Summer in the City

Monday, July 11, 2011

Today's New York Times reported on a fire over the weekend that partially destroyed the building of Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun on East 85th Street. The story quoted Asher Levitsky, 67, a lawyer whose children attended Ramaz, a nearby school affiliated with the synagogue.

Once, when Andrew Persily, of blessed memory, was involved with fraternity rushing at Cornell University, a freshmen stuck out his hand to Andy and said, "Asher Levitsky." Andy, always respectful of religious tradition replied, "Asher Levitsky to you, too."

I took a very long walk on a very hot day (90°) to arrive at Sticky Rice, 85 Orchard Street. Yes, Orchard Street, once the mercantile center of the lower East Side. I will not riff, at this time at least, on how dramatically this neighborhood has changed, but I don’t even think that there was any place to eat on Orchard Street when your mother schlepped you on a Sunday afternoon to buy underwear. (Corrections welcome.) Now, a variety of eating joints, sharing a hip aesthetic, but with different cuisines, far removed from the Kosher kitchen, are up and down the street where there used to be only dry goods stores (when was the last time you heard that phrase?).

Sticky Rice is a small Thai restaurant, with a long exposed brick wall, partially painted with an enormous cherry blossom mural, a stunning blue glass chandelier and a large brass temple bell hanging from the vaulted exposed brick ceiling. Lunch was a great bargain. I had a combo plate ($6.95) which included one chicken satay skewer, one "classic Thai dumpling" and shrimp pad Thai. All the food was very good to excellent. As an amuse bouche (forshpeis), I got a small plate of crispy fried noodles, almost lo mein in size, in a tamarind sauce. This itself was worth a couple of bucks. Even though the airconditioning struggled against the heat, I was delighted with my visit to Sticky Rice.

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

It was 90° again at lunchtime and I wasn’t fool enough to walk the 1 ½ miles that I did yesterday. Instead, I headed to Wo Hop, downstairs at 17 Mott Street, which, although quite close to the courthouse. never amounts to a mere compromise. I enjoyed chicken chow fun ($5.75), although there was a slight excess of soy sauce in the cooking.

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

I went home last night to an empty nest, because America’s Favorite Epidemiologist was visiting the Southampton retreat of her great friend Jill, in the good company of several other women originally from Bergen County, until Thursday night. The timing of this was somewhat unfortunate, since only the Major League All-Star Game was on television last night, an event that I abandoned decades ago along with the Olympics and the Miss America Pageant. Under the circumstances, we would have made conversation for minutes on end. Now, we’ll have to wait for July 18th or August 4th when the Mets have a day off. At least, during hockey season (October to April plus playoffs), the Rangers usually play only three games a week, in contrast to the crowded baseball schedule, providing me with more than ample opportunity to attend to domestic affairs.

I returned to Chatham Sq Restaurant, 6 Chatham Square (March 9, 2010), about 2/3 full of Chinese folk eating dim sum. Unlike last time, I was given a private table, whether for the benefit of me or other patrons I don’t know. A cart came over quickly and I picked baked barbecued roast pork buns (3 on a plate), vegetable dumplings (5) and an interesting shrimp roll (cut into 4 pieces). The shrimp were chopped and shaped into one broad and flat piece, then rolled in an eggy wrapper instead of a big rice noodle. It was not only unusual, but very good. The check was not itemized, so I can only report that I paid $9.75 including tea and tax.

Friday, July 15, 2011

According to today’s New York Law Journal, former Kirkland & Ellis senior partner Theodore L. Freedman was indicted yesterday on charges he misrepresented more than $2 million in income from the firm. Mr. Freedman, a bankruptcy specialist who resigned from the firm in October, was charged with four counts of income tax fraud. According to the government, the IRS form that reports an individual partner's share of income or loss showed Mr. Freedman’s total income for calendar years 2001 through 2004 to be $5,388,699. Mr. Freedman, who prepared, signed and filed his taxes himself, under-reported his income during those years by $2,097,211, prosecutors said. Maybe he should have gone to H&R Block.