What I'm Reading

I'm a little slow getting to the best sellers, as this was first published in 2000. This is another pass-along from Barbara, and I am really enjoying it. A few laugh out loud moments. He writes the way he speaks so it's easy reading, and interesting too.

I think Bourdain lives in my neighborhood for three reasons: 1) On one of his shows, he featured this hole-in-the-wall place called Papaya King which is sort of an iconic NY place at 86th and Third that sells an odd combination of grilled hot dogs along with health drinks, the most popular of which is a papaya drink which has the consistency of a smoothie. They also have a pina colada (non-alcoholic) drink and a grape drink which I like. Haven't been there for a while. The hotdogs are great -- thin with a crackly skin that pops when you bite it on a very lightly toasted bun.



The second reason I think he lives in my neighborhood is that I actually saw him, with a little bag of produce, on a Sunday morning at the corner of 88th and Third waiting for the light to change. I was in a cab, going up Third Avenue, on the way to La Guardia on the way to Oshkosh. I remember thinking that I'd rather be back at the apartment waiting for Tony to return with the fresh mushrooms and shallots or whatever to make me the perfect omelet than to be on the way to Oshkosh.

And then, while reading the book today, he was talking about food safety, and he mentioned having seen a Chinese restaurant with a sign that said DISCOUNT SUSHI. And this place at the corner of 87th and First, a place, now closed, called Golden Woks  (woks plural, not one wok) had such a banner and I remember thinking gee, no thanks. What the hell is discount sushi?

I'll stick with a couple of hot dogs from Papaya King.