2015-07-31: Breaking Stereotypes

As we are wont to do we have started a new tradition. 

After training on Friday night we scurry off to the bottleshop around the corner.

We buy a weeks worth of different beers to try (plus a case of Corona for Ewa).

I like this tradition and have resolved to continue it as long as we are here.

Ewa has a tradition from Japan she has decided to bring with her to New York. 

After Jukendo training Ewa buys a can of Kirin lemon highball.

Ewa drinks this on the way home.

Ewa likes the rehydration and sugar from the drink.

Budweiser has started making Fruit flavoured drinks which look similar.

The Kirin one is a crappy product but not offensive.

Surely Budweiser can't do it any worse

I was wrong. Ewa was sad. Ellery might have given up alcohol altogether based on this product.

Suddenly seems a masterful product of precision brewing.

2015-07-30: Foiled!

When Kick starter first came to my attention I jumped onto a few projects. One of which was called Save the Sci Fi (http://singularity.co/). The premise was that they would get old science fiction books (out of copyright I think? for some reason it was legal), scan them and make a digital archive. At the time I was not spending my money on anything which seemed useful to anyone (and probably pushing me towards any early grave) so I diverted some of the cash earmarked for Things that make People give me Advice towards their project.

For some people this view would have reminded them to carry an umbrella.

Part of the rewards thing was having access to their library, obviously not of much use in Sydney as they are in Brooklyn. I now know the best way to Brooklyn from where I am. We went to visit.
As part of this we organised to meet there with a guy I have known from the webcomics community for ages but never met.

Landmarks prove navigation skills are working.

And the heavens opened. The two ferry trip should have been followed with a 15 minute stroll from the Dumbo terminal to the bookshop. We left our umbrellas in Japan. We would have forgotten them anyway. Uber vehicles count as an umbrella. We used one of them.

I looked more like a drowned rat.

Save The SciFi is housed in an old warehouse type area (mapref). It does not feature a large amount of awnings to protect travellers from the elements. It is also closed at random times. This particular time was one of those random times.
David, webcomic friend, is the self proclaimed last remaining Born and Raised Manhattanite. As such he gets nervous leaving his island and venturing into the wildlands beyond the bridges. I surmise he is worried the interlopers will claim the island as their own, subvert the traditions and raise barriers preventing his return. Despite this we found a bar in Brooklyn and whiled away the afternoon hiding from the storm.

Gangplank and an Anchor? Pirate Garden in the Sky!!!

Eventually he had to leave, he claimed it was to attend a Dr Who fan group meeting. I may have expressed disbelief. Presumably he guessed my suspicions regarding his leaving the Island unguarded for the afternoon and invited us along to prove his veracity. Or he wanted cannon fodder should the bridges be barred to him. Dr Who fans seem to enjoy drinking beer and talking about silly crap as well.

In Japan they have arrows showing how to use the steps for Up and Down. We were in a state where this would have been useful.

So it was that with no check list items achieved we staggered into the subway after 7 hours of drinking and talking about the silly things that Webcomic and Dr Who fans talk about. We were on the Upper East Side. If we were Americans we could have checked off several Monopoly board streets but in NZ we had the English street names. In Poland we don't know what they had, not because of the capitalist nature of the game causing it to be banned by the commies, but because Ewa's older brother made the game so painful the rest of the kids refused to play it.

2015-07-29: Faux Farmers

I quite like cooking. I am a lazy cook so I tend towards the peasant foods of more cuisines; the type of stuff where you do some quick prep work then let it cook for ages. Lots of famous chefs and whatever People that eat but do it better than the rest of do it call themselves at the moment love this kind of food because "the flavours blend and the essential nature of the ingredients come out". My opinion is this is bullshit; chefs love it because they rarely get to eat it, up themselves eating people simply regurgitate what the chefs say.

Not a huge Farmers Market, but close by!

I figure the reason chefs rarely get to eat it is simply because few people have the free time to do this type of cooking and those people are usually the mothers of the chefs. It is not exactly hard food to cook. Fortunately I am rich in time (as opposed to skill).

Sort of like what I think a Provence farmer Lady would look like if she visited Japan.

If we were proper followers of the Cool Food People path we would go to farmers markets to support local farmers and because the produce is better and blah blah blah. As it stands there is a farmers market across the road so let's pretend we went for those reasons and not out of laziness.

We were told to check the garden before buying stuff but I forgot.

Part of my lack of skill tends towards just buying a crap load of things and putting them all in a pot or a pan. So we bought most of the vegetables. Then I had to think of how to cook them. There are three recipes that I know; cook in liquid, fry or roast. Everything I make is just a bit of a variation of one of those.

They didn't have a wheelbarrow so we didn't buy everything

I figured we would go for roast.
In the opinion of Kiwis and Poles alike A Roast means meat is needed . Our host is Filipino, I think they like meat too. If not I will claim I am exposing him to different cuisines in a cross cultural exchange. The farmers market didn't have any meat. I guess they are not very cultural farmers.
Obtaining meat means transport is needed. In my Base Of Operations mode the other day I checked out options for bicycles locally. Renting one will cost more than buying one. They are not super cheap but I like bikes more than I like trains or Uber. Plus the boxing gym doesn't have a station nearby I don't think. I have rationalised this by asking our host if we can leave the bikes with him when we leave, that way when if return we have bikes. It's an investment in the future.

I am cunning and take photos of the serial numbers etc of things. Just a shame I am a sucky photographer. I can at least tell the policeman the tires were black with confidence.

With that agreement reached we now have to be model guests so that we are allowed to return. I will leave that aspect of the operation in Ewa's hands. I can be a model something but often it is not a something which encourages repeated exposure.

Found a tray that fits it all. Cooking by tray sizing is easier than cooking by portion sizing.

New Zealand lamb is graded as lamb based on the number of teeth the animal has. As far as I am aware the Australian sheep industry has been pushing for older animals still being classed as lamb (which I think would be moving into hogget by NZ terminology).

Girlfriend for scale. Leg is bigger than hers. Big Lamb I guess.

I believe this is why NZ legs of lamb are smaller than the Australian ones. I can only assume that the American rules for labelling something as Lamb are even further along this scale. I only had my backpack to carry it in and it didn't fit so I rode along with half a lamb leg hanging out the top.

This is only about half the lamb. I shall have to make something else with the leftovers... Maybe I am getting better at being a model guest.

And then we feasted. Filipinos do like meat and feasts. Successful Cultural Exchange!

2015-07-28: Night time strolling

I would like to claim that we have been in Japan too long and blame all of my weird aesthetics on the Japanese. Everyone knows that the Japanese have weird over the top aesthetics in certain topics. Therefore the idea of having a favourite bridge is just a weird japanese thing I have picked up and not an indication that I might be a boring architect type of fellow.

Ferry or Subway. Even if you are afraid of drowning on the ferry remember that the subway goes under all this water so is even more dangerous. You might get the bends or something.

I do have a favourite bridge and I like to think I have valid engineering (not architecture) reasons for it being my favourite. However even I know that any tedious architect type will think he has valid reasons for his weird obsession. And none of us want to hear those reasons.

An architect did this. I believe it was his way of getting revenge on all the workers because they probably have partners, sex lives and happiness. Maybe a kitten.

Ewa is tolerant enough to accept my "too long in Japan" theory / excuse and has agreed we can wander across the Brooklyn Bridge in the evening. I believe if I mention caissons again she might change her mind.

Skateboarders! I used to always feel sorry for the guys that took pictures of us skating. We're having fun and doing tricks. They are just taking photos.

I will speak not of the doughty fellows that manned the caissons and taught us so much. Ewa likes scuba diving and so should appreciate the connection but I feel I may have crapped on endlessly enough about this (in truth she enjoys my ranting at times and sometimes has actually asked me to rant about something, anything).

Plus of course none of us ever landed the damn tricks either.

There is apparently New York's best pizza on the other side of the bridge too. It appears that New York's most famous / oldest / most tourist frequented pizza place was opened by some guy and then he sold it. Then he opened a new place next door. The new place is the new best pizza in NY. It is no longer the oldest or the most tourist frequented.

Wall Street! Yea though I walk through the Valley of the Shadow of Death I will fear no Evil for thou art with me, thy rod and staff comfort me. Plus puppy!

Mostly I figure good pizza is good pizza, the best pizza in the world would just be good pizza to me - I am not skilled enough to tell the best from plain old good. This could be me setting the bar ridiculously high but I doubt it, I have eaten some pizza many people have made much ado about and thought it was good pizza. I think I secretly want to go because the owner seems like such a jerk based on that one webpage talking about that one business deal of his.

I am sure there is more to his life than the one story.

From Jersey City to Brooklyn is kind of a trek. You can probably do it more efficiently but I wanted to go on the ferry so I ignored google maps until we were in Battery park. Then we both wanted beer so we just headed vaguely in the direct google said. You can probably do it quickerer. But I have tourist check lists to check and the easiest way is to find something then claim it is on a list somewhere. We passed through Wall Street and got a picture with the Bull.

There were lots of people taking photos with the bull. I got bored and eventually took a few shots and photoshopped the other people out in the most half arsed way possible.

I was going to yell abuse at the Wall St parasites that tried to wreck the world through their drug fuelled greed but there weren't many people around and they didn't look that parasitic. We passed a place selling ramen burgers. Now there are some parasites.

I made bookends resembling this bridge once. That was creative of me, not obsessive.

In Sydney the Harbour Bridge is a bit of a tourist thing. You can go strolling over the top of it (one of the worst tourist experiences I have done - anytime people hit you up for more money at the end of the thing I get a bad taste in my mouth) or you can cross it on the deck with great views and once you get off you are at the Australian pub which has pretty good pizza.

I should probably do a photography course at some point This was accomplished by randomly twirling the special effects dial until something looked like twilight.

I figured the Brooklyn bridge is probably in the same league as the Sydney Harbour Bridge in terms of tourist activity. I was very, very wrong.
Using my navigation skills of "that looks like it, let's go that way"meant we got down to the bottom of the bridge and then had to wander a few blocks back into the city to get onto the actual bridge. We were under the bridge as the sun set which was cool.

Or get a job with the NY tourism board and fix the bridge up so idiots like me can take photos easily.

There were a few guys set up there taking photos. My camera is not set up for sunset type photos; it is set up to be idiot proof; no zoom, no flash and a way low f stop. Pictures either look like broad daylight or the camera won't even take a shot.

Hooray, Tourist Photo! I figured out how to turn flash on!

The Sydney Harbour Bridge has lights shining up into the superstructure. At night it looks brilliant. The iconic Brooklyn Bridge dual archway bit has a convenient light situated exactly in the middle of frame if you want to take a nice photo as you approach and the sun sets behind the arch.

I am sure real photographers can compensate for that light. I am not a real photographer. I checked at the other end and they had a nice bright light there too. I figure the light at that end is to prevent you getting a pretty photo of dawn through that arch. Comprehensive planning on their behalf.

If I was in the photo I could call it Dumbo in Dumbo.

The Brooklyn Bridge also seems to have a long exit which doesn't really drop you into the Dumbo area which has a bunch of cool stuff. It just kind of leaves you in an area with not a lot of stuff. I realise that the bridge has practical purposes and that I probably missed the signposts saying "tourists should go this way" but the Australian idea of putting a pub at either end of the bridge wins. Even if the pub at the Milsons Point end is kind of nasty and I don't remember having good pizza there. Last time I went I think it still had those nasty browny orange tiles which look like they were leftovers from the men's urinals.

This is the first time I have seen one of these plates as sensible. The footpath has a decent slope to it and the angled bowl made the food flat.

And it isn't that the Brooklyn Bridge is not used by tourists. It was positively packed full of people. I have never seen the Harbour Bridge like it except once when all the trains were broken and all of Sydney had to walk across the bridge together to get home.

Girlfriend for scale. Oh and the pizza was really good too. Would repeat the trip, probably just take the ferry from Wall St rather than walk across.

The Harbour bridge has the cyclists separated from the walkers. This means the Brooklyn Bridge has more interaction between cyclists (mostly locals just getting home) and walkers (mostly tourists ignoring the painted line separating cyclists and tourists). This is educational as Brooklyn has a different accent.
 I think there is more R in the Brooklyn version of "Fuck Youuuuuuuu". Could be jsut the doppler effect I guess.

2015-07-27: Advanced Planning Skills

We are confident in our skills at being tourists. Who wouldn't be after our recent smashing successes? We celebrated by strolling the streets of Jersey City.
New Jersey gets a bad rap, it is the butt of many jokes in comedies and such. In The French Connection  Gene Hackman gets grumpy with someone because "they made me come all the way out to Hoboken, I hate Hoboken." Then I think he beat the guy up or shot him or something. Gene Hackman is often in a grumpy mood but it was a little extra grumpy.

Not gritty enough for Gene.

I am told things have changed a lot since the 70's and 80's when New Jersey was an industrial wasteland for New York. We meandered through Jersey City downtown. It feels a lot like a place which is just starting to become popular with the artist children of rich parents. Not quite there yet, at the moment it is a lot of arty types with no money. But it has a multi cultural, varied lifestyle choices and student abundance which reminds me of Newtown, Sydney in the early 90's. I am guessing there is a similar amount of rebellious sex going on. That will attract the rich artist kiddies for sure.
The sun was out and pretty strong. We got hot and a bit sweaty.

Food & Beverage Review: Skinners Loft

mapref
http://www.skinnersloft.com/
In the hospitality trade you see a lot of places opened by people that effectively want a cool place to have their friends around to for drinks. The idea that a bar is a bloody good way to spend a lot of cash and a daft way to make money seems irrelevant to them. This is almost definitely one of those places.

Cheapest I have seen is over $4 a square foot. Paint is a lot cheaper.

3 stories of ridiculously cool fit out including a replica pressed tin ceiling. Pressed tin used to be popular here. Even the replica stuff is not going to be cheap I don't think.
We stopped just for a quick beer. With the beer came some popcorn. The popcorn had truffle oil, parmesan and pepper on it. I believe they have a rule of thumb of one bowl of popcorn per beer so I had to drink faster than usual to balance the equation given the speed Ewa was downing bowls of popcorn. I have seen Ewa eat popcorn before. It has never been like this.

I know truffle oil should cost the same as olive oil but the fact is it doesn't. The barmaids call this Crack and are constantly making more and eating it themselves.

As I was to busy pouring beers down my gullet Ewa struck up conversation with the barmaids. Mostly about why Jersey is cool (Jersey people will jump at this topic) and where we could go to see said coolness.
Turns out the big three things are Diners, Taylor Ham and Kayaking by the Statue of Liberty.

Rating: 8/10 (+1 for the popcorn)

We already knew about the Diner thing. Jersey has tons of diners from the thirties through to the fifties which have been maintained and still do a steady trade. I especially like the art deco styled ones. Future Diners!!! (which I guess makes no sense as in the art deco brushed aluminium future we all ate pills instead of chicken fried steak).

You can't just stand there like a tourist!

There is a Diner at the end of the street we are staying on. Seizing the opportunity to check more lists is what life is all about.

Hooray, thematic glamour!

I am not sure if they have times related to the breakfast, lunch or dinner menus. If they do I don't think they adhere that strongly to them. They do have "sets". We fell in love with the Nagoya BrekoFastu Settu (coffee, toast and a boiled egg) during Japanese classes and cannot help our selves from using set theory here.

Brunswick chowder or stew or something, anyway I don't think it is a Jersey invention so it doesn't count as a list checking bonus item. Tasty though.

One thing they do adhere to is the Jersey accent. When walking around NY city I can hear a slight difference between New York and Jersey people. Nothing huge, the number of Jersey people that work in NY city have probably diluted the difference somewhat.

We don't do crackers in soup. They do. We copied. Pretty good. The packages are tricky to open for fisherman fingers.

Walking into this Diner was walking back to when the accent was distinct and strong. I swear customers I walked in at the same time as changed their accents as they crossed the thresh hold.
Not sure if this is a nostalgia thing or a protective colouring; "I am not from New York, don't kick me out, listen to my strong accent".

Lunch Time Set!

Our accents are so foreign I think the ejection mechanisms weren't tripped. Or of course they only kick out New York people. Plus we are delightful anyway.