I Need...

...to wander.  Somewhere.  Anywhere different.

A Glimpse into Another World

Every now and then, or maybe even rarely, we get to have experiences that are like glimpses into another world.  These worlds are so different than our own that we're privileged to experience them, if only for a brief moment in time.  (Of course, we also have to be open to them or they will never happen.)  I had my brief moment in another world last night.

I have been very careful in this blog to not make any references to my age or gender.  I'm not sure exactly why but I think it has something to do with being free of associations or pre-conceived ideas of who I am based on what I am.  That frees me for a time. (Granted, I realize some of my blog posts may give me away a little bit but not very often.) 

Last night I went to a party where I was one of two people of my race and the only one of my ethnicity.  There were probably 50 or so people present, gathered for a intimate evening.  My "other-ness" was obvious to me and them.  There were a few moments where that was clearly and overtly the case but it wasn't a bad feeling.  It just was.

I felt like the proverbial fly on the wall.  I got to see people at ease with each other and more open then perhaps they would be in other situations.  I wanted to play journalist and ask questions to help me understand another group's experiences but I didn't.  Instead, I just savored the moment. 

It's so cliche but being with people not like you is a way to bridge gaps.  If done on a grand scale, I see it solving big issues.  To happen on a grand scale, however, it has to start in our communities with small parties like the one I attended.  I encourage everyone to seek and be open to these opportunities.  This glimpse into another world can make all the difference in the world.

Now That's Italian

I felt like I was in Italy Wednesday night.  What was supposed to be a night out for dinner with business colleagues turned out to be a last-minute change of restaurants and dining with a friend.  We landed in the heart of South Philly (on Broad near Passyunk) at Ristorante Pesto, known simply as Pesto.

Pesto, in its 7th year, won the South Philly Review Readers' Choice 2010 award.  It's also on the ballot for 2010 Best of the Philly Hot List.  High accolades, right?  I have to say it was very good.  I can, however, think of one change that would make it even better.

My friend and I were hungry so we were pleased to see the dish that was brought to our table as we were looking at our menus.  It was simple - al dente, sliced carrots in balsamic vinegar with oregano and another spice - and simply delicious.  We poured glasses of wine from the bottle we brought.  (The restaurant recently got a liquor license but diners are able to bring wine and there is no corkage charge.)  We both settled on salads and chicken dishes.  The chicken came with a small side of potatoes and vegetables.  Just because we were in this cozy Italian restaurant, we also ordered a side of pasta.

When the different chicken dishes arrived - mine with prosciutto, mozzarella, and artichokes and my friend's with capers, olives and tomatoes - we anxiously began eating.  Almost immediately, we both said our dishes were too salty.  We wondered whether the prosciutto in mine and the olives in hers were the culprits?  Or maybe it was just over-salted?  In any case, it didn't slow us down. We enjoyed our meals overall and appreciated the cozy surroundings.  But that is the one change I would recommend.

Pesto (and its sister restaurant Io E Tu on 9th Street) is owned by the Varallo family.  In Pesto, at least, they have created a comfortable and tasty restaurant that feels like it is direct from Italy.

Nothing to Envy

My blog post title is not a result of feeling superior.  It's actually the North Koreans who have "nothing to envy," according to their "Dear Leader" Kim Jong-il.  Au contraire according to Barbara Demick's book, Nothing to Envy:  Ordinary Lives in North Korea, which tells of North Korean defectors whose stories pack a hard visceral punch.

I enjoy history but struggle getting through historical texts focusing strictly on dates and events.  Throw some stories of actual lives in with the history and the history becomes real to me.  This book was so real to me that I felt anxious when I became hungry.  The stories were so moving that I had to remind myself that my next meal wasn't weeds or pine bark or cicadas that I had to walk miles to get.  I simply had to walk to the kitchen.  But the low-level panic was there.

The collapse of the Soviet Union - a trading partner and communist ally of North Korea - contributed to a series of events that resulted in tremendous suffering in North Korea in the 1980's and 1990's.  The actual number of starvation deaths will perhaps never be known during this period known as the Arduous March.  Estimates range from hundreds of thousands to millions. 

The people in this book, and countless others, watched the young and old die.  People were required to make "Sophie's Choice" type decisions - teachers had to find food for themselves or share some with the school children who were obviously dying.  Doctors had to try to comfort the dying or go search for food for themselves and their families.  It was not uncommon to see dead bodies in the streets.  People got used to seeing this, as I imagine many of us American urban dwellers are accustomed to seeing homeless people in our U.S. streets. 

The communist propaganda engine was perhaps the only thing that was working smoothly in North Korea during this time.  In 1992, Kim Jong-il's government launched the "Let's Eat Two Meals Per Day Campaign" in an effort to make the good citizens of this communist country-prison sacrifice for the collective good.  His government required doctors to grow their own cotton for bandages and harvest herbs for use in the hospitals.  IV fluid was distributed in old beer bottles - if you brought two bottles, you could get two bottles of IV fluid...in the rare cases it was available.

The Chinese government has a pact with North Korea that it will return North Korean defectors to their homeland.  If returned, they face either execution or long imprisonment.  North Koreans could not even turn themselves in to the South Korean embassies in China.  Still, some desperate citizens escaped across the Tumen River separating the countries and went deep into China.  They might be lucky enough to get fake travel documents to enter South Korea, where they were welcomed as citizens.  Others would go into China then Mongolia.  As soon as they crossed into Mongolia, they were taken into custody - but the Mongolians deported them to South Korea.  Oftentimes, any family members remaining in North Korea were punished because their defector relatives were with "the enemy" - South Korea.

This book read like an evil Disney World tale.  I think it would be difficult for someone to make this up, which is why it is so powerful.  It's truly surreal.  We simply have no idea.  Of course, this book is not uplifting reading but it's important reading. 

I'll follow the goings-on of North Korea even more seriously moving forward.  I wonder if the Koreas will ever reunite?  I know South Korean "think tankers" are looking at the exorbitant cost if that does happen - half of the country decades behind and the people smaller, less healthy, and many less educated than the South Korean population.  Currently, defectors receive months worth of education.  They learn to use ATMS, cell phones, the internet and also learn about the South Korean version of the Korea War and what the Americans ("imperialist bastards" to the North Koreans) really did in WWII.  If there is ever reunification, what a challenge.  There is nothing to envy.

Ladder 15 in Philadelphia

Ladder 15 to the rescue!  It rescued me not from a fire but from a grueling day yesterday.  Two friends and I headed there, lured by the prospect of intriguing food and checking out what appeared to be a really interesting space.

Ladder 15 restaurant is in an old firehouse on Sansom Street in Center City Philadelphia. When we entered, it immediately struck me as a very cavernous space. Since we got there right around 5pm it was very empty.  I thought, "Seems like a lot of wasted space."  By the end of the night, I understood differently. All that extra space was filled with young business people standing around while drinking and talking.  My friends and I definitely bumped up the average age!

Fortunately, we got unobstructed views of the interior prior to the crowd's arrival.  The Ladder 15 website sums it up the space well:

With 35 foot ceilings, and a unique mixture of stone walls, steel railings, beautiful mahogany, and two fireplaces, Ladder 15 is designed to look both cool in an industrial sense, and feel warm and comfortable at the same time.  

I absolutely agree with warm and comfortable.  It did, however, have perhaps just a tad of "too hip" or trendy.  But just a tad...

In February of this year, David Ansill, former owner and chef of both Ansill and Pif, became the executive chef at Ladder 15. (Philadelphians will recognize these as former Philly "hot" dining spots.  Ansill replaced the long-surviving Judy's Café on 3rd and Bainbridge.  According to Philly.com, Ansill also spent time at the Rittenhouse Hotel, Café Nola, BLT's Cobblefish, Lucy's Hat Shop, Continental and...interestingly... Judy's Café.) 

Ansill came to our table two or three times.  He spent time telling us about the menu, answering our questions, and talking a little bit about the various restaurants in his past. While he talked about working all over the world, he eventually did say, "I am Pif" when we questioned him about that.  I told him the best creme brulee I EVER had was from Pif.  I think about it every time I think about creme brulee; it had the taste of pistachio.  Ansill mentioned his creme brulee at Ladder 15 was orange and...something.  I was going to try it but didn't and now I can't remember the other ingredient.

The food was mostly very good; I loved the "twists."  We started with goat cheese cigars, which were mashed potatoes and goat cheese in wrappers like that of Vietnamese summer rolls (the unfried kind).  We also had marinated octopus with three "dipping sauces" including a pepper coulis, a lemon/garlic coulis, and something else I can't remember.  (Gosh, this is becoming a bad trend.)

The three of us had rice bowls.  Mine was beef with seaweed salad.  Each of my friends got the chicken rice bowl, which had a coconut curry flavor.  Both were good but I liked the appetizers best.  We washed our meals down with various beverages - but just one each.

The drink that was most fun, however, was the "Cherry Water Ice"" - Three-O Cherry Vodka and lemonade served with Cherry Pop Rocks garnish.  If you are of a certain age, you remember Pop Rocks, the candy that popped in your mouth.  I had no idea you could still buy this candy!  (A Google search proved otherwise.)  I also didn't know my friend's drink came with Pop Rocks.

We were talking to Chef Ansill when the drinks arrived.  I was vaguely distracted by a fizzy sound while we were speaking.  I heard it for minutes when finally I turned to identify the source.  I saw that it was my friend's drink.  Those red Pop Rocks added color and sound! They "popped" for several minutes.  Like the food at least one drink had a special "twist."

As much as I enjoyed experiencing Ladder 15, and would recommend that people try it, I don't think I will go back. Why?  The noise was DEAFENING.  It was so loud that the last 40 minutes of our conversation consisted of "What?" and "I didn't hear you" and "This place is SO LOUD."  I'm sure the high decibel level at the restaurant is due to the large space, high ceilings, and exuberant 20-somethings.  It was just too much.  Ladder 15 rescued me once but I don't think it will happen again.

Down the Shore

The title of this post is a colloquialism used by many New Jersey and Pennsylvania residents.  Most of us don't go "to the beach" or "to the shore" or even "to the ocean."  We go "down the shore."  (We do not go "down to the shore.")  Even our local news stations feature segments about "Down the Shore."  Poor grammar or not, we claim it proudly, apparently.

I was down the shore last week.  I spent the week in Long Beach Island, which is affectionately referred by those who know it as LBI.  LBI is north of Atlantic City and south of Seaside and Seaside Heights.  (The latter, of course, has recent, unfortunate fame because of TV's Jersey Shore.  For the record, I never have - and never will - watch that show.) 

LBI is a special place.  I spent numerous summers there in a house that was torn down a few years ago.  I've had bad dreams about and shed tears over that house.  It possessed the spirit of a grandfather I never knew but I felt I somehow knew him by being there.  Of course, there are plenty of good memories from that house, too. 

I will always identify summer with LBI and its borough of Ship Bottom.  I took my nephew into a hobby shop there that I visited as a child.  The lady told me the shop has been in business 38 years.  I had a feeling of warmth and happiness when I was recently in it.  It was a reminder of easiness, innocence, and easily fulfilled desires.

LBI is 18-miles long and .25 - .5 miles wide.  It has many towns and boroughs and this past week was spent in Brant Beach.  (I learned Brant Beach was the first community on the island that offered electricity to its residents.)  The house was on the bay and we had some great sunsets.

There's so much more to write about LBI, its proximity to the Pine Barrens, and so on.  But I'm tired and just can't put into words all there is to say about this place that means so much to me.  I'm just happy it's close enough that I can get there relatively easily when I want to go "down the shore."

Pre-Fixe at Sycamore in Lansdowne, PA

Lansdowne appears to me to be a rough-scrabble town but my friends tell me there is old money in this town.  If that is correct, Sycamore is trying to bring in old money-patrons and have others believe the town is not down-and-out.  The restaurant is fairly upscale and its English chef has a creative idea with his pre-fixe.

Sycamore is surely named after the glorious, old sycamores that line the streets of Lansdowne.  (They are majestic trees.)  I love the Sycamore space.  It has warm lighting, calming colors, and wide-board floors.  This BYOB is fairly pricey with entrees in the mid- to high-$20's.  On Wednesday and Sunday nights, however, the pre-fixe is a relative bargain at $29 for a three-course meal.  The twist is - and this isn't mentioned on the website - is that everyone at the table must have the pre-fixe meal. 

What I liked, and what didn't appeal to everyone in my party, is that the chef decides what to serve and mostly everyone gets something different.  This encourages sharing and also trying something you typically would not order. (Don't worry, if you feel really strongly about not liking something - like lamb - you can tell the server that and your table won't get it.  That's exactly what we did.)  Our table had scallops and wild boar as well as salmon and chicken.  Prior to that, we had good appetizers including quail.  We strongly guided our server as to our dessert preferences and they were honored. 

The food at Sycamore is average - not great but not bad.  Because the chef uses the food of the season, I would definitely back in the Fall to try the pre-fixe again.  I can imagine the warm space in the cool air as I look through the Sycamore tree on the window of the restaurant.