Galerie 82

Untitled

Rothko?

Kline?

Motherwell?

Or a late twentieth century MTA painter. And, of course, the oldest Old Master of all, El Tiempo. As Myles might say, reflect on that.

Zap Out!

The Vendy Award for best street food vendors is. Congratulations to winners Solber Pupusas for their Caribbean meat patties. There is no doubt the variety of street food has expanded dramatically in the last few years from hot dogs, pretzels, and tacos to a virtual smorgasboard of foods from around the world: tamales, kim chi, Belgian waffles, and more. (Which national cuisine is responsible for the cupcake? We could do with less of those, in your correspondent's humble opinion.)

The BQE could easily host its own mini-Vendy's. But that it's notoriously difficult to get back on the highway once you've gotten off, you could begin with souvlaki and cevapi (Balkan grilled meat) in Astoria, samosas and empanadas in Jackson Heights, banh mi (Vietnamese sandwiches) in Sunset Park. What's harder to find, in Greenpoint or anywhere in NYC, is the Polish zapiekanka, a kind of mini-French-bread pizza with an indescribable topping of cheese, mushrooms, and ketchup. 

Zapiekanka

"Zapping out" (a term coined by Mike Waters, if memory holds) was what you did if you had a little money and couldn't face another kotlet schabowy (breaded pork cutlet). I'd gladly jump off the BQE at Meeker St. and take my chances getting back on for smak zapiekanki. (You can see more Polish street food, including the original bagel--obwarzianki--on this website from which I got the photo above.)

Roadster Rage

It's pretty common to see roadsters and other vintage cars on the BQE. Less so their drivers. That's because the cars are generally being transported on those double-decker trailers you usually associate with new vehicles on their way to a dealership. I shot this floating MG from the access road above the Staten Island Expressway--there were a couple other beauties you can't see on the lower deck. Strange thing is, I only seem these transports headed west on BQE-Gowanus-SIE, never the other direction. Is New Jersey taking all our great cars? What is Governor Cuomo, a self-described gearhead with a taste for Stingrays, going to do about it?

Coup de Grâce

Not the Red Sox (Courtesy Baltimore Sun)

As the dust settles after a wild final day of the 2011 baseball season, let's take a moment to congratulate the real winners... the Baltimore Orioles. Consider, as the Red Sox were free-falling to 7-20 in September, last-place Baltimore went 15-13, beating the Rays three times, the Yankees twice, and the Red Sox five (!) times, including two of three in the last week (not to mention taking two games each from the Tigers and Angels). And then, last night, with everything on the line for the Sox and seemingly nothing for themselves--and not to mention Camden Yards full of screaming Sox fans...  Down by one run in the bottom of the ninth, two outs, the Birds came up with three straight hits off Jonathan Papelbon to win it.

So here's to Baltimore, where, as Randy Newman sang, "It's hard, just to live." And to baseball. Now, what the fuck do I do?

162

Strange pairing

As Red Sox fans know only too well, for the past few days, the Sox playoff hopes have depended not just on their ability to win games but on the Yankees' to beat Tampa Bay. This puts Red Sox fans in the strange position of hoping the Yankees actually win. The horror! There have been all kinds of jokes about Sox fans taking extra showers and stories like the silly one in the Times yesterday about Yankees and Sox fans actually consorting.

Yaz during 1978 slide

Reader, I can't do it. Listening to the Yankees-Tampa Bay game on the radio on the drive home last night, I cheered when the Rays pulled off a triple play (!) with the bases loaded and Yanks down by only one. Even though it turned out to be decisive in the Rays winning the game. Boston also won, for a change, so here we are all tied up on the last day of the season.

"Coexist" the Yankee fan's (other) bumper sticker reads. Yes. Codepend even. But, as Walter Sobczak puts it in the Big Lebowski, "That line, you do not cross."

It all comes down to tonight. Fill in your own sports cliché here_______.

One More Cup of Coffee Before I Go

Ethiopian Coffee Ceremony

The Colombian tinto I wrote about in my previous post has made me nostalgic for those places where I have had truly great coffee. Bogotá, Florence, Madrid, sure, but, Warsaw, the home of kawa po turecku (basically grounds in a glass of boiling water stirred until they sink to the bottom)? Well, it's a trick question, since I'm talking about the coffee my Ethiopian friends there ever so ceremoniously served. First, a daughter ground the "green beans" over a hotplate--rather than as it might have been done at home (above).  Then, over several hours, we drank from three pots filtered through the same ground beans, each a bit weaker but all richly satisfying.

Culture Espresso (W. 38th St.)

Then there was the "Summer of Filtron" in the late 1980s. Coffeescenti of the cold-drip method proliferating throughout the NYC hipster coffee scene may not know that decades before we were doing the same thing in grad student apartments in Providence and other farflung outposts. My friends, Troy and Omi, had been given a Filtron unit by mutual friend Quentin. Filtron is basically a plastic contraption that allows you to filter cold water overnight through a pound of coffee (I think they used Chock Full o' Nuts) to create a strong, but relatively acid-free, essence. You would then keep the essence in the fridge, cutting it with hot or cold water as you please.

Filtron

Reader, believe me when I tell you that was some powerfully addictive stuff. In and out of Troy and Omi's apartment all summer, we were increasingly caffeinated. We started with the recommended proportions: one third of a cup of Filtron essence to  two thirds boiling water (for hot coffee) or about the same of cold water (for iced coffee).  By the end of the summer, I'm pretty sure Troy was drinking his iced coffee at 100% Filtron.

You can get the Japanese maker picture below (center) below for $285 from Williams-Sonoma. You can get the basic Filtron unit above for about 40 bucks.

Courtesy Williams Sonoma

Cafecito!

Listo, Calisto

Until we institute the "Banned by Brand" policy I introduced in my previous post, which will effectively diminish much of NYC's traffic congestion, I suggest we adopt another Colombian innovation--the roving coffee vendor. Nearly anywhere you go in Colombian cities, you will find these guys with their small carts or handheld crates with sturdy jugs ready to fill a little plastic cup for you. And it's good!

Imagine: you are creeping towards the Kosciuszko Bridge, one painful car length at a time, when out of nowhere appears an intrepid vendor to serve you a fresh tinto (black coffee, but you can also have it con leche). Que Bueno! It's not enough coffee to put baristas out of work, or the guys in the corner "donut aquariums" (term courtesy Mr. Picky), but enough to keep you going.

For more pictures like the one above, check out this blog.