MyStrands Tue Feb 06 19:03:12 CET 2007 Tue Feb 06 19:03:12 CET 2007Tue Feb 06 19:03:12 CET 2007 Yep. I've succumbing to the commercial success and demand of my insatiable readers. From here on, I've decided to solely concentrate on gastronomic delights and despairs: recommendations, reviews and recipes after this hiatus of silence (translate to writer's block and disenchantment with good eats).


But after a splendid experience with the NYC Winter Restaurant Week 2007, I've decided to pick up the writer's quill again and make myself and my stomach heard. It's an amazing thing this NYC Restaurant Week thing. Exclusive restaurants around the city get packed all week and all day for two weeks while the gourmand masses gorge on 25$ and 35$ prix-fixe lunch and dinner menus, respectively. Coming up...how I got into a cat fight with a snooty-nosed lush at the $$$$$ the Mercer Kitchen in Soho. Read more here

So here's to the new quackers 3Rs column: Recommendations, Review and Recipes...Momma, I'm gonna write about food.

]]>2007-02-06 18:53:12.337871 You must have the tarte tatin au tomate which is their house speciality as well as the duck and then top it off with the creme brulee. It's the BEST I've ever had and I'm sorry to say that in this case it wins hands down over crema catalana.

Go to Paris and go to this restaurant, during the week and find yourself a nice little table against the wall and take it all in.

]]>2007-01-10 01:33:58.362374 The handset was just a question of time.

]]>2007-01-09 16:38:53.04335 I have another rant just so I can get a good night's rest.

Today I was on the subway fully immersed in this week's economist pg 37 and this foul man started saying these inappropriate things to a girl and her mom who were minding their own business. He appeared to be interested in the girl and offered her a lollipop and then proceeded to say even more inappropriate things to the girl and then to her mom who was politely trying to ignore him. I felt bad for her and it made steaming mad that this man (in his right mind or not) was able to get away with what qualifies as harassment. No one said a word and I said to myself "stop being such a chicken shit and say something". So I blurted out in an angry voice, "hey why don't you leave her alone?!?" and I asked the woman if she was okay.

That did it. The guy lost his focus on the girl and mom and glared at me (and of course I'm like, yeah, I know why people on the subway mind their own business because it's full of crazies, but that's expected in a city of 8.1 million people crammed into 321 square miles). He started yelling at me and got off the train as I did. After he had insulted me, I guess because I was in the wrongdoing, he walked away. A younger guy then came up to me and told me that I was right to speak up.

I guess what really bothered me was that I almost didn't speak up because I was afraid of the consequences. I almost didn't stand up for my ideals or defend somebody who getting bullied on...you know justify it by saying it's their problem. Me and the 50 other people on that packed train were probably all thinking the same thing about this jerk and wondered if we should do something...

]]>2007-01-09 04:51:32.067052 As Micheal Pollan points out, humans are unique to the proverbial question of what we have for dinner. "The Omnivore's Dilemma: A natural history of 4 meals" by Michael Pollan is my latest before bed book. It's not the most relaxing read but it is quite compelling and fascinating. He basically breaks down the development of food from the industrial to the organic to alternative food to actually foraging it in the days of the hunter-gatherer. Quite an interesting spin and the first section on how corn or Zea Mays is the most common constituent to what we eat makes you think twice...are we 99% corn? It's a commentary of many thoughts, social, political, historical. Your dinner will never look the same.

]]>2007-01-08 23:31:10.009201