I have spent the last week in Southern California. This photo was taken near Ventura, where I was attending the Gordon Research Conference. For more photos from my trip, click here. I love the feeling of warm, moist air and lips that aren’t chapped and dry. Unfortunately, I must return to the snow-stormed Baltimore.
FYI: A few star-sighting for this weekend include Ellie Kemper (new receptionist in the TV show, The Office), Demetri Martin and Sarah Silverman (both comedians).
I am in Los Angeles to attend a conference on “Metals in Biology.” Yesterday evening, I attended talks by Prof. Ken Karlin and Prof. Frank Neese. This morning, the session topic is metals in medicine, drugs and therapeutics. Yesterday morning, my brother gave me a tour of the UCLA campus. It was beautiful weather and the campus was really nice!
Click on photo above for link to more photos of UCLA campus (and me in front of the UCLA mascot, the bruin).
We made our first trip to NYC recently. We had a wonderful weekend and want to review a few of the restaurants and services we used.
(View of downtown Manhattan from the Brooklyn Bridge at sunset. Click on the photo for more NYC pics.)
Neighborhoods frequented:
West Village (three days): just south of Meat Packing District and Chelsea. Quaint European-style residential area from which one can walk north to Central Park in an hour, south to financial district (WTC) in 30 minutes, or east across Manhattan through Greenwich Village (also European) to the lower east side (which we didn’t have time to explore) and Chinatown in 45 minutes.
Flushing-Main Street (one day): Flushing is supposedly the most diverse neighborhood in the country…the Main Street stop on the 7 train is the center of the Asian sub-neighborhood. Quick subway ride into Manhattan.
Accommodations:
Jane Hotel: Grace Excellent price for the location. We paid $79/night for a single bed. Shared bathroom and shower.Internet was fast and rooms were clean and quiet, but poorly ventilated. We had to turn on the A/C to offset the very warm radiator heat that we couldn’t control. Nonetheless, for the location, it was worth a little bit of discomfort. We walked all over the city and felt very safe and comfortable in the West Village neighborhood. Ben It felt like a luxury college dorm. Excellent lounge downstairs.
Lexington Marco Hotel in Flushing, Queens: Grace Didn’t like the immediate neighborhood, however, the Main Street area was very “authentic” and bustling on a Friday mid-morning (it is the third busiest intersection in NYC); >95% Asian people. Ben We enjoyed some steamed pork-filled buns and scallion pancakes purchased from street vendors ($5 total) in downtown Flushing. Perhaps a little unsafe after dark if you go the wrong direction from the hotel. The rooms were large and clean and the staff were friendly. A good deal if you need to stay near La Guardia ($99/night for a king non-smoking room with WiFi).
Sites:
Brooklyn Bridge: Grace Didn’t know that there was a pedestrian walkway on the bridge. Thanks for the tip, Joyce! It was beautiful at sunset, but difficult to find the “on ramp” to the pedestrian walkway (hint: it is also where the cars get on…there is no stairway access).
High Line Park: Grace Awesome modern park that just opened on abandoned elevated train tracks. Love the architecture and use of abandoned railroad tracks as a (long) walking path and outdoor space. Great views of the meat-packing district and architecture in Chelsea. Ben This was an expensive undertaking. The coolest park I have ever been to.
Chelsea Market: Another favorite.
Metropolitan Museum of Art: Grace A little overwhelming. Too too much to see in one day or even one lifetime. Contains a number of very historically important works of art. We didn’t have the energy to visit the sculpture areas and missed much of the anthropological exhibits.
Museum of Modern Art: Grace Awesome contemporary art; also overwhelming. Expecting to see lots of Monet and Van Gogh (late 1800s, early 1900s), but there were plenty of works by living artists. It was very crowded on a rainy Sunday afternoon, but we still enjoyed the works by Kandinsky, Pollack, Chagall.
Restaurants:
General thoughts: Ben Compared to Chicago, the food is cheaper, drinks more expensive, and service is generally much better (in terms of quantity or quality, sometimes both). The sheer quantity of restaurants is amazing. It seems like everyone eats out in New York. Food is healthier and people are thinner. Chicago is more about finding gems, whereas with a little research, we felt like every place in New York was a gem…more likely, the standard is just higher.
Spicy Tasty restaurant in Flushing Queens: Grace Service was good, but I’ve better Chinese food; too spicy. I think I just don’t like the mah la Szechuan flavors. (Ben) Service was bad but that the food was very good, and just right spice-wise. The four dishes we sampled presented a surprising variety of textures and flavors.
Perry Street: Ben Though probably full of wealthy locals and foodie tourists (celebrity chef alert) for dinner, the brunch menu was an amazing deal. Found the decor nice in its minimalism, bordering on sterile, and thought service was low quality, but the quantity of robots waiters made up for that. Very yuppie crowd. The austerity seemed to be intentional…the food was the star here. I enjoyed the amuse bouche, my “house-made burrata” with Cranberry jelly, and my house-cured Salmon benedict (best benedict he’s ever had), and his desserts. Enjoyed Grace’s dishes (cod and salmon, both cooked perfectly). This place has a Michelin star. Grace Felt like a princess eating at such a fancy restaurant (with 5 people waiting on me and watching my every move. It reminded me of eating at Tru in Chicago, but for about 1/4 of the price).
Wallse: Grace Really, really liked this Austrian restaurant for brunch. Hope we can go back for dinner someday. Has a strange fetish for German (and now Austrian) food. I enjoyed my weinerschnitzel (country-fried pork chop). The service was very friendly, personable, and down-to-earth. Ben Enjoyed my rabbit spaetzle. When we ordered our food, the waiter interjected his recommendations. A single waiter did the job of three Perry Street waiters. We felt more comfortable here than at Perry Street, with the home-y atmosphere. Certainly not as good of a value as Perry Street. Not sure how this place earned its Michelin star. The food is home-style Austrian. We got much less food, fewer drinks, five less waiters, and less overhead cost, yet it was more expensive than Perry Street! It wouldn’t make more sense to go back here before we go back to Perry Street, but I think we both probably would. Is it just the charm? Austrian food is nothing to write home about. The menu is also thin and random. Too many mixed drink options.
Joseph Leonard: Grace Excellent experience from the moment we walked in the door until we walked out. The food was thoughtfully prepared with fresh, seasonal ingredients and the staff were young, hip and helpful. It felt like we were in a “real” New York neighborhood restaurant. This is a place where we would eat regularly if we lived in NYC and had a decent income (or no kitchen, which seems somewhat common in that city). Ben Like a combination of our favorite Chicago restaurants (Mado+Publican+Paramount Room). Tiny space, real positive festive vibe created by the staff. Thanks, “Tables for Two.” If I lived here, this is where I would take guests, at 5:30 PM, because it gets busy! Every dish was excellent.
Co.: Grace Tasty, well-priced pizza place. Good for a nice dinner. Our favorite part was the video of some burning logs projected on the wall. I thought it was just a generic video of a fireplace (like the screensaver on someone’s computer). Ben Thought it was a real-time video feed of their wood-burning oven. Enjoyed the wine selection. Like Perry Street, this place had a huge staff.
Ben and I enjoyed our trip to La Crosse. We had a look at Frank Lloyd Wright’s home (Taliesin) on the way. We also celebrated Andy’s master’s defense and ate a lot of yummy food! Click on the napkin below for a slideshow and more details!
I am enjoying reading Jonathan Gold’s 99 Best LA restaurants in the LA Weekly.
The only one I’ve been to was Providence.
Here’s what he says:
At this point in his career, Michael Cimarusti has the chef thing down cold, poised when he addresses environmental forums and genial on TV, the first in town to embrace the new cocktailian movement and an advocate for the coherence of L.A. cuisine. He wears his two Michelin stars well — his is among the best kitchens in Los Angeles — and if you’ve recently come into a small inheritance, a sum invested in Providence’s tasting menu will pay higher dividends than it would in the stock market. The fish-intensive menu changes frequently here, but Cimarusti has been going through an infatuation with Japanese fish lately, things like kampachi with miso and green grapes or tai with puréed peas and bacon, and when local spot prawns are in season, the tartare is superb, perhaps served with buttery leaves of brik pastry. The dessert tasting menu of pastry chef Adrian Vasquez is a five-course degustation that is demanding and ambitious enough to command the attention of an entire evening, a universe of puréed avocado and hot cider foam. 5955 Melrose Ave., Hancock Park, (323) 460-4170. Mon.-Fri., 6-10 p.m., Sat., 5:30-10 p.m., Sun., 5:30-9 p.m. Full bar. Valet parking. AE, D, MC, V.
Note that Angeli Caffe is also on the list. I hope to check out this restaurant during my visit in February. Here is Gold’s evaluation:
Evan Kleiman is probably the face of food in Los Angeles, host of KCRW’s Good Food (to which I contribute), founder of the local Slow Food movement, and the co-author of many well-regarded Italian cookbooks. She’s the one with the Webcam crew following her through the farmers market, the judge at the Kugel Kookoff, the woman in front of you in the line at the taco truck. So it can be easy to underestimate the importance of her restaurant Angeli, which, after all, is the place that may have delivered your last pizza, at least if you are lucky enough to live in its delivery area. But Angeli crystallized the affinity of Angelenos for casual Italian cooking — the spaghetti alla checca, garlicky roast chicken and minimally garnished pizza that a Tuscan teenager might eat for dinner at the joint down the block on the nights his mother didn’t feel like turning on the stove, but which was essentially unobtainable to those of us on this side of the sea. In other words, it’s the real thing. 7274 Melrose Ave., L.A., (323) 936-9086, angelicaffe.com. Lunch Tues.-Fri., 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m.; dinner Tues.-Thurs. & Sun., 5-10 p.m., Fri.-Sat., 5-11 p.m. Beer, wine. Takeout. Valet parking. AE, D, MC, V.
I drove to Wegmans this afternoon. It was my first experience at this grocery store chain. It was a mega-store with lots of stuff. I was impressed with the selection and the produce seemed decent. I walked through the pre-prepared foods section but didn’t buy anything. The store was an interesting hybrid of Meijer, Costco and Whole Foods. The prices were not very good, in comparison to Costco and I was not tempted by their bulk items, such as meat. They seemed to try to carry lots of organic items, but their organic stuff wasn’t too appealing. I liked their ethnic food aisles and even on a Sunday afternoon, I wasn’t overwhelmed by the crowds. I spent over 30 minutes walking around and bought $54 worth of groceries. Here is a slideshow containing a few of my purchases. As for distance, the highway is very direct so it didn’t feel like it was 15 miles away. It was a pleasant drive with lots of pretty fall leaves along the side of the highway to enjoy.
Ben and I had a wonderful Sunday. Here are some photos from Ft. McHenry.
Afterwards, we stopped at the American Visionary Art Museum. It was a great time and had some very thought provoking works. On the way home, we swung by Mr. Yogato and enjoyed frozen yogurt.
I am currently at Brookhaven National Lab attending ACCESS (Atmospheric Chemistry Conference for Emerging Senior Scientists). Here are photos of the dorm room where I am staying and a view out the window. I also wanted to show you how isolated this facility is–see the trees. It feels like I’m inside a forest. There are deer nearby and also some remnants of old research projects from the Cold War, I think. Brookhaven has a lot of charm because not much has changed here since the 70s, it seems. The buildings are very old and dorms appear worn and used. However, the prices of things inside the lab seem like they’re from the 1970s also. You can get a $3 lunch or pay $2 for a big bottle of shampoo. I like that :)
This afternoon, we drove into New York City for some tourist-y activities. I went to the Natural History Museum. Here of photos of the squid and the whale. I really liked that exhibit. I also liked the giant blue whale. It fills up the entire room. The whooping cranes are for Ben, who loves birds. And I know he’ll also appreciate the tiny frogs that emit deadly toxins shown below.
After dinner at Roxy’s diner near Times Square, I went with some other ACCESS people to see “Bacchae” in Central Park at the Delacorte Theater. The show was free and very well-performed. The content of the Greek tragedy was not very happy, but it was great to see a play. It’s been a really long time since I’ve used that part of my brain.
I am in New York (Long Island) tonight staying at Brookhaven National Lab. They have dormitories within the campus. I haven’t stayed in a communal shower/bathroom since Ben and I went to Yosemite two years ago. I didn’t bring shower shoes or shampoo so I may be roughing it until Sunday (when I leave to go to Waterville Valley, New Hampshire).
This is my schedule for the ACCESS (http://www.bnl.gov/accessx/default.asp) conference.
Friday, Breakfast at 7:30 am.
Talks start at 8:30 until 5:30 pm. People from EPA, NASA, DOE, and NOAA will be talking about funding opportunities and all the students/postdocs attending are giving 15 minute talks. My talk isn’t until Saturday morning because we’re going in alphabetical order. There are about 25 students/postdocs. They call us “emerging senior scientists.”
Tomorrow night, they are taking us to Lotus II East for dinner tomorrow night in Long Island. (http://www.yelp.com/biz/lotus-east-ii-restrnt-mount-sinai)
Saturday, breakfast at 7:30 am, talks (me sometime between 8:30 am and 10 am) until noon. Then we’re supposed to take a bus into New York city and eat dinner at the Roxy Deli on Broadway. They don’t pick us up till 10:45 pm so I’m not sure how long it takes to eat at this deli. NYC will probably be scary and crazy on a Saturday night but I will stick with the group, for my own safety.
Sunday, I’m supposed to take a bus at 8:30 am to Paumanok Vinyards at Aqueboque, NY (I don’t think I can drink wine at 9 am) and then take a ferry from Orient Point to New London, Connecticut. From there, we will drive to Waterville Valley, where hopefully they don’t have communal showers. The rooms are nice here–very simple and old, but relatively clean. A few bugs but not any worse than my apartment in Baltimore. Nothing to complain about though because all my meals and travel expenses were paid for. It’s like a free vacation (where they feed me propaganda about becoming an atmospheric scientist).
If you are interested, this is what I do on a lazy Sunday. Sometimes I go to work, but today, I am staying home. For breakfast, I ate some Cuban Black Beans from Trader Joe’s. I also drank some gunpowder green tea. I didn’t eat on the balcony. I ate at the dining table and looked out the window. I also took my vitamins. I admit that I don’t take my vitamins every day, but I am trying to be more consistent. It’s good for me.
I enjoy going to church on Sundays but today, I am not feeling well so I will stay home. My brother may come this afternoon (to bring me the volvo and some of his other stuff–like a printer) as he moves to Los Angeles for law school. I haven’t heard any news from him so either he hasn’t left yet or he’ll call when he gets closer. I decided to wash my pillow cases in preparation for his visit. I tossed into the laundry my flat sheet also because 2 pillow cases doesn’t constitute a good laundry load. I am a little worried about drying these items. I’d like to use the dryers downstairs but they cost $1.75 per load and I don’t think I have enough quarters. If necessary, I may go to the store to get quarters or else dry flat sheet and pillow case in my lint-emitting unvented dryer for a short amount of time. I guess I could hang the flat sheet in my bathroom and then the pillowcases shouldn’t take long to dry in the dryer. My food plans for today: if my bro comes, I want to make buffalo burgers. I have frozen patties (from Trader Joe’s ) and frozen buns (I bought a bag a few weeks ago and didn’t eat them all). I also have ketchup. But I am thinking of going to Giant to pick up chips or potato salad as accompaniments. Well, potato salad at Giant might be scary–their deli doesn’t look so good. Maybe I’ll find something canned or frozen to serve with the burgers. It’s possible my bro may not even make it here for dinner so no pressure. I just enjoy thinking and planning my upcoming meals and cooking.
Sometimes I feel really stupid. I wrote the wrong date for the travel itinerary requested for the Gordon Research Conference so the travel agent booked the ticket for the date I wrote. I was looking at July calendar instead of August. I didn’t catch it until this morning. I called Southwest and they let me change the ticket to the correct date with no penalty and no hassle. YAY!
On a brighter note, I purchased a plane ticket to go back to Chicago for our 3rd wedding anniversary on September 3, 2009. It falls on the Thursday before Labor Day weekend. Airfare was a little steeper than usual but since I purchased the tickets almost 2 months in advance, I don’t feel bad about the price. We have a nice bottle of Oregon wine from the Albrechtsons that they gave us at our wedding. I will try to make more frequent short trips to Chicago. It will make my missing Ben a little more bearable. The plane ride is short and BWI is a small airport only 20 minutes away by car. Once my bro brings the volvo, getting to/from the airport won’t be as big of an ordeal as it was in June (when I took a bus to the light rail in the pouring rain and it took over 1.5 hours) or on the way back, when I paid over $50 for a taxi cab ride.
My brother called. He is near Wheeling, West Virginia. That means he is only ~5 hours away! Hopefully the weather will cool down before he arrives. Temperatures are in the mid-80s today. About 50% humidity, which is a nice day but not if you’re moving stuff/carrying boxes. I found a private parking lot near BWI that charges $6.40 per day (plus tax). The other option is the normal BWI parking lot run by the airport that charges $8.00 per day. I also found some airport shuttles that charge $23 to $36 each way. So if I am parking more than 10 days, maybe the shuttle is better but any less, and I will probably drive. The other option is taking the light rail ($3.50 total, including bus to light rail station) one way and the shuttle on the way back. Or find free parking near the light rail. But I don’t want my car to get broken into while I’m out of town, which could also happen if it’s parked in front of my apartment. Hm…
I vacuumed my floors this morning. And cleaned the dust off my grate/vent in the kitchen. I feel like I clean several times a week but my hair is still everywhere and dust builds up quickly here. I wonder how air quality compares to Chicago. I always felt kind of grimy when I lived in the city near busy streets and highways. The sky seems less smoggy here but there seems to always be a layer of black soot-like dust on my window sills after a week of accumulation. I didn’t have quite as much dust in Evanston. I wonder if warmer weather causes more dust buildup?
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