the food monologues

mmm, pizza!
dough
toppings
what's not to love? (unless perhaps you have wheat or dairy allergies. course you might still love it, but it might not be your best friend). Anyway, it has been 'scientifically' proven that NY Pizza is the best in the USA.. In a controlled taste-test with 4 NY judges, the pizza made with NYC water beat the others made with Chicago or LA water. Of course, what this really proves is that New Yorkers like NY Pizza best! I'm determined to test this to the full.

So we've have mostly food-based adventures... not really, but food is featuring a lot (you'll hear more about it). We went to a gig at Jalopy Thursday night which was Irish and American music, meaning banjos and things like that. very pleasant indeed. tried a pumpernickel bagel from Murray's bagels in Chelsea. Nice contrasting texture between exterior and interior (very chewy exterior), but the overall flavour somewhat disappointing... still, I'm not complaining. perhaps it's in the water, too.

We got up early on Saturday for a full day of adventuring, starting with a run in the park which wasn't very successfully accomplished, as the dogs were out in full force, and you can't but stop and stare, filled with intense envy at the pleasure of having a dog in such madness. The pure mass of caninity (the dog version of humanity) is unbelievable. Off home and out the door to walk to the fabulous Brooklyn Flea market in Fort Greene, about 25 minutes from home, for the 10am start.... The market has a blog, and each week they list a few items which are 'free' if you happen to find them. This week I checked it out, and sure enough, I found one of them! A cute little antique tartan suitcase... you can see me and my winnings on the blog. Hoorah for free stuff! And we made a rule that we could only buy things that would fit in the suitcase, so we bought 3 fantastic old postcards, two old eggbeaters, a t-shirt (for me), an old bottle, and an enamel spoon. All fab things. And I tried my hand at some economic-downturn bargaining too...

Anyway, the weekend of food began at the market, with many samples, and a delicious fresh watermelon juice. It was hot(!) (the day, not the juice), in the high 20s or even 30, and relentless, so we adjourned to the just re-opened for the summer Habana Outpost, this cute 'eco-eatery' - one of the outdoor shades as solar panels! And their paper napkins are printed with "save trees, use your sleeve" on them. They have a bicycle powered blender for smoothies - if you make your own, you save a buck. And if you think that all sounds too hippie, it's not at all, and they had a DJ playing African beats into the sunshine. We ate delicious grilled corn, and could have stayed all afternoon, except we had to head off to eat banh mi ('Vietnamese sandwich') - yum! - and then get coffee (for d) and spelt banana cake at a cute new cafe in Cobble Hill, cafe pedlar.

From there we raced across to Manhattan for some hours of shopping around a very very crowded Broadway, with the heat just about melting us into the pavement... honestly, it has been crazy hot. In the space of two days we went from about 10C, and wearining a winter coat and scarf, to the hottest day ever recorded in April in Central Park with about 34C or something like that. It's a bit of a shock to the system, sitting here sweating indoors at 10.15pm.

Shopping successfully accomplished, dinner was a few pizza slices at Farinella, a new(ish) pizza place opened (apparently) by a former hip hop star from Rome. Anyway, quite yum, but not the best I've eaten here... From there we went to a gig that was a random selection: a 40th anniversary concert to celebrate the release of Nashville Skyline by Bob Dylan. It was featuring various artists, including (former) members of Ween, Violent Femmes, and King Missile... seeing them made me feel 'old' (they were 'old'!). It was at an interesting space, le Poisson Rouge, and was fun (despite it not being an album either of us knew). It was so nice and warm out, that we wandered around the Village for a bit, before ending the night sitting on benches on the sidewalk eating icecream from Sundaes and Cones at 11pm (it was hot, did I mention that!?) Mmmm, lychee; mmm ginger. Hooray for hot nights and icecream.

More foodie adventures followed, as we wandered around Soho on Sunday (cos it's always good to be in the middle of the concrete jungle on the really hot days!), trying chocolates at Vosges, where they do the most incredible flavours imaginable (the bacon chocolate was pretty delicious... mmm), canoli in Little Italy, and steamed buns in Chinatown. Saw two very interesting pieces of art, that are on permanent display, but only viewable for about 3 months each year (by DIA center for the arts), and have been since the 1970s... the earth room (a large space filled with about 2 ft of earth), and the broken kilometer (500 solid brass rods, all 2m long, displayed in a massive space), both by artist Walter de Maria. Great stuff (and fantastic solitary respite from the hustling masses outside!). We finished the day with some great soccer (no serious injuries to speak of, hoorah!), and so another week begins. Today I did a seminar at Columbia and it went well, so that's good.

Anyway, given that it was earth day recently (I went to a very good but depressing talk by James Hanson who is the director of the Goddard Institute for Space Studies, NASA, on Earth Day, about 'climate threat to the planet'), I thought I'd finish this with a rail against one of the most (un)shocking/depressing things here: the waste that is associated with 'normal' daily life: even in cafes where you 'eat in' they often serve the drink/food on completely disposable materials. It's dreadful! So let's take our Saturday, to illustrate this waste...
1. watermelon juice @ the market: 2 plastic cups, 2 plastic lids, and 2 straws.
2. grilled corn@Habana Outpost: 2 napkins and 2 cardboard 'plates' (this is the ecocafe after all)
3. banh mi @ Hancos: paper bag and paper plate (phew!)
4. coffee/cafe @pedlar: coffee in a real cup (rare, often has to be asked for!), cake on a real plate. hoorah for them! we'll be back.
5. pizza @ Farinella: 3 paper plates, 2 plastic knives, 2 plastic spoons... napkins. The plastic utensils were actually too useless to cut/eat the pizza, but they were 'used' and so thrown away.
6. three drinks @Le Poisson Rouge: 3 plastic cups, 2 straws (lucky for the planet we're such massive drinkers!)
7. icecream: 6 plastic spoons (tasting a couple of flavours, they don't recycle these), 1 waxed paper cup. two plastic spoons thrown away, the other 4 brought home for lunch use.
And that's just one day, and more than usual for us. But it's really really horrendous. The lack of real crockery and cutlery in cafes is entirely depressing, and also detracts from the experience too... oh well.
well, on that note, enjoy your non-take-away coffee cups in New Zealand, and over and out for me...

The brunch bitch

[ok, here's a slightly edited version with the errant partial sentence which migrated into a completely different paragraph now back in the right place!]

Now, you might wonder, with a title like that, whether or not the love affair is over... But the answer is most definitely not. I'm still infatuated with this city, and living here remains a joy. So much so that the realisation that I only have 2 more months here (I have to go to England for a bit before returning home) is filling me with a sense of impending despair. Like being in a relationship which is going to end before you're ready for it (and you know when it'll happen), the pleasure of here is now slightly bittersweet. Frequent moments of realising "I may never do this again"... and a constant wonder of how I can manage to live without sleep (and without drugs...P not really being the answer). So it's mostly pleasure tinged with (only) slight pain. I'm not sure if D is feeling it as acutely, but it hurts.

Not that I expect you to feel too sorry for me, at all. It's not like we haven't had (and continue to have) a wonderful time here. So don't all start crying into your keyboards in empathy, and destroying your hardware...

So the title... Last weekend we went out to brunch, with some friends, and it was fun. We've done 'brunch' only a couple of times, here, and the experiences just does not compare to back home. Here's how it seems to work: Most places to seem to have a 'price fixe' menu for brunch (it varies between about $11 and $15US around our neighbourhood, plus tax and tip) and in that you may get a drink, or not... there are a range of options (shorter or longer) within that price. Andwhen you get to the place, and inevitably have to wait in a line (queue), and then your whole party has to be there before the consider seating you, and then order and get your food (don't go too hungry, or go early!). But what you get doesn't seem to be 'quite right' - it's either absolutely huge (and I still haven't got beyond the eating equivalent of the protestant work ethic, where I feel I must eat everything on the plate; quite a problem with US portion sizes), or just somehow missing something vital, like flavour or concept. D and I have been discussing how NZ cafe breakfasts would fare here, and we just don't know. interesting to reflect on how 'tastes' are locally produced.

So cafes here in general have been a bit of a less than 100% satisfactory affair, but there are some great ones. but don't get me (us) started on the 'free wifi' and the culture it creates... you walk into what would otherwise be a great cafe, to be greeted by a sea of vertical mac notebook tops, with people utterly engrossed in them. people don't seem to go to cafes together, they go with their laptops, and spend hours there. it doesn't create a great atmosphere. A few places have (hooray) 'no laptop' policies... including 'cafe grumpy' in Chelsea (which D pointed out, is sited right next door to 'Harmony House'... ha), also one of the few places here that does a 'flat white', which is quite nice, but very heavily male in its clientele.

We have had a wonderful week - marred only slightly by my now being somewhat under the weather - D was earlier in the week. We've made new soccer friends and hung out with them at a gallery opening/dinner in Chelsea earlier in the week, before heading over to Williamsburg for a gig - an unknown band - the Albertans - so we had aguess at what it would be like... it was ok. Still great to be out among the 'kids' and seeing more live music. Raced home just in time to get D signed in for the last soccer spot this Sunday (you have to sign in because it's a limited number; men can sign in from 12.01am on a friday, and all spots fill within 5 minutes!). D has got some work assisting an artist which is great (a few days), started Friday. Yesterday we visited the Brooklyn Flea which has opened again outdoors for the season, in a school playground about 20 minutes walk from us. Got some good scores, but by and large second hand here is very expensive... so we've cancelled the container to bring goods home in. And it was hot yesterday... sunny and about 26C. joy! We had dinner out with friends last night, and sat outside in a courtyard - with no heating! Yummy sushi. mmmmm.

The highpoint of this week has for me been a work one - I gave a public lecture at apexart, a non-profit gallery in TriBeCa, as part of a plastic surgery show they have on at the moment (if anyone wants to have a listen, it's online; email me and I can send you a link). I was as nervous as hell, having no idea how the audience my react to my rather critical talk, and having seen that it had been included as the 'picks of the week' on the Feminist Art Blog from the Brooklyn Museum (Brooklyn Museum has a large 'feminist art' collection). But I need not have feared. It went really well, full audience and good questions. Allure magazine included comment about it on their website the next day... so the audience was clearly quite mixed. A high point for me was that after the talk, a young guy came up to talk to me, and he had under his arm a book by an artist, Heide Hatry, which I'd seen a few weeks earlier and been fascinated by (it's very disturbing). I noted this, and how great it was, and he said he was her assistant, and she hadn't been able to make the talk, but had wanted to, so sent him, with the book, to give me. Stoked! So I'm going to get in touch with her soon. The other highpoint was dinner afterwards with the gallery owner and others involved in various ways, an incredible mix of arty/intellectual people for the ultimate NYC evening experience: great conversation and great food. We loved it! That all came about as a result of the gallery connection which D got from Ani O'Niell...

Anyway, the city continues to burst into life - the botanical variety, of course, for starters. The view out my window as I type this is of two different types of blossom, which will soon block the brownstone across the road:

The yellow one - I have no idea what it is; the white is dogwood and it's all over this city, gorgeous in every way. 5th Ave, just a block down from us, is really the most stunningly beautiful street in NYC at the moment (that's not a scientifically-determined 'fact') - it is lined with dogwoods and is just an avenue of white:
But as well as the botanical bursting forth of life, there's also been the humanoid variety too... There seem to be a lot more people living Park Slope than there were in winter - or they've come out of hibernation. And I'm kinda traumatised by the fact that "my" park - aka Central Park to others - which was basically mine alone through the depths of winter, my playground, my wonderland, has suddenly been invaded by the hoards (including many unable to walk of their own accord, being pushed in strollers by nannies or the occasional mother/father), who seem to think that they also have the right to be there... Central Park has become a frenzied mass of activity, which kinda detracts somewhat from the experience of 'getting away from the city' in the park, if you know what I mean. And I've only seen it in the afternoons on week days. I live in fear of it on the weekend:

The famous as well as the mere 'normal' folks were also out in Central Park - I walked past the actor Michael Hall (of 6 Feet Under and now Dexter fame) on friday. Along with the masses, there are less squirrels, too, but it's hard to tell if it's more influenced by the season or the numbers of humans (and dogs!). Here's a very impressive tail (slightly blurry, it was moving fast!):

We met the 17-dog man (mentioned in an earlier blog) in prospect park the other morning on the way home from our 7.30am soccer game. We had a good chat to him; he has 18 dogs! Drives around in a van, collecting them, then taking them to the park. He does about 3 'runs' a day, with mostly different dogs. Control is maintained with food. We had a good play with the dogs, gave out some treats, and got smeared with slobber and blood. Great way to start the day.

Tonight we're off to another Steve Abel gig - at the house of a musician in Bushwick. Should be fun. So don't feel too sorry for us and our limited time left here!

over and out...

arid-zone-a

Hola Amigos/Amigas

We’re back in the big apple after a week in the big desert (rather than dessert, though perhaps would be more in keeping with the ‘food’ theme). We had what can only be described as a hell trip – it took ALL day, and involved a walk, 2 buses, a subway, and airtrain (2 hrs to the airport), 2 planes and, finally, a hire car. I just about died (figuratively, not literally) on the flight from JFK to Phoenix (flight #1) when just after we pushed back from the gate they announced that ‘there’s a problem starting engine 1, we’re going to have to go back to the gate to get the technicians to check it out’. I was sure my number was finally up, and when we eventually took off some 1 ½ hours later, I was even more nervous than usual – poor D. tears were had, but all was good. Most other passengers just seemed happy to be able to turn their cell phones on for a bit.

So, Arizona, or Arid – zone – a as I came to think of it. The thrill of walking (aka driving our rather large vehicle) out of the airport into hot sunshine was closely matched by our first sighting of a saguaro cactus… and another. And another… We drove through Tucson (a flat city of massive highways, surrounded by (some) mountains, and up the interstate (I-10) to our first destination – Ironwood Forest National Monument.

A slow meander on an unsealed road as the cacti ‘forest’ got denser and denser, made slower as I made d stop at ever other turn for an even better cactus/mountain shot… Completely isolated, we were passed by only 2 other vehicles, one of which was US Border Patrol (we were to see many more).

The desert itself was a mix of the giant saguaro and spiky spiny ocotillo, in flower with bursts of red at the end of each ‘stem’, with the odd prickly pear and (teddy-bear) cholla thrown into the mix for good measure. Here’s one of many:

I had planned this 30 mile loop back to the I-10, and about 25 miles in, as the sun was about to set, this was foiled by the road turning into a huge pool a water. A local sitting there in a ute said ‘no, 4WD only…’ so back we went, luckily escaping just before the hoards of marauding penetrating Mexicans descending… Seriously, the rhetoric around the border is intense, and what one should do it one encounters illegal border crossers begging for water (nothing; notify the authorities). There are 100s and 100s of deaths on this desert border each year, partly a result of US border policies which closed down the borders in the cities, meaning the permeable bits are wild (hot, snake infested) desert – which equals more deaths…

Anyway, stayed that night in a motorway services cheap motel 6, collapsing after a delicious Mexican meal, and waking to classic views of cowboys in pickup trucks, and a ghastly diner breakfast…

the reality of food in the US was soon brought into stark relief as we drove past massive cattle foodlots, brown, dusty, and over-burdened with cattle, on the way to Gila Bend. here's a close-up of a small section:

Truly a terrifying thing, we felt well-informed about them having just watched the doco King Corn.

Gila Bend had some ancient wildlife:

We had our first desert hike in the Sonora Desert National Monument (fab) and saw some 'painted rock' petroglyphs - 1000s of years old, and now 'protected' (you're requested to 'stay on the paths'):

Around Gila Bend, a region that used to be fertile until the river was stopped, irrigated fields were almost painfully green against the desert brown:

We then drove south to a town called Ajo, where we stayed on route to our next destination, Organ Pipe National Monument. We passed through a border patrol checkpoint, but they didn’t stop us as we were heading towards Mexico… it’s all about direction! Ajo was very cute – formerly much more populated that it now is, full of cute churches and great signage:

The main industry of the town seems now to be selling ‘Mexico Insurance’ (except they were all shut!), and water, a necessity in the desert climate (they recommend carrying a gallon of water per person for a day’s hiking!):

It is home to a now closed copper mine, the New Cornelia mine, which was the apparently the second biggest open-cast mine in the world. And according to Wikipedia, produced over 6 billion pounds of copper! Blimey! You seem to drive beside the tailings for at least 10 minutes as you leave town, staggering. There’s no way to photograph it which captures the scale (you can see a panorama shot though).

Organ Pipe was our key destination. here's an 'organ pipe cactus (the busy one in the middle of the pic):
The park runs along the Mexican border, and unfortunately most of it is currently closed for “security concerns”. Damn! We did three hikes, up valleys and up into the mountains for two. The first was damn spectacular, a hike up a canyon, with views of a 90 foot rock arch high to the right, then a cairned scramble up to just above and behind the arch. Spectacular views across miles and miles of desert, into Mexico and beyond.

The absolute highpoint was seeing a hummingbird!! Both of us associated hummingbirds with jungles, but no, they’re common in Arizona (we saw quite a few more). Here’s a pic of a different one:

We also saw millions of lizards, birds of a various stripes, including the massive and impressive turkey vultures, and my personal faves, the rock squirrels(!).

AND luckily no snakes. Very very happy about that! D was rather disappointed. You learn to live with such disappointments. But hiking among cacti is not without risk:

Much of the desert was in bloom, being 'spring', so it was pretty special...

After a full day of hiking we set off back to Tucson as the sun turned the desert into a glowing thing of beauty:

We passed through the spectacularly named towns of Gunsight and, best of all, Why

We got stopped by Border Patrol. We’d be warned out the seriousness of them, so that when I was asked where we’d been, I completely panicked and forgot the name… duh! Luckily we were the right colour, and after checking our passports, we were wished a good night and off we drove. The road passes for probably close to 100 miles through the Tohono O’odham Nation (‘reservation’). Starving at about 9pm we stopped at a roadside place in the one town on the road, hoping for some ‘local’ food options, only to be greeted with burgers and chilli-cheese-fries (which won on the night)! While waiting we ‘gringos’ (seems appropriate, given it once was Mexico) entertained the little kids by our mere presence. Another ghastly cheap motel on the edge of Tucson, then a visit to the really quite fab Arizona-Sonoran Desert Museum, a bit more like a zoo/museum, where we got to enjoy all the animals trough the safety of glass… those snakes are damned small; in my imagination, they were far bigger… glad I’d seen them at that late point in the trip. The high point for both of us was the hummingbird enclosure; I could have stayed for hours. Heaps were nesting. The low-point: Oh so many loud Americans and their even louder offspring…

Our farewell to desert hiking was a switchback ridge climb in the West Tucson mountain part of the Saguaro National Park.

The next day we got up early and drove the spectacular road (designated a national scenic byway) up to Mt Lemmon, a road which ascends from about 1000 ft above sea level (Tucson) to close to 10,000ft over 27 miles.

Part of the Coronado National Forest, we got high enough to encounter big green and brown things (aka trees, conifer etc!), and even SNOW! A ski-field in winter, we hiked up to the top, for stunning views of the mountains and drop back down to the Tucson plains.

Both sides of the mountain had been decimated by fire earlier this decade, and regrowth was really slow. The burned out trees were, however, stunning

Running late for getting our hire car back, we thought we’d jump on the chairlift back down the mountain… but NO! you had to buy a ticket at the bottom. And when we asked whether we could buy it down there, well no, because you have to sign a waiver that you won’t sue if you managed to hurt yourself! Honestly! So we raced back down the mountain, and it was worth it for some very cute Abert’s squirrels with these super tufty ears. (I geekily bought a National Audibon Society Field Guide to the Southwestern States, so we know all the names of what we saw now. Fab!)

Sun, heat, and even more heat was a treat to break the slow start to spring. Conference was great for me, but it was good to be heading back to NYC too… The desert was amazing, but I could not live in that environment: too harsh, too prickly, and far far too dry (not to mention deathly hot in summer).

We caught a ghastly ‘red-eye’ flight back to NYC from Phoenix (9.30pm dep, 4.30am arrival, less than 4 hours in the air!) and come to a city where spring had arrived. Glorious day, trees bursting into blossom, it was wonderful (if still rather cold!). Now it’s colder (about 7°C today), and wet… gotta love that water though! The return was rounded off perfectly by a lovely neighbourhood wander in bright sunshine (we passed little Matilda Ledger/Williams[?] - her presence indicated by the 6 paparazzi busy photographing her mundane childish climbing of a fence!), some fabulous 4pm Sunday soccer and post-soccer pub action; and then a gig by Steve Abel who’s visiting NYC, and was playing at this totally cool little venue, Jalopy, about ½ an hour’s walk from us; definitely a venue to return to…

Now it’s back to work – and trying to figure out how this country doesn’t do a public holiday around Easter/Passover at all. Possibly going to a Passover Seder this weekend, which should be an experience. Enjoy your long Easter weekends, in those countries that do!

Adios