Saturday, October 8, 2022
A new movie starring Cate Blanchett opened yesterday entitled “Tár.” Do you want to see a movie about Tár? Is it a person, place or thing?
. . .
My latest unpublished letter to the New York Times: "With Florida sending defenseless refugees to New York, New Yorkers should not be sending money to Florida for hurricane relief. It may be a deserving cause, but our needs are paramount and Florida is only exacerbating them.”
. . .
The headline reads: “America's best regional desserts: 15 sweet treats to try.”
https://www.cnn.com/travel/It provides an interesting assortment of good things, not all familiar. I must confess that the most seductive is the Lane Cake from Alabama, a layer cake with a buttery, bourbon- or brandy-spiked raisin mixture filling that might include pecans and coconut. Maybe there's some hope for Alabama.
. . .
Overall, in the dessert arena, Italy is second to no one, but there are complications. For instance, Stracciatella is a cheese made by mixing
leftover
scraps from mozzarella production with fresh cream. Stracciatella is also a meat broth drizzled with beaten eggs, looking like little rags (straccetti). At the top of the food chain, however, is Stracciatella, vanilla gelato filled with fine, irregular shavings of chocolate, the Italian alternative to chocolate chips.
So, what does this have to do with a mislabelled Häagen-Dazs flavor? They call it Double Belgian Chocolate Chip and it is delicious, but it is really chocolate stracciatella, shaved chocolate in a rich, dark chocolate ice cream. There are no chocolate chips. Is not calling even a wonderful spade a spade residual antagonism from WWII?
Monday, October 10, 2022
Urban Hawker, 135 West 50th Street, has been open less than one month. It is an 11,000 square foot food court, in the corridor between high-rise buildings from West 50th Street to West 51st Street. It has 17 vendors offering Chinese, Singaporean, Indian, Japanese, Filipino and Indonesian food, although most with a Singaporean twist where the venture originated. https://www.urbanhawker.com/
Seating is informal and the patrons are decidedly from generations towards the end of the alphabet. It was very crowded at the lunch hour, with some stands having long lines, while others were being ignored. I ordered from Smokey Joe's, featuring Hainanese Singaporean food although my chicken cutlet seemed generic, even with white rice, braised cabbage and fried egg ($13). I enjoyed it and an average-size person would have found it filling.
I'll be back to explore Asia more thoroughly, but I am likely to bring my own Diet Coke at less than $3 a can.
Tuesday, October 11, 2022
We are in the midst of Sukkot (soo.koat), known as Succos (suh.cuss) in Brooklyn Hebrew, a holiday celebrating both the harvest and the wandering in Sinai, the blessings of attachment to the land and the frustration of seeking a land. Meals are held in a Sukkah, a temporary structure outside the home, not unlike where New Yorkers have been dining for two years now. Some very religious Jews will even sleep in the Sukkah during the holiday's seven-day duration, even though its roof is porous, not meant to protect against the elements.
The weather in Teaneck, New Jersey was balmy today and lunch with Butch and Toby in their Sukkah, with other guests, was very satisfying even at my sub-spiritual level.
Wednesday, October 12, 2022
Real Kung Fu Little Steamed Buns Ramen, 811 Eighth Avenue, is about as awkwardly named as you can imagine. Getting there late in the lunch hour avoided its usual crowds; only 9 of its 32 seats were occupied. Its menu is almost as lenghty as its name, a lot of dimsum and a lot of noodles, wet and dry. I had scallion pancake with sliced beef ($9.95), 2" wide by 8" long, cut in four pieces, and pan-fried Peking duck buns ($9.25 for 2). They were both well prepared, but I would have preferred the duck at room temperature with less sauce, closer to Peking duck than duck ragout.
Thursday, October 13, 2022
An obituary for Art Laboe, a radio disc jockey for almost 80 years, says
that “Sh-Boom” by the Chords, released in 1954,
was “sometimes cited as the first rock ‘n’
roll record."
I demur. First
of all,
it had no flavor of the
blues, boogie-woogie, gospel or country music that are at the roots of rock ‘n’ roll. It came closer to crooning than rhythm and blues. Second, on one list of early examples of rock ‘n’ roll, it places #38, behind recordings going back to 1944. https://www.history-of-rock.
Another source cites "My Man Rocks Me (with One Steady Roll)" by Trixie Smith, issued in 1922, referring to "rocking" and "rolling". https://youtu.be/PvzmBA91P3c
In 1937, Ella Fitzgerald sang, "Now it's true that once upon a time/The opera was the thing/But today
the rage is rhythm and rhyme/So won't you satisfy my soul/With the rock
and roll?" almost 20 years before Alan Freed first used the phrase. https://www.youtube.com/watch?
To my mind, "Roll 'Em Pete" by Pete Johnson and Big Joe Turner, 1938, was the source of the best that followed.
[The above segment again demonstrates my willingness to address controversial subjects without fear or favor.]
Friday, October 14, 2022
It’s been a long time since we enjoyed Aunt Judi’s cooking, but tonight we ate in Uncle Stuie’s sturdy Sukkah and, even though it was just the four of us, the food never seemed to stop.
We had mushroom chestnut soup, corned beef, onion-crusted chicken breasts, pargiyot (marinated c
Even if it hadn't been a holiday, this food made it a holiday.
Big Joe Turner--the Greatest. Watch this:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3ZG5nKbZoE