Month: February 2006

All Olympics, All the Time

Ok, it’s bad enough that I’m a major insomniac and that I blog at strange hours.  But, it’s almost funny – I just let the tv on NBC and let the Olympics go.  On and on and on.  Imagine if I had cable – it’d be seriously non-stop Olympics with the networks of NBC (although, arguably, I’d then have some live coverage of something if I had cable).

I still wish NBC would show Olympics in a a straightforward fashion, rather than this “hold your suspense, let’s show this other event…” piecemeal fashion.  But, you have to admit, watching this Olympics … man.  Plenty of thrills and spills.  Arielists are crazy – that is dangerous – a cross between gymnastics and skiing – you have to land – or break a limb (literally).  Ugh.  Painful to watch!

I was never particularly fond of ice dancing (at one point, it seemed more like faux sex on ice, with those extremely arty Russian skaters, or it seemed just not very athletic), but this time – all these falls.  I came out of it feeling a bit more respect for this sport.  And, of course, watching Belbin and Agosto – the pair for whom Congress had to change Immigration law to let Belbin skate as an American.  And, they got a silver for their efforts, the first time in a long time that Americans medaled in ice dancing.  Kudos.

U.S.’ Sasha Cohen’s coming out of the short program of the women’s figure skating as  No. 1.  The Japanese skaters Arakawa and Suguri were quite good.  Emily Hughes and Kimmie Meissner were also very good.  Hmm.  And, of course, the perennial hopeful Irina Slutskaya, was very good.  So, this is going to be tough.

Piazza

We’re in week 2 of the Olympics, and one of those little vignette-timewasters inserted into the NBC coverage involved how this year’s doughnut-shaped Olympic metals are supposed to memorialize the piazza, or town plaza. Cut away to the Olympic metal presentation stage set in a giant open square surrounded by stores, cafes, and room for 8,000 people. Before two weeks ago, apparently the piazza was a busy thoroughfare where you were as likely to be run over if you were caught standing in the middle of it — forget about sitting and enjoying an expresso.
All great neighborhoods have an open air area that comprises a natural public area. Some places have parks, others have squares, while still others have promenades. In my old neighborhood in Kensington it was a wierd area caused by the intersection of two grid systems, that of New Utrecht and 36th Street and 15th Avenue at a 45 degree angle to that of old Flatbush’s Dahill Road, which pretty much goes straight north-south. This created a “natural” area where numerous games of stickball, footbal and other street games were held. On the run to first lies the neighborhood bodega. Along the path home was a two storey frame house with a large porch. Behind home plate was a house best described as a Swiss Chalet. Our bedroom window was the outfield skybox where we could observe what was going on in the outdoor forum. A Fourth of July treat were the massive demonstrations of fireworks that we thought as kids rivaled the Macy’s Fourth of July fireworks.

Alas, the triangle is gone, revised by modern traffic shaping into just an ordinary straight street that would have run into the house. And alas, the house is gone, being gobbled up by a much more utilitarian building. Yet, the area is still used as a walking area called an eruv by the Hasidic community of Borough Park, and the memory remains. Perhaps that is what those Olympic medals set out to represent – continuing to be an open area surrounded by — yet a part of — the whole world.

The sides of the Ninja, +1K

P & I slept in during the morning on Saturday watching Food Network’s Mangia Mania week, which is all Italian food. We must have watched 3 separate pizza shows – we’re going to try out some apparently new ones in New York this week – counterbalancing my gym visit on Friday.

The rest of the afternoon we visited Chelsea Market, which houses the world headquarters of the Food Network. Crazy looks through the Fat Witch (brownies), Jimmy’s Gelato (had an awesome green apple sorbet, as well as green tea gelato – yum!), Bowery Kitchen Supplies (can’t believe that there is a device called a Spätzle-Ass), and Buonitalia Imports (the place to get a 3 kg bottle of Nutella). The free weekend ballroom dancing was also happening.

We got out and it was like 20 degrees and we had 15 minutes to get to Ninja Restaurant, our next stop, so we hopped into a taxi. That was definately a good move. We got there just in time to meet one of our dinner guests, and the host/ringleader was on her way. We waited in the lounge before she arrived, and then were lead through a secret passageway led and intercepted by ninjas before arriving at the ninja village.

We didn’t have high hopes, since the New York Times gave such a poor review, but we actually had a great time. Maybe it was partly the good company, partially that we got a good ninja, partially that the restaurant took some of the critiques to heart, but we think that the reviews were completely wrong. The food was actually pretty good, the ambiance was believable, and nobody took themselves too seriously (the ninjas spoke Japanese, but quickly switched into witty English.)

Things can be really expensive if you were to order a la carte, but the key is to pick from the set menus – they have the best value. Ask for the “secret menu” – it’s sort of like the other menu at Chinese restaurants that has the stuff that only those in the know want to eat. The secret menu arrived in a gold box and has 2 more economical set menus that didn’t look like they were going to be filling, but they were very nice. Then we had a choice of 5 desserts, which were shown to us by M- the Ninja on the secret side menu, which she presented to us on a 1 x 3″ slip of parchment.

If ordered in a set menu, the items that we received were worth the price. The courses included: red miso soup with clams, grilled salmon with a rice sauce, cubed steak in a choice of wasabi or terayaki sauce, 5 piece nigiri sushi, and the fateful choice of dessert. The quality was quite good, and the sushi was served with real wasabi root grated at the table. One of our dinner guests also ordered the 5 flight sake tasting menu, which were full sized samples – it was deemed excellent. The funniest exchange concerning the white frog (actually a cheesecake) dessert – P: “I can’t eat it – it’s too cute” – Ninja M: “He was destined to die”.)

If you think of it as just food, it’s a bit on the pricy side, especially if you stray off of the set menus, but if you think of it as dinner theater, it’s well worth it – much better value than Jekyll & Hyde or Mars 2112. And you’d be supporting NYC’s better struggling Asian actors and actresses (our dining host had actually been on a casting call for Ninja waitstaff). Recommended if you want to splurge a bit.

Also, this is the 1,000th (or maybe 1,001 if SSW posts before me) post! Can’t believe we made it this far…. next post will be more of a long form reminiscence.