Lèse Majesté

An evening in the house that Mario built

My currently reading list still shows Bill Buford's book Heat, even though I finished it a while back. It's to remind me to write something about what a good read it is. Much of it is set in the kitchen of Mario Batali's three-star restaurant, Babbo. His descriptions of the food intrigued me enough that tonight I wandered downtown to try it out. It's a miserably rainy Monday night, so I was able to walk in without a reservation and get a seat for dinner at the bar in only 15 minutes. It was a delicious experience.

The festivities started with an amuse-bouche of chickpeas on bruschetta. They were nicely spiced with a touch of heat. Then I ordered an antipasto plate of Babbo's housemade salumi - a couple kinds of salami, some lingua, a few sliced of lardo, and house-cured olives on a bed of tasty greens. I think it was watercress dressed with a sweet balsamic. As a first (and main) course, I had the chianti-stained pappardelle with wild boar ragu. Once again, quite delicious. And then I splurged and had a dessert, which really should have been split between two or three people. It was an almond upside down cake with espresso gelato and some kind of cherries. Extremely rich, and all that sugar along with the coffee will probably keep me up late tonight.

My only real disappointment was that I didn't even get a glimpse of the kitchen I read so much about.

Ben Brantley can kiss my pasty white ass

So I'm in New York on another of my periodic theater binges, although there's no way I'm going to approach my record of eight shows in four days this time. (For one thing, I'm going to have to go into our office for a while at least one day.) The specific inspiration for this trip, the event that set the timing, is BC/EFA's 22nd annual Easter Bonnet Competition. The Easter Bonnet in the spring and the Gypsy of the Year in the fall are two of my favorite things to do. Radio Girl introduced me to BC/EFA a few years ago and I've been a major contributor to their campaigns since then, which gets me free tickets to those events.

My first show this time around was Cry-Baby the Musical. As you might guess, it's another translation of a John Waters film into a musical, following in the footsteps of the overwhelmingly successful Hairspray phenomenon. The same guys who wrote the book for Hairspray did so for Cry-Baby. The songs are by one of the members of Fountains of Wayne (Adam Schlesinger, the guy who wrote Stacy's Mom) and the executive producer of The Daily Show. That last credit may seem strange, but David Javerbaum comes to musical theater legitimately, having co-written a couple of Hasty Pudding shows at Harvard and then coming out of NYU's Graduate School of Musical Theater Composition.

Cry-Baby was a blast. Complete and utter camp, of course, but what do you expect with Waters and the others involved? It's the Romeo and Juliet-style love story of "Cry-Baby" Walker, the Elvis-like leader of the Drapes greasers gang, and Allison, a wealthy, baton-twirling "square" in Baltimore in the 50s. They meet and fall in love instantly when the Drapes crash an anti-polio picnic hosted by Allison's grandmother, with whom she lives. Among the things they have in common is that they're both orphans. His parents were executed as communists (falsely accused, it turns out - they were pacifists, not communists) and her parents died in a tragic croquet accident.

Cry-Baby is played by James Snyder, making his first Broadway appearance but known widely to geeks as Luke Skywalker in Stars Wars Trilogy in 30 Minutes. Elizabeth Stanley is Allison. If you saw the PBS broadcast of the revival of Stephen Sondheim's Company a little while back (or were lucky enough to see the production on Broadway as I did) you'd recognize her as April, the flight attendant who knows she's dumb. I loved her in that role. Her grandmother is played by Harriet Harris, who Guthrie theater fans will know from last year's production of The Glass Menagerie, not to mention roles in Frasier and Desperate Housewives. Oh, and not to mention her Tony for Thoroughly Modern Millie...

The show is just totally over-the-top camp from the turn-off-your-cellphone song beforehand to the one that plays the audience out afterwards with admonitions to watch their cholesterol. The polio hook allows for a couple appearances by a guy singing in an iron lung. The choreography and dancing are phenomenal - this company is tight. It reminds me of a Broadway-quality version of another movie conversion I loved for its spirit, style, and energy - Evil Dead the Musical. It's totally entertaining, and doesn't pretend to have any higher aspirations than that.

Which leads to the title of this post Unfortunately Cry-Baby may not have a long life ahead of it. Ben Brantley, one of the critics at the NYT, thoroughly trashed it Friday after it opened Thursday night. He's been turning into quite the prissy little bully lately, and this is his latest victim. I saw a Saturday matinee, two days after it opened in the Marquis Theater (at the Marriott) and the orchestra section was at least a third empty. There were entire rows at the back that were empty. Hell, I had a second row center seat at a discount. It should have been packed. He may very well kill it, as he did with another musical I loved, the adaptation of High Fidelity a couple years ago. It would be a shame to see this one die too. It does what it set out to do, does it very well, and it could entertain a lot of people a long time if it gets a shot. It certainly deserves one a heck of a lot more than certain saccharine Disney productions we could all name.

Brantley is becoming thoroughly unreliable as a critic to me, particularly compared to his colleague at the Times, Charles Isherwood. Thank goodness Isherwood drew the review for Passing Strange, not Brantley. It's a brilliant piece of work that I expect Brantley would have trashed, but  Isherwood gave it a rave. I saw it on one of my previous trips and seriously thought about seeing it again this time. It's that good. I'm awaiting the release of the cast recording breathlessly. I heard today that they recorded one last week, so hopefully it's coming soon.

Random NYC notes

Definitely a New York moment... Walked out the front door of my froggy hotel this afternoon on the way to the theater, and witnessed an assault in progress just off the curb. Some guy in a suit was reaching in the driver's window of a taxi, apparently trying to strangle the driver, who was leaned back sideways in the front seat trying to kick the guy away with both feet.  I watched for a few minutes, and figured out the attacker was the driver of a black Suburban private car (limo) stopped behind the taxi. Never did figure out what caused the fracas, although the way the vehicles were stopped the taxi might have cut the other guy off. As I left he was straightening his tie out and starting to load baggage in back for passengers he was picking up at the next hotel up the street. And directly across the street was the home of the NYC Bar Association. Guess neither of them was going to need a lawyer, though, as no cops showed up. Or maybe none were called.

So I walked on down the street. A block away is an IRS office with a big electronic sign counting up the national debt (which is about to roll over to $10 trillion, exceeding the capacity of the sign. A tourist couple were standing across the street, enjoying dirty-water hotdogs from a cart, and I heard the guy say to his (presumed) wife, "I don't know why they don't have the mint just print up enough money to pay it off." With that kind of grasp of economics among the masses, is it any wonder they relected a dweeb who promised to run endless wars while cutting taxes? Or that the dollar is heading down the sewer?

On my last two trips here, I wandered into a huge street celebration in Times Square of Kosovo's declaration of independence, then a pretty ugly counter-demonstration by Serbs against that independence. Today they had a couple blocks of Broadway blocked off for a protest of the Turkish slaughter of Armenians back before WW I, calling for a recognition of it as genocide, something both the US and UK governments refuse to do in deference to their alliance with Turkey. Wonder who will be marching the next time I visit...

Limbo down

Ha! Got another one! John Sayles is one of my favorite directors, and I'm particularly fond of his 1999 flick Limbo. It's not perfect, but like most of his work it is very much about a place and the people of that place. And in this case, the place is one that's real special to me, Southeast Alaska - Juneau, in particular, where I've visited many times and I have a bunch of friends and acquaintances (sadly, one less now). One of them even auditioned for a part. Sayles is known for using non-actors, probably for lack of budget in some cases. (She didn't get the part, though.) David Strathairn is excellent in this one, as he always is, and who knew Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio could sing so well?

But one thing I really get a kick out of with this film is loaning it out to people and then waiting for their reactions. Almost without exception, the ending leaves them wanting to kill me. And I chalked up another victim last week. A couple of coworkers watched it at home, and the report I got from one of them is that the other literally screamed about the ending. It's the gift that keeps on giving...

Shhhhhh...don't tell Crambo...

Yesterday while out running errands I satisfied another gustatory craving by picking up some ribs at Big Daddy's. If you're not familiar with this purveyor of excellent BBQ, get yourself to University and Dale some Saturday afternoon. It's in the old Abundant Bistro building. Last summer he was cooking and selling takeout out in the parking lot. Fans were afraid he'd close down for winter, but he moved inside. Still only open on Saturday, though, and take-out only.

But that's not what this post is about. While in the neighborhood I noticed a new Asian supermarket a few blocks north. It's on Pierce Butler, just north of Minnehaha and west of Dale. It's an odd looking place:

Super Foods/Golden Globe is more than a supermarket, though. It has a sizeable grocery store with the usual suspects: bulk versions of Asian stuff, a small produce section, and a seafood/butcher shop with such delicacies as piles of chicken feet, fresh pig uterus, and a lot of fish. United Noodles in Minneapolis is bigger, better, and more comprehensive. But Golden Globe is two other businesses. It's an indoor mall of vendors carrying everything from fresh veggies to Hmong video and music to clothing. And of greatest interest to me, it is a food court full of stands of authentic-looking fresh-cooked SE Asian food. Pho is standard at many of the stands, as are giant chicken wings and smoked meats. This calls for a lunch run from the office some day soon!

Now what does Crambo have to do with this? Simple. There was an unfortunately worded sign on the grocery shelves which struck me as something she would snap a photo of (obligatory warning before you click on that link: mildly NSFW due to language).

What's Greek, round, and square?

Been running into things from my past lately (see the earlier post about old rock). The newest is an old comfort food of mine.

I grew up in a small college town in Missouri, then lived and worked in a larger college town. Both of them had pizza joints who made a style of pizza I've found nowhere else and have been craving for years. There's a great discussion of regional styles of pizza at this site. What it calls Midwest-style is probably closest to what we called Greek pizza back there. Definitely not to be confused with the New England Greek-style described on that page - we called it Greek only because the folks who ran the pizza joints were Greek. And most definitely not the St. Louis-style, which uses a processed cheese product on a crust which most closely resembles matzoh.

The canonical form of this pizza for me is the version made by Alex's Pizza Palace in Rolla (ignore the photo on that page - someone must have grabbed a stock photo when building the site). Nearly the same is the pizza made by Rome Pizzeria in Columbia. It has a fairly thin crust that stays pretty crisp, a thin but spicy sauce, good cheese, and it is cut into squares, not the traditional triangular clices, even though the pizzas are round. There's a distinctive flavor to the sausage I used to order on it as well.

A few weeks ago I stumbled across some comments on Chowhound that suggested a similar pizza could be found pretty close to the Twin Cities in Northfield. I've been itching to check it out, and last night I drove down for dinner at Basil's Pizza. And I was pleasantly surprised! I got sausage pizza, just as I used to order. It was damned close to what I remembered and have been craving for all these years. The sausage was dead on, as were the sauce and cheese. The crust was pretty close. It looked like the same, had the same texture, and was cut the same way. Just didn't taste quite the same - it was kind of bland compared to my memory, and the outer rim wasn't hand-braided as I recall. Definitely similar enough to go back for more, and a whole lot closer than central Missouri.

Now here's the interesting thing I found while researching. There may be some common ancestry between Basil's and the Missouri pizza places. Check this out. In the late 50s a couple of Greek guys had a pizza joint in Duluth. They split up when one of them couldn't take the cold. He moved to Jefferson City, Missouri, between Rolla and Columbia, and opened a Greek Pizza joint called Arris' Pizza Palace. The other guy moved to Northfield and started what is now Basil's. Now I just have to find a connection between Arris, Alex, and the Rome Pizzeria.

Blu-what?

We'll find out if Coolleen is reading along now... I picked up this today. Very impressive. I just have to find 10 hours to watch it now!

Expelled Exposed

Just saw the first commercials I've seen for Expelled, the creationist propaganda flick. Strange marketing approach - they're advertising it on The Daily Show, which is about as unlikely an audience as I can think of for their bullshit. The is the perfect excuse to post a link to Expelled Exposed, a site devoted to critiquing and debunking the movie.

Out on the Peninsula

Ever since it opened, at least a year ago I've been wanting to try the food at Peninsula, which bills itself as the best Malaysian food in the Twin Cities. Off the top of my head, I can't think of another Malaysian restaurant here, so they're probably safe in that claim. But every time I was in the neighborhood (Eat Street) I always ended up going to my favorite comfort food place down the block. Finally last weekend I made it there with Radio Girl and two of her neighbors. I'll be going back...

We started out with a couple of appetizers which were the weakest items we tried. I ordered the roti canai, a flat bread. This version is very thin and stretchy with minimal flavor, not at all crispy despite the description on the menu, and folded up into a fancy shape like napkin folding. It came with a curry dipping sauce made with potatoes and chicken, a chunk of each in the bowl. The sauce was tasty enough. The second started was some form of eggroll I found unappealing due to the soggy filling.

The four main courses were quite an improvement and we passed them around to share. Radio Girl ordered the Spicy Golden Tofu, made with fried homemade tofu, veggies, egg, and a garlic sauce and served on a sizzling platter. She raved about it. I wasn't all that crazy about the custardy texture of the tofu, but that's just personal preference. I got the Pattaya Soft Shell Crab.  It was lightly battered and fried crisply, then served thin strips of bell pepper, onion,  chilies, and mango. Yummy, although the sauce was overly sweet to my taste.

One of the other guys ordered Spicy Lemon Grass Squid. Now we're moving up the ladder of excellence. Oh so tasty, the squid cooked just right so it didn't get tough, and enough heat to break a sweat on everyone's foreheads. But the star of the meal was the fourth and final item, the Crispy Onion Braised Duck. It was a good-sized half a duck, cooked to a very tender state in a savory sauce. This is what I'll go back for - I only got a taste of it, and I really want a full order for myself.

Service was helpful and prompt, and the room was not as noisy as I had heard it could be. Of course, it was a Sunday night, the crowd was light, and they had clearly hung sound-dampening  panels to the walls and ceiling which otherwise would have bounced noise around like crazy. It would be interesting to see how loud it gets when packed.

Hey, Joe

"Where you goin' with that gun in your hand?"

Joe Lieberman and reality have not been close friends for some time now, but he really hiked off the trail today in his stroking of Gen. David Petraeus and U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker in the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing:

Hey, let's be honest about this: The Iraqi political leadership has achieved a lot more political reconciliation and progress since September than the American political leadership has. So we've got to give some credit for that.

Hmmm...yeah, there's gunfire, mortar fire, and rockets flying all over Washington, DC, these days. Unlike peaceful, reconciled Baghdad...