Kevin White

 It’s finally beginning to feel like Spring…

There are, by my count, two episodes of Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives in which Guy Fieri watches another man prepare tater tots, narrates the process, and then makes some noises while eating one. “I think everyone in their culinary career, at one…

The post The Enduring Appeal of Tater Tots appeared first on First We Feast.

submitted by /u/eggwhitecedar [link] [comments]

This morning as I was buttoning my shirt, a button fell off. After that, I picked up my briefcase, and the handle fell off. Then I went to open the door, and the doorknob fell off. I went to get into my car, and the door handle came off in my hand. Now I'm afraid to pee.

Two engineering students meet on campus one day.

The first engineer calls out to the other, "Hey nice bike! Where did you get it?"

"Well," replies the other, "I was walking to class the other day when this pretty, young coed rides up on this bike. She jumps off, takes off all of her clothes, and says 'You can have anything you want!'"

"Good choice," says the first, "her clothes wouldn't have fit you anyway."

A cottage is no longer a very familiar sight in NYC, but there are still some scattered around town, and a fair number of them can be found in South Brooklyn. Walk down Concord Street in Downtown Brooklyn (though some call this area Bridge Plaza), and you'll spot one with cherry red shutters and a white picket fence. To really pull you out of modern day reality there's even a 1970s electric car sitting in front. Nothing about this scene feels familiar. It looks like where a reclusive grandma would live in a Tim Burton movie—a run down version of a previously picturesque dream. [ more › ]

Looks like everything is getting the rainbow treatment these days, including the grilled cheese. Ever since the tie-dyed “rainbow bagel” went viral earlier this year, people can’t seem to stop transforming perfectly good foodstuffs into uncomfortably colorful creations. Not every meal…

The post Rainbow Grilled Cheese Is the Latest Color-Blasted Culinary Abomination appeared first on First We Feast.

If you were anywhere in the vicinity of the northwest section of Flushing Meadows Corona Park on Saturday evening, you are now most likely aware of the Queens International Night Market, which kicked off its second season at the NY Hall of Science this weekend. Massive crowds showed up to nosh on squid skewers, arepas, Japanese curries, Korean corn dogs and okonomiyaki, making it difficult to actually procure said items. [ more › ]

Days after he called for "major reforms" of New York City's Board of Elections, Mayor Bill de Blasio has been accused of "willful and flagrant" violations of campaign finance law in a report that chronicles a system of slush fund-style evasion of campaign donation limits. [ more › ]

This is Charles Westphalen and his wife, Anna, with their two young boys outside their German specialty food store on Seventh Avenue and 31st Street.

It’s 1895. Charles, in his 30s, is the son of German immigrants who arrived in New York in the 1830s—part of the first great wave of German immigration that reshaped the city.

The specialty food shop the couple ran was their livelihood for many years. Tea and coffee must have been big items; they’re named on the store awning.

Jars with cloth tops, canned goods, what looks like fresh fruit and vegetables as well as a crate of soap powder can be seen.

It’s something like the corner bodega of today’s New York but aimed at Germans looking for a taste of their homeland.

You won’t find a trace of Charles Westphalen’s store today, however.

He was forced to move, along with other businesses occupying the block, in the early 1900s to make way for Penn Station.

[Thanks to H.W. for sending this photo of his great-grandfather, great-grandmother, and grandfather (the tow-headed toddler) and sharing his family history.]

When he made this photo, Your Shot member Hassan Altaif was an invited guest in this woman’s home in the mountainous region of Ladakh, India. Ladakh borders Tibet, and many Ladakhis practice Tibetan Buddhism and live according to generations-old traditions. “She is home alone. Her husband died,” Altaif writes. “[In this photo,] she was wearing the traditional clothes of [her] original country. [Her house] is almost 300 years old.”

Altaif's shot was recently featured in the Daily Dozen.

This photo was submitted to Your Shot, our storytelling community where members can take part in photo assignments, get expert feedback, be published, and more. Join now >>

[Fern delivery photo by Derek Berg]

Stories posted on EVG this past week included...

Arrest made in last week's shooting death on East 12th Street (Wednesday)

The estate of Nicholas Figueroa files wrongful death lawsuit (Tuesday)

Tim Burton-themed bar opening in former Confessional space on East Sixth Street (Thursday)

Hillary Clinton makes a campaign ice cream stop at Mikey Likes It on Avenue A (Monday)

Matzo madness as Streit's documentary by East Village resident debuts at the Film Forum (Wednesday)

Concern for East Village Cheese Shop (Friday, 30 comments)

New plans for a 6-story building at 253 E. Seventh St. (Friday)

Out and About with Alan Good (Wednesday)

L train shutdown looms in 2019 (Tuesday)

Video: "Last Days at the Mars Bar" (Wednesday)

That time when there were two awnings for Top A Nails (Wednesday)

Bingbox Snow Cream Co. opens on Second Avenue (Friday)

Pink Bear Ice Cream coming soon to East 14th Street (Monday)

Moneylowball: City appraiser underestimated value of former Rivington House by $51 million (Wednesday)

Retail space at historic 330 Bowery is for rent (Monday)

Converted East Eighth Street synagogue (with hot tub for 8) returns to market for $30,000 a month (Thursday)

Verameat robbed on East Ninth Street (Tuesday)

Rapid progress at Stei town (Monday)

Openings: Desi Galli on Avenue B (Saturday)

... and a few of the tributes to Prince that appeared around the neighborhood in recent days...


[5th and A]


[5th and A]


[6th Street]


[6th and A]


[Outside the Wren on the Bowery]


[East 3rd Street]

... and via Instagram... Doc Holliday's on Avenue A...

A photo posted by Rosella (@rosellapix) on Apr 21, 2016 at 4:24pm PDT

...and at Black & White on East 10th Street...

A photo posted by Dan Krupin (@dankrupin) on Apr 23, 2016 at 2:51pm PDT

And you'll see and hear more Prince at 3:30 in Tompkins Square Park ... with the Prince Memorial Dance Ride.

Tough times following retirement...

Photo yesterday on the Bowery near Third Street by Derek Berg

Earth Day is Friday, and it's the city's first Car-Free Earth Day, a slightly misnomered but well-intentioned event that is encouraging New Yorkers to participate in a voluntary one-day ban on driving in the city. To coincide with this effort, Citi Bike is offering free rides throughout the city to anyone who signs up online. [ more › ]

The unexpected death of performer, innovator and icon Prince shocked the world yesterday, leaving a sudden void in his magnificent wake. So Spike Lee, a fan, friend and collaborator, decided to throw a block party in Fort Greene. His invite, posted on Instagram, read, "We will dance, sing and shout to his music. Wear something purple." And they did, with gusto. [ more › ]

A hiker is dwarfed by the massive proportions of Hang Son Doong, the largest cave in the world, located in Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park in Vietnam. It is more than two miles long and, at some places, more than 600 feet high. Where the ceiling has collapsed, allowing sunlight to spill in, vegetation grows heartily.

This photo was submitted to Your Shot, our storytelling community where members can take part in photo assignments, get expert feedback, be published, and more. Join now >>

This week’s comic is about some novel places to nest.

YourWildCity.com | Patreon

[EVG photo from December 2014]

Hong Kong-based chef Mak Kwai Pui is opening his first U.S. location of Tim Ho Wan, his Michelin-starred dim sum parlor, on East 10th Street and Fourth Avenue, the Voice reported yesterday.

The restaurant is expected to open this fall. Here are more details via the Voice:

Prompted by the Michelin stars, there are often hours-long lines of out-of-towners at Tim Ho Wan's Hong Kong locations — where Mak originally intended to feed locals at bargain prices. Mak tells the Voice that his designs on the U.S. involve appealing to the culinary tourists who seek his food abroad.

And!

Steamer baskets of plump prawn dumplings, Mak's signature trio of baked buns stuffed with barbecue pork, and Chinese-sausage-stuffed glutinous rice wrapped in lotus leaf all remain under $5. Even now, the tissues within the boxes placed atop each table serve as napkins.

The address here in Midtown South previously housed Spice, which closed in December 2014.

H/T Steven!

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Over 93 days in 2014, National Geographic photographer Jim Brandenburg shot springtime images in his home state of Minnesota. This image of spiders on moss was captured on day 67 of his project.

See more pictures from the April 2016 feature story "Watch Spring Turn Into Summer, One Picture at a Time."

Hamilton is a musical tour-de-force, a smash hit, and a major moneymaker, with people spending as much as $549-a-seat on premium (non-scalped) tickets. Recently, it was revealed that the original cast members weren't getting any of the show's profits, with cash flow primarily going to investors and producers. This week, though, the performers and producers reached a deal, and it looks like the former are getting a slice of the pie. [ more › ]

The Metropolitan Museum of Art's Roof Garden is getting a little spooky this summer, thanks to a 25-foot-high red house installation, affectionately dubbed PsychoBarn. It's the statement piece of this year's site-specific rooftop commission at the Met, and blends ideas of New York's colonial past, Edward Hopper, urban-rural difference, psychology and Hitchcock's own Psycho. [ more › ]

After a troubled day of voting, the polls have closed and Donald Trump has been called the winner of New York's Republican primary by the AP, NY Times and CNN. The Donald is pleased: [ more › ]

The beautiful Church of the Ascension, on Fifth Avenue and 10th Street, has a long history in New York. It started in 1829 in a Canal Street building, where the city’s growing Evangelical population gathered.

After the original church was destroyed by fire a decade later, the parish moved to a Gothic Revival cathedral designed by Richard Upjohn in 1841 in what was then the outskirts of town.

In 1844, it earned fame as the site of a small wedding for a very prominent groom: United States President John Tyler.

And amazingly, the entire ceremony was pulled off without the press or public finding out until after the couple said their vows.

Tyler (of “Tippecanoe and Tyler Too” fame) had ascended to the White House when his Whig party running mate, William Henry Harrison, died one month after taking office.

After meeting her at a Washington reception, Tyler fell hard for Julia Gardiner, a beautiful 24-year-old from a wealthy New York family.

Following the death of Tyler’s first wife in 1842, the president was determined to win Julia’s hand.

The independent-minded Julia (who shocked society when she posed on the arm of a man who was not related to her in a store ad) eventually accepted.

The wedding was set for June 26, and the goal was to keep the press from finding out—and making a big to-do about the short time between Tyler’s first wife’s death and his second marriage, as well as the couple’s 30-year age difference.

“Tyler was so concerned about secrecy that he did not discuss his plans with his other children until after the wedding,” stated one source.

Tyler, 54, did tell his son John Tyler, Jr., who arrived in New York for the wedding with his father. They stayed at Howard’s Hotel on Lower Broadway, where the staff were kept on lockdown so no one would find about about the famous guest.

The secret ceremony was pulled off successfully, with only one newspaper reporting the nuptials. “The bride is a very beautiful and elegantly formed woman of apparently 20 years of age,” wrote The New York Morning Express.

“She was robed simply in white, with a gauze veil depending from a circlet of white flowers wreathed in her hair.” Less than 10 people attended, and afterward “the party departed for the residence of the bride in Lafayette Place (below)…the wedding cortege consisted of five carriages.”

After a wedding dinner, the couple boarded a steamer. Apparently Tyler was recognized, because people on passing ships “cheered most heartily” and presidential salutes were fired from “various ships of war.”

Julia was only First Lady for a short time. After Tyler’s term ended, he moved back to his Virginia plantation.

There, the couple had seven kids—in addition to the seven Tyler fathered with his first wife.

On another note, incredibly, two of Tyler’s grandchildren—children born of a son Tyler had with Julia—are still alive today.

[Top photo: Wikipedia; fourth image: Church of the Ascension; fifth image: NYPL Digital Gallery]

They can dine without parents at Per Se and Del Posto

First came the parent-and-toddler dining club at Michelin-starred restaurants — and now, kids can ditch the adults for a children-only meal at restaurants like Per Se, Del Posto, and Blue Hill, part of Danish culinary star Claus Meyer's new New York project Kid's Table. At the event, children aged 7 to 14 eat a three-course meal for $30, sans parents. Meanwhile, each restaurant incorporates rhubarb, lamb, and turnip in the dinner and treats the tots and teens like regular diners. "It's a matter of fundamentally expanding the culinary minds of kids," Meyer says.

Meyer, the co-founder of Noma, has organized the event through his nonprofit Melting Pot Foundation in Denmark since 2011, where the 4,000 tickets to more than 90 restaurants sell out within hours. Most food marketed at children contains processed sugar, salt, and fat, Meyer says, and Kid's Table is a way to expose young people to more challenging flavors and to connect them to the source of their food. It's a way to bring in a new generation of food-aware people, he says.

The launch in New York, which will take place on April 26, features about ten restaurants so far, including Meyer's upcoming Grand Central restaurant Agern. (The 40 kids who buy tickets may even end up being the first people to eat at the renowned restaurateur's new project.) Part of the proceeds go toward Meyer's Brownsville culinary school project, and the rest goes toward a nonprofit of each individual restaurant's choice.

While it may irk some to leave their kids alone in a Michelin-starred restaurant, Meyer says he's found that kids are actually more willing to socialize and try adventurous foods when their parents aren't around, he says. "It’s a very special moment," Meyer says. "They are treated like adults. Kids are much more courageous and attentive than at a normal family meal." Tickets to restaurants like Franny's, Rebelle, Vaucluse, and more may be purchased here.

The observance of Sunday Funday has been constricted for too long by archaic blue laws that prohibit the sale of alcohol in bars and restaurants until noon, forcing would-be parishioners the indignity of pre-gaming cloistered in their apartments. Luckily, a panel appointed by the governor agrees, releasing a report that calls for lifting the ban on restaurant booze sales between 4 a.m. and noon on Sundays. Think of the possibilities. [ more › ]