dresese

La Pizza Fresca

I've mentioned La Pizza Fresca before. It's a great Neopolitan-style pizza restaurant. It doesn't get as much press as some of the other places of the same style in New York, but it really is one of the best pizzas in the city. I don't have much else to say about them, just wanted to plug them again.

At a Flushing food court

Flushing has got to me my favorite food destination right now. It is so jam packed full with wildly good Chinese food that just choosing where to go is perplexing. Like Buridan's donkey, you might just starve before deciding where to eat.

Last weekend, Ben and I went to a small food court in Flushing. We ate about half of the stalls there. My favorite was the Sichuan stall, where you can order from a man who speaks no English at all. Pointing at the menu won't help because the menu is only a sign that he can't see, and faces towards you (and it's all in Chinese). But the food is spicy and has an abundance of those wonderful Sichuan peppercorns. It's a great, cheap way to eat.

We got the Sichuan cold noodles. The noodles, like the rest of the food, was pleasantly spicy although not overwhelmingly so. The real spice came from the mouth-numbing Sichuan peppercorns.

We also got a big bowl of cold, smoked rabbit. Compared to the rest of the dishes, it was a little plain. It was so much, though (I think Ben accidentally ordered a double order), that I took it home. Eating it on it's own was a revelation. It was not only smoky, but had a wonderful subtle heat to it. I couldn't stop eating it!

Finally, we got some dumplings. Unlike other ones I've had, these were topped with sesame seeds. Strange. It was quite tasty however, although I've had better elsewhere.

At the other stalls, we got an green onion & egg stuffed bread from an Islamic Chinese vendor, which had a wonderfully hearty and rustic taste. We also got a peanut & chicken soup from a Cantonese stall. That one was much more refreshing that I would have guessed. Very pleasant.

The End of Poverty

Last week I saw Columbia economics professor Jeffrey Sachs speak on his book The End of Poverty, and it was one of the best talks I've been to. Although I had believed, from the title of the book, that he was undoutedly an idealist, it turned out he really was just talking about ending extreme poverty. He defined extreme poverty as poverty so bad you can die from it.

Sachs has a similar viewpoint to Jared Diamond. He's very interested in why the extremely poor have gotten that way. Identifying the root causes, he believes that a small amount of money to fix the root causes can start these areas on the road to success. This was not a dull policy talk, though. He described in very emotional terms the suffering he has seen in the extremely poor areas of Africa.

One of the areas he talked most about was agriculture in Africa. Unlike India, Africa never had a Green revolution. Today, they use substandard varieties of crops, and no fertilizer. They are, he said, simply mining the ground. Simply using fertlizer should double the food output. Using new seed varieties (hybrids, not genetically modified crops) could result in a five-fold increase.

Another interesting problem was what he called the "disease burden" of Africa, which is unique. For example, malaria exists in India, but the mosquitos there bite cattle 70% of the time. Malaria transmission requires two human bites in a row, so there is only a 9% chance of transmission. Due to another disease in Africa which attacks cattle, there hasn't historically been any cattle in Africa, which means the mosquitos there evolved to attack humans exclusively. The malaria transmission rate therefore is 100% in Africa, since two consecutive mosquito bites will always be between two humans. Sachs said that with just a cheap mosquito net, which costs $5, lasts for years, and can protect two children at a time, the malaria problem can be greatly reduced.

Sachs believes that extreme poverty is solvable by the year 2020, and it only requires the political will to spend the money necessary. It won't be much money overall, but quite a bit more than we are spending right now. I don't know if I believe that extreme poverty can be solved so quickly. After all, there is still a significant amount of extreme poverty in India, which has been doing fairly well economically for a while. However, I can believe that by 2020 we can at least see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Cherry Blossoms

They've all gone away now, but I've been enjoying all the special flowery trees in New York. There's a particular one with white leaves that is the first to bloom in the spring. Then the famous cherry blossom trees. There are many other types as well, with purple flowers, large white flowers, and all sorts of things. My neighborhood is especially beautiful in this time. And then all the flowers drop, and it's like you are walking to work on a bed of roses.

New anti-spam measures

I've been having a real problem with spam for this blog recently. Not only do I have to delete comments almost every other day, but I've accidentally deleted some legitimate comments.

I was previously protecting my site with something that ensured they couldn't simply post a comment to my cgi comment script. Now, I believe the technique that is being used is to read the comment page and do a post from there. This more closely matches what a real person would do.

As a quick hack, I put in a quick captcha so that I can filter the spammers out. Please let me know if this is causing any problems. The problem you are most likely to experience is an "improper access error". Report such things to me via email, please. If you don't know my email, just mail to webmaster of this domain, and it will get to me.

Landlord Stories

My mom visited me last weekend. Unfortunately, she stayed by the 7 line which was under construction all weekend, so she had to take taxis around. One of the cab drivers told her that he knew my building well, and that it was just bought by a Pakistani. That is very interesting news, and a bit unbelievable to me, since I hadn't heard anything about it. So Greta asked one of the doormen, and he clarified. Evidently, no, the building was not bought by a Pakistani. But it isn't a complete mistake. The reality is, as usual, even stranger than rumor. According to the doorman, the owner's brother got in trouble for selling missiles to Pakistan.

So, my landlord is the brother of an international illegal arms dealer.

No wonder people who live in this building thought our previous landlord, Leona Helmsley was comparatively great.

Zibetto

Last week I tried Zibetto, a new and extremely tiny espresso bar near 56th St. and 6th Ave. I can't call it a café, because you can't even sit down. It's just a counter. However, the espresso and cappuccinos are expertly crafted. I recommend it highly, so go there and try it out! This is one of the best in the city.