leesean.netI roasted up a a whole red snapper for dinner last night. For me, this dish evokes long leisurely meals in a warm Mediterranean beach town somewhere. Fancy restaurants in New York would charge 50 bucks or more for a dish like this, but you can do it a home for a fraction of the price. Here is how to recreate the experience in your own kitchen:
Before:
Here is me in my new gray cotton suit from Uniqlo. The shirt and socks also by Uniqlo. Shoes from Camper. The tie is vintage Givenchy. Glasses by Oliver Peoples.
Tonight, I went to An Evening With Maker Faire, part of Internet Week New York 2008. ITP students and alumni made a big showing among the exhibitors.
Izakaya Oni
141 1st Ave, New York, NY 10003, US
A mediocre Japanese gastropub (izakaya) in the East Village. Located behind Ramen Setagaya in the space formerly occupied by Pasta/Sushi Wafu and Oriental Spoon before that.
Kris and I went last night (4 June 2008) after the Forum on Participation and Politics Online at NYU Law School. We walked by the crowded izakayas on St. Mark’s Place, including the ever-popular Yakitori Taisho and Kenka. We were starving and didn’t want to wait, so we kept walking eastwards. We stumbled upon Oni and decided to give it a try despite the fact that it was nearly empty.
We had the daikon & kani (fake crab) salad, which was passable, but a little bit of a tacky guilty pleasure. We also had an order of hokke (grilled salted atka mackerel) and fried oysters. The oysters were gigantic, but not in a good way – a little too much breading and a bit burnt. The hokke was ok too, but really, it’s pretty hard to mess up, since the fish usually comes already salt cured and frozen in a vacuum pack. All you need to do is defrost and “grill” in the toaster oven. Luckily, we had $2.50 Kirin draft beers to wash everything down. We would have had 2 beers each, but settled with one, because the waitresses were so remarkably inattentive, walking right by us several times without checking on us, despite the fact that there were only 2 other people in the restaurant at the time.
Given the ghosts of 2 failed restaurants that haunt this hidden-away-behind Ramen Setagaya space, I am giving Izakaya Oni 3 or 4 months before it goes bust.
Yesterday, I attended a forum on democracy, politics and participation online hosted by OneWebDay at NYU Law School. The forum was part of Internet Week in New York. I have uploaded the entire panel discussion as a podcast for you to experience yourselves.
The Panelists:
Baratunde Thurston – Comedian, Pundit; Web Editor, The Onion
Andrew Rasiej – Founder, Personal Democracy Forum
Jay Rosen – Professor, NYU Department of Journalism; Founder, New Assignment.net
Moderator: Allison Fine – Author, Momentum: Igniting Social Change in the Connected Age