You know, a Korean guy I met last year who now lives in Seoul told me that the Korean food in NYC is as good/better than anything you can get in Korea and cheaper too
FB I think the place you're thinking about is Pearson's. It's off Queens Blvd? Sort of a bar with "Texas" BBQ in the back? Although it's as close to Texas as you can get in Queens NY, it's okay. I wasn't that impressed. But Texas kind of holds the bar pretty high in my opinion. Finding good BBQ in New York is next to impossible because of the laws banning open spit grills in the city. "sigh"
Exactly the pit laws make good bbq in NY next to impossible. That's one thing that bothers me when NY'ers act like they have the best restaurants in the world. Two things you can't get there are good Tex-Mex and good BBQ. I know those aren't 4 star eateries or anything, but I rate from the bottom up. Sure they have some top quality 5 star dining, but for many of us that's a once a year(if that) type experience.
We will have to complete this thread with a big helping of jelly beans, one of my favorite things about Ronnie.
Very interesting stuff as usual Mango. I’ll respond to part of it now and hopefully get to more later tomorrow. Good point, but there have also been lessons on not charging in too quickly without due preparation, like Vietnam. I certainly agree that past lessons need to be drawn on to the extent that this can be done, which brings me to a slightly tangential question. I’ve heard Bob Woodward say in some recent interviews that GWB admitted to never having discussed the Iraq situation with his father. I was stunned by that because Sr. obviously faced a serious decision at the end of the first Gulf War as to whether or not to go into Iraq, and he decided not to. Why on earth would GWB not use that resource, one that would have been so easily accessible to him? It’s almost as though he wasn’t interested in learning from past lessons. What’s your take on this? One classification system calls these Renegade Projects, project that have never been done before or that have a high degree of complexity and unknowns. For such projects you put a lot of time and effort in up front doing risk analysis, contingency planning, avoidance planning, etc. This still doesn’t guarantee that you won’t encounter problems, of course, but you ought to have thought through not only the obvious risks but also the not so obvious ones, and a few of the critical long shot ones too. It’s true that the world did not know much about radical Islam, but it did know something about the risks of forming alliances with shady characters and about backlashes in countries that feel they’ve been exploited. The revolution in Iran leading to the fall of the Shah and the hostage taking was happening at about the same time after all. This is a BIG problem. If you don’t do some diligent thinking around a project, considering the broader stakeholder group, especially on complex and high risk projects, you are going to get blind sided a lot and in big ways. This happens on construction projects all the time, even though it’s fairly basic PM theory at this point (although it probably wasn’t then). It’s the overlooked thing that jumps up to bite you and delays your project or adds significant extra cost. The trick is not to overlook that thing. To do that you need to think though and around your project and consult people and do some brain storming and risk analysis ahead of time. If you just take the position that nothing matters but the main objective and you only focus on it, then you’re a dead man walking. That is like putting on a blindfold and running across a freeway. You are right that it is difficult and you are right you will never get it completely right (and this is a very important point to remember) but it’s a very worthwhile exercise. And it builds the more you do it. The more you try to understand someone else’s position and the more you ask them and talk to them about it (or people like them) the more you will learn about the context they are working out of. (But you will never get all the way there and it is essential that you never slip into believing that you have, because at that point you stop learning and stop being alert for critical new information). This is incredibly powerful knowledge because it often profoundly changes your understanding of the broader context and how your position fits into it. In philosophical terms, this works essentially like communicative reason as opposed to instrumental reason. Similar comments #2 above. You HAVE to have your head up, otherwise you won’t know where you’re going. This may sound obvious but it also happens all the time, often when someone hasn’t done enough front end planning. When they start getting blind sided by big problems they didn’t anticipate they get panicky because they are often too far in at this point to easily deal with these problems, so they often just bury their head and plough on, often making their problems worse. Absolutely, but they should also endeavour to learn from their failures, and the failures of others, and not repeat them. If someone keeps making the same kind of mistake it is not simply bad luck. Oh yeah, and I stand corrected. It's Samozzzzza. Samosa = good. Samoza = bad.
definitely true, but manhattanites now have hope: Daisy May's real BBQ on 11th and 46th. unfortunately, and inexplixably, they're closed weekends, but the pulled pork is the equivalent of anything i ate in memphis, and the ribs are pretty spectacular too. i think this thread needs to give a shout out to calvin trillin about now!
FWIW, the Blue Smoke (a decent, though a bit too hip BBQ eatery) Big Apple Barbecue block party is this weekend (over on E.20-something). I haven't been but a friend of mine went and said it was good last year. I would go this year but am stuck in San Fran on business from tomorrow thru the weekend. http://www.bluesmoke.com/blue/secondary/events.html (basso, check the link, Calvin Trillin will be there!)
east 27th. used to be called 27 standard and was a "nouvelle american" place- not bad, with an excellent jazz club in the basement, 27 standard, which is still there. blue smoke is part of the danny mayer empire. haven't been yet, but i hear it's good. but high-end bbq seems like a contradiction in terms.
What a silly comment. There are many socialist countries that have a higher standard of living and enjoyment of life factors than the US (democratic socialist countries that is). Typically in third world countries the progression to popular socialist governments is a step toward freedom and a better life for the vast majority of the people and away from oppressive dictatorships. See Nicaragua for an example. The Sandinistas did overthrow the brutal dictatorship with a revolution, but as soon as they could they held an election, which they won. And when they lost a subsequent election, they respected the will of the people and stepped down. Clearly they believe in democracy and were a liberating movement for Nicaragua. If you really believe in freedom as you have claimed on this board, you should be praising the Sandinistas.
Thanks for the post Mango. Between yourself and Grizzled i can see i'm quickly outgunned in historical knowledge. Though i'm becoming much more versed in Indian cuisine opportunities in NY. Grizzled, you effectively picked apart the weaknesses in my discussion. Valid points. I'm certainly much more cynical about the workings of the world than you are. In theory, and from a distance, i'll agree with virtually all your positions. On the micro level, my uncertainty arises from talking with people without a political agenda who are directly affected by some of these policies. Basso made reference to a doctor in Chili. I've heard similar concerns from people from Iran and Nicaragua. People concerned not so much about political systems, or theories of governance, but rather about day to day living. The observations you hear from individuals, rather than read in a book, or see summarized in a study. On a macro level, i see highly complicated and intertwined factors influencing world events that lose their significance when taken in isolation. Deji (i think) posted a great perspective on US funding of the Israel and Egyptian militaries - and the success thereof in maintaining peace. Mango's observes, quite fairly i'd say, that 'who knew?' about Islamic Fundamentalism, taken in context, is not necessarily as reckless as it appears today. I suggest you may be looking critically at the 'bad' and less so at the 'good.' Mango's original post was about policy that certainly affected the fall of the iron curtain, yet you appear to dismiss these events by suggesting Russia was collapsing anyways. Perhaps it was collapsing anyway, at least in part, due to the culmination of these various events. All i'm saying, in a long convoluted way, is that these events are far more complicated and reaching than we sometimes admit. That our actions are not as short-sighted, or as partisan as they lend themselves to be portrayed in hindsight. And that our leaders may well genuinely have very good intentions in what they're doing. This shouldn't absolve them from responsibility and accountability when they 'break the rules.' And process is exceedingly important even if the 'other guys' don't abide by it. I'm just not as receptive anymore to arguments that pin the majority of the responsibility of abuses around the world to US actions, either directly, or by suggesting that even when the US is not involved its simply a reaction to US involvement or non-involvement -- without at least recognizing that other factions are equally, or sometimes more so, at play.
People say the food there isn'at as good as it should be, whatever that means. I went once and thought it was good. Of course, I believe I was pretty drunk at that point so I don't know what to say about that.
There is no Tex-Mex in NYC. Forget it. (Why you would want it is another story.) There are plenty of taquerias in Sunset Heights, on the extreme west side of Manhattan and in east Harlem. One two five. My favorite new find is a place called Selena, 252 West 38th Street. Try it. You will like it. That's a promise from good old nyrocket. If you clowns organize a BBS trip to Jackson Heights, I may well fly up for the occasion.
Selena's was one of my favorites too when I just had to get something that resembled the food I knew back home in Texas. It wasn't great by Texas standards, but the place was a lot of fun. The beer was cold, and sometimes guys would get up and start singing Mexican Kareoke. It was a good time. I knew someone who worked at Blue Smoke, and somebody else who was offered a job there but didn't take it. It got a lot of write ups a year or two ago, but I didn't go there. It seemed like a gourmet kind of bbq. And when I think bbq I don't think gourmet. But the food is supposed to be good, it just seemed a little too hip for me. I agree with that. That's good news about Daisy Mae's bbq. If I go back to NY I will have to check it out. Sorry for derailing this thread. I guess all this talk about NY food made miss NY a little bit. I moved only a year ago, and I don't miss it too often, but sometimes things like this get me feeling sentimental.
A little off subject but...FYI - Our sister station will be carrying the funeral in its entiretee. FM 100.3 in Houston. ~Chance
Are you kidding me? Those nations also have higher umemployment, confiscatory taxes and a ridiculously govt. mandated, lazy, 30 hour work week. Who works 40 hours a week? I work 70 during football season and sometimes that is not enough to get everything done. This is an amazing piece that totally deconstructs the reasons for the left and why they are so flawed. He calls a spade a spade. link
