Finding Sandy: reporting a year after superstorm

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Red Hook is Stronger After Sandy RED HOOK, Brooklyn – A year after Hurricane Sandy[1] flooded the area – the water surged and overflowed Van Brunt Street, and went up twenty blocks to Holland Tunnel – local businesses are back. Although many business owners continue to struggle with federal storm assistance and debt, they have fond memories of neighbors, volunteers who pitched in to help.

It wasn’t only what we did. It’s what other people had done to help us accomplish what we had accomplished. — Sunny Balzano, Sunny’s Bar

The community was amazing. — Ben Schneider, Good Fork

I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for my friends. — Carlos DeSantos, Brooklyn Motorworks

The community was strong, but we are closer now. — Susan Saunders, NYPG

They [volunteers] did in hours what would take us 4, 5 days, or weeks. — Steve Tarpin, Steve’s Authentic Key Lime Pie

We will celebrate what we did for each other. — Billy Durney, Hometown BBQ

[1] Oct. 29, 2012.

Teacher to Nanny, A Surinamese Woman’s Love Quest (Q&A)

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It is 10:30 a.m. and already the Stuyvesant Town playground is filled with children. A woman leans forward into a baby carriage and coos, “Why are you crying?” She sniffs the diaper. “No stinky,” she declares, “What are you fussing about, your teeth coming out?”

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Lilian[1] is a nanny, part of an estimated 200,000 domestics employed in New York City[2]. With her smooth, chocolate-brown complexion and voluminous afro gathered in a high bun, she appears no different from any African American woman living in the city – except her accent. She speaks as she is a tropical songbird, rolling her r’s and overstretches her vowels, adding an exotic musicality to her speech. Is it because she comes from Paramaribo, Suriname? Is it because she speaks taki taki, a creole language that mixes English and Dutch, back home? Lilian laughs and explains that when she speaks taki taki, she sounds like she is speaking broken English.

Friendly and talkative, Lilian is as warm as the weather back home. As she recounts her journey – she arrived in New York in 1991, two days before Christmas – she spins a tale of love, marriage, children, and work. She has been here for over twenty years, and she misses home. One day, she vows, one day she will return to her country and climb a mango tree.

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Chicken McNugget? Think Again, Chicken Processed in China Go On Sale in US

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Excuse the clumsy attempt at word play, but there is definitely something foul with our fowls. Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Agriculture lifted a ban on chicken imported from China. For the first time, chicken processed in China will go on sale in the United States without any labeling to indicate its source of origin. 

NEW YORK — On Sunday, Sept. 15, Senator Schumer held a press conference in front of the Associated Supermarket in Stuveysant Town. A small crowd of roughly twenty people, including eight reporters and cameramen, gathered to listen.  

Image Credit: http://huffingtonpost.com

The USDA has approved four Chinese chicken processors to sell their chicken in the United States. Although the federal law allowed Chinese companies to export only cooked poultry products from chicken raised in the United States and Canada, without on-site U.S. inspectors, it would be hard to ensure compliance. Given China’s appalling record of food safety – arsenic in calamari, glass chips in pumpkin seeds, insecticide-tainted dumplings – Senator Schumer called the USDA’s decision to let Chinese chicken enter the United States without inspection a choice that “Makes no sense whatsoever.” He further claimed that if the agency could not afford enough inspectors to examine food products coming from China to the United States, then “don’t let the Chinese chicken in! Plain and simple!”

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When it rains… go inside and talk to strangers

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One should never trust the weather report, it is only 80% correct most of the time.

Unfortunately, this time the weather report got it right and It rained. Not a light drizzle, not rain, but thunderstorm (yes, equipped with thunder and lightening). I was flabbergasted. How could the weather do this to me? Especially after I bought new rain boots and everything. Shouldn’t it rained on days when I am fully-equipped in my rain gears? Simply outrageous!

Anyway, back to my story.

I tried walking briskly, hoping that I could make it home before the rain came down hard.

It didn’t work, the rain was quicker than me. Clutching my computer bag close to my chest, I ran to the only shelter in sight — an iHop. There, I shuffled myself among equally unfortunate and miserable (yes, melodrama!) souls who also forgot their umbrellas.

Rain gushed forth with unrelenting force, oh boy, I thought, I am going to be here for awhile. Eager for someone to talk to, I looked around, hoping to catch someone’s eyes. The moment our eyes met (anyone really), I planned,  I will smile and talk about the weather, the crazy storm.

No one looked at me. The only response I got was an old Indian gentleman who kind of returned my smile.

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Taking a Bite of the Big Apple

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New York and I, we are ready to fall in love! Or rather, I am ready to take a BITE of the Big Apple.

in NYC

Few cities have inspired as many dreamers to pursue their dreams, and even fewer have received as much great writing dedicated to them. New York City is definitely unique in that aspect. Nonetheless, I did not, however, immediately fall head-over-heels for the city. In fact, I had started off not liking the city. 

New York is not a city that will hand anything to you easy, you have to fight and prove that you are worthy of what it has to offer. When I was looking for my apartment, I was literally utilizing all known resources — brokers, craigslist, facebook, websites (read more about apartment-hunting tips HERE). It was crazy. I am so thankful that I have settled in and am ready for new challenges.

E. B. White, renowned American writer and reporter, writes in his 1948 essay “Here is New York,” that there are three New Yorks.

There is, first, the New York of the man or woman who was born there, who takes the city for granted and accepts its size, its turbulence as natural and inevitable. Second, there is the New York of the commuter — the city that is devoured by locusts each day and spat out each night. Third, there is New York of the person who was born somewhere else and came to New York in quest of something ….Commuters give the city its tidal restlessness, natives give it solidity and continuity, but the settlers give it passion. 

The natives, the commuters, and the settlers. I am of the last group. Thank you E. B. White, you have inspired me!

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Before making it in New York, you need to find an apartment

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There is no place like New York — it promises mystery, beauty, surprises, possibilities, glamour, and endless diversions. Yet, the city is also downright unattractive; it is dirty and smelly and, at times, rude. New York is not a city that will hand you anything easy. American writer, E.B. White, writes in his book Here is New York (1949):

“… the city is uncomfortable and inconvenient; but New Yorkers temperamentally do not crave comfort and convenience — if they did they would live elsewhere.”

I cannot help but chuckle. Indeed, finding an apartment in New York is frustrating and ridiculous, what do you mean the there is a broker fee? 15% of my annual rent? That’s more than one month’s rent!

Web Img / Credit: www.gonetonewyork.com

Web Img / Credit: www.gonetonewyork.com

Being new to the city looking for an apartment is hard and frightening, but it can be done. Here are some tips to getting your started on becoming a true New Yorker!

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The Key is Deprivation: Kyaiktiyo, Myanmar (Burma)

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Myanmar’s wet season, which lasts from May to September, is W.E.T. — with all letters capitalized.

I had read about the wet season in my guidebook and was prepared for (daily) heavy rain, but I didn’t expect this kind of rainstorm up in Mt Kyaiktiyo!

Kyaiktiyo, home of the sacred golden rock, is one of the most important religious pilgrimage sites in Myanmar. Legend has it that the large boulder is able to maintain its precarious balance because its stupa holds a strand of the Buddha hair. From Kinpun, the base camp, you have two options to get to the rock.

  1. Hike all the way (approx 7 miles) there, average time is between four to six hours.
  2. Ride a truck to the Yatetaung bus terminal, average time 45 minutes.
Paying pilgrimage at the sacred Golden Rock, in Kyaiktiyo, Myanmar (Burma)

Paying pilgrimage at the sacred Golden Rock, in Kyaiktiyo, Myanmar (Burma)

Most people choose the second option. The ride costs K1500/person one-way (roughly $1.50), but that price depends on whether or not there are enough passengers. If there are not enough passengers, you will have to pay more to make up the difference. The trucks, with wooden benches, sit 35 or so people and do not leave unless they are really packed.

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Taste of Vietnam: Best of Street Foods

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Recalling my one-month journey in Southeast Asia, wandering through Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam, I note, with a degree of whimsical irony, that I began and ended my travel with a bowl of noodles. I kick started my eating foray with asam laksa, a spicy and sour tamarind based noodle soup with explosive flavors in Penang. Then, coming full circle, I concluded with a steaming hot bowl of pho in Ho Chi Minh City. In a Proustian-like occurrence where taste begets memory, the city will forever be intertwined with lime juice, hot peppers and aromatic herbs.

Vietnamese Street Foods

Vietnamese Cuisine

Vietnam’s cuisine reflects not only its geographical position, but also incorporates Chinese (stir-frying, widespread consumption of noodles) and French (freshly baked baguettes, pâté) influences. Furthermore, regional differences also divide Vietnamese cuisine. South and central Vietnam have better access to an abundant variety of fruits and vegetables, as well as fresh herbs; thus, food tend to be more flavorful and robust than that of the north.

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