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

Noon music at Rockefeller University

The Rockefeller University hosts a recital series called the Tri-Institutional Noon Recitals. Held on Fridays at noon from September through June, this series brings outstanding musical talent to NYC.

For example, on December 15, 2006, pianist Soyeon Lee gave a great perfomance. She played with much expression and enthusiasm. What a joy!

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

Post by Peter

Merry Christmas!

The Christmas Tree and Neapolitan Baroque Crèche at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC, November 21, 2006 - January 7, 2007.

How to eat at all-you-can-eat Chinese buffets

there is a strategy for eating at all-you-can-eat buffet places ... start with a huge plate of fried crabs, very fresh crunchy string-beans, fried shrimp to-fu squares ... next a large bowl of spicy-coconut flavored-chicken curry with scallion pancakes and fried broad rice noodles ... next, the assorted dim-sum dishes ... finally, a plate of desserts ... of course, you can go for seconds and thirds if you have the desire ... 1 1/2 hour time limit ...

Dim sum palace in Elmhurst - East Manor

My friend introduced me to a Chinese dim-sum palace in Elmhurst, Queens, this week ... on week-days, from 11.30 am to 3.30 pm., all you can eat for $7.99 ... a great value if you can eat, eat and eat ....

Plenty of variety, such as curry chicken, fried crabs, tonkatsu, soups, mussels, fried shrimp tofu, green vegetables, roast pork, etc., plus desserts ... the cooking is very good and they use very fresh ingredients ...

East Manor, web site, 79-17 Albion Avenue, Elmhurst, 718-803-3952 ... "for your convenience a 15% service charge and 8.875% sales tax are added to your bill." That means, you can eat for under $10.00 per adult with a 1.5 hour time limit, not bad at all ... [Locations Magazine | Chowhound]

Don't let the bed bugs bite!

Bedbug (Cimex lectularius), from Wikipedia

In a city where people already depend on Ambien for a good night's sleep, the thought of bedbugs has wreaked havoc on circadian rhythms from homeless shelters to $2 million loft apartments. The thought of them is making people itch--not the bedbugs themselves, whose numbers don't even quite live up to the media hype. What has yet to be quantified--but what has become an urban infestation of its own--is the paranoia that the bedbug craze has produced. It turns out, perhaps no surprise in a city as neurotically obsessed as New York, that something as small as a bedbug can grow colossal in the minds of millions.

"Bed Bugs & Beyond: An outbreak of paranoia (and lint) sweeps the city," by Mara Altman, The Village Voice, December 12, 2006

More

• Bedbugger: your foxhole in the war against bed bugs! - blog
• The Bedbug Blog
  • Reporting Bedbugs in New York City, September 8, 2006
• Bedbug - from Wikipedia
• "~ Bed Bugs ~ Cimex lectularius (Cimicidae): Biology and Management," by Richard Pollack and Gary Alpert, Harvard School of Public Health
• The Bed Bug Resource, by Sean Rollo
• Don't Let the Bedbugs Bite! Bedbugs in Apartments, a Met Council Fact Sheet - from the Metropolitan Council on Housing
• bedbugger: Bedbug Support Group - on Yahoo Groups
• "Control of Bed Bugs in Residences: Information for Pest Control Companies," by Stephen A. Kells, Dept. of Entomology, University of Minnesota, February 15, 2006 (16-page pdf)

NYC bloggers' new books - Dawn Eden and Kevin Walsh

NYC blogger Dawn Eden of The Dawn Patrol has just published "The Thrill of the Chaste." And Kevin Walsh, of Forgotten New York, has just published "Forgotten New York."

Congratulations and continued success to Dawn and Kevin!

Christmas panto

If you want to see a holiday panto this Christmas, we found one in DC and another in Malvern, PA. Let us know if you are aware of any holiday pantos in or near NYC.

• "The Farndale Avenue Housing Estate Townswomen's Guild Dramatic Society's production of A Christmas Carol," through December 31, 2006, at the Church Street Theater, 1742 Church Street NW, Washington, DC, near DuPont Circle, 800-494-8497
• "Robin Hood," through December 31, 2006 on the Main Stage at People's Light Theatre Company, 39 Conestoga Road, Malvern, PA, Rt. 401 (between Rts. 30 and 202) Box Office: 610-644-3500

Central Park hot dogs no deal

I have noticed that the Central Park "hot-dog monopoly" is gouging the unsuspecting public ...

For example, the hot sausage (which is a large hot-dog, my favourite snack with mustard and red onions) sells for $3 and I can buy the same item for $1.50 at several hot-dog stands on the north-east corner of Madison Avenue and 81st Street (which is a block from the entrance to the MET Museum), the north-west corner of 71st Street and Madison Avenue, and 68th Street and Lexington Avenue ...

Post by Peter

Spicy & Tasty in Flushing

Spicy & Tasty, 39-07 Prince Street, Flushing, Queens, between 39th and Roosevelt Avenues, 718-359-1601 [Menu from Bridge and Tunnel | NYT | NY Mag | Village Voice | openlist | Yelp]

Previous review July 30, 2006

Finally, Frank Bruni has discovered Spicy & Tasty in Flushing ... very hot and delicious ... worth a detour from La Guardia airport on your next visit ...

"Where Playing With Fire Is Not Taboo," by Frank Bruni, The New York Times, November 29, 2006

Delicious roast duck dinner for 2 for less than $20

Writing about my roast duck dinner made me hungry ... I rode the subway to Chinatown and walked to the AAA Meat Market, 288 Grand Street, for the $8 whole Cantonese roast duck ... I had to wait awhile because they were sold out ... no problem, I went next door to a Chinese coffee shop for a cup and pastry, $1.30 ...

Next, I went to the grocery store and bought a 5 lb. bag of Thai brown jasmine rice for $3.50. At 70 cents a pound, not a bad deal ... next, to the vegetable market for a pound of $1.20 bok choy ... and then bought the duck!!!!

Rode the bus home and made a delicious dinner.

Before I forget, I stopped at the Deluxe Food Market, 79 Elizabeth Street, for a pound of ready-made transparent noodles and vegetables, @ $2.99. I could only polish off half the duck, with some cooked brown rice and the vegetables. To-morrow, I will finish the rest of my purchase.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Post by Peter

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Peking Duck - roast duck for under $10

Frank Bruni reviewed Peking Duck House, and although he doesn't like the pancakes served,

I never stick with the pancakes for long. After making one or two proper Peking duck constructions, I just start eating the duck on its own. If the duck is prepared as well as it is at Peking Duck House, and you’ve got an appetite for undiluted richness, this is a great way to go.

"Out and About: The Peking Duck House," Diner's Journal, November 17, 2006

Peking Duck House, web site, 28 Mott Street, Chinatown, 212-227-1810. See other reviews - many folks don't like this place at all: [MenuPages | NY Mag | Citysearch]

Here is how to enjoy a delicious roast duck for less than $10:

The crispy skin and moist oily dark meat in a roast duck, marinade in hoi-sin sauce …the definition of a perfect Cantonese (or Peking) roast duck … can be purchased whole at AAA Meat Market, 288 Grand Street, the shop exactly at the north-west corner of Grand and Eldridge Streets in Chinatown for $8. The shop also sells whole roast pigs, chickens, etc., and immediately outside there are fruit and vegetable sellers for your salad.

At home, you can enjoy the whole duck by using a pair of poultry shears ... plus your own choice of red wine and a mixed salad of Chinese greens ... and no pancakes ... Payard ice-cream to finish the meal ... Ahhhhhhh, perfect.

Payard, web site, 1032 Lexington Avenue, 212-717-5252 [Yummy Baguette | MenuPages | NY Mag | Citysearch | Gayot]

Provenance

After retiring from truck driving in 1987, Teri Horton devoted much of her time to bargain hunting around the Los Angeles area. Sometimes the bargains were discovered on Salvation Army shelves and sometimes, she willingly admits, at the bottom of Dumpsters.

Even the most stubborn deal scrounger probably would have been satisfied with the rate of return recently offered to her for a curiosity she snagged for $5 in a San Bernardino thrift shop in the early 1990s. A buyer, said to be from Saudi Arabia, was willing to pay $9 million for it, just under an 180 million percent increase on her original investment. Ms. Horton, a sandpaper-voiced woman with a hard-shell perm who lives in a mobile home in Costa Mesa and depends on her Social Security checks, turned him down without a second thought.

Ms. Horton’s find is not exactly the kind that gets pulled from a steamer trunk on the “Antiques Roadshow.” It is a dinner-table-size painting, crosshatched in the unmistakable drippy, streaky, swirly style that made Jackson Pollock one of the most famous artists of the last century. Ms. Horton had never heard of Pollock before buying the painting, but when an art teacher saw it and told her that it might be his work (and that it could fetch untold millions if it were), she launched herself on a single-minded post-retirement career — enlisting, along the way, a forensic expert and a once-powerful art dealer — to have her painting acknowledged as authentic by scholars and the art market.

"Could Be a Pollock; Must Be a Yarn," by Randy Kennedy, The New York Times, November 9, 2006

Where is the provenance???

"Provenance" is a list of the previous owners of a work of art, tracing it from its present location and owner back to the hand of the artist. Provenance has many uses: It can help to determine the authenticity of a work, to establish the historical importance of a work by suggesting other artists who might have seen and been influenced by it, and to determine the legitimacy of current ownership.

Provenance Research, Harvard University Art Museums

More

• What is provenance research? - Association of Art Museum Directors
• Provenance Resources Online - The Museum of Modern Art
• Provenance Research - The Getty
• Metropolitan Museum's Provenance Research Project
• Provenance Research - Princeton University Art Museum
• Museum Provenance Research - Google
• Nazi Era Provenance - American Association of Museums

"Classical Music Meets the Alternative Scene"

Spurred on by a growing number of offbeat performance venues and enterprising young classical musicians, New York is experiencing a boom in small, largely below-the-radar concert series. There are opera nights at a Lower East Side dive bar, chamber music concerts at a boxing gym beneath the Brooklyn Bridge, contemporary music at a cabaret in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and avant-garde fare in a silo on the banks of an industrial canal.

The rise of an alternative classical scene recalls the 1960s and 70s, when downtown lofts and art galleries helped give rise to minimalism and performance art. The current crop of classical series resembles a similar trend happening in jazz and world-music circles, as the club epicenter has spread from Manhattan to Brooklyn. Classical musicians often say they are drawn to simpler, less pretentious encounters with audiences.

“It’s just like going to see a band,” says Anne Ricci, a soprano in describing Opera on Tap, an opera recital series that she co-founded in June 2005 at Freddy’s Bar and Backroom, a former bowling alley and cop bar in Park Slope, Brooklyn, that now presents live music.

"Classical Music Meets the Alternative Scene," by Brian Wise, MusicalAmerica.com, November 9, 2006

Hat tip: Tyler Cowen

More

• Barbes Bar and Performance Space, 376 9th Street, Park Slope, Brooklyn, NY, corner of 6th Avenue, 718-965-9177
• Concert Artists Guild
• Freddy's Bar & Backroom, 485 Dean Street, Brooklyn, NY, 718-622-7035
• Galapagos Art Space, 70 North 6th Street, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY, between Kent and Wythe, 718 782-5188
• International Contemporary Ensemble
• Issue Project Room, 400 Carroll Street, Brooklyn, NY, between Bond and Nevins, 718-330-0313
• Opera on Tap
• The Empty Vessel Project

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Lawyer joke

This is from a list of lawyer jokes a friend sent.

ATTORNEY: Doctor, before you performed the autopsy, did you check for a pulse?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: Did you check for blood pressure?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: Did you check for breathing?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: So, then it is possible that the patient was alive when you began the autopsy?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: How can you be so sure, Doctor?
WITNESS: Because his brain was sitting on my desk in a jar.
ATTORNEY: But could the patient have still been alive, nevertheless?
WITNESS: Yes, it is possible that he could have been alive and practicing law.

"My Name Is Rachel Corrie" - anyone seen this?

Here's Terry Teachout's take on "My Name Is Rachel Corrie." Anyone seen this?

Politics makes artists stupid. Take "My Name Is Rachel Corrie," the one-woman play cobbled together from the diaries, emails and miscellaneous scribblings of the 23-year-old left-wing activist who was run over by an Israeli Army bulldozer in 2003 while protesting the demolition of a Palestinian house in the Gaza Strip. Co-written and directed by Alan Rickman, one of England's best actors, "Rachel Corrie" just opened off-Broadway after a successful London run. It's an ill-crafted piece of goopy give-peace-a-chance agitprop--yet it's being performed to cheers and tears before admiring crowds of theater-savvy New Yorkers who, like Mr. Rickman himself, ought to know better.
. . .
"My Name Is Rachel Corrie," by contrast, is a scrappy, one-sided monologue consisting of nothing but the fugitive observations of a young woman who, like so many idealists, treated her emotions as facts. "I am disappointed," she declares, "that this is the base reality of our world and that we, in fact, participate in it. This is not at all what I asked for when I came into this world." To mistake such jejune disillusion for profundity and turn it into the climax of a full-length play is an act of piety, not artistry.

"Bulldozed by Naivete," by Terry Teachout, Opinion Journal, October 21, 2006

"My Name Is Rachel Corrie," at the Minetta Lane Theatre, 18 Minetta Lane

"Ten Percent Tip Teaches Waitress Valuable Lesson"

After receiving "subpar" service and experiencing an unusually long wait for his $4.75 lunch at a local Beefside Family Restaurant Monday, customer Gus O'Connor opted to give waitress Carla Hyams a reduced 10 percent tip in an attempt to communicate his dissatisfaction and raise awareness of the areas in which he felt her performance was lacking.

Hyams, 49, who has been serving tables at the popular eatery for 13 years, expressed enthusiastic gratitude for the "immense personal growth" the gesture will afford her, adding that, in the long run, the experience will make her a better waitress.
. . .
"If he hadn’t withheld that 50 cents, I'd make these mistakes over and over for the rest of my career," said the 49-year-old server.
. . .
O'Connor said his overall goal was not only to receive better service, but to help Hyams become a role model for her two teenage children, Tyler and Michael.

"Ten Percent Tip Teaches Waitress Valuable Lesson," The Onion, October 19, 2006

Wasn't it Hemingway who left a $50 tip when he got lousy service for an inexpensive lunch, and when the waitress gushed "Thank you!" he said, "You ought to see how I tip for good service."

Must see exhibition for all New Yorkers

Pablo Picasso, Seated Woman with Wristwatch, 1932

Roy Lichtenstein, Girl with Beach Ball III, 1977

I strongly diasagrree with Michael Kimmelman's charcaterization of the Picasso exhibition at the Whitney Museum as

one of those dull affairs incubated in the world of academe: a walk-through textbook that goes to extraordinary lengths to state the obvious

What a horrible review by the chief art critic of the NYTimes ... Friday evening I went and enjoyed the exhibition very much ... I read the review after seeing the show ... there are so many paintings from faraway places that are shown for the first time in NY ... after the show at the Whitney, I went home and ate a simple supper of silky tofu with 2 Chinese fermented eggs, dressed with sesame oil and toasted sesame seeds ... the red wine was a south-east Australian 2004 Penfolds Koonunga Hill shiraz cabernet ... .

This exhibition is a must see for all New Yorkers ...

"Picasso and American Art," Whitney Museum of American Art, September 28, 2006 - January 28, 2007, 945 Madison Avenue at 75th Street, Friday's from 6–9 pm is pay-what-you-wish admission, (press release - 5-page pdf)

Craftsmanship

Dead Programmer's Cafe has an interesting post on craftsmanship in software and construction, and links to a post by Joel Sporksy, who says:

[S]ometimes fixing a 1% defect takes 500% effort.

Lupa - disappointing

I ate at Lupa Monday evening and I was disappointed ... we shared all the dishes and 3 carafes of white vino from Italy ...

The meat dishes of salami, prosciutto, veal tongue, head cheese, etc. were completely tasteless except for the salt and oil ... no perfume flavor and dried tasting ... I imagine that the meats were sliced a long time ago ... not freshly sliced meat ... the diced brussels sprouts with cheese were very salty and oily with no other flavors, such as lemon or herbs ...

The sardines with escarole were not fresh and tasted like marinade herring ... the salad was very plain with plenty of dried cheese ...

The fresh fettucine pasta with cheese was buttery-OK. I bet that the ingredients did not cost more than $1 per dish!

We had a nice table outside on the patio that was nice and comfortable. The white wines were good. We split the bill of $100 plus and we each left a tip of $10. So my bill was over $63.

Not good at all and I felt that I was bamboozled by the Italians. For example, for the price of the $10 tip, I could have a very delicious bowl of fresh egg noodles (al dente) with wonton soup ($3.00) and a plate of BBQ baby pork ribs ($5.00) in Chinatown.

No offense but I think that Italian food in the fancy restaurants are the biggest sham in this Big Apple ... the only place to eat Italian is to cook at home, it is so simple ... ask my Italian nephew, Francesco Buitoni ...

However, the evening did not end too badly, we rode the subway to Lincoln Center and saw the MET opera of Madam Butterfly, outdoors on a huge screen with English sub-titles ...

Lupa, web site, 170 Thompson Street, between Houston and Bleeker Streets, 212-982-5089 [MenuPages | NYT | NY Mag | Village Voice | openlist | Gayot | Savory NY | Yelp | Citysearch]

Post by Peter

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