Liselotte in May

Entering the Theater for the New City on 1st avenue, you think of a building that needs serious maintenance and renovation. Since, performing art is underrated and as tourists flock to Broadway, the theater’s wear and tears is a reminder of the embrace of mainstream and the abandonment of indie plays which is surviving on government funds and donations. From the bare walls, rancid smell of old buildings, I wasn’t really expecting much. Especially when I got the black and white playbill, saw the small stage set, and the seats that did not fill up although there weren’t many of them.

Liselotte in May is a Hungarian play written by Zsolt Pozsgai, the actors, directors and producers are also Hungarian. It is a “tragicomedy” about Liselotte, woman in her 30’s who inherited a flat at 10 Bleecker street from a old lady who she had looked after for the past decade. She had lived without friends and lovers for the last ten years; before she starts her job as a nurse in June, she wants to find a husband of whom she could share her life with. Her expectations are not high for the mate she wants to spend the rest of her life with in this lovely apartment.

First person she met is a classmate whose wife had just passed away. She cooks for him, they fall in love, it’s the first date, he chokes on fish (sounds ridiculous but imagine the death of someone you just fall in love with!). Reluctant to give up, she places an ad on newspaper for a husband, meets a nervous accountant, falls in love, almost got intimate, and he passes away from excitement. Still determined to find someone to spend the rest of her life with, she meets the nephew of the lady she had nursed, he’s a paranoid hipster- fearing the end of the world, global warming, and although they liked each other, you can see that she fears him, it was out of desperation she clings onto him, and sadly, he had to prove there is no reason to live and jumps off from the flat. Liselotte slowly loses it, with a room of disarray, she starts to drink. A plumber goes to fix her leaks, she is drunk, desperate, seduces and dances with him, in euphoria as they dance, they stumble, breaks the lamp she likes, in an attempt to fix it, he electrocutes himself and dies.

Low expectations turn to desperation since she still fails to find someone. All hell lets loose and she is close to dementia and hallucination. You are not sure if the poet who she has a relationship with is real or not as they recite the poems he writes, as he tells of the story of how he got admitted to asylum. He jumps out the window to prove the world is not real and all he has- is his poetry. Another tragedy befalls.

In her most desperate attempt, she brings a hobo home and tries to shape him to be the one. Humor mixed with sadness, of course, as the viewer can easily perceive, this will most definitely not work. Hobo goes through her drawers as she gets the bath ready, when she comes out, he is uncontrollable and attempts to stab her with a knife, they struggle, she kills him inadvertently.

The end of the play, our tragic hero is with a faceless man who hides behind his hat. She has her belongings packed in a leather trunk and asks the man to help her carry it. After an intense dialogue of nostalgia and emotions, they sit in front of the audience with their backs facing us, as though they were watching her life pass by with us.

The story is an exaggeration of reality; an emphasis on how loneliness can change into desperation; how we want a little piece of what we perceive to be happiness only to find it so difficult to attain, so meaningless at the end. It’s a melodrama presented in a comedic form. Liselotte is the hopefulness we cling onto to be happy, to be meaningful, to fit into society as we reach a certain age, to not be alone and to have a companion.

Chris Kardos is the actor who performs all the male roles in the play; his ability to be versatile and his control of his voice and accent is very amazing. The chemistry between the two leads (who are also the only actors in this play) is very convincing. Love the lighting to create atmosphere and mood along with the occasional tragically upbeat music is a wonderful complement to the play. Even though it’s a low production play, I was amazed at the quality of play you can see for $15. It was sad to see the actors a bit shy as audiences had not filled the whole theater. Go watch it if you have a chance! Still running till Sept.

Fika

With 5 stores in NYC, the swedish cafe prides itself with coffee. I rarely go to Wall street area but my friend works there so we dropped by to try their coffee. Designed like you are in a chocolate bar with angular spacing and monotone colors, Fika has that kind of aloft and corporate like interior. It gives off the feeling that everything is in order, everything is organized but you don’t feel like you can sit and read; maybe you can sit and work.

Front- Bright red chairs- minimalist.

Towards the back

Display of sandwiches, etc

Closer to cashier

Cashier

Cappucinno- Portion is like latte; foamy with lightly roasted coffee beans. Not bad.

When you go to Fika, even though it’s the Wall street location, expect to wait a little bit for your coffee. Impression of Fika is vague in my mind, their beet sandwich is sweet and messy with a bit too much sauce. I like the branding and the minimalist approach of logo design and interior.

Clinton Street Baking Company and restaurant

The infamous Clinton Street baking company and restaurant is located in Lower east side; during brunch it is never without a wait, however, if you go on a Wednesday evening, you do not have to wait a minute. The store is small; one view and you will be able to see all of it. The interior gives you a feeling of southern hospitality with key lime pies and buttercream cakes behind the glass case upon entering, and a glance at its menu confirms the same with its buttery goodness behind most dishes.

EAT! Pies and coffee area- ready for take out. A small slice of cake will cost you $7!

Restaurant part! There’s less than ten small tables!

Biscuits (free)- warm and buttery even without the butter. Not too dry, just right.

Blueberry pancakes with fresh berries in syrup and maple butter on the side- This is one of the famous dishes; the pancakes are moist and fluffy, the fresh berries drenched in syrup is deliciously sweet and the maple butter is sweetly smooth and tastes so good by itself, you know it’s really bad for you. With the maple butter they have here to make things insanely buttery and sweet, I think they can add it to anything and make it taste good. Take a slice of bread and spread it maple butter- that’d be pretty good in itself. They will charge you an extra $2.00 if you want a new maple butter side to go.

Clinton Street Cheeseburger with Cheddar- It tastes like your standard burger, a bit dry. Do not recommend.

Chicken and Waffles- Belgian vanilla waffles with honey tobasco sauce and maple butter on the side- Chicken is very crispy and seasoned with herbs lightly on the skin, waffle is the same batter mixture as pancakes, soft, fluffy and a tad crispy on the edge because of the waffle maker. The saltiness of the skin of the chicken which also has a tad of honey and maple butter goes well together for those with sweet tooth. Their secret is definitely maple butter- it’s a great combination with lots of things. Like this a lot!

Is Clinton Street Baking company and restaurant worth the hype? Maybe. I think as long as you’re ordering southern dishes and not the generic safe dishes like salad or burger, you will enjoy it. Portions are huge and it is a bit pricey but the food is good. Not good to an extent that it would be memorable, but good enough the next time I have breakfast cravings for dinner, I’d go again.

Interior Design Dilemma

Production for garment industry could be a creative job in ways you manipulate the situations or the garments you have to produce. However, in terms of actual creativity in which you are creating something or putting a combination of items that would last for more than one season, that is definitely not the case. I wanted to explore my option and tried out Interior design as a possibility.

My coworker once told me classes cannot solve all my problems which was true. The overview might be shallow for a complex subject but exposure to the subject is still helpful. I took Basic Space Planning in Spring; I had a professor who was very lax. I did not feel like my understanding of architecture went any deeper than the cover of Architectural Digest magazine nor did I feel my interest or confidence increased. The complexity of a building and space cannot be explained in one class- I was aware of it- however, I could hardly contain my disappointment.

We had a class project called Fashion Pop Up Store. Weeks after weeks we would research, filter our researches, think of placement, lighting, presentation, materials- the only thing we did not have to worry about was the finance part of it.

My concept is a Pop up store based on Marc Jacobs’ Resort 2013 collection. The designs are very bohemian, patterned, and researching the collection, it was based on Cindy Sherman’s clown series. When you think of clowns, circuses, immediately you conjure images of exaggeration, amusement, size scale and ultimately a show or fantasy. I thought of books and how the collection could ultimately be characters from various books. The main book I had based this concept on was “Sophie’s World” by Jostein Gaarder. It’s an introduction to philosophy written as a novel- spoiler- the characters found out they were characters in a book and tried to escape at the end of the story.

A pop up store in theory should be low budget and diminishable. Using the plan, my professor had provided, we basically filled in the space. Name of my conceptual Pop up store is called “Written by Marc” as though it is a collection of stories by a designer manifested in actual garments. Each piece tells a different story.

Exterior Elevation- Looking from inside out. My drafting is not that great and the lines are a bit heavy and thick. In drafting, the lightness/darkness and the thickness of the lines mean a lot.

Floor Plan is looking from above- was hoping potential customers who walked in would have a sense of being in books, with backgrounds of scenery.
Section Elevation is when you’re inside and you’re looking out the window (so you’re looking inside out of store, opposite of exterior elevation)

We had a visiting architect who asked if it had to be books after I had given the presentation. Being tired, rushing last minute, I was offended. It was my whole idea; why didn’t he understand? It wasn’t until afterwards I realized what he had meant. I finished the project at the preliminary stage because I had not expanded it enough- this could have been a poster board since the idea was flat and without much depth.

I am debating whether I should continue with another class. There was a lot of work involved and I had worked hard- but it still had a long way to go. It doesn’t come naturally to me and I probably have to work much harder since I do not have a knack for it.

At the same time, I am reminded of 2 different things:
1) Someone had once said, dancing is love that comes naturally but the ability to dance well does not come naturally.
– This is how I feel. I like interior design and I find it fascinating, how a space can affect us psychologically and physically at the same time- altering our behaviors and moods however I am not good at it. I am not meticulous nor am I patient, so drafting is very very difficult with my personality.

2) Jasmine from Woody Allen’s new Movie called Blue Jasmine had said she wanted to become an interior designer because she and her sister thought she was good at it.
– Did I pick interior design out of convenience and as a way out of my current job?

At the end of the day, I guess it’s just depends on what I want to do. As my friend loves to say, “We will see.”

(disclaimer: photos of all resort 2013 & other photos found online are reprinted solely for art project-)

Kittichai Dinner & Munny Zipper Pulls

After experiencing lots of misses and disappointments last restaurant week, I let my friend choose a restaurant that had the normal menu on it- not the generic steak, salmon or chicken recipe created for restaurant week by most restaurants. We went to Kittichai located near Soho; I had brunch there before.

The bad thing about that location is, as you walk from the N train station which is the Prince street station, you pass by Kidrobot and I have this small addiction of walking in inconspicuously, heading towards the mysterious Munny zipper pull up boxes, shaking the boxes and listening to the sound and attempting to get a figurine instead of a cute little lightning bolt. The zipper pulls could come in handy; but actually they’re for a friend who loves to decorate Munny (Here’s the link in case your interested/curious:
http://www.kidrobot.com/ShopAll/DesignerToys/ZipperPullsKeychains/MUNNYWORLDZipperPulls1Incheach.html”)

So far, I had bought 3 boxes and was able to get the purple Munny zipper pull!

Anyway, straying from the main story, let’s focus on Kittichai.

Thai ice tea- comes with liquid syrup on the side and milk- tea is not sweeten so it is to taste. Standard Thai ice tea with a cute presentation.

Barbeque baby back ribs, spiced tamarind glaze, fried basil (from website)- ribs is so tender, it falls off the bone. Sweet and full of savory spices with a very light basil taste, really enjoy this dish.

Thai organic chicken, Maitake mushrooms, sesame-soy, poached egg (from website)- to be honest, I don’t really remember this dish. The chicken was a bit dry.

Grilled hanger steak, Thai hollandaise, roasted beets, sweet sesame soy dressing (from website)- Savory and flavorful, steak is juicy and delicious.

Coconut creme caramel with a coconut tuile (from web site) – tuile is a wafer made with dough or cheese (from wiki). I think it was a bit hard and the coconuts were too dried. Coconut creme caramel tasted like your standard flan. Not that special.

I like the service at Kittichai. They don’t treat you like inferiors even though you are there for restaurant week menu and did not order any alcoholic beverage. The waitress was friendly and warned me the flavors of the braised pork cheeks were similar to the ribs. If I go again, I would just do appetizer and skip entree & dessert. Portions is a bit small. It’s a cute place for the ambiance and Thai fusion explosions of flavors. And next time I will try to take an alternative route; There are too many goodies at Kidrobot.

Chimichurri

Named after the famous Argentinian sauce Chimichurri, Chimichurri, the restaurant is located on 9th avenue, Theatre District, competing against a million different restaurants. Narrow store, lack of flashy signs, a small bar without draft beer and a little window to the kitchen where you can see the cook, those are the first things in mind when you lay your eyes on the store.

Gregarious chef/owner who was chatting everyone up. Before we left the restaurant, he asked us how the food was- he was concerned but he shouldn’t be since it was excellent!

Still Chatting! Back of the restaurant. You can see the whole restaurant in one glance. It’s tiny so reservation is definitely recommended.

Start off with empanadas- chicken and beef
The chimichurri sauce is amazing- orange one is not spicy and the green one is the tradition chimichurri sauce made with parsley, coriander, garlic, olive oil, perhaps vinegar or lemon for a tinge of sourness and freshness and perhaps a little chili powder for a spicy kick. The green chimichurri is amazing. So good, we asked for extra ( which they willingly gave 🙂 ) .

Beef Empanada on top: ground beef filling, savory and delicious, crust is crispy; thick enough you taste a bit of dough but thin enough that it’s cirspy.
Chicken empanada- shredded chicken filling, equally savory and delicious. I probably put way too much chimichurri sauce because it went so well with the meat that it hindered the flavors of the chicken.

hand-cut french fries seasoned with garlic & parsley (from web site)-I really like this even though the garlic taste is hard to get rid of. Just the freshness of parsley and the strong taste of garlic goes so well with crispy fries. I’d just go to the Yankee stadium to pretend I am watching baseball just for their garlic fries. Total bias on this one. Of course the fries at Chimichurri is much more gourmet and delicate. My friend complained it was too greasy but if you put garlic on your fries, you can’t have dried garlic, you’d have to heat the garlic in a saucepan with oil to get the umami taste of garlic so it’s understandable. Just remember to eat it when it is hot hot hot.

Tadaaaaa! Our main character!
CHURRASCO- filet mignon, pounded thin, topped with chimichurri served with field greens 6oz (from web site)- Grass fed, freshly grilled steak which tastes delicious with chimichurri sauce- maybe a tad salty but with the sweet and sour dressings on the greens, it’s delicious! The pros of a thin steak is the grilled taste is not only on the exterior but all throughout but the cons is the inability to retain a lot of its juiciness. With the sauce, is it not an issue. Magical green sauce.

Overall, Chimichurri is definitely one of the best restaurants I had tasted in a while. The cozy restaurant, with its ninja staffs who can clear the table in a matter of seconds, extensive wine menu and the cook/owner who loves to talk to his guests, is a good place for a casual chat with close friends or even a date. The staffs are very friendly (there was a couple in front of us who had a huge stroller and the staff pushed the stroller patiently inside the restaurant and made room for them!) and the ambiance is celebration with lots of chatting; It has a very South American festive ambiance.

Vintage Car

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Outside Christie’s today at Rockefeller center. Ordinary NYC day although orange car is out of place, out of time, but look at the scenery- people did not even stop to look and went about their business as they normally would.

Keko Cafe

A hidden quaint cafe in midtown east is Keko Cafe. When you enter the shop, the aromatic fragrance of Jasmine tea fills the air as you slowly absorb the scenery of decos from “Around the world in 80 days.” Colorful teapots, lost leather luggage, postmarks, Harney and Sons’ tea containers, simple wooden chairs and tables, wooden shelves, there is no empty space, no room for the minimalist mind to breathe.

Keko cafe near the door- they also serve cakes and pastries

Crepes, teas & coffees

Earl Grey tea with milk on the side- Harney and Sons tea leaves, smooth and delicious aromatic bergamot taste.

Keko cafe is a cute little place for time traveler’s to post colonial times. There is indian music in the background and soccer game broadcasting on its flatscreen tv. Very intimate setting, good for small chats with 1 or 2 friends but not ideal for huge parties.

Bread & Tulips

Distracted by the name of Hotel Giraffe, I overlooked the wooden sign of Bread & Tulips and walked pass it. Located in the basement of the hotel, with friendly hosts leading you downstairs, Bread & Tulips proudly display their racks of wine bottles and with special emphasis on the flaming brick oven they have for pizza amidst the dimly candle lit interior.

Interior with a tulip at every table- If you visit their web site the story behind it is providing the essential (bread) and the ambiance (hence tulip!).

Meatballs -san marzano tomato sauce, fresh basil (from web site)- Standard meatball, very filling with cheesemelt on top, meatballs are substantial and flavored with Italian herbs, a bit on the salty side but delicious with the bread they provide on the side. The sauce actually has tomato bits in it; is it good? Yes but flavoring is not very unique.

Grilled Octopus- fingerling potatoes, padron peppers – (from web site) Was kinda disappointed grilled octopus is 3 small pieces. Before you even squeezed a bit of lemon, the dish is sour and a bit spicy already. Eating this dish just reminds me of how good Mercato’s grilled octopus was; it was thoroughly grilled, lightly seasoned, not sour.

Duck Sausage -potatoes, fresno peppers, cipollini, mushrooms, buffalo mozzarella – You could see the guy preparing the dough before he puts the pizza in the oven. Crust is thin like traditional Italian pizza, however sauce is just salty and too much topping made the crust soggy after ten minutes or so. The ingredients are good if you like your pizza meaty. The buffalo mozzarella doesn’t really melt.

Black Tagliatelle -squid, housemade chorizo, bread crumbs, salsa bianco- (from web site) There is two things I like before I had this dish- the flat and wide Tagliatelle and squid ink on it. When I went to Venice with my cousin, it was such an experience eating squid ink pasta, tasting the freshness of seafood and having the black ink staining your lips (not pretty, I guess that’s why we didn’t attract anybody). I was so disappointed when I got this dish to realize the black ink is part of the pasta but not a separate sauce; the sauce is sour and peppery which is very close to the taste of the octopus appetizer.

Bread and Tulips revolve around an interesting concept; I like the story behind it and I like the location which is in Flatiron and I like the friendly staff. However, in terms of food, it is mediocre at best. I think there is a lot of potential as the ingredients are fresh and the wine selection is huge, but it just needs to lighten its seasoning a bit to embrace the simplicity of authentic Italian cuisine and not covered it with too much spices.

Say Her Name by Francisco Goldman

It had taken me two weeks to finish this novel. “Say her name” by Francisco Goldman is a book which shows the intimate details of the passing of his wife. Besides having to deal with the grief of the loss of the most beloved in a surfing accident, he also had to endure the blame his mother-in-law had casted on him. His memoir recalls the memory of their first encounter, their difficulty with the age difference, the vivid images of his wife he had in his mind always; Goldman skillfully brings his wife to life with anecdotes, direct quotation from her stories, imagery and the quirks and personality he adored so much.

The reason why I had put this book down at one point was because I could not endure it. After the death of his wife, he went on a journey of self destruction where hedonistic feelings were priority. Being the naive romanticist that I am, it destroyed a bit of the initial spontaneous perfect romance I had imagined in my head. I recovered and picked up the book again after I read a New York Times article about how the author as a person is separable from the writer itself (here’s the article in case you’re interested: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/28/books/review/fallen-idols.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 ). After truly believing that I was able to move on. I was a bit narrow minded, people deal with grief differently. We should not judge.

“I was bowled over, and full of excited curiosity. I really was the kind of person who believed this was the way it happened: at the most unexpected moment you met somebody, there was a magical connection, an instant complicity, and your life changed.” (Page 44)

You could feel the rhythm, the intensity, the moment it had happened which was just an instant when Goldman fell in love with Aura. The sentences are beautifully constructed, words chosen are simple but powerful.

“But it was as if those few glinting memory shards had sheared her neurons in some way that had left her vulnerable to certain stimuli, the way light flickering through trees or flashing behind a barred fence, or even a vividly striped shirt passing on a sidewalk on a sunny day can provide seizures in certain people.” (Page 74).

The connection of a traumatic event of childhood of an abandoned building and the unreliableness of memory is created. Normally, I could not link neurons and striped shirts but the writer seamlessly linked them in the description for the reader to easily envision. Amazingly written.

Heartfelt words Goldman had written for his Aura is beyond sweet and surely moving. I think insecurity is something a lot of us can relate to. If we were to hear these words, one would surely feel more confident and even if the world collapsed, at least we would have those words to fall on.

“You always felt destined for stardom of one kind or another. But the fear that maybe that wasn’t true wouldn’t leave you alone. That you were no more than the classes you’d taken, the schools you’d attended, the books you’d read, the languages you spoke, your scholarships, your master’s thesis on Borges and the English writers, and so on, but nobody unique, with a talent only your own. You were desperate for something that was yours alone. I was yours alone, but that isn’t what you meant.” (Page 276)

The structure of the book is very thoughtful; it’s a round about, giving us glimpses of the couple’s daily life, the space Aura had occupied in the writer’s life, and slowly unraveling to his detailed but at times dubious memories leading to her death. The rawness of details, the unforgiving reality, the financial hardships- there is just so much happening, sometimes you feel like you don’t have space to breathe.

At the end of the novel, the writer finishes his wife’s unfinished story by being a character in her book. Aura had written a story based on an asylum in France, the writer travels to the asylum and describes it. He lives in the story believing he is a character she had written; as a tribute to her unfinished story, he brought her to the setting of her own story. It is in those pages, in the unfinished story she had created that they can somehow meet and share the same thoughts in the same space but different time.

The book has a lot of stories within itself; from Aura’s relationship with her dad to Goldman’s own. I like the juxtapositions; it gives you insight as to why people are the way they turn out to be. The writing and composition is great and well thought out. I like the subplots but sometimes I feel like there are so many subplots, it takes me on a journey to wander sometimes into Goldman’s life and sometimes into Aura’s life, twist and turns. It’s trying to tell so much, one can easily get lost in the stories. Maybe that was the writer’s intentions; a mind could be very convoluted when one is grieving. It’s a very raw and emotional book; even if you were not to cry, you would be near tears.