Memorial Day Weekend, 2010

Friday, May 28, 2010

There’s a story behind the weird stuffed animal menagerie on the corner of Bedford Avenue and North 1st Street in Williamsburg:

(See New York Shitty for more.)

We went to a keg party at the former Not For Tourists headquarters at 2 East Broadway. They had nice views of Chinatown and Lower Manhattan from the fourth floor there:

Paul Grieco of Terroir is a hoot. He’s right about street fairs, by the way, and feels strongly enough about it to include a page of his thoughts regarding the subject in the establishment’s book-length menu:

At Lupa, you can learn how to say “employees must wash hands before returning to work” in Italian:

Saturday, May 29, 2010

Mile End Deli in Boerum Hill has Montreal smoked meat almost as good as the stuff we tried in Canada back in February:

St. Agnes Church in Carroll Gardens. And the Brooklyn Rapid Transit Power House near the Gowanus Canal:

It’s weird how all power houses look similar. Here’s the IRT Power House on West 58th Street in Manhattan:

And here’s the former Pennsylvania Railroad Generating Plant in Long Island City:

The landmarked Coignet Stone Company Building at 3rd Avenue and 3rd Street in Brooklyn looks sad just sitting there all by itself:

Sunday, May 30, 2010

We took the train to the train station in Spring Lake, New Jersey, where we walked along the beach:

Then we walked along 3rd Avenue in town there:

Monday, May 31, 2010

Stinky beans at Sripraphai in Woodside:

An I kind of can’t believe that Yankees-Mets mural from the 2000 World Series is still there under the LIRR overpass at 39th Avenue and 58th Street in Woodside:

The Architectural Embodiment Of Democracy . . . And A Great Place To Gab On Your Cell Phone!

The Rose Main Reading Room at something called the “Stephen A. Schwarzman Building” . . .

Four Wongs (And One Yee Li) Make A Night

Back in October, BATC friend Mary organized a duck tour of Manhattan’s Chinatown that included some of her favorite low-budget spots for roasted duck and Peking duck. She called it a duck tour — we’re calling it a Duck Walk. We visited five (!) places in about six hours: Big Wing Wong, Hoy Wong, Big Wong, Hsin Wong and Yee Li.

Big Wing Wong Restaurant, 3:40 p.m.:

Hoy Wong Restaurant, 4:33 p.m.:

Big Wong Restaurant, 5:11 p.m.:

Hsin Wong Restaurant, 6:10 p.m.:

I’ll take this as an argument for eating out more often:

We needed a break after Hsin Wong, so we took a short walk and visited Mei Dick:

Yee Li Restaurant, 8:14 p.m.:

Mary asked us to rate the places. Here were my notes:

• 1. Yee Li — though [this came at the end of the night and] we were stuffed, I think this may have been the best, plus [we liked the] floppy fish [which writhed on the ground near the tanks in front of the restaurant after getting dropped by one of the chefs]
• 2. Hoy Wong — [A local] favorite, right? I kind of agree . . . though the server may have extra beered us to inflate the check
• 3. Big Wing Wong — hard to remember, but I recall comparing this halfway through and thinking it was solid
• 4. Hsin Wong — then again, Hsin Wong (friendly server, right?) was pretty good, too — maybe switch with Big Wing Wong (or is that wong to say?) [Ed note: Ugh!]
• 5. Big Wong — if memory serves, this was saltier and not as fatty

I later learned from something called “Yelp” that Yee Li is apparently owned by the same people as Hsin Wong, which could account for some of our difficulty differentiating the different ducks.

Bonus points go to Yee Li for their useful “Mr. Wipes”:

No clue how you’d pronounce “Lrmgobao” toilet tissue:

Also at Yee Li, this fortune that I’m still trying to figure out:

So many places insist they don’t use MSG — then you see something like this on the street outside:

I believe this is known as the universal symbol for “happy ending”: