The day the lights went out on Matador

[bitterfruit]

Please tell me that someone brought their water bong to work that day.

What the fuck did you guys do? Go home? Stay in the office?

[johansen smith]

I think they cut open boxes upon boxes of Earthquake Glue albums, searching for the golden tickets to trade for water and food.

[bitterfruit]

Their own little "Lord Of The Flies."

[Patrick]

I still don't know how the office handled it. I was on the way back from a business trip, and made it up the elevator and into my apartment on Thursday at 4 PM, just a few minutes before the power went out.

Took 27 1/2 hours to come back here in Murray Hill - one of the last Manhattan neighborhoods to regain electricity.

Good to see the website's up! Did it stay up the whole time? I guess so? bway must have backup power in that case. Interesting.

Patrick

[bitterfruit]

The site went down about the same time that you made it up the elevator from your business trip.

It magically came back up late Friday.

[jt. r]

ah murray hill! i lived there in university housing my first year at the new school. we had an exciting moment with utes too: a night and day long gas leak culminating in a several alarm worry (no fire). and my microwave once blew both fuses in the apartment.

and that's the story from 207 E. 33rd St. 2000/2001.

[bitterfruit]

Some of my favorite restaurants are nearby to Murray Hill. 28th and Lex area.

[jt. r]

best noodles i had while i lived in nyc. unfortunately i stopped going to that part of town after i moved to union square west for my 2nd year of grad school and then after graduation to south billyburg where i wallowed in adjunct employment at hunter before moving back to philly.

i found murray hill to be a very boring place that was one of the most expensive neighborhoods in the city, relatively speaking. i couldn't afford most of the restaurants in that area as a student, so it was a joyless place for me, and the bars were so middle class. i did like baby bo's for a while, but i got food poisoning from there.

of course, living at union square w. meant i was all too close to record stores, a factor that made my procrastination during thesis drafts very expensive, but ultimately worthwhile.

i miss mondo kims!

[Patrick]

bitterfruit,

Yeah, that area has some really great places. I used to love Madras Mahal for their dosai and other south Indian dishes. There's a bunch of new places I have to check out as well.

Particularly awesome is the grocery shopping in that area. Kalustyan's is one of my favorite all-around Middle Eastern & Indian shops for ingredients - they have just about everything, from nigella seed to asafoetida powder, curry leaves, Indian yogurts etc.

Patrick

[Patrick]

jt,

Yeah, Second & Third Aves pretty much blow... I do like Daniel's Bagels for real old-style appetizing and fish, on Third, and Sarge's is OK, especially for a 24-hour Jewish deli with a full bar (!). But the rest is pretty much the antithesis of what people move to Manhattan for - frozen tequilas, frat saloons, endless hair and nail salons, tacky city.

Up on the hill it's nice though - nothing to do, but that's OK since the entire city is just a short ways away in any direction. The location could not be more central.

Patrick

[bitterfruit]

Originally posted by Patrick
bitterfruit,

Yeah, that area has some really great places. I used to love Madras Mahal for their dosai and other south Indian dishes. There's a bunch of new places I have to check out as well.

Particularly awesome is the grocery shopping in that area. Kalustyan's is one of my favorite all-around Middle Eastern & Indian shops for ingredients - they have just about everything, from nigella seed to asafoetida powder, curry leaves, Indian yogurts etc.

Patrick

Yo dog, now you're speaking my language. To hell with Madras Mahal. Bengalis don't know how to make South Indian food anyway. The best place for dosai is Dosa Hut, right next door.

Do Jewish folks use asafoetida powder? By the way, that's a fun word to say. Say it with a lisp and an attitude. "Asafoetida"

[groovekid]

jt, when did you adjunct at hunter?

[Patrick]

I've been meaning to check out Dosa Hut for some time.

Patrick

[jt. r]

Originally posted by groovekid
jt, when did you adjunct at hunter?

check out eRes, but i was there during both semesters of 2002. i taught in the political science dept. first under Charles Tien and then I taught a night class. not too shabby for a guy who was only a master's candidate at the New School. hunter was a great school to teach in for me since i did my undergrad at st. joe's here in philly, which is overwhelmingly white in a city that's over 40% black.

i used to try to talk to students about other things like music, but that didn't get me too far. i once got a student to say "yea" for a sparklehorse mention. and VU got slammed by a flight attendant. it's tough to incorporate stuff like that into a serious discussion about the myth of the median voter hypothesis. i'm glad i'm not teaching right now since it seems that most "progressive" students are hell-bent on clinton II, howard dean. phony populism is an effective marketing tool, eh?

two final notes about murray hill: the fireworks that are occassionally staged in the summer by fanatical yachtsmen on the east side are fun. and ron, who stood in front of my building, was an institution on his own. he saved me during my first semester at the graduate faculty since no one at the new school takes sports seriously. i could vent my iggles/giants/nfc east frustrations, as well as bask in the glory that was the sixers defeat at the hands of the lakers that year.

/nostalgia.

[earl grey]

my favorite curry hill spot is dimple on 30th street - pani puri, paapri chaat, bhel puri, and lots of other indian street foods. not many places have them and few do it as well. really great. good dosa too.

the ginger man is also a murray hill favorite of mine, if a beer's what i need.

[groovekid]

jt, what night class did you teach? i go to hunter, at night, poli sci major....

[groovekid]

wait, jt, i figured out who you are

[mojo]

Originally posted by Patrick
Good to see the website's up! Did it stay up the whole time? I guess so? bway must have backup power in that case. Interesting.

not sure about the site, but our boards are also on bway, and stayed up, whereas I couldn't access the Matador ones until yesterday... funny old world :)

[SirPatrickSpens]

Madras Mahal is still the best lunch deal (superb quality) in the area and one of the best in the city. Local hint: Haandi, the excellent Pakistani joint on the other side of Lex, on the second floor. Non-local: you can safely pass on ALL the erstwhile "Dosa Huts," even the one in Flushing but hit the Tandoori Hut in Richmond Hill, Queens and prepare to be astonished. Take Atlantic Ave all the way through Brooklyn into Queens by car or the A to Lefferts Blvd on the subway. Enjoy. (There used to be a Tandoori Palace too, in Sunnyside, in an old diner at the top of Greenpoint Ave. It was an oasis for Williamsburg and Greenpoint residents, originally open 24 hours too but then they renovated, lost the silver diner chic, cut their hours: something didn't work out and last I looked, it was now some kind of sushi place Too bad.)

SPS

Flushing afterthought: one of the best East Asian restaurants in the City, the awesome Sri Lankan, Bowne, on Bowne Street, right around the corner from the "famous" Dosa Hut and a much lamer, "modernized" spin off.

Time to eat!!

[bitterfruit]

The Flushing Dosa Hut is a dive. On another note, some of the best Indian food to be had is in Iowa City, Iowa. Some of the worst is in the UK.

[Patrick]

Re: Bowne.

And then you can walk down Bowne St. and see the Bowne House, a 17th-century Dutch farmhouse in the middle of urban Queens, NY!

Patrick