Saturday, April 13, 2024
In
spite of the heroic efforts of our 10-year old star defender, the Natick Greyhounds
lost to the Hollister Hens in a tight 2-1 soccer match. We recovered from this
defeat at The Cottage, 190 Linden Street, Wellesley, a modern, large,
airy restaurant with a name that can only be ironic.
Our
two waifs had chicken fingers, which looked nice and crunchy ($12.50).
Their stunning grandmother had the Beet & Citrus Bowl, a large salad
of quinoa, greens, fresh citrus, walnuts, goat cheese, with lemon
vinaigrette ($17). I ordered half a chicken salad sandwich and a crock of French onion soup ($19), an excellent combo. No offense, but it was better than your mother’s chicken salad, made with raisins, walnuts and diced apples, served with lettuce and tomato on thick slices of challah.
The
soup was special, too, outdoing the last two bowls of onion soup that I
had in Paris last year. As I noted then, the thick glob of melted
Gruyère cheese atop the soup in each case stayed within the bowl. Today,
in Wellesley, Massachusetts, 5,565 kilometers from Paris, France, the
cheese beautifully ran over the edge of the bowl and could be peeled off the side of
the crock where it was baked on.
Sunday. April 14, 2024
Nancy Neveloff Dubler, October 24, 1941 - April 14, 2024
My
marathoning days are over. In the past, I participated in the New York
Marathon, the London Marathon and the Boston Marathon — as a spectator.
Today is the running of the Boston Marathon, passing right through the
center of the town where we are visiting our second and third
generations. The weather is nice, dry, partly cloudy skies, temperature
ranging from mid-50s to mid-60s, yet I am denying myself exposure to the
thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. Instead, I made French toast
for our bunch’s brunch and then took a prophylactic nap, because we
decided to head back to New York even before all runners reached Boston.
. . .
I live on the edge — every so often. Driving home, I took a great risk, stopping to eat at Rein’s Deli New York Style Restaurant, 435 Hartford Turnpike, Vernon, Connecticut, exit 65 on I-84. Normally, the
name itself would have kept me away. What does “New York Style” connote?
Brusque waiters rolling their eyes as you order? Guatemalan refugees
slicing your bagels? Poor imitations of Eastern European dishes?
Rein’s,
in business over 50 years, mostly avoided these pitfalls. It’s a large
space, about 1/3 devoted to retail sales, cases of Dr. Brown’s sodas,
quarts of matzoh ball soup, crumb cakes and jars of pickles. The menu is
enormous, combining the corned beef/pastrami family of typical deli
items (though non-Kosher), the lox/whitefish family of typical
“appetizing” items, and the omelet/pancake/hamburger family of typical
diner items. Under the circumstances, I found the Polish ham unnecessary and mildly insulting.
Here’s
where I took a bigger risk, challenging them to do justice to real
Jewish food. I ordered The Whaler, a double-decker sandwich of whitefish
salad, lox, sable, Swiss cheese (a ringer) on toasted rye ($18.79). It
was not only edible, it was good. So, if you can’t wait to get to the
Holy Land, Rein’s will hold you.
Tuesday, April 16, 2024
This is the headline on a recent article in the Daily Mail, a right-wing British tabloid, that’s worth reflecting on. "When
U.S. troops kill aid workers, it's 'friendly fire'. When Israel does,
it's a 'war crime'. The double standards are nauseating”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/
I understand that Che Guevara, an Argentinian, settled in Cuba because it welcomed him and his pet tortoise.
Wednesday, April 17, 2024
There should be a word for someone like me who bounces back and forth, reading the New York Times on line and on paper in no particular order. Ambiguous, ambidextrous, ambivalent, ambitious, ambivert, ambipolar? Looking on line right now, 11:38 AM, I find that five of the first nine stories deal with Israel, one of the other four deals with Ukraine and Israel and the next two deal with antisemitism. I can only contrast this with the inattention of the American, British and Canadian press to the plight of Europe’s Jews before, during and after WWII.
One of the antisemitism stories is about the testimony of the president of Columbia University on Capitol Hill. It had this interesting little tidbit about a student demonstrator punished by eviction from university housing. “He is still fighting his eviction, which would mean finding housing that would accept his emotional support rabbit.”
. . .
We went to see a new production of “Uncle Vanya” at Lincoln Center tonight. I was delighted that the initial appearance on stage of Steve Carrell, the famous comedic actor, did not evoke applause, even less warranted than the now automatic standing ovation at the end of the evening. We were unwilling to hang around for the second act of this ill-conceived venture, so we were spared witnessing an undeserved standing O.
Friday, April 19, 2024
eater.com is a very reliable
website for restaurant reviews and recommendations. It started locally
and now covers about two dozen American locations. I turned to it today to
find a new hamburger joint, aware that Passover next week would
limit my dining options. I was surprised that Schnipper’s, 620 Eighth Avenue,
was one of the top choices. I had seen and avoided it many times; it
sits opposite the first stop of the M104 bus, a transportation favorite.
I had been put off by a superficial reaction to the name which I took to be a
cutesy attempt to sound old-fashioned. Instead, Schnipper’s seems to be a
small, local family-run chain owned and operated by the Schnippers. I
trusted eater.com and persuaded Terrific Tom to join me in exploring the possibilities.
It’s
a big, high-ceilinged room, with 60 or so seats at blonde wood tables.
The space is entirely glass-enclosed, floor to ceiling, making for a
very bright setting. You order at a front counter and get a buzzer
which directs a server to your table when the food is ready.
Hamburgers were my target and I chose the Classic Burger Special, a 5 oz. hamburger, special cheese blend, caramelized onions, thick-cut applewood smoked bacon, baby arugula, and Schnipper sauce with
an order of French fries and a refillable fountain drink ($20). Coke
Zero was on tap along with Diet Coke, an extra treat for me. In all, a good deal. I forgot to ask for a fried egg on top for $1.50 more. Does anyone else remember the Bo Burger at Obie's Diner in downtown Ithaca?
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