CityLurve: Philly (Redux), or: The Changing Eatery Scene In My 'Hood

admittedly, i've only lived in philly for a year... and i don't spend as much time exploring the city's culinary variety as i would like to.

but my most recent return to the city, after a month away (i was in bombay and charlottesville, which explains the radio silence on this blog), has been awesome, not only because it feels like a real homecoming, but also because i've noticed that change is on the food horizon.

it began earlier this summer, in fact. mid-may, i noticed that a large, empty ground-floor store on the same block as my new-apartment-to-be was getting frantically painted and polished. turned out it opened soon thereafter: the newest iteration of the green line café -- see <http://www.greenlinecafe.com/2008/06/new-green-line-on-locust-now-open.html> for the joyous news on the green line blog. it looks large, and welcoming, and it brightens up the whole block. i'm not a coffee drinker, but it looks like i'll have to start!

mid-last week, after my return, i was walking from the english department to the pool and noticed that the jeweller on 34th and walnut had finally closed while i was gone -- about time, as it had been threatening to do so all spring. coming in its place: the naked chocolate café (<http://www.nakedchocolatecafe.com>). excellent!

and then, as i found out on friday night while poking around centre city for outdoor-seating BYOB options, melograno (on 22nd and spruce) has just closed down (although apparently it will be reopening in the fall at 20th and sansom). to come in its place -- something called memé. if it's anything like its neighbourhood buddies audrey claire (<http://www.audreyclaire.com>) or tinto (<http://www.tintorestaurant.com>), or even its former avatar (which made up for its lack of website by having outdoor seating, accepting major credit cards, and serving up delicious mushroom-filled food), i will be pleased.

i like knowing where one might go to try out a particular cuisine/feature in philadelphia -- whether BYOB, or wine+cheese pairings, or ethiopian, or sushi, or most recently (after today's bout of research on yelp and citysearch), dim sum. (my answers: audrey claire/mercato, tria, almaz cafe, swanky bubbles, ocean harbour/joy tsin lau.) what's even better is the assurance that more good things keep happening in this town. bring it on!

CityLurve: Philadelphia

if i hear one more person tell me that philadelphia is a shithole/the ghetto/crime-ridden and depressed/not as good as new york, i will give them the look of death. or bust out my talons and rip right into them, depending on how annoying i found them before they went and opened their pie-hole.

i haven't spent much time in the city, admittedly, and the statistics do give reason for worry, and septa is about as inspiring in the field of public transportation as king kong is in the field of microsurgery, but the unmitigated hating? that just needs to stop already! because you know what? i like the skyline, i like the grid-like layout (boston, you have a lot to learn, buddy), i like 30th street station, i like the little squares with archaic names (fitler? rittenhouse?), i like the ubiquitous homage to ben franklin, i like the south st. creperie i was taken to on my first "real" day in the city (and the atmosphere of south st. in general), i like the view from penns landing, i like the street signs with rainbows on them, i like the architecture and the robert indiana sculpture in/near jfk plaza, and i like the painted little victorian houses in university city. so shush.

in this vein, the aarp magazine (which i was reading over lunch at work today because it had an ancient-looking kevin costner on the cover and i just had to find out what would inspire them to put his wrinkled fake-tanned goatee-wielding shaved-chested self in such a position of glory) is just beyond impolite.

you see, the magazine's july/august 2007 issue boasts an article on "50 things to know at 50" or some such (i guess you could call this advance reading... or something to make the tasteless food go down easier); #42 is "how to stay married". the advice for the more poetic among us is to "pretend your relationship (marriage) is a road trip. your wedding was the holland tunnel. your life is the new jersey turnpike. death is philadelpia. pretend there are no exits, only rest stops."

umm, hello? not only is that the most depressing vision of marriage i've ever heard (and i do consider myself at this stage an anti-marriage cynic), but also, how about we make death, like, idaho or somewhere else instead of the city in which i'm going to spend the next semi-decade? hmph!

CityLurve: London (Redux)

home safe, with a riddle solved (see <http://simran.nomadlife.org/2007/04/where-would-you-go.aspx>), a new friend solidly in the kitty, a diary completed, and about half the monopoly board checked off.

london was amazing, and although i spent a lot of my time alone this trip -- and had a great time doing it -- due credit for a lot of the highlights must go to milan (<http://web.mac.com/msamani>), heather, and rishab (<http://rishab.nomadlife.org>).

heather, the quintessential wellesley woman, and my medievalist warwick castle companion: i had a fabulous time, trebuchet and train rides and long walks and all. i hope we can be companions on more such adventures!

rish... "bhai" to me too, although in a different way. thanks for letting me crash!

and milan. how can i thank you enough? right from waiting for me at the airport to riding the london eye with me to our fabulous avenue q experience to lip-smackingly good dinners at ping pong and crazy bear to zooming around central london -- st. katherine docks, st. paul's, the millennium bridge, fly one, hammersmith -- all day and all night (in the beemer, on the underground, and on foot) to the seamless laundry ka intezaam at 1 pickwick place to listening to me rattle on about grad school to explaining the origins of the anglican church and the congestion charge to co-opting vishwa's bed for me to contemplating smuggling me across the french border to offering me a place to stay "when you come here for penn-in-london [4 years from now]"... you are a gem.

my visa is valid until 2010. mel and michael will be there in the fall, too. more more more!

***

update, wednesday, june 20, 2007:

check this out: <http://www.animalsontheunderground.com>

most versatile subway system ever!

CityLurve: New York (Redux)

you know, i already did a citylurve on new york (at <http://simran.nomadlife.org/2006/09/citylurve-new-york.aspx>), but somehow i can't imagine this sort of list -- courtesy weekend in new york and the NYT -- making sense if created with any other city in mind. so you'll have to forgive me the duplication.

anyone care to go on this hunt when i'm in nyc at the end of the month?

Point and Shoot for Bonus Points

ONE reason people visit New York is to catch a glimpse of things they’d never see in the average American city. Some such sights are mystifying, some charming, some jaw-dropping — and some are even legal.

Did you find the worst bagel spread combination? A bad parallel parking job? We want to see what you caught on film.

This week, Weekend in New York offers a photo scavenger hunt, in which you (working alone or in a group) seek out scenes and objects intrinsically New York and capture them with your camera. The hunt could be the centerpiece of your weekend, but also could serve as just a way to enhance your downtime as you wander from restaurant to park to museum, observing the natives in their natural habitat.

If competing against others, award two points to the team that does the best in each category, and one point to anyone coming in a reasonably close second. Or, if you’re playing alone, just award a whole bunch of points to your own team and declare yourself the winner.

FOOD

Biggest crowd waiting for a brunch table: Sociologists are unable to explain it, so why should you even try? New Yorkers like to wait — arms crossed and toes tapping, of course — as long as possible for their first meal on Sunday. To qualify, those waiting must be huddled on the sidewalk.

Worst bagel/cream cheese or spread combo: Blueberry bagel with olive tofu spread? You can do better (worse) than that. Either a photo of the offending sandwich or, if you don’t dare order it, separate photos of the elements qualify.

Most expensive pizza slice — cheese only: The price of a slice of plain old cheese pizza is always creeping up. What’s the highest you can find? (Hint: $2 probably won’t win.)

Most expensive slice, no toppings barred: Add chicken or basil or bacon or artichokes or gold leaf, and watch the price take off like a pickpocket being chased in the subway.

Most unusual-looking fruit or vegetable for sale: If it can get through customs, it’s somewhere in this city.

BUSINESS

The A.T.M. charging you the most outrageous amount for a withdrawal: $2 minimum.

Most newspaper/magazine dispensers on one street corner: They’re often chained together, and the ones with things you’d actually want to read are empty or require your pockets to be jingle-jangle-jingling with quarters.

Most out-of-town and/or foreign language newspapers at one newsstand: In some parts of town, you’d think fans of Le Monde and La Gazzetta dello Sport and Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung had never heard of the Internet.

Cheesiest Statue of Liberty-related tourist souvenir.

Multiple Starbucks in one picture: Two, certainly; three is a challenge.

TRANSPORTATION

Best parallel parking job: The city’s drivers know that if a parking space is an inch longer than their car, they can ooze in. Be sure to photograph both the front and back ends.

Vehicle with multiple parking tickets: The easy-to-spot orange envelopes should be on the windshield or clearly visible inside the car. Old tickets that truck drivers place to avoid reticketing are valid, as are tickets ripped apart in rage.

Most yellow cabs in one photo: No fair taking an aerial shot from the top of the Empire State Building.

LIVING CREATURES

Most unlikely companions: Some New York restaurants specialize in unusual wine and food pairings, but the entire city specializes in unusual people pairings. Is that fashionable babe really dating that pitiful slob? Is that silver-haired guy about three times that woman’s age? Is that a rabbi necking with a Senegalese hair stylist? (100 points for the last one.)

Best-dressed dog: And by that, we mean worst-dressed dog.

Most dogs with one human: In New York, money buys anything, including the guy or gal who comes to your house, picks up your dog and drags it and a bunch of others to the park. Absolute minimum: four dogs.

Pedestrian triple-tasking: Someone doing at least three things at once, one of which is walking down the street — plus eating and talking on cellphone; listening to iPod and reading magazine; or knitting and screaming at friend.

Pedestrian stupid-tasking. Someone who is text-messaging while crossing a hyper-busy street, something that could soon be illegal in New York City.

Picture of a celebrity on the street: Trick question! In New York you’re supposed to ignore celebrities. Minus 20 points.

Someone using a pay phone: Not too common these days; even less common, two people using adjacent pay phones (double points).

A traffic police officer smiling: It’s a tough life giving out tickets to the roughly seven million cars that are breaking parking laws at any one time. Subjected to nasty looks and verbal lashings, these officers don’t have much to smile about.

Anyone wearing George W. Bush paraphernalia (hat, T-shirt, full body tattoo): Manhattan voted 82 percent to 17 percent for John Kerry over Mr. Bush in 2004. The word on the street is that the president’s popularity has not increased.

NONEDIBLE INANIMATE OBJECTS

Public advertisements or notices in languages other than English: one point for each language. Spanish is a freebie, kind of like the space in the middle of a bingo card. (Starting clue: Check out the signs about being in one of the first five cars on the No. 1 train to South Ferry.)

Most amusing spelling or translation error: Combine immigrant store owners with immigrant sign makers and what do you get? An entrepreneurial spirit that keeps the city’s economic engine humming? Yeah, sure, but also errors terrible enough to drive language sticklers insane.

Most monstrous baby stroller: It’s not that strollers aren’t monstrous everywhere, but here the sidewalks, store aisles and bystander tolerance are narrower.

Most unusual piece of refuse: A city that collects the strangest things also discards the strangest things, and they don’t all fit in a trash bag.

Most intellectual book being read in public: O.K., or perhaps just used as a prop to attract a Ms. or Mr. Right prone to lugging around a copy of “Gravity’s Rainbow.” If you hear someone say, “Oh, you’re into Kierkegaard” — whirl, point and shoot.

CityLurve: London

memories from last time:

... finding the tabard, replete with plaque, in a nook practically splat under london bridge.
... the "restored" globe.
... shotglasses that are squat and square (the better to hold more alcohol with!)
... fish n chips. (or, in my case, just chips.) and a cold pint (or, in my case, some lovely red wine.)
... ishtar. slurp.
... wagamama. double slurp.
... chilling with barbara and sylvia in foreign climes!
... an esoteric underground system with all sorts of coloured lines floating around -- in other words, a challenge!
... conscientiously avoiding marks and spencers.
... inadvertently missing the first bus out to canterbury because of the change to BST -- but still making it there in time to listen to easter mass at the cathedral, and shaking rowan williams' hand afterward.
... sauntering past st. paul's in the most blase, flippant, i-do-this-every-day sort of way.
... big red buses (yes, i know bombay has them too).
... pigeons :)
... visiting sherlock holmes' house on baker st, and shaking hands with a most senescent dr. watson.
... funky accents.
... meeting nick's new twins!
... "mamma mia" (courtesy of the west end tkts, of course, m'deah).
... spotting geoff at the national portrait gallery.
... and kissing his grave at westminster abbey.
... a very cool green bus that took me right from my doorstep to heather's.
... sneaking pictures of MS Cotton Nero A.x in the "b'tish-lai-bree".
... sauntering down the riverbank on no sleep at all for a seemingly interminable period of time until we got to witness the prettiness of turner/whistler/monet at the tate.
... the ridiculously confusing signs at heathrow (they must have been reading how to be a brit by george mikes).

i'll have to wait a few months before doing the rest of it. for now, may the GRE gods smile upon me.

CityLurve: Paris

some of you who've been following my blog for a while might recognize that my citylurve posts tend to eulogize cities i already know.

i only wish i could say i knew paris at all... i've never been, and if my current state of vacation-related disorganization is anything to go by, i'll probably never end up there, long-term UK visa notwithstanding :-/

but i had to use up the title, because i just did this quiz (<http://ynr.blogthings.com/whatcitydoyoubelonginquiz>) at blogthings -- full disclosure: this is the home of such insightful masterpieces as "who's your celebrity boob twin?", "what john cusack movie are you?", "what colour is your aura?" and "what kind of redhead should you be?", but who cares? -- and it tells me that i belong in

Paris

Stylish and a little sassy, you were meant for Paris. The art, the fashion, the wine, the men! Whether you're enjoying the cafe life or a beautiful park... You'll love living in the most chic place on earth.

and speaking of hot french men (because all conversations can easily be steered toward that topic!), i gotta confess i had a truly tough time answering this particular question:
What type of men do you love?
a) Romantic, old fashioned guys
b) Aggressive men with a bit of an edge to them
c) Sexy guys who are a bit on the rough side
d) Sophisticated, witty men

can't i say "e) all of the above?" i mean, isn't that how life really is in the city of light and lurrve? :P

CityLurve: New York

i love new york, even when it's grey and rainy and windy and all signs point towards a long and craptastic winter. i really do, and i will miss it.

...because in boston or bombay, even walking 10 minutes down the street is unheard of, but sauntering from 70th and lex to 43rd and 10th is fun :)
... because i can now go to kati roll midtown as well as downtown *slurp*
... because i can strike up conversations with random cabbies and find out that they are more interesting people than i am, being in the merchant navy and all
... because even everything familiar tastes better (cf: bella blu gnocchi, cold stone mint mint chocolate chocolate chip, la bottega cheesecake, and even -- i'm willing to bet my bottom dollar -- tomorrow's chipotle burritos). due to the fact that it's twice as expensive as anywhere else, perhaps?
... because manhattan island isn't all that far from long island, and i love li too!
... because of how i feel like such a hick saying hello to retail employees, who look at me funny and wonder why i'm being nice *grin*
... because it is beautiful. for proof, watch any movie or TV show set in the city (well, except perhaps trust the man, which, although it is quite picturesque, is easily one of the most absurd and awful films i've ever seen. so watch the opening credits if you must, but then leave.)
... awesome cheap shopping: fake purses on the street! conway! all of soho! shotglasses and badass t-shirts by the dozen! chinatown!
... because it's an exception to every rule, including the cheap movie tickets rule since there's a "manhattan surcharge" on amc discount passes
... because of the gorgeous upper east side, for which i have gained a new appreciation this trip
... because only in new york could you post about a $1200-a-month sublet -- a smallish room, with 2 ok-sized windows, overlooking a street -- on craigslist on a friday afternoon and attract over 2 dozen responses in 7 hours from people who run over to look at it and gush about how affordable it is, what a good deal it is, and how they can pay you two months' rent up front... and feel righteous about not fleecing them for about $500 a month more
... because i know the subway without having to gape endlessly at "the map"
... because i've learned to follow the little white guy telling me when to walk and therefore don't have to pay any attention to the big orange hand telling me not to (thanks, dad, for teaching me the #1 rule of sidewalk survival in manhattan :D)
... because of the wonderful comfort of brunch with aditi (and not having to choose from the 7,000 restaurants in new york to achieve it... we usually go to deluxe, sunday morning somewhere between 10:30 and 11:30.)
... because of the grid. it makes sense. anyone who says they're lost in manhattan (this means the tourists) is off their rocker.
... because i have the right to look down my nose at said tourists, with their white sneakers and their wailing children, as they wade through the interminable traffic jam that is times sq, with all the snottiness of a native
... because of the all-round hilarity of <http://www.overheardinny.com>
... because there's always something else to do if you don't want to follow your original plans

i love new york.

(and yes, i own a tshirt and a shotglass that say it, and that's ok.)

CityLurve: Bombay

home.

i just heard about the bomb blasts from an hour or so ago... i'm too far away to have heard the news live, or to have had my phone line jammed, or to have worried intensely and immediately about my friends who live in the burbs (which, fyi, are not the affluent, isolated clapboard-house constructs of metro america but the teeming, still-urban hearts of any indian city -- just further up on the rail map).

no tribute that i could write to bombay city would be eloquent enough at this point, when i am not around to witness the chaos and the comfort -- or to do the more regular things, smell the cologne and the day's catch, hear the human buzz and the hurtling buses, sit by the sea and think... so here's suketu "maximum city" mehta to do it for me (via a WSJ op-ed).

Hard to Digest

NEW YORK -- In a recent survey of global courtesy, Readers Digest found Bombay -- now officially called Mumbai -- to be the rudest city on earth. As a person brought up in Bombay, I might have been offended, if the same survey hadn't proclaimed the politest city in the world to be . . . New York. In the immortal words of Rudy Giuliani, when he was informed of the verdict of etiquette experts in 2001 that his was the nation's politest city, "What were they smoking?"

I checked to see if the survey was another one of the stately Digest's joke sections. But no, it's meant to be taken seriously and confirm the Digest's core mission: in 60 countries, in 21 languages, to reassure Americans about their superiority to the rest of the planet.

What was the Digest's evidence for dissing Bombay? People in the Indian megapolis flunk the survey's three tests of politeness: They don't say "Thank you," don't open doors for others, and don't help strangers pick up dropped papers.

Has anyone told the folks in Pleasantville that most people in India don't say "Thank you" after a transaction? They nod or wag their heads in acknowledgment. Nobody considers it discourteous. And in Bombay, professional doormen are paid to hold open doors in the kind of public buildings the survey was carried out; customers neither open doors for others nor expect others to hold them open for them. As for dropped paper, there's so much litter and so few garbage cans in Bombay that if a person drops a piece of paper in front of you, you would be justified in assuming it's because they want to get rid of it.

In quest of its exquisitely well-mannered New Yorkers, the magazine conducted its research entirely in what it quaintly considers a quintessential New York institution: Starbucks coffee shops. Not bodegas, or delis, or fried chicken outlets, where the results might arguably have been very different. It's not that people who like to pay three bucks for a cup of coffee at Starbucks are more polite -- only differently polite. In the less chi-chi parts of the city I call home now, they might not hold the door open for you, but they're more likely to help you out in finding a job or an apartment. The Digest concluded that the rich are more courteous than the scruffy. "It was prosperous cities that were at the top of our rankings." It is no wonder that, out of the 35 cities surveyed, eight out of nine Asian cities finished in the bottom 11.

I suggest that the Digest conduct a second survey, using my own measures of civic courtesy: If four people are seated on a commuter train bench designed for three, will they accommodate a fifth person? Will people smile brightly at a stranger's little kid in a restaurant, stopping by to say "How sweet!" -- even when the child is being noisy? And if people are eating in a train compartment, will they share their food with you? I bet Bombay would come out tops.

Though most Bombayites would consider the Digest's findings about as painful as a mosquito bite, an article accompanying might cause them to choke on their chapatis. In it, a Bombayite is quoted as saying, "In Mumbai, they'll step over a person who has fallen in the street." I'd like to think that the dear old Digest, which I grew up reading in India, doesn't really believe this grotesque view of the city, for in 1997 they published an excerpt from an article I'd written about the everyday courtesies of the Bombay trains:

"If you are late for work in Mumbai and reach the station just as the train is leaving the platform, don't despair. You can run up to the packed compartments and find many hands unfolding like petals to pull you on board. And while you will probably have to hang on to the door frame with your fingertips, you are still grateful for the empathy of your fellow passengers, already packed tighter than cattle, their shirts drenched with sweat in the badly ventilated compartment. They know that your boss might yell at you or cut your pay if you miss this train. And at the moment of contact, they do not know if the hand reaching for theirs belongs to a Hindu or a Muslim or a Christian or a Brahmin or an Untouchable. Come on board, they say. We'll adjust."

Now that's called opening doors for others.

CityLurve: Cambridge

usually i don't like cambridge, because it's a schlep from my little nook in brighton, and because it involves the red line and almost no other reliable public transportation (the 86 doesn't count because it starts out great from here but somehow gets messed up on the way back), and because harvard and mit aren't necessarily so much some of the best universities in the nation as suppliers of stupid boys who break promises, and because it's where i sprained my ankle due to awful brickwork, and because it's the other side of the river and who wants that, especially when the best view of the 4th of july fireworks is from the esplanade!?, and because it's fly-over country en route to somerville, and because of the hellish traffic i encountered there on my commute home 5 days a week for 9 or 10 months...

but despite all that, there is lurve. because yesterday will, shabad, liz and i went to the gap and bought some awesome tops/shirts -- that we then left on a bus stop bench when we got on the 86. and when will and i decided to go back on a last-ditch off-chance to look for the bag, we found it sitting there, right where we left it, having been opened and pawed around in, but there nevertheless.

it might have happened in brighton, too -- but it happened in cambridge, and anyway brighton doesn't have too many quaint-looking wooden bus stop benches... so cambridge gets plus points.

(but not too many.)

CityLurve: Boston

one of the few times of year you'll actually find me happy about boston: when it's about 80 degrees out and everyone else (ie, the subset of all residents of the city who are NOT from india!) is complaining non-stop about the sweltering heat. at any rate, tonight i really felt some positive vibes for this crazy little town. it's approaching the end of my fifth year here, and it's hard to believe that soon i'll be packing up my stuff for the fifth time and moving -- but this time, to god knows where. anyone got any suggestions -- or better yet, job offers?