Per Se and Pizza

Saturday was My Better Half's birthday. To celebrate, Fargo and Caroline came down from the Boston area, and we four went to lunch at Per Se.

Per Se is the New York outpost of restaurateur Thomas Keller, famous for the French Laundry in California. Like the French Laundry, Per Se is known for both stunningly good food and stunningly high prices. (How high? Well, this lunch definitely was the most expensive meal i've ever eaten, by a big margin, and might be the most expensive meal i ever end up eating -- until i get a crack at El Bulli, that is.)

So, how good was it? I, unfortunately, was suffering from a crazy headcold that was perfectly timed to suppress my sense of smell on Saturday, despite megadoses of Sudafed. And yet, even being able to smell only faintly, this lunch was some of the best food i've ever had.

Saturday evening we four retired to the Brooklyn manse along with Fargo's brother Jared and his fiancee Marni. We made pizza and salad, so as not to overburden our already well-exercised palates. A good time was had by all.

Monk Fish Liver

Friday was Keith's birthday celebration, at the East Village sushi outfit Jewel Bako. The food was amazing, beating out even Kitsho, and the restaurant was a perfect combination of New York going-out elegance and East Village nonchalance -- i.e. classy without stuffy.

Keith and i both asked for the tasting menu (thankfully this restaurant doesn't force the entire table to follow along, like some). Everything was crazy-good, and the shining star was three quarter-sized slices of monkfish liver, which i had never eaten before. AM (of the fruit sushi) had recently mentioned the monkfish liver at Taro Sushi, but we hadn't made it there yet, so it was a treat to find it at Jewel Bako. The liver is pure silky smoothness, like a sushi pâté (which is how everyone seems to describe it), and without the strong organ overtones that make cow liver so awfully vile unappealing. More than three little slivers would have been too much, though i would still have eaten it.

Ball and Snowman

Our friend Brian is a printmaker/publisher over on the little island. Last night was the print release for a piece Brian did with artist Todd Hebert:

Todd, it turns out, grew up in North Dakota, as did i. Brian asked whether we had lived anywhere near each other -- not really.

Curry Leaf

The New York Supper Club met again last night. Well, OK, it's really just My Better Half and myself, and friends Jess & Mike and Keren & Adam. This month Keren and Adam selected Curry Leaf, which was yummy, inexpensive (for Manhattan), and relaxed.

The Shins

Last night My Better Half and i met up with friends Abby and Josh at Empanada Mama before heading over to Terminal 5 to see the Shins. Once again Josh picked a winner on the restaurant front: we all enjoyed our deeleeshos empanadas.

Terminal 5 is (i think) a new venue in New York, a bit larger than the old ballrooms that are my favorites. The sound quality is a little sub-par, especially when it gets loud (though still much better than, say, the Middle East). The Shins put on a fun show as always. Highlights: a slow(er) version of "New Slang"; an encore cover of Pink Floyd's "Breathe".

Happy Birthday To Me!

Yesterday was my birthday!

My Better Half gave me two great birthday presents. First, a Monda sculpture and photograph ("From a Silk Purse") that i've loved since i first saw it at Keith's first New York show. Second, knowing that i love Indian food and that we don't eat it as often as i might like, MBH did some legwork and found Spicy Mina in Flushing, where we enjoyed a wonderful meal with Keith & Beth, Karin & Alex, and Josh and Abby. I took home a good birthday haul, too, including one of the first bottles of rye whiskey made in New York state since Prohibition.

Na-Nu Na-Nu, Shabu-Shabu

Our friends Eling and Dane were in town last night, so My Better Half and i met them for dinner on the little island. We foolishly had never eaten anywhere in the Korean strip on West 32nd Street, so we popped into a place called Pho32 & Shabu, which (as its name and location imply) serves up Vietnamese pho and Japanese shabu-shabu for a primarily Korean crowd. Thankfully the menu is in both Korean and English.

Now, i know that many of my faithful readers have been eating shabu-shabu since they wore swaddling clothes, but this was my first time, so i was pretty excited. It's got some of the same make-your-own-meal appeal (or lack thereof, i suppose, for some) as Korean barbecue: you get a bowl of broth simmering on a hotplate, some very thinly sliced raw meat, and a big plate of veggies, bean curd, and fish cakes to play with. It's a very fun thing to do with a small table-full of friends -- an "interactive meal" as Eling described it -- and a bit easier on the stomach than, say, an enormous fondue.

The verdict: yums.

Beach Party 1910

I've been enjoying the old-timey photo-blog "Shorpy" for a while now. They often feature photos of New York City from the early 20th century, and it's amusing to check out what's changed and what hasn't.

Here's a shot of beachgoers at Coney Island, 1910-ish.

Last Week

Sunday: flew into San Jose.

Monday: first day on the new job. Lots of introductions, admin stuff, getting set up on the tool chain. Lunch: Indian buffet! Lunch may be the only redeeming factor for an office physically located in Silicon Valley.

Monday night: went with a small group of colleagues and SO's to see "You Tubed" at the Climate Theater in San Francisco, wherein the troupe reenact various silly YouTube videos. Highlights: The Laughing Yogi and the finale, "I Wanna Love You Tender". Dinner: really good Thai.

Tuesday: second day of work. More paperwork. Getting into the rhythm of things. Lunch: Vietnamese (pho). Dinner: burritos in the Mission with friends Dave & Marlene. Mmmmm... California burritos...

Wednesday: day three. Finally ditch the part of the tool chain that's been giving me the most grief and is not strictly necessary. Lunch: more pho (different place).

Wednesday night: dinner with friend Phil at Kitsho in Cupertino. Sushi chef and owner Howard serves up better sushi than i've ever had before. Also: real grated wasabi, which i'd never tasted before. Wow. If you like sushi and you're ever in that area, sit at the counter and take whatever the chef gives you.

Then, the red-eye back home.

Thursday: stopped by the gallery for the Anthony Fisher opening. Still exhausted from the red-eye, so My Better Half had to attend Eric's customary post-show dinner alone.

Saturday: MBH & i saw "Love Sucks", a "punk-rock musical" co-written by friend Matt's brother Stephen. Kind of a cross between Hedwig and Grease. Lighthearted and fun. Visited briefly with Matt & Amy (down for the weekend from the Boston area) and some of Matt's/Stephen's family.

Sunday: MBH & i visited a couple Open House New York sites with friends Josh & Abby; i wish i had been paying better attention sooner, there were some very interesting things we could have seen, including the substation at our subway stop in Brooklyn.

We met up with Matt & Amy & Harry the welsh terrier for an early dinner, and then called it a night.

Blissful Unemployment, Day 16: The Nosebleeds, Revisited

On the 16th, My Better Half and i returned to the land of enormous street numbers to visit friends Ann and Frank, who live near Columbia. (Ann is studying urban planning at Columbia, and Frank is a chemist there.) We walked around their neighborhood for a bit, and saw that Columbia has a very nice campus -- a respite from the metropolis, but not apart from it.

Dinner was at a friendly neighborhood place that Ann and Frank like: Pisticci. Figs stuffed with goat cheese and roasted -- uff-da, that's good eating.

Blissful Unemployment, Day 13: The Nosebleeds

Our friends Brian and Lindsay lived in our Brooklyn neighborhood for a while, but then moved back to Washington Heights, where they had lived previously. On the 13th, My Better Half and i finally hopped into Keith and Beth's car to head up there, and the six of us had dinner in B&L's new apartment up near four hundred eleventy-ninth street. Their new place is nice and roomy, and they're well on their way to having it fully furnished. A good night was had by all!

Blissful Unemployment, Day 11: Yay Airports! Part the Second

Let me tell you, you haven't lived until you've had a sort-of-job-interview-slash-business-meeting at an airport. This fellow Dmitry, who is the Vice President of Something at the Silicon Valley outfit, wasn't there on the 7th and wanted to meet me face-to-face. He had a layover at John F Kennedy International Airport, so we met there and talked over lunch in the food court. Dmitry's a nice guy.

I'm a little concerned, though, that willingly visiting JFK three times in the span of a week may be a sign of mental instability.

Blissful Unemployment, Day 6: Serrated

On Thursday the 6th i finally went to see the Richard Serra show at MoMA, first thing in the morning. Early on a weekday morning is the ideal time to visit the museum, which is great if you're unemployed. (Though not if you're broke -- $20, ouch!)

The focus of the show of course is the main gallery of gigantic steel sculptures, which are amazing. I'd seen several of Serra's sculptures in this vein at Dia Beacon and Gagosian, but it's always a pleasure to see them again and again -- especially in a museum setting, where even the teenagers who normally wear "i could do that" sneers are enthralled.

For me (and, i assume, for most of us) the materials and curves evoke naval vessels -- but i feel like these pieces can be appreciated and enjoyed by anyone, anywhere, without requiring any awareness of the history or vocabulary of contemporary art. Some of the spaces created by the works feel like temples or grottoes of steel rust.

Another gallery held a retrospective of the massive (but smaller-scale) sculptures Serra created throughout his career, largely made of big lead plates. I hadn't seen any of these in person before, but i was less enamored of them -- probably one should start here and move on to the ginormous steel pieces after.

The one piece in this section that completely blew me away was the 1967 "To Lift". I kept coming back to it on several passes through the gallery, and each time it almost made me laugh out loud at how much it packs into the pure simplicity of its presence. It really is the immediate physical evidence of a single bodily action of the artist, a raw artifact that is its own description, an object that is exactly how-it-was-made and nothing else. It melds the aesthetics of both mathematical curves and the human body and its scale in a way that i, at least, have never noticed before. It must have been an awesome thing to see in '67.

"Youngsters: Observation Changes Everything"

The opening for Keith's new show "Youngsters: Observation Changes Everything" is this Friday at Posey Baker, 7 to 9 pm. Everyone who is not there will be considered square.

Another Busy Weekend

The Ides of March was My Better Half's birthday, which we celebrated with friends Keith and Beth, Brian and Lindsay, Karin and Alex, and Abby and Josh; the fun started at Kasadela, and then we moved the party to Ben & Jerry's to sample Stephen Colbert's new ice cream, "Americone Dream". MBH brought in a good haul this year, but the winner (in my opinion) was this gigantic, crocheted eyeball made by my sister:

Friday was a quiet dinner at home.

Saturday i made MBH a birthday breakfast, featuring Eggs in the Basket (which a nearby brunch spot calls "Toad in the Hole" -- wikipedia disagrees), accompanied by one of MBH's favorite brunchy cocktails, Bellinis! Proper Bellinis, too, not some stank mix with peach schnapps.

MBH's parents came to town Saturday afternoon (with a birthday poundcake), and we went back to the little island (which i like to call Lisland) for the evening. Dinner was at Steak Frites, which was OK. (You'd think a place that called itself "Steak Frites" would build its menu around a streak frites to wow a schlub from North Dakota, but as Sharmila says, you'd waste a thought. The tuna tartare was very good, though.) Then we traipsed across Union Square to see "Be by Mayumana", a percussive/musical dance/acrobatic performance along the lines of Stomp and Blue Man Group (or so i've been told; i haven't seen either of the latter). We all had a good time and were quite impressed with the crazy stuff those dancing kids can do onstage.

Sunday afternoon we all took a short tour through the Brooklyn Botanic Garden (just around the corner from our house), then MBH and i saw her folks off and went back to Manhattan to meet friends Jess and Mike. We had a nice dinner at Palacinka (a pressed sammich with merguez, goat cheese, tomato, and olive tapenade -- mmm!), then MBH and i had a drink and listened to some music at Toad Hall before heading home. We both wish Toad Hall was closer to home, but you couldn't pay us to live in Soho.

Taboon

My Better Half and i get together with friends Jess and Mike and Keren and Adam for dinner on the town about once a month. Last night: Taboon. The "married sardines" -- two sardines butterflied and baked together with garlic and cilantro -- was fantastic, and no one else at the table would try it, so i had them all to myself. My heraime was also quite good: halibut baked in a spiced tomato sauce with couscous. For dessert, MBH couldn't resist the ice cream, and i couldn't resist the shredded halva on top. Mmmmmmmmmm.

Fun With Science

Yesterday was the first Sunday in March, which means it was time for Roald Hoffmann's Entertaining Science Cabaret! The presenter was Herb Meltzer, who talked about the role he and others have played in the development of atypical antipsychotics for the treatment of schizophrenia. (The talk was fascinating, but a bit over the heads of most attendees, i think.) Act II was The Amygdaloids, a four-piece bluesy-country-rock band that plays "Brain Rock" (originals and covers), a kind of Electric Company/Weird Al/neuroscience blend.

After the musical set, Dr. Meltzer got back on stage for a short conversation with John Nash, which sounded exciting but didn't really go anywhere -- though once freed from the iron grip of PowerPoint, Dr. Meltzer became a much more engaging speaker.

Of course, in addition to being a hot Greenwich Village performance space, the Cornelia Street Cafe also has delicious food, so four of us (My Better Half, my mom, my brother's father Todd, and i) stayed for dinner. Mmmmm, boudin blanc!

Sundogs

My old home-town friend Justin is in town, doing a few days in New York and then Boston along with a couple of work friends, Mark and Kim. My Better Half and i met up with them last night at Le Zie, a comfortable little Venetian place in Chelsea. The food was good as usual, and it's always fun to see New York through newcomer's eyes again (even though we're far from old hands ourselves). Then a drink at a bar nearby, then back to their hotel, passing by the various over-crowded pubs on the way... Why does everyone have to go out on a Saturday night?

CharlElie

Last night was another opening at Galerie Mourlot, where My Better Half works. Apparently this fellow CharlElie has been a big-time music star in France since i was in short pants. Who knew? Anyhow, he now spends at least part of his time in New York and paints and sculpts and what-not.

Upon arrival the small Galerie was packed to the gills with French speakers. Not being fluent, i hung out with friends Gerard and Toni Ann and discussed whether CharlElie was the Elvis Costello, the Lou Reed, or the Jerry Garcia of France. None of us had heard his music, so we were shooting in the dark.

After the show MBH and i got to tag along to dinner with the artist and gallerist Eric Mourlot and his wife Charlotte, along with various other hangers-on. The venue was Le Bilboquet, not the kind of place we (MBH & i) typically pop into, but they do make a mean steak tartare. Here's Eric (left) and CharlElie (right):
And an awesome picture of MBH's hand:After dinner we two split a cab back to Brooklyn with Eric's architect friend Doug, visiting from Baltimore, and Doug's architect friend (and fellow Brooklynite) Edmund (Edwin?), and chatted about their kids and stuff. Once they were dropped off, the cabbie referred to our neighborhood as "the dark side of the park", which made us laugh. And, finally, bed time.

Pizza Time

My Better Half loves loves loves loves loves her some pizza. She was working late last night, and didn't feel like coming home to her bumbler half's reheated vegetables, so we rendezvoused at Lil' Frankie's in the East Village. They make some fine Italian-style pizza, worlds away from the two sad-sack delivery joints near our home.

I think we eat at Frankie's almost as often now as when we lived a few blocks away.