I had never turned on the oven in my apartment until recently. There are a few reasons for this. I have stuff stored in front of it, a plethora of restaurants at my disposal, and little spare time, and cooking seemed more appropriate to do with people or for people or for some reason beyond satiating my own hunger. When I decided to stop subsisting on takeout and start cooking at home, it was mostly out of curiosity, but I also had a notion that I might save some money. Read more…
Last night I headed over to Brooklyn to shoot some photos at Bring to Light, a free one-night event featuring light installations and music along the Greenpoint waterfront. This was billed as New York City’s first nuit blanche festival, which draw huge crowds in cities like Toronto, Paris and St. Petersburg. They generally go all night, although the Brooklyn event had a midnight end time.
I saw this event from two perspectives, the passive viewer and the amateur photographer. One one hand, you’re watching a video of a winking eye projected on the side of a building and thinking this would be a lot better stoned. Down the street eleven people are thrusting their iphones at a spinning unicycle chained to a signpost. You muddle through a bunch of kids throwing glowsticks at each other to go look at the laser sphere which is… pretty damn lasery and spherical. On the other hand, it was fun to get in some DSLR quality time photographing these installations, especially as many of them encouraged crowd participation (a little too much participation in the case of the woman who knocked over the glowing tubes display). Even though this nuit blanche wasn’t even comparable in audience and scope to the one in Toronto which attracted a million people, it was a mellow scene for new photographers to fuss around with their tripods, f-stops, and ISOs. Since the neighborhood was incorporated as the backdrop in many of the exhibits, the act of slowing down and seeing a familiar setting a bit differently was a nice aspect.
I posted a few photos from last night below and more on Flickr.
If you’re in a bookstore or shopping around online you need to pick up one of these. Not for Tourists is a series of guidebooks written by locals, for locals. They’re broken down by neighborhood, and contain interesting tidbits about the sights and scene, as well as stuff you need to know to actually live here like what the best dive bars are and where the kick-ass hardware store is. Each page has short, pithy reviews and is accompanied by a map that charts the neighborhood block-by-block. As someone obsessed with maps since childhood (I used to draw maps of imaginary cities), this was the perfect introduction to New York City.
I happened on the guide at a perfect time, too. Days after I moved to New York, I found one on the top of my new roommate’s book pile. I was drawn to the plain black cover that resembled a moleskine, and I read the whole thing. I’ve picked up a new edition almost every year since, either because I lost the old one, or I lent it out and never got it back, or I just wanted to see what else the editors had to say.
Fast-forward to last winter. I happened to be working on writing the East Village sections for the 2011 guide during a week-long nadir of what felt like the worst winter of my life. I’d been excited about contributing to the guide, but at that particular time it was a struggle to write anything, even a few lines about a place I knew well. I got the assignment done, and more or less forgot about those few days until last night. I was walking along Third Avenue, realized it was about time for the new guide to be out, and ran into St. Mark’s Bookshop. The 2011 edition was right up front at the cash register, and inside were the words it had seemed so inexplicably difficult to write. Coming at the end of a long week before my vacation, this was a sweet moment. Sometimes getting one small thing done at a time when you feel like you can’t do anything seems monumental.
So personal drama aside, I highly recommend buying a copy because it’s a fun read and handy to have, whether you’re a local or just visiting. The New York City guide mainly focuses on Manhattan but the Brooklyn and Queens guides delve a little deeper into those boroughs. And if you’re interested in London, Chicago, LA, Boston, San Francisco, Seattle, DC, Philadelphia, or Atlanta, you’re in luck.
Available at the Not For Tourists website or Amazon.com or a bookstore if you’re old school, and if you’re too modern for printed matter at all there is an iphone app. But that’s a different beast and pulls in all the reviews from the website.
Six Manhattan chefs from six different well-regarded restaurants, each given a different liquor, and tasked to come up with a cocktail and a dish to accompany it. Add dozens of hungry foodies. Stir. Result? A hell of a fun night and a for-the-ages hangover the next day. This event, held on Jan 25th and coordinated by the Edible Magazines network (Edible Manhattan is my favorite food magazine right now–unlike Saveur, it’s locally focused, and the features are more digestible than those in ploddingly academic Gastronomica), was a follow-up to their Good Beer party in July. The tickets were $40, but since this included an all-you-can-handle cocktail throwdown with a magazine subscription to boot, I figured it would be well worth it as long as I ate and drank everything in sight.
The chefs set up tables around the perimeter of Almond Restaurant and guests freely wandered from station to station, eating and imbibing as much as they saw fit. We attempted small bites first: a celery root and apple terrine accompanied by an Orange Blossom (orange bitters, St. Germain, sparkling wine) was our first stop. Coming from Gramercy Tavern, it was a bit of a letdown. Moving right along, Ilili‘s smoked venison carpaccio with hummus, apple, and cinnamon chile oil served with a Sidon Rose (vodka, green apple, rose syrup) was my first taste of venison, and a pleasant one. The next dish, Resto‘s fennel and juniper lamb bacon with beet and caramelized yogurt, was my favorite of the small bites (although I went easy on the gin, green chartreuse, lemon, and peach Lambic concoction served with it, since gin is my nemesis).
The next two dishes were the highlights of the evening. First we braved the long line for a roasted sweet corn tamale topped with two succulent white shrimp, chipotle butter and avocado pico de gallo, paired with a powerfully tart and boozy La Sombrilla Roja (mezcal, campari, lemon, lime and grapefruit). Rocking Horse Cafe contributed this pairing, and I’m eager to try the restaurant based on it. This was followed by Il Buco‘s persimmon, hazlenut and fennel salad, served with the il Buco sour (bourbon, persimmon, lemon, thyme, and Sagrentino Passito). I’d never eaten a persimmon before, which really upped the ante on a disarmingly simple salad. Il Buco is also now high on my list of restaurants to try. My favorite cocktail of the evening came next, the J.M. Ginger (rum, pear puree, ginger syrup, red wine sorbet, and a ginger-sugar rim). This was served with a crepinette of lamb neck, with celery root puree and kumquat-basil marmalade, from Almond.
After seconds of the tamales and J.M. Gingers, we sampled a tray of Roni-Sue chocolates but my stamina was fading by the time we passed the coffee and brandy pairing. After scooping up some free Edible magazines, we swung by the Heartland Brewery table to sample a hopped-up and super-malty Mr. Atlas Pale Ale and a chocolatey, pitch-black Sumatra Porter. This to my mind makes a better dessert than a wedge of pie, but perhaps it was fortunate that we were near the door, because it occurred to us to roll out of there before we could do too much more damage to ourselves. My guess is that the amount I ate and drank would have cost at least three times the price of the ticket in a restaurant, so all-in-all it was a bargain, despite a dearth of seating. I am never, ever mixing that many liquors together again, but I’m totally checking out the next Edible event.
Edible Manhattan
Good Spirits at Almond pairings
Almond Restaurant
12 East 22nd St. between Broadway and Park Ave.
There are plenty of people who enjoy listening to the same tired Christmas songs year after year. I’m not one of them. If you’ve ever spent a few holiday seasons working in retail, you know what I’m talking about. Clearing trashed fitting rooms and dealing with stressed-out customers are both temporarily worse than listening to a saccharine Christmas mix. But I can attest after you’ve heard Christina Aguilera belt out The Christmas Song four hundred times on store speakers, the song triggers a gag reflex ever after. For this list of Christmas songs that don’t suck, I primarily looked for songs that specifically mention Christmas and aren’t entirely overplayed. I also appreciate songs that reflect the dark as well as the light side of the holidays, or tell a good story.
The entire playlist is above, except for #9, #13, and #16 which weren’t available on Youtube, so those song links are below and #9 is replaced with runner-up “Christmas Ghosts” in the playlist.
1. The Sonics – Santa Clause
Who doesn’t want a cute honey and a lot of money for Christmas?
2. The Kinks – Father Christmas
Because Christmas shouldn’t be just for little rich boys.
3. The Beach Boys – Little Saint Nick
This song’s kinda famous, but I can’t resist the incongruity of a beachy Christmas.
4. Marvin Gaye – Purple Snowflakes
A super-cozy song, with a slightly mournful feel.
5. The Damned – There Ain’t No Sanity Clause
Remember finding out there was no Santa?
6. Run DMC – Christmas in Hollis
Going on the Christmas party mix.
7. Billy Taylor – Bright Star in the East
Would be on the Christmas party mix, if I had the LP.
8. James Brown – Santa Claus Go Straight to the Ghetto
And tell them James Brown sent you!
9. The Raveonettes – The Christmas Song
Have you ever wished you could be snowed in with someone so you didn’t have to go home?
10. The Knife – Reindeer
Because no one ever thinks about the poor reindeer that have to haul around fat-ass Santa and that heavy sleigh.
11. Bjork – Jolasveinar (Icelandic Christmas Carol)
I have no idea what she’s singing about, but something tells me the elves are up to no good.
12. Harvey Danger – Sometimes You Have to Work on Christmas
Christmas isn’t all about joy and presents. Some people actually have to work.
13. The Magnetic Fields – Mister Mistletoe
Oh Mr. Mistletoe/wither and die/you useless weed/for no one have I.
14. Sufjan Stevens – That Was the Worst Christmas Ever!
A pretty song about a shitty Christmas.
15. Tom Waits – Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis
Gather round with your flasks of bourbon kids, Mr. Waits is gonna tell us a tale.
16. Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band – There Ain’t No Santa Claus on the Evenin’ Stage
If the one above didn’t make you feel tipsy this will.
Also: If like me you have an embarrassing fondness for “Last Christmas” by Wham! you’ll want to bookmark Last-Christmas.com.
Also: If you really just wish Christmas music rocked more check out this punk rock advent calendar (one punk Christmas song download each day in December): Punk-Christmas.com.
Also: I personally can’t stand the Pogues’ “Fairytale of New York” but it’s a pretty standard non-standard holiday tune.