SYP Says

Dumpling Trip to Flushing, Queens

NYC is one of the best places in the world to explore (and, some would say, the greatest city in the world). Most people come to NYC and just see Manhattan, but some of the most interesting places are in the boroughs. That's because the majority of NYC's 8.3 million residents actually live in Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island, or the Bronx, and are from all over the world, creating ethnic enclaves that are fascinating to visit. You can always tell at any given time which ethnicities are well represented in NYC by which languages are on city signs. For example, the current subway notices are in English and translated into four main languages--Spanish, Korean, Chinese, and Russian.

I know I'm lucky to live here (and even luckier to have left and been able to move back), so from time to time, I plan on highlighting a different part of NYC.

Today, we're going to Flushing, Queens. According to Wikipedia, NYC is home to more than one million Asian Americans, greater than the combined totals of San Francisco and Los Angeles, and the highest total Asian population of any U.S. city, with nearly a quarter of the nation's Asian Indian population, 15% of all Korean Americans, and the largest population of overseas Chinese outside of Asia. Over 40% of these Chinese live in Queens and many say that the Chinatown in Queens is now larger than the one in Manhattan.

Flushing, Queens is a neighborhood I have (embarrassingly) never been to. To get there, you take the 7 train to the end of the line and you'll be downtown. It has approx 200,000 people, 44% of whom are Asian. Two of the largest ethnicities are Chinese and Korean, so it's no surprise that the food is really great there. When it looked like I'd have a reason to go to Flushing, I was very excited. :)

My husband is a Tae Kwon Do student and instructor. As a result, he has a few aches and pains and his master recommended he go to his acupuncturist in Flushing. Great excuse for a dumpling excursion!

In preparation, I mapped out a few places to visit. 

In the end, we ended up at two Chinese restaurants and one Korean grocery store with plans to visit more often. I would have taken pics of Flushing itself, but it was pouring rain and snowing while we were there. What you need to know is that it is very crowded, many of the restaurants are cash only, and most of the signs are not in English, so it really does feel a bit like you have travelled to another country (until you pass by the all-pervasive souvlaki cart).

Nan Xiang Dumpling House

This unassuming restaurant often has a waiting line, but we were lucky to get in right away due to the bad weather. Because we knew we were making another food stop, we stuck to ordering the two dishes Nan Xiang is best known for -- scallion pancakes and soup dumplings.

The scallion pancakes were unusually light and crunchy, but the real stars were the soup dumplings. There is an art to eating these. I put one on my spoon with a bit of soy and chili sauce and then make a small hole in the dumpling with my teeth. This allows me to easily slurp some of the yummy soup that is inside while some of the hot steam escapes.  Then, I eat the rest of the dumpling in one large bite. Heaven. 

Biang

Next up was a visit to Biang, the team that created Xi'an Famous Foods. This is a much different restaurant than Nan Xiang--it has been suitably hipsterized with its wooden tables and sleek decor. It has been written up quite a bit lately, so the clientele was mixed. At 4pm on a Saturday, we were still able to get a seat, but by 5, there was already a line, so come here during an off time unless you don't mind waiting.

The dishes everyone raves about here are the noodles and the lamb dumplings. We were too full to eat the noodles this time, but we tried a few smaller dishes and they were all good. I actually liked the spicy cumin chicken skewers the best. Usually, I don't eat red meat, but because everyone raved so much about the lamb here, I had to give it a try. The lamb sliders were almost like a Chinese gyro. The bread was not fluffy and sweet like you might find with a Chinese bun (say at a dim sum restaurant for example), but instead was more like a plain flatbread with a bit of crunch. The spicy and sour lamb dumplings were savory and tasty, although quite rich. 

 

 

Goowha Market

This specialty Korean grocery is smaller, but closer to the 7 train, than the other Korean markets in the area. It is very clean and bright with a broad selection of Korean ingredients, as well as produce and a good seafood and meat counter. Excellent prices too. We got a few things and hightailed it back to Brooklyn. I definitely recommend coming here if you are on foot, rather than trekking all the way to H Market.

Looking forward to next time! 

 

 

 

Graffiti in Williamsburg, Brooklyn

I just started a new little project over on Tumblr called GraffitiBurg. Once a week, I'll post a photo of graffiti from my neighborhood in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

I'll still post here from time to time (and hopefully more often than I have been), but not about graffiti. :)

Check out my first graffiti pic!

Heartbreakers: Closed NYC Restaurants RIP

Since I left NYC a few years ago, I've become obsessed with reading The Shutter and Eater NY's ongoing Status Closed list. Many of my faves are still around and of course I always find new places to love, but with the economy and NYC's ever-rising rents, the number of long-time eateries that have bit the dust seems to be on the uptick.

I am a huge foodie--some might say I am a bit of a food snob. :) Mind you, I'm not highfalutin'. I love dives as much, nay more, than I love Michelin stars. What I take umbrage with is the crap served in many restaurants. They do a disservice to the ingredients and the cooking process. So many great local, often inexpensive, usually independently-run places to eat--where hard-working people are putting their soul into their food--yet customers flock to restaurants that are just churning out mediocrity. It boggles my mind. (And no, I'm not against restaurant chains--they have their place (road trip!) and like most things in life, some are better than others.)

SoCal has great restaurants too, but it's harder to get to them just because the area is so much bigger and everything's spread out. Besides, after only a year, I don't have the kind of attachment I do to the countless places I've eaten in NYC. I've built up so many great memories over the years and this is a brief tribute to all those places I've lived and loved. Even when I first started working in NYC right out of college (I still don't know how I survived on my first salary which was $17,000 before taxes!), I scrounged up enough money to eat at the tastiest places I could, finding all of the best bargains and up and comers. Many of the places I've listed below, I literally frequented for decades. RIP--you will be missed. The loss of these all make my heart hurt a little.

1) Florent: 24-hour French diner. Meat-packing district. Clubbers. Transsexuals. 4am frites. Nuff said.

2) Empire Diner: The classic, iconic NYC diner with the EAT sign. Closed after 35 years.

3) Comfort Diner on 45th street: This was the first Comfort Diner in NYC and it opened right across the street from A&E Television Networks. I ate countless late night dinners here after 14-hour work day after 14-hour work day trying to build my little A&E and The History Channel online store into something special.

4) BB Sandwich: The only place I ever liked a steak sandwich.

5) Miracle Bar & Grill: One of those great NYC gourmet bargains--fantastic Southwestern/Mexican food, teeny and cute, inexpensive. Bobby Flay's first job as a chef was here.

6) Zoe: My go-to post-shopping rest stop in Soho for years. California cuisine, great brunch, and wood-fire pizzas.

7) Etats-Unis: French wine bar with great food and strangely, they also had fantastic guacamole and chilaquiles. One of the few places I really liked on the UES.

8) Vong: Jean-Georges Vongerichten's classic. When it opened in 1992, this French-Asian Fusion restaurant was an innovation and I always felt super-special eating fancy businesses lunches here back when I was in my early '20s and totally broke. :)

9) El Rey Del Sol: I will miss being able to lounge in the hidden 14th street backyard garden with a margarita and sun shining on my face.

10) Bright Food Shop: My first NYC apartment was in Chelsea and right from the beginning I loved this crazy Asian/Mexican fusion diner and their moo-shu burritos and awesome corn pancakes. Next door, they had a take-out Mexican gourmet food shop called Kitchen, sadly also now gone.

11) Mi Cocina: Where I had my first molé!

12) Moondance Diner: I still remember going here after dance class one Saturday to meet my boyfriend and his parents for lunch. I felt very "Fame" in my little leotard and leg warmers strolling down 6th Ave. Yes, this is the diner that was in the Spiderman movie. Apparently even that was not enough to save it from the death knell of NYC real estate--the inevitable condo building.

13) El Cid: I really loved the old school tapas and sangria here. It was dark and cave-like and fabulous.

14) Chez Brigitte: The best French hole-in-the-wall ever. There were only 11 countertop seats and the windows were always steamy. This restaurant was in the same West Village location for FIFTY YEARS before they closed recently. When I was broke, this place always kept me going with hearty, made-to-order food like chicken fricassee and rice, and a friendly, but gruff atmosphere. 

A few bits of good news though: Pink Tea Cup, the 55-year old West Village soul food restaurant, was saved by fans early this year from what seemed to be sure death (albeit in a different location around the corner from the original spot). Long live their fried chicken & sweet potato pie! Zucco, Le French Diner is still hanging on even though its owner and proprieter died of a heart attack earlier this year. Keep on trucking--you were my favorite new find right before I left NYC and I want you to make it! And Mappamondo, an Italian restaurant I used to go to in the West Village that closed 11 years ago, is back open on 11 Abingdon Square. Hard to believe it's back after such a long time, but that's NYC for ya. Never say die.

Finally, a small personal victory. Thé Adoré, a charming French-Japanese sandwich shop in the West Village that I went to regularly back in the '90s, is still open. I have not been in many years now and had forgotten it until I started writing this blog post. I was worried that it had gone by the wayside, but it's still around and hopefully thriving. As much as I love NYC, it has pushed out a lot of what makes it unique over the years (hey, shoot me, I was living in the East Village back when you actually tried to avoid Tompkins Square Park) and Thé Adoré is one of those places with real character that helps keep NYC my most favorite city in the world. Now get out there and support your local restaurants!

Back to NYC April 2008

A couple of weeks ago, (the Pope &) I spent 8 days back home in NYC. I was in town for Customer Experience Council meetings, but I took some vacation days so I could enjoy being back in the city with my friends and my old life. Believe it or not, this post will be sans action shots because my Blackberry doesn't have a camera (yes, I'm a loser) and my camera was on the fritz. I think my friends were relieved as I've been on a bit of a tear the last couple of years. Everyone worries about getting stuck on my blog doing things they'd rather not remember. :) Warning: This is a very long post!

The first half of my trip, I stayed with my friend, Karen. Now that she is divorced from TOAD (see pic at left), she is so much happier which makes me happier, of course. Her partner in crime, David, came over to hang my first night in town--he and his family were the inspiration for one of my all-time fave shows, Six Feet Under. No surprise--he is hysterically funny.

We left him to check out his lovely new apartment (long story involving a dead man and his dog) and made our way to meet Karen's new BF for dinner at Etats-Unis Bar, a slice of the West Village on the Upper East Side. They have an eclectic casual menu focused on fresh, seasonal ingredients, that is much different from their more formal restaurant across the street. Don't miss their spicy guacamole and date pudding for dessert!

Sunday in NYC always, always starts with brunch. We chose to go to Morandi, the new rustic Italian trattoria from Keith McNally, the clever man who brought us Balthazar, Pastis, and Schiller's Liquor. We started with fried artichokes with lemon and then I dug into poached eggs over fava beans, artichokes and escarole. We were SO full, but couldn't pass up ricotta fritters for dessert. David took one on the road with him for his first trip on the Ikea bus. Although he did not buy any furniture, he did get several of their infamous blue bags!

Karen and I were now fueled up and ready to shop til we dropped. We hit a variety of shops in Nolita, including one of my favorites, bag (formerly called shoe, now up the street), where I found the perfect summer yellow purse, and we took a quick sake break at Chibi's. I had great success in Soho too at Bloomie's downtown and Max Studio. We stopped off at Te Casan, a very cool shoe store that is design and fashion-forward, focused mainly on limited-edition shoes, such as Natalie Portman's new shoe line for vegans. We had dinner at the exotic, Thai-fusion restaurant, Kittichai. Karen was craving their chocolate baby-back ribs and although I hadn't been to Kittichai in a few years, I did remember how beautiful the interior is and had a faint memory of delicious cocktails, so who was I to complain.

Monday was all about pampering myself. I slept late on the Aero Bed which was surprisingly comfy, played with Lily & Max, sipped coffee, danced around, and before I knew it, was a scant 15 minutes away from being late for lunch. I cabbed it down to L'Impero to meet Tara, a recruiter I used when I worked at A&E. I hadn't seen her in a long time and it was so nice to catch up. She's now heading up Jobplex at DHR International, one of the largest HR firms around. I had been hearing about this restaurant for years and it didn't disappoint, although the setting is much more formal than I expected. I started with an appetizer of sardines, buffalo mozzarella, roasted red peppers, and pesto. It was a lovely combination--a bit salty, sweet, and creamy. At lunch, you can get half orders of pasta, so I ordered Sardinian saffron pasta with crab, sea urchin and fresh tomato. It was the best pasta I'd had since I left NYC two years ago. I walked around town and then ended up at Sol Spa for my Korean scrub & massage appointment. (For those of you who haven't been paying attention, here is why I love Korean scrubs so much.) Met David and Karen for drinks at Lucy at ABC (one of my all-time favorite stores) and then off to The Modern for dinner.

Genius NYC restaurateur, Danny Meyer, did a Council call earlier this year I unfortunately missed. He was going to be speaking in person at the Council meetings though and as part of that, we got an email from Phil at the beginning of April saying we should book reservations for one of Danny's restaurants through his personal assistant and be prepared to give feedback. I chose The Modern at the MOMA since I'd never been and Phil highly recommended it.

We were in the dining room and by this point in the night, a bit on the rowdy side. I had just gotten my scrub, of course, and Karen and David couldn't stop touching the back of my neck. I have to admit it was smoooove. We had also had enough to drink that merely saying, "He-llo? Helloooooo? Hellooooooooooo?" to each other in a funny accent had us in stitches. The food was amazing though--sophisticated with a very light touch and we had the best time. And it was more than enough--I kept reading reviews that said the portions were small, but we didn't find that to be the case. In fact, there was dessert after the dessert course--cute little bon bons--and when David dropped one of the yummiest ones on the floor, they brought us an entire new tray! Even with our...um...boisterous behavior, Dino, the assistant manager of The Modern, welcomed us warmly and said he would see me on Wed at the Rainbow Room dinner later that week. As it turns out, he actually did remember me which was quite impressive, I thought, given the number of people he sees every day.

Tuesday brought a bit more shopping, lunch at Won Jo, one of my favorite restaurants in Koreatown, and eyebrow threading at Perfect Shape Threading Salon (seriously, if you have never done this, do it today--it is cheap, quick, and your eyebrows will never look better). Met a bunch of the old A&E crew at the Flatiron Lounge and then met two friends for dinner--Mary, formerly of HBO, now of MAINE(!), and Sarah, formerly of BabyCenter.com, now of Snapfish.com. Now that Le Tableau has closed (which I am so, so sad about), I figured Lucien would be a good spot to go. It's a perfect place to have fun conversation with friends and enjoy bistro fare--fish soup, salad, frites, wine. Afterwards, I met a friend at the Brandy Library (see pic at left) in Tribeca for a swanky nightcap. You can choose from over 900 bottles of spirits--an amazing selection. Ignore the sign on the outside claiming it's full. I strolled right in and got a comfy seat and it really wasn't all that crowded. I think they just do that to keep the riff-raff out (clearly, they failed in my case).

Wednesday it was back to work in the afternoon, so I spent the morning checking out of Hotel Stavisky and checking into the modern boutique Hotel QT. (How could I not choose to stay in a NYC hotel that has a swimming pool in the lobby? Plus, the beds here are amazing.) After our meetings, we had the Council's Annual Copernican Awards Event and Dinner at the Rainbow Room. At one point, I was sitting at my table and I heard someone yell my name "S-O  Y-O-U-N-G"! I looked up and there was Dino from The Modern! I was so surprised he'd remembered me. Great guy and so friendly--he is perfect for the job he has.

A bunch of us went out afterwards and went to chill at Tillman's, a bit of Harlem in Chelsea with a vibe I really loved. Can't go wrong with Billie Holiday, classic cocktails, and one of the best grilled cheese sandwiches ever (get the French Onion one!). It's a bit hard to find--it's on the north side of the street at 165 26th between 6th and 7th. There's a doorman. Be nice and you won't have any problem. :) Marie & I stayed out a little longer, making it to Happy Ending for a drink (it's not what you think--this former Chinatown massage parlor is now a dance spot) and then the 24-hour meat-packing-district staple, Florent, for late-night frites.

Thursday was another full day of meetings. Afterwards, Councils 1 and 3 went bowling at Leisure Time Bowl, the bowling alley at Port Authority. The beer and pizza weren't great, but the company was, and furthermore, I bowled an awe-inspiring 76. Woohoo! So, no, I was not "Obama-bad." And then it happened. I was forced to go karaoking for the second time in my life. Several of us from Council 1 who will remain nameless to protect the not-so-innocent convened at Sing Sing, an East Village karaoke bar on St. Marks Place. We got a private room and spent hours doing truly unforgettable renditions of everything from The Cars' "Good Times Roll"  and The Human League's "Don't You Want Me," to "Puff the Magic Dragon," "Baby Got Back," "London Bridge," Iron Maiden's "Run for the Hills," "You Don't Bring Me Flowers," "Ring of Fire," "Electric Avenue," "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)", and my personal shining moments, Guns N Roses' "Sweet Child O Mine" and Foreigner's "Waiting for a Girl Like You". I have never laughed so hard in my life. And who knew "Islands in the Stream" was so tricky?

Friday...had to be up bright and early. Considering the night before, it was tough, but I prevailed. I had gnudi at The Spotted Pig to look forward to, so I made it through the day and then met Keith around 9.  David and Karen joined us there later after seeing a play called "A Catered Affair"--NOT recommended btw. I stuffed myself with not just gnudi, but other delights as well, including a delicous duck egg with sauteed ramps and the always fabulous banoffee pie. Their site has a full menu. And as proof that my gnudi obsession has not only gone global, but affected my friends at work now, apparently Keith was in a business meeting in Australia when in the presentation, they brought up my blog and pictures of us having gnudi at The Spotted Pig. Pretty funny stuff. (My friends know how much I love the gnudi, but for those of you who don't, here are all of the posts I've written on the topic.)

On Saturday, I met my long-time friend Michelle for brunch at Alice's Tea Cup on the Upper West Side, hung out at Central Park, and then went down to the West Village. We stopped in at Corner Bistro, one of my all-time favorite places in NYC for a McSorley's. It was so nice to spend time with her. Then it was off to Grand Central to go up to Goldens Bridge for *my very first Seder*. Much more on this in another post, but suffice to say, I had gefilte fish (slightly sweet), asked the Four Questions, and sang in Hebrew! It was very special. Given it was my last night in the city, I just couldn't go straight home afterwards, so I went to my favorite jazz bar, Smalls, and enjoyed saxophonist Marcus Strickland doing his thing.

My last day (sniffle) was spent checking out and then meeting Karen, her new BF, Randy, and David for brunch at Cafe Sabarsky, the Viennese Kaffeehaus in the Neue Galerie. The Pope, whose schedule had been matching mine pretty closely all week (I go to Westchester, he goes to Westchester; I go uptown, he goes uptown), once again shut down the area near where I needed to go. The Popemobile reminds me strangely of the clear plastic box David Blaine trapped himself in when he suspended himself from the Tower Bridge in London several years ago.

Anyway, back to Cafe Sabarsky. I had my luggage with me and at first they wouldn't let me in. After my luggage was searched and locked away in a bombproof room (OK, not really), we figured it all out and I was able to enjoy a lovely two-hour brunch that included crepes with smoked trout and horseradish cream, and wiener melange one of the best cups of coffee ever with the funniest name. Apparently pronounced "veener" not "wiener," our server guffawed with laughter every time we misspoke. Seriously, he actually said to us "That never gets old." At least he admitted that I was in good company since he said Jake Gyllenhaal made the same pronunciation gaffe. The food is very good here, but it's the pastries that really make people drool. We had two--Sabarskytorte which is a dark chocolate and rum torte and some kind of Quark cheese strudel. What a sweet way to end my trip.

The best part was on the way to Cafe Sabarsky, my cab driver asked if I was going to the airport afterwards. I said I was and did he want to take me.  I needed to leave at 1. He said yes, I will be here at 1. Whoa! Let me just say that this never happens. Cab drivers in NYC never pre-arrange to come get you, because they never need to. So now I have something else to thank the Pope for! 

Pink Tea Cup's Sweet Potato Pie

One of my favorite restaurants in NYC is The Pink Tea Cup (42 Grove Street between Bedford & Bleecker). It's been around for over 50 years and is known as the first soul food restaurant in the West Village.

I've spent several Thanksgivings there and with Turkey Day coming up, I thought it would be fitting to post the recipe for their sweet potato pie--the best in the world! (The rest of the food is wonderful too, although not exactly healthy.)

I have great memories of this place, especially the time someone put on a neverending Led Zeppelin song at 8am on a Sunday morning. This isn't that kind of place. :) The cook came out and pulled the plug to the cheers of the patrons and the waiters.

Please, if you're in the West Village, stop by, have a slice of pie, and put Ray Charles on the jukebox for me.

2 lbs. yams
1/2 c. butter
1 t. cinnamon
1/4 t. ginger
1/2 t. salt
1/4 t. nutmeg
2 T. white sugar
1 c. brown sugar
3 large eggs, separated
1/2 c. of orange juice
1 T. grated orange rind
1/2 c. evaporated milk

Peel and boil yams until mashable. Add butter, spices, salt, sugars to hot yams. Beat until light and smooth. Beat egg yolks until light and add to mixture. Stir in orange juice, rind and milk. Beat egg whites until stiff and fold into mix. Pour mixture into unbaked pie shell. Preheat oven to 350 and bake 35 minutes, or until pie puffs up and is firm in the middle. Cool on the rack. Add whipped cream.

Have a great Thanksgiving. For more of my NYC trip tips--where to go and eat, click here.

Spring NYC Fix 2007

A couple weeks ago, I went back to NYC for some fun with friends and family before a two-day business trip in San Francisco. I hadn't been back since January and it seems I become surly and whiny if I don't get my Manhattan fix every 4 months or so. I've only been in Ashland for a year and 3 months--seems like I've been gone from NYC at least twice that long. Not sure what that means, but anyway...here's a quick recap of my trip.

Day 1: A lost day--Got up at 4amPT and due to a cancelled flight and 3 hours sitting on the runway at LAX (only to get in the air and have the airline run out of food before they get to me), didn't arrive at my friend Karen's until 11pmET. Missed dinner with friends I haven't seen since I left New York. Major bummer. Me after a long day.

Day 2: VIE (Very  Important Errand)--hair appointment at Miwa Alex. Then lunch with Beth at Le Pain Quotidien in ABC on Broadway at 16th St., one of my most fave stores in NYC. Then, what luck! Megasale at BCBG! Off to pick up Karen and go to the Pegu Club, a tropical upstairs lounge in Soho, to meet Mary from HBO and Marty from Bluefly. Love them. Dinner with Karen, my friend from Warner Music Group, and Keith from Hitwise at Cookshop (try the rabbit and pizza) and then post-dinner beer and gnudi at yes, you guessed it, The Spotted Pig. I know I am obsessed, but I can't help myself. Celeb sighting there was pretty good as usual--Anthony Bourdain (hey, not only a famous chef, but a fellow Vassar alum!) and Steven Schirripa who plays Bobby Bacala on "The Sopranos."Alas, the two of them weren't sitting together as that would've made a better story.

   

   

   

Day 3: Breakfast with Karen and then off to Facial Index, my favorite place to get glasses in NYC. It's in Soho at 104 Grand St. Don't miss it--they are handmade from Japan. Met my mum and aunt for lunch at a Chinese/Korean place in Koreatown on 35th St. Shopped, etc. until dinner at Bao Noodles for tasty, quick Vietnamese and then an intriguing, avant-garde Noh based on Yukio Mishima's "The Lady Aoi" at the Japan Society which is currently celebrating 100 years. The play started out with a naked pregnant woman walking extremely slowly across the stage...need I say more. Seriously, I'd recommend you go see this, except that it was a limited run. Read the play though--it is known for being one of Mishima's most passionate works and is based on one of the oldest novels in human history,“The Tale of Genji” written in 1004AD. Still hungry, so around 11pm we went for Korean fried chicken which is all the rage in Seoul and now NYC. We're recommended a place called Bon Chon at 314 5th Ave (upstairs) which in typical Korean fashion is not a dive, but a sleek, full-on club and bar with pounding dance music. Absolutely yummy--light and crisp--not the kind of fried chicken you'd eat with waffles, but perfect with a beer late night after bar-hopping.

   

Day 4: We hit the Guggenheim for a couple hours before lunch. Hadn't been in a few years and I'd forgotten how much I love this museum. Much more intimate and manageable than the MOMA which has become a zoo ever since it reopened. The Guggenheim has an impressive permanent collection of Kandinsky and Chagall--I'd forgotten that too. They also had a fun interactive exhibit with a disco floor. Off to lunch at Sfoglia, a new Italian on the way upper east side getting raves these days, then some sightseeing and a 3-hour appointment at my favorite Korean bathhouse for a vigorous body scrub and massage, Sol Spa (read why I love this spa so much here). Dinner with my friend Phil Terry who took me, my mum and aunt to Jewel Bako. Well-done, innovative food, but portions tend to be on the small side, so if you're hungry, I'd go with the omakase like I did. Late-night Smalls run. Nice for a quick single-malt and half a set, but too crowded to hang for long.

   

Day 5: Brunch at one of my favorite places for breakfast, Public, on Elizabeth between Prince and Spring. Great tea-smoked salmon and spinach benedict, bloody marys, pastries. This after sneaking an absolutely delectable cream-filled bomboloni from Falai Panetteria on the Lower East Side. More shopping and then...prep for more eating! (Sensing a trend here?) Dinner with Karen and my family at one of my favorite bistros in NYC, Le Tableau at E. 5th Street between A and B. My mum and aunt went back to the hotel and Karen and I went in search of some late-night revelry. Boy, did we find it. We end up at Mo Pitkin's House of Satisfaction and Karen's about to sit at the bar. I hear live music in the back and go to check it out. What do I find? Karaoke night! I am on the serious karaoke vibe these days. Find out why here. We enjoyed lovely renditions of "I Touch Myself," "Jeremy," and "Sweet Child O' Mine"...believe me, I had a tough time restraining myself.

    

Day 6: Lunch in Koreatown with my family and then off to San Francisco and back to the grind. Had an interesting plane ride. Remind me to tell you about it sometime.

Click here for the download of my first trip back to NYC--even more jam-packed and whirlwind-y than this one!

Click here for classic NYC songs that make me miss home.

Tonic NYC Closing

Was looking at my blog traffic (such as it is...although now higher thanks to that lovely Wall Street Journal article!) and noticed that someone got to my site by Googling "tonic closing down nyc". I actually didn't know Tonic was closing after almost a decade, but I had mentioned it in a post last August about one of my trips back to NYC and I guess that got spidered.

Anyway, I'm sad to hear it, not because it was ever a regular haunt of mine, but because it was known as a home for experimental music and there are too few of those. The Lower East Side is becoming just another spot for high-rise condos and seems to be slowly losing the places and vibe that I love.

I guess Tonic is still continuing on in a way--although the location on Norfolk Street is closing today, Melissa and John, the owners, will be presenting new music in existing venues like the Abron's Arts Center located just a few blocks away.

In a small world kind of thing, Melissa knows Mike Sanzone who is a good friend of Jeff's (and whose art I recently blogged about) and another friend of Jeff's, Heather Greene, a pianist and songwriter who we used to see perform at Joe's Pub in the East Village. Heather moved to Scotland last year and we hear her songs are starting to catch fire in Europe where she's on tour (go, Heather!). Anyway, I've never met Melissa, but I do wish her luck keeping the spirit of Tonic alive.

Yankees vs Red Sox (no contest)

Opening day. I groaned when I heard Carl Pavano would be the starter, and he didn't exactly impress today, but it worked out in the end. Recorded the game and watched The Yanks beat Tampa Bay 9-5 when I got home from work. Happy to say that not only did A-Rod score, but Boston lost their opener. (Keep it up, Schilling!) No Bernie Williams--he was missing from Opening Day for the first time since 1991. 161 games to go...

Typepad highlighted a great blog recently called Yanksfan vs Soxfan. Love it.

Go Yanks!! :)

Mike Sanzone, artist extraordinaire

Mike Sanzone, a friend of ours in NYC, is having his first gallery opening at 55 Mercer Gallery (55 Mercer St., 3rd floor) until March 24th. Check it out if you're in town or go to his site and view his art. He was inspired during a recent trip to Japan and these 202 works were the wonderful result. Herewith a couple of pix from the opening. Last summer, Mike put me up at his place in the Bronx. Click here for a post and pix of the fun that ensued.

http://www.michaelsanzone.com

Classic NYC Songs for the Displaced New Yorker

      

Well, I did it. I survived an entire year living outside of NYC. (Somehow it feels longer?)

In honor of my 1 year anniversary at Musician's Friend and Guitar Center, and, maybe even more importantly, as a displaced New Yorker, here are my top 12 NYC songs...one for every month I've been away. A Best of 2007 bonus!

I love this picture--it shows two of my favorite buildings in New York.  My last apartment was just 4 blocks south of the Empire State Building on 30th Street and 5th Avenue.

1. "Shattered" by The Rolling Stones
2. "Take the A Train" by Duke Ellington
3. "Crosstown Traffic" by Jimi Hendrix
4. "New York City Serenade" by Bruce Springsteen
5. "Tango in Harlem" by Touch and Go
6. "Walk on the Wild Side" by Lou Reed
7. "NYC Ghosts and Flowers" by Sonic Youth
8. "New York Baby" by Leona Naess
9. "The Only Living Boy in New York" by Simon and Garfunkel
10. "Goin' to New York" by Jimmy Reed
11. "Downtown Train" by Tom Waits
12. "The Luckiest Guy on the Lower East Side" by The Magnetic Fields

BONUS TRACK! "Detachable Penis" by King Missile ... This song unfortunately isn't available on iTunes (except in a bizarre karaoke version), but click here to hear it on Amazon from the Happy Hour album. It depicts St. Mark's Place in all its grimy glory.