Month: June, 2007

Puerto Rican Day Parade 2007

Sunday, June 10th, 2007 | All Things, Events

B and I made our plans to check out the new exhibit at the MoMA before tonight’s housewarming party. Our path to the museum brought us within a block of the 50th annual Puerto Rican Day parade, presided over this year by parade king Ricky Martin.

The parade, which is held the second Sunday in June, marches a route along Fifth Avenue from 44th Street to 86th Street.

Puerto Rican Day Parade

Puerto Rican Day Parade

The festivities – in my mind, at least — are almost always associated with the infamous Seinfeld episode, in which our favorite foursome run into troubles after getting caught up in the parade mayhem. The chaos culminates with Kramer (Michael Richards) getting chased by an angry mob (led by a couple of gay street toughs) when he is caught stomping on the Puerto Rican flag after accidentally setting fire to it with a sparkler. Later, as wild revelers descend upon Jerry’s abandoned Saab, Kramer remarks, “Well, you know, it’s like this every day in Puerto Rico.”

The Puerto Rican Day” was the last half hour episode before the hour-long series finale. When Latino groups and their supporters protested over the episode’s portrayal of Puerto Ricans, NBC issued an apology and pulled it from the re-airing schedule. It was returned when the series went into syndication, though it still remains one of the series’ least frequently shown episodes.

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Sunnyside Strawberry Fair 2007

Saturday, June 9th, 2007 | All Things, Eats, Events, Friends

I arrived in Sunnyside early for SYB’s pot luck dinner party, in time to catch the tail end of the annual Strawberry Fair that had taken over 46th Street, north of Queens Blvd. Though small in scale, this was one street fair that had a distinctly local feel — not a mozzarepa in sight! – setting it apart from almost every other street fair in New York City.

There were fold-out tables and wheeled racks ladened with clothing, accessories and assorted knick-knacks, but strangely enough, not a strawberry in sight. (Sunnyside also hosts a “Pumpkin Fair” in October for which, presumably, there may or may not be pumpkins.)

Strawberry Fair

Strawberry Fair

That warm, sugary smell could only mean one thing: cotton candy! (Maybe we should try renting a truck like this for the August road trip.)

Strawberry Fair

Inside the courtyard of the All Saints’ Episcopal Church, which offers Sunday services in 4 languages: English, Spanish, Korean and Hindi. Despite the conspicuous yellow banner outside, there were no strawberries to be found there either.

Strawberry Fair

Strawberry Fair

We did get our berries eventually, compliments of JD who brought a quart, hand-dipped in dark chocolate, as her contribution to tonight’s red-themed dinner. (New friends SH and AP wowed us all with a delicious and beautiful homemade cherry pie.) Chocolate is always delightful, to be sure, but one of my favorite treatments for the season’s fresh strawberries is drizzled — or better: marinated — in aged balsamic vinegar, topped with crème fraîche, mascarpone, or fresh ricotta. Or perhaps over scoops of olive oil gelato?

Or simpler still: dusted with cardamom sugar?

Critics’ favorite new restaurant Sfoglia, located across the street from the 92nd Street Y, is owned by husband-and-wife chefs Ron Suhanosky and Colleen Marnell-Suhanosky. (The pair met as line cooks in 1994 . “One look at her, he says, and he saw it all: marriage, a restaurant of their own. It took him about six months, he says, to bring her around.”) The trattoria – their second – is renowned for Marnell-Suhanosky’s house bread and Suhanosky’s simple, yet sophisticated take on Italian comfort food, as in Sfoglia’s signature pasta, an unusual-sounding dish of Spaghetti with Strawberries.

In their recipe, the berries are cooked with balsamic vinegar and tomato puree, and tossed with spaghetti. Not a flavor combination that would have come to my mind readily, but the intriguing mix of savory and sweet, and the seemingly straightforward preparation, makes this one to try at home.

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Upper West Side, you rule.

Friday, June 8th, 2007 | All Things

I’m late to the game in posting about this — it’s what comes of being consistently behind on the blog — but I started noticing these controversial Virgin Mobile ads around my neighborhood the last couple of weeks. Richard Branson’s media conglomerate (via their Durham-based ad agency Havas’ McKinney) began rolling out its $15 million “You Rule” campaign in late May to tout its pay-as-you-go cell phone service. Seems the ads are everywhere now: 350 neighborhood-tailored spots around the city – the national campaign launches in July – riling locals in Bed-Stuy, Chelsea, the Lower East Side, Chinatown and others with their neighborhood and borough-stereotype-promoting copy. Love ’em or hate ’em, people are talking. And that’s the point of advertising, no?

So how do those North Carolinians characterize the Upper West Side?

UWS You Rule

The New York Times reported on how New Yorkers are responding to the ads. (Not so well.) Virgin Mobile’s chief marketing officer is quoted saying, “We’re either equal-opportunity celebrators or equal-opportunity offenders. The reality is that we’re stirring up a dialogue and people are talking about our services.” Unfortunately, some of that talk was over amusingly misplaced ads; the one above, mocking our across-the-park neighbors as “tied down and uptight,” was inadvertently plastered on a few streets on the Upper East Side. Whoops.

Yep, we liberal-thinking, stroller-pushing, moment-siezing Upper West Siders love our parks — even the tiny ones.

Sherman Square

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