Restaurant List from New York Magazine's "Where to Eat '09" issue, Jan. 2009

Ippudo Ramen, 65 4th Ave., near 10th street

Curry-Ya, 214 E. 10th St., near 1st Ave. affordable lunch curry bar

Persimmon, 277 E. 10th St., near Ave. A, well-priced Korean fusion

The Little Owl, 90 Bedford St., at Grove St. great bacon cheeseburger, among other things

Commerce, 50 Commerce St., Near Bedford St., good back-alley West Village stop for steak and other more yummy, Euro-fusion traditional brasserie dishes

Perbacco,234 E. 4th St., near Ave. B, yummy carbs and nontraditional Italian pastas

10 Downing, 10 Downing St. at 6th Ave., "comforting trencherman recipes with a light, gourmet touch"

West Branch, 2178 Bway, at 77th St., brasserie, well-priced

Picholine, 35 W. 64th St., near Central Park West "my favorite (little) venue for...a decorous gourmet dinner"

Bargain Mania: Jean Georges, Gottino, Bouchon Bakery, Insieme, Terroir, Kefi, Le Cirque, Grammercy Tavern, Porchetta

Steak: Center Cut, Primehouse, Porter House New York, Shorty's.32, Momofuku Ssam Bar, Forge, The Harrison, Park Avenue Winter, Persephone

Dessert: Momofuku Bakery & Milk Bar, Dessert Club, ChikaLicious, The John Dory (also good seafood), Inside Park at St. Bart's, Corton (caramel brioche!), Café Boulud, Gilt (Michelin starred rest. at Palace Hotel)

Fancy (Or Not) Breakfast Recommendations: 2nd Ave Deli, Shopsin's, Market Table, BLT Markey, Bar Breton, Boqueria Soho, Morandi, The New French, Elizabeth, Fatty Crab, Kingswood

Brooklyn Recommendations: Char No. 4 (fancy, homey treets), La Superior (popular Williamsburg Mexican), Walter Foods (grand street Mexican fusion), The General Greene (Fort Greene, old world), Bussaco (Park Slope, High End Barnyard)

福袋

My favorite part of the New Year - sales!! I never realized how crazy lucky bags got though. Quotes from recent articles on the breadth & depth of lucky bag mania:

To coincide with the Year of the Ox in 2009, Takashimaya Co will have a bag containing Miyazaki beef, vegetables and fruit each month for six months to help consumers get a taste of luxury while cutting back on spending.

Miyazaki beef will total 6 kilograms over six months and is priced at 100,000 yen. But the sale price is 11,290 yen—in Japanese, a number able to be pronounced as a play on words meaning ‘‘good meat.’’ -->Love wordplay! いいにくを！

Matsuya Co’s Ginza store has produced a ‘‘marriage activity support lucky bag’’ of women’s ‘‘make-or-break clothing’’ selected by its male employees who have frequently attended mixers. The bag targets ‘‘Arasa,’’ or women around the age 30 and is priced at 14,000 yen.

More here.

Time for a kanji check!

Been trolling around Yodobashi's website (& Amazon too) for DS software info. Need a way to keep up my kanji since I think in Chinese more and more. Stumbled onto this site for checking my kanji level. I was worried but according to them, I know about 780-820 characters. Yes! Almost out of middle school level!

http://www.mlcjapanese.co.jp/LevelCheck/Kanji/01.htm

Nazotte Oboeru Otona no Kanji Renshu is on my wish list, for every day stroke order practice. And that awesome kungfu kanji game too - but only once I've mastered well over 1,000+ characters.

They've also got my favorite cellphone game on DS - mojipittan. I love these little yellow guys! Mojipittan is the best word game ever, though I'd prolly get more out of it if I strategized with the hiragana they gave me instead of just randomly choosing characters and smooshing them wherever - eventually making/learning a new word.

I used to spend summers learning kanji - writing out characters and meanings. There's something so comforting about it to me now, especially after learning Mandarin. Can't wait to get started again.

Apple takes over the (priveleged) world!

You know this company isn't going anywhere, they simply never stop. After spending a class session discussing what the "desktop" is, on and off the computer, it got us thinking about future computer interfaces. (Think Minority Report, like bigger, more transparent and flexible iPhone screens.)




It looks like Apple may have some 3D/multidimensional plans up their glossy white sleeves.

Check out this site for more: Apple Exploring 3D Desktop and Application Interfaces.

Nostalgia.

Is it the generation we're in or are we just a group of nostalgic youngsters here? On a recent stroll through Macy's I came across the Betsey Johnson section and began criticizing it with a friend. Why does BJ never change up her collection? She sticks the the cupcake dresses and rainbow prints that make everyone in them look like they live in a dollhouse. Why doesn't she do something more fashion forward, I asked. But then I see the photos of her most recent fashion show at this week's New York Fashion Week:

And I remember how and why Betsey introduced me to fashion and even the way I look at life. Both can be pure and happy and beautiful without being the least bit pretentious. Looking at these girls makes me happy and makes me seriously (almost) believe that if I was hanging out with them we would be having more fun. There's probably a lot wrong with that and should be deconstructed about why I feel this way and how she's totally heteronormative, but those were the things I could love being as a little girl and it makes me happy thinking about how things were when they were simple, without bubble skirts, ombre, empire waist praire-chic, le smoking suits, whatever.

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Photo from thecobrasnake.com

Fire Flowers (Hanabi)

Summer won't ever lose its nostalgic sheen for me. It's about extremes - sticky sweaty crowds, ice cream dripping down my fingers, hands and shirt, bright blue skies and unexpected thunderstorms. It's very sensual - all about ripe, overripe, juku juku, drums pounding, the murmuring crowds at the train station, the smell of subway and grease. Especially now, especially in Japan.

This summer is my last so it's saturated with bitter sweets: sentimentality and impending uncertainty about the future. I feel in between places and ages - desperately grasping at independence but stubbornly refusing to grow up.

I'm already poised to look back, armed with "Remember when's" and wistfulness. It's almost easier to fast forward through to September and freshly sharpened No. 2's because really experiencing now would mean acknowledging how little time is left.

I suppose that's what hedonism is about. No time but the present and all that.

So instead I opt for Martha's tidy world, tastefully sterilized. Void of memory, of muggy summer nights and getting lost on trains and hot concrete roads, for something easier to swallow: Pellegrino & a twist of lemon. A predictable, controllable, organized future.

The vegetative nervous system that looks like tanabata.

This piece created by artists Steiner and Lenzlinger is called "The Vegetative Nevous System" but reminds me so much of a Japanese tanabata bamboo adornes with colorful paper. You should really click on the link above to see the work from various angles. It's truly beautiful and terribly intricate.

hot outside and inside the belly

Yes, I know it's summer. Yes, it is 90+ out. Yet, I am getting to the cranky-hungry stage and cravings are cravings. Brujas get hungry, and their sugar and hot spice demeanors have a hankering for Bruja E's dad's summer curry.

マジカルカレーの作り方

A secret recipe that my dad learned from the curry place around the corner (in Kita-horie, Osaka)

Makes 4 Servings of Curry

• 4 blocks of Japanese curry, preferably sweet
  
• half an onion
  
• 1 banana
  
• an apple / Japanese pear
  
• optional: extra fruit, ie. some pineapple
  
• water
  

1. Drop all ingredients into a blender, blend until mixture reaches a dark khaki color, but before it's one solid color
   
2. Pour the curry into a pot and boil so that the ingredients and flavors all blend, stir
   add chicken or beef prepared beforehand if desired

*image from acehome-kanazawa.com

candyland: ice pops

I love things that should not be, but are. Like these ice pops. It's not hard imagining walking along the boardwalk at night, wearing pretty sandals and a cotton sundress - biting in to creamy fudgesicle. Or spending a lazy afternoon waiting for those homemade lemonade popsicles to chill in the freezer. And then there's that colorful favorite, the rainbow pop.

Except, you're not meant to eat these treats - although a disclaimer on the SpoonSisters website says that they aren't unduly harmful. They're scented soaps - almost too pretty to eat or even use.

But that's why they make lovely gifts. Pretty to look at and pretty in packaging.

For something worth consuming, go here for Latte Art.