Month: September 2007

9/10/07

On a pleasant note:

A common thread on this blog has been where we get pizza – as seen here (pizza in Chicago’s Giordano’s), here (Fornino), here (Grimaldi’s), here (Di Fara’s), and most recently (I think!) here (Franny’s). Or links to articles or websites on pizza. (even the concept of fried pizza… or how pizza’s advertised). Pizza, pizza, pizza, as the Little Caesar commercial once said.

My latest contribution: Saturday – went to Totonno’s in Coney Island (it also has other branches in the metro area) with a friend. We had a white pizza. Quite tasty. Thumbs up, I’ll say.

Speaking of Coney Island – whither Astroland? We shall see! From what I can tell, the progress of re-developing Coney Island has some kinks to work out.

Dim sum on Sunday, since we had visiting relatives – Diamond on Eight on 8th Avenue in Brooklyn (formerly known as Ocean Palace). Used to be better, I’ll say. Not nearly impressed. Last month, we had taken other relatives to Pacificana, at the other end of 8th Avenue (brand spanking new place, with nice bathrooms, I’ll say) – and the food there seemed jazzier. I’m hardly an expert on dim sum though.

Didn’t think that it’d be much of a primary election – next Tuesday – but there are some odd races in our borough. Oh, well. Guess I’ll do my civic duty.

Anniversary of the A-line.

9/11 observations tomorrow – Time magazine’s Jeffrey Kluger observes:

Grief has always been our most well-policed emotion. Mourning is painful, so we make it the stuff of pageantry –of muffled drums and riderless horses and black-draped catafalques. To suffer collectively is, if nothing else, to suffer prettily.

What’s harder to know is, When is enough enough? A lot of Americans are quietly, and guiltily, asking themselves that question this week, as Sept. 11–the sixth Sept. 11 since 2001–once again approaches. A sixth anniversary is an awkward thing, without the raw feeling of a first or the numerical tidiness of a fifth or 10th. The families of the 2,973 people murdered that day need no calendrical gimmick to feel their loss, but a nation of 300 million–rightly or wrongly–is another matter.

Some have suggested that we discontinue the moments of silence and solemn speeches and all the other ceremonies that have marked our recent Sept. 11s. While many argue that that would leave the day bereft of meaning, it’s possible that there are deeper kinds of meaning to be had. [….]

There are many ways to remember the dead. It’s hard to argue that learning how to defeat real evil, slap aside pretenders and rebuild in the face of abiding sorrow aren’t three very good ones.

Thoughts to keep in mind, a mindful time of year. Be they happy thoughts.

Cincinnati recap

Cincinnati has a unique set of culinary touchstones that seem to have some connections with New York.

Montgomery Inn at the Boathouse: The place seemed to be designed for the casual business dining crowd. We tried the BBQ wrap and a side of their ribs. The ribs were tasty, somewhat like Kansas City ribs. They were tender, and sauced with a distinctive BBQ sauce, which not much of a smoked taste. The most curious dish was the “Cantonese Shrimp”, which are lightly battered butterflied shrimp which are then served with a dipping sauce composed of a mixture of plum sauce and hot mustard. The dishes were served with Saratoga Chips (which are essentially kitchen-made potato chips) , onion threads (thin shredded onions floured and fried) and a nice salad. For desert, we had Greater’s French Copper Pot style ice cream. – vanilla bean and the black raspberry chocolate chunk . BBQ: good; Ice cream: recommended; shrimp – acquired taste.

Skyline Chili: The thing that you have to understand about Cincinnati Chili is that while it may have some visual resemblance to what is commonly recognized as chili, that illusion is quickly dispelled once you dig in. It is probably better described as slightly overcooked spaghetti with Grecian sweet spiced (we’re talking sweet like sweet sausage, not sweet tea) meat sauce topped with thinly shredded cheddar cheese (the “3 Way”), and possibly diced onions and red kidney beans ( the 4 and 5 Way, neither of which are cooked in the sauced). Oyster crackers (the ones commonly used for New England clam chowder) accompany the dish – they are used to sop up the thin sauce at the bottom of the bowl. To mix the metaphor even more, they also serve chili dogs called “Coneys” (the name derived from Coney Island in Brooklyn), which are 5 inch German style wieners topped with the Cincinnati Chili and the shredded cheddar cheese . It is one of those foods like White Castle on the East Coast which are suitable for after –drinking munchies. If you are looking for traditional chili, you will be very disappointed. If you are looking for something to satisfy a craving you didn’t know that you had, and want to spend less then $5, fill up on Skyline Chili.

Renaissance Fair Good stuff: mead – a local company in the area made the heavenly brew from local honey. Fantastic – I had two glasses, and each had a distinctive taste based on the honey it was made with. The best bargain was the smoked turkey drumsticks – the dark meat tasted like tender ham on the bone. Very tasty. The fair itself was a bit kitschy – something between Medieval Times and Great Adventure. Glad to have checked it out.

Kroger’s: the things that we noticed: 1. lots of sausage and pickles – they had almost a aisle just for pickles 2. a lot of recalled item signs, including for cans of regular chili and even margarita salt. We bought grilling stuff, because it was inexpensive – grill gloves and apple wood chips.

Jewish favorites: during the bris, we had excellent lox and various cream cheeses, chopped egg salad, hummus, and excellent bagel, bialy and hallah bread A wonderful spread.

Weekend!

OMG. Time magazine’s tv critic James Poniewozik has done a 100 Best TV Shows for the latest issue! Awesome! Well, ok, I haven’t seen the list in its entirety yet (Beavis and Butthead?!), so I shouldn’t be so effusive. But, it’s all cool to me anyway – even if it’s still “just tv,” respect the tv. See the video where he explains how he did it. I may not quite agree with his list (Beavis and Butthead?), but it seems like a pretty cool list all in all.

On serious notes:

The passing of Luciano Pavarotti. A singular voice indeed. The NY Times’ classical music critic Anthony Tommasini said it nicely:

But no one ever mistook the voice of Luciano Pavarotti. There was the warm, enveloping sound: a classic Italian tenor voice, yes, but touched with a bit of husky baritonal darkness, which made Mr. Pavarotti’s flights into his gleaming upper range seem all the more miraculous.

And it wasn’t just the sound that was so recognizable. In Mr. Pavarotti’s artistry, language and voice were one. He had an idiomatic way of binding the rounded vowels and sputtering consonants of his native Italian to the tones and colorings of his voice. This practice is central to the Italian vocal heritage, and Mr. Pavarotti was one of its exemplars.

For intelligence, discipline, breadth of repertory, musicianship, interpretive depth and virile vocalism, Mr. Pavarotti was outclassed by his Three Tenors sidekick and chief rival, Plácido Domingo. But for sheer Italianate tenorial beauty, Mr. Pavarotti was hard to top.

The passing of Madeline L’Engle, one of my childhood’s favorite writers. Among other thoughts:

“A Wrinkle in Time” was amazing – heck, the entire Time series was an epic work of characters dealing with their universe. L’Engle was fantastic for her creations: Meg, who wasn’t the prettiest of girls, who envied her mom for being intellectually brilliant and beautiful, who later found her own beauty and strength in her capacity to love and understand and overcome her anger; Charles Wallace, the baby brother who grew to be an unusual teenager (surely I wasn’t the only one who thought “A Swiftly Tilting Planet” was such a vivid and amazing epic of time traveling? Who’d think that this was the same Charles Wallace as in “A Wrinkle in Time”?); the twins Sandy and Dennys, supposedly the normal ones of the four Murry children – who get their own epic time adventure in “Many Waters” (I don’t think I ever quite appreciated the Noah’s arc story until L’Engle did it); and even Calvin O’Keefe, the athletic smart boy who ends up being the love of Meg’s life and becoming the marine biologist he only dreamed of being. I never quite got into the stories of Polly O’Keefe, Meg and Calvin’s daughter, or the other books by L’Engle. But, there’s no doubt that she made children’s literature literature. Gosh, just remembering the books and gleaning at them on Amazon makes me want to find my old copies and re-read them.

The L’Engle obituary in the NY Times that I link above – I thought it was great, I thought – little touches of the person, not just the achievements.