American Madness

In the world of competitive eating, few names are as big as Takeru “the Tsunami” Kobayashi; though, this year Joey Chestnut has been giving him a run for his money, breaking the Tsunami’s record in a qualifying event. All eyes were turned to the official Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Championships to be held at Coney Island on July 4th to determine if Chestnut has what it takes to take down the Tsunami.

Unfortunately it is looking questionable if Kobayashi will be competing this year. During training for this years competition, looking to break Chestnut’s record, Kobayashi started to feel jaw pain and reached the point where he could no longer close his mouth. He has been diagnosed with jaw arthritis. While he hopes to be able to compete, it is questionable if he will be at his full eating potential.

Some say it is the fear of going up against Joey Chestnut that is getting to him, some are concerned for his health and well being. Kobayashi has been one of the bigger faces in the competitive eating circuit, currently holding the world records for hamburgers, bratwurst sausages, lobster rolls, cows’ brains and rice balls amongst other things.

In other competitive eating news, New York has a little piece on Eater X and Crazy Legs Conti, New York room-mates who are popular faces on the competitive eating circuit as well and will both be representing New York in this year’s championships.

I am not so much in a writing mood this morning so I am going to cheat and just toss some links here that I have been holding on to and considering posting about.

Find out what Google is working on over at Google Labs. The whole Google 411 thing looks and sounds pretty cool; I am going to have to give it a try next time I need information.

S’mac just celebrated its 1 year birthday, head on over there for some tasty Mac & Cheese treats.

And, I was going to recommend eWine match. A site that allows you to text a meal plan and they will send you the wine to pair with it, however all that happens when you go to the website is that they ask you to verify your age (by clicking enter) and then it takes you to the TOS page, can’t seem to find anything else there.

We’ll start with that for now, maybe my mood will improve and I’ll be able to write an actual post today

I live on the Lower East Side, and, if it hasn’t been clear from some of my previous posts, I really like food.

Unfortunately, I don’t have a ton of money to spend on great food all the time. I’ll have a nice meal at a fancy restaurant every now and then, but really I am not eating at Del Posto or WD50 on a regular basis.

I have, however, found a great selection of places for food on the Lower East Side, none of which will break you budget. In fact, for under $10 at most of these places you can have some incredible food. Sometimes you might encounter a bit of a language barrier, sometimes these places don’t even have tables, but if you can muscle through this you are in for some real treats, arguably some of the best food in the city. You just need to know where to look for it.

Here are some of my favorites (I intentionally left off websites, especially since some don’t have any. If I have some free time today I will produce a map though marking off the spots):

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A previous post of ours briefly suffered from a scary bit of misdirection, as noted by Lockhart in the comments below.

Despite the initial impression we got from an email sent to us by New York Commercial Realty Services (NYCRS) that Zozos and Pizzeria De Santo are available for lease, this does not mean that these restaurants are closing now or anytime soon.

When we spoke to Zozo’s, they told us they are actually now working towards a liquor license, so we’re not certain why the real estate agency’s ad indicates that their space can be “Delivered with FULL liquor license” (their emphasis).

Yesterday I received a random email from a New York realtor. I am not really sure when I got put onto this mailing list. In fact, it was sent to an alias email address that connects to my work account, making it all the more random. But anyway, I learned some interesting news in receiving this email.

Apparently two Lower East Side eateries are going out of business:

The short lived Pizzeria De Santo on Ludlow apparently couldn’t compete with Rosario’s on Orchard and Stanton or Ray’s on Houston between Orchard and Ludlow, because the business is up for sale, liquor license and all. You’d think with the amount of bars and restaurants surrounding the location they’d be able to pull it together and make a profit. Apparently not.

Another potential fatality on the Lower East Side is Zozo’s on the corner of Orchard and Stanton: up for sale with its full liquor license. When they arrived in the ‘hood a few years back they were the go-to place for tasty sandwiches. Now, well, apparently people realized they could get tasty sandwiches for cheaper pretty much anywhere else.
Link to the real estate posting

If you’ve got a great idea for a small restaurant and a couple of grand to drop this could be the opportunity for you to open up your dream place on the LES. Act now. Space is limited, and the hipsters are starting to consider Brooklyn a viable alternative.

(With specific questions, you can reach broker James Famularo at http://www.nycrs.com. Check out his arched eyebrow!):

As I said earlier today (about 2 posts down) it is summer time, and what better way to ring in the summer then with a nice drink.

I have always thought of Gin* as an ideal summer drink. Its crisp clean taste of juniper berries, how well it mixes with lime, and and how nice it looks poured over ice.

I guess the same could be said about vodka for the most part, except that a spirit made from juniper berries just seem so much more refreshing then one made from potatoes or grains (actually, according to Wikipedia, you could consider Gin a flavored vodka, but I think that is pushing it a bit).

Anyway, the San Francisco Chronicle wrote a piece back in January about Gin having a new heyday as new flavored gins start to hit the market, and, to kick things off right, after the jump we have a few gin cocktail just perfect for a relaxing summer evening.

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So, while you are at the park doing your work you realize maybe you shouldn’t have had that Extra Large Coffee and the bottle of water cause now you are in the middle of Bryant park and your really need to pee. You have a few options, finding a restaurant and buying the cheapest item to gain entry to their bathroom, looking for a dark doorway or corner without a lot of people walking by or you can text MizPee.

MizPee is a service that allows you to text them with your general location and it will tell you were the nearest bathroom is and how clean it is. You can also access their map online if you have a computer handy.

There was another dashboard widget I found as well which allows you to find the nearest bathrooms, but I managed to lose that page, when I come across it again I will add the link.

Another useful tool (if you have a Mac Laptop) is the Public Toilet Finder Widget Just enter your city and location and you’ll receive a list of where public toilets are to be found. Again this seems like a great idea (if you have access to your computer and a Wireless Network).

As of last week in fact, and with summer has come summer weather. We are hitting the 80s and 90s on a regular basis now with lots of sun (and, well some haze too, but that is to be expected in NYC). There are some folks out there, sitting at their desk right now wishing they could just get out, go outside and enjoy this warm weather somewhere nice as opposed to under the harsh fluorescent lighting that they are regularly exposed to.

Well, for all you folks with laptops and WiFi cards (ok, does anyone still own a laptop without one these days?) there is hope:

The Parks Department has posted a map showing which parks are wired and up and running now for a wireless connection.

There is also NYC Wireless Supernode, a company providing free wireless connections throughout the city through nodes. They have a map up as well showing you were they have hotspots and which are currently up and running.

So, gather all of those important papers together, grab that laptop case, check out one of the maps, and get yourself out into the open, spend the day soaking up some sun while you work from outside the office. What a concept, once I get a battery pack for my office iMac maybe I’ll be able to heave it to a park and enjoy some of these sunny days this summer too.

I recently discovered that Mingle2, a dating site, has a function that will go through your blogs home page and rate it based on keywords. I guess this is for folks out there who are trying to find that perfect guy or girl through their blog, but are concerned that they might scare them off based on their over use of drug references or by constantly mentioning sex.

For the record we got our R rating by mention Hell (3x), Drugs (2x) and Sex (1x) (though, maybe after this post we’ll get boosted to NC-17, though we aren’t pushing porn here or anything)

Yeah, I know I don’t post these enough to really say they are “of the week,” but “of the moment” just doesn’t have the same ring, plus I have already used “Things that make you go hmmmm.”

Anyway, have you ever caught yourself staring at an electrical outlet and just wishing you had a thin metal object you could stick into it? Well, your prayers have been answered: The Vilcus Plug Dactyloadapter is a product made just for you.

“The Vilcus Plug Dactyloadapter allows anyone to quickly and easily test the working condition of any wall socket. Simply insert the Vilcus into the socket in question… insert two fingers and the use becomes apparent instantly.”

The adaptor is “based on an antique persuasion device used by Soviet-era KGB.” I believe that device was a plug stripped to the copper wires… and I am pretty sure they didn’t attach it to your fingers.

The designer, Art Lebedev is probably better known for the long awaited Optimus Maximuskeyboard that may eventually hit markets, but in the meanwhile, if you are itching to get your hand on one of his designs, the Vilcus Plug Dactyloadapter is available now.

Oh, and if you read this and thought “Oh I just have to get one of these” could you write in and let me know what you plan on using it for? Well, unless you are working for the U.S. Government, then I have a pretty good idea of their intended use, just keep in mind, shipping outside the U.S. costs extra.

So it has come to my attention that Mayor Mike has switched from the Republican party to the Independents. First off, WAY TO GO MIKE!

Next I would like to respond to every single newspaper and television newscasters claim that Bloomberg is going to now make a run for president.

Bloomberg is a very savvy billionaire mayor. I think we can all agree he did not get there by being stupid or making poor choices. In his run for New York City mayor, although he ran as a Republican, he had been a democrat prior to that. He knew he had the money and could appeal to Republicans. Then, as the republicans started to make asses of themselves left and right (and continue to do so) he decided to switch to an Independent.

He has spent the last few years working on long term plans for NYC, to leave now for the upcoming elections would just make him look weak and a prime target.

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