Oct 12

Suggestions for Driving in New York City

DON’T! At least if you value your sanity and your car. The trains, buses, and subways can get you around relatively painlessly. You won’t have to worry about parking on the street or in a sketchy garage for an exorbitant price. When we went into Manhattan on Saturday for my honorary niece’s Bat Mitzvah, we took the train to and from Tarrytown. We then took the subway from Grand Central Station to the Upper East Side. We didn’t have a long wait for the train out of town.

On this trip to New York, we noticed a new after-market option to make parallel parking a little less risky to your paint job: the Bumper Bully. This is a black rubber mat that attaches inside your car trunk and hangs over your rear bumper. Bumper Badger is another brand we saw around town. As one reviewer on Amazon said, it may be better than nothing. However, my suggestion is to reduce the need for a Bumper Bully and take mass transit.

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2015/10/12/suggestions-for-driving-in-new-york-city/

Oct 12

A Philosophy of Hotels

When we’re just traveling from point A to point B and need a place to flop for the night, our requirements are simple: Clean, comfortable, quiet, and convenient. Cheap doesn’t hurt, either. Free Wi-Fi is essential, especially for blog and email purposes. Complementary companion animals, i.e., insects, are NOT welcome. We once stayed at a motel in Waterton, Alberta (just north of Glacier National Park) where the room was infested with mosquitoes. My nephew and his wife were besieged by bedbugs when they stayed at a hotel in Tampa.

When we’re staying somewhere for a longer period of time, amenities are useful. Most of the time we’re out and about, so we don’t need anything fancy. We never use room service. Having a complementary breakfast is good, but not essential. An indoor pool is helpful, especially when I was training for triathlons. One year we went to Harrison Hot Springs for Memorial Day weekend and I was able to swim indoors and outdoors in naturally-heated pools.

We occasionally stay at bed and breakfasts in unfamiliar areas to have local guidance about things to do and see. I mentioned in an earlier post the wonderful B&B we stayed in during our trip to France in June. We’ve also stayed at B&B’s in remote places such as Jasper National Park in Canada and Bozeman, Montana. Sometimes B&B’s come with the right kind of complementary companion animals: cats and dogs.

I’ve never been a fan of all-inclusive resort hotels. I stayed at one outside Orlando for a conference once and developed claustrophobia. The hotel and the grounds were literally under a bubble. I didn’t rent a car on that trip, so I couldn’t escape. It made the travel reimbursement easier because everything was on one bill, but I’d rather have some opportunity to explore between talks and poster sessions–or at least have a meal at a local restaurant.

Finding accommodations on the road can be a crapshoot, even if you limit yourself to chain hotels. We try to make reservations well in advance for popular locations like San Francisco or Washington or for holiday weekends. We take advantage of reviews on TripAdvisor and other sites to winnow down our options. For the Nyack part of this trip, many hotels in the area were booked solid. The hotel we wound up staying at was a wedding factory. They hosted guests for at least three receptions and one high school reunion on Saturday. Fortunately, our room was far away from the reception halls so I could sleep.

The most important consideration in choosing a hotel is how you spend your time on the road. If you enjoy the full-service treatment, a resort hotel may suit you better than it does us. People with kids need different amenities than singles. If you get around in a wheelchair, you should make sure that the hotel can accommodate your needs prior to making a reservation. If you express your lodging needs during the reservation process, you’ll be able to select a hotel that will work for you. Enjoy the trip!

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2015/10/12/a-philosophy-of-hotels/

Oct 08

Nostalgia Day

We left Hannibal this morning to spend the day in Ithaca. Julian and I both got degrees from Cornell, and this is where we met. So how much nostalgia can two people cram into one day? Plenty!
We started off in Collegetown, which has a few leftover establishments from our time here. First we went past the (literal) ruins of the Chapter House and the Royal Palms bars. We had lunch at the Vietnam Restaurant, one of my default dining options from grad school. Aladdin’s, site of our first lunch date, is still in town.
After lunch we wandered around campus. For the first time, he showed me his old haunts in the physics department. I went to visit the nutrition building and ran into one of the administrative assistants from my time there. We also checked out the campus store and got swag at 20% off.
Dinner was at a Turkish restaurant north of downtown with friends. After that we got caffeine at a local chain called Gimme Coffee. We had to make one last foodie pilgrimage for the day, to Wegman’s. For those of you not from the northeast, Wegman’s is the killer grocery store chain hereabouts. If one was built in Seattle, it would clean up. Our beloved Central Market looks like a convenience store in comparison.

Tomorrow morning we’ll make one last trip to an old haunt, Collegetown Bagels. We had many breakfasts there back in the day. After that, we’ll head to Nyack.

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2015/10/08/nostalgia-day/

Oct 08

Rudy’s!

Rudy’s (generally referred to in my family as the fish fry stand) is an institution in Oswego. Generations of locals and more than a few tourists have made pilgrimages there during the seven months that the restaurant is open each year. Naturally, we had to do so on this trip.

When I was a kid, the menu consisted of burgers, fish sandwiches, Texas Hots, Coney (a pork-based hot dog similar to bratwurst) Hots, fries, and onion rings. More recently Rudy’s has diversified its menu to include other fried seafood and sides. Rudy’s put its nearest competitor, Jack’s, out of business years ago. The soft-serve ice cream stand down the road, Bev’s, seems to be next given that Rudy’s has added an ice cream concession.

The ordering experience at Rudy’s hasn’t changed in 50 years. You belly up to the counter and place your order. The counter person writes it on a receipt and a paper plate. The paper plate goes back to the fry stations, and the guys (I’ve never seen a woman staff a fryer) fill the order. When it’s ready, the guy running the french fry fryer calls out the order and the counter person who placed it: “Two fish and chips, one coney hot, Linda.” (Linda was Rudy’s wife–he passed away many years ago.) Rudy’s does not do credit cards or checks. There’s a handy ATM at the edge of the parking lot to help you pay for your meal.

While there are a few tables inside Rudy’s, most folks eat in their cars or at picnic tables. With the latter, you get a view of Lake Ontario. You also get harassed by seagulls (aka flying rats). The specimen posing behind me in the below picture left disappointed. Some of the gulls will not take no for an answer, especially when small children are involved. Dodging gulls is just another part of the Rudy’s experience.

Last year my high school class had its reunion and made a pilgrimage to Rudy’s. I wasn’t able to make it because I was scheduled to visit town two weeks later for my nephew’s wedding. My former third grade teacher (and mother of one of my classmates) was befuddled that her daughter made a beeline from the southern part of the state

At Rudy's, with one of the locals.

At Rudy’s, with one of the locals.

just to go to Rudy’s. “Is it a nostalgia thing?” she asked me. In a way, yes.

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2015/10/08/rudys/

Oct 07

Bad News for Leaf-Peepers

People who drive around Central New York to gawk at falling leaves this fall could be sorely disappointed. In years past, the leaves would be near peak color at this time of year. However, climate change has left its mark. The leaves are slow to change color and are relatively muted. My brother-in-law has been clearing trees on a property outside town for a future home, and he’s noticed that the leaves are just falling off the trees without changing color. Julian thinks that the trees are just scared that Stan is coming after them with the chainsaw. This pattern reminds me of what passed for autumn in Dallas. The trees might be colored for one day, and then fall off the trees.

The view from the parking lot of Mom's apartment. The leaves are pretty muted in color.

The view from the parking lot of Mom’s apartment. The leaves are pretty muted in color.

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2015/10/07/bad-news-for-leaf-peepers/

Oct 06

Destiny and the Dinosaur

No, this is not a post on evolution, creationism, or anything in between. We are visiting my mother and sister in my hometown of Hannibal. This is a small farming town north of Syracuse that hasn’t changed much in population since I grew up. Several of my high school classmates and a few former teachers still live in town, but for the most part I can come here without recognizing or being recognized by anyone in the grocery store or on the town square.

Yesterday Julian had a hankering to have lunch at the Dinosaur Bar-B-Que in Syracuse. On the way we stopped at the Destiny USA mega-shopping mall. When it first opened, it was called the Carousel Mall because of the antique carousel installed near the food court. As enclosed shopping malls fell out of favor, the developer morphed it into a shopping and entertainment venue and renamed it Destiny USA. It has an electric go-kart track, ropes course, bowling alley, and several video game arcades along with the same mall stores you’d find in Sheboygan or Seattle. This strategy can make sense in Syracuse, since the climate is not conducive to outdoor recreation other than hunting, cross-country skiing, and snowmobiling 5 months out of the year (if you’re lucky). However, getting out of Destiny USA reminds me of the lyrics in Hotel California

: “You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave.” It took us a good 20 minutes to get out of the parking lot and back onto route 81. Do not rely on your cell phone’s map application to get you out of that mall alive.

The Dinosaur started out as a couple of guys and a smoker serving food at biker rallies, but they settled down and bought the restaurant in downtown Syracuse in 1988. (The Dinosaur still caters; they did the BBQ lunch at my Cornell reunion 12 years ago.) They’ve since added restaurants in other cities in the northeast. They even have a restaurant in Chicago now. They have live music on the weekends, mostly blues and rock. We originally parked our rental VW Beetle in the motorcycle parking space, but thought better of it when we realized that a couple of bikers could turn the car upside down with their bare hands. The ambiance is decidedly roadhouse-biker bar. The walls have old posters of blues concerts from juke joints near and far, with old license plates. The waitstaff, bartenders, and cooks are liberally festooned with piercings and tattoos. They had a variety of beers on tap and in the bottle, but they had the most important BBQ lunch beverage from my point of view: Unsweetened, unflavored iced tea–with refills.

The bar at the Dinosaur Bar-B-Que.

The bar at the Dinosaur Bar-B-Que.

As for the food, we did a divide and conquer strategy. Julian ordered the ribs and I had a brisket sandwich. Each order came with two sides. He got black beans and rice and pulled pork collard greens, while I got french fries and homemade applesauce (Syracuse is in apple country). Both meats were cooked with the requisite amount of smoke. The collards were superb, especially cut with pulled pork. The applesauce was made the way I do: Apples cooked with the peels, then ground through the coarse filter of a food mill. We definitely ate our fill.

Any self-respecting barbecue joint has its own sauces and condiments on the table and for sale, and the Dinosaur is no exception. It has two sauces, Sensuous Slathering and Wango Tango. The latter is a bit spicier than the former. The garlic chipotle and habanero table sauces were both excellent. They also have a seasoned salt rub called Cajun Foreplay. We bought some of the rub and habanero table sauce (Devil’s Duel) for our refrigerator’s Arsenal of Democracy on our way out. The Dinosaur also has a cookbook, which I bought several years ago. Definitely getting lost for.

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2015/10/06/destiny-and-the-dinosaur/

Oct 06

The Central New York Car Culture

Some places are known to have large numbers of a particular type of car. Seattle, for example, probably has more Priuses than anywhere else in Washington state. Here in my birth turf of Central New York, the major vehicles on the road are trucks and SUV’s. I can understand trucks since this is a rural part of the state, but the preponderance of SUV’s is baffling to me. In my family, about the only one with a car is my nephew’s wife. Even my mother has an SUV. Nevertheless, our rental VW Beetle sticks out like a sore thumb in most parking lots hereabouts.

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2015/10/06/the-central-new-york-car-culture/

Sep 30

French with a Side of Food

Julian signed up for a noncredit French class at a local community college last fall. He wanted to brush up in advance of a future vacation to France. I chose not to sign up with him that quarter, preferring a quiet evening to myself. He’d come home from class with good reports about the professor: “She’s a native speaker and a stickler for pronunciation.” Okay. “The class is very relaxed.” No exams or grades, of course it’s relaxed. “She’s a foodie. She’s even published a cookbook.” Oh, really? Tell me more… After some more arm-twisting, I decided to sign up for the second class in the series with him winter quarter. And here we are, enrolled in the fifth quarter.

The professor, Yolande, was born and raised in Paris. She married an American and immigrated to the US. For a while she had her own personal coaching business and published her cookbook, “Pace of Provence”, in 2001. We managed to find a used copy on the Barnes & Noble website. Although the book is 15 years old, the recommendations she makes are still nutritionally sound. The recipes are very easy to follow. One of our classmates, a novice cook, has made several recipes out of the book successfully. I made the fig appetizer for our Friday night crew, and they disappeared quickly.

Our French class cooks!

Our French class cooks!

The students have been a mix of people of varying ages and origins. This quarter we even have two Chinese students. There was a significant drop-off in students from French 2 to French 3, so the class has become much more interactive. Yolande instituted a feature called “Quoi de Neuf?” (What’s new?) This is like show and tell, except in French. This section has continued into French 5. She’s also giving us French literature to read, starting with excerpts from Les Misérables. Our latest assignment is the chapter where Jean Valjean goes to the bishop’s house. [Trivia question: Who played the bishop in the Hugh Jackman-Anne Hathaway-Russell Crowe version of Les Mis? Colm Wilkinson, who originally played Jean Valjean in the stage version. Julian asked why Wilkinson didn’t play Valjean in the movie, since his voice is better than Jackman’s. Simple: He’s about 25 years too old for the early scenes.]

If you want to review a language you studied in high school or college, or learn a new language, I highly recommend doing it through a community college. The tuition is reasonable, particularly if you’re doing a non-credit class. You’ll meet a diverse group of folks, and you just might wind up with a professor with a foodie or other interesting background.

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2015/09/30/french-with-a-side-of-food/

Sep 23

Bye-Bye, Basil

Today was the first day of autumn. The temperatures at night have hovered in the low 50’s, which means my basil plants are ready to give up. We got several batches of pesto and numerous other sprigs for dishes from only three plants. The peppers and tomatoes may go next week. That leaves the perennial herbs to spend the winter on the upper deck.

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2015/09/23/bye-bye-basil/

Sep 17

It Was Bound to Happen

You may call an earlier post about couples attaching locks to the Duwamish Head Bridge. Our friend Gayle, who first alerted us to this, sent me this link. Kids, bring your own wire cutters, especially if you threw the keys into the Duwamish. Chances are the keys have disintegrated in the toxic muck.

Permanent link to this article: http://ediblethoughts.com/2015/09/17/it-was-bound-to-happen/

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