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The thing about New York is that they treat ice as a valuable commodity. Hell, when we were in the financial district, I had to ask around to make sure it wasn’t being traded alongside gold, silver, and oil. You order a water in this town and get some lukewarm liquid straight from the tap. Actually ask for ice and you may even get a sideways glance. Order a soda at many places and you’ll get only the can. If you’re lucky, it might even be cold. But the food in New York….oh, the food. It more than makes up for the city’s miserly attitude towards ice. Everywhere you go, you can find great meals from diverse locations, and even in every price range. The first night I ate at Zorba’s in Astoria (29-05 23rd Ave), a friendly little Greek restaurant that I always make it a point to visit. The staff is great, the food is quality, and there’s always sports on the TV in the corner. The waitress informed me that a movie was filming in the neighborhood, starring Uma Thurman and “a guy from Grey’s Anatomy.” A later IMDb search revealed the guy to be Jeffrey Dean Moran (Denny from the show) and the movie to be The Accidental Husband. I just missed the shooting one morning after visiting the Astoria Bagel Shop (28-12 Ditmars), and they returned for another shooting day just after I left town. It’s really quite depressing, because…well…it’s Uma, Jerry! Uma! Thursday’s lunch was at a Cantonese place on the east side of the city called Phoenix Garden (242 E 40th St). It is Zagat-rated, but as we were too cheap to pay for Zagat’s expertise, we had to hope the rating wasn’t “worse than reheated dog turds.” In the end, it was better than microwaved canine feces, but it was really just….blah. It had a nice atmosphere and an even nicer owner, but the food was average and the tables were practically on top of each other. Next we randomly hopped on the 7 train to Shea Stadium. And I’ll tell you something — John Rocker is a fucking liar. There were no kids with purple hair, no moms with four kids, and it really didn’t look like Beirut. In fact, we were treated to a nice guerilla-style musical performance from a guitarist who sang like Rufus Wainwright. But then again, we’re a lot nicer than that washed-up hack pitcher. Shea Stadium isn’t very exciting in the offseason. Although, we did see this truck with a sticker that should make Mets fans feel all warm and fuzzy inside. The parking lot was host some giant pink tents emblazoned with “CIRCO VAZQUEZ.” It looked the exact opposite of a circus — the place was deserted, no one was having fun, and there were no clowns doing blow in a dilapidated trailer. Since the place seemed to be more of a ruse to steal our kidneys than a place with trapeze artists, we split. But not before snapping this picture. After that came Madison Square Garden. And we all know what happened with Michigan State. But the Maryland/St. John’s tilt was fun to watch, if only for the clinic that the Terps put on. They’ve got a young, talented pair in their backcourt with Eric Hayes and Greivis Vasquez, Kevin Durant’s teammate at Montrose Christian. They will be tested by the tough ACC schedule, but Maryland is going to be a tournament team in March, and they are going to be a hell of a lot of fun to watch. Madison Square Garden is a good arena because there isn’t a bad seat in the house. But while the court has more lights on it than a small island nation, the rest of the arena is lit like a seance. It made taking pictures difficult, which is unfortunate because St. John’s student section made our weak one look a lot better. They had maybe 20 people — Students? Who actually knows? — even though they were playing in their own city against big-name schools. We had a better student turnout against Lenoir-Rhyne for an exhibition. I’ll cover part two of the NYC trip tomorrow, and bring you a preview of our overmatched opponents from Texas Southern on Tuesday morning. |
