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Rabu, 01 September 2010

Summer Scenes, Part 2

Silver man, West Village
Silver Man, Jefferson Park Library steps, West Village

Village street scene
Woman trying to reach doorbells (and looking like she's engaging in parkour)

Promo photos at Steel Gym
Promo photos at Steel Gym, Chelsea

Filming at Steel Gym
Promo photos at Steel Gym, Chelsea

The crumbling NY subways
Decaying NYC subway (where some of those "stimulus"/"job creation" dollars could go)

Crumbling NY subways
Decaying NYC subway

At the Hotel Rivington
In the Hotel Rivington

Musicians packing up
Street musicians packing up

At a SoHo café
SoHo café display

Right-wing printout the woman sitting next to me was reading
A woman next to me (on PATH) reading a print-out of a right-wing screed against Barack Obama

Wild car, West Village
Wild car, West Village

Bedlam at the WTC
Bedlam at the World Trade Center PATH station

Street artist
Photographer/vendor (who commented to me after I took his photo that I hadn't asked for his permission (I apologized), nor had I brought him "a piece of fruit"--so I did, a few days later)

Summer Scenes, Part 1 (w/ Warning on Final Video)

Guy feeding birds, Bryant Park
Man feeding the birds, Bryant Park

Character, WTC
Man claiming he was implanted with microchips (note the outfit), on the PATH

Decollage art, SoHo
Decollage art, SoHo

SoHo scene
SoHo scene

Park lodgings
People sleeping in the flower beds at the New York Public Library's Research Branch, Bryant Park

Make up your own caption
New Jersey School of Wine (make up your own caption)

On the Lower East Side at night
Lower East Side at night

Man lying on the ground
Man lying on ground (many people passed him without stopping, but the guy in the pink shirt and I did call/hail the cops)

EMTs assisting man lying on the ground
EMTs assisting the man (according to them he was just very inebriated)

Young guy dribbling soccer ball through the Hoboken train station
Young guy dribbling soccer ball through Hoboken train station

How many firemen...
How many Jersey City fireman does it take to open a manhole?

Horribly drunk man on the PATH
Horribly drunk man on the PATH

****WARNING****
****WARNING****

****WARNING****
****WARNING****

A possibly disturbing video follows: an attempted suicide being rescued from the 42nd Street subway station

Apple Varieties

Braeburn: Fruit is medium to large, red striped with an orange red blush on a yellow background. The flesh is pale, cream colored, crisp and juicy with a pleasant subacid tart flavor. The overall flavour is sharp and refreshing but with a good balance of sweetness - and never sugary. There is occasionally a hint of pear-drops to the flavour of a new-season Braeburn. Fruits store for four months. An ideal dessert apple fresh or baked, add Braeburn's spicy-sweet flavor to cobblers, tarts, cakes & pies.






Granny Smith: It originated in Australia in 1868 from a chance seedling propagated by Maria Smith, where the name "Granny Smith" comes from. Granny Smith apples are a light speckled green in color, though some may have a pink blush. They are crisp, juicy, tart apples which are excellent for both cooking and eating out of the hand. They also are favored for salads because the slices do not brown as quickly as other varieties. A Granny Smith Apple usually has a slightly more sour, sharp flavor than other apples.





Jonagold: An apple that is both tart and sweet. It’s firm texture makes it one of the world’s most preferred eating apples. It's a cultivar apple that is a cross between a Golden Delicious and a Jonathon.
















Golden Delicious: A cultivar apple that is NOT related to the Red Delicious. Very sweet flavor - eating, salads and apple sauce. Tends toward bruising and shriveling.















Cortland: A cultivar apple that came from the McIntosh and the Ben Davis (a Southern apple). It has a very white flesh and is a good dessert apple. Tangy Taste - snacking, salads, and baking.












Empire: Firm, juicy, crunchy, sweet. They come in September through October and will keep until January. They were developed in 1945 from Red Delicious and McIntosh. Eating and salads








Ginger Gold: Starts out a very pale green, though, if left on the tree, will ripen to a soft yellow with a slightly waxy appearance. The first yellow apple to ripen in the Fall. Doesn't discolor when sliced. Sweet but mildly tart - eating, baking and salads.










Honey Crisp: Tremendously crispy with a real snap. Big, juicy and sweet/tart - great eating apple. But good in the kitchen too.















Ida Red: A cross between an Wagnerapfel and the Jonathan. The idared has a white flesh with a firm body, and generally considered to be tart and juicy, highly flavored-eating and baking for cakes, sauces and pies. Harvested from Sept to mid-October and can be kept til the end of January.







Jonamac: The Jonamac apple is a cross between a Jonathan and McIntosh. The eating quality combines the rich flavor of McIntosh with some of the spiciness of Jonathan. Excellent for cooking, sauce or eating out of hand. When baking, the slices tend to be melting and juicy.








McIntosh: Firm and crisp, distinct aroma, red/green skin. Cooks soft and smooth, also a popular eating apple and great for cider. Every McIntosh apple has a direct lineage to a single tree discovered in 1811 by John McIntosh on his farm in Dundela, a hamlet located in Dundas County in the Canadian province of Ontario, near Morrisburg.











Macoun: A cross between the MacIntosh and the Arkansas black varieties. The skin is a dark red with a purplish flush. Its very firm flesh is juicy and snow white, tasting sweet with a hint of berry. A superior eating apple.
Northern Spy: Its skin has green and red stripes when ripe and produces fairly late in the season (mid to late October). The white flesh is juicy, crisp and mildly sweet with a rich, aromatic subacid flavor. Its characteristic flavor is more tart than most popular varieties, and its flesh is harder/crunchier than most. It is a good dessert apple and pie apple, that is also used for cider. Further, the Northern Spy is also an excellent apple for storage, as it tends to last longer due to late maturation and lower sugar content.
Red Delicious: The most widely grown apple in the world. It was overgrown in the 1990's and became degraded. Due to the better storage and transportation techniques we have now, other varieties are more available and the Red Delicious has lost it's popularity. Sweet, simple flavor. Juicy and sweet taste - eating and salads















Rome: Firm mildly tart flavor - Good-quality Rome apples will be firm with smooth and clean skin. The coloring is a brilliant and almost solid shade of red with white lenticels - natural tiny white dots that allow the apple to "breathe". The best apple for baking, but also good eaten fresh & in salads.














Fuji - A Japanese cultivar that was developed in 1932 and brought to the market in 1969 and came to the US in the 1980's. It has a dense flesh that is sweeter and crispier than many other apple varieties. Although Fujis perform well when baked or frozen, they are perhaps best suited for eating fresh or in salads. These apples are extremely flavorful and super sweet. Fujis are very juicy and crisp and are not in the least bit mealy.






















Gala - Excellent for fresh eating. Has a mild, sweet flavor. A very pretty, medium size, conical to round fruit with yellow skin patterned with bright orange-red. Firm, juicy, fine textured, yellow white flesh. are fairly resistant to bruising and are sweet, grainy, with a mild flavour and a thinner skin than most apples. They are also considered to be a very soft eating apple due to their lack of crispiness, well-suited for denture wearers.



All about apple varieties:

http://www.allaboutapples.com/varieties/index.htm


Apple Tips:



  • Rub cut apples with lemon juice to keep slices and wedges creamy white for hours.
    Store apples in a plastic bag in the refrigerator away from strong-odored foods such as cabbage or onions to prevent flavor transfer.


  • Apples are the second most important of all fruits sold in the supermarket, ranking next to bananas.


  • Tens of thousands of varieties of apples are grown worldwide.


  • The history of apple consumption dates from Stone Age cultivation in areas we now know as Austria and Switzerland.


  • In ancient Greece, tossing an apple to a girl was a traditional proposal of marriage; catching it was acceptance.


  • Folk hero Johnny Appleseed (John Chapman) did indeed spread the cultivation of apples in the United States. He knew enough about apples, however, so that he did not distribute seeds, because apples do not grow true from seeds. Instead, he established nurseries in Pennsylvania and Ohio.


  • Three medium-sized apples weigh approximately one pound.


  • One pound of apples, cored and sliced, measures about 4 1/2 cups.


  • Purchase about 2 pounds of whole apples for a 9-inch pie.


  • One large apple, cored and processed through a food grinder or processor, makes about 1 cup of ground apple.

Deep-Fried Fair Fat Goodness


It's time once again for the State Fair of Texas and that means loads of deep-fried goodness and deep-fried weirdness. Those two are often one and the same. The eight finalists for the Sixth Annual Big Tex Choice Awards have been announced. Let's see what we have to look forward to, shall we?

Up first is the Deep Fried S’mores Pop Tart. I'm not overly impressed with this one. It's just a S'mores flavored Pop Tart that has been battered and dropped in the fryer. OK, they serve it with some chocolate syrup and whipped cream when it's done, but how practical is that, really? You can't stab a Pop Tart with a fork, so I would imagine that the consumption process of this is going to be a little tricky. Then again, I've never had a Pop Tart that has been deep-fried, so maybe that does something to the chemical composition (of which the entire Pop Tart is comprised of).

In the category of ANTTA (Absolutely Nauseating To Think About), we have something dubbed Fernie’s Fried Club Salad: Take a big ol' spinach tortilla and put in some diced ham and diced chicken, shredded lettuce, carrot strips, cherry tomatoes and some bacon. Roll that sucker up and deep fry it like you would a chimichanga and throw some deep-fried croutons on top of it when you're done. Give the insane individual who wants to eat that a side of dressing and you're done. I have several issues with this. Who wants their lettuce deep fried? Or warm, for that matter? Not I. I'm also perplexed by the description given of this atrocity over there at
About.com/Dallas, as they seem to imply that it is served on a stick. How does that work? Why would you want it to work like that? A stick? No stick. Get rid of the stick.

Who doesn't want lemonade when they're at a state fair? And who doesn't want that lemonade deep-fried? Wait? Deep-fried? That's right! Deep-fried! Deep-fried Lemonade! Simply take a lemon-flavored pastry (whatever that is supposed to mean) that has been made with lemonade and bake it and then fry it up. Glaze it with some lemonade, powdered sugar and lemon zest and you've got yourself...uh, something! You've definitely got yourself something there!

If there's one food that says "Texas" it's a Frito pie. And if there's one thing that says Texas State Fair, it's Deep-fried Frito Pie. Somehow, a one Nick Bert has managed to take chili and cheddar cheese, cover it around in Fritos, batter it and chuck it in the grease without the whole thing falling apart. Now that's some talent right there! He'd better do it right. Texans don't like folks messing with their Frito pies. I have to assume that it tastes better than it looks, there. Good thing they're not judged on presentation.

Abel Gonzales, Jr. is no stranger to deep frying things for the Texas State Fair. His deep-fried butter won the competition last year. He also had winners in previous years with his deep-fried cookie dough and his deep-fried peanut butter, jelly and banana sandwich. (Why add the banana? I have no idea. Deep-fried PB&J sounds fabulous all by itself.) This year he has concocted something called Deep-fried Chocolate, though I don't know why he calls it that. It is a brownie, stuffed with a piece of white chocolate and a cherry. Then that is dunked into chocolate cake batter before it hits the grease. He tops it all off with powdered sugar, cherry sauce and chocolate whipped cream. I still don't get why it isn't called a Deep-fried Brownie.

When I heard that there was something called Texas Fried Caviar, I couldn't imagine that would go over well. Texas doesn't seem like much of a caviar state to me. Turns out, Texas caviar is black-eyed peas. Now that makes sense! Simply take some black-eyed peas fried and add some "special spices" and some Old Bay seasoning (which is presumably different than the aforementioned special spices) and fry away! (I kind of think that a better name would have been Fried Texas Caviar. Everything else starts off with "fried", so why should this be any different? It's only going to confuse fair goers.)

I've saved the best two for last! The Deep-fried Margarita and the Deep-fried Beer! Bring 'em on! I think that I'd probably be more partial to the margarita, even though I am a big fan of beer. Take some sweet funnel cake batter and mix in either tequila or tequila flavored wine. Fry that baby up and dust it with some sort of lemon-lime mixture and served it in a salt-rimmed plastic glass. It sounds lovely. Although the deep-fried beer sounds just as lovely. It's basically a pretzel pocket with beer inside. Take one bite and the beer pours out, as it should. It's beer and pretzels all in one! What's not to love? You do have to be over 21 to purchase either one of these delectables, as they're not in the fryer long enough for the alcohol to burn out, as it shouldn't.

There you have it. Deep-fried goodness at the State Fair of Texas for 2010. It's a good thing that this dealio is only once a year. If people were to eat this kind of stuff all year 'round, the results would not be good. If one were to indulge in this kind of cuisine frequently it would be as a friend of mine said last night, "They might as well have chairs lined up with IVs filled with heated Crisco. Cut out the middleman." Well said, friend. Well said, indeed.