1) Hummus Place – So my mom will come visit me in NYC every now and then. Recently she came to help set up my new kitchen with flatware and pots/pans. Mom stuff. Anyway, each time she comes, she begs me to take her to a good falafel joint. Usually we do sit down dinners and I tried explaining to her that most of the good falafel places involve standing in line and eating the food while on the go. It’s just not your typical mom/son meal when you don’t see each other that often.
I recently went to this new middle eastern place called Hummus Place and they had great falafel and awesome hummus AND they allow you to sit down. There is one of them that is maybe a 15-20 minute walk from my apartment. So on my mom’s most recent trip to NYC, I told her we could go there. Now I am probably the fastest walker in all of NYC so when I say 15-20 minute walk, that is at my pace. In the 15 degree windy weather, at mom’s pace, we finally made it to Hummus Place. We sit down and are still shivering even though we haven’t removed our coats. We are given a menu and I can’t find falafel anywhere on it. Upon further examination, I see that one of the appetizers is crossed out with black marker. They decided to take falafel off the menu. Awesome.
2) Do you know your apple juice? – So last grocery batch, I got some Red Jacket Orchards apple juice. It has 47% RDA Vitamin C per serving. It is 100% juice. I compared this to Martinelli’s apple juice which only has 2% RDA Vitamin C per serving. It is also 100% juice. What the hell? I feel like I have to be amongst some of the more intelligent and perceptive consumers but I have no answer for this.
3) New Years Eve - I am not anti-NYE or super pro-NYE. I think it’s a sham holiday but one that you get to party on and spend with a lot of your friends. I think a good analogy would be Thanksgiving is to your family as NYE is to your friends. With that being said, I think calling family/friends at 12:05 to wish them a happy new year is pretty ridiculous.
4) Surf Lessons – I want to learn how to surf. I tried unsuccessfully in Costa Rica a couple years ago. I am taking a 2.5 week trip to Australia in a week or so and plan to get it down. Anyone have any advice on good places in Australia to go surfing? I’m going to be in Melbourne. Also, general surfing advice would be great.
5) Halloween – This got put off for a while but I think if you had to pick one holiday that best represents a city, I think Halloween does it for NYC. The adult-like atmosphere and people watching opportunities Halloween creates perfectly typify some of NYC’s unique qualities. If you aren’t from NYC but plan to make a trip there for Halloween, I would recommend skipping the parade and instead making it out to McDougal St./Bleecker St. This is where the true debauchery happens. While it will get crowded, unlike NYE in Times Square, it’s a fun crowded as you get to gaze at ridiculous and awesome Halloween costumes and see people go nuts.
6) Cooking Rice/Quinoa/ETC. – This advice is for you guys who don’t really cook often. Don’t listen to them when they tell you to go 2 parts water, 1 part rice. They are lying. If you do this, the water will get soaked up and evaporate and your rice will be slightly crunchy. Now, you will have to go through a really annoying process whereby you add more water and keep cooking and some rice will get cooked and some won’t. I would recommend 2 1/2 parts water, 1 part rice. It might take a little bit longer but you won’t get stuck with crunchy rice.
7) Football picks – Baltimore +3.5, GB +2.5, NYJ +2.5, Philly +4. Let’s go road dogs.
January 7th, 2010 at 4:02 pm
wrt 2)
There are two possible explanations. One is that the first people fortify their product with vitamin C, which is pretty common, even in “100% juice” varieties. The other possibility is that the process for the second product from apple-to-shelf doesn’t involve rigorous refrigeration; vitamin C is a relatively unstable molecule and the concentration of it in a solution will lower substantially after a few days of sitting around at room temperature.
It’s the same reason you are better off eating frozen veg than “fresh” veg if the fresh stuff has been sat around for more than 3 days.
January 7th, 2010 at 4:13 pm
In Sydney, check out Bondi beach for surfing. If you’re up in Brisbane then take a ride down to Surfers Paradise [beach]. Thats where I took my surfing lesson and its a really fun town around this time of year.
Also, definitely do a harbor cruise in Sydney and if you’re hellbent on seeing a Kuala or Kangaroo then hit up Steve Irwin’s “Australia Zoo”.
January 7th, 2010 at 4:13 pm
and wrt 6)
I tend to use somewhere around 1.75x parts water to rice – but you have to wash the rice thoroughly first (to remove the excess glutenous powder that will thicken the water and give the rice a stodgy flavour) to get good results. I suspect that you are cooking it without a lid on your pan, and keeping the rice on the heat after the water is boiling? I find it very hard to get consistent results with this method. If this is the case, you could try using a little less water and following this method:
1) wash rice thoroughly (I probably use at least 10 litres of tap water for a cupful)
2) place in pan and cover with 1.5-1.75x volume of water,
3) add 1-2 tsp tumeric (if yellow rice is desired),
4) bring to boil (I use a gas hob and a thick copper based pan, if you have a ceramic hob or a poor quality pan you will need to stir the rice occasionally to prevent it from sticking and burning to the base),
5) once the water is boiling gently, remove from the heat, cover the pan and leave for 15 minutes, you may fluff the rice with a fork after 5 minutes to get a lighter texture (you can leave it for up to an hour and it will still taste very fresh),
6) there should be no water to rinse out as the rice absorbs it all, but if there is a trace you can return the pan to a gentle heat with a drop of oil and stir until the rice starts sticking to the edge (a ton of steam will come off at this point).
If you get it wrong and use too much water, you can drain the pan and then just follow step 6 above.
It is possible that wild rice varieties require more water.
January 7th, 2010 at 6:12 pm
A) I always cook with Japanese rice because I think its the easiest. I use Nishiki Medium Grade Rice. Also-rice cookers are the most amazing things in the entire world–all you do is put the rice and water in, close it, and in an hour you have perfect rice.
B) Red Jacket Orchards Fiji Apple juice is my fav–Try the Whole Foods Brand Gravenstein Apple Juice-it comes in a big jug and its delicious.
C) Which Hummus Place did you go to? The one on St. Mark’s or the one in the village?
January 14th, 2010 at 6:09 pm
it’s pretty cool to actually see a pro poker player living in nyc. i’m aspiring to one day become a pro poker player as well and would love to meet up to talk about poker sometime as i live in nyc too. i enjoyed watching 2 M 2 M as well and thought the tomato fight was brutal haha.