Gotham Gal

Saving face

I read today in the New York Times that a small group of Republicans are trying to save face for George Bush in the latest push for the majority of congress to not pass the resolution to send another 20,000 troops to Iraq.  The Democrats and many Republicans want deadlines to be met in regards to Iraq, as they should.

This particular group of Republicans who want to pass Bush's latest idea in regards to Iraq in order to not embarrass the President.  Why exactly?

Once again, it is disheartening that members of our Senate are more concerned with saving face for the President.  They would rather see more young men and women die over a war that is for what?  Droves of people have left Iraq.  My guess is the majority of people gone are the people we would have liked to stay and create a healthy country.  Bush has destroyed the reputation of our country around the world.  He has made pretty much nothing but bad decisions and refuses to acknowledge that perhaps he was wrong instead he is defiant and arrogant about his decisions. 

Saving face is more important?  I just don't get it.

How little has changed

My friend sent this clip to me.  A young 17 year old girl made a movie for a project.  An aspiring film maker.  The short film shows how little has changed in the past 30 years in regards to race.  Quite an eye opener and certainly a movie that opens up a forum for lots of conversation about race in America today.

Worth the watch.  Click here. 

Hats off to Eliot Spitzer

Eliot Spitzer has proposed to give $7 billion to the New York School system over the next four years.  $3.1 going to New York City Schools.  Spitzer said "there will be no more excuses for failure, the debate will no longer be about money, but about performance.  The goal will no longer be adequacy, but excellence.  And the timetable will no longer be tomorrow, but today"

If this is approved the possibilities are endless.  I just hope that there is a true visionary implementing how the money is spent.  That is a huge amount that could end up being tossed into Union pockets or poorly executed ideas.  Unfortunately, that is something that happens more than often in the world of Government.

But if in fact the money is well spent, the impact made on children in the New York will be seen for generations to come.  Congratulations to Eliot Spitzer for having the vision to see our children as our future.  They aren't old enough to vote but Spitzer is obviously more interested in leaving a legacy and making sincere changes in the status quo.  Thank god there is one politician out there like that and he happens to be our new Governor.

Cauliflower, Potatoes and Peas

I try to shake it up every night.  Last night I made tandoori chicken and a vegetable assortment of cauliflower, potatoes and peas.  Both good but the veggies were really good.  Simple too.

6 Yukon Gold Potatoes cut in quarters
4 cups of cauliflower broken into small pieces
1 cup peas (frozen)
1 T. minced ginger
1/2 t. salt
1/2 t. turmeric
1/4 t. chili powder
1/2 t. cumin
1/2 cup water
(you can also add 2 Italian tomatoes chopped by I opted out of that)

In a large frying pan cover the bottom with vegetable oil.  Add in the ginger and potatoes and cook on a medium heat until the potatoes are browned.  It takes about 7 minutes or so.  I poured out the majority of oil after this and just left a little bit in so the potatoes wouldn't stick. 

Add in all the spices, the cauliflower and 1/2 cup water ( and tomatoes if you want).  Mix thoroughly.  Cover and let cook on medium heat for about 15 minutes.  The cauliflower should get soft. 

When done, add in the peas and mix over heat until the peas are warmed.  Serve as a side dish.  This particular dish, the way I made it, did not have lots of sauce just really tasty vegetables.

FYI - not my picture.  Camera wasn't handy and everyone started digging in.

Japanese Dinner

Sunday was supposed to be a lounging day.  The girls wanted to know "what are we going to do today"?
How about a museum, a movie, etc.  All nixed.  They decided they wanted to go shopping for all the ingredients and spend the afternoon creating a Japanese dinner.  Great.  They shopped, they returned, they cooked.  It was fantastic.

Here was the menu:  Tuna, Yellowtail and fresh crab meat California rolls.  Wakame (seaweed) Salad.  Shumai (shrimp dumplings) and Pork Dumplings. 

They did an incredible job.  Truly impressive.  Josh got involved in the end making some rolls because he had friends over but basically the girls went to town.  They follow the recipes to the word.  A few time I interjected that it wasn't necessary but they weren't so sure I knew what I was talking about which made me laugh.  How do you think you got interested in cooking to begin with? 

Here are some of the recipes.

Pork Dumplings:
6 cups shredded Napa cabbage, don't use any of the tough stems and really clean the cabbage
1 T. salt
8 ounces ground pork
2 T. minced scallions
1 T. grated ginger
1 T. soy sauce
2 tsp. sesame oil
1 tsp. Chinese rice wine
1/2 tsp. sugar

1 package of thick round dumpling wrappers

Clean the cabbage and finely cut the cabbage.  Squeeze all the moisture out and put on a plate with a heavy weight over the cabbage.  This will basically make the cabbage look as it has been cooked.  The key is really squeezing the moisture out.

Combine all the other ingredients.  Then add in the cabbage.  Really use your hands here to incorporate everything together. 

Take one or the round dumpling wrappers.  You will need a bowl of water.  Wet the edges with your finger.  Put about 2 tsp. in the middle of the dumpling and then close, using water around the edges and pinching the ends with your fingers.  This is the hardest part.  You see the people at the Chinese restaurants just ripping through the dumplings and making them look beautiful.  Not to easy.

When you are done, put them on an oiled cookie sheet or a cookie sheet with parchment paper on top.  Then take a wet cloth and lie it on top to keep the dumplings from getting dry.  We then put that in the refrigerator until we ready to cook them.

You can either steam them for about 6 minutes or fry them in vegetable oil over a medium heat before serving.

Shumai:
1/2 lb. shrimp shelled and deveined
1/2 lb. scallops or 1/2 lb. mild white fish.  We used scallops

1 1/2 T. minced ginger
2 scallions minced
1/2 ounce mirin
2 tsp. soy sauce
2 tsp. sesame oil
1 egg white
1 T. cornstarch
2 T. water chestnuts finely diced

50 thin round dumpling skins

Cube the fish and shrimp.  Place the seafood in a food processor with the rest of the ingredients omitting the water chestnuts.  Pulse and the mix to puree.   Scrape into a bowl and then add the water chesnuts.

Please about 1 T. in the center of each of the dumpling skins.  Then put the skin into the middle to create a small purse by pushing and pinching the ends together.  You will need a bowl of water here too.  The ends of the dumpling wrappers must be wet in order to do this.  Keep the dumplings wet with a wet towel on top of the cookie sheet where the dumplings are sitting after being made.

We steamed these.  I actually own one of those baskets.  I put it over a boiling pot of water.  A bit make shift but it worked.  They cook for about 5 - 7 minutes.

Wakame:
1 ounce of dried seaweed
6 T. dashi
2 T. soy sauce
3 T. rice wine vinegar
1 tsp. honey
1 tsp. mirin
1/2 cucumber seeded and cut into paper thin slices
1/2 tsp. salt

Take the seaweed and cover it with warm water for about 10 minutes.  This will soften the seaweed.  Then put that into a pot of boiling water for a few seconds, drain and douse with cold water.  Chop finely.

Put the dash, soy sauce, rice wine vinegar,  honey and mirin in a small sauce pan on a medium heat and stir until honey melts.  Put this in the refrigerator until cold.

Cut the cucumbers and put them in cold water with the salt for about 20 minutes.  We chopped them up after that and put them into the seaweed salad instead of letting them remain whole.

Put the seaweed, cucumbers into a bowl and mix with dressing.  Serve.  This was a real winner.

In terms of making sushi, you really need all the paraphernalia and make it up as you go along.  There are some great videos online where you can watch people make sushi step by step.  The key is good rice.  Here is a good recipe for sushi rice.

Sushi Rice:
2 cups sushi rice that has been rinsed a few times over in a strainer
2 cups water
4 T. rice vinegar
2 T. sugar
1/2 tsp. salt

Bring rice and water to a boil.  Cover and lower heat to simmer.  Takes about 15 minutes.  When it is done add the other ingredients.  Cool and set aside.  We actually used 6 cups of rice.  You always need more rice than you think.

Keep in mind too that we made way too much.  We froze some dumpling.  We should have just used about 1/4 lb. of fish per type of roll.  That would have been plenty.  We had bought 1/2 lb. each.  Think 3 rolls person, that is ample. 

Enjoy..

Most Don't Whip 'Um

This past Friday night we were invited out to see a production by Cynthia Hopkins at St. Ann's Warehouse in DUMBO (Brooklyn).  I loved that our friends were getting together about 40 people to see something.  They are both involved in the arts, mostly theater, and thanks to evite,  they said it wasn't that hard to organize.

St. Ann's Warehouse would be a great place to have an event.  One huge room when you walk in that is connected to another large room where the performance takes place.  Big huge ceilings.  Like the name, an old warehouse transformed into a place to put on productions.  Very cool.

The seating there is uncomfortable to say the least so keep that in mind for future performances.  This particular performance last 90 minutes, no introduction.   

It is very hard to categorize Cynthia Hopkins.   She is certainly creative.  Possibly brilliant.  Yet, it is not a show for everyone.  It is performance art using multi-media mixed with a music concert around a bizarre story which is a tribute to her supposed mother with politics being the overlaying theme.  Yep, that pretty much sums it up. 

Her voice is beautiful.  The band that accompanies her is quite talented.  They play up on the second tier overlooking the stage.  Each have their own style of dress.  The drummer is a girl with sunglasses definitely enjoying the evening.  The horns player is part of the performance and during each song he works the sound quality with the board attached to the wall.  That in itself is quite interesting to watch.

The story is about her mother, who is no longer with us, or might be because we are never really sure.  She was a 60's radical who got involved in Morocco with a bunch of radicals that were being pursued possibly by the CIA.  Hmmm.  Cynthia actually has some pretty interesting soliloquy's about politics which have quite an insightful take that could be the truth.  She is one smart girl. 

Her voice is captivating.  Not only is she acting and performing on stage she is also the narrator.  Her voice booms through out the space.  Her cadence is mesmerizing. 

She sings, she dances.   She uses video cameras and projects the images live, and sometimes not live on a screen that has been divided into four parts.  When she plays on the piano we watch her performing above.  At one point she in the piano looking at us and singing through a pretaped piece. 

Costumes must be recognized here.  My favorite part is her headgear.  A tambourine between some other stuff.  Long skirts layered over one another.  She also has a black lined in moustache and small dots drawn underneath her eyes.  It is quite an outfit.

Her antics reminded me of the lead singer of the Eels, Mark Oliver Everett.  The different is the Eels is a concert with some performance art added in where Cynthia is performance art with music as an added bonus.

We all had interesting reactions but not one of us could not be impressed with the whole performance.  Genius?  Perhaps.  I'd be interested to learn about where she came from.  My guess is she either came from a simple middle class suburban life or something totally extreme. 

Glad I went.  A real piece of work...no pun intended.

China Grill

I believe the China Grill opened their doors over 18 years ago.  It was quite a hot spot.  The place was packed from lunch through late night dinners.  Walking through the door yesterday was like walking back in time.  I remember eating there on many occasions.  What is impressive is that the decor has held up.  The place looks as fresh and modern today as it did then.  They have a bit of a problem with the ventilation, it is a bit smoky, but otherwise, they seem to be moving along just fine.

Remember, location, location, location.  Located in the basement of the Sony building doesn't help.  At 1pm, the place was jammed at 230, it was dead.  Great place for a business lunch.  The service is quick and nice.  The menu remains the same but it still is quite good.

We split 3 things.  The portions are super-sized so keep that in mind.  We had the Chinese chicken salad.  Chopped cabbage, chicken, veggies etc. and laden with a mayonaisse type dressing.  It comes on a simple white plate and shaped in a huge mound on top.  Lots to share.  We also had the noodle special of the day.  Shrimp pad Thai.  Spicy, simple and good.  The other thing we shared was the Curry Miso black cod that was served over Chinese broccoli.   The fish was cooked right but the dish was a bit heavy handed.  Actually, the dishes all look heavy handed.  Big portions, heavy sauces.  But, it works. 

I'd go back if I were in the area.  It is a huge achievement for a restaurant to remain anywhere for that period of time and still keep the place hopping.

ICP

International Center of Photography has a fantastic facility for their educational programs and a small intimate museum across the street.

I have actually taken a class at ICP and the best pictures are inside the school and in the back area where you can see the photos taken recently by students.  The museum, for some reason, always seems to be missing something. 

Yesterday I went to check out 2 exhibits.  One was Martin Muncasi and the other was Henry Cartier-Bresson's scrapbook.  There were only a few shots in each exhibit that grabbed me. 

Photography has made so many interesting strides over the past years.  Most of the exhibits that I have seen at ICP focus more on the old rather than the new. 

There happened to be a small room in the back that showed the latest additions to their collection which was a little more interesting.  Again, some old and some new.  This particular picture was an addition to the collection.  The photographer is Elliot Erwitt, 1983, called Contest for Mr. Nude California, Bakersfield, CA.  It just made me laugh.

As a whole, I have been really disappointed in the lack of inspiration at ICP's museum. 

iSight

When we were traveling during the Martin Luther King holiday weekend I was fascinated with Josh and iSight.  Fred is looking to expand Josh's horizons at home. 

We'd come back to the hotel room and he'd get on line with his pals.  Not only would he have IM going, he'd be doing a whole video thing with his friend Ben.  They were discussing writing a new song and a variety of stuff.  Ben's brother was jumping up and down in the background which was hilarious.  Eventually his Dad came by and said hi to Josh, where are you etc, hi to the family but Ben has got to go.  I said on the bed and watched the whole thing.  Truly amazing.

These kids can have a variety of kids in their chat room on video.  Again, another reason to communicate with your kids about the latest technology.  If you tell them they can't use it, guess what, they will use it anyway when you aren't looking.  Sort of like people at work playing games on the computer and just minimizing it when someone passes by. 

What I found amazing is the instant access of one on one (or more) face time.  When I grew up, we never talked to our friends on vacation.  Really didn't stay in touch with most of the kids from summer camp unless they were you absolute best buds.  The kids that were your best buds kept in touch through the telephone.  That is when phone bills were through the roof.  I remember my parents getting phone bills for a couple hundred dollars a month and freaking.

Now everything has changed.  Access is free, instant communication is out there, post something and it stays on the web for eternity, no thought processes when sitting down to write a letter to a friend just complete instant gratification.  It is an interesting phenomena and how that will affect these kids growing up in this generation is yet to seen. 

I, for one, think it is awesome.

U.S. Census Bureau

About six months ago we received in the mail a huge thick envelope containing a survey from the US Department of Commerce, Economics and Statistics Administration, US Census Bureau.  Under law, you are required to fill out this form.

No problem.  I filled out the form.  It is a huge undertaking.  The questions are all over the place.  Are you a citizen?  How many people live in your house?  What are you electric bills?  Who attends school?  What grades?  Do you work?  Are you on disability?  Have you ever been on disability?  Have you ever been in the Armed Forces?  What do you pay in housing taxes?  I could go on and on. 

I did my duty as an American citizen.  Filled out the form and sent it in.  Six months pass, I get the same form in the mail but this time for #8 (I guess an apartment).  I let it sit on my desk because it is a big ordeal to fill this thing out.  2 weeks pass, I get another one in the mail.

This time, I pick up the phone and call the 1 - 800 number.  The computer finds my info quickly.  I get to talk to a person and I give her the same locater number.  She gets my address but has a phone number that I have never heard of.  Doesn't make sense since the computer got it (the voice that isn't a real voice on the other end of the phone).  We try again.  Yep, wrong phone number.  Strange. 

I told her that I filled the form out six months ago and am not sure why I got it again because if the information was read and input, then I certainly would not have got this form again.  She tells me because a lot of the information, like the one that we are a single family house, generally needs to be called in from the home owners and the manually input to make changes. 

Crazy?  Yes.  After hearing Bush speak the other night, ( Actually I didn't watch -too painful but did read the highlights),  it really scares the shit out of me what goes on in Government.  Truth is, the Government offices aren't affected by the latest administration.  They just continue doing their thing like they did it 40 years ago.  I guess that is what frightens me.  That is why I agree with Fred.  Could we get a blogger for a President.  Someone who gets the times we are living in?