Monday, March 5, 2018
I was delighted to read an article in the Sunday travel section about Shanghai, emphasizing food, the wonderful variety of dumplings offered in establishments large and small. It's been almost 10 years since I was there and this article made me want to return. However, it contained one phrase (actually a complete sentence presented as a parenthetical element) that was as irrational as anything that has come out of the White House recently: "a cold brew and pizza slice at the world's largest Starbucks will set you back $20."
https://nyti.ms/2CMW5OA
I was delighted to read an article in the Sunday travel section about Shanghai, emphasizing food, the wonderful variety of dumplings offered in establishments large and small. It's been almost 10 years since I was there and this article made me want to return. However, it contained one phrase (actually a complete sentence presented as a parenthetical element) that was as irrational as anything that has come out of the White House recently: "a cold brew and pizza slice at the world's largest Starbucks will set you back $20."
https://nyti.ms/2CMW5OA
You're
in Shanghai! That's China! Maybe a cup of coffee, but you don't
really go to Starbucks for food anywhere in the world. Okay, maybe a
brownie, but not pizza. Pizza in China? Pizza from Starbucks? That's
crazy.
. . .
. . .
Here is another travel-related item that I would like to pass on. "Her Majesty the Queen has made over 250 official overseas visits to 129
different countries during her reign, neither she nor one single member
of the British royal family has ever yet been to Israel on an official
visit." http://blogs.timesofisrael.com
As
an admitted Anglophile, allow me to point out in defense that the young
queen has only reigned since February 6, 1952, allowing 24,134 days
until the present to get settled. Come on, bubbeleh, the Jews won't bite.
. . .
Even here, I don't go to Starbucks for solid food. Instead, I went to Tim Ho Wan, 84 Fourth
Avenue (January 31, 2017, June 7, 2017) for first-rate dim sum at
lunchtime. I skipped a 30-minute wait and ate standing up at the
serving counter right inside the entrance. I had baked bun with BBQ
pork (3 pieces, $5.25), the signature dish for this Hong Kong-based
chain; deep-fried eggplant filled with shrimp (3 pieces, $5); curried
meatballs in a thin, fried shell (4 pieces, $5.75). The quality of the
food seems to justify the large crowd, but I was still surprised that a
Monday in March drew so many people in the joint's second full year of
operation. Don't stay away, but use the waiting time, which could
extend to one hour, constructively at the Strand Bookstore, 828 Broadway, two blocks away.
. . .
David
Webber's important analysis of the politics of pension funds appeared
on-line this morning on the New York Times web site. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/0
Tuesday, March 6, 2018
There are frequent lists of best local Chinese restaurants, not all deserving equal consideration. Watch out for those lists that prize expensive, beautifully-decorated joints in fine neighborhoods, near ritzy hotels. They are intended for those people who don't really like Chinese food. Grub Street, a service of New York magazine, does a better job than that. http://www.grubstreet.com/best
There are frequent lists of best local Chinese restaurants, not all deserving equal consideration. Watch out for those lists that prize expensive, beautifully-decorated joints in fine neighborhoods, near ritzy hotels. They are intended for those people who don't really like Chinese food. Grub Street, a service of New York magazine, does a better job than that. http://www.grubstreet.com/best
I
was familiar with most of the Manhattan-based joints on Grub Street's
list, but I blanked on the #1 choice, the lengthily-named Hao Noodle and
Tea by Madame Zhu's Kitchen, 401 Sixth Avenue. Stony Brook Steve and
Jon Silverberg agreed to join me for lunch there and, as soon as we
entered, Steve said that we've been here before. Looking around, I
found the surroundings to be familiar and had to credit Steve's eagle
eye, just improved by cataract surgery. Indeed, we had been here on
January 11, 2017 and I hadn't remembered in spite of the rather clumsy
name.
Today, we unevenly
shared seafood pancake ($8), spicy beef with dried orange peel ($16),
wood ear mushrooms ($8), "Sweetly Smoked Sole" ($12), sticky rice siu
mai (3 pieces, $6), and Le Shan chicken ($15). The beef was extremely
spicy; the mushrooms and the chicken slightly less so, but only
slightly. Be prepared and note that Van Leeuwen Artisan Ice Cream is
only 2 blocks away at 152 West 10th Street, to soothe your flaming
gullet.
Wednesday, March 7, 2018
Jew and gentile alike should examine this list of 100 Jewish foods. https://100jewishfoods.tabletm
I
found the list very useful and entertaining, even if not entirely
Jewish and certainly not flawless. Because it is alphabetic, bacon
appears near the top. Bacon, you say? To quote: "Bacon is the final frontier, the last
temptation of the kosher-keeper, the quintessential forbidden food that
appeals precisely because it is so darn delicious."
Warm thoughts of my long gone father came rushing back when I read, "One
of the most common features of the
Jewish kitchen isn’t found in a pantry, or a cupboard or a
refrigerator. It’s a tea bag—specifically, a used tea bag, air-drying
on the counter
or creating a tiny puddle on a saucer." I was amused by the author's
recollection that his parents "share[d] a single tea bag between the two
of them and then leave it on the counter for the next night. I didn’t
keep track of how long they’d make it last. It’s entirely possible that
they had only the one tea bag." I know for a fact that we had more than one tea bag in our household, but often acted as if we didn't.
Thursday, March 8, 2108
I graduated Stuyvesant High School in 1958. In 1969, it admitted female students for the first time. In 1992, it relocated from its almost 90-year old building. For the many decades that I have been paying attention, one sad truth has remained constant, attendance by African-American students has been woeful. The New York City Department of Education just announced that only 10 black students were admitted this year, a decline from last year's 13.
When
I reported on December 26, 2011 that Stuyvesant's incoming class of
2015 had 12 blacks, I went back to my yearbook and found that my
graduating class of 725 had 13 blacks. Is there anything else in life
that has been that consistent? I graduated Stuyvesant High School in 1958. In 1969, it admitted female students for the first time. In 1992, it relocated from its almost 90-year old building. For the many decades that I have been paying attention, one sad truth has remained constant, attendance by African-American students has been woeful. The New York City Department of Education just announced that only 10 black students were admitted this year, a decline from last year's 13.
Surely,
some black kids are now siphoned off to the top private and prep
schools in their quest
for diversity, but the absolute number remains shockingly low. Some
suggest innate ethnic inferiority, but that means that we Jews have to
acknowledge Chinese intellectual superiority and possibly reverse
positions in the kitchen and the dining room as the 3 Chinese students
in my class have now been succeeded by about 500 in current classes, replacing about an equal number of Jews.
Others point to the
economic hardships faced by urban minorities, but approximately half of
the overwhelmingly Chinese Stuyvesant student population live below the
poverty line. Cf. http://www.newsweek.com/high-
Further, many of the Chinese students probably live in households where the adults face substantial language and cultural barriers. Yet, in many instances, admission to a specialized high school, notably Stuyvesant, is a family priority. https://voicesofny.org/2014/12/asian-students-get-specialized-high-schools/ This article is by a Chinese-American filmmaker, who examined the subject. She maintains that culture, generally exalting education and specifically targeting success in the secondary admission process, is the critical factor.
I'll
add one controversial element. White supremacy and black inferiority,
its flip side, have been a major organizing principle for much of American
life for centuries. Today, while the overt distinctions inherent to
slavery and Jim Crow are gone, a powerful legacy remains. I suggest
that, to a large degree, American whites and blacks tacitly believe in
white superiority and black inferiority. The rationales for supporting
oppressive racial distinctions through our history have made many
whites and blacks alike accepting of a racial hierarchy. I believe that
is a critical part of the culture that keeps black kids from taking the
Stuyvesant admissions test in the first place, not experiencing the
parental pressure that Jewish and Chinese kids are familiar with. Further, many of the Chinese students probably live in households where the adults face substantial language and cultural barriers. Yet, in many instances, admission to a specialized high school, notably Stuyvesant, is a family priority. https://voicesofny.org/2014/12/asian-students-get-specialized-high-schools/ This article is by a Chinese-American filmmaker, who examined the subject. She maintains that culture, generally exalting education and specifically targeting success in the secondary admission process, is the critical factor.
It's not an easy fix, yet when individual black students break through, they often excel, such as Eric Holder, Stuyvesant '69, former US Attorney General and Gene Jarrett, Stuyvesant '93, recently appointed dean of the NYU College of Arts and Sciences. They didn't do it backwards in high heels, as Ginger Rogers had to, but they did it with an enormous historic weight on their shoulders in an atmosphere full of skepticism.
Friday, March 9, 2018
The region has had two storms in five days, but today we had our personal nor'easter, grandson Boaz arrive for a weekend stay and just in time for lunch. I was surprised that he recognized pan-Asian Wagamama, which we know as one of the few decent low-priced joints in London. It turns out that Boaz has been to a Boston branch. We went to the spot at 210 Fifth Avenue, one of two around here. At 1 PM, the rather large premises were packed with people, but the service and food quality did not suffer.
I started with a Hirota steamed bun, filled with Korean barbecue beef and red onion ($7). Filled is a generous description. I would say that the beef visited the bun, briefly. What little there was was delicious. Fortunately, I did not stop there, adding grilled duck donburi, "Tender shredded duck in a spicy teriyaki sauce. Served with carrots, snow peas, sweet potato and red onion on a bed of sticky white rice. Finished with a crispy fried egg, shredded cucumber, scallions and a side of kimchi." It was good enough to merit the long description.
This meal offers some insight into Boaz's advanced standing as a ten-year old. He did not insist upon a hamburger, pizza or chicken fingers, instead digging into a bowl of chicken ramen, "Sliced grilled chicken on top of noodles in a rich chicken broth with dashi and miso. Topped with seasonal greens, menma, scallions and half a tea-stained egg." Okay, we also didn't know what menma was until we turned to Wikipedia: "Menma is a Japanese condiment made from lactate-fermented bamboo shoots."
. . .
As if Ginger Rogers did not have it hard enough, "Yesodey Hatorah Senior Girls’ school in Stamford Hill [London], which serves the strictly [Jewish] Orthodox Haredi community, covered text and images including Fred Astaire dancing with Ginger Rogers [found in state-supplied textbooks]." https://www.theguardian.com/education/2018/mar/09/yesodey-hatorah-jewish-girls-school-north-london-homosexual-references-textbook
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