Chinese Food
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Tuesday, November 13th, 2007This past Sunday I attended Chinese Restaurant News 4th Annual Top 100 Chinese Restaurants Awards Banquet, which was held at the New Yorker Hotel in New York City. I attended with my friends Nolan and Mike. Most of it was in Chinese, so it was like “white noise” (or “yellow noise” as one of them […]
I’ve updated my list of chapters
Sunday, November 11th, 2007This morning, now that I am back from an insane series of book dinners, I put the list of my chapters online as people seem to be blogging now about my galleys (Eater had a scuffle and Mae’s Food Blog has had multiple posts.)
Confucius say, You will vote for Obama?
Sunday, November 11th, 2007Reporters at the Jefferson Jackson dinner in Iowa were scarfing done fortune cookies provided by Barack Obama’s presidential campaign as they were the only things they had to eat. Per Garance’s France-Ruta‘s observations: The Obama campaign’s Iowa spokesman Tommy Vietor walked by the press riser, at one point, tossing fortune cookies to reporters and cameramen, […]
A real General Tso — actually General Cao
Monday, November 5th, 2007Someone pointed to me that the defense minister is named Cao Gangchuan. He is a real General Cao, which is (more or less, though you can’t tell unless you know pinyin) pronounced General Tso, as Americans pronounced. Except of course, that General Tso is actually General Zuo Zongtang, and Zuo is pronounced, roughly, like “juoh.” […]
Chinese women don’t get fat, but American women who eat (American) Chinese food do
Friday, November 2nd, 2007I thought this piece from Calorie Labs had such a cute title that I am citing it, even though it is citing old news. Basically in March the Center for Science in the Public Interest released a study (their second) on American Chinese food and discovered it is bad for you. This always gets a […]
Sending out my galleys
Monday, October 29th, 2007This is the view from the conference room while I was stuffing my personal galley mailings (to go with the ones that my editor, Jon Karp, and the publicist, Cary Goldstein, did). I sent out 100 galleys, with handwritten notes. My hand hurt. Over the weekend, my mom sent me an email on behalf of […]
An elevator button with the perfect fortune cookie message
Wednesday, October 24th, 2007This is in every elevator in the NYTimes building, pointed out to me by the mysterious artist, who created a digital tribute and then made me guess where it was from… If only this were true in real life…
Maybe they think “fortune cookie” is a euphenism for mysteries of the Chinese orient?
Friday, October 19th, 2007Ever since this post about my friend Adam’s first successful case on prosecuting a pedophile, I have noticed a lot of people landing at my site because of their search for “chinese porn” or “porn chinese.” (I wonder if these guys think “fortune cookie” really means “in bed”). Fortune Cookie Chronicles, as of this today, […]
It’s my book! In the form of an NYU workshop! (On November 13)
Monday, October 15th, 2007I was forwarded an email about this event over the AAJA list: Found In Translation: An Exploration Of How Asian Cuisines Become Part Of The American Culinary Landscap My first thought as I read the description: It’s almost like my book (only more general than just Chinese). Here is the description: How does ethnic cuisine […]
No salad dressing in Paraguay?
Thursday, October 11th, 2007My friend Emily, who is a Fulbright scholar in Paraguay, said it lacks salad dressing. In lieu of mailing the bottles (heavy), I sent her powered packets to Paraguay, which she explains is sort of like the Nebraska of South America — landlocked and flat.
There should be no such things as negative fortune cookies
Wednesday, October 10th, 2007The New York Times business section writes about ominous fortune cookies that are coming out of Wonton Food in Long Island City. (Why is it in business and not like Dining In/Dining Out or Metro? Because it was a business editor who got the original weird fortune that sparked the idea). I helped out a […]
A prescient fortune cookie for the mysterious artist in the NYTimes lobby
Wednesday, October 10th, 2007Almost every day for the last few months (even on weekends), you could see a man wearing a T-shirt hunched over his Apple Powerbook in the lobby of new The New York Times building. He would be furiously tapping away while little green lights would pulsate across the longs chains of screens dangling in formation […]
Hiking the High Line
Tuesday, October 9th, 2007I took a walk on the High Line this past weekend with my friend Josh as part of Open House New York — one of the first times that the public could (legally) walk along the High Line. And yes, the urban Cinderella experience is really as cool as everyone says it is.
They’ve Starbucked the Kong!
Saturday, October 6th, 2007I went back to Harvard yesterday with my friend Chris and stepped into the Hong Kong Chinese restaurant and was shocked. They’ve renovated the venerable half-century old Hong Kong Chinese restaurant (which until now basically looked like something from Happy Days, vinyl booths, cracked linoleum and all) and made it look like Starbucks on the […]
No stars for Wakiya from Bruni.
Friday, October 5th, 2007I’m a bit delayed in posting this as I am still not being a vampire and blogging all day, but Frank Bruni of The New York Times gave Wakiya a harsh no star rating (which technically is “satisfactory,” but really isn’t, especially given what you pay for it). As he writes…”To get to these tables, […]
Page proofs! Only $1.25 per change.
Wednesday, October 3rd, 2007I got my page proofs back from Twelve/Hachette, along with a very stern warning: “This will be your only opportunity to review the typeset pages, so please be sure that all changes you wish to make are included.” It also says, “Each change costs roughly $1.25. However this is not a per line or per […]
Frozen Indian-Chinese food, at a Patel Brothers near you!
Wednesday, October 3rd, 2007I went shopping at Patel Brothers in Jackson Heights with my friend Roopa the other day, and saw these frozen Indian-Chinese dishes to go! (sorry for the poor photo quality, I took it with my Treo and the lighting in the freezers was bad). Hakka noodles is to Indian-Chinese food what lo mein is to […]
I am no longer a vampire! I am a full-time blogger!
Wednesday, October 3rd, 2007As of this week, I joined the staff of City Room, the New York City blog on nytimes.com, full-time (a small item ran on the blog of The New York Observer). I no longer work nights 7 p.m. to 2 a.m. It is very weird coming into the Nytimes building while it’s daylight outside. My […]
Peanut Butter is so American, you can’t even really find it in the UK
Saturday, September 29th, 2007I have a few friends who just headed over the England and were dismayed to discover that you can’t buy peanut butter in the UK (except maybe in some obscure specialty stores). One of them eats peanut butter sandwiches at least once a day — sometimes twice — so this is a real issue. They […]
From Child Porn to Chinese Food…
Thursday, September 20th, 2007Today I watched my close friend, Adam, give his closing arguments in his first case as a federal prosecutor. It was a child enticement case where a 49-year-old man showed up in New York City with a condom and a camera expecting to have sex with a 13-year-old girl he met online. Only she as […]
Takeover by Charlie Savage is now out!
Sunday, September 9th, 2007This is a plug for my friend Charlie Savage‘s book — Takeover: The Return of the Imperial Presidency and the Subversion of the American Democracy. I just got it today and am reading through it. One of the more interesting points is the Office of Legal Counsel — which Charlie says is “the most important […]
Is this where fortune cookies go to die?
Wednesday, September 5th, 2007Hal Bergman, a local Los Angeles photographer, stumbled upon three dumpsters full of fortune cookies. LAist has an interview with him. Here is the entire photoset on Flickr. I was looking at the cookies. The two largest manufacturers of fortune cookies in LA are Peking Noodle and Umeya. These don’t look at either.
The closing of a Chinatown institution, May May Chinese Gourmey Bakery
Monday, September 3rd, 2007I wrote a piece on the closing of May May Chinese Bakery on Pell Street in Chinatown after 42 years. It is so sad, because their food really is amazing — like discernably a cut above anything else you try; flakier, freshier, flavorfuler (is that a word? now it is). As I explain, May May’s […]
Met with my factchecker today
Wednesday, August 29th, 2007We’re almost at the finish line! The drop-dead deadline is September 5th, according to the letter I just got. Today I met with my fantastic and sweet factchecker, Jennifer Stahl, who works at The New Yorker, for Cuban food at Havana Central on West 46th. Highly recommended (both the factchecker and the restaurant).
The house were Lincoln’s assassination was planned? Now a Chinese restaurant named Wok n’ Roll
Wednesday, August 29th, 2007Here is a bit of Chinese restaurant trivia: The Washington boarding house on H Street belonging to Mary Surratt, where the assassination of President Lincoln was planned is now a Chinese restaurant called Wok n Roll. (They serve sushi too.) These photos are courtesy of food blogger Erin Zimmer.
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