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Dumpling Man. Food Fit for Famous Ankles

March 20, 2008

In the Lower East Side, just down St. Marks Place, sitting on the south side of the street; is a little slice of perfection: Dumpling Man!

If you read reviews of Dumpling Man, you’ll note they claim they make the dumplings right in front of you. True, but not the truth. They make scores, even hundreds, of dumplings in front of you; but when I was there they tossed my pre-made dumplings into the cooker while they were rolling and setting up the dough flats in preparation of making more hundreds of dumplings.

And mighty fine dumplings they are. Mighty fine dumplings.

My advice (take it for what it’s worth); run to Dumpling Man and grab a mess o’ them. But just use the soy sause and the chili sause that’s out for all to use. I didn’t have much use for their extra charged “super hot” sause. It wasn’t anywhere as good as the chili and soy combo I combined and scarfed down at the counter.

I wimped out inside. I asked if I could take a picture of the place and the woman making the dumplings said she didn’t want her picture taken. I shoulda anyway. She makes a fine dumpling and should be proud of it.

-H

Categories: Food, LES, Manhattan

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Movie Shoot in Greenwich Village

March 18, 2008

If you’re in NYC for any length of time, you start to see these sorts of signs all over the place. And the prettier/grittier the place, the more often you see them.

It’s a notice that, if you had parked on this street (Greenwich Street) on Sunday, March 16th, you’d have been towed away. They’re making a movie called “New York, I Love You”.

Hey, I sympathize with the sentiment. I checked IMDB and they have this. At this time, the entry is pretty bare, but it says that 12 filmmakers are making an anthology based on the title’s premise. The directors and actors seem like a pretty first-rate crew, too. But, then, I don’t go to movies that often so I only recognized about a third of the names.

But, like I said, I like the sentiment of the title.

I still have a problem with the sentiment of the notice, though. NYC really lets the movie/TV industry have their way on everything. I don’t know if I really like giving these guys the right to block off entire streets for hours/days. But, it does let people see NYC in its best light.

I don’t know where they’re filming, as these signs go up not only next to the location of the shots, but to areas they are going to be parking all of the vehicles used in carrying cameras and food and actors and all. But, I did see some photogenic looking buildings here.

Yeah, that’s the same sign.

-H

Categories: Celebrity Points, Events, Greenwich Village, Manhattan, Wanderings

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FUBAR Disaster update

March 16, 2008

As promised, I went up to the general area of the crane collapse. I knew it would be blocked off well away from the actual site, and of course it was.

The crane collapsed between 1st Avenue and 2nd Avenue on 51st Street. Here’s a scene from 48th St and Second Avenue.

I could get as high as 49th Street before they shut down the street to traffic (including pedestrians).

At 49th Street, there were a number of newscrews doing interviews.

I don’t know the station or anything. I did see a truck from Macromedia doing some satellite sort of broadcasting, but no one was around the truck.

The only good news from this is that the death toll hasn’t seemed to grow from the initial four, although there are another four in critical condition.

The sobering picture of the moment (St. Patrick’s is tomorrow and we need some of that, I’d guess).

If you can’t read it, that the Mobile Command Center of the Medical Examiner. And there’s an empty gurney outside of it.

Another sobering sight was a truck from the Salvation Army. They had set up facilities to get residents places to stay. I don’t know if they allow anyone in neighboring buildings to stay in, but the idea of having 2 blocks evacuated in every direction is horrible. There are a lot of people living there. Many thousands, I’d suspect. Hotel rooms…$300 to $500 a night for a decent place.

Oh, I do need to mention this. In my previous post, I said I hadn’t heard more sirens and helicopters than usual. Well, last night the helicopters never seemed to go away. I kept changing the local channels and seeing live broadcasts from them, too. It’s still a little weird for me to hear sounds outside the window while watching broadcasts of the events on TV.

UPDATE 3/17/08: The death toll has risen to seven.

-H

Categories: Events, Manhattan, Mid-town

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Bellevue South Park

March 14, 2008

Across from Bellevue Hospital is a very pleasant little park: Bellevue South Park.

It was cold and windy the day I went by there, but you can see that NYC has done a nice little job with the place. And they’ve done one of their great little tricks: lots of places to sit.

The seating doesn’t show up particularly well in the pictures, but it’s there. I imagine it’s one of those places that visitors to Bellevue can escape to on occasion to smoke a cigarette (rapidly becoming illegal anywhere in NYC) or to avoid the hospital atmosphere.

-H

Categories: Gramercy, Manhattan, Mid-town, Wanderings

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Bellevue Hospital

March 13, 2008

Long before I set foot in NYC, I had heard of Bellevue. It seemed to be a staple element of detective novels and crime dramas and the occasional biography that I read. It was always associated with the worst-of-the-worst sorts of situations: shootings, stabbings, rape, the homeless and their afflictions, and often psychiatric disorders.

Bellevue is apparently the oldest public hospital in the US (founded 1736), and I can say this: it is big. And, amazingly enough, located right next door to another huge hospital center: NYU Medical.

And it is located very close to where I live. It’s around 29th Street and 1st Avenue.

When I saw this sign, all I could think about is that it looked somewhat gothic and cool.

But it isn’t the main building or the main gate or anything in particular. The main building seems pretty modern.

Not what I would have expected from such an old institution with its gritty past. But the front is just a facade. Inside has to be one of the coolest entrances to a hospital that I’ve ever seen. I’m not sure of it, but the glass exterior in the picture above is sort of an add-on and they’ve restored (or seemed to) the old hospital front in a sort of mall-like setting.

And I, idiot that I am, forgot to take a picture. Actually, they prohibit pictures in there, and they’ve got plenty of security. However, I could have snuck an easy picture without really violating anything as I’d technically be outside of the real entrance area. However, I was concerned about the light and my flash and didn’t want to bring myself to their attention.

But it gives me an excuse to go back at a better time.

Anyway, this is only one of many buildings in the complex. They, too, give me a reason to go back, but I don’t know that I’d be able to wander amongst the buildings. I guess I’ll find out.

-H

Categories: Gramercy, Manhattan, Mid-town, Wanderings

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