dresese

Neopolitan Pizza

Neopolitan pizza seems to be the hot new thing in New York. There seems to be a bunch of new places specializing in pizza as they make it in Naples. There are strict rules about this sort of thing: you have to use Italian tomatoes, buffalo mozarella, etc. Near my work is La Pizza Fresca, which is certified by an Italian pizza association. I've eaten there several times, and it is wonderful pizza, although the center of the pizza tends to be a bit soggy.

This stuff is good, although tends to be a bit expensive and not incredibly filling. This trend probably won't keep on spreading, since the knowledge and skill to make Neopolitan pizzas is rare. Or, perhaps, the trend will spread, but most new places will be crappy.

Interesting enough, a comment on this blog posting claims that real Neopolitan pizzas are not round at all, but square. Could be, I had pizza at "No. 28", and the larger pizzas were all oblong, two slices deep by 6 or 8 slices wide. Great pizza there, by the way.

Subway woes both city-wide and personal

Everyone seemed to be talking yesterday about the subway fire that knocked out the C line, supposedly for 3 to 5 years. The fire was started by a homeless man trying to stay warm. Today, the estimate has been revised downwards to less than a year.

This reminds me of a recent article I read about environmentalism. I thought some of the article was misguided, but the part that rang true was about how environmentalism is too narrowly focused. There are a host of issues such as health care, labor issues, and others that have unexpected implications on the environment. Similarly, who would have thought that homelessness is a transportation problem? But when you have such a huge problem that homeless people are starting fires to stay warm, this can have horrible unforseen consequences.

One thing that is obvious is the need to upgrade the ancient signalling equipment. These things malfunction all the time. Just today I got on the F train, and was told that due to signal malfunctions the train would not be going into Manhattan, and was instead re-routed to the G line, which goes directly from Queens to Brooklyn. Everyone had to get out and wait for the next F, which we crowded into like eager English soccer fans. A few stops later, the doors opened as usual, but for some reason the train below it's horn, which almost never happens. The doors remained opened, and about 5 minutes later the announcer came on and said the police were holding this train. If there was a criminal on the train, he probably was fairly captive already, since he must have been as wedged in as I was. About 5 or 10 minutes later we were on our way again, without any further incident. As I left the train, I noticed the ads in the train for a TV special on Pompei. One of them said "How do you outrun lava that is moving faster than this train?" I had to laugh.

Recent Forest Hills Eats

I've had some interesting Queens eating experiences recently. A few weeks ago I went into one of the Russian groceries in Rego Park. I saw this same large, round, concave, flatbread that I've seen in Cheburechnaya and Beautiful Bhukura. I've always wondered what it is. So, I asked, and while I was expecting a strange Russian word, I got a simple familiar one: matzoh. So I took two, and ate it at home. It was the best matzoh I've had, it was so fresh and light. My kids loved it as well, they just kept eating and eating until I refused to give them any more. I took a picture of it:

Today I went back and got more, but this time it was a different type. It did not have the same holes you find in other matzohs, but instead it was smooth and had caraway seeds in it. Also delicious, with an amazing crunch. I think I prefer plain, though.

Also at the Russian store I bought some dried fish. I've seen these things before, but was puzzled at what to do with it. Recently, though, my co-worker DB (not his real name, although it is what everyone calls him) and I were eating at a Korean place that served us an appetizer of small dried fish. He commented how it tasted like the Russian dried fish, which evidently you eat plain, usually accompanied by beer. So I got five smallish dried fish, which cost $5. I ate one the other day, and it was tasty but strange. I felt queasy for a few minutes afterwards, perhaps just because I realized I was eating fish that had been at room temperature for a week at least. The feeling past, but I still have 4 fish to go.

Finally, this weekend I ate at Hot Bialys, a stupidly named, but nice little bagel shop on Queens Blvd. near Union Turnpike. It is, according to some, one of the best bagels in Queens, as well as New York. Strangely enough, it is owned by Thai immigrants. Today they were very nice to me, and the owner rush towards my daughters and gave them both a little bagel, just because they were twins and she likes twins. The bagels there are a bit sweet, and have a good chew. They taste a bit like H&H Bagels.

Also good - a new Greek restaurant called Corfu Grill, which has some great dishes. I especially like their grilled octopus; it is not tough at all, and it is nicely flavored.

Eternal Sunshine

I recently saw the movie Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, which was, as usual for Kaufman-written movies, incredibly inventive and well-written. The direction was quite nice too. One though bothered me though: how would a company that erases memories get paid, since they have to erase memories of the memory erasal? Even paying up-front, the client would be confused why the bank statement shows they paid thousands of dollars to someone they have never heard of. Of course, this isn't a flaw in the movie, just a nitpick that amused me.

RealClimate

Have I mentioned how much I love the new blog RealClimate? It is started by actual climate researchers, and dedicated to irradicating the huge amount of false information that is usually spread by right-wing pundits and politicians. Read it, keep it handy, use it liberally when attacking the global-warming "skeptics".

Aggregator

I've been looking for a while for a good blog aggregator. There's a huge need for one. Most people read a variety of blogs, and who wants to keep checking up on them just to see if there are any new articles? It is very inefficient, both for your time, and for hits on the server.

I've experimented with some solutions, such as using the Thunderbird, NetNewsWire, or using web-based Kinja, or the new MyYahoo!, but was dissatisfied. The client-side apps work great, but since they are client-side, I can't use them from two different computers and have the same data on what is already read. Kinja is web-based, but when I tried it, it was slow to update, only getting new articles long after they had been published on their websites. MyYahoo! was prompt, but did not include summaries of articles, only their titles.

Finally, I tried Bloglines, which is web-based, and quick to update. Furthermore, it has great auto-discovery, and an easy to use interface. It still has a few problems, though. First of all, there seems to be no way to go directly to the actual page which shows the new summaries of the blogs, which seems to me the place where everyone wants to have quick access. Plus, they have a blog notifier, but it doesn't seem to work very well (at least the web-based one). But, Bloglines seems good enough, and now I'm regularly reading many more blogs than I have been before. Yay! A victory in either reducing information overload, or wasting time. Or both.