at the sign of The Pink Pig

The Last Of Barcelona: A Final Scrapbook

[Pigging by Wilfrid:  September 29, 2008]

Over the last few weeks, I've given you Hisop, Cinc Sentits, Rias de Galicia, Bar Mut, Paco Meralgo, Tapaç24, and a clutch of Granada restaurants.  Is that all? 

No: I ate between meals too.  And who could resist?

Café Boulud

[Pigging by Wilfrid:  September 29, 2008]

I go back a long way with this Upper East Side drop-in spot (as Daniel would have it); in a sense, to the very beginning.

It has been a bumpy ride since 2005.

Reading Barcelona II: Non-Fiction

[The Cunning Tower by Wilfrid:  September 29, 2008]

At the beginning of September, I celebrated a number of Barcelona novelists whose work is fairly easily found in English translation:  Eduardo Mendoza, Mercè Rodoreda and Manuel Vazquez Montalbán.

I wanted to supplement that with a handful of reading suggestions for anyone who wants a deeper knowledge of the city than that provided by Frommer's, Time Out or the Rough Guide.

Ashbery The Artist (And Winkfield Came Too)

[New York Peasant by Wilfrid:  September 29, 2008]

I hoped to review this show a couple of weeks ago, but the "appurtenances of daily life", as Ashbery would have it, got in the way.  There's still time, though - it closes October 4th - to enjoy the gallery debut of America's most honored living poet.

Looking For A Home: Ten Years Ago

[Pink Pig Time Machine by Wilfrid:  September 29, 2008]

My diary reveals that, between trips to Seattle, Vancouver and London, I was actually apartment-hunting ten years ago this week.  The lease up on my midtown eyrie, I'd learned that the owners had decided to move in themselves rather than renew.  So there I was...

Double Crown Hawks The Empire

[Pigging by Wilfrid: September 22, 2008]

The cavernous Bowery space which most recently housed Manahatta re-opened this week as an AvroKo-designed fantasia on the last days of the Raj --

-- not so much the jewel in Brad Farmerie's crown as an opportunity for the talented Public?Monday Room chef to sell a crowd-pleasing version of Asian-British fusion to the same cute, young and raucous crowd which has packed his Elizabeth Street flagship for years.

Van Gogh A Go-Go: MOMA

[New York Peasant by Wilfrid:  September 19, 2008]

"The Colors of the Night" is what MOMA calls this small fall show of about twenty Van Gogh paintings, and a couple of works on paper.  And it's a misnomer, frankly.

London - Vancouver - Seattle - London: Ten Years Ago

[Pink Pig Time Machine by Wilfrid:  September 22, 2008]

This is a good way to dry all the skin on your face and end up looking like a prune.  Zip back and forth between London and Seattle, and then back again to New York, over a period of just a few days.  I am amazed I found time to eat.

Braai: Manhattan South African

[Pigging by Wilfrid:  September 15, 2008]

All the best sources tell me that a braai is an Afrikaner barbecue.  And I believe them.  After all, I've never been to South Africa, have known relatively few South Africans, and haven't knowingly eaten South African food before.

All of which disqualifies me from doing anything other than presenting a few impressions of dinner at this newcomer from the folks behind the nearby South African wine bar, Xai Xai.

From March To Grouse: Ten Years Ago

[Pink Pig Time Machine by Wilfrid:  September 15, 2008]

Bathos characterized the eventual failure of Wayne Nish and Joe Scalice's townhouse restaurant March.