Author: ssw15

One of the cool things about Wednesday – food articles in the newspapers.

Newsday’s Sylvia Carter does a write up on the origins of NYC’s favorites – Waldorf salad (actually is from the Waldorf-Astoria); Junior’s Cheesecakes (apparently, Junior’s had a previous name – I had no idea); knish (which the ex-Mayor Rudy Giuliani banned from the hot dog carts); bagels and bialys; egg cream; hot dog….

I love this article from the NY Times’ Mark Bittman, wherein he praises the beauty of well-done fried food. He makes everything sounds so yummy and tasty. He justifies the idea of fried food so well:

THE cooking method people fear most is the one they love most: frying.

It does everything you want cooking to do. It makes food crisp, tender, gorgeous and golden. The combination of moistness and crunchiness when you bathe fish in hot oil is incomparable, and vegetables are never more appealing than when they’re fried with a light batter.

Grilling is fun, and appeals to our primitive side; it’s the essence of summer. Frying, on the other hand, is civilized, delicate and more like a winter sport.

Sadly, we’ve been trained to deny our love, even become ashamed of it, because frying is supposed to be unhealthy. And, the naysayers contend, it’s a pain, it’s expensive, and it’s messy.

Hogwash. Try it once, and you’ll be hooked. And on your second try you will come pretty close to mastering the art of frying. You won’t need an “automatic” deep fryer (which is far more trouble than it’s worth) or other fancy equipment. Even a thermometer isn’t essential (though it is
undeniably convenient).

As a nation we eat fried food constantly, but almost always in restaurants, where it’s least likely to be done well, with old oil, sloppy timing and less-than-ideal ingredients.

Frying lends itself to home cooking. Almost all fried food is best about a minute after it is removed from the bubbling oil. That is when it cools off enough so that its surface hardens a bit, before the interior moisture can begin to soften it again and after the danger of scorching the palate has passed. [….]

But, you’ll ask – everyone does – doesn’t the food absorb a lot of oil as it’s cooking? For the answer, I turned to Harold McGee, author of “On Food and Cooking” the second edition of which was just published by Scribner.

Clearly some fat is absorbed by fried foods, but only about as much as that absorbed in sautéing or stir-frying, Mr. McGee said.

“The bigger the surface area compared to the volume, the more oil you end up with,” Mr. McGee said. “A chip is all surface, which is why it’s so wonderful, but it can wind up being 35 percent oil.” Most fried foods have much less than that.

Let me salute – I, SSW, am a fried food lover, and you, Mr. Bittman, make fried food sound so seductively good…

Oh, and a “Jurisprudence” article from Slate.com’s Dahlia Lithwick – she ponders the question “Does William Rehnquist have a right to keep his medical condition a secret?” There are no easy answers, just way too much speculation, I’d say.

And, since the year is winding down, it’s time to speculate on who’s going to be Time magazine’s person of the year. (and this week’s issue was really nice – a review of photos of the year and of yore – fascinating stuff). I’d take a stab at a guess right now, since I was so on the money last year: since it was a nutty election year, I’d say that the American voter ought to be the person of the year – especially since last year’s was already the American soldier. So, someone, please, just give me the cash in case my prediction works… 😉

Umm, t’is the season to eat, drink, and be merry (so speculate and gossip to your heart’s content, I guess)…

“I Want a Dog for Christmas, Charlie Brown” – in which Rerun, Linus and Lucy’s little brother, befriends Snoopy. In fact, Rerun likes the dog so much, that he wishes he had his own dog and offers to pay Charlie Brown for Snoopy. Charlie Brown tries to find another dog for Rerun – inviting Snoopy’s brother Spike from the desert for Christmas. But, that weird mom of Rerun, Linus, and Lucy, really doesn’t want a dog in the house, so it’s back to the desert for Spike anyway (where he was a heck of a lot more comfortable). It was a weird enough storyline in the comic strips (where it was really obvious that Rerun really fell in love with Snoopy), so seeing it in the tv screen was sweet. Charlie Brown is awfully nice and patient with the strange Rerun. Snoopy’s still strange (apparently, only playing with Rerun for the consideration of Christmas cookies). And, Linus is still attached to the blue blankie. Uh huh. I think that this was one of Charles Schultz last projects (Rerun was certainly the last invented character) – so this is a good watch.

And, got to credit FC – I’m really enjoying “Amazing Race” ever since I watched the last episode of the previous installment, and this current installment has been a fun watch. Thought it was touching how the producers had the contestants visit the point of no return of African slaves before they were shipped to the New World (particularly poignant to watch the African-American father-daughter’s feelings of that moment) and then heading off to Berlin, passing the World War II sites (that father pointed how the whole sadness of this – to go from humanity’s inhumanity in Africa to humanity’s inhumanity in Europe – what point were the producers’ making? “Amazing Race” is a borderline educational tv). Thought that the nasty young husband was just awful to the young wife. Too bad about grandparent pair – they were the example of a halfway decent married couple (the nasty young husband ought to take a lesson from them).

Fascinating story about a 94 year old attorney of the NYC Law Department in Newsday – Edith Spivak, Esq., has finally retired. Salute a pioneer.

NY Times’ Adam Cohen writes an editorial on the latest case before the U.S. Supreme Court, wherein the Court is asked whether to let Californians grow medicinal marijuana – which means possibly asking the Court to overturn the famous Wickard case – that case constitutional law classes made us wonder whether one farmer’s wheat affects the entire market (and which upheld FDR’s New Deal legislation). Cohen notes:

Getting rid of Wickard would be an important first step. At last month’s argument, that did not appear likely. Justice Antonin Scalia, a leading states’ rights champions, said he “always used to laugh at Wickard,” but he seemed prepared to stick with it. It may be, however, that the justices are quicker to limit Congress’s power when it does things they don’t like (like gun regulation) than when it does things they do (like drug regulation). They may be waiting for a more congenial case.

The court will not return to the pre-1937 Constitution in a single case, but it seems likely to keep whittling away Congressional power and federally protected rights. If it does, what President Franklin Roosevelt declared in 1936 – after two key New Deal programs were struck down – will
again be true: “It was not the wage earners who cheered when these laws were declared invalid.”

Worrisome – limiting Congressional power – yeah, about 70 years worth of it. Scary to think about it. Gee, what are we going to do about this, Charlie Brown…?

(oh, and looks like ABC is showing “A Charlie Brown Christmas” again this Thursday. Can’t get enough of the wishy-washy, round-headed kid).

“The Last Time You Used Algebra Was…” – a fascinating article from the NY Times – how many of us use algebra or calculus long after school life was over? Donald G. McNeil, Jr., notes:

Most experts point out that careers in science or computers require mathematics, even when it is not a real job skill but a filter for the lazy or stupid, as passing freshman physics is for pre-med students. (Disclosure: me, for example.) Physics requires calculus, calculus requires algebra and trigonometry, and so on. One must start early.

In the age of Googling and spell-checking, noted Diane Ravitch, the education historian, the “so what?” question could be asked about learning virtually any subject.

“But a democratic society demands an educated populace,” she said. “Why spend hundreds of billions on public education if we’re going to sling it over our shoulder?”

But the best defense – the first to get beyond the utilitarian argument – came from a certain Miss Collins. She is my daughter’s math teacher at a school where there are no boys to distract or intimidate calculating young women.

“If you ask the girls,” she said, “they’ll say it’s another hoop they have to jump through to get into a good college.”

She feels otherwise.

“What we do isn’t exactly what mathematicians do,” she explained. “And I know more alums here become artists than become mathematicians. But kids don’t study poetry just because they’re going to grow up to be poets. It’s about a habit of mind. Your mind doesn’t think abstractly unless it’s asked to – and it needs to be asked to from a relatively young age. The rigor and logic that goes into math is a good way for your brain to be trained.”

Studying poetry is analogous to studying math? Something to justify education in general? Now there’s a thought.

Fascinating article on the art of the sitcom – or, at least, how the format can work: NY Times’ Alexandra Jacobs discusses how CBS’ “Two and a Half Men” may be the successor to “Everyone Loves Raymond” – it’s a goofy yet funny show, where it’s only goal is to make you laugh at a lovingly dysfunctional family. Jacobs notes:

The two leads played true to type: [Jon] Cryer bungled his lines several times, necessitating
multiple takes; [Charlie] Sheen was a perfect smoothie. For those who remember these two men’s earlier incarnations as Brat Packers, there is something very endearing about seeing
them, now both 39 and a bit battered-looking, sequestered in the cozily domestic confines of a television comedy.

Ah, yeah – that’s right – two old Brat Packers. What is the world coming to?! Well, it’s a funny show (although, Sheen’s character has a stalker, which is bizarre…)

Have a good week…

You know it’s not quite a NYC tv holiday season until WNBC Channel 4 airs its annual holiday commercials where management drags its local news people and other departments to the Rockefeller ice rink (or at least the stage under the Christmas Tree) and tape them singing Christmas carols. It’s always a little fun, because then you’d get to do fingerpointing by identifying the familiar tv personalities dancing about in a goofy way or else wearing a Santa cap or whatnot (“Look, Len Berman and Gabe Pressman! Just in time for Hannukah. And, Chuck Scarborough wearing a cool hat. Where’s Sue Simmons anyway?”). Channel 4 could just do a simple gaphic with “Happy Holidays” on the screen, but instead they do this, probably for PR purposes and to show off local network unity.

This year, it’s Jingle Bells, but the gang looks less spirited than they have in previous years (was it too early in the morning for them, before they all got their morning coffees? There’s no bopping around the Christmas tree, just straight singing. Geez, Channel 4 – didn’t management send out the memo to perk up? There’s usually different versions of the holiday commercials (sometime with other songs), so maybe the next one has Channel 4 people looking more cheery.

Rain…

Bill Moyers is retiring. He expects to write a book on his experiences in the LBJ administration, but would otherwise try to get journalism out of his system. Hmm. It’s just weird enough with Tom Brokaw out of the picture. (well, ok, so I’ve watched Moyers more than Brokaw the last two years, but that’s besides the point). At least there are plenty of Moyers’ documentaries and reruns to enjoy.

The other night, the local PBS presented the tribute to George Harrison on “Great Performances” – really great stuff. The music was great, and watching all these old rockers and their friends and families playing and having fun, while honoring a man they all loved.

Happy Hannukah.

Tonight, ABC’s showing the perennial Christmas favorite, “A Charlie Brown Christmas” – commercial break right now. I didn’t realize this until before – this cartoon has the missing Peanuts character, Shermy (Charlie Brown’s sidekick before Linus and Snoopy prevailed) (Lucy has assigned the role of the shepherd for the Christmas play, and Shermy says, “I’m always assigned to be the shepherd…”). Poor kid hasn’t been seen in any comic strip or cartoon since…. (well, or so I’m guessing, since Shermy was usually in the 1950’s/1960’s editions).

Good grief, Charlie Brown. Wait until they get to the part where Charlie Brown gets the pathetic little Christmas Tree…

(by the way- this is a Tuesday, 12/7/04 post, contrary to the dating of the header…)

Thanks for the birthday wishes, FC.

Friday: “Star Trek: Enterprise” – well, I need to rewatch the episode, since I feel confused. So, T’Pol’s husband is a nice guy after all; Ambassador Soval is a good guy; Shran, the resident Andorian, really is NOT a nice guy – he’s more of a gray character who will do the ultimate Right Thing, when he sees the futility of the non-Right Thing to do (his torturing Soval was, well, torture – one kept wondering if it was really worthwhile for the Andorian to do that; plus, it was almost (not quite) reminiscent of the “Star Trek: The Next Generation” scenes where Captain Picard was tortured by the Cardassians (Picard’s infamous line: “I see two lights!”)); and what does the revolution on Vulcan mean for the humans? Hmm. (ok, time to get away from my Trek references now…)

Saturday: my sis and I checked out the latest exhibit, “Have you eaten yet?: The Chinese Restaurant in America”, at the Museum of Chinese in the Americas (MoCA). Cool little exhibit for a cool little museum (a very community based organization, located smack on Mulberry St. in Chinatown). The title of the exhibit – the greeting Chinese speakers use upon seeing/speaking to each other – the idea of how Chinese restaurants have been not merely livelihoods but also cultural brokers – non-Chinese Americans’ introduction to non-American cuisine and Asians in America. Plus, when we went, they had a video showing of this multi-part documentary, “Chinese Restaurants”; we sampled the episodes on the Chinese communities of Trinidad&Tobago and Cuba. Really interesting stuff.

Sunday: Watched the dvd of “Ocean’s Eleven.” Cool heist movie, with some laughs. George Clooney – see, I remembered him from back in the day, when he was on “Facts of Life” (yeah, really, he was! He was the handyman/obligatory male who never did anything to the girls on the show); felt perplexed about him as Dr. Doug on “ER”; avoided him as Batman (no, he is not Bruce Wayne/Batman, even if he tried real hard – and that is based on what little I’ve seen of the movie); thought he was a laugh in “Intolerable Cruelty” – but thought he was way cool as Danny Ocean. Oh, and Matt Damon did a nice job. Brad Pitt – almost subtle. Looking forward to “Ocean’s Twelve.”

Tonight, the local PBS showed the latest documentary on NYC history/sociology – “Walk Through Queens” with tv personality David Hartman and and historian Barry Lewis. Watched most of it – looked really good (this stuff makes anyone want to be a history walking tour aficionado – walking is good exercise and history’s good for the mind, and studying arts and architecture ain’t so bad either).

Yet another work week… [by the way, this is a 12/6/04 post…]

I watched that perennial favorite on CBS on Wednesday night – Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, with its 40 year old animatronic animation. I must be working too much at where I am, or else I wouldn’t get that nagging feeling that Rudolph could have sued Santa Claus for discrimination on the basis of his disability, considering how Santa initially kept telling Rudolph and his dad Donner that there was no way little Rudolph was going to pull the sleigh with his nose so bright. I mean, geez Santa, do you really have to be such a close-minded jerk back in the day? Three cheers for tolerance, dentist-elves, and the Toys from the Isle of Misfit Toys.

Ok, so despite all that build up, I actually missed the send-off for Tom Brokaw, getting home after 7pm, but I think I’ve covered most of the tributes. Tom Brokaw’s moving on, so let’s not get all misty eyed… (well, not me anyway). Slate.com has a curious assessment of the appeal of Brokaw.

Then there’s Slate.com’s interesting assessment of Alexander the Great – his appeal wasn’t about his sexuality or his supremacy or majesty – it’s that he made the known world known. I haven’t seen the Alexander movie, but I just don’t think that Oliver Stone and Colin Farrell were quite able to demonstrate that aspect of Alexander. How do you convey these ideas on the big screen anyway, not when it’s so easy for the lascivious mind to examine the other stuff about him?

Ed Levine writes for NY Times about hot sandwiches – the article’s so yummy:

…Dominican and Puerto Rican establishments in all five boroughs serve a roast chicken hero, complete with dark meat and skin stripped off the bone, yielding a winning combination of salty and sweet, crispy and tender.

A lechonería is an eating place specializing in pork in many forms, and terrific heroes and hot plates at the brightly lighted Sandy’s Lechonería in East Harlem attract everyone in the neighborhood, including construction workers, business executives and the teachers in nearby schools. When you order a roast pork sandwich, the sandwich makers cut the meat freshly off a roasted leg of pork and place it in a crisp hero bread. Once the bread is heated with the pork in it, they take it from the sandwich press and add lettuce, tomato and mayonnaise, as requested. Consider it a succulent cousin of the Cuban sandwich.

They make chicken sandwiches the same way, stripping the dark meat from a quarter roast chicken on the big cutting boards that line the front of the restaurant. When you order a pork chop hero at Sandy’s, they fry a fairly thick chop in the kitchen in back before sending it up front to be cut into the sandwich. In a particularly carnivorous touch, they put the bone on top of the sandwich, which means you can gnaw the rest of the meat off it.

It was at Milanes, a modest Dominican storefront restaurant in Chelsea, that I had the chicken sandwich that sent me into orbit. Grecia Milanes, who opened her doors in 1995, strips the flesh and skin from a quarter roasted chicken and fills a Latino-style hero roll, which she toasts in the sandwich press with the meat and skin before layering lettuce, tomato and mayonnaise on the sandwich.

The crispy skin, in combination with the other components, elevate this sandwich to near-mythic status. The sweetness of the mayonnaise, the gamy meatiness of the dark meat chicken and the crispy skin make for the Dominican equivalent of a Peking duck hero. [….]

PERHAPS the ultimate cross-cultural hot hero is the sandwich that has become known as a banh mi. In “Authentic Vietnamese Cooking,” Corinne Trang translates banh mi as a Saigon baguette. She writes that the Vietnamese “took this quintessential Gallic invention and made it their own by substituting rice flour for half of the wheat flour.”

In this country banh mi are made with an Italian hero roll or a French-style baguette. In Vietnam, said Michael Huynh (his nickname is Bao), the chef and an owner of Bao Noodle, at Second Avenue and 22nd Street, the classic banh mi filling is a combination of pork roll (essentially Vietnamese bologna), pork pâté, daikon and carrots pickled in vinegar and sugar, fresh coriander and mayonnaise. The sandwich is usually toasted, mayonnaise included, before the cool pickles and coriander are added.

Here Mr. Huynh uses a French baguette made by the Parisi Bakery in Little Italy, which incidentally makes an estimable meatball parmigiana from noon to 3 p.m. on weekdays. He fills the baguette with grilled chicken thighs, pieces of pork chop or shrimp marinated in fish sauce and lemon grass; pickled vegetables; and fresh coriander. He uses a Japanese mayonnaise, Kewpie, slightly sweeter than Hellmann’s. The result is a sandwich that is perfectly balanced, simultaneously hot and cold, sweet and savory, crispy and tender.

[Plus, Levine gives a lovely description of the classic Italian-American hero sandwiches:]

The old Italian neighborhoods of Brooklyn are home to many a fine hot hero establishment. In Carroll Gardens, John and George Esposito make an exemplary hero at the pork store bearing their name, a sweet Italian sausage sandwich topped with sautéed broccoli rabe and a schmear of fresh ricotta. I turn to it when my wife accuses me of avoiding green vegetables.

Brooklyn is also where the warm roast beef hero, made with fresh mozzarella and gravy, rules. I enjoy these scrumptious beauties at John’s in Bensonhurst and at Lioni’s in Dyker Heights. But the hot roast beef – and roast pork, too – sandwich of my dreams is served at Clemente’s, a little grocery and butcher shop in Gravesend. In the same shop he started working in as a 12-year-old, Clemente Aquilino makes everything from scratch, the roast beef made from the bottom round cut, the roast loin of pork, the mozzarella and the peppery and garlicky pork and beef gravies made from pan drippings. [….]

Ah, I can easily envy Levine. As Homer Simpson would say, “Mmm. Sandwiches…” Drool…
[edit – contrary to the header, I did not do this at 2:18 in the morning…]

So, I watched the end of NBC’s Nightly News and there was Tom Brokaw, saying, “See you tomorrow night…”

Okay, one more night, Tom (he’s supposed to sign off this week. Dec. 1. I think. I could’ve sworn that was it, man).

It’s a shame about Dan Rather, who’s going to step down from his CBS post effective March 2005. ABC’s Peter Jennings must be thinking that he’s getting a ratings bonanza as an early Christmas present (well, assuming more people are going to be watching him the next couple of months).

“Jeopardy” update – Ken Jennings finally signs off. I actually missed the episode, so I can’t make a first-hand commentary on it. So, check out the written stuff out there. There’s the Associate Press story of his run, by David Bauder, and the NY Times one by Randy Kennedy. I prefer the Times article, since Kennedy liberally used Jennings’ own words to discuss the reaction:

In the end, after all the mind-bendingly tough answers like Leif Ericson, Johannes Kepler, George III and Ecuador (the clue: “a Spanish dictionary defines it as ‘Circulo maximo que equidista de los polos de la Tierra,’ “) it was a plain old accounting firm that finally brought down Ken Jennings, the “Jeopardy!” champion, ending the longest winning streak in game show history.

Answer: Most of this firm’s 70,000 seasonal white-collar employees work only four months a year.

On last night’s show Mr. Jennings responded, “What is Fed Ex?,” while his opponent Nancy Zerg, a Realtor from Ventura, Calif., answered correctly, “What is H & R Block?” And so, after 75 shows, 2,700 correct responses and more than $2.5 million in winnings, Mr. Jennings – a software engineer from Salt Lake City who became a smiling, brainy pop-culture hero during his winning streak – finally put down his buzzer.

Yesterday, with his wife, Mindy, in a hotel room overlooking Times Square, Mr. Jennings, who taped the last show in September and has had to keep quiet about his loss since then, said it almost made sense to lose on such a mundane topic.

“I do my own taxes,” he said, grinning. “I would have never thought of taxes.

Kennedy ends the article with Jennings’ own words:

But for the next few months, [Jennings] plans to spend lots of time at home, where he will continue to read obsessively, speed through crossword puzzles and do most of the things he has always done. Except, of course, his own taxes. “H & R Block got hold of me and they’ve offered me free financial services for life,” he said, grinning as if he had just nailed a question on medieval horticulture. “So that I never forget their name again.”

Seriously, I had no idea that H & R Block employees essentially work only four months a year. Where does that leave the IRS? Hmm.

Work was tedious Friday. I held down the fort, but couldn’t escape that sense of boredom.

This week’s “Star Trek: Enterprise” – like I said earlier week – is there a reason why an Enterprise captain is always making history and changing the course of development of a society? (in this case, Vulcan) — or, to paraphrase Commander Riker in the pilot episode of “Star Trek: The Next Generation” – there’s something about the ship called “Enterprise.” Or, something like that. Why oh why Captain Archer is persisting in his effort…? Somehow, he’s the Chosen One, yet I feel like there’s a catch, there just has to be a catch to this. Plus, it’s kind of strange how Archer’s prejudice against Vulcans keep cropping up at the worst of times. But, Scott Bakula’s acting is still pretty decent stuff (always helpful to have beefed up writing).

Oh, and it’s funny how Ambassador Soval, the biggest pain in the neck Vulcan diplomat ever, has really grown to be an interesting character (the actor, Gary Graham, is pretty good too – his previous sci-fi tv acting work was in the FOX show, “Alien Nation”).

Plus, the villain Vulcan of the arc, V’las – well, apparently, he succeeds Soval as the Biggest Vulcan Pain in the Neck (or Pain in the Ass, to be more accurate). Eerily, his acting recalls his previous Trek work as Admiral Leyton, the nasty Pain in the Ass Starfleet admiral in “Deep Space Nine” who more or less took over Earth security on the basis that he knew best on how to protect Earth/the Federation from the enemies abroad. (and thus establishing the less-than-stellar view of Starfleet admirals in general, with the pleasant exception of Admiral Forrest on “Enterprise”). (Heavens knows, when that actor made his “Enterprise” appearance last week, I had the automatic thought, “Oh, this is going to be nasty. He cloaks his sinister intentions with a pompous respectability… It’s Deep Space Nine all over again or Star Trek: Insurrection…”).

Anyway, this particular episode of “Enterprise” had all the lovely references to the current events’ messiness (a.k.a., the War Against Terrorism, and the whole pre-emptive strike matter with Iraq and so forth). Very curious to see how this will all resolve… (if resolution will occur)…

Ok, enough of my Star Trek references, which are bound to fly over people’s heads. Go shopping this weekend. It’s good for the economy. (but not necessarily for your pocket book).