Monday, April 3, 2017
If you can remember back to election night, the minority president promised that "[t]he forgotten men and women of our country will be forgotten no longer." http://abcnews.go.com/Politics
Indeed, the president has made heroic efforts to unforget the forgotten, that woeful sliver of society that is left holding most of the money. https://www.nytimes.com/intera
Let's not forget Betsy DeVos, whose net worth is no less than $580 million. Tie a string around your finger to keep in mind Gary D. Cohn, worth no less that $253 million. Remember Steven T. Mnuchin, worth at least $154 million. Promise kept.
Stony Brook Steve and I headed to Auntie Guan's Kitchen 108 (sic), 108 West 14th Street, a bright new restaurant in a neighborhood that continues to be upgraded. The floor space is awkwardly configured, with 5 booths, 3 round tables and more than a dozen two tops variously pushed together. All the tables were covered by white butcher paper on top of white tablecloths. No crayons were supplied, however. The random arrangement of the tables left a narrow path to get from front to back. Maybe this was the reason that service was uneven, patience and waving of arms needed to get a pot of tea refilled.
The food, on the other hand, was commendable. The menu is an illustrated laminated sheet with pictures that don't always correspond to the captions. While there were lunch specials, we made a meal of individual items, Fried Dumplings (6 for $6.99), Sliced Lamb w. Cumin & Chili Oil ($15.99 bought a large portion), and Scallion Pancake w. Shredded Meat (chicken) ($7.99). The scallion pancake was a particular treat, a lot of chicken chunks cooked in cumin and hot oil wrapped in a scallion pancake, much spicier than the lamb dish which advertised its spiciness. All good.
Tuesday, April 4, 2017
I had an appointment with my periodontist today. Having gotten his kids through graduate school, I am now working on a modest villa in Tuscany for him. The visit, however, was not entirely to my disadvantage. It gave me the opportunity to go to Mr. Bing's, 230 Park Avenue, a new establishment that offers jianbings, Peking-style pancakes. Ignore the Park Avenue address if you head that way. Mr. Bing is one of about a dozen stalls in a food court at the northeast corner of Vanderbilt Avenue and East 45th Street, providing Thai, Italian, burgers, chicken, German, Japanese, soup, coffee, smoothies, pizza, "sushi burritos" and donuts.
Mr. Bing (apparently a translation of the name of its founder Brian Goldberg), occupies an 8' x 8' booth preparing jianbings to order by spreading a thin film of mung bean and rice flour batter onto a griddle, break an egg on it, add herbs, crisp noodles and roast duck, marinated chicken or roast pork, flip it, roll it and cut it in two. Three levels of spiciness are available. I had the roast duck version medium spicy ($15), interesting but not compelling, and only large enough to satisfy a modestly-sized woman.
Speaking of satisfying a modestly-sized woman, I wonder if Roger Ailes would share the secret of his sex appeal?
Thursday, April 5, 2017
My wife left me today ------- to go to Massachusetts to assist our second and third generations prepare for their very first Passover seder at home. I will follow in a few days to conduct a final inspection and enjoy their culinary efforts, as Jewish men have done through the centuries.
Alone on this cold rainy day, I followed the path of least resistance, took the subway to Chinatown and had lunch at Wo Hop, 17 Mott Street. Fortunately, they had their lunch soup special, so I was able to have a large bowl of egg drop won ton soup for $2, hot, delicious and brimming with 7 plump won ton. If I ordered Wo Hop's world class crispy noodles, I could have stopped there, but I chose as my starch shrimp fried rice ($7.95), with hot mustard and soy sauce to add some complexity to the flavor palette.
Friday, April 7, 2017
I've never liked David Brooks, one of two conservatives regularly publishing op-eds in the New York Times, normally the voice of limousine liberalism. Too often, his writing strained to add intellectual embroidery to Republican nonsense, rather than offer an independent conservative perspective. Today, however, I have to admire his piece on the clown-in-chief. I wish that I had written some of it.
"[T]he personnel process has been so rigorous in its selection of inexperience that those who were hired on the basis of mere nepotism look like Dean Acheson by comparison."
"I worry that at the current pace the Trump administration is going to run out of failure."
"Trump’s greatest achievements are in the field of ignorance."
Roger Ailes sex appeal? See your Monday entry.
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