November 10th, 2009
Earlier this year, the stretch of Orchard Street just below Broome found itself at the epicenter of the city's banh mi hysteria. The brand new restaurant, An Choi, helped fuel the frenzy for the Vietnamese street food phenom. Now, across the street, the guys behind Orchard Street's new South African outpost are hoping bunny chow will become the new banh mi.
Bunny chow consists of a hollowed out hunk of bread filled with curry stew, and topped with a chutney. Popular in Durban, it's a messy affair – meant to be eaten with your hands. The hearty dish is a fast-food staple in much of South Africa. Recently, I stopped by the restaurant, which has been named after its signature dish, to talk with co-owners Paul Simeon, who was the chef at New York's South African trailblazer, Madiba, and Manu Dhingra, a partner in Bunny Chow" predecessor "Sonia Rose."
Continue reading Could Bunny Chow be the New Banh Mi?
November 10th, 2009
by Margaret Zamos-Monteith
Photos for The Lo-Down by photographer Matthew Monteith
A new exhibit opened this past weekend at the Simon Preston Gallery (301 Broome Street) featuring work from Mary Kelly, Christian Capurro, and Klaus Mosettig. The show is organized around the idea of “liminality, a state characterized by ambiguity and transition. The subject in each is left only as residue, either in the form of
compressed lint, projected particles of dust, or through erasure.”
The artists represent three different nationalities (American,
Australian, and Austrian) as well as three different decades (Mary
Kelly was born in 1941; Christian Capurro in 1968; Klaus Mosettig in
1975), but the show flows together in a remarkably cohesive manner.
Evident in each piece of work is a certain patience, a consideration
of how loose debris gathers over time, and they all deal with
erasure.
Gallery director Giuliano Argenziano gave me a tour of the exhibit,
handling the art very carefully, while speaking
enthusiastically about the show. He delicately removed prints from
boxes and opened catalogs with care.
Continue reading Erasing Time at the Simon Preston Gallery
November 10th, 2009
A number of elected officials, including City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, were on Delancey Street early this morning, handing out flyers – in search of information about the brutal beating of Mario Vera, a Mexican immigrant who was riding a bicycle home from a food pantry on the LES.
According to the Legislative Gazette, it appears unlikely Senator Daniel Squadron's proposal to tighten ethics rules in Albany will be a major priority in this session.
Time Out Kids: they're circus performers who own 10 acres on a secluded Australian island, but Rachel Kramer and Daryll John have moved into a cramped LES studio apartment, to raise their daughter in the city. Check out some of their favorite hangouts.
A Curbed tipster pays a visit to "River Ridge," the pricey development with a spectacular view of the Williamsburg Bridge.
The Bowery Bazaar is now open for business.
Serious Eats visits T-Poutine.
November 10th, 2009
In the past few days there's been a good deal of speculation about the future of City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, as well as the future role of the Council as a "counter-balance" to Mayor Michael Bloomberg. While it's generally believed that she'll be re-elected speaker, several new and veteran council members are pressuring Quinn to stand up to Bloomberg in a way some people feel she's been unwilling to do in the past. Yesterday we asked District 1 City Councilmember-elect Margaret Chin whether she'd decided whether to support Speaker Quinn.
Continue reading Chin Weighs Whether to Support Quinn as Speaker
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