Food or Thought

Monday, December 11, 2017
A new survey rates the supposed best places to work among large US firms, based on data from employees over the past year.  
https://www.glassdoor.com/Award/Best-Places-to-Work-LST_KQ0,19.htm

You might check if any of your past or present employers made the list.  I crept in at # 99, KPMG f/k/a as Peat Marwick Mitchell & Co., the second largest of the fabled Big 8 accounting firms when I started there in 1980.  But, I want to talk about food, for a change.  The # 4 best place to work is In-N-Out Burger, a very successful fast food chain, concentrated in the West.  Here is a map that illustrates our national devotion to fast food and the popularity of major brands.   http://www.thisisinsider.com/most-popular-fast-food-chain-in-every-state-2016-8

By coincidence, when I lived in Los Angeles, In-N-Out Burger was a client of the computer firm that I managed.  Even with that, I ate at one of their places just a very few times, because of geography, not menu.  They were then concentrated east and south of downtown Los Angeles, while I focused on the haute bourgeois environs west and north of downtown Los Angeles.

In-N-Out Burger not only pleases its employees, it is very popular with customers, reportedly including famous chefs, such as Gordon Ramsay, Thomas Keller, Julia Childs, Anthony Bourdain, and Mario Batali.  

Besides food, I also want to talk about politics.  In-N-Out Burger presents a challenge to us pinko, limousine liberals.  While it's a good place to work and a good place to eat, it makes a practice of placing biblical passages on its packaging.  The references are typically in small print in marginal spots, but they usually skip Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.    

Like In-N-Out Burger, Chick-fil-A is mostly unknown in the northeast, although it is the popular choice in almost half the country.  It also places 72nd among the best places to work in the employee survey above, the only other restaurant in the top 100.  It is starting to become a presence in the Holy Land.  There are now three locations in Manhattan, including the New York University student center in Greenwich Village. 

Chick-fil-A came late to many large Northern urban areas because of the reaction to the aggressive opposition to marriage equality by its CEO earlier in this decade, coupled with financial support of like-minded interest groups.  While Chick-fil-A toned down its politics to quell the controversy, it remains associated in many minds with the minority of Americans who voted for the current president.

Head vs. stomach.  What a dilemma.
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I wonder what would happen if we explored the internal policies and politics of some of my favorite Chinese restaurants.  I consciously ignored that issue today when I went to another branch of Xi'an Famous Foods, this one at 37 West 54th Street.  Xi'an started as a kiosk in a shopping mall in Flushing, Queens, the second Chinatown in New York City.  I first came across it at 88 East Broadway, under the Manhattan Bridge, where there was room for one customer at a time (March 7, 2011).  Xi'an has moved on and added a handful of locations, still with small footprints, but able to seat a dozen or more customers. 

The long, narrow space on West 54th Street has ledges on the opposing side walls, with two dozen or so knee-high stools, fully occupied at lunchtime.  I found a space and put down my plate of "Stewed Oxtail Hand-ripped Noodles"  ($12.22).  Since the long, wide noodles were slippery with the spicy sauce, I bent close to the plate, vacuuming up the noodles, trying to keep splashing at a minimum.  Dark colors and washable fabrics are still advised.

Tuesday, December 12, 2017

Unlike my two previous visits, I was seated immediately today at Tim Ho Wan, 85 Fourth Avenue, spared waiting around for an hour holding an electronic pager to signal the availability of a table.  What was unchanged from those visits was the quality of the food served. 

Eating alone, I chose baked buns with BBQ pork (3 for $4.95), one of the best things a lapsed Jew can eat in all of New York, and steamed rice with chicken and shiitake mushroom ($4.75), plain and simple and good.

  

Wednesday, December 13, 2107

Happy Birthday to my big brother.  I'll never forget the date, because it is one day after Frank Sinatra's birthday.

. . .

If only Roy Moore had dropped that Jewish lawyer, he might have been elected senator from Alabama.

. . .

I think that I was unwise last week by raising the issue of  top 10 or top 100 lists.  We are inundated with them at this time of year.  I can't be expected to note and comment on this flood, but they are so hard to ignore.  Today, we had "The Most-Read New York Times Stories of 2017" which put us in the driver's seat, not some collection of anemic critics.  

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/12/08/reader-center/top-stories.html

As a daily reader, most of the stories were familiar, but I found that I missed one particularly interesting one: "You Draw It: What Got Better or Worse During Obama’s Presidency."  It appeared almost a year ago and barely made the list at # 97.  It asked questions about the unemployment rate, healthcare spending, and illegal immigration, among other things, in the Obama years, leaving the reader to supply the answers.  It wasn't easy coming close to the facts under the fog of lies and deception now peddled out of Washington.  Try it for yourself.
. . .

I have an excuse for missing one important story: "Blue Frog Chocolates on Magazine St. closing after 17 years."
http://www.nola.com/dining/index.ssf/2017/08/blue_frog_chocolates_closing_a.html

It appeared in the New Orleans Times-Picayune, not my hometown paper.  That might not be an adequate excuse, because Ann Streiffer, the owner, is a cousin, and a lovely person to boot.  I understand the basis for her decision, but I feel a profound sense of loss.

Thursday, December 14, 2017

In case you find yourself at a loss for words under difficult circumstances, check out some apologies, sincere and otherwise.

https://www.nytimes.com/video/us/100000005592290/207-year-in-apologies.html
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These damn year end "best of" lists continue to plague me.  Now, the New York Times has the top 10 new restaurants of 2017: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/12/12/dining/best-restaurant-nyc-pete-wells.html?_r=0

To its credit, many of the restaurants on this list may be enjoyed without an expense account or a trust fund.  The top spot, however, goes to The Grill, 99 East 52nd Street, taking over the classic space long-occupied by my all-time favorite, the Four Seasons.  I have not been to The Grill and the article gives me a reason to stay away, "the often outlandish prices."  

Even more commendable is the companion piece on the best cheap eats of the year.  https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/12/07/dining/best-cheap-restaurants-nyc.html?action=click&contentCollection=Food&region=Footer&module=WhatsNext&version=WhatsNext&contentID=WhatsNext&moduleDetail=undefined&pgtype=Multimedia

These places are new to me, representing the Philippines, Taiwan, Thailand, Mexico, Bangladesh and Indonesia.  Now, I have a hit list for the year ahead and you are welcome to accompany me.

Friday, December 15, 2017

The late Duchess of Windsor claimed that you could never be too thin or too rich.  I have never been threatened by either extreme, but I just found a reason to be lured into an excess of wealth.  DaDong has just opened at 1095 Sixth Avenue.  This is its 17th location, the first outside of China, however.  

It specializes in Peking duck, if serving 1,387,000 ducks a year might be considered specialization.  I love a good duck, which often is elusive under a coat of pale yellow fat.  My devotion to the Four Seasons was based on its "Farmhouse Roasted Duck," where the crispy skin was peeled from the meat and scraped free of fat.  Rarely did any Chinese restaurant approach this level care with its Peking duck.  DaDong's reputation seems to promise the results that I savor.

And here's where the economic angle comes into play.  DaDong's New York menu lists a whole Peking duck at $98, a half at $58.  This is at least twice what is charged in Chinatown, with admittedly uneven results.  A better comparison, I think, was the $75 three-course, fixed-price, pre-theater meal at the Four Seasons, including their fabulous duck.  One Peking duck should feed two people, but where are the  other courses, the freshly-baked croissants and the artisanal chocolates that came just before the check?

I have a birthday next year and maybe I will hold my nose and open my wallet to determine if DaDong has da goods.

. . .

I found the appropriate way to celebrate my brother's birthday, taking him to the Ranger game tonight.  The good results helped slow down the aging process for him.

. . .

Need I say more?  "Trump’s Lies vs. Obama’s" https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/12/14/opinion/sunday/trump-lies-obama-who-is-worse.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=opinion-c-col-right-region&region=opinion-c-col-right-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-right-region