January 2007 Archives
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Posting light through February 23 or so
Peter is out of the country in Malaysia until late February, visiting relatives and attending his 40th high school class reunion in Penang ... they will have a 'live' Char Koay Teow stall at dinner on February 1st, because the Oriental Ballroom is on the ground level of the hotel and has an exit to the open-air car park where they can locate the stall ...
Happy trails to you ...
Dao-miu and Chinese barbers
Last Tuesday afternoon, I was in Chinatown to visit my dentist for a "deep cleaning" procedure. While there, I purchased from the vegetable vendor on East Broadway and Catherine Street a pound of "dao-miu" (a leafy green vegetable) for home cooking for $2.50 ... I made a delcious risotto with jasmine brown rice and left-over Cantonese roast duck. A pound of "dao-miu" can make four portions of vegetable serving. A very good tasty and economic means to enjoy good food.
Also made a new discovery walking north on Eldridge Street - a brand new Chinatown of barber shops where you can get a hair-cut for $5-$6 ... a pastry shop for egg tarts, almond cookies, spoonge cakes, coffee and tea for $0.50 each ... numerous fresh noodle eateries from the province of Fukien ... very good Beijing fried dumplings, fried sesame bread, hot-sour soup, boiled pork-chive dumplings, etc. eatery. (Eldridge Street runs between Canal and Division Streets in Lower Manhattan. Eldridge is a one-way street that runs north. It is three blocks east of Bowery and one block west of Allen Street (First Avenue below Houston Street)
Also see The Eldridge Street Project
AGINY Good Value
John Dragonas and Tri-Institutional Noon concert
Last week, I paid my first 2007 re-visit to John Dragonas' grill food stand on 64th Street and Madison Avenue ... the street cooking is still very delicious ... I had two orders of hot sausages for $1.50 each (compared to $3 each in Central Park) and as a bonus meal, I ordered a stick of shish kebab for $2.50 ... delicious ... lunch for $7.00 ... I walked away feeling very good and satisfied ... next time, I have to bring along a plastic container filled with red wine. such a friendly man and friendly talkative customers ... everyone in such a good mood and no attitude.
Also last week, another fine performance at the Tri-Institutional Noon concert ... Tri-Institutional Noon Recitals, Caspary Auditorium, The Rockefeller University, 66th Street and York Avenue (#2 on this campus map - pdf), Recitals Hotline: 212-327-7007, ext. 1
Now, I must get back to work, pronto ...
Black-skinned chickens
Deprived of their striking outerwear, though, Silkies are far less appealing. They have bluish-gray skin, pitch-black bones and dark beige flesh (they’re sometimes called black-skinned chickens). They’re a scrawny pound or two, plucked, and are usually sold with the head and feet attached (with five toes, not the usual four).
Yet Asian cooks love them for their deep, gamy flavor, even in the breast meat. And with the nation’s Asian population growing, sales have soared.
"Now, a Chicken in Black," by Elaine Louie, The New Your Times, January 17, 2007
One can enjoy black-skinned chicken at J.M. Family Noodle Restaurant, Catherine & Henry Streets in Chinatown, NY ... for a very good price ...
J.M. Family Noodle Restaurant
J.M. Family Noodle Restaurant, 23 Catherine Street, between Henry and East Broadway, 212-571-2440 [MenuPages | Citysearch]
Previous post on J.M. Family Noodle
Italian recommendations
For a very special Italian treat, go to San Domenico, and ask for Ms Marissa May, she is a very sweet and friendly owner ... a great friend of my Italian nephew, Francesco Buitoni ... San Domenico is very high class and elegant but ... expensive ... web site, 240 Central Park South, 212-265-5959 [MenuPages | NYT | NY Mag | Village Voice | openlist | Gayot | Yelp | Citysearch]
Another suggestion: Da Andrea ... a simple Northern Italian trattatoria ... go early and enjoy the delicious cooking .... web site, 557 Hudson Street, Hudson and Perry Streets in the West Village, 212-367-1979 [MenuPages | NYT | NY Mag | openlist | Yelp | Citysearch]
Also see our previous post, "Good Italian food"
Another great day in NYC
Another great day in New York ...
Walked across Central Park Zoo and saw the sea-lions being fed at 11.30 am and the polar bears playing with a plastic oil-barrel ... a great live show from the sea-lions obeying the hand instructions from their keepers ...
Central Park Zoo, 830 Fifth Avenue, 212-439-6500
Go see the Americana exhibition at Christie's, Rockefeller Centre ... I love the Audubon prints, Samplers, Quilts, Weather vanes and Chippendale mahogany furniture ... a beautiful slice of American history ...
Christie's, Americana Week, January 13-18, 2007, 20 Rockefeller Plaza, 212-636-2000
Japanese instant noodles
Eat Japanese instant noodles daily and you can live for a very long time! ... but watch out for the sodium and the transfat in the instant ramen ... very different from fresh ramen ...
The news last Friday [January 5, 2007] of the death of the ramen noodle guy surprised those of us who had never suspected that there was such an individual. It was easy to assume that instant noodle soup was a team invention, one of those depersonalized corporate miracles, like the Honda Civic, the Sony Walkman and Hello Kitty, that sprang from that ingenious consumer-product collective known as postwar Japan.
But no. Momofuku Ando, who died in Ikeda, near Osaka, at 96, was looking for cheap, decent food for the working class when he invented ramen noodles all by himself in 1958. His product -- fried, dried and sold in little plastic-wrapped bricks or foam cups -- turned the company he founded, Nissin Foods, into a global giant. According to the company’s Web site, instant ramen satisfies more than 100 million people a day. Aggregate servings of the company’s signature brand, Cup Noodles, reached 25 billion worldwide in 2006.
"Mr. Noodle," The New York Times, January 9, 2007
More
- Momofuku Ando - Wikipedia
- Instant Ramen's Home Page - from the Japan Convenience Foods Industry Association
- Barbeque Cheeseburger Ramen - from The Official Ramen Homepage
- The Instant Ramen King, R.I.P. - from Telstar Logistics
Winter is here
In order to save the world from global warming, I have turned off my refrigerator for the winter ... I was able to finish all the perishable food, last night. The weather turned very cold. I made a nice pot of bucatini all'Amatriciana red sauce with the half-pound of bacon strips, portobello mushrooms, carrots and shallots with a can of tomato sauce ... so very heart warming ... plus a big bowl of chicory green salad.
The three bottles of champagne left-over from the PZ fiasco have been moved to the window ledge.
Since the winter air is so dry, I always hang my laundry to dry over-night in my huge bathroom ...
Post by Peter
Domenico Tiepolo (1727–1804): A New Testament
I saw the exhibiton of the New Testament watercolor drawings by Domenico Tiepolo at the Frick Museum, last Sunday. This is the last week to see the exhibition, which closes on January 7th, 2007. A "must-see" for all who read the Bible religiously ... the New Testament is drawn in such fine detail highlighting the story of Jesus, Peter, Paul, etc. ...
The Exaltation of the Sacrament
Domenico Tiepolo (1727–1804): A New Testament, October 24, 2006, through January 7, 2007, The Frick Collection, 1 East 70th Street, 212-288-0700
P/S: The Frick Museum is "pay-as-you-wish" on Sundays, 11 am - 1 pm ... I encourage all to go after the church service at the Redeemer Church at Hunter College ...
Post by Peter
- Domenico Tiepolo - from the Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College
- Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo - Wikipedia
- Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo - Artcyclopedia
Wonderful exhibitions in NYC
This 2006 Fall season I saw so many wonderful exhibitions, including many fine portrait paintings ...
Pablo Picasso, Seated Woman with Wristwatch, 1932
- Picasso and American artists at the Whitney - a must see exhibition for all New Yorkers - runs through January 28, 2007
- Americans in Paris at the Met - runs through January 28, 2007
- Vollard and his artists (Cezanne to Picasso: Ambroise Vollard, Patron of the Avant-Garde) at the Met - runs through January 7, 2007
- Spanish Paintings: El Greco to Picasso at the Guggenheim - runs through March 28, 2007
- Alex Katz at the Jewish Museum - runs through March 18, 2007
Post by Peter
