In Your Face East New York

New York Magazine recently ranked most livable NYC neighborhoods and Park Slope came in #1!


No neighborhood is the butt of more stroller jokes or the recipient of more anti-gentrification scorn. But any way you slice it, Park Slope is the very definition of a well-rounded neighborhood. Of the dozen categories we tallied, it falls just slightly below average in two: affordability (the average two-bedroom rental is $2,275) and diversity. In all other areas, it’s somewhere between above grade and superlative: It’s blessed with excellent public schools, low crime, vast stretches of green space, scores of restaurants and bars, a diverse retail sector, and a population of more artists and creatives than even its reputation for comfortable bohemianism might suggest (more, in fact, than younger, trendier Williamsburg). It might not be everyone’s idea of a perfect neighborhood, but statistically speaking (by a hair), there’s nowhere better.
http://nymag.com/realestate/neighborhoods/2010/65374/index1.html

As someone who has lived exclusively in this neighborhood since moving to New York almost 8 years ago I can readily agree. Rent is a bit pricey but many benefits outweight. Now if we could only get a good cheap Indian food place to open up.....

New York Awesome: Seven Rivers Indian Restaurant / I Love Getting Food To Go

On our way to our mainstay, the legendary cabbie fav, Punjabi Deli, we spied a new a new fast food style restaurant/buffet on East Houston (Almost directly across the street) called Seven Rivers Indian Restaurant. It's more a fast food joint but the space was super clean and bright. The sweets looked extremely fresh-  in particular the badam barfi caught my eye for next time. It's worth noting that Seven also offers non-veg options.This time around we got Gobi Pakoras (Fried/battered cauliflower pieces 5/$2). These were breaded in a delicious chickpea based flour. Despite being fried there was no trace of oil or greasiness. We also bought some Cabbage Curry which I'm very excited but am waiting till dinner time (more on this in a followup)

My companion and I always remarked how funny it is that there are 4 of our favorite restaurants (reviews forthcoming) all one East 1st street (hopefully we'll be adding Seven Rivers to this list as well):
Aussie Tuck Shop
Punjabi Deli
Himalaya Cafe
Tai Thai

New York Awesome: Park Slope, Brooklyn

I love my neighborhood in the Spring.

For the first time in what feels like 6 months, it's beautiful outside. We went for a walk alongside Prospect Park on down to the weekly (Saturdays) farmer's market at Grand Army Plaza. We picked up a turnip ($1/lb), butternut squash ($1/lb), and one shallot ($5/lb). I only know what to do with the butternut squash. The other two I'll need to find out a bengali kopi torkari recipe or a good American recipe for turnips.

On the way pack we stopped by the a legendary vegetable patty from Christie's on flatbush for only $2.25. Cutting over from the park we walked down 5th avenue, stopped at the park in front of the Old Stone House noshing on potato salad, macaroni salad and the patty. Life felts pretty good today. Big ups to Brooklyn

New York Awesome: NYAFF - Movie: X Cross

Finally caught a subway cinema film. The last one I saw was probably 4 years ago where I caught Takashi Miike's Ichii the Killer (who knew macabre violence on film could be funny?), Versus (zombies fortified with gangsters!), and the classic 'New Bollywood' movie Company.

This year I caught a fun thriller called X Cross. As with many of the New York Asian Film Festival movies, the flicks are influenced by b-horror, a strong sense of dark humor and ass-kicking, X Cross was no exception.

Plot Summary: Two young Japanese women go to a hot springs in a remote village to relax after painful breakups. The village however is run by a cult which chops the left legs of young women. Ok on paper it sounds silly but the film is highly entertaining. If you see the movie, you will get to enjoy: creepy inn keepers, psycho villain with a giant pair of scissors as a weapon, and shoutouts to the importance of having cellphones when in remote villages of Japan.

The New York Asian Film Festival is truly is one of the best film festivals done in the city - do yourself a favor and support it. It runs till July 6th.

Sad or Awesome #2

...Being drunk by 12:30pm on a Wednesday? The company was officially closed in order to catch the Manchester United versus FC Chelsea championship match this past Wednesday. We went around the corner to, where else? Nevada Smiths of course.

We got there right at noon or so and the top floor was already quite full. Turns out that at Nevada Smiths the Chelsea fans always go to the basement and the Manchester fans to the first floor. Not being a regular football watcher I had to decide who to root for based on sound reasoning:
1) The first floor consisting of 90% Man U fans smelled really awful
2) Chelsea appeared to be the underdog team (granted, not by much) being 2nd ranked and at the particular venue I was at had a much smaller showing.

Conclusion: Being drunk by 12:30 and very drunk by 4:30? I would have to say Awesome.

First 5k

Yesterday's weather was quite cloudy and cool with the clouds occasionally spitting at us. We left pretty early since its a bit of a hike from Brooklyn to Harlem (Riverside Park). Arriving right on time for registration (though haven't take a wrong turn or two) we waited about an hour for the official start time of 9am. Turnout was strong with a total of close to 300 registered. Thankfully it didn't rain at all during the run itself.

This was my first 5k mind you, so I'd set the expectation low. I'd hoped that there would be a good showing of portly folks who would surely be slower than I. Sadly, few if any of these people showed up. In fact, 99% of the people were in great shape. I was even more disconcerted by the various runners club jerseys. It was clear we were to be outclassed and outranked - and we where. While the dust the other runners left behind was indeed eaten and enjoyed by yours truly I definitely picked up the pace myself versus past attempts. I ended up finishing out at 35:15 which is an improvement from my loops in prospect park (generally 10 minutes longer on average).

Overall, I loved the event and am planning on taking part of several more 5k in the next few month. The point afterall is to better yourself - so it's not worth beating yourself up over not being in first place (at least not yet?)

Pre Run Foods: Banana, Coffee and home. Maplet Nut Clif Bar (in transit)

Best Post 5k Food to Eat?

Cannoli from Ferrara's of course.

New York Awesome #5: Riverside Trial Run + Foods

In a previous week we made it out to Riverside to get a sense of the how the park was setup because we'd heard how pleasant it was. To up the ante yesterday we ran the actual path for the Asha 5k. After hearing how hilly the park is, I have to say that the path the 5k will take place on doesn't look too bad. There was one hill we had to make past, other than that most of it ran nicely alongside the river. At this point, I'm not concerning myself with speed but rather endurance. I'm still planning on taking it easy this Thursday (lighter jog) to allow myself and taking Friday off entirely to allow decent recovery for Saturday morning.

After the jog, we thought it'd be fun to take the bus downtown which ended up turning into more or less an hour long saga. We got off around Curry Hill though and had a nice snack of Samosa Chat at the fantastic Indian place called Curry Express. They're quite friendly there and the food is superior and cheaper than some of the 'restaurants' around the corner. Not a romantic spot but a tasty one.

Post snack I realized that I lost my knee brace so stopped back again at Paragon. (Needless to say it was no longer on my knee when I lost it). Returning to the store gave a second to ask the question - is it supposed to be snug and cut off your circulation? He said yes.

Lastly, we had lunch at Big Enchilada where I thankfully made myself call it quits after 2 tacos though I could've gone for me. Also a great fast food joint near union sq (in an area with many

New York Awesome #3: DMV License Xpress Experience...

I'm brown - which means, if there is any slight suspicion, I am stopped in airports. And I must admit, I did give them suspicion. A few trips ago, I was stopped by a TSA guy who said I had been selected for a random screening....pretty funny right? Anyways, the guys begins to ask me many questions about where I live, what I do for a living. After meeting with him, he called, presumably his supervisor who repeated all of the same questions to me. They sat me down for a moment, walked away and came back with two police officers. They asked for the same questions a third time. All this stemmed from my still valid but faded Tennessee license. I had renewed mine for a 5 year period, meaning it would expire this year so I saw no need to renew (as I told the police officers: I hate the DMV). The ridiculous part is that the TN renewal is done in the form of a sticker which gives you a sticker featuring the expiration to paste to the back of your license. Needless to say, after removing and placing it back in my wallet hundreds of times over time (anytime an ID is required), the sticker got faded - as a result few people in authority positions - except bouncers in bars of course. As the cops told me, you have to surrender your out of state license within 30 days of residence in NYC and get an in-state one.

Note: I should note that the TSA guy was a dick but the police officers were actually quite nice. (Thankfully I had proof of local employment so they let me go).

Well, I finally had a chance to visit the DMV to get it done....and my conclusion is that, it wasn't that bad. I printed out the license change form from website. With that in tow, I got my ticket for the camera station. Camera guy was actually really funny and pleasant considering he was working for the government. With only three people ahead, I got the picture taken quickly. Next, I waited for my number to be called - the wait for this was about 20 minutes. My number was called and counter lady wordlessly processed my information. She then instructed me that my number would be called a second time for final approvals. (This portion was the longest wait). Last guy, examined my ID (you need to have your social security card and passport and past license if applicable), and took my TN license. He only said two things: 'that'll be $45' and 'you will receive your license in the mail in 2 weeks.'

Conclusion:
Given the reputation of the DMV, my expectations were quite low. That said, the camera guy was quite nice, the others said very little. I should be getting my license soon and I was out of there within about an hour and a half. I took along David Sedaris in case but it was needed. The visit could never be classified as awesome but it wasn't the expected torture.

New York Awesome

My normal bar of choice is 288 Bar on Elizabeth and Houston. During an out of town friend's visit however, I discovered a gem of a bar called Botanica. I'd walked by it and always assumed for some reason it would be a high end place inhabited by jerks. I'm happy to report I was wrong. First off, there is something inherently attractive about basement bars. I guess I harbor the hope that they are really opium dens in disguise, plus they feel secret, no matter how many other people are there concurrently. The happy hour is great and the bartenders oddly friendly. Most importantly, the crowd was agreeable. Note: My visits to the bar have been during the week.

I instantly felt comfortable on the well-worn stools. How comfortable you ask? So comfortable, I felt man enough to order a drink called the Ginger Yum Yum (simple syrup, fresh ginger, vodka and soda - it's refreshing, but you will absolutely not be able to have more than one). Thankfully though it wasn't presented in a martini glass.

New York Awesome: Day 1 (Continuation)

Like I was saying...

Fueled by the good times by the day's jog/walk (or jalk? wjog?) we decided to make a day of it. We'd built up a strong appetite and set out for one of our versions of comfort food: Thai. We discovered an amazing restaurant called Thai on Two. (Located logically on 2nd avenue between 11th and 12th). To preface, we were extremely hungry so most anything would've likely tasted good and basement restaurants/bars I'm predisposed to liking for some reason. Setting those two factors aside however, we did have a great meal. I tried the Garlic Pepper Chicken which was a generous portion of chicken with mushrooms, and onions. Lettuce, and odd thing I thought, was also a heavy part of the dish but gave a nice crispness to the dish. Since the dish has 'pepper' in the title I would've liked more spice, but after requesting some hot sauce - that made things perfect. My friend had Curry Fried Rice with Pineapple and Cashewnuts. For the first time in a long, long time we didn't want the meal to end - and that was prior to the consumption of any booze.

We regrettably left the restaurant (Can we get seconds? Is this neverending curry bowl? Apparently you're supposed to leave after paying your bill? Yeah, I'm scratching my head too). in order to walk off the lunch. We made our way to our traditional haunt - Tom and Jerry's also known as 288 Bar. As always the bartenders heavy hands brought delight to us and the other regulars.

Stumbling slightly around, but still amiable we got up the nerve to stop by the Angelika and Sunshine. Sadly, none of the movies out this particular week excited us so we were forced to have another drink at the relatively new place, the National Underground. The drinks were a bit pricier than hoped for but the pour was good; the bartender nice, and the space comfortable. I appreciated the rockabilly style decoration and the cowboy singer songwriter quietly playing in the corner. We're definitely going to give the place another go.

After the delicious booze we had once again worked up an appetite and in keeping with our 'new' stuff theme we finally tried Khushie. It's a fast food style Indian food place. My friend's Dal Makhani was a bit too spicy for her taste but is willing to do a rematch. My Chicken Kali Mirch though was fantastic and renewed my faith in getting meat dishes at Indian restaurants. Highly recommended.

New York Awesome: Day 1

Saturday was the best day ever on several levels.

-The evil weathermen consortium predicted rain but it ended up a gorgeous day. It's well known that movies are attended much more or rented more often when it rains so perhaps they're being bribed by the MPAA? (You heard it here first).

-We had planned an outside jog for the weekend so we used Saturday's weather windfall (pun intended) to do it. Our route was basically a run across the beautiful brooklyn bridge, alongside the westside walking path up to 14th street.

Our first time running across the bridge was well worth it, tourists notwithstanding. We then made our way westward through lower manhattan. I've never been a fan of the area except the few times we were around to do tourist stuff such as the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. For locals though I assumed it was more or less to be passed over. I was too quick to judge however. Running along the lower part of the city, I got to take in fantastic views of the water and the piers. As we inched our way up (5 miles is a lot of jogging/walking for novices) up we also took in the westside piers and views of the jersey water front). Because of the heavy breeze, you couldn't break a sweat if you tried. An unexpected surprise was that our run ended with Chelsea market - a great place for snacking.