Sunday, February 22, 2009

 

The Oscars: Slumdog and Mickey

I admit I haven’t seen too many of the nominated films. We haven’t been to the ‘depressing’ films, such as Revolutionary Road and The Reader. We did see Milk yesterday and it was everything that the critics say: A superb film with 2 excellent acting performances. Sean Penn was brilliant and would surely have won the Oscar almost any other year; and Josh Brolin also put in an award quality performance that will not get the nod.

But as good as the film and Penn’s performance were, I think both are very narrowly second best. I found Slumdog Millionaire to be a little more complete. Honestly, there was so little between these films in terms of quality, I could easily see why someone would go with Milk instead.

And Mickey Rourke’s performance in The Wrestler was as good as any in years. Truly monumental. He gets some emotional votes, of course, but for purely acting, I think he beats the superb Penn.

I must confess that I haven’t seen Benjamin Button. I will probably enjoy it when it comes onto Netflix, but I do tend to shy away from the mega films. Could it be better than Milk or Slumdog? Could Pitt’s performance be better than those of Penn and Rourke? I suppose so, but the bar is pretty high.

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Monday, February 16, 2009

 

Tiffin Wala: The best Indian restaurant in NYC; a vegetarian delight!

I have to say that Indian food has improved greatly since I first arrived in the City in 1980. Back then, I was told to go to 6th Street and 2nd Avenue, and was assured the food there was great. Well it sucked in comparison to what I was used to back home!

After telling Adrian, my ex wife, about this in 1985, she assured me she knew one I would love. I ordered Chicken Vindaloo and they asked if I would like it hot or spicy. Had I gone in there alone, I would have left right then, as the question is nonsense. If you know about Indian food, you will understand this!

I mention this by way of illustrating how happy I am to have found a restaurant in New York as good as the best vegetarian Indian restaurants in London. There are so many Indian Restaurants in the area between 27th and the low 30s, between 3rd and Park Avenues, that the area has been nicknamed Curry Hill – a play on the Murray Hill neighbourhood just above it. Most of them are strictly vegetarian, as is common for the South Indian cuisine prevalent there.

Tiffin Wala, on 28th Street between Lex and Park, (Website; Menu) should be tried by everyone who has ever enjoyed Indian food and some who think they don’t like Indian food, as it really is quite different from the North Indian and Bengali Food which predominates Indian food elsewhere. The food tends less towards spicy curries, and more towards the aromatic. Yes, it is related, but it is a distinctly different cuisine, and you will not recognise many of the menu items. One item you will recognise is the Samosa. But you won’t have had any this good!

Their soups are superb. I had previously had the Rasam, which I greatly enjoyed, but the Mulligatawny is incredible! Sean had the Spicy Tomato and that was also excellent. Other dishes I would recommend are the Behl Puri, a starter; Masala Dosa, my absolute favourite Indian dish, and Aloo Matar, but ask them to make it without dairy – I have had it both ways, but this way is superb. Jan loves the Bhindi Masala; an okra dish.

Anything you have here is likely to be delicious, and the prices are so very reasonable that if you spend over $20 per person, you will have plenty of leftovers. I can’t recommend strongly enough that you each choose different dishes, and share.

One last thing: This will not satisfy those who require Rabbinical supervision, but the food is Kosher!

GO HERE! You won’t be sorry!!!

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Tuesday, February 10, 2009

 

Passenger or Customer? Customer or Guest?

Transportation companies in Britain and America no longer call passengers, passengers. We are customers. When I asked the British bus company Arriva about this a few years ago, I was told that a focus group showed that people felt more important if they were called Customers. I will not mince words about this. In English vernacular, it is utter bollocks! I have asked several people what they prefer, and each prefers ‘Passenger’. Clearly, this is a case of the focus group being fed loaded questions.

As I see things, being accepted as a passenger puts more onus on the company providing me conveyance than if I was merely their customer. I am both, to be sure, but I don’t want it to merely be about service provided for money. A passenger is someone whose comfort and life depends upon professional and safe passage. I would feel more secure if I knew that the company transporting me felt the same way. I also didn’t like Virgin Atlantic calling a customer on my recent Transatlantic trip.

And I found a recent visit to an Upper West Side Duane Reade (that’s the number one Drug Store chain in New York City) to be entirely ridiculous. The checkout process ran very smoothly. Each time a customer – in this instance, I feel that word appropriate – left the cash register, the cashier called “Next guest please”. Next guest?!!! It’s a Drug Store ffs! I am not their guest! I was a guest when I stayed in a Paris Hotel. Or was I? When will Marriot, for example, start calling their guests customers, or residents…… or passengers!

Now that I think of it, I would prefer Duane Reade to call me a transient resident rather than a guest. As they didn’t invite me, offer me tea or put me up for the night, I feel this would be more appropriate.

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Thursday, February 05, 2009

 

Holiday trip – Jan meets my family



As a sign of just how serious ‘an item’ Jan and I are, we planned this trip after having been together for a little over a month, with me already having met her Mother and Brother in Los Angeles. The timing was to take in a trip to Paris for her birthday. I’m under orders to not reveal the number!!!

Well, by the time we left, Jackie had begged me to propose to Jan on our last day there, so it’s fair to say that she and my Mum both absolutely loved her! I should add that the feeling was entirely mutual, and Jan has even talked about us living for a while over there at some point. She loved our time there.

We arrived on Friday, January 23rd, and had two very lazy days before heading into the West End on Sunday. We had a long walk from Oxford Circus, taking in Liberty’s, Carnaby and Regent Streets, Leicester Square, Soho/Chinatown and Covent Garden, stopping in an incredible restaurant on Shaftesbury Avenue, New Mayflower – perhaps the best Chinese food I’ve ever had. Most people in there were Chinese, and if you don’t book on a weekend night, expect a lengthy wait.

The next day we were back in the West End. We got half price tickets to see Hairspray, which is funny, as it is American and the two things we have seen on Broadway, Spamalot and Billy Elliot, are both English! What can I say about this show? The younger folks seemed to like the passé humour more than we did, and I only really liked 4 or 5 of the tunes. So this doesn’t get my recommendation.



Between buying the tickets and seeing the show, we walked around Knightsbridge.



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Holiday trip – Tuesday: Turkish food and a football match

After a very lazy late morning/early afternoon, we headed to Stoke Newington to find a Turkish restaurant. We found Bodrum, a really charming and homey little place. The food was superb and cheap, and the hummus they place on the table when you arrive will definitely have you wishing for more. I know that the area boasts many excellent Turkish restaurants, but doubt that too many can beat this for a combination of friendly service, charming atmosphere, great food and great prices.

From there, it was off to White Hart Lane, home of the mighty Tottenham Hotspur (okay, not so mighty, but I’m a fan!). It was Jan’s first ever match and they did us proud with a great first half display. We sat – actually stood, as nobody on front of us sat for a minute of the match – very close to the visiting supporters, and Jan really enjoyed the banter between the sets of supporters. I had warned her of what to expect when Spurs scored, but hadn’t expected her to see the unbridled joy 3 times in the opening 25 minutes…. or even 3 times in 90 minutes!

We met my brother-in-law, Roger, and nephew Nathan after the match and had a reasonably early night in advance of our train ride to Paris the following day.


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3 days in Paris

If anyone ever does this trip by Eurostar, they should make a point of looking at the French countryside. It is dotted with little, close-knit villages built around churches. By the time you have a chance to tell your travelling companion about them, they have disappeared behind a cluster of trees. Really charming!

We arrived at our hotel before 6pm, having taken a cab. Due to the appreciation of the Euro, Paris is now really expensive! We found it to be considerably more expensive than London, as the pound has lost 30% of it’s value against the dollar, making that city actually quite affordably right now. From our point of view, it was actually cheaper in London than New York!

We picked a restaurant close to the hotel for Jan’s birthday dinner. Café Les Fontaines was recommended as the best in the vicinity, but we found it expensive and ordinary. After going to another local restaurant the next day for lunch – also a bit overpriced and unexceptional – we headed to Trocadero to look at the sites, including this wonderful view of the Eiffel Tower.



The following day, we walked in the general vicinity of the Pompidou Centre, starting at Notre Dame and ending in Marais. It really is a breathtakingly beautiful city. It was a pity that we didn’t have a chance to visit any galleries or museums, but the architecture and street layouts alone are thrilling.




We finished our evening at a place recommended to us by Alice, who we met the previous evening in Au Pied Du Sacre Couer. Le Berthoud had nice food but really tiny portions which made the apparently reasonable prices seem not so cheap after all. But we got lucky! Nino is a local singer who goes into restaurants and sings for tips. He was wonderful and everything you could ever hope for in a French balladeer: great guitar, beautiful voice and charming, warm personality. What a great end to a special day!


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Hotel Murat – Surely their 3-star rating is made up!

I made a point of looking only for 3 and 4-star hotels, and was most disappointed to walk into the smallest hotel room I have ever seen and the only one to not have a chest of drawers. I ate the breakfast on our last morning there. The croissant was ordinary at best, and the coffee not warm enough. One of the desk staff was both unknowledgeable and unhelpful – when we asked for directions, she said we should buy time on the Internet - while another was very willing to help but was also not knowledgeable.

I don’t know where they got their rating from. I have to doubt that it is genuine. When my daughter went, she stayed in a 2-star hotel. Her room was a decent size and had drawer space. Hmmm!

I have to suggest to anyone planning to visit, that they make sure to see good photos of the rooms or follow recommendations from people. In the meantime, I have to decide whether I should report this hotel for possible fraud.

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Au Pied Du Sacre Coeur

We were at Trocadero, and frankly, more than a little bored with the food we’d eaten the previous evening and that lunchtime – nice, but nothing to write home, or blog about! We decided to ask someone for advice, and Jan asked a passer-by, Clement, where there was either some good ethnic food or really good French food for Parisians instead of tourists, which is certainly what Trocadero was all about.

He told us to go to Lamarck, which he called a Paris equivalent of Greenwich Village. He also travelled with us part of the way there. It turned out that he was one of several very friendly Parisians who made a lie out of what seems to be the accepted wisdom about the people of that city.

As we arrived on the beautiful Rue Lamarck, Jan asked a passer by what she thought was the best restaurant in the area, and she didn’t hesitate. She recommended Au Pied Du Sacre Couer and said we had to have the warm Fois Grois. I had never had it and had no idea it was so cruelly produced, so will never have it again. But wow! It was delicious!

The restaurant is at the foot of a steep flight of stairs which go up to the next street, set in from the street, downhill from the station. And as beautiful as the setting is, the food is just outrageous! I really didn’t want my meal to end, and I have never done this before, but I asked the waiter if I could personally thank the chef, who is also the owner of the place.




If anyone reading this lives in or visits Paris, you really should treat yourself to a meal at this place. With a glass of wine and a coffee, your 2-course meal will cost you about 35 Euro, which is certainly cheaper than considerably inferior restaurants in tourist and business areas, and I would be most surprised if you don’t rate it as one of the best meals you have ever eaten.

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London’s worst snow in 18 years becomes a magical, wonderful day

We were due to leave London on Monday, Feb 2nd, but woke up to the worst snowstorm London had seen for 18 years – a whole 6 inches! This shut the city down and runways at Heathrow were closed when a Cyprus Airways plane skidded off the runway prior to take-off. So we had an extra day with my family. And we really made the most of it. This turned out to be the best day of the trip!





We built a snowman in the morning, had relaxing family time in the afternoon while watching the final hours of the football transfer window unfold; then had a lot of fun playing Apples to Apples in the evening. After all of our running around two great cities, this was a magical day, made all the better for my mother staying overnight and being around to see us off.








Roger worked from home; Nathan’s school was closed for 2 days; we got to see Nathan on his 10th birthday and spend some great time with my oldest nephew, Joe. All courtesy of Mother Nature and London’s complete inability to cope with more than a lick of snow.

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Jan and Andy talk marriage!


I didn’t formally propose, but I will. And Jan will accept! We are hoping for a September date in Los Angeles – her mother is about to turn 92, so she can’t travel any great distance - with parties in New York and London and a Honeymoon in the Amalfi Coast, Italy.

This will be my third and last marriage and Jan’s first and last. Neither of us has any doubts that this is absolutely right. It is obvious to all who see us together that we are a perfect match and our friends and family are all very excited for us.

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