The best dim sum

On Father's Day, my friends and I went to Elite Restaurant in Monterey Park, CA. Because of the holiday, we had to wait two hours for our large party to get seated. By the time we sat down, we were all faint and starving. We ordered in a huge rush and swallowed everything that came to the table with gusto. It was so delicious. Shrimp dumplings with two big real whole shrimp inside that did not tast chewy. Rice crepes filled with fried dough (something I never liked as a kid), stuffed with shrimp- amazing! The dough was perfectly fried, a touch sweet, and complimented the shrimp well. Ok, I'm sorry I don't have a shot of any of the dim sum we gulped down during this meal but I swear it's got to be the best dim sum I've ever had in the US. Full disclosure: I'm not a big fan of dim sum (I'm easily sketched out by ground meat) and I found myself really loving this place, against all odds. Everything we ordered was cleaned right off the plate. Try it for yourself.

Eat Drink Be Merry has excellent photos if you want to get a better idea of what the dishes look like.

Elite Restaurant
700 S. Atlantic Blvd.
Monterey Park, CA 91754
(626) 282-9998

(Mags and Tata, after the meal.)

New Ikea storage jars

I'm digging these new celeber jars from Ikea that are ceramic with acacia wood rimmed see-through lids. They look like the perfect solution to my growing baking needs.

(image from Ikea)

Benefit Edition for the Lams of Ludlow Street

One of the most interesting shows I've seen this year has to have been Thomas Holton's Lams of Ludlow Street at the Sasha Wolf Gallery.

I found out from Nina's Lams of Ludlow post yesterday about the situation with the Lam famliy. The details are here from a post on What's the Jackonory?

"As you may or may not know, I photographed a Chinese family from 2002-2005 for a project called 'The Lams of Ludlow Street'. Beyond the remarkable publicity the work has gotten the past year or so, the Lams mean so much more tome than any professional accomplishments. I learned a lot about myself both personally and creatively and see the Lams as family. On Tuesday, June 14th, there was an electrical fire in the walls and the stairwell and the roof of their building on Ludlow Street caught on fire. The family made it out of the building via the fire escape and are now safe and sound, if not a little shaken up. The fire was caught early but their apartment, the 5th floor and the roof took a lot of structural,water and smoke damage. The space is not completely destroyed but the building is currently closed for inspection and the Lams are in a Red Cross secured apartment on West 129th street. The next step is between the landlord and the NYC Building Inspectors as they assess the building to see if its needs to be completely rebuilt or if only the5th floor apartments and roof should be repaired. This is not a new building and this will probably takes years judging by how long these things seem to take. In the meantime, The Lams have this Red Cross space for only six months before they need to find a new home for themselves.

Regardless of what happens with the Ludlow Street building, the likelihood that they will ever live there again is pretty small since they will need a new home soon and perhaps permanently. I am contacting you today to let you know that I will be selling a limited 'benefit' edition print of the project with all the proceeds going to the Lams as they rebuild their lives. The print will be a color 11x14 C-Print for $175 for one with discount rates increasing as the number of prints bought increases. Please contact me directly at thomas@thomasholton.com or call to buy some prints the help the Lams."

Take a look at Thomas' site and email him directly thomas@thomasholton.com.

(photo from Thomas' site)

In Our Dreams opens tonight!

This is a bit last minute but for those of you who can make it, check out the In Our Dreams show at Sasha Wolf Gallery opening tonight from 6-8pm. I won't be able to make it but have a really good reason why (I'm dogsitting for Lulu!)



(image from Sasha Wolf Gallery)

How to get the best views of the Waterfalls

You've heard about the waterfalls designed by Olafur Eliasson that are now happpening around lower Manhattan, right? Well I rounded up some tips for viewing them.

The Gothamist has a list of where the best sites are for viewing (yes, they've actually done the job for me.)
The Circle Line has a 30 min. Waterfall Tour that you can catch from the South St. Seaport.
Or, you can always hire a water taxi to check out the sites.

The details:
June 26- October 13, 2008
Daily 7am-10pm, except Tues. and Thurs. 9am-10pm
The New York City Waterfalls will be lit after sunset

Fish tacos

I'm off to eat lots and lots of fish tacos in LA!

(here's a guide to chasing the perfect taco in California from the NYTimes.)

Rock the Vote!

This is a really, really important election year. Lots of issues are at stake. Are you registered to vote? To check if you are registered to vote at your current address go to Vote Poke. To register to vote or to make changes (like your address) go to Rock the Vote.

Strawberries and rhubarbs

I'm picking up some strawberries and rhubarbs tonight from my CSA. I found this simple strawberry rhubarb muffin recipe online. I'm going to try it tonight.

The Nonchalant Mom

The June issue of Domino Magazine features the RI home of Carina Schott of Nonchalant Mom (I will have to shop here as soon as I produce some kids). Oh my! I want to pack up and move to Rhode Island, right away, right into her house! They have a great modernist house, good light, outdoor space, and most importantly, a POOL! It's to die for. . . Check out the tour right here.

(photos from Domino Magazine by Melanie Acevedo)

Back it up

With the heat wave outside, my computer fans whirling at double speed, and a flood at work, I was thinking hard about my files and how at risk they are. I store everything on Lacie drives and back them up every so often, but not often enough. So I purchased the ChronoSync software and started running it. I would love to store the files offsite, online, but that's currently not affordable for me. So this will be the best bet for now. Safe enough. Do you back up your files? What do you use?

The weight of Martha Stewart

This morning, the center shelf of my Ikea LACK bookcase collapsed. I guess it was the weight of all my Martha Stewart Magazines. Then I saw the Wiz Wharton Sneak Peak on Design Sponge and fell in love with the various vintage shelving systems she has in her home.

Weber from Denmark


Poul Cadovius Royal Shelving System


What should I do? (I've already emailed IKEA to see if I can get a replacement shelf instead of having to purchase another bookcase.) If I have to buy something else, I'd love to get something like Wiz'.

(images from Design Sponge)

Perforated

I picked up these super soft new shoes at a stoop sale in the West Village for a bargain. I'm wearing them today- so far, so good.

Saturday review

On Saturday morning while I was waiting on Fulton Landing for my companions to come, I decided to read a magazine to pass the time. It was about 10AM. 5 minutes passed and I realized that something gross was happening. . . The magazine was melting on my lap! Gross! It was the first day of the heat wave in NY, I had tons of sunblock on, and then some magazine goo on top of that. Well, the rest of the day turned out fantastic, and I'm glad I got to hang with my two favorite little girls, Camille and Juiszelle.

Here's a shot of the telectroscope against the Brooklyn Bridge.



The David Byrne Installation downtown.



We ended up having lunch on Stone St, which had a bunch of cute restaurants and outdoor seating areas on a cobblestone street.



My super fun companions.



(As a bonus, we also walked across the Brooklyn Bridge.)

My greens!

Yesterday after work, my Mom and I went by the local church to pick up the season's first bounty from our CSA. There was a band playing and to my surprise, tons of kids! They were all enjoying themselves, dancing to the music.





A beautiful blooming tree outside the church.




We each had one of these delicious mini (less guilt) lemon cupcakes.



When we got home we made a Spring greens pesto with the arugula and spinach, along with some cashews, pine nuts, garlic, parmesan, and cherry tomatoes that we had on hand.



It turned out superb. (Can I say that about my own cooking?)

Happenings around town

There are two installation pieces up right now that I'd like to see.



The David Byrne Installation seems really cool. (via Shane.)

And Nina intrigued me with her mention of the telectroscope on the Brooklyn waterfront that is ending June 15th.

And don't forget, the waterfalls are coming!

"The New York City Waterfalls, a major new work of public art by internationally acclaimed artist Olafur Eliasson, will be on view in New York's East River from June 26th through October 13th 2008. Commissioned by Public Art Fund, the project consists of four monumental, man-made waterfalls temporarily installed at sites along the waterfront in Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Governors Island: one on the Brooklyn anchorage of the Brooklyn Bridge, one between Piers 4 and 5 below the Brooklyn Heights Promenade, one in Lower Manhattan at Pier 35 north of the Manhattan Bridge, and one on the north shore of Governors Island. The 90- to 120-foot-tall Waterfalls are erected on the shoreline and have been designed to protect water quality and aquatic life. They will operate from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., seven days a week, and will be lit after sunset."

(image from Creative Time)

Ugh!

I just figured out that I'm going to miss the Renegade Craft Fair in Brooklyn this year because I'll be in LA! Well, if you can make it, be sure to take some photos and let kme know how it went.

This year's event will be held June 14 + 15 from 11am - 7pm at the McCarren Park Pool!

You can see some of my photos from last year, right here.

I want my own string of pearls

Ever since I saw this photo on Jeana's blog, I've been thinking about where I could find my own string of pearls.

(photo courtesy of Jeana)

Lemon-glazed candied-ginger cookies

I made this yummy lemon-glazed candied-ginger cookie recipe twice in the last week. I would add more candied ginger in the cookie, decrease the amount of sugar, and replace the water with lemon juice for more punch in the glaze.

(image from Martha Stewart Living.)

My veggies are coming!

I'm super duper excited that my very first farmshare of veggies from farmspot is coming tomorrow! Greens all weekend. I have to start planning my salads out.

No such luck

I'm not having any luck posting photos today. I will save the posts and try again tomorrow.

Sources of inspiration

This is the state I found my sister's car in on Friday morning whaen I went to move the car. It was parked across the street from my building, near a corner.



Needless to say, the whole day was spent with my sister filling out police forms and getting the car to a place for inspection and repair work. She was amazingly graceful about the whole incident. It totally drained me out. While standing around on the corner and waiting for the police to show up, I looked up toward our building and noticed that our 4th floor neighbors had window boxes in three of their windows. I had been meaning to get basil plants for the summer, so on Saturday, I went to home depot and got some planters and basil plants and potted them. My Home Depot was out of all of their window boxes so I ended up buying three ceramic ones and wired them to the window sill for safety.



I'm so glad I got these babies. Everytime I look out the window, I see a bit of green and smile.


I also got a nice aloe plant for my bedroom.