Saturday, February 19, 2022
In
response to my visit to Chama Mama, 373 Amsterdam Avenue, last week,
Mark Dilman, a wonderful friend born in Tbilisi, Georgia, wrote: "Not
only Georgian cuisine is unique. The language is too. 'Mama' in the
restaurant name actually means 'father' unlike many other languages
where it means 'mother'." Now, you know.
. . .
DraftKings
is a sports betting website, one of several aggressively moving into
the newly-opened New York market. It's really a computerized bookie
operation, stripped of any Damon Runyonesque charm. It reported a loss
of $326 million in the fourth quarter of 2021. That's remarkable. The
odds are always with the House and, yet, the House managed to lose a ton
of money. Go figure.
Sunday, February 20, 2022
P.J. O'Rourke, author and satirist, died last week. The New York Times described him as once, possibly, "the only funny Republican alive." https://www.nytimes.
His obituary repeated this insightful quotation. “The
weirder you’re going to behave, the more normal you should look. It
works in reverse, too. When I see a kid with three or four rings in his
nose, I know there is absolutely nothing extraordinary about that
person.”
. . .
"Mom,
who's your favorite kid?" It just doesn't work. I know and like a few
places on the list and there are none that I have reason to exclude.
But, I don't know how they got to 25 without including a few of my
favorites:
- ︎&pizza, 15 West 28th Street and other locations in Manhattan and northern New Jersey
- ︎Zero Otto Nove, 2357 Arthur Avenue, Bronx
- Arturo's Coal Oven Pizza, 106 West Houston Street
I would not dare to rank their efforts, no more than I respond to requests for the best Chinese restaurant, which is not the same question as my
favorite Chinese restaurant. Unlike bagel making, which is a scientific process, susceptible to measure, pizza making is an art, beyond measure.
Monday, February 21, 2022
The
stars were perfectly aligned. Dr. Roger expressed an interest in
Pastrami Queen, 138 West 72nd Street; my brother gave me a PQ gift
certificate; and it's a Monday lunchtime, when PQ offers a pastrami
sandwich for $16.99, including a can of Dr. Brown's, a savings of over
$5.
Dr.
Roger and I dove in, sharing an order of French fries as well ($8). I
am sure that we returned to the outside world as better human beings.
. . .
No doubt that many of you share my obsessions -- the latest being Wordle, the devilishly simple word game. https://www.nytimes.com/
One
of its attractions is the universal release of one game each day.
However, that is also a source of great frustration, the equivalent of
eating only one potato chip. Inevitably, someone has beaten the system
and released a version outside the purview of the New York Times, owner of the original version. WordleGame.org is more than an alternative, it allows multiple games each day, different languages and different word lengths.
Tuesday, February 22, 2022
I
cannot fault the lovely and talented Joan E. for giving me my birthday
gift a few days late. She lives in New Jersey and it was perishable,
unsuited for the mail. Today, her work brought her into the
neighborhood and she delivered six pieces of deep-fried gefilte fish, a
rare treat from Dovid's Fresh Fish Market, 736 Chestnut Avenue, Teaneck,
New Jersey. They were always a highlight of Aunt Judi's Passover
seders, where I only learned after several years that they did not
originate in her kitchen, otherwise an abundant source of excellent
Kosher food.
Established lunch plans, described below, will defer my gratification until dinner, undoubtedly heightening my pleasure.
. . .
Toby
McMullen took time from his increasingly successful career performing,
writing and producing comedy shows to meet me for lunch at Xi'an Famous
Foods, 96 Eighth Avenue, a new branch of this peripatetic chain, opening
and closing locations at a fast pace. I've eaten at 5 other XFFs, only
one still open now. While this one was long and narrow, it seemed to
have more floor space than the others that I visited. It had three
tables, large enough to hold six medium-sized people, and a long, narrow
ledge running about 15 feet on one wall.
We
each had a Spicy Cumin Lamb Burger, a signature dish ($6.75), and
shared 6 Spicy & Sour Spinach Dumplings ($10.25) and stir-fried
Liang-Pi a/k/a "Cold Skin Noodles" ($9.75). In all cases, we chose
"Regular Spicy," which is more than regular spicy. The result -- Toby
found another reason to be happy living in the Holy Land.
Thursday, February 24, 2022
Gentleman
Jerry had a great evening. He ate dinner at Ben's Kosher Delicatessen, 209 West 38th Street; he saw the Rangers win 4-1; he
spent 4 hours in my company. Actually, I got the better of the deal,
having quality time with another CCNY graduate.
Ben's
is a convenient jumping off place for Madison Square Garden. It not
only has good food, it is also occupied by other overgrown adolescents
in team gear on game night. Jerry had a pastrami sandwich ($15.49),
while I had a corned beef/chopped liver combo ($21.99), fueling us for
an exciting evening of hockey.
Friday, February 25, 2022
Michael Ratner did me a great favor today, the details of which must remain secret during our lifetimes. I can tell you about lunch, however, which we enjoyed at Thai Diva Cuisine, 45-53 46th Street, Woodside, Queens, a hole in the wall in a busy commercial area heavily populated by Latin American restaurants. We were the only customers sitting at one of the six small tables, although bicycles deliverers were coming in and out.
We started by dividing a very large bowl of "Tom Yum Noodle Soup," rice noodles with shrimp, bean sprouts and mushrooms in a spicy, slightly sour tomato-infused broth ($14). We then each had a lunch special ($11), which came with a small salad and two skinny deep-fried wontons, both better than afterthoughts. I had drunken noodles with beef -- broad noodles, shrimp paste, yellow onions, tomatoes, basil, Chinese broccoli and egg. Michael had Pad See-Ew with shrimp -- broad noodles, black soy sauce, Chinese broccoli and egg. Mission accomplished all the way around.
