Benny Golson and The Juilliard Jazz Orchestra perform all his old tunes:

• Blues March - listen on Amazon
  
• Stablemates - listen on Amazon
  
• I Remember Clifford - listen on Amazon
  
• Whisper Not - listen on Amazon
  
• Five Spot After Dark
  
• Killer Joe - listen on Amazon
  
• Along Came Betty - listen on Amazon

and a World premiere of his new composition, ABOVE AND BEYOND with Victor Goines playing the solo parts.

The conductor and composer, Benny Golson, is 77 years old and he is still very good, healthy, full of humor and life! His orchestral composition is very enjoyable, exciting and full of suprises in the music. The twist and turns in the compositions were very good.

The Juilliard Jazz student musicians were swinging with great rythym and pace. Some great solos by the trumpets, guiter, piano, flugelhorn and trumbones.

I sat on the third row and saw everything so clearly. Simply amazing and a free concert.

I loved the performance, tap my feet, swing my head and made me so happy ...

More

• BennyGolson.com
• "The Musical Eloquence Of Benny Golson," by Loren Schoenberg, The Julliard Journal Online, February 2006
• "Setting Standards: Jazz Legend Benny Golson Sees His Legacy Grow During His Twilight Years," by C. Andrew Hovan, all about jazz, January 23, 2003
• "A Conversation with the Great Benny Golson," by Paula Edelstein, all about jazz, December 2000
• "Juilliard Forms its First Jazz Orchestra," stereophile, June 3, 2001
• "Golson and Trane Dissed in Philly (circa 1944)," by Bob Jacobson, all about jazz, February 1999
• The Juilliard School, Calendar of Events
• Juilliard Jazz Orchestra, upcoming free events

The Juilliard School, Alice Tully Hall, northwest corner of Broadway and West 65th Street, 212-769-7406

Post by Peter

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Photographs - at Christie's

Exhibition of photographs at Christie's, Rockefeller Centre, New York, this week-end ... worth a detour ...

Photographs by Ansel Adams, Helmut Newton, Edward Curtis, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Peter Beard, Irving Penn, Marion Post Wolcott, and others ...

• Sale 1625, Lot 208, Marion Post Wolcott (1910-1990), Belle Glade, Florida, 1939

• Sale 1625, Lot 206, Edward S. Curtis (1868-1952), Fish Weir Across Trinity River, c. 1923

• Sale 1625, Lot 30, Alfred Stieglitz (1864-1946), 3 photogravures from Camera Work, Number 36, 1911

• Sale 1625, Lot 17, Edward S. Curtis (1868-1952), Sioux Warrior, 1904

• Sale 1625, Lot 3, Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908-2004), Hyères, 1932

• Sale 1625, Lot 6, Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908-2004), Sale of Gold in the Last Days of Kuomintang, Shanghai, China, 1949
  

Exhibition:

• Sunday, February 12, 2006, 1:00 pm - 5:00 pm
  
• Monday, February 13, 2006, 1:00 pm - 5:00 pm

Sale, No. 1625, February 14, 2006, 10:00 am & 2:00 pm

Christie's, 20 Rockefeller Plaza, 212-636-2000

Please note that links to auction items usually stop working within 30 days after the auction concludes ...
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Saturday catblogging

Loco and Luca ... we both fit! ... Ha!

Life in the City is good ... we can surprise lots of mice from up here ...

Technorati Tags: catblogging

This Week in NYC Reviews - February 10, 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 ...

NYC Restaurant inspection results online

• foodite had 26 dim sum dishes at Ocean Jewels Seafood Restaurant: "I will never eat Dim Sum in Chinatown again. I'm a Flushing Dim Sum convert." ... 13330 39th Avenue, Flushing, 718-359-8600 ... sounds like a place we've got to try ... also check out their reviews of DeMarco's ... and Tebaya ...

• Veal Cheeks says Brasserie Les Halles "strives for adequacy. It usually achieves its goal, creating a thoughtless cuisine. The usual failings of a misbegotten restaurant were muted."... "Les Halles has figured out just what it must do to get by. It is the slacker of New York City bistros, skating by on roguish charm and good looks." ... web site, 411 Park Avenue South, at 29th Street, 212-679-4111 [MenuPages | Gayot] ... and says "Wallsé is Aquavit on Strudel" ...

• A Hamburger Today says the burgers are expensive at Houston's, but "the quality of the food was far superior to anything served at Bennigan's or Applebee's or any of those chain-monsters" ... "will win no points for originality, but they used top-shelf ingredients and cooked them as requested" ... 153 East 53rd Street, at 3rd Avenue, 212-888-3828 [MenuPages | Citysearch]

• NYC nosh revisited Grand Central Oyster Bar ... Manhattan clam chowder had "substantially meaty pieces of clam were in evidence, yet there was also something metallic and amiss" ... "loved the chewy and well-fried Ipswich clams in my clam platter" ... but in the squid salad "some of the squid had dried out substantially and none of it was tender; Nosher described eating the rings ‘as like chewing my way through a plate of something you might buy at an office supply store.’ Unfortunately, there was also too much red onion and barely any of the advertised purple basil." ... web site, Lower Level, Grand Central Station, 89 East 42nd Street, 212-490-6650 [MenuPages | NYMetro | Citysearch]

• Forbes gives Green GOs to Le Périgord: "excellent foie gras and rack of lamb, superb Dover sole and tempting desserts."... web site, 405 East 52nd Street, at 1st Avenue, 212-755-6244 [MenuPages | NYT | NY Metro | openlist | Gayot | Citysearch] ... and Cookshop: "Strip steak, pasta and scallops are all perfectly prepared" ... (previous reviews: Veal Cheeks (TWIR, February 3, 2006), Andrea Thompson (TWIR, December 16, 2005), Frank Bruni (TWIR, December 2, 2005), Hal Rubenstein (TWIR, November 18, 2005), Andrea Strong (TWIR, November 11, 2005), NYC Nosh (TWIR, October 14, 2005)) ... 156 10th Avenue, at 20th Street, 212-924-4440 [MenuPages | Citysearch] ... and a Yellow CONSIDER to Mainland ... (previous reviews: Frank Bruni (TWIR, September 23, 2005), Adam Platt (TWIR, September 9, 2005), David Rosen (TWIR, August 26, 2005) and Gael Greene (TWIR, August 12, 2005)) ... 1081 Third Ave. between East 63rd and 64th, 212-888-6333 [MenuPages | Citysearch]

• Salli Vates took her grandmother to Via Quadronno ... "Although the tartini were small, they did not skimp on sweet crabmeat or a blanket of sparkling fresh salmon roe." ... web site, 25 East 73rd Street, 212-650-9880 [MenuPages | NYT | NY Metro | Citysearch]

• Robert Sietsema writes that Los Dos Molinos, "the offspring of a celebrated Arizona chain," is "More than just margaritas" ... "Adovada ribs [are] stewed with chiles till the meat falls off the bone" ... "This is peasant cuisine par excellence, and the café doesn't give a hoot for austere modern notions about plating." ... "Other bargains on the menu include enchiladas, tostadas, and taco salads" ... 119 East 18th Street, between Irving Place and Park Avenue South, 212-505-1574 [MenuPages | NYT | NY Metro | openlist | Gayot | Citysearch]

• Joshua Bernstein likes the hot dogs at Port 41 ... and the back room, which is "a wide-open brick room filled with dart boards and three beauties: tournament-size pool tables perpetually 100 percent free." ... 355 West 41st Street, at Ninth Avenue, 212-947-1188

• Gael Greene says David Burke at Bloomingdale's "needs only a few therapeutic drop-ins from its peripatetic star chef." ... and wonders "what day the kitchen grilled the bird that’s on my chicken BLT with sweet garlic. It’s almost fossilized. Not that I wouldn’t come back." ... (previous reviews: A Guy In New York (TWIR, January 20, 2006), 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]

• Peter Meehan says the roasted tomato soup at Giorgione 508 "deftly straddles soupiness and pulpiness, a dollop of ricotta adds a suave creaminess and a faint tang, and a few spoonfuls of aromatic basil pesto push it over the top. If only they could figure out a way to can that." ... 508 Greenwich Street, at Spring Street, 212-219-2444 [NYC]

• Frank Bruni says Table XII "is defiantly retro and proudly old-fashioned, in terms of both its food and its setting." ... "Ravioli filled with porcini mushrooms were earthy, rich and expertly cooked. Lemon spaghetti, a recurring special, had butter, cream and the scary-exhilarating richness of an alfredo, but it also had lemon juice and lemon zest, which together cut through the clog and sharpened the dish. We loved it." ... web site, 109 East 56th Street, between Park and Lexington Avenues, 212-750-5656 [MenuPages | Citysearch] ... and gave 2 stars to Gilt: "not as intent on gadgetry and eccentric flavor combinations, but ... remains too invested in intricate constructions, with so many facets they fatigue." ... (previous reviews: Steve Cuozzo, David Rosen, Gael Greene (TWIR, January 20, 2006)) ... web site, 455 Madison Avenue, at 50th Street, 212-891-8100 [NYT | Citysearch]

• Steve Cuozzo discovers that the "food at my favorite upscale Mexican restaurant was "cross-contaminated." The cheap-eats chain that most grosses me out is cleaner than some places where I lunch in the glittering heart of Midtown." ... he found NYC Restaurant inspection results online ...

• Augieland continues living at Morimoto NYC ... "Omakase bar night 3" ... "Omakase bar night 4" ... "Omakase bar night 5: Night five and no repeats yet I am starting to worry Morimoto's creativity will out last me." ... "Omakase bar night 6" ... web site, 88 10th Avenue, between 15th and 16th Streets, 212-989-8883 [Citysearch] ... and likes the honest cooking at Ureña, which is why he gave it "862 squigzillian stars" ... "In New York City these days it is strange to feel a childlike ambition in a restaurant opening. Designers and publicity machines manipulate everything." ... "There is no new ingredient or trendy preparation in his dishes, just confidence, skill, and a unique instinct for pairings and combination of techniques." ... was delighted with "simple amuse bouche composed of black pepper wafers sandwiching cream cheese and a white anchovy filet, on a reduced sherry vinegar and basil oil" ... liked the steamed lobster with pickled rhubarb, braised chicken breast, seared duck breast ... "I’m sure one day soon a buzz will follow, but right now it is all about the food, and the food is good. I recommend going sooner rather than later." ... 37 East 28th Street, between Lexington Avenue and Park Avenue South, 212-213-2328 [NY Metro | Citysearch]

• The Girl Who Ate Everything had a Restaurant Week lunch at Union Square Cafe ... the garlic potato chips "flavor was just right" ... "I was very happy with my entree ... Roasted Monkfish with Lentil-Mushroom Ragoût, Preserved Meyer Lemon, and Rocket " ... "one of my most enjoyable eating experiences in NYC" ... web site, 21 East 16th Street, between Fifth Avenue and Union Square West, 212-243-4020 [MenuPages | NYT | NY Metro | Village Voice | openlist | Gayot | Citysearch]

• Andrea Strong found "a killer meal" at The Orchard ... 162 Orchard Street, between Stanton and Rivington Streets, 212-353-3570
  

____________________________________

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Did we miss your favorite review?

Let us know: aguyinnewyork [at] gmail.com ... we're especially interested in hearing from NYC bloggers ...

Link to TWIR

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. . . . . . . . .

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

J.M. Family Noodle Restaurant - Chinese

J.M. Family Noodle Restaurant ... 23 Catherine Street, Chinatown ...

J.M. Family Noodle Restaurant ... 23 Catherine Street, Chinatown

J.M. Family Noodle Restaurant ... shrimp dumpling noodle soup - perfect on a cold winter day

previous post: Delicious Whole Fish - J.M. Family Noodle Restaurant

23 Catherine Street, between Henry and East Broadway, 212-571-2440 [MenuPages | Citysearch]
____________________________________

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Big Apple Blog Festival - February 6, 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 February 13, 2006, will be hosted by A Guy In New York ...

NYC Photobloggers 6 ... Friday, February 10, 2006, 6:30 pm, Apple Store, 103 Prince Street, at Greene

WORDS OF WISDOM

• Sexless In The City has some advice ... "lead an interesting life, and you tend to meet interesting people. Focus more on what you can do for others than how well they meet your needs, and sometimes you might be surprised how well you are provided for." ... sounds right to us ...
• Jewschool profiles Doc Hollywood, i.e., Dr. Neil Shulman ... who gets it right when he says, "life is a dash between two numbers on a tombstone, [and] everybody should enjoy that dash." ...
• Best Of The Web says "Folk Marxism leads a Jew to applaud the murderers of Jews, and a Christian to condone violence even while claiming to abhor it." ...

  SPORTS

• 10,000 Birds predicted a win for the Steelers ... "In 39 Super Bowl match-ups from 1967 to 2005, only once has a football team named for a bird emerged victorious. The Baltimore Ravens crushed my beloved New York Giants in Super Bowl XXXV (2001) to become football's finest feathered franchise. Teams named for Homo sapiens just do better in this game. In an astonishing 27 of 39 contests, an organization named for a meat (not cheese) packer, chieftain, cowpoke, steel worker, indigenous American, gold miner, U.S. nationalist, or some species of pirate has won it all." ...
• The New SteveSilver.net states "There's a lot of hatred for Donovan [McNabb] around here, and all of it is more or less equally irrational." ... agreed ...
• MetsBlog.com agrees that "when the football season ends, we don't count the days until fall arrives, we countdown the days until spring training" ...

  419 SCAMS

• Suitably Flip is "a sucker for a good Nigerian 419 scam" ... lots of good 419 scam-the-scammer stories at 419 Eater and SCAM o RAMA - "The Lads from Lagos" ...

  POLITICS

• Ragged Thots says "Were I a Democrat voter, I'd be furious right now. If the party's handling of the Samuel Alito nomination is indicative of how it plans to convey its beliefs and 'values' over the rest of the year, then it is facing a very long election season in the fall -- despite all the political gifts (Libby, Abramoff, DeLay, Iraq) the GOP has been offering up on a silver platter." ...
• The Tin Man agrees with Nancy Goldstein that "Effective immediately, the Democrats will be known as the lyin’-ass boyfriend party - the perfect date for progressive voters looking to be stood up, bullshitted blind, or left holding the tab." ...
• Third Avenue is pleased that the House of Commons "voted down the government's attempt to outlaw religious hatred by a majority of 10" ...
• Miscellaneous Objections liked the captions CNN used for "the Cindy Sheehan / State of the Union / arrested over a t-shirt story" ... and asked: "Why is William Shatner giving the Democratic response?" to the State of the Union speech ... because they missed James Traficant saying "Beam me up"? ...

  SINGING, DANCING, and ACTING

• BounceFM invites you to "Join the FRESH FRUIT gang this month for their PRE-VALENTINE'S DAY passion fruit flurry. On the decks with be the one and only QUENTIN HARRIS spinning all his new productions, plus the old foot stompin' favorites we all love!" ...
• Cafe Aman says Osvaldo Golijov's opera Ainadamar is "an effective and powerful piece of theater" ...

  LIFE OF THE MIND

• Jossip says a "parody spread is a good idea, though. Maybe N+1 could do a doctored spread on 'Women you will never see reading,' and doctor photos of Paris Hilton and Jordan with copies of War and Peace. Those nerds would totally lock themselves in the library for hours." ... but it would be better if the covers of War and Peace were upside down ...
• Harleys, Cars, Girls & Guitars reports that Pamela of Atlas Shrugs "was just voted Infidel Babe of the Week. She also won the Infidel Bloggers Alliance Golden Balls Award" ...

  TRANSPORTATION

• New York Hack is "really starting to believe there is something wrong with French people. Most cabbies know that the second they hear a French accent, it means there will be no tip" ... when we drove a cab, the worst tippers were airline pilots ...
• gridskipper NY describes the new P2P Circulator as "NYC-Philly Buses Now with 50% Less Chinatown" ...
• spinachdip nyc is glad he took the Chinatown bus to DC "this weekend and not the weekend before: 'Passengers were left completely befuddled as officers removed them from one bus and stopped the boarding of another. At least four buses were seized. The driver of a fifth bus ran away before police could inspect it, leaving his bus behind.'" ... I hate it when that happens ... our trips on the DC-NYC bus have been uneventful ...
• The Daily Dump was late for work "so when I got to the subway station and heard that a train was coming in, I ran down the stairs, through the turnstile and, to my surprise, saw that the subway car right in front of me was practically empty. My station is usually so crowded at rush hour that when a train rolls up you see the faces of the people inside the car pressed up against the windows like a cartoon." ... now, why do you suppose the car "was practically empty"? ...
• The Daily Gotham appears to have turned into a listing service for "Staten Island Defensive Driving Classes" ...
• Citizen Journal is not happy about the coming of cell phone service on the subway ...
• lowercase L complains that "It's hard enough navigating through the streets of Manhattan, with all the potholes, pedestrians, messengers, traffic and construction. Throw in a sign for a ClOSED street and one could easily get lost in confusion." ...

  PHOTOGRAPHS

• Right Moon? posts pics of her new baby girl ...
• joe's nyc has a pic of "Mary O'Garrim / Bart Balladeer / Requests Welcome" ...
• Ari Goes Down has a pic of Michael Jackson .. in a burqua? ... that guy is so weird ...
• WhatISee has a nice shot of the sunset in New Hope ...

  CULTS

• Brain Terminal analyzes Hollywood bravery and risk-taking ... "it is not a risk to say what everyone around you is saying. It is not a risk to put out a film with a perspective shared by all your friends. That's easy. What would be risky is if someone in Hollywood got behind a film that they didn't agree with, one that they knew most of Hollywood would disagree with. That would take balls." ...
• Sweet Blog o' Mine is starting to think David Allen's Getting Things Done is a cult (see 43folders) ... but liked the CLE credits ...
• Kevin McCullough reports "On The MuscleHead Revolution broadcast in New York just moments ago Saddam's former Air-Wise Marshall, Air Force General (number 2 in the Iraqi air-force) Georges Sada revealed where the illusive Weapons of Mass Destruction WMD's disappeared to prior to our liberation of Iraq. As it turns out Saddam used 747's and 727's and caused people to believe that they were being filled with humanitarian aid for Damascus victims of a dam break. In reality the specially equipped planes ran 56 flights from Baghdad to Damascus to airlift, raw materials as well as refined weapons." ...

  TECHNOLOGY and INTERNET

• mister snitch! posted "A compilation of the best [blog] posts we (and our readers) could find, from 2005" ...
• Letters from NYC discusses tools for your cell phone from Yahoo Mobile Tools and Google Short Message Service ...
• Miscellaneous Objections says that "A lot of people seem to Google the phrase "naked cowboys." A disproportionate number of them end up here." ...
• Clareified notes that "Western Union quits sending telegrams" ...
• Asymmetrical Information had "An unhappy accident" ... she "accidentally accepted a blogad for a website I will not link" ..

  GRATITUDE

• BuzzMachine has a commenter from New Orleans thanking WalMart, CraigsList, and Google ...
• Manhattan Transfer's "Girlfriend Left Me For A Dishwasher" ... and asked him: "do you mind coming by and sitting around my new place and waiting for the cable guy to come on Tuesday. I've got to work, and it's not like you're doing anything." ...

  ANIMALS

• Living the Scientific Life has moved her blog ... and bought a space-age farm ...
• CityRag has a pic of "Paris Hilton's noticeable similarity to an Emu..."

  OFFENSIVE CARTOONS and BUY DANISH

• A Guy In New York has a potpourri about "Freedom of Expression" ...
• ZombieTime has a "Mohammed Image Archive: Depictions of Mohammed Throughout History" ...
• Citizen Journal has copies of the "offensive cartoons" ... and has screen shots of "Tiananmen at Google" and "Tiananmen at Google China" ...
• The Malcontent, in "All the Islam That's Unfit to Print," writes that "The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission characteristically picked Leftist politics over gay rights, supporting a violently homophobic Palestinian culture that would kill them over a liberal Israel that protects gay rights. As the author notes, wrapping this decision in human rights rhetoric counts not at all considering the IGLHRC attended rallies in Beijing and Havana." ... and we love this from the comments: "What I want to know, is when they recruit women homicide bombers ..... like the one last month who screwed up and failed to detonate her bomb ...... what the hell was she going to do with 30 Virgins? Start the Rockettes? Surely to Shirley, she wasn't a religious Lesbian? Well, maybe so!!" ...
• Kesher Talk says "Not even those raucous 'alternative' weeklies like the Village Voice have printed the cartoons. Stories and pictures of Janet Jackson's top falling off at the Super Bowl? President Bush as vampire? Hey, no problem there. But graphic film footage of 9-11? Mohammed cartoons? The U.S. press suddenly acts like the culturally sensitive version of Brave Sir Robin." ...
• Harleys, Cars, Girls & Guitars weighs in on the offensive cartoons: "Leftist artists in the West love to babble that their work is 'transgressive.' As Clayton Cramer points out today, TV writers love to insult Christianity. There is, of course, no punishment for doing so. On the other side of the world, Islamic terrorists take hostages and behead people for daring to poke fun at their religion." ...
• NYC Metblog can't even "get a glimpse of [the] political cartoons mocking" Mohammad ... the offensive cartoons? here they are ... btw, Piglet says, "Buy Danish" ... except the hams ...
• writersbloc's comment on the offensive Muhammed cartoons: "Perhaps if they promoted non-violence and condemned suicide bombers, this wouldn't even have made it into the newspapers worldwide" ...
• Exit Zero wonders "how far is CNN willing to go in its obsequiousness to Islamic law? Kathy Quiano and Paula Zahn might be ok with their burkhas, but I don't think Anderson Cooper can survive without a barber" ...
• Atlas Shrugs updates the charm offensive being waged by Palestinians ... "Danish Cartoons Incite Palestinian Arabs to Riot, Rampage, Burn European Buildings" ...
• Politburo Diktat has a "Mohammed Cartoon Update" ...
• Englishman in New York notes that "Thousands of Palestinians marched through Gaza City this week chanting: 'War on Denmark, Death to Denmark.' Over a cartoon." ... no, EINY, it was over TWELVE cartoons ... we might see spontaneous combustion if someone published as few as 50 or 60 "offensive cartoons" ...
• As I Please points out "For the most part, these weren't anti-Muslim images, you jackass. They were simply depictions of Mohammed. And the two images that equated Mohammed with terrorism or anti-women laws did nothing more than take Fundamentalist and Radical Islamists at their own words. They themselves claim to kill in the name of Mohammed and his laws." ...
• New York Brain Terrain weighs in: "The issue here is not free speech, the issue here is respect and courtesy for each other's differences. Yes, newspapers have a right to print these cartoons, however offensive. However, they also have a duty to remove these cartoons out of courtesy and respect for the offended group." ... a duty? ...
• Cake Or Death? also comments on the offensive cartoons: "you'd think that maybe Mohammad's followers would try a more peaceful route of protest, to try to, you know, dispel the 'myth' that Islam has some violent tendencies that may include strapping a bomb to one's person. Right?" ....

  I LOVE NYC

• Dawn Eden is looking for NYC heroes ... "if you know anyone who lives or works in the New York City area -- it could be yourself -- who deserves attention for the good work he or she does, please drop me a line with a little information about them" ...
• Downtown Dancer loves NY "Because an elderly Chinese man in a suit and fedora can get his leg up this high to stretch on a makeshift barre on Essex Street." ... click for pic ...

  FOOD

• dailyheights.com links to a discussion on the dailyheights discussion forum about Palava Hut ... that ends up being all about how much folks love White Castle ... "Prove me wrong about Palava Hut" ...
• Dave Friedman's Soul of Wit won't eat Domino's pizza "because Domino's does not sell pizza. It sells cardboard with "tomato sauce" and "cheese" slathered on top. It is to pizza what Tom Clancy is to literature: that is to say, a pale imitation" ...
• NewYorkology asks, "Isn’t it lovely when foreign travel writers can boil down the New York food scene to just three restaurants?" ... no ...
• A Guy In New York had his weekly roundup of restaurant reviews, "This Week in NYC Reviews" ...

___________________________________

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 February 6, 2006 12:17 AM  ·  Permalink   ·  Big Apple Blog Festival   ·  Comments (0)   ·  TrackBack (2)

Freedom of Expression

The great British philosopher John Stuart Mill wrote in On Liberty, "Strange it is, that men should admit the validity of the arguments for free discussion, but object to their being 'pushed to an extreme'; not seeing that unless the reasons are good for an extreme case, they are not good for any case."

The cartoons in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten raise the most important question of our times: freedom of expression. Are we in the west going to cave into pressure from societies with a medieval mindset, or are we going to defend our most precious freedom -- freedom of expression, a freedom for which thousands of people sacrificed their lives?
. . .
On the world stage, should we really apologize for Dante, Shakespeare, and Goethe? Mozart, Beethoven and Bach? Rembrandt, Vermeer, Van Gogh, Breughel, Ter Borch? Galileo, Huygens, Copernicus, Newton and Darwin? Penicillin and computers? The Olympic Games and Football? Human rights and parliamentary democracy? The west is the source of the liberating ideas of individual liberty, political democracy, the rule of law, human rights and cultural freedom. It is the west that has raised the status of women, fought against slavery, defended freedom of enquiry, expression and conscience. No, the west needs no lectures on the superior virtue of societies who keep their women in subjection, cut off their clitorises, stone them to death for alleged adultery, throw acid on their faces, or deny the human rights of those considered to belong to lower castes.

"Democracy in a Cartoon," by Ibn Warraq, Der Spiegel, February 3, 2006

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

U.S. Constitution: First Amendment

Eugene Volokh looks at the hypocrisy of the Boston Globe in dealing with offensive religious images:

Yet where in those editorials are the admonitions about the need for "respect" of religious groups? The condemnations of the juxtaposition of bodily excretions with religious figures as "schoolboy prank[s]"? The denunciations of the art as undermining the "ultimate Enlightenment value" of "tolerance"? The condemnations of the artists, and of those NEA and museum decisionmakers who used their discretion to judge the work artistically excellent, as "obtuse"? And, of course, the suggestion thatthe works are "no less hurtful to most [Christians] than Nazi caricatures of Jews or Ku Klux Klan caricatures of blacks are to those victims of intolerance"?

Why the difference?

"The Boston Globe on Speech Offensive to Different Religious Groups," by Eugene Volokh, The Volokh Conspiracy, February 4, 2006

This reminds us of something we read a few years back; "Catholic guy: Who's the establishment here?," by Chuck Williams, guest commentary in the St. Paul Legal Ledger, October 19, 1999:

The appropriate answer to would-be censors is to say, "if you don't like it, don't look at it." Or just don't read it, or just don't listen to it. The reason that retort doesn't work here is that the Catholic guy isn't complaining that anybody's forcing Catholics to look at Dung on the Virgin. He's complaining that Catholics are being forced to pay for it. He's saying, go ahead and Dung on the Virgin anywhere you like. Just do it on your own dime, or on your fellow Catholic-bashers' dime. Just don't do it on the taxpayers' dime.

But to the wine and cheese crowd on the museum board, them are fighting words. OK, I admit I don't understand that reaction. But I'd still just shrug my shoulders if the board didn't go on to add farce to insult by assuming the ridiculous pose of a courageous little community being set upon by the heavy hand of the establishment.

That's just too silly to go unremarked. Because it's as clear as a jar of pee that it's the Catholic guy who's being stomped and insulted here - and by people who make more money in a day than he does in a week. The museum board members are wealthy, powerful, socially and politically connected, and like lots of this country, and certainly much of the media, not too fond of the Catholic Church. They're the establishment, if anyone is, not the Catholic Church, with whatever pitiful, tenuous hold it may still have on 1999 American culture.

I mean, like another friend of mine once said, if you want to be counterculture, be a Catholic.

So here's what I'm saying. Picture the wine and cheese crowd gathering at some Brooklyn Museum of Art benefit. Then quick cut to somebody, anybody, in 1999 New York, who still gets up early to go to church, kneel in front of a statue of the Virgin Mary and pray. Which depicts a smug and intolerant establishment?

Well, if you picked the devout Catholic on his knees before the Virgin, you're not alone. But I still don't get it.

Resources

• First Amendment--Religion and Expression, in "Analysis and Interpretation of the Constitution: Annotations of Cases Decided by the Supreme Court of the United States," Senate Document No. 108-17 (264-page pdf )
• Overview of Free Speech, by Rodney Smolla, Dean, University of Richmond School of Law, from First Amendment Center
• CRS Reports
  • "Campaign Activity by Churches: Legal Analysis of Houses of Worship Free Speech Restoration Act," by Erika Lunder, Marie B. Morris, and L. Paige Whitaker, RS21549, June 15, 2004 (6-page pdf )
  • "Campaign Finance Reform: A Legal Analysis of Issue and Express Advocacy," by L. Paige Whitaker, 98-282, March 15, 2002 (6-page pdf )
  • "Communications Act Revisions: Selected Issues for Consideration," by Angele Gilroy, RL32949, January 23, 2006 (17-page pdf )
  • "Congress's Power to Legislate Control Over Hate Crimes: Selected Legal Theories," by Paul Starette Wallace, Jr., RS22335, November 28, 2005 (5-page pdf )
  • "Constitutionality of Applying the FCC's Indecency Restriction to Cable Television," by Henry Cohen, RL33170, December 01, 2005 (14-page pdf )
  • "Constitutionality of Proposals to Prohibit the Sale or Rental to Minors of Video Games with Violent or Sexual Content or 'Strong Language'," by Henry Cohen, RL33232, January 18, 2006 (17-page pdf )
  • "Election Projections: First Amendment Issues," by Henry Cohen, RS20762, January 23, 2001 (5-page pdf )
  • "Judge Samuel Alito's Opinions in Freedom of Speech Cases," by Henry Cohen, RL33182, December 09, 2005 (18-page pdf )
  • "National Security Whistleblowers," by Louis Fisher, RL33215, December 30, 2005 (47-page pdf )
  • "Rumsfeld v. FAIR: The Solomon Amendment and Free Speech," by Alison Muhlfeld, RL33150, November 15, 2005 (13-page pdf )
  • "The Law of Church and State: The Proposed Religious Freedom Amendment, H.J. Res. 78," by David M. Ackerman, 98-387, April 20, 1998 (6-page pdf )
  • "Tobacco Advertising: The Constitutionality of Limiting its Tax Deductibility," by Henry Cohen, 98-189, March 04, 1998 (6-page pdf )

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Posted February 5, 2006 10:47 AM  ·  Permalink   ·     ·  Comments (0)   ·  TrackBack (0)

Saturday catblogging

Loco ... see, I do fit!

Life in the City is good ... everything fits just right ...

Technorati Tags: catblogging

Posted February 4, 2006 08:57 AM  ·  Permalink   ·  Catblogging   ·  Comments (1)   ·  TrackBack (1)

This Week in NYC Reviews - February 3, 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 ...

NYC Restaurant inspection results online

• The Hungry Rose has an overview of Chinese sweets ... "Sweets are particularly ubiquitous during the Lunar New Year--Chinese bakeries all over the world produce lots of different yummy and delicious treats because having something sweet to eat will help make your New Year just as sweet as well." ...

• Nick Paumgarten says there is more than one La Esquina ... "there are really several Esquinas: a taquería, a cafe, and a 'brasserie' in the basement. The main event--meaning the hardest to get into--is the subterranean one" ... "In spite of the pretense, the place is hard to hate" ... don't count on it ... (previous reviews: Frank Bruni (TWIR, September 2, 2005)) ... 106 Kenmare Street, 646-613-1333 or 646-613-8880 or 646-613-7100 ... [MenuPages | NY Metro | Gayot | Citysearch]

• foodite had a Restaurant Week dinner at Tabla ... "the food was good, but it must be noted that the service was even better." ... (previous reviews: Veal Cheeks (TWIR, December 23, 2005)) ... web site, 11 Madison Avenue, at East 25th Street, 212-889-0667 [MenuPages | NYT | NY Metro | Village Voice | openlist | Gayot | Citysearch] ... and says the initial impressions of the franchised Original Soupman "aren't promising" ... (previous reviews and commentary, Cynthia Killian, Eater, NewYorkology, and Jonathan Lemire (TWIR, November 4, 2005)) ...

• Gael Greene is fighting at Antonucci "over the marvelous soppressata on the salumi gathering of lardo, cured duck, coppa, and prosciutto" ... "best of the entrées is short ribs with celeriac purée [and] the mushroom risotto is perfect." ... 170 East 81st Street, between Lexington and 3rd Avenues, 212-570-5100 [MenuPages | Citysearch]

• sassy radish says Wallsé serves "food that's meant to be eaten rather than admired" ... the "the foie gras terrine [is] heavenly" ... (previous review: Big Apple Dining Guide (TWIR, November 4, 2005)) ... web site, 344 West 11th Street, 212-352-2300 [MenuPages | The Economist | NYT | NY Metro | openlist | Gayot | Citysearch]

• eating for brooklyn had brunch at applewood ... "The winter omelet with earthy mushrooms, garlic confit, rapini and cheddar cheese really won me over" ... 501 11th Street, Brooklyn, 718-768-2044 [NYT | NY Metro | Village Voice | openlist | Citysearch] ... and had dinner at Cocotte ... "French onion soup and the Cognac burger. The soup was classic with sweet onions and gooey melted cheese [and I] liked the burger's charred exterior, but I couldn't taste how the Cognac made a difference." ... 337 Fifth Avenue, Brooklyn, 718-832-6848 [NYT | NY Metro | openlist | Citysearch]

• David Rosen has an odd review of Del Posto ... "Cauliflower souffle, bucatini with cured pork cheeks and roasted squab are the three dishes that leave the best impression. Whole fish and huge slabs of meat are available to share for large tables constituting the most original feature in the menu and service here." ... "Regardless of the price tag, the Del Posto team failed to see an essential point. Actors in a Tennessee Williams' play in 16th-century costumes and a more ornate set are not necessarily reciting Shakespeare" ... what? ... (previous review: Andrea Strong (TWIR, January 20, 2006)) ... 85 Tenth Avenue, between 15th Street and 16th Streets, 212-497-8090 [MenuPages | NY Metro | Village Voice | Citysearch]

• Adam Platt says that "if there were ever a dining trend tailor-made to the appetites of stolid Upper West Side burghers" it's Telepan ... and the "food is generally very good" ... "the best thing of all was the great mound of smoked trout, tossed with olive oil and chives and piled over one of Telepan’s buckwheat blini" ... "the seafood dishes I tasted were close to excellent" ... (previous reviews: Steve Cuozzo (TWIR, January 13, 2006), Andrea Strong (TWIR, January 6, 2006)) ... web site, 72 West 69th Street, between Columbus Avenue and Central Park West, 212-580-4300 [MenuPages | Mouthfuls | Citysearch]

• gothamist has a new contender for best burger in NYC at Stone Park Cafe ... "You might pass this burger by at first; the menu unassumingly calls it a 'short rib sandwich.'" ... "The sandwich is a miniature, served as an appetizer. Size notwithstanding, it packs a punch. So much so that you might be tempted, as we were, to order a second one and skip the entrees entirely" ... web site, 324 Fifth Avenue, Brooklyn, 718-369-0082 [NYT | NY Metro | Village Voice | openlist | Citysearch]

• Blog Chelsea says that even though "the atmosphere has taken shabby chic a bit too literally to where it’s hard to feel glamorous there. And the menu is pretty much incomprehensible" at Bright Food Shop, "it is always unfailingly surprising and delicious" ... 218 Eighth Avenue, between 21st and 22nd Streets, 212-243-4433 [MenuPages | Cheapo New York | NYT | NY Metro | Citysearch] ... and her favorite burger in Chelsea" is at Half King ...505 West 23rd Street, 212-462-4300 [MenuPages | NY Metro | NYT | Citysearch]

• Moira Hodgson gave 1 star to Philippe ... "The service at Philippe, which opened six weeks ago, is astoundingly--and often hilariously--bad." ... "serves the best Peking duck I’ve ever tasted" ... "frizzled seaweed greens are deep-fried with a touch of sugar--and they’re terrific" ... "the green prawns and the crispy XO beef [were] disappointing." ... web site, 33 East 60th Street, between Park and Madison Avenues, 212-644-8885 [MenuPages | Gayot | Citysearch]

• Peter Meehan likes Minangasli: "It is very good and very cheap and there are a dozen or more dishes that anyone with even a cursory knowledge of Indonesia cuisine will not be able to pass by." ... "It also turns out that my long-held fear that New York was never going to have an Indonesian restaurant worth traveling to was in vain. Minangasli is it." ... "Nasi rames, combination plates, are the go-to option when dining alone" ... satays "were excellent at Minangasli" ... beef rendang "was in top form here" ... (previous review: Robert Sietsema (TWIR, January 27, 2006)) ... 86-10 Whitney Avenue, Elmhurst, Queens, 718-429-8207 [Mouthfuls | chowhound]

• Steve Cuozzo finds out Jovia uses web cams to monitor staff ... and customers ... and so do other restaurants ... "Jovia, it turns out, is wired up the wazoo with cameras that preserve video images on a hard drive. So are lots of other places. Let it be a lesson for cheaters dining out on the sly and executives sneaking a meal with the competition: You're being watched and recorded, too." ... "Daniel Boulud keeps an eye on tables from his kitchen, and Thomas Keller watches his kitchen at Per Se at Columbus Circle from his French Laundry in the Napa Valley." ...

• Augieland gave "831 ohwellilian stars" to Tomoe ... "No one could have eaten the pieces I was served in one or even two bites -- they were gy-normous. There was also nothing truly unique offered." ... "All the fish was as fresh as it could be, but nothing was of exceptional quality." ... 172 Thompson Street, between Bleecker and Houston Streets, 212-777-9346 [MenuPages | sushi NYC | NYT | openlist | Gayot | Citysearch] ... and appears to have moved into Morimoto NYC ... "Omakase bar night 1" ... "Omakase bar night 2" ... 88 10th Avenue, between 15th and 16th Streets, 212-989-8883 [Citysearch]

• Twenty bucks a day likes the Kwik Meal cart at the "corner of 45th St. and 6th Ave." ... this "absurdly clean cart produces one of the finest lamb sandwiches this side of Kings Highway" ... "The lamb with pita was excellent" ... "At $5.75, on the expensive end of cart food, but on the far-low end of the restaurant price range – and this food tasted like it was made at a good restaurant" ... southwest corner of 45th Street and 6th Avenue [Cheapo New York | NY Metro | Roadfood.com | NY Press] ... and went back to an old haunt ... Mandoo Bar ... "kimchi mandoo ($8) were especially good" ... if you're "in the mood for food that’s a little flashy, bibimbop (basic version is $9) fits the bill - it’s kind of like a liquid-less rice soup crossed with fajitas" ... web site, 2 West 32nd Street, 212-279-3075 [MenuPages | NYT | NY Metro | Village Voice | openlist | Gayot] ... "didn’t like the steak sandwich" at Mooncake Foods ... "The sliced steak was grilled perhaps a little long, and the cut of meat was tough enough that it was nearly impossible to bite through it, but the garlic dill mayo and peppers were still delightful" ... 28 Watts Street, at 6th Avenue, 212-219-8888 [MenuPages | NY Metro | Village Voice | openlist | Citysearch]

• Frank Bruni gave 1 star to Barbounia ... "For a starter, try a grilled kebab of minced beef and minced lamb." ... "Or go for saganaki, a pool of molten kasseri cheese." ... "Rabbit braciola is a better bet" than braised duck or veal medallions ... "It serves crispy-skinned red snapper as an entree, and on most nights it also presents the possibility of grilled dourade, branzino or pompano. All of this fish was impeccably cooked." ... (previous reviews: Moira Hodgson (TWIR, January 13, 2006), Andrea Strong (TWIR, December 23, 2005)) ... web site, 250 Park Avenue South, at 20th Street, 212-995-0242 [NY Metro | Gayot | Citysearch] ... and had dinner at Paradou ... "only some of what we ate, including a Kobe-style beef tartare, impressed us" ... "two side dishes we tried, ratatouille and a potato gratin, were terrific" ... web site, 8 Little West 12th Street, between Ninth and Washington Avenues, 212-463-8345 [MenuPages | NY Metro | Village Voice | openlist | Citysearch]

• Mona's Apple, after eating at Mo Pitkin's House of Satisfaction, was "drooling rethinking this meal and I might have to go get lunch in the middle of writing this post, if I don't eat my arm first" ... "the chicken club with apple-smoked bacon ... could go down as one of my favorite sandwiches of all time" ... "the garlic fries were incredible" ... (previous reviews: Bergers & More (TWIR, January 27, 2006), 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]

• A Hamburger Today also went to Mo Pitkin's ... "Our first venture into the world of crazyburgers, is the Mo Burger" ... "a half-pound beef burger topped with fried onions, a fried egg and chopped chicken liver" ... "I loved the mix of the egg, fried onion and ground beef. Both the textures and the tastes complement each other well. Unfortunately, the chopped liver was a disappointing addition to the burger experience. The saltiness of the recipe combined with the quantity of chopped liver was very distracting. More importantly, the meat was just average." ... the "cheddar-burger was in the good-but-not-great category" ...

• Veal Cheeks says Mas (farmhouse) is "a restaurant that doesn't need tricks, its kitchen is a treat. Yet, Mas fitfully pretends that it is a farmhouse in a village in Provence, not a hip space in the Village in Manhattan" ... "Of our appetizers, the outstanding issue was Roasted Beets, baked with Goat Cheese, Baby Greens, Almonds, and Cucumbers. This is probably the finest vegetarian dish I have had this year." ... "the Roast Duck with Bahri Date Puree, Sauteed Brussel Sprouts and Chestnuts was one of the better duck treatments I have tasted and surely the best thing to happen to Brussels sprouts since Lambic beer and eel pie." ... 39 Downing Street, at Bedford Street, 212-255-1790 [MenuPages | NYT | openlist | Gayot | Citysearch] ... The Red Cat: "sea diver scallops on a citrus salad ... suffered from scallops not so lissome as the diners. Their chewiness suggested that perhaps the kitchen was offered a wholesaler’s deal, too tempting to resist" ... "Sauteed Muscovy Duck Breast with Sweet and Sour Delicata Squash with Scallion and Rice Salad. I enjoyed this wild poultry, particular with the squash hash. It lacked a sweet/sour tension, but the richness of the squash complemented the duck with wintery eloquence." ... web site (plays Johnny Cash's "I Walk the Line" in endless loop), 227 10th Avenue, at 23rd Street, 212-242-1122 [MenuPages | NYT | openlist | Gayot | Citysearch] ... had dinner at 5 Ninth, "contemporary American cuisine filtered through Singapore nights" ... "Nouveau Amerasian" ... "Best of the three courses was my appetizer, Veal Bacon and Egg Congee, cooked in a clay pot with Chili Paste and Shiitake mushrooms" ... "Loup de Mer (a variety of seabass), steamed, and served with chili lime paste, ginger, and cilantro and bok choy greens. The fish, otherwise well cooked, was swimming in a soupy essence that detracted from the plate" ... (previous review: foodie nyc (TWIR, December 16, 2005))web site, 5 Ninth Avenue, at West 12th Street, 212-929-9460 [MenuPages | NYT | openlist | Gayot | Citysearch] ... says Cookshop "is much like many other medium-priced restaurants found throughout New York neighborhoods. The food is creative, fun, and satisfying, but is limited by constraints of cost and inspiration." ... (previous reviews: Andrea Thompson (TWIR, December 16, 2005), Frank Bruni (TWIR, December 2, 2005), Hal Rubenstein (TWIR, November 18, 2005), Andrea Strong (TWIR, November 11, 2005), NYC Nosh (TWIR, October 14, 2005)) ... 156 10th Avenue, at 20th Street, 212-924-4440 [MenuPages | Citysearch] ... and had lunch at Fleur de Sel ... "I started with the finest soup I have had in New York, [the] parsnip soup with roasted chestnut/parsley ravioli was exquisite." ... entree was "Pan-Seared Drum Fish with Baby Carrots and Mushrooms in a Lobster Whisky Emulsion ... a satisfying alliance of fish and vegetables. However, the emulsion didn't have much of an impact. The fish was rich (Fleur de Sel is a butter peddler), but it was an earthbound contrast to the transcendent soup." ... (previous review: Big Apple Dining Guide (TWIR, November 4, 2005)) ... 5 East 20th Street, between 5th Avenue and Broadway, 212-460-9100 [MenuPages | NYT | Citysearch]

• Big Apple Dining Guide also ate at The Red Cat ... "Tempura Green Beans [were] as good as ever.... Better than candy to a kid." ... and had "Roasted monkfish cheeks with hearts of palm salad and sweet hot sauce [and] the Beach Boys" ... and had a Restaurant Week lunch at Eleven Madison Park ... "the champagne pear soup ... was perfect" ... "the braised short ribs with broccoli rabe, blue d'auvergne and puree of a root vegetable that escapes me. ... The short rib was flawless, the puree a nice texture to go with it and the bitterness of the broccoli rabe and the salty earthiness of the blue d'auvergne provided a carnival of flavors and textures." ... ""I simply don't know why this place wasn't packed with people." ... web site, 11 Madison Avenue, at 24th Street, 212-889-0905 [MenuPages | NYT | openlist | Gayot | Citysearch]

• Kris Ensminger has a list of dim sum places ... but she missed Chatham Restaurant, 9 Chatham Square, 212-267-0220 ... our review is here ...

• The Girl Who Ate Everything had Ethiopian at Awash... the meat sambusa: "Whoaaa, this was good. It reminded me of a delicate spring roll made of phyllo dough whose outside layers were light and crispy and the innermost layers, soft and chewy" ... and liked the "teff injera, a pancake-like bread traditionally made from teff flour" ... and liked the "two-person combination platter of two meat dishes and three vegetarian dishes" ... web site, 338 East 6th, between 1st and 2nd Avenues, 212-982-9589 [MenuPages | Citysearch]

• The Impetuous Epicure describes Rai Rai Ken as "a quick pop-in and go ramen restaurant" ... "shoyu ramen was really good. The noodles had a very nice bite to it and broth was very good. The pork was tender" ... (previous review: Twenty Bucks a Day (TWIR, October 28, 2005)) ... 214 East 10th Street, between 1st and 2nd Avenues, 212-977-7030 [MenuPages | yelp | NY Metro | IgoUgo]

• NYC nosh's favorite dish at Hong Kong Station "is lai fun noodles with curried fish balls and a few vegetables" ... you "build" your soup here ... 128 Hester Street, east of Bowery, 212-966-9382 [NY Metro]

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

Posted February 3, 2006 10:07 AM  ·  Permalink   ·  This Week in Reviews   ·  Comments (1)   ·  TrackBack (1)

Chinatown dim sum - "Chinese tapas"

Yum cha means "drink tea" in Cantonese, and typically tea is served with the small snacks and dumplings known as dim sum. If you're heading to Chinatown for the 15-day celebration of the Chinese New Year, which starts today, here are some places to sample these popular delicacies.

"Chinatown: Sip Tea, Raise Chopsticks," by Kris Ensiminger, The New York Times, January 29, 2006

this article is simply a rehash from previous articles about dim-sum in Chinatown ... these articles stick to the same old familiar places ...

I do not fancy Ping's because they try to be too modern and slick ... so that they can charge you more money per person ... they include many dishes that are not dim-sum but regular dishes disguised as dim-sum plates ...

Dim Sum A Go-Go is good for anyone who cannot speak Cantonese and can order the food from a menu-list ... "dim-sum by the numbers" ... this is not the traditional manner to enjoy dim-sum ...

the whole idea of dim-sum is to sit and talk, eat a plate, talk more, wait for a fresh trolley of dim-sum, order another ... and so on ... as in a Spanish tapas cafe ... you do not order all at once and mouth them down as in Dim-Sum A Go-Go ...

Oriental Garden is good but too much money, as for the others too ...

I save the Nice for delicious Cantonese dinners ... which I did on the Lunar New Year with eight friends ... a 10 course banquet for $280.00 including the tip ... we brought French champagne, white and reds wines ... service cannot be any better ...

My favourite dim-sum restaurant is still the Chatham Restaurant ... very fresh dim-sum and $5 plates of noodles ... the old fashion way ... eat slowly, talk and enjoy the day ... moreover, the Chatham specialises in dim-sum while the restaurants mentioned cook dim-sum, lunch and dinners ... see "Best dim-sum in Chinatown" ...

Dim Sum Go Go, 5 East Broadway, 212-732-0797 [MenuPages | NYT | openlist | Gayot]

Jing Fong, 20 Elizabeth Street, 212-964-5256 [NYT | openlist | Gayot | Citysearch]

Nice, see our post "Nice Restaurant - Chinatown," 35 East Broadway, 212-406-9510 [NYT | Citysearch]

Ping's Seafood, 22 Mott Street, 212-602-9988 [MenuPages | NYT | openlist | Gayot | Citysearch]

Oriental Garden, 14 Elizabeth Street, 212-619-0085 [NYT | openlist]

Sweet 'N' Tart Restaurant, 20 Mott Street, 212-964-0380 [MenuPages | NYT | openlist | Gayot | Citysearch]

Triple Eight Palace, 88 East Broadway, 212-941-8886 [NYT | openlist | Gayot]

Post by Peter

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Technorati Tags: New York, NYC, New York City, Manhattan, chinatown, restaurants, restaurant reviews, dim sum, dim-sum

Posted February 2, 2006 04:37 PM  ·  Permalink   ·  Chinatown , Chinese   ·  Comments (1)   ·  TrackBack (0)

How NOT to use the Internet

The staff of U.S. Rep Marty Meehan wiped out references to his broken term-limits pledge as well as information about his huge campaign war chest in an independent biography of the Lowell Democrat on a Web site that bills itself as the "world's largest encyclopedia," The Sun has learned.

The Meehan alterations on Wikipedia.com represent just two of more than 1,000 changes made by congressional staffers at the U.S. House of Representatives in the past six month.

"Rewriting history under the dome: Online 'encyclopedia' allows anyone to edit entries, and congressional staffers do just that to bosses' bios," by Evan Lehmann, The Lowell (Massachusetts) Sun, January 27, 2006

Wikipedia relies on its readers to create, expand and correct its one million entries on a variety of subjects, but the site's managers also keep track of the Internet addresses of those who make changes.
. . .
It has often been said that Congress acts like a bunch of high school students with a trillion-dollar budget. Now it appears that it also employs some staffers who haven't gotten over the locker-room prank phase of their adolescence.

"Congress Is an Internet Virus," by John Fund, OpinionJournal, January 31, 2006

And kids, don't do it from home, either.

If you want to learn about some of the proper and effective uses of the Internet ...

TheCapitol.Net in Washington, DC has some resources.
• "Leveraging Technology: Effectively Using E-Newsletters, Email Alerts, and Your Website," telephone seminar, Tuesday, March 7, 2006, 2pm ET/1pm CT/12noon MT/11am PT
  
• The In's and Out's of Blogs and Blogging, audio CD, ISBN: 1-58733-028-8
  
• Also see Chapter 6, Web-Based and Online Communications, in "Media Relations Handbook for Agencies, Associations, Nonprofits and Congress," by Brad Fitch, ISBN: 1-58733-003-2 (TheCapitol.Net 2004)
  

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Posted February 1, 2006 09:23 AM  ·  Permalink   ·     ·  Comments (0)   ·  TrackBack (0)

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A Guy In New York (AGINY) is an online magazine / blog about good (and affordable) places to eat ... tips to make life easier and more enjoyable in NYC ... fun things to see and do in NYC ... questions / suggestions ... use the comments under each article (no registration required) ... or send us email: see link on the About Us page ...
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