Fig & Olive Comics

This evening after work a friend and I headed out to the meatpacking district to eat dinner at Fig & Olive. I had tried the uptown location once before, and found the experience to be fairly pleasant, but nothing too spectacular. Above all, I remember leaving the place thinking that despite the name, I had not really gotten much in the way of either figs or olives during the course of the dinner. Perhaps my fault for not ordering more carefully, but I left feeling slightly disappointed nonetheless.

I had made reservations beforehand (OpenTable) — I highly recommend it, and no they don't pay me), but when we arrived there was a bit of confusion because apparently I had accidentally booked for the following night. The hostess was very accomodating despite the fact that it was somewhat busy, and I was impressed that they seated us right away anyway.
On a side note, I was just telling my friend about how, as a recent new MacBook user (switching from PC laptop), I was impressed by the array of miscellaneous applications one has available out of the box with OS-X. In particular, I mentioned Comic Life, which I had played with for a few minutes the previous day. So, I decided to throw together a few camera phone pictures with it for this entry.

To continue, I was determined this time to get may fair share of figs and olives, and so I ordered more carefully. I started right off ordering a Niçoise olive martini, but received instead the Arbequina martini. Not a big deal; I am not a picky olive eater, and so a little unpredictability in the order process was not entirely unwelcome. It was definitely the most strongly olive-flavored martini I have ever had, so we were off to a good start. We quickly followed with an appetizer assortment of mixed olives and a Fig & Olive Salad, which containes - you guessed it- both figs and more olives. By the time we finished those items, I felt like I had easily gotten my fair share of both for the evening, particularly after dipping everything in the three varieties of olive oil they provided for the table.

A note about the decor at the meatpacking location. This one is a completely different experience from the uptown one. Unquestionably the more trendy area calls for more attention to the hip-ness of the decor, but still I was impressed by the large open spaces and gleaming walls and shelves filled with all manner of olive-related oils and paraphernalia.

Dinner at The Plaza

This evening after watching a movie with a friend (Fracture, in which Anthony Hopkins pockets a quick paycheck by dusting off his cheerfully cold, homicidal sociopath persona from the Lecter trilogy et al.), I was looking for a quick bite to eat on the way home, and so I happened into the Plaza Diner.

I have passed this place a number of times over the past several days, and from my casual observation it appears that they typically have more of a crowd than other diners of the same type in the area, and so I had made a mental note to give it a try. Tonight seemed like a good night, and after perusing the specials and getting a recommendation from the waiter I changed plans and decided on the roast chicken weekend special. Choice of soup or salad came with the special, and I also got to choose a type of potato and vegetable from reasonable extensive list (broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, squash, zucchini and maybe a couple of others).

I opted for the Manhattan clam chowder to start. To me clam chowder has always meant the cream-based variety, but since I am now living in Manhattan it occurs to me that I might as well get with the chowder program and try the red stuff. The version here at Plaza reminded me more of vegetable soup, with a fairly meager sprinkling of clams, but given my expectations were not high I found it satisfactory.

When the waiter brought out my entree, I was quite surprised by the size of the portions -- definitely equivalent to what I think of as the epitome of oversized portions on the west coast, Claim Jumper.

I was pretty hungry by this point, though, so I worked my way through pretty much the whole thing. Definitely blue-plate fare, but not only was it significantly cheaper than Claim Jumper ($12.95 for the special), but tasted better as well. The chicken was actually roasted quite well, and the accompanying broccoli and potato were not the limp gray and mealy fare one might expect. All said, it was a satisfying meal, and isn't that the point of a diner?

Street Fair Part II

After the usual morning routine, I headed out to meet a friend for bunch, and when passing by Lexington Avenue I came across another street fair. As I discussed in excruciating detail in a previous post, I have seen this phenomenon previously, but after checking into the official street fair schedule it appeared that this wasn't going to happen again on Lexington for the rest of the summer. After checking into it this time when I returned home, I could find no reason why there was a repeat showing today. Apparently this was just some future echo of last weekend's fair, brought on by a collective desire to preserve the spirit of all the fun and merriment that all enjoyed.

While strolling through I happened to pass by a rug merchant, and it crossed my mind that being in the process of moving into a yet-to-be-furnished apartment, we were going to be in need of a number of rugs, and this might be a good opportunity to find a solution. I was in somewhat of a hurry so I didn't stop today, but I figure at this point that they do this on Lexington pretty much every weekend, so maybe I will catch up the rug peddler next week. I'm sure I could arrange for some kind of package deal to cover every room in our apartment, although I'm not sure my negotiating skills are given that the rug trade and those that practice it practically invented and have practiced haggling for centuries.

When discussing this with a friend a bit later he mentioned that in many buildings in Manhattan there are explicit rules and requirements for covering a certain percentage of the floors with rugs (80% in his case). As I am still becoming acclimated to the customs and standards of living here, I am continuously amazed by what people have to go through to live in a Manhattan apartment. I don't think I have heard of any requirements like this at our building, but then again there was a large covenant I vaguely recall us having to acknowledge at some point in the purchase process. It's not that I object to the rules; I can understand the noise control angle, and I would be in favor anyway in the interest of protecting the finish on the wood floors. But even reasonable measures can seem onerous when they make the jump from recommended to mandatory.

Taksim is Tasty

This evening on may way home from work I wanted something close by and reliable for dinner, so I stopped in at Taksim, a Turkish restaurant on 2nd Avenue. The location couldn't be more convenient, and every time I have been there so far it has been reliably good.

At this point I can't imagine going there and not getting the Greek Salad to start. This is a hearty salad, which in addition to the basic tomato, lettuce, cucumber, onion and feta also includes nice touches like a bit of elephant bean salad and a stuffed vine leaf.

Tonight I tried the Chicken Adana kebab, which is made with ground chicken wrapped around a skewer and grilled. The kebab was quite good with some spicy chili sauce. Accompanied by an Efes, a Turkish beer, it was all quite good. One of the nice touches here is the complimentary watermelon slice they provide for dessert. Just enough to counterbalance the heaviness of the skewered meat.

Daily Commute

This morning the weather wasn't too bad (after a couple of days of rain and unseasonable chill), so I decided to take the time on my way to the office in the morning to capture some images that illustrate what my morning commute is like. Surely my commute is representative of that of many thousands living in the city, but it is much different than what I been used to for the rest of my working life. For me going into work has always involved hopping into a car and negotiating traffic, minimizing exposure to the weather and interaction with other people. Now, though, having left my car behind in Seattle, I am committed to a much different approach relying on a combination of ambulatory and public transportation. This morning I headed out at around 7:15AM. As always the first leg of the trip involves traveling a couple of blocks to the nearest subway entrance at 53rd and 3rd Avenue. The route is still new enough for me that I usually spot something novel each time in the way of shops, restaurants or other amusements that I make mental note of to visit at some future point. In particular I like 53rd street because of one particular section where you can see 6 or 7 little restaurants embedded above and below street level. So many choices. After just a few short blocks, the subway entrance is in sight and I head underground. On hot days the underground stations can be quite stifling, but thankfully today it wasn't bad at all. My route is to take the 6 train downtown just a few stops, and I am fortunate that it seems to be consistently rated as one of the best subway lines, according to a number of publications and reviews. Certainly it seems pleasant enough to me, but then again I only ride typically for three stops. Not enough really to be bothered by anything. The worst part about the trip is waiting for the subway to arrive, and with the exception of hot days the issue is just the inaction, the feeling that you are not getting anywhere during this time. It's the closest to being stuck in traffic that I experience now, but thankfully the trains run frequently enough and so far it's never been more than five minutes or so that I wait in the morning. That was the case this morning, and within a few minutes I boarded the train. The train cars are air conditioned aggressively, so on hot days this is the point at which you experience relief from the muggy station air -- sometimes this can be quite a shock to the system due to the extreme temperature difference and rapid cooling. The train trip is short, and for me it still feels like an amusement ride. Not thrilling like a roller coaster, but easygoing and meandering like a monorail. Surely this feeling of recreation will wear off after a while, and I have learned from my colleagues at work that it doesn't even last a single day under strain of an forty-five minute or longer trip from outside the city, but for me it is quick and when I get off I almost feel like I would like to ride a bit more. When I exit the subway station, I emerge on 28th street and Park Avenue, and it is just a couple blocks over to my office on 5th Avenue. I often pick up some fruit and perhaps espresso on the way in, and luckily I pass eight or nine bistros and/or cafes in that short walk, not including the chains like Starbucks and Dunkin' Donuts. After a quick stop into the last one I go by, Cafe 28, I arrive at my block on 5th Avenue. As the pictures show, my block is in the shadow of the Empire State building — a nice landmark to greet me on my way in.