Are Taco's the New Pizza?

Sons and daughters of Rome...while I do not foresee Taco's replacing Pizza anytime soon (so take a chill pill or glass of pinot grigio) as America's favorite food and fast easy snack, Taco's are quickly becoming a strong alternative at least in NYC. Taco joints in NYC are slowly but surely starting to pop up all over (especially downtown). The key to their success is that they are very good and very "cost-effective. They also offer more of a protein to carb ratio then pizza for the same price or less. A plain slice of pizza is averaging $2.50+ now, while a taco with a choice of proteins(chicken,the other white meat, beef, fish,) is only $3-4 bucks...do the math. Pinche Taqueria has great taco's that are basic and of good quality and La Esquina opened a taqueria with loads of variations in the same price range. Pizza will always be one of my all time favorites...and many higher quality pizza places have been opening up lately...but a $20 + pizza even with good quality ingredients is going to get some serious competition from $3.50 taco's with pulled pork, habernero onions and Jalapenos in this savvy gastronomic city...with oh soooo many new options...especially in this brave new world economy of ours...

$1 Dumplings!/Next Door Coconut Buns!

I've been jonesing lately for Chinese Dumplings & haven't been to a Dim Sum brunch in a while, so after hitting the gym in Soho I started heading east & figured I'd hit somewhere along the Little Italy/Chinatown border...but couldn't find anything that looked good & the place I had in mind had closed(damn recession!) but one of the great things about this city is that sometimes when you can't find what you are looking for...you stumble on to something even better (yes...a lot like life) & as I continued east I hit Vanessa's Dumpling house on Eldridge btwn Grand & Broome...HOME-RUN! I've read about it, but figured for $1 they couldn't be too good...I was oh so wrong...they were awesome...4 pork dumpling for a $1 & awesome! I had spicy cucumbers for a side dish & some green tea to wash it all down & spent only $4 for the whole meal & was full. I might be going back tomorrow to try out the soup & sesame pancake sandwiches.

As if that wasn't enough Duo Tian Bakery is right next door. I figured I'd try my luck & see if they had my favorite Chinese desert (actually one of my favorites overall) coconut buns, which lately I've have trouble finding & they had 3 different versions including my favorite for under a buck. So...go East young man/woman...take a walk o the wild side...you never know what new & old loves you will find...

When did being a Geek become "chic & fashionable"?

Aside from being Halloween yesterday it was one of those days when the weather went from 50-70 degrees, warm ,cold, dry, rainy...what the hell(it was Halloween) do you need to throw on to run out for the day?...so I grabbed a lightweight zippered RLX polartech jacket & a grey t-shirt...with a black bat on it. No...I was not going to run out on errands as Batman...the more clever of you (you know who you are) I'm sure caught the zippered jacket hint & figured out correctly that I was going as Bruce Wayne "incognito". Well on the subway heading downtown an attractive woman, her friend & 2 kids are sitting across from me. The woman looked & sounded either Spanish or South American, was wearing jeans, a zippered jacket & a black fitted t-shirt...with silver sequins making up a Superman symbol! So...when exactly did wearing a "superhero T-shirt go from being geeky unless you're well under 10 to be fashionable & chic & worn by good looking foreign women?!? For the record I embrace my inner geek...& look forward to women embracing The Black Widow, Black Canary, & Emma Frost as fashion Icons...

Fashion sense...or lack thereof...

This one is very likely going to get me in trouble...but I hope to redeem myself in the end... It is simply beyond me how many women in NYC dress sooooo poorly. I seriously just don't get it. This is one of the major fashion capitals of the world...especially for "street fashion". Now I'm not expecting everyone too have a great sense of style nor too be able to afford couture fashion...but the point is this is NYC...between all the woman who do dress well on the street, all the magazines, ads, TV, one's own fashion sense I would think that very few & far between would dress poorly. This is a city where women get dressed up to go shopping or to the gym...& yet I'm amazed at what I see sometimes.

I started noticing this big time years ago when companies started doing "business casual" Fridays. It was bad enough most guys didn't understand that meant trouser/khaki' with a button down vs acid wash jeans with a t-shirt (you know who you are) but women dressing without a clue...I couldn't believe it. I see it all the time on the street & out & about. For the record I'm not talking about outfits or styles I don't like, I'm talking about seeing a girl with a headband (my friend pointed it out) over 12...what adult woman wears a headband to keep her hair in place??? I actually thought she was wearing a costume. Then there was her friend the "Sherpa". Attractive girl wearing Uggs (hey, I live in NYC...how can I not know this stuff?!?) w/tights & a baggy hooded sweatshirt...the girl looked ridiculous. I mean seriously...you have everything from high end fashion to thrift shops to your H&M's, Top Shops, Banana Republics,Gap,A&F, etc...who knock off the current "looks" to make it a no-brainer to look good on the cheap w/o much effort. So...please explain to me how many disasters there are out there...

Now back to redeeming myself...for the most part all the girls that I'm friends with, date/dated & the wives/girlfriends of most of my friends do dress fine. Some very well & obviously spend some money & time...others not as high-end or fashionable but they look good. Their stuff matches. No one is going to go "did they dress in the dark from someone else's closet" etc... Again I just don't get it. Go to Rome, Florence, Paris, etc...& see how many poorly (illegal immigrants that they keep in ghetto's don't count) dressed women you see there. This is NYC...all women should be able to dress well if not high end. Here...I'll plug my brothers sister in laws place TAROO. She has locations in the Upper East/West & Murray Hill...go update your closet & tell them I sent you... http://www.taroonyc.com/index.php ...

Camera Krazy

I was up on the High-Line yesterday & you would have thought some massive photo shoot was going on. Every other person had a DSLR w/a serious lens while everyone one else had their point & shoot out taking pics...of the scenery, each other, people not aware they were being photographed etc...

I'm just not quite sure how crazy I am about everyone running around with a camera all day long taking pics of everything. I just love it how people just stop on the street to take pics seemingly oblivious that they are on a busy street in Manhattan & don't understand why the world doesn't stop so they can get a picture of whatever catches their inner artistic eye...

For the record I'm very much into photography, own a bunch of film & digital cameras, have Schatz, Stuht,& Schiller up on my walls & loads of books by Haskens, Dweck, Brandt, etc...My Father was an avid high end amateur photographer that had done some professional work & developed color prints in his own dark room. He drove us nuts as kids taking pictures all the time especially anywhere we went for a day trip or vacation. Yet I don't remember seeing a lot of others doing it. Back then we only had film cameras & you had to know for the most part what you were doing...with the exception of the Polaroid, but again just don't remember seeing people ALL over the places snapping off pics.

Now with the digital point & shoots everyone walks around all day long taking pics of EVERYTHING. I think with the exception of Sports Bars(then again...the Magners Hard Cider girl did take a pic of me drinking with the Magners label out at the Blind Pig last night...LOOK for ME in the next Magners campaign!) you can't go to a bar without having to deal with everyone constantly taking group shots (my cousin being possibly the worst offender of this) oh look we're in a bar AGAIN having a drink...eating brunch, dinner etc...Do we really need to record everything we do...Do we need to constantly take pictures just because we can? At my family dinners instead of one person taking a few pics...half the people there are firing off their cameras...it's like a fashion shoot for my Niece & Nephew with all the flashes going off.

While I'm a gadget guy & have committed many of the crimes listed above I try to use some common sense & stay aware of my surroundings...I guess I just feel it's become a bit too much when you can't walk down the street without ending up on someones camera...I hope you enjoyed my rant...

Vampires...their gory history & non-bloody future...

The History channel is running some shows on "things that go bump" in the night & I recently watched the Vampire segment. The show covered everything from the origins of the creature (they go back thousands of years, The Chinese have Jiang Shi, India has Kali, & Lilith comes from the Old Testament...check them out on wikipedia) all the way to scientific research on them in the modern world (new age Vampires do not drink blood nor allow it in practice, the feed on psychic energy & they walk among us...especially in New Orleans & NYC). It also goes over how their image has changed throughout the centuries from undead scary monsters to charming, sexy, & seductive Euro's. The show didn't cover much of the new age Americanized teen-vamp(Twilight, Vampire Diaries etc) or the True Blood Southern Gothic take on Vampires simply being minorities...but there are more then enough articles & shows covering that now.

One of the more disturbing things that came out of the show was that...as usual, the worst monsters in Vampire history are not in Mythology or Fiction but were true stories of actual human atrocities . One of the worst monsters in human history was a Hungarian Royal who believed bathing in blood would keep her young. They estimate that she tortured & killed 600+ virgins over the years for their blood. She was not brought to justice until she went after the children of fellow royalty. Another monster was some head-case teenager who slaughtered his girlfriends parents to drink their blood. He was given life & doesn't really care since he believes he is immortal.

Do we create these monsters of fiction to make our own real monsters seen less horrible...? Do we dream them up because of our horror & revulsion at what our fellow men/women really do? I don't think Count Dracula had much on Vlad "the Impaler" Dracula much less Hitler, Stalin, Mao...well the list goes on, you get the point...

Otherwise, enjoy the show...I have the Wolfman episode set to record...I like Vampires...but due to my nature...I think it's safe to say I would be a Lycan...