Mrs. Dweezil Zappa's cam. Click "reload" to see if she's on. No nudity.

With just a few weeks left in 2002 I have after a 3rd stunning meal at Jewel Bako, decided to give it my #1. Each year we dine at three spots on the last few days of December. This years picks are a return to Fresh, Kai for the first time, and a long awaited meal at Honmura An (I have wanted to go for years but have sadly never made it, my food guru gives it one of the top 5 overall restaurants in NY over the last 20 years).

Top Restaurants 2002

NYCity
#1 Jewel Bako
#2 Lupa
#3 Jean Georges
#4 Grand Sichuan Int'l Midtown
#5 Felidia
#6 Union Pacific

El Mundo
#1 Da Guido (Piedmonte, Italy)
#2 Taubenkobel (Burgenland, Austria)
#3 Zur Rose (Sud Tyrol, Italy)
#4 L'Astrance (Paris)
#5 Temple Club (Siagon)
#6 Altwienerhof (Vienna)
#7 Locanda Dell Arco (Piedmonte, Italy)
#8 Les Tonnelles (Loire, France)
#9 Indochine (Siagon)
#10 Walter Bauer (Vienna)

Special Merit/No Particular Order
The Minnow, Veritas, Sistina,
Fresh, Holy Basil, Al Di La
Manducati's, Willi's Wine Bar (Paris)
Tomasso's, Gramercy Tavern, Picholine
Locanda Vini Olii, Al Ponte (Verona, Italy)
L'osteria del Vignaiolo (Piedmonte, Italy)
L'Oste Scuro (Verona, Italy)
Il Gattopardo, Jaglhof (Styria, Austria)
Weininger (Vienna), Loibnerhof (Wachau, Austria)
Zur Blauen Gans (Burgenland, Austria)

another great meal at Jewel Bako!! will go back in the spring, once a season is great, the summer trip had my favorite one fish (a mountain bass textured like silk), the fall meal overall was more interesting but not better than tonight, love this place.....last night at Aix was better than the first

modern drunkard magazine

anyone have a good bread pudding recipe? jeanne?

and stevie

Yesterday I sat around waiting for the phone company to send a repairman, and looks like tomorrow I'll be doing it again. Yesterday they restored the dial tone, but there's still a loud hum on the line. This happens on the average of once every 3 months. The phone poles behind my apt. are old and decrepit and whenever it snows (or the sun shines too hard) my phone goes out. They never really fix the problem. The repairman does some kind of patch and then the phone's OK for a while, then the cycle starts again. I'm supposed to sit and wait from 8 am to 7pm and if they don't show up (which they often don't) I go through the whole thing on another day. According to one of the repairmen, the company had several million marked for infrastructure repair and it all went to CEOs in the last merger. I totally believe it. Anyway, the company's name is VERIZON (stupid name--like a ten year old's idea of clever: "vertical + horizon"? gimme a break) and they SUCK.

Range Rover

A double helping of Wylie in today's Post. He and the new stove are featured (with photo) in a piece on favorite kitchen equipment, while the gossip column includes a tidbit about WD 50 opening "at the end of January."

noisome?

im working this one (truck driiver) Recomended

Trent-chant Commentary

Just when I thought I had this war-blogger thing figured out, 2nd generation neocon John Podhoretz comes along to explain what's really going on in cybersville. Makes you feel all warm and fuzzy and, you know, powerful, ha ha ha…

froogle your holiday shopping.

O

From the (extended) family:
Bird artist Jonathan Alderfer talks about the new edition of the National Geographic Field Guide.

nudie suits

for the first time in a long while i didnt have to work on a saturday so i took the time to cook, nap and be a couch potatoe......to get in the spirit of the holidays i watched the following 4 movies in a row 1) No Mans Land (Bosnian War), 2) Pearl Harbor (WW2), 3) Full Metal Jacket (Vietnam War), and 4) ???title?? CNN news team in (Iraq/Kuwait) War.....

bird blogger

robert redford's great op-ed on energy independence from monday's LA Times

New (to me) get your war on page.

Top Restaurants 2002 (NYC unless noted)
NYCity
#1 Lupa
#2 Jean Georges
#3 Jewel Bako
#4 Grand Sichuan Int'l Midtown
#5 Felidia
#6 Union Pacific

El Mundo
#1 Da Guido (Piedmonte, Italy)
#2 Taubenkobel (Burgenland, Austria)
#3 Zur Rose (Sud Tyrol, Italy)
#4 L'Astrance (Paris)
#5 Temple Club (Siagon)
#6 Altwienerhof (Vienna)
#7 Locanda Dell Arco (Piedmonte, Italy)
#8 Les Tonnelles (Loire, France)
#9 Indochine (Siagon)
#10 Walter Bauer (Vienna)

Special Merit/No Particular Order
The Minnow, Veritas, Sistina,
Fresh, Holy Basil, Al Di La
Manducati's, Willi's Wine Bar (Paris)
Tomasso's, Gramercy Tavern, Picholine
Locanda Vini Olii, Al Ponte (Verona, Italy)
L'osteria del Vignaiolo (Piedmonte, Italy)
L'Oste Scuro (Verona, Italy)
Il Gattopardo, Jaglhof (Styria, Austria)
Weininger (Vienna), Loibnerhof (Wachau, Austria)
Zur Blauen Gans (Burgenland, Austria)

Loibnerhof rocked as did Jaglhof in Styria but the last two nites were off the charts....Taubenkobel in Burgenland was one of the greatest wine/food/hotel experiences in my life and our finale at Altwienerhof in Vienna were the cellar was pristine was liquid heaven (the food was ok, the service slow, the clients seemed of the older and stuffier, but the wine made up for it, I have yet to experience such a purrfect set of wines)...

my friend bob said to go see : alex hay @ peter freeman 560 broadway #602 (till 12/21) "paintings of things like chicken wire, two sheets of toilet paper, the label from a cuban cigar ... and sculptures of oversized paper bags and a paper airplane. He basicly stopped making work in the late 60's when he moved arizona." (bob checked out our site extensively yesterday and may have recognized some of the contributers here including mr sustenance).

We are in the Wachau, we had some fine meals on the tour but the best is Bauer in Vienna (both wine and food), was excellent wine, service, food....Kornat is fresh fish, Steirereck is resting on past but fine wine and ok food, Wieninger Heurigen is not to be missed (fun room, some dishes super, nice wines at great prices)....we are off to Knoll family Loibnerhof.....

Souen Rocks, love that place...loaded up on tofu, brown rice, etc to help the upcoming "pig on pig wraped in pig with a side of fat tour"

HE'S back! New York Times restaurant critic William "Biff" Grimes, whose long leave from the paper sparked all kinds of dire rumors, will resume reviewing soon. His duties since last spring were handled by former $25-and-Under man Eric Asimov. Grimes, who was out "researching" the city's culinary history for a New York Public Library show he curated, was asked about his future during a panel discussion with top chefs at the library the other day. Beacon's Waldy Malouf asked, "So when are you coming back?" Grimes answered: "Soon - a couple of weeks."