May 30, 2007

Water Wars: Bottled v. Tap, or WHAT?

Tap v. Bottle: Two Giants Vie for Title of King of Hydration

All this hoopla over “tap versus bottled” water is getting on my nerves. And it’s getting on my nerves for a very good reason: Mario Batali. I have nothing against Mario personally. He seems like a nice enough guy, and he is fun to watch on Iron Chef. But the article in today’s NYT Food Section really rankled me.

Bottled-schmottled

Yes, water is the next big thing, the red-hot liquid commodity from which millions are being made. Perrier and Evian have known it for years, but slow thud-thinkers that we are – doh! – we only recently became mad for “Designer Water”. How many ways ARE there to dress up WATER: H20 – the stuff of life on Planet Earth, the thing we seek on Mars but pollute right here where we live?

Bottlers say: It’s healthier! (v. costly); Tap-Drinkers Say: It’s got a huge Carbon Footprint (v. stupid)

A Movement Afoot

So, those restaurateurs who purport sustainability and local supply chains and who have long been on the so-called edge of sustainability – not to mention sanity – have been pooh-poohing bottled water for quite some time. Serving filtered tap water in re-usable carafes is the cool-thing-du-jour. (Mind you, that’s what we used to all do, back in the day.) Yes, out on the West Coast, home of the goddess Organica, tap water has been red-hot for a few years now. What about right here in the gustatory capital of the Free World? What are we doing? Evian, displaced by Fiji, which itself is now pedestrian, has many, many competitors. Marketing agencies have gone into overdrive trying to get us to choose their precious brands. And then there is Kona Nigari, perhaps the most expensive water bottled, although Bling H20 costs more due to the bling embedded in the bottles. We are only just now waking up and saying, "Huh?.

A Big, Fat Foot Weighs In

So now, Mario Batali’s partner at Del Posto, Joe Bastianich has proclaimed,

“Filling cargo ships with water and sending it hundreds and thousands of miles to get it around the world seems ridiculous. With all the other things we do for sustainability, it makes sense [to serve tap water].”

WHAT? Del Posto is hardly the Poster Child for Sustainability. How can this kind of comment be made when Mario Batali is serving up lunches for 6 at the bargain price of $100,000 (YES, $100K) to the “privileged” among us? I am sure those “privileged” few will be more than happy to take a cool bath in Fiji Water right before their Humpback Whale fillets and Condor Egg Tartlettes. Conspicuous consumption on this grand a scale need not be bothered by the pedestrian notions of sustainability or environmental concerns, and certinaly not the provenance of water.

Awash In Our Narcissism

I guess it really should not rankle me so that on the one hand we can cry out for sustainability and the environment and on the other hand cry out for the kind of exclusivity offered by a 100K$ lunch (for 6 people). But it does. And here’s why: It seems that we the hoi polloi must take care not to squander resources and supply because the privileged among us somehow deserve that great big slice of the pie. We will stick to our tap water and our local seasonal greens and root vegetables, while they will fly halfway round the world (passing on their way precious airfreight of endangered species), to have their $100K lunch. They deserve it, as much as the mirror deserves applause for having favorably reflected them.

Nauseating.

Tags:   conspicuous consumption, Del Posto, H2O, Joe Bastianich, Mario Batali, sustainability, trends, Water

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Posted on 5/30/2007 ( Permanent Link )
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May 25, 2007

Neighborhood Eateries: Reasons to Love Where You Live

Elsewhere in the City, there are neighborhood joints that, while not roots & quirky like the Hideaway, do fill a neighborhood niche.

Klee (Chelsea 200 9th @ 22) and Uva (Upper East Side 1486 2nd Avenue & 77th) are two examples.

First, Klee. The chef, Daniel Angerer, has had some amount of success in the city (at Fresh – which made him a darling with the James Beard Crowd back in 2004). Klee, however, is his first solo flight (although with his partner/co-owner/fiancée Lori Mason) in the actual owning of a concept. Klee (named for “clover”, a motif seen in the cheery tile work) is a fusion of Austrian and New York expectations. Austrian food is often conflated with German food, to be expected since there is a common language and some border sharing. But Austrian food is lighter and shares some Swiss and eastern French notions of flavor & texture – a fact which held Angerer in good stead when he was at Alouette (Upper West Side); certainly he has quite a pedigree. New York, where almost anything goes, can be a demanding place to open a meadow-like expression of continental Austrian charm, especially in Chelsea, where every little detail will lead to snippy gossip. In this sense, Klee has a lot to offer to the neighborhood: the food can be dreamy, continentally elegant, savory; the venue is nicely appointed and cheery; the service can range from awesome to awful. It is a great place for the local crowd to sit and watch themselves, for escapees from Meatpacking to sit and enjoy conversation, and for friends getting together to enjoy a neighborhood they can longer afford to live in. But Klee is not a destination place that will bring in herds of grazers, nor will it knock the socks off the roaming gourmand. It is stylish comfort food, a perfect addition to the neighborhood.

Next, Uva. Anyone who wants to serve the complainers who haunt Upper East Side eateries gets a big Gold Star. The collective whining that goes on at surrounding tables can ruin a good meal. At Uva, there is not a lot of opportunity for the usual barrage of nit-picking. First, there are a lot of young couples who frequent the place, more interested in each other than in berating a waiter or questioning a vegetable. Second, there are so many items on the menu that the guest is immediately disarmed and can never say, “there’s nothing I really want”. The family owners (of Lusardi, nearby) have hired Claudio Meneghini of Friuli (northeastern Italy), and some basic love of proscuitto and truffles informs much of what comes out of the kitchen. It is Italian comfort food, spun with some modern threads, and it is made with the kind of love that can only come from years of wielding a wooden spoon. A real benefit is the wine list, which definitely represents Italy in all its regions. Another plus is the host, Massimo Lusardi,who maintains a certain level of grace and control in a neighborhood where complaining is a sport. Like the parent, this child is bound to become a local favorite, one they will return to over and over again because they had a good time despite themselves.

Tags:   great wine list, Klee Brasserie, neighborhood eateries, northeast Italian, Queens Hideaway, Uva Restaurant New York

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Posted on 5/25/2007 ( Permanent Link )
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May 17, 2007

Food & Poetry: The Biscuit Spoken Word Series Continues! Stop by!

The Biscuit Spoken Word Series continues with a Special Selective reading. We are proud to provide a welcoming nest for the Marsh Hawk Collective.

SUNDAY MAY 27TH

6 PM

BISCUIT BBQ

230 5th Ave (at President Street)

Brooklyn, NY11215

Phone: (718) 399-2161

N, R to Union

The Marsh Hawk Collective Selective: Four Poets Reading

Join us at Biscuit for an early evening reading of new & published works by selective poets from the Collective:

Burt Kimmelman

'Century Gothic'; ">Stephen-Paul Miller

Rochelle Ratner

Corinne Robins

A Word from the Collective:

“Marsh Hawk Press takes its name from the strong, independent, wide-ranging bird found everywhere in America's open spaces, and not too close to solid, built-up ground. Our books present forms and sensibilities that have assimilated modern and post-modern traditions but expand from these without political or aesthetic bias, outside of "schools" yet with affinities to the visual arts. The books are jury-selected and carefully edited in consultation with their authors.”

About the Selective from the Collective:

Burt Kimmelman:

Somehow

“Burt Kimmelman is a poet who obviously admires the clarity of classical Chinese poetry and strives for it in his tight syllabics and in his shifting images of light and dark. In doing so, he finds what is luminously transcendent in the routines of everyday life.”—Harvey Shapiro

Stephen Paul Miller:

Skinny Eighth Avenue

Skinny Eighth Avenue is poetry of the future. But it’s grounded in a wildly flexible strength of language, childhood, open-ended enthusiasm, concrete connections between Judaism and experimental poetry, post-World War II “totems” of holocaust and computer and suburb, meta-modernism, the socioeconomic, Iraq war, “George Whatever Bush,” and senses of love and the divine. Miller’s poetry interacts dynamically with Noah Mavael Miller’s startlingly observant and lovely illustrations.—Maria Mazziotti Gillan

Rochelle Ratner:

Balancing Acts

“Rochelle Ratner explores the forgotten corners of one’s life, the bits of nourishment one finds but is not given, or is given only to hunger for more... The effect of this narrative in prose poems is unsettling, as if the cobwebs in the corners of our own lives had been pulled aside.”—Jessica Treat

Corinne Robins:

Today's Menu

Illustrations by Joyce Romano

“'Art, Art, Art!' With exuberant repetition Corinne Robins begins Today’s Menu, her best book of poems so far. These poems whisk readers on a fast-clipped journey through the world orf visual art from the nineteen sixties to the twenty-first century, displaying delight and depth of gratitude at the life-saving nature of the image. She buttonholes her favorite painters and sculptors the way Blake questions his Tyger, firing up ekphrasis, and burning each poem bright.”— Molly Peacock

Tags:   Biscuit BBQ, Brooklyn, Burt Kimmelman, Corinne Robins, Marsh Hawk Press, poetry, Rochelle Ratner, skinny eighth avenue, spoken word, Stephen Paul Miller

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Posted on 5/17/2007 ( Permanent Link )
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