Our trips 2014 – part 2

H a p p y  2015 !

Now that we are back from our year-end vacation, we are taking a look back at some of the places we visited last year. This is the second of two posts; Part 1 is here.

The photos are organized in reverse chronological order. Some of the trips are business trips and some are vacations. Click the links where provided to see the actual posts. There are usually a series of related posts per location, they are uploaded around the same time – you can discover them easily in the calendar at the bottom of the post.

June 2014 – Val de Loire, France – It was a road trip with our “new” car and we saw V and her families.

Chambord

 

Orleans

 

Chez Liz, Orleans – thanks, we had a great time seeing every one.

 

May 2014 – Cologne, Germany

 

April 2014 – Milan, Italy – I (Chris) went to see the Salone Internazionale del Mobile.

April 2014 – Korea – Sue went with her family for a tour.

Seoul

Busan (부산, 釜山)

Jeju Island (제주도, 濟州島)

 

April 2014 – Morges, Switzerland – Annual Tulip festival

 

February 2014, Chateau d’Oex, Switzerland with IT who came to see ballet, eat fondue and buy accordion.

 

January 2014, Times Square, New York. I (Chris) took this from the building where I worked many years ago on the corner of Sixth Avenue and 44th street.

We are wondering where we will go in 2015.

 

Xi’an Famous Foods 西安名吃, NYC

While I was in NY in January … I thought the last time I was in Chinatown, there was a line out the door of this tiny restaurant – Xi’an Famous Foods – Western Chinese Cuisine.

A branch of this restaurant in St. Mark’s Place has received great reviews from Zagat. It received the following scores:  FOOD – 24 – DECOR – 6 – SERVICE 13 – COST $12. I wondered if this is the highest ratio of FOOD:COST in Zagat NYC – while it represents great value for money. Being in the Chinatown branch (67 Bayard St) – I can only imagine that the DECOR score might even be lower than 6. When I visited this time, it was in the middle of the afternoon and all was calm.

Their story on their website which is very surprisingly well designed given the size of the company:

Xi’an Famous Foods began as a 200 square foot basement stall in the Golden Shopping Mall in Flushing, N.Y. The original location, established in late 2005, was the first restaurant to bring the little-known cuisine of Xi’an to the United States, with signature hand-ripped noodles, secret spice mixes, and Xi’an “burgers” with housemade flatbread.

Xi’an is located at the start of the silk road so its foods are a combination of Chinese and Middle Eastern flavors. The spices used included cumin, chili, Sichuan peppercorns and other secret ingredients.

I ordered the hand-ripped wide noodles with spicy lamb – $7.50. It tasted really very good – although I had not been to Xi’an – the flavor was exactly what I was expecting.

A notice was posted next to the menu explaining that a takeout will not taste as good because all the soup would have been absorbed by the congealing noodles as it cool down in as little as 15 minutes resulting in a much less spicy (dull) flavor.

They received a huge publicity boost from Anthony Boudrain who tried and praised the spicy minced lamb burger on his show.

I wish I had more time to try the other dishes – particularly the minced lamb burger. Overall highly recommended.

On the web site, the restaurant offers T-shirt and gift cards and the web site looked very professional. Given the distinct taste and modern corporate image, I suspect that this restaurant chain is well on its way to be a famous brand and eventually sprouting  franchises, not just in the China or US but possibly all over Asia (if it is not already happening).

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RedFarm, NYC

On my recent business trip to NYC, the team had a very busy schedule. But we rewarded ourselves with food, we crashed without a reservation, Nobu 57 (which was so crowded and noisy like a Chinatown dim sum restaurant on a Sunday morning) and Spice Market (which was much nicer and we hung around till late).

I had a few hours on my own and managed to try two interesting eateries – Xi’an Famous Foods (see later post) and RedFarm.

YS picked RedFarm on the upper west side for lunch on the day I was leaving.

The decor was deliberately non-Asian while it serves Asian “fusion” cuisine. The restaurant has another location in West Village.

On their website, their story is:

… This new destination from dim sum master chef Joe Ng and Chinese food expert Ed Schoenfeld aims to be one of the most exciting and influential restaurants in the country. RedFarm brings a greenmarket sensibility to modern and inventive Chinese food and super-charged dim sum complemented by modern, rustic décor.

We did not try the signature dishes (which received rave reviews online) but were very satisfied with what we ordered, some came from their daily special menu. However, it took them a long time to prepare the main courses, we waited well over 30 minutes. Not really acceptable in Manhattan at lunch time.

Seabass and avocado tart to start. Whatever that was inside the tart was very tasty. These came quickly.

BBQ’d duck omelette and black mushroom rice. The duck was lean and attractively presented in a wooden bucket with ample green veggies.

My favorite was the grilled lemongrass pork chop and rice. Nicely charred especially the scallions, and the meat had a sweet taste. Very flavorful and big portions of meat, but there was not enough rice in my opinion. The big flavors and sloppy presentation are characteristic Chinatown style.

Overall, the fusion menu seemed very well designed and executed but it is a bit on the pricey side – knowing how much something very similar would have cost in a pure Asian restaurant. Beside it is not that much more comfortable than a Chinatown restaurant. The dining room was 100% packed and very noisy, and two women who sat next to us decided to outshout the other patrons and we suffered.

I almost forgot to mention the drinks menu which was very extensive, something that few Chinese restaurant could match.  I ordered the cucumber thyme cooler (non-alcoholic) and it was refreshing – must be a mega seller in the summer months.

Decent food.  Something about this restaurant, possibly the inventiveness of the dishes, reminded me of this celebrity-owned place in Covent Garden, London (see our earlier post here).

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Our 2013 trips – part 2

* H A P P Y  *  N E W  *  Y E A R  *

W i s h i n g  – y o u – a l l – t h e – v e r y –  b e s t – i n – 2 0 1 4  ! !

In 2013, we did a fair bit of traveling. Here are the places we visited in the first half of the year.  Part 1 was posted yesterday. Click here to see the other places we visited in the second half of 2013. Since many of the related posts were uploaded in the same period of time, you can discover them by going forward or backward on the time line or in the calendar.

Frankfurt, Germany in June 2013

Paris with IT and MW in June 2013.

Versailles, in June 2013

London, to see the Champions League final with IT and MW in May 2013. This is taken from the London eye.

New York for R & B’s wedding in May – this is taken near the Time Warners Center.

Montreal, Canada in May 2013.

Emmental, Switzerland in April 2013.

Baden Baden, Germany during Easter.

Freiburg, Germany during Easter.

Ko Samui, Thailand in January 2013.

Bangkok, Thailand in January 2013.

I am now wondering where would our/my first trip in 2014 take us/me ?

I ♥ NY: Lunch in Times Square

This was written many months ago and forgotten as a draft.  Likely, much of it has changed or it is no longer news. But since I just returned from NY, it’s time to post it.

The day I picked up my passport from the Swiss consulate office on the east side, I decided to walk through midtown Manhattan. A cloudy January day.

Walking from east to west on 42nd street.

This giant inflatable rat was planted on 5th Avenue in front of a business that has a labor dispute.  It is routinely seen around the city whenever publicity is needed by the unions.

I used to work in the building on the corner of 6th Avenue and 44th Street.  The ex-Russian tea room chef who opened a lunch cart on my street corner was still there.

He apparently owns several food cart (‘Kwik Meal”) around the city but he still works at the original.

Lamb over rice was his specialty and I was a regular.  I bought a portion and walked towards Times Square.

This kind of chimney is an unusual-elsewhere but regular NYC sighting: steam from underground – and emerging right in the middle of 45th between 6th Avenue and Broadway.

The biggest change since we left our apartment at 48th Street was the creation of the pedestrian zone and addition of tables and chairs.  It was a long overdue and much appreciated change made by the city, reclaiming street space for pedestrian from cars is a no-brainer.

It was a bit cold, and with traffic flowing by me, I ate my lunch.

I passed through Times Square every morning either on foot when we lived on 48th, or by public transport when we moved to Edgewater. See the billboards – Times Square still had the 2010 new year greetings and the crystal ball was visible (just barely) in the picture.

After we revived this draft post, we discovered this NY Times article (June 4, 2012) about American food truck invading Paris successfully against the belief that “The French will never eat on the street. The French will never eat with their hands. They will never pay good money for food from a truck.” It is apparently Très Brooklyn !

I ♥ NY: A Weekend In New York

I (Chris) was back in New York for a business trip. This is first time I spent a whole weekend there since we moved two years ago.  The meeting ended with the beginning of the memorial day weekend and I was happy to see many good friends over several meals. With my colleagues, we had a steak dinner at Smith & Wollensky.

On Facebook, I put out a message to all my friends, asking if any one can meet me in NY.

On Friday, I met J and A for beer and wings at the Press Box on Third Ave. P joined us later that evening

After the drinks, we went next door to a Turkish restaurant that we visited a while back – Sip Sak.  I had a lamb shish kebab – the meat was very tender but under-spiced. The maitre d’ was a character and quite rude to us (and other customers). He seemed offended when we did not order the specials and shared a dish.

On Saturday, midtown Third Ave (around 50th street) was empty. All the New Yorkers have left town for the long weekend.

The residents left the city to the tourists who were enjoying the street market that took over Lexington Avenue.

I met G and Sh for lunch uptown at Le Monde near Columbia University. It was a very hot day so we sat inside the bistro.

Later, I met Se and O at the Mermaid Oyster Bar on MacDougal near Houston – a branch of the Mermaid Inn.

We were early enough to take advantage of their famous seafood happy hour – east coast and west coast oysters – half a dozen each.

On Sunday, I was in Chinatown but did not go to my usual place as it was too crowded so I had lunch at this other noodle shop.

I joined Y and So (plus a few of So’s friends) to see Jiro Dreams of Sushi at Symphony Space on the Upper West Side.

The documentary movie had shots after shots of mouth-watering sushi, dripping with soy sauce in slow motion, and accompanied by Philip Glass music. According to its website:

JIRO DREAMS OF SUSHI is the story of 85 year-old Jiro Ono, considered by many to be the world’s greatest sushi chef. He is the proprietor of Sukiyabashi Jiro, a 10-seat, sushi-only restaurant inauspiciously located in a Tokyo subway station. Despite its humble appearances, it is the first restaurant of its kind to be awarded a prestigious 3 star Michelin review, and sushi lovers from around the globe make repeated pilgrimage, calling months in advance and shelling out top dollar for a coveted seat at Jiro’s sushi bar.

I thoroughly enjoyed the movie and have to thank So’s thoughtfulness for booking us all a table for dinner at Momoya after the movie.

Although Momoya’s sushi cannot be compared with those of Sukiyabashi Jiro, it was nevertheless satisfying.

I had a great weekend, thank you – and especially Y for the accommodation.

I ♥ NY: High Above Bryant Park

Before I left NYC, I visited an ex-colleague who works in an office that overlooks Bryant Park in midtown Manhattan.  His office, facing east on the 31st floor has floor-to-ceiling glass window. Chrysler building, NYC Library, Empire State building, and Bryant Park’s ice-rink in Christmas are all in full view. The vista is breathtaking.

I ♥ NY: Moveable Type @ New York Times Building

I used the Port Authority Bus Terminal for my commute and witnessed the construction of the new New York Times building.  The building has several restaurants and NYC’s first Muji store (outside of Moma).  I pass it by every day but one day, I decided to walk through the building lobby  which runs from the 40th Street to the 41st.  The building’s main entrance is on 8th Ave.  The hallway that joins the lobby to the main entrance has lots of little boxes hung on both walls.  On closer inspection, they are tiny video screens suspended by cables that runs down from the ceiling.  It is a piece of artwork called Moveable Type (2007) by Ben Rubin and Mark Hansen.  Here is the official description (click here for more information):

Vacuum fluorescent displays, copper and steel cable, custom software  … Algorithms developed by the artists parse the daily output of the New York Times (news, features, opinion, blogs) as well as The Times’s 150-year archive. The activities and comments of visitors to The Times Web site also provide input to the work.  The information (and therefore the artwork itself) is in a constant state of change, because it reflects the up-to-the-minute production of the news by The Times, both in print and on-line. The artists have programmed the work to extract fragments – words, phrase, quotes, numbers and places – from The Times’s growing, living, real-time news database, and to recombine these fragments into a series of ever-changing kinetic compositions.

The video above shows one of the pieces called “To The Editor”.  I stood there for well over 20 minutes to film the performances.  Love the old fashion typewriter chatter and the occasional ding.

The two pictures below are borrowed from the official ftp site, not mine.

I ♥ NY: Street Art @ East Houston St

NYC is full of surprises.  I thought I know the streets of the city somewhat well, but I stumbled upon this piece of street art on East Houston St and Bowery (near DBGB).  In case you are wondering, the white specks on the photos are snowflakes, it was January –  around midnight.

The piece was made by Os Gêmeos, a pair of Brazilian twins. Love the N train.  I sense traces of Chagall and Hayao Miyazaki.  Fantastic stuff.

Here is their video blog and Wikipedia entry.

Packing Up Edgewater

Our move consisted of two days, a first day for packing up all the stuff in cardboard boxes and a second day for loading them onto a container.  Originally, it was scheduled for January 25 and 26.  But on Friday January 22, I asked the movers to come a day later since we were so behind in organizing our stuff.  Thank god they accommodated us.  On the 26th, a professional crew of four worked pretty solidly for a whole day, wrapping almost everything in brown paper and placing them in boxes or building custom-shaped boxes.

I cannot imagine the mess of paper and boxes that we will create when they are unwrapped or unpacked.

Bar 13 @ NYC Part 2

Here is another video of Ollie working the deck at Bar 13.  Very focused, he managed to ignore the drinks, girls, noise, and lights.  I guess a DJ has to filter out all the distractions, and concentrate on counting the beats, lining up the tracks, … a matter of ear-hand-eye coordination.  Ollie has a Serato Scratch Live setup at his apartment and he demo’d it for me.  What a piece of toy to have around.  Like an instrument, he can practice at home.

I had put together a new dance playlist for every one of my parties – some of you may remember the New Year’s Eve parties at my apartment off Times Square.  For a short while, I actually considered enrolling at the same DJ school – Dubspot – which also teaches electronic music production. Well, I have to postpone that phase of my education for now.

Ollie played mostly deep house which is a genre of house music that I like.  Check out François K – a well-respected local producer who plays regularly at Cielo.  Here are some of his CDs that I have and can recommend, and a link to his store on Amazon.

Bar 13 @ NYC Part 1

My friend Ollie went to DJ school last summer and had started playing at parties and bars downtown. I went to see him spin at Bar 13 (University Place and W13th St) before I left NY.  Selina was his roadie-groupie/manager, bopping away, and handing out his business card.

I gathered that DJ-ing in NYC is very competitive, and getting a decent sound system with an audience is not easy.  That night, all the DJs were DJ school graduates from classes of different levels.  They took turns and the changeover was managed by one of the instructor, JP Solis.   Many students did not want to leave the turntable.  Ollie’s slot started at 9:45pm, played for about an hour, and was to spin again after midnight.  Ollie worked intensely, it looked like he was kneading pizza dough, but he was for sure having fun and the music was great.

I ♥ NY: Cityscape Video

This video of Manhattan cityscape created by time-lapse photography (I presumed) is fantastic – movement of the crescent-shaped moon, pulsing street traffic, the smoke, airplanes landing and taking off, and the sunrise.  I believe the view is that of upper Manhattan and the Bronx with La Guardia Airport at the back.

But before you view the video, start this song –  Water From a Vine Leaf by William Orbit as a soundtrack (click link to open new window, click play under ezt NYC Time Lapse Video soundtrack).  After the music starts, return to this window, begin playback of the video and switch to full screen (click button in window on bottom right).

Play it several times on full screen and you will notice something new each time.  The lights in some of the buildings go on and off throughout the night.  Can you spot the darkened room with a flickering TV which stayed on until about half time (look near the middle of the screen) ?

[flickr video=http://www.flickr.com/photos/chaddles/4274448491]

A Bad Day

Wednesday was a bad day.

Sue and I drove into the city during the day on a weekday (against our better judgement).   We had to get our visa from the Swiss consular office on 3rd Avenue and East 41st street. We parked in a garage on the east side which cost $28 for under 2 hours.  Apparently, it must be quite a reasonable rate for midtown Manhattan.  Because when we returned, the garage was choked full with cars.  The two attendants had to move almost ten cars, including one that was parked inside the elevator, out onto the street and the sidewalk.  It took them almost 15 minutes to retrieve our car which was parked underground.

Then we went downtown so that Sue can exchange a shirt.  All the streets in Soho are signposted: “No Standing except Loading or Unloading on Monday to Friday 7am to 7pm”.  Since we were not shopping, we decided that there was no need to park the car.  I could stay in the car while Sue run into the shop.  We were near the intersection of Broadway and Prince Street, more or less outside Dean & DeLuca.  Traffic cops usually drive around in those golf cart-like buggy and wave the drivers to move along.  So I was on the lookout for them in front and in my mirrors.  There were lots of people out on the street at lunch time, though not as crazy as a weekend.  Seen in the side mirror, a guy was selling “Obama Condoms” on the street corner.

“Excuse me, can I see your driver’s license ?” –  a female traffic cop appeared at my window out of nowhere.  It was a cold day, she was all bundled up in dark blue.  I could barely see her badge.  I rolled down my window and pleaded, “Can I just leave now ?”.  She replied “May I have your license ?”.  I begged one more time.  She repeated the same request without any emotion.  What can I do but to hand my license over to her.  She punched my details into a handheld device and printed some money for NYC.  According to the Notice of Parking Violation that she dispensed to me, I was fined $95.

A few minutes later, Sue came back to the car and found me, reading the fine print and learning the various ways to pay the fine: mail, internet, phone and in person.  Punishment can be so convenient.  I guess it would save me time and might even lessen the pain – after all, time is priceless, right ?

“Let’s go home.”

“But, … how come the car is not starting?”  As I turned the ignition key, the car just made clicking noise and all the dashboard lights came on and then went off.  XM radio and GPS navigation were also offline.  We tried a few more times without success and realized the battery was drained.   It had never happened in this car before.  We were stranded in front of a hydrant in a No Standing zone on Broadway !  The Soho lunch crowd was thinning, and a couple of ladies were loading their bulging Prada shopping bags into their black limo which was waiting behind us.  A Brinks armored truck was parked on the other side of the street, while several armed guards were delivering/picking up cash.  Several regular cops walked by without paying us any attention.  We thought, if the day could get worse, we could be caught in the middle of a gun battle between the guards and armed robbers.  That did not happen.  But, the traffic cop might come back and write us another ticket.  Perhaps, we could tell her that the car would not start.  I wished I tried to start the car while she was asking me for the license, then at least I could use waiting for assistance as an excuse.

We needed help.  Because of our impending move, Sue did not renew her AAA membership which expired last month.   We cannot call them.  Murphy’s law – we never required their service in the last 5 years until yesterday.  Since this car had never developed any problem, we have no experience with Acura’s roadside assistance program.  It turned out to be easy, and the person on the phone was calm and reassuring.  I guess the person must have dealt with many people who were stranded in the middle of nowhere in bad weather at night.  “Pop-A-Lock” with a 718 area code was assigned the task – estimated time of arrival was 45 minutes.  I thought, with that wait time, the traffic cop was surely going to get us again.  Our assistance was coming from Queens or Brooklyn, having to brave bridge or tunnel traffic, to rescue us in downtown Manhattan.  Are there any car mechanic in Manhattan ?

Thankfully, the battery in my cell phone was freshly charged as they called back several times to assure us that help was on the way.  We missed lunch – a hot dog stand was situated right in front of us – but we had no appetite anyway.   They called – the ETA was pushed back by 10 minutes, but the guy finally came; the traffic cop did not.  He was a locksmith but contracted by Acura to jump start cars.  His cables connected our cars for 3 minutes and the Acura started right away.   We got home around 5 pm without any incident.  What a day !

The bad day was not completely bad.  We were not charged by Acura as the cost of jump starting was below the $100 limit above which we would have to pay.  The car has been fine since.  I drove it out to do errands yesterday and today with frequent starts and stops.

I am treating the parking ticket as a souvenir from the big apple.  Been there, done that, got caught.  – C

High Line: Shadows and Silouhettes

This is part 6 and the end of the High Line: I ♥ NY series. Links to earlier posts: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, and Part 5.

As seen in photos posted earlier, the sunset was beautiful but it got completely dark by around 5:30 – 6pm.  Some of the rooms of the Standard Hotel had their lights on and the hotel looked like a massive pixelated icon in the sky.  Through the window of a room near the top, I saw someone jumping and bouncing up and down on what must be a bed.  At that time, the High Line was navigable only by certain strategically-placed illumination providing pools of cool white light.  The park and its surroundings took on a mysterious, organic and yet hi-tech, alien atmosphere.

By 6pm, the park had gotten much colder than the afternoon, and most people had left.  My camera battery was running low because of the frigid temperature and it had to be warmed up periodically in my pocket.  Here are the last few pictures before my camera gave in as we were lured towards the bright lights and warmth of the shops below the park.  We ended the day dining on the famous burgers at the Corner Bistro – another NYC destination.

High Line: Chelsea Market

This is Part 5 of  High Line: I ♥ NY.  Here are links to Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4.

A segment of the High Line runs through the Chelsea Market complex which was a Nabisco factory (maker of Oreo cookies).  At this point, the park is a space lit by purple-blue lighting, and under the high ceiling is a scattering of chairs and cafe tables.  They ought to hold outdoor DJ parties here during the summer.  It can become one of the seasonal sights of NYC  like PS1 Warm Up! during July and August, or ice-skating in Bryant Park during Christmas.

The Chelsea Market buildings now house the Food Network studios, many food stores, and two Iron Chef-owned restaurants (Morimoto by Masaharu Morimoto and Del Posto by Mario Batali).  I made my first Tom Yum Koong soup from a kit bought from a Thai food wholesaler here (the kit contains a recipe, spice paste, fresh chili, galangal and kaffir lime leaves).  Hale & Hearty makes all their soups here (a chain of soup stores that is extremely popular for lunch in midtown Manhattan; I was a regular until my office moved).  “202” is a lively cafe/brasserie with tables mingling with racks of Nicole Farhi’s clothes (reminded me of London).  We had brunch here with Thad a while back just before he moved to San Francisco.

The last time I went to the market, they had a couple of stores selling highly decorated cupcakes – a kind of designer takeout fun food.  Here are some pictures of cupcakes from one of the stores (Is that I “hug” NY ?) :

High Line: Dusk, You and Me

This is Part 4 of High Line: I ♥ NY – my series on the many reasons why we love NYC.  Here are links to Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.

We went to High Line on Boxing Day late afternoon.  Entering the park from its south entrance on Gansevoort Street, we walked north to the end of Section 1 near 20th Street.  As you can see, Section 2 extending northward up to the streets in the 30’s, is still under construction.  By the time we started walking back, it was dusk already and the crowd was thinning out.  I was thinking about this song by Groove Armada when selecting the pictures for this post – think of it as a soundtrack.

From a photographer’s point of view, some of the best times to take pictures, especially portraits (think Sports Illustrated swimsuit models) is in the afternoon when the sun is setting.  But it is a race against time.  Personally, I like the colors of photos taken when the indoor lights are just turned on while there is some residual natural light in the background.  This type of pictures is technically challenging and requires a fast lens, and sensitive sensor.  The following are a few of my weak attempts using a point-and-shoot:

NYC Food Porn: DBGB #1-#5

DBGB’s menu is primarily designed around small plates for sharing.  The section labeled “Links, Bangers, Saucisses & Wieners” features, you guessed it, sausages from around the world, but even from countries that do not make sausages, e.g. “Thai”, which contains green papaya, basil fried rice, chili sauce, quail eggs.  Another section of the menu is labeled “Tête Aux Pieds” which included tripe, pig feet, veal tongue and bone marrow.  They also serve entrees (nothing exciting) and burgers (apparently quite popular).  They also stocked many beers by local microbreweries, tastily described in language usually reserved for fine wines.  Hence, beer mat, shown above.

We had Veal tongue sauce gribiche in egg dressing, fingerling potatoes (no picture) and the following, all of which were good:

#1:  HAMACHI & YELLOWFIN TUNA – finger lime, citrus-vodka gelée, blood orange, heart of palm

ESCARGOTS – persillade custard (think dirty green creme brulée, taste ok), tomato, almonds & mushrooms, it also came with a piece of baked pastry which looked like a cage that sat on top.  Not garlicky.

TUNISIENNE – lamb & mint merguez on a bun with mint yogurt, cucumber & red onion – I think someone should start selling this item on lunch carts around town, it would be a hit.

BEEF BONE MARROW with katz’s pastrami, watercress, pickled mustard seed, rye bread toast

GÂTEAU RUSSE AUX CHATAIGNES – chestnut mousse & black currants (the yellow-orangey smudge is actually a gold flake)

CBGB OMFUG is now DBGB

After a day of bargain hunting in downtown Manhattan, IT and I decided to crash DBGB Kitchen and Bar on Bowery (photo above by DBGB).  This new restaurant by Daniel Boulud took the space of CBGB (Country, BlueGrass, Blues) which had a long history in the music scene of NYC.  In its heydays, The Ramones, Blondie, and many punk rock luminaries played there. CBGB hosted the first American gigs by The Police in 1978.  The club’s awning also says OMFUG, sounds dirty, doesn’t it ? (see photo below from CBGB‘s Wikipedia entry).  According to the founder Hilly Kristal, OMFUG stands for Other Music For Uplifting Gormandizers; and a gormandizer is a voracious eater of, in this case, music.  I knew about the place but never attended any concerts there.

It was a saturday night.  The restaurant was packed.  Without a reservation, we managed to snatch a table in the bar area (the table was for 4, but had we got a table for 2, it would have been too small to hold what we ordered).  The main dining room is surrounded by shelves of kitchenwares (some used by world famous chefs like Alain Doucasse and local heros – David Chang), and behind the shelves are open kitchen spaces and a fresh seafood serving station heaped with ice.  The bar area is surrounded by a wall of floor-to-ceiling mirrors on which are written today’s specials or etched with culinary quotes by famous people.  I copied a few of the quotes here:

Age is something that doesn’t matter, unless you are a cheese.  – Luis Buñuel

It was quite a challenge to make people eat crab ice cream. – Heston Blumenthal

One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well. – Virginia Woolf

To still be in business after 400 years of celibacy, you know that the Trappists must make damn good beer.  – Patrick Allen

Cooking should be a carefully balanced reflection of all the good things on earth.  – Jean et Pierre Troisgros

Ham and eggs – a day’s work for a chicken, a life time commitment for a pig. – Anonymous

Pictures of our food will be posted tomorrow.

High Line: Style Details

This is Part 3 of 5 of High Line: I ♥ NY.  Here are links to Part 1 and Part 2.

I was looking forward to the opening of the High Line, and even recommended out-of-town friends to visit it.  But somehow I managed not to go until last week.  My punishment was that all the vegetation that grew naturally between the tracks appeared in their least vibrant, hibernating forms.  I guess I will have to come back to NYC in the summer !

In the park, the railway theme is cleverly expressed in the design details of many of its fixtures.   For example, the elevation view of the park benches and the drinking fountain suggest graphically branching railway lines at a terminal.  The lounge seats are in segments and can roll along tracks, like train carriages.

These pictures show the vegetation, old train tracks, and architectural fixtures in the park.