2/14/2009
Valentine's Financiers
We're about to leave for the airport, but for Valentine's Day, in between finishing some late night work and packing, I made a few financiers from Aran's recipe (but sans kumquats). I prefer mine chewier than they came out (I think I made them too thick) but the beurre noisette makes 100% difference in terms of depth of flavor. Wow.
2/13/2009
California
I should say that I'm flying to California (first Los Angeles, then San Francisco) tomorrow for a week of vacation. In LA, we intend to see family and eat Mexican food. The lineup for San Francisco includes the well reviewed vegetarian yoga-studio/restaurant Ubuntu (Bruni's review here) and Zuni Cafe (the roasted chicken is supposed to be revelatory). We'll also try to get to ad hoc (though I think we'll fail) and possibly Chez Panisse or more likely its informal cafe.
Zibetto
After months of frustration about bad coffee in midtown, I've recently discovered Zibetto Espresso Bar on 56th and 6th. No sofas and couches here. No, this is the way they do fast coffee (and breakfast especially) in Europe - belly up to the bar and slap your folded newspaper next to a warmed cornetto and strong espresso. Of course, part of this is pure nostalgia for me - I've had countless breakfasts like this flipping through a Le Monde when I worked with my uncles at their carpet store in Paris. But nostalgia aside, the coffee is very very good.
Jacques Torres
So, what kind of person goes blocks out of his way to pick up a free $2 Jacques Torres bonbon because he heard about it on some blog?
Yeah, me. How'd you guess?
Yeah, me. How'd you guess?
EDIT: I especially liked my effort to sidle up to people handing out the chocolates as if I was surprised to find them there.
2/12/2009
A note
Just a random public service announcement - caterers have not understood that the (economic) world has ended between the last time they were busy and today. Maybe none of us has. But really, people, you are not in the driver's seat anymore. Sorry.
EDIT: Also, I realize that you way you used to shame people into loosening the purse-strings was to pronounce the phrase "I realize you are on a budget" with a slight sneer encircling the last word. Soo, that never would have worked on me anyway, as I am not on a quest to produce the puurfect day and I think budgets are very good things indeed, but it really is out of place now. Just so you know.
EDIT: Also, I realize that you way you used to shame people into loosening the purse-strings was to pronounce the phrase "I realize you are on a budget" with a slight sneer encircling the last word. Soo, that never would have worked on me anyway, as I am not on a quest to produce the puurfect day and I think budgets are very good things indeed, but it really is out of place now. Just so you know.
An agreement?
From an article in yesterday's New York Times about fertility clinics that produce too many children:
"One woman, a nurse who could afford only one try at in vitro, pressured Dr. Chiu to transfer eight embryos. 'I said under one condition,' Dr. Chiu remembered. 'I made her sign an agreement that she would do selective reduction.' That agreement, to remove some of the embryos if they lived, was very likely unenforceable."
You think? A personal service contract requiring abortion?
Having said that, I am generally interested in the idea of restraints that are not necessarily enforceable, though my thoughts range to bylaws passed by the shareholders restricting the the board of a Delaware corporation rather than to fertility policy. Still, what was the doctor thinking? Even if one were okay with the idea of such a contract, can you imagine trying to enforce it?
EDIT: I wonder if such a contract has ever made it to court.
"One woman, a nurse who could afford only one try at in vitro, pressured Dr. Chiu to transfer eight embryos. 'I said under one condition,' Dr. Chiu remembered. 'I made her sign an agreement that she would do selective reduction.' That agreement, to remove some of the embryos if they lived, was very likely unenforceable."
You think? A personal service contract requiring abortion?
Having said that, I am generally interested in the idea of restraints that are not necessarily enforceable, though my thoughts range to bylaws passed by the shareholders restricting the the board of a Delaware corporation rather than to fertility policy. Still, what was the doctor thinking? Even if one were okay with the idea of such a contract, can you imagine trying to enforce it?
EDIT: I wonder if such a contract has ever made it to court.
2/09/2009
Profligacy
Just flagging that the President discussed the question about whether it makes sense to encourage consumers to spend when they should be saving (maybe) in his press conference:
QUESTION: Thank you, Mr. President. In your opening remarks, you talked about that if your plan works the way you want it to work, it's going to increase consumer spending. But isn't consumer spending, or over-spending, how we got into this mess? And if people get money back into their pockets, do you not want them saving it or paying down debt first, before they start spending money into the economy?
MR. OBAMA: Well, first of all, I don't think it's accurate to say that consumer spending got us into this mess. What got us into this mess initially were banks taking exorbitant, wild risks with other people's monies, based on shaky assets. And because of the enormous leverage, where they had $1 worth of assets and they were betting $30 on that $1, what we had was a crisis in the financial system.
That led to a contraction of credit, which in turn meant businesses couldn't make payroll or make inventories, which meant that everybody became uncertain about the future of the economy.
So people started making decisions accordingly, reducing investments, initiating layoffs, which in turn made things worse.
Now, you are making a legitimate point, Chuck, about the fact that our savings rate has declined. And this economy has been driven by consumer spending for a very long time. And that's not going to be sustainable. You know, if all we're doing is spending and we're not making things, then over time, other countries are going to get tired of lending us money. And eventually the party's going to be over.
Well, in fact, the party now is over. And so the sequence of how we're approaching this is as follows. Our immediate job is to stop the downward spiral. And that means putting money into consumers' pockets. It means loosening up credit.
It means putting forward investments that not only employ people immediately but also lay the groundwork for long-term economic growth. And that by the way is important, even if you're a fiscal conservative, because the biggest problem we're going to have, with our federal budget, is if we continue a situation in which there are no tax revenues, because economic growth is plummeting at the same time as we've got more demands for unemployment insurance; we've got more demands for people who've lost their health care, more demand for food stamps. That will put enormous strains on the federal budget as well as the state budget.
So the most important thing we can do for our budget crisis right now is to make sure that the economy doesn't continue to tank. And that's why passing the Economic Recovery Plan is the right thing to do, even though I recognize that it's expensive.
Look, I would love not to have to spend money right now. I'd -- you know, this notion that somehow I came in here just ginned up to spend $800 billion, you know, that -- that wasn't -- that wasn't how I envisioned my presidency beginning. But we have to adapt to existing circumstances.
Now, what we are going to also have to do is to make sure that as soon as the economy stabilizes, investment begins again; we're no longer contracting, but we're growing; that our midterm and long-term budget is dealt with. And I think the same is true for individual consumers. Right now, they're just -- they're just trying to figure out how do I make sure that if I lose my job, you know, I'm still going to be able to make my mortgage payments.
Or they're worried about, how am I going to pay next month's bills? So they're not engaging in a lot of long-term financial planning.
Once the economy stabilizes and people are less fearful, then I do think that we're going to have to start thinking about how do we operate more prudently, because there's no such thing as a free lunch. So if -- if you want to get -- if you want to buy a house, then putting zero down and buying a house that is probably not affordable for you in case something goes wrong, that's something that has to be reconsidered.
So we're going to have to change our -- our bad habits. But right now, the key is making sure that we pull ourselves out of the economic slump that we're in.
QUESTION: Thank you, Mr. President. In your opening remarks, you talked about that if your plan works the way you want it to work, it's going to increase consumer spending. But isn't consumer spending, or over-spending, how we got into this mess? And if people get money back into their pockets, do you not want them saving it or paying down debt first, before they start spending money into the economy?
MR. OBAMA: Well, first of all, I don't think it's accurate to say that consumer spending got us into this mess. What got us into this mess initially were banks taking exorbitant, wild risks with other people's monies, based on shaky assets. And because of the enormous leverage, where they had $1 worth of assets and they were betting $30 on that $1, what we had was a crisis in the financial system.
That led to a contraction of credit, which in turn meant businesses couldn't make payroll or make inventories, which meant that everybody became uncertain about the future of the economy.
So people started making decisions accordingly, reducing investments, initiating layoffs, which in turn made things worse.
Now, you are making a legitimate point, Chuck, about the fact that our savings rate has declined. And this economy has been driven by consumer spending for a very long time. And that's not going to be sustainable. You know, if all we're doing is spending and we're not making things, then over time, other countries are going to get tired of lending us money. And eventually the party's going to be over.
Well, in fact, the party now is over. And so the sequence of how we're approaching this is as follows. Our immediate job is to stop the downward spiral. And that means putting money into consumers' pockets. It means loosening up credit.
It means putting forward investments that not only employ people immediately but also lay the groundwork for long-term economic growth. And that by the way is important, even if you're a fiscal conservative, because the biggest problem we're going to have, with our federal budget, is if we continue a situation in which there are no tax revenues, because economic growth is plummeting at the same time as we've got more demands for unemployment insurance; we've got more demands for people who've lost their health care, more demand for food stamps. That will put enormous strains on the federal budget as well as the state budget.
So the most important thing we can do for our budget crisis right now is to make sure that the economy doesn't continue to tank. And that's why passing the Economic Recovery Plan is the right thing to do, even though I recognize that it's expensive.
Look, I would love not to have to spend money right now. I'd -- you know, this notion that somehow I came in here just ginned up to spend $800 billion, you know, that -- that wasn't -- that wasn't how I envisioned my presidency beginning. But we have to adapt to existing circumstances.
Now, what we are going to also have to do is to make sure that as soon as the economy stabilizes, investment begins again; we're no longer contracting, but we're growing; that our midterm and long-term budget is dealt with. And I think the same is true for individual consumers. Right now, they're just -- they're just trying to figure out how do I make sure that if I lose my job, you know, I'm still going to be able to make my mortgage payments.
Or they're worried about, how am I going to pay next month's bills? So they're not engaging in a lot of long-term financial planning.
Once the economy stabilizes and people are less fearful, then I do think that we're going to have to start thinking about how do we operate more prudently, because there's no such thing as a free lunch. So if -- if you want to get -- if you want to buy a house, then putting zero down and buying a house that is probably not affordable for you in case something goes wrong, that's something that has to be reconsidered.
So we're going to have to change our -- our bad habits. But right now, the key is making sure that we pull ourselves out of the economic slump that we're in.
A bit of consumerism
What with all the talk of profligacy below, let me offer a shopping tip. Yes, the most beautiful men's watch in the world is the IWC portugueser (so I say). I will not, however, spend even the $4000 one needs to spend on Timezone to get one (much less the $6,800 new, or $10,000 + for the rose gold Automatic).
Lots of research for things that look like the IWC (I wanted something in the 38mm plus range in terms of diamater, and a main face and two smaller faces, whatever they're technically called), and offer some craft and originality lead me to an unexpected place - Poljot, a Soviet era manufacturer which makes wonderful watches with an interesting Russian made movement for less than $500, and specifically Poljot's Strela (mine is much plainer, but the picture I found online on a dealer's site isn't great). On ebay, where I found mine, the price drops much lower than that.
The chief downside at this point is that the Strela is a mechanical watch, meaning it needs to be wound. I have not figured out how much, as yet. Also, you can really only buy it from a German dealer for a fair price, so there is some execution risk to the deal.
Lots of research for things that look like the IWC (I wanted something in the 38mm plus range in terms of diamater, and a main face and two smaller faces, whatever they're technically called), and offer some craft and originality lead me to an unexpected place - Poljot, a Soviet era manufacturer which makes wonderful watches with an interesting Russian made movement for less than $500, and specifically Poljot's Strela (mine is much plainer, but the picture I found online on a dealer's site isn't great). On ebay, where I found mine, the price drops much lower than that.
The chief downside at this point is that the Strela is a mechanical watch, meaning it needs to be wound. I have not figured out how much, as yet. Also, you can really only buy it from a German dealer for a fair price, so there is some execution risk to the deal.
Gino's
We were in Howard Beach, Queens, the other day for things unrelated to food, but I had heard of a local pizza joint with a big reputation, so we made our way there for a quick snack. So, quick is likely never the result of visiting Gino's of Howard Beach, since the line appears to be perpetually out the door, but the "grandma" pizza is truly excellent - thin, crisp, dotted with fresh cheese, and thick chunks of garlic throughout.
Also, they serve a $13 seafood salad which would cost $25 in the city. If, for some reason, one is in Howard Beach, I wouldn't miss this place.
Also, they serve a $13 seafood salad which would cost $25 in the city. If, for some reason, one is in Howard Beach, I wouldn't miss this place.
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