August 14, 2010 - Summer Streets

Plan is to walk and at 11:00 a.m. start a Beer Crawl.Beautiful day to be outdoors.




Nice day for a walk.



Streets are closed for play.



The dumpster pools were by Grand Central.



Crowded by Grand Central.



Wall art along the way.



First stop was McSorley's.



Next was Acme at Great Jones Street for appetizers and Abita Turbo Dog.



Acme has an extensive Hot Sauce collection. This one was Scorned Woman Hot Sauce.



Next stop was Loreley Beer Garden on Rivington Street.



Pimm's Cup #1: 2 ounces Pimm’s No. 1
7UP, lemon-lime soda, or ginger ale
Slice of lemon
Slice of cucumber
Crushed Mint
Tanqueray



Also, Erdinger's .



Last stop was a very crowded Greenmarket.

July 18, 2010

I still eat Bialys every weekend. A local supermarket has a doughy, reasonable facsimile of what a real Bialy tastes like, so I go with that. The name bialy is short for bialystoker kuchen (Bialystok Cake.) Bialystok is a city in Poland. Zero Mostel's character in The Producers was Max Bialystock. Watched it the other night, great line:
Leo Bloom: Actors are not animals! They're human beings!
Max Bialystock: They are? Have you ever eaten with one?



Got to thinking about the past and where do I find the best Bialy. Of course, it is Kossars. It is still there on 367 Grand Street. I will have to make a visit. This is dangerous because once I have the real thing, I will not be able to eat what I am eating now. Kossars used to have an outpost on 14th Street between Ave A and Avenue B. They sold retail if the baker wasn't busy. Ah, Bulkas - a submarine shaped big bialy. I used to go to a Deli and pile on sliced meat for a super hero. I haven't had a Bulka in over 25 years, that will change shortly. I will also hunt down Mimi Sheraton's The Bialy Eaters.




Coming up soon is Summer Streets 2010. NYC temporarily closes Park Avenue and connecting streets from the Brooklyn Bridge to Central Park to motor vehicles and open it up to people on three consecutive Saturdays in August (August 7, 14, & 21).
New this year is Dumpster Pools: Macro-Sea re-fashioning clean, unused shipping containers and transforming them into code-compliant swimming pools.



Coming up on August 22nd is the Hudson River Park BBQ and Blues. Beers include Sam Adams, Coors Light and Blue Moon.



July is Good Beer month. So says the Mayor.



Hot, time for frozen Margaritas. This stuff is good, pour in a bottle of Tequila, put in freezer, wait .... Drink, er slurp.