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...