Bing and deicide

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Help getting dressed

Sure, I can whip up a different vinaigrette every day of the week. Blue Cheese, Caesar and Ranch all know the touch of my whisk. I've even been known to dress green salads with Nuoc Cham or various Asian sesame oil & rice vinegar concoctions. Some days though, I just need a little help. I'm doing a bunch of other things and I just want my dressing to come out of a bottle. This is when I reach for the FreshDirect Blue Cheese Dressing. This stuff is easily as good as anything you'd make yourself without the hassle of keeping supplies of sour cream, buttermilk and blue cheese on hand. Honorable Mention goes to FreshDirect Roasted Garlic Caesar Dressing which is good but needs a little extra oomph, some mashed up anchovies or a little drizzle of nuoc mam a.k.a. fish sauce (known to the Caesars themselves as garum). I would avoid the FreshDirect Raspberry Nectar Vinaigrette w/ Omega-3. I find it to be sweet, sour and insipid.

Newegg selling iPhone knock-off?

So Newegg "Mall" is carrying this blatant 2 SIM iPhone knock-off for $99 with no contract. How long will it be before Apple defecates all over this from extreme elevations?

http://www.neweggmall.com/Product/2008798900/product.html

The Gleat Galric Clisis

Is it just me, or has it become harder and harder to get decent garlic? Everywhere you go these days, its those white net tubes of garlic sent over from China, in slow-moving uninsulated cargo containers. Even if you don't see the tubes, chances are very good that the anonymous loose garlic you find in your local supermarket comes from our favorite 1.3 billion producers of low-cost products. The stuff has a nasty off aroma and if you actually eat it in little chunks as I am wont to do, you get this weird acidic aftertaste. It's just bad.

When my timing is just right, I get great local garlic at the various Farmers Markets. Very occasionally, a single head of garlic turns up in my CSA box, but that just doesn't even begin to cover my everyday garlic needs. Fortunately I have found two reliable sources of non-Chinese garlic. The regular (non-organic) garlic from FreshDirect comes from Mexico. (The "organic" stuff comes from Argentina, but I just don't know what that word means outside of the US. Even in the US it's starting to mean "Factory produced, ultra-pasteurized and shipped to you from far away.) The other place that has garlic with identifiable provenance is Trader Joe's, their organic garlic is clearly marked as a product of California.

Uploading your contacts into Gmail or GApps and synchronizing with the iPhone

I recently spent a great deal of time uploading all my contacts into Gmail Contacts and then trying to get those contacts to sync cleanly with my iPhone's contacts using Google Sync . To my chagrin I learned that although both these mechanisms work very well, there are some significant stumbling blocks when using them together. The first important thing to note is that not all of the fields that are in Dave's terrific .csv file will sync to the iPhone. Here is a shot of all the fields loaded with test data uploaded to Gmail. Pretty, right? Not shown because it didn't fit in the screenshot is the "Notes" field at the bottom but that worked fine. The fields "Section 1 - Other" and "Section 2 - Other" Show up as "Other" and "Home" respectively, toward the bottom of the contact; a little odd but dealable.

When you go ahead and set up the Sync with the iPhone, that's when you run into problems. None of the Section 1 Phone number fields will sync with the iPhone. Section 2 fields: "Home," "Home Fax," "Mobile," and "Pager" sync up just fine. The fields "Section 2 - Company," "Section 2 - Title" and "Section 2 - Other" will also fail to sync.

After a GREAT DEAL of trial and error, I have come up with one significant improvement. If you replace the Section 1 - Description with "Work" (don't use the quotes) you will get two more fields on your iPhone; "Section 1 - Phone" and "Section 1 - Fax" will sync to the iPhone as "Work" and"Work Fax" respectively. Those Section Descriptions are REALLY important. They must be on every line of the .csv, spelled correctly and the first letter must be capitalized or they just don't work.

So to recap: Use this .csv file. Change the Section 1 - Description from "Other" to "Work" (again don't use the quotes). Do not use the following fields: "Section 1 - Mobile," "Section 1 - Pager," "Section 1 - Other," "Section 2 - Company," Section 2 - Title," "Section 2 - Other." (Possibly these columns could be removed from the template, but I haven't tested this).

Just as a side note, if you have contact records that contain a "Company Name" but no "Name" field, Gmail will not import those. Copy the contents of the "Company Name" field into the "Name" field and you're good.

Once you've done this though, it really rocks. BUT: don't forget to occasionally use the Gmail export function to backup your contacts to a csv file. Although it feels like you're backed up because it's on your iPhone and on Gmail, the truth is if something is accidentally deleted from Gmail or if something should go terribly, terribly wrong over at the big G, your sync'ed iPhone contacts can disappear in a twinkling of an eye.

If anyone wants to take this info and make it into a super user-friendly tutorial, they should feel entirely free, I just don't have the time just now :)

So I just started to use playfoursquare.com this evening and it led me to Bartini which had a sign up outside that said "Happy Hour: Tuesdays-Friday 4-8 PM" I figured I'd have a look. The place is definitely a little run down and the ambiance is totally bordello/titty bar/lounge BUT: I had two Bombay Sapphire Martinis for TEN DOLLARS. There are other places that have happy hours in the neighborhood, but TRY to get them to pour top shelf. The bartender is a congenial fellow named Izzy. Tell him that "That chinese guy, Roger" sent you. Won't get you anything better than the usual GREAT DEAL, but maybe he'll buy me a drink or two. Oh and remember: Tip on the number of drinks your server has SERVED you, not on the hugely discounted tab that you've received. :)

http://www.bartinislounge.com/

A real NY slice of pizza

What is the New York slice? For me, it's the pizza of my childhood during the 70's and 80's. I'm talking about the pizza that was in almost every little pizzeria in town. In those years when you went for a slice, you got a wedge cut off a freshly made, usually still-hot pie produced by a master of the craft. As one pie disappeared, a new one would be made and baked in a regular gas-fired pizza oven.

The pies themselves were generally large and very round, thin but chewy (not crisp) with smallish crusts. Abbondanza was the guiding principle behind the application of the sauce and cheese. A thick layer of hot, gooey, cheese covered a tangy, generous ladling of tomato sauce.

Unfortunately, you don't see really good examples of this kind of pizza much anymore in New York. There are terrific artisanal pies of the "no slices" school of thought but in most regular pizzerias, bready pizzas are made en masse, by seemingly semi-skilled labor, smothered with an assortment of bulky toppings and set out in glass cases to await the mealtime rush.

But like my own version of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker, I've discovered that on Jamaica Avenue in Queens, Margherita Pizza is still making pizzas the old-school New York way. I'd walked past this little pizzeria on my way to clients at least a half a dozen times with nary a second glance. I'd never seen the name mentioned in any discussion of New York pizza and from the outside, it appeared completely unremarkable. Yesterday however, when I walked by I happened to look inside and was immediately struck by the complete lack of glass display cases on the counters.

After finishing up at my client, I decided to investigate further. When I arrived, only one slice of a pizza pie and about three slices of sicilian were sitting on the back counter awaiting customers. A whole pie, which looked mostly complete was being checked in the oven and the dough for a third pie was just that moment being tossed into the air by obviously expert hands.

I waited about 3 minutes for the fresh pie to emerge and ordered two slices. The Ivory-bill opened its beak and produced a pair of madeleines for me. The slices were just as I remember them, rocket-hot, and delicious. Margherita has been in business for 41 years. The counter guys told me that the owners who are in their 70s come in each morning at 4:00 AM to make the dough and sauce from scratch. This is pizza that is being made with pride and love.

Margherita Pizza

16304 Jamaica Ave
Jamaica, NY
11432-4912

Phone: (718) 657-5780

About 5 blocks from the Jamaica Center - Parsons/Archer E,J,Z station

Do re: Miso

Recently, I'm back to using a lot of miso and I'm glad to say that I've re-located the source for the best stuff:

http://naturalimport.com/shop_for_miso

I've been using Mitoku company's all-natural, traditionally produced misos, shoyus and mirins for some time now and although the importer/distributors keep changing the products stay just the same.

I've just placed an order for each and every miso they carry, so stay tuned for the great Miso Taste Test.

The "Best" Nori

"Which one is the best?" Is a question that comes up more and more these days. With great selection comes great indecision. These thoughts occurred to me while looking at the nori shelf of N.Y. Chonghap Market, a Korean supermarket in Jackson Heights. Apparently, Koreans consume a great deal of nori and they like to have lots of different kinds. Unfortunately, to an outsider (ABC-American Born Chinese) such as myself, they all look just the same.

My solution to this particular polylemma was to buttonhole a nice young Korean lady who was trying to go about her business and ask her The Question. A look of some perplexity crossed her face. This was a matter requiring serious thought. After about 45 seconds of carefully looking over all the packages of nori spread out before us, she tentatively picked up one particular three-pack and said softly, "I think, this the best."

Is it the best? I dunno. But it IS pretty tasty indeed. Salty with a pleasant olive (!) oiliness, excellent with a bit of rice as illustrated on the package. If you are working on developing a ground-breaking Asian/Mediterranean diet plan, this would be an obvious candidate for inclusion. Here are the ingredients: Seaweed, olive oil, salt, sesame oil. The little penguin illustrates an "Antarctic sea salt" claim.

What is tinycult?

Tinycult is how I refer to my life these days. As my friend the Bespoke Esq. likes to remind me, I used to be fond of saying that people who have children are like recently inducted members of the smallest of cults. All their time and talk comes to revolve around the object of their devotions and they slavishly attend to the needs and desires of the diminutive, beloved, de facto leader.

So now I pen these dispatches from the inside. Tinycult is my new way of life, my therapy, my deprogramming exercise and my way of sharing some useful intel with kindred spirits.

Indeed I marvel...

...that these people stay in business. Went by Marvel's the other day and tried to drop off some clothes. I have a number of silk herringbone and linen shirts that are semi-casual wear. In the past, I've routinely had these laundered on hangers, usually for about a buck and a half a piece. Marvel's Cleaners however informed me that this could not be done, they send the shirts out and the presses would destroy my puny shirts. My shirts would have to be dry cleaned. OK - so how much? $5.75 per shirt. My soiled shirts and I speedily departed together.

A day later, Banana Republic sent me to receive free alterations from their outsourced tailor - Manny's Cleaners. When I arrived, Manny was making ever so delicate adjustments to the bodice of a young lovely's prom dress with sensitivity and not inconsiderable patience. To my delight, I discovered that they charge $1.50 per (men's) shirt for laundering or dry cleaning. The work is done on premises and they both pick up and deliver. I asked Manny for some of those stickers used to mark stains, Manny told me, "You won't need them, we'll take care of everything." I have yet to get my alterations back or have any cleaning done, but I have a good feeling about this guy. Manny's Cleaners

CORRECTION: So it turns out that dry cleaning is $4.00 per shirt, but they will launder my silk and linen shirts for the $1.50. I got my alterations back and they are A-OK. Cleaning looks good too.