November 30, 2005
Celebrity chef Daniel Boulud was at Macy's this afternoon to introduce his new cookware collection. Missed it, perhaps? In that case, don't miss the article in today's Dining In section about hiring him for a private dinner. He can "command upward of $2,000 a person and travel expenses." Yawn. (Full disclosure: I enjoyed a remarkable multi-course meal at his restaurant Daniel some months ago.) Hiring him to come to your trophy home to cook in your trophy kitchen? Well, this "has suddenly become the thing that everyone wants," star chef Thomas Keller is quoted as saying. Why? These two famous chefs operate some of the finest establishments in America. So why do you want them to come to your home? Because others have done it? Boulud says lately there is such a strong demand for it, and I don't doubt him. Because once you've got the most expensive stove(s), countertops, sinks, dishwashers, refrigerator(s), and fine wines, why obviously you've got to find someone to cook in your trophy kitchen, and it can't be just any average caterer. Perhaps you actually do cook in your trophy kitchen—bravo to you. But somehow, when I read of this Los Angeles couple that spent $500,000 for Mr. Keller and seven other chefs to "prepare a private dinner for his wife's birthday," that's when I have to set my foot down and say: vulgar. There can be no other word to describe it. Before you chop my head off or dice my fingertips for saying so, let's make it clear: I don't expect you to make a donation to Oxfam for your wife's birthday, to aid the starving in Niger, or even to donate a fraction of your enormous holdings to injured Iraq war vets' rehabilitation. Your money is yours to enjoy. But $500,000 on a dinner, no matter how famous the chefs...it is vulgar. (Full disclosure: I was invited once to a fantastic dinner hosted by famous chefs, but it cost a trifle and was for charity.) Somehow, it's not surprising that the gay couple photographed in the article are screenwriter/playwright, or that the L.A. couple spent a half-million dollars; screenwriters above all deal daily with masterful illusions and the art of artifice. (MGM's logo, you might recall, is Ars gratia artis - Art for art's sake.) But when does fine cuisine cease to be art? Precisely when it becomes such an elaborate Roman banquet.
Tags:
dinner, star chef, vulgar
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Posted on 11/30/2005
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November 28, 2005
A slice of real New York disappears with the fish market's move to the Bronx. The smells, the sights, the sounds (i.e. four-letter words) and 183 years of NYC fish history has headed north. The new market is beautiful, gleaming, clean (!!!) and second in size only to Tokyo's. So why am I sad? Maybe the nefarious and notorious corruption will penetrate the Hunts Point Market faster that you can whistle Dixie, but I think condos will take over the Fulton Fish Market faster than the stink of fish can be removed....I toured the Fulton Fish Market once at some ungodly hour in the early morning, and it was one of the most exciting tours anywhere. Why? Because of all the screaming going on--the Stock Exchange guys are tame in comparison.
Tags:
fulton fish market, hunts point
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Posted on 11/28/2005
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November 27, 2005
Guy crashes into 3 parked cars after drunk driving and thinks the cop is gonna let him off for just $5000 per car??? Don't ask where the $15,000 in cash suddenly came from either...most legit folks don't have that kind of dinero lying around the house in the weekend early morning hours...unless they prefer cash-stuffed mattresses to a Sealy posturpedic morning...BTW the driver didn't have a license, either:
Man charged with trying to bribe police officer with $15,000 after accident
NEW YORK (AP) _ A man tried to offer a police officer $15,000 to let him go after he crashed into three parked cars while allegedly drunken driving in Upper Manhattan on Sunday morning, police said.
The man, Flores Gomez, 27, hit the cars at the corner of West 192nd Street and Broadway at about 6 a.m., police said.
After he was arrested and taken to the 34th precinct, Gomez told the officer he would give him the money in exchange for his release, police said.
Police said the officer told his supervisor, who reported the alleged bribery attempt to the department's internal affairs bureau. Internal affairs then helped record Gomez repeating the offer, police said.
Gomez called an acquaintance, who brought $15,000 to the police station, police said.
Police said they were charging Gomez with driving while intoxicated, bribery and aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle.
Tags:
bribe, drunk driving, internal affairs, washington heights
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Posted on 11/27/2005
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November 26, 2005
Labor organizers formed a picket line in front of a Starbucks at Union Square on Friday, reports Newsday , and as you might expect, there were chants of "No latte, no peace," while one demonstrator was observed "dressed as a giant latte." (No word on whether it was a gingerbread latte to kick off the holiday shopping season.) So the International Workers of the World, a/k/a the wobblies, has got the National Labor Relations Board to schedule a hearing for February 7 in Manhattan. This island is obviously a good choice of venue to kick off labor grievances against the Seattle-based chain; as residents know, there is seemingly one Starbucks every 50 feet. Or as Newsday reports, at least 200 within 10 miles of downtown Manhattan.
Tags:
iww, national labor relations board, starbucks, union square, wobblies
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Posted on 11/26/2005
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November 20, 2005
Old folks write the travel section at the New York Times. That's my conclusion. What boring and stilted stuff. Let us dissect this week's tired coverage. Matt Gross has a cover story on To Be Young & Hip in Bangkok. Not. It's so not hip if he thinks all young Thais want 2 B cool by hanging out at Au Bon Pain and in front of Starbucks. Yawn! Bangkok has so many kewl cafés that are not American franchises. His food recommendations are lame. Ohhhh the Bed Supperclub...I was there when it opened three years ago. Yawn again. The Times also offers an online guide to "eating like a shark" in Bangkok by eminent portly gourmand R.W. Apple Jr. You could do much better looking elsewhere for recommendations.
Then there is an article Budget Lodgings, Minus the Austerity about how hosteling worldwide has improved. Hello? You're also three years behind here. Interestingly enough, for NYC's paper of record the author, Bob Tedeschi, doesn't note any of NYC's cool hostels in his article. Oh well. Good thing this website has heard of them.
Turn the page. An article Turning Into Sunrise Boulevard, about Abbot Kinney Boulevard in Venice, CA. Dude, I was on Abbot Kinney two days ago...they quote the moron owner of Equator books saying, "Three years ago you wouldn't walk from here to Lincoln Boulevard unless you had security personnel." Har har har....only if you were a white gazillionaire in a chauffeured Mercedes, dude...anyhow three years out of date seems to be a running theme in this week's travel section. I'm surprised the author didn't discover the 'Renaissance' of skateboard punks of Venice. Heh heh. This author, Janelle Brown, also seems to have missed one of the most amazing patisseries in America, JIN at 1202 Abbot Kinney run by Singaporean Kristy Choo.
Let's ignore the articles about why cruise web sites are so 20th century...we all know why...and proceed to the amazingly lame article about the Mission District in San Francisco: "Eclectic, Eccentric, Electric". Uhhh, grandma and grandpa, this is one of the most boring and worthless articles on the Mission ever written. Too little, too late, too uninformed, too dull.
Then comes an article about Santa Fe by Henry Shukman. Well sorry to namedrop and boast, but I was in Santa Fe a few weeks ago, and Henry obviously knows how to maximize his use of the expense account. But this is a soda-straw view of Santa Fe that's akin to going to Tokyo to review newe American cuisine. You can do it, of course, but who's your audience? Who's your daddy, Henry? Maybe R. W. Apple, Jr. I dunno.
Then we come to the BRILLIANT piece about Rome's PANTHEON on page 14. The NYT issued a correction today in the "A" section, because it unfortunately refers to the PARTHENON of Athens on the front page of the Travel Section: Oculus of the Parthenon, Rome. Oh man, must be all the proofreaders left for Thanksgiving vacation already. For the record, the Parthenon was designed by Ictinus and Callicrates and constructed from 447 to 432 B.C. That's more than 550 years before the PANTHEON was built by HADRIAN. Anyhow, enough history for today, we are discussing travel. The final article is titled Going to Oaxaca, and I won't even go there: No, I mean I would go to Oaxaca; I won't even go to the article, though.
Tags:
abbot kinney, bangkok, hostel, new york times, pantheon, parthenon, r w apple, rome, travel section, venice
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Posted on 11/20/2005
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