Sinanation

I have never been a fan of the original New York pizza. I usually get the cheese and end up cleaning the extra grease on top of the slice. Hunger defies calories and I end up eating the huge warmed up triangle with no appreciation.  So no wonder I had to write about Waldy’s Wood-Fried Pizza in Chelsea at some point to say that this place is one of the best pizza joints I have been to in the city. Named after its owner Waldy Malouf and set between the 28th and 27th streets on 6th ave. (www.waldyspizza.com), this place flushes you with every detail of how a pizza place should be.

An original wood-burning oven warms up the room pushing out all the best scents from the pizzas it is baking. Naturally grown greens from basil to parsley are set on the right side on top of the extra wood stocked for the fire, ready to be cut and decorated on top of the crispy, thin crust pizza (or the pie as Waldy’s calls it). Different flavors of olive oil and spices accompany the greens. Necessity and simplicity finds sophistication in this place. You quickly realize that the food here is original.  Even the label describing the different sizes of the pies stand out with hand-drawn images of each size.

It is here that I leave the stressful 6th ave. traffic outside and feel as if I steeped into a warm chalet ready to be fed after a long day in the winter cold. I order my favorite pie with roasted eggplant, zucchini and olives with (unbelievably) nothing extra to add and take it to go (thinking I should stay in one day).

It is tragic that Waldy’s’ delivery area is so small that most of the time I end up ordering Domino’s, not finding the will to walk down to the shop. I have been pushing the cooks to expand the area, but haven’t been successful so far. Who knows one day I might actually erase Domino’s number from my contact list and become a fulltime Waldy’s customer.

This apartment is located right on Ave. Foch, minutes away from the Arc de Triomphe and Champs-Elysees. Set on two floors, it comes with multiple balconies overlooking the avenue and 4 bedrooms.

The price tag is close to USD 10m.

I surrender to Ecuador’s most beloved chef Deniz Aksoy for the best home-cooked steak fajita I have ever eaten. Here are the ingredients (for 2):

• 1.5 (0.7 kg) pounds of skirt steak
• 3 small cloves of garlic, grated
• 1/2 red onion, sliced thinly
• 1/2 white onion, sliced thinly
• 1 table spoon of paprika
• 1 table spoon of cumin
• 1 lime, squeezed
• 3 table spoons of soy sauce
• Ground pepper and salt, to taste
• A splash of your favorite beer
• The Secret Polanco ingredient

Cut the skirt steak thinly after getting rid of excess fat. Put everything in a bowl and mix them well with your bare hands. Cover the top and put in the refrigerator. Let stand a few hours to get the best results from marinating.

Cook the onions first in a heated pan. Once they are caramelized, throw in the steak.

Serve with heated corn tortillas, sour cream, grated cheddar cheese and guacamole.

This match will never end unless a stronger opponent pops out. One punch after the other, the two gadgets will come back with greater powers and a bigger audience. As a user of both phones, who has finally given into BlackBerry, I wish I could choose one over the other. I can’t. I miss the iPhone more than ever, but at the same time I can’t let go of the BlackBerry. Maybe with this post I can find some peace in my dilemma. Here are my bests & worsts for each phone:

iPhone:

• Great packaging (like all the other Apple products). Once you open the box you feel like you have just become an owner of something really precious and exclusive.
• The best technological partner to a Mac owner. From pictures, upgrades to music, everything is so easily taken care of on iTunes.
• Amazing downloads from unit converters to weather. I never realized how easy things were before I switched to BB.
• Great calendar and notification system.

• Writing text messages is a disaster. You fingers are never too thin to avoid pressing two letters at the same time and on top of that the phone keeps correcting your foreign language with English. For example: your Turkish “ama”s (“but” in English) annoyingly change into “AMA” for the American Medical Association.
• Being up-to-date with e-mails is though as you are required to manually update your inbox during each visit.
• The speaker is not loud enough to properly hear the person on the other side (especially in a noisy city like New York).

BlackBerry:

• BB Messenger (given that most of your network uses a BB). I guess it needs no introduction or pampering.
• Amazing with e-mails. You are completely in touch and up-to-date with your network globally from business associates to friends.
• Loud enough speaker to hear even if you are out on a loud street.
• Fast mapping and Internet search with Google.
• Easy and fast typing (in any language).

• Too many clicks to get from one place to another. This is really hard for a long time iPhone user.
• Not many good downloads to personalize the phone to your needs.
• Bad camera.
• Calculator is not user-friendly at all.
• I am still intimated to plug the BB to my Mac.

My conclusion? The winner in this case can not definitely be determined by the fighters, but the audience. Do you prefer to have an artistic gadget that gives you so much room to personalize or a generic device that will ultimately connect you with the world faster and cheaper than you can ever imagine?

I hope you can make a better judgment than I did.

I thought the Irish were only known for their lagers. Maybe I was mistaken. Lily O’Brien’s, named after the founder’s daughter, is an Irish chocolate shop that made its way across the ocean into Manhattan. The shop, located on 40th street between 5th and 6th Avenues, overlooks the Bryant Park. If you are around the area, I definitely recommend you stop by for the hot chocolate and the shortcake milk chocolate clusters. Take everything to go and enjoy them in the park (weather permitting).

Name: Ahmet Keyman

Nickname: Amo, Anahtar Cocuk (Key kid)

Notable Appearance: Huge feet, hairless face with a naturally unnatural-looking nose and shiny white teeth. A unique walking style resembling the letter V, leading the watchers to think he could be a street rapper getting ready to dance to an incredible beat

Can’t do without: Money clips, fur hoodies, Audemars Piguet, Rolex, wrist watches, cuff links, large cigars, Winning 11, Fenerbahce, soccer, sushi, Blackberry, white Adidas sneakers, hip hop, sunglasses, foot massage, American Apparel, Gucci, the gym, Entourage, Casa Aurelio, Chinese Contemporary Art focused on scary men portraits, Fogo de Chao Chicago, Shanghai Tang

Hobbies: Clubbing, celebrity hunting, working out, traveling

Notable Weakness: Minimal music, spelling in Turkish, eating healthy, Cine5 Cable Network

Favorite Quote: “Ummmmmm”

Last Seen: The Box NYC, Anjelique Istanbul, Nobu Uptown NYC, Avenue NYC, Zurich, South of France, South of Turkey, London, Casa Aurelio Zurich, Ulus 29, Chicago, Lest Ottomans Istanbul

We visited the 12th Annual Chocolate Show at the Metropolitan Pavilion in New York last Sunday. It was a 3-day event running from October 30th until November 1st. To tell you honestly, I wasn’t aware of a chocolate show until I visited this one. I now know how huge it is, running in multiple cities every year from New York to Moscow. You  are required to buy tickets to attend, but once inside you realize that it is worth every dime. Numerous chocolate shops open up small booths at this event, giving out free samples of their delicious products.  Some charge a small amount for the tasting of extraordinary deserts such as Lily O’Brien’s chocolate fondue fountain. Visitors also have the opportunity to buy the chocolate they like (generally with cash, but some shops take credit cards).

Some fun facts from the program book we received:

• Chocolate manufacturers consume 40% of world’s almonds, 20% of the peanuts and 8% of the sugar.
• Chocolate does not cause acne (contrary to popular belief)  and is low in caffeine.

My three favorites from the show:

• Chocolatier Mathez’s Mon Ami truffles. This is simply the best truffle I have ever tasted. It is marketed under the slogan “No Chewing Allowed!” by the 75 years-old family-owned chocolatier. It is messy, but literally melts in your mouth. The company was wise enough to open up a seperate online store for these goodies at www.nochewingallowed.com. Remember to keep it in cool place (aka the fridge). I didn’t and the box turned into a jar of Nutella.

• Peanut Butter & Co’s Cinnamon Raisin Swirl and Dark Chocolate Dreams. I am not a huge peanut butter fan, but I could change my mind after tasting these two flavors. They can be found at the company’s NYC store (240 Sulliwan St. (between Bleecker & West 3rd) and online at www.ilovepeanutbutter.com

• Berkshire Bark Chocolate’s White Lightning. Ingredients include white chocolate, roasted cashews, crystallized ginger and lemon zest, making it the best white chocolate I have tasted so far. Sale locations are available at www.berkshirebark.com

Ianeq is a Swiss electronica-focused DJ/producer, highly influenced by hip hop. As I found out, he has played in numerous clubs from Paris to London and set up his own studio, Square Meal, in 2001. He is based in Berlin and has been working on his Quarion debut album. I first became aware of his mixes on SoundCloud. I am big fan of deep vocal house and Ianeq’s Quarion is mainly focused on that.

I first saw this building as the penthouse residence of Russel Crowe in the movie “A Good Year”. I believe it came up again in “Match Point”. Both of the units were equally impressive. Set on the top floor, they are washed with light and filled with expansive river and city views through their curved floor-to-ceiling windows.

Located right across from Chelsea on the other side of the Thames, Albion Riverside was designed by the famous architect Norman Foster and was completed in 2003. Foster is well-know for his office building designs such The Gherkin in London and The Hearst Tower in New York. So, it is no wonder that Albion is mostly too cool to warm up to. Its ultra-modern look is completed with a glass/metal exterior and light tones of gray.

The first two floors of the 11-story building are dedicated to restaurants and shops. The top floor houses 12 duplex penthouses. 2 bedroom apartments start around USD 3m with penthouses reaching close to USD 20m. Each floor houses approximately 26 individual units.

Buy “Foster 40: Projects / Themes” on Amazon to learn more about the architect’s vision and most famous projects.

Last updated on 11 Jan 2011

Like many other urban cities, Istanbul is dressed up with numerous popular night spots. One thing that separates the city from its other rivals is its seasonal restaurant-to-nightclub culture. Similar to European cities, Istanbul welcomes the idea of having popular high-class restaurants turn into nightclubs after dinner. The summers are spent in open air right next to the Bosphorus. The colder weather pushes the night scene indoors to hilltops overlooking the city. Dress code is business casual with dark sneakers or dress shoes for guys and elegant cocktail dresses/outfits with combed hair and make-up for girls. Entrance is guaranteed with dinner reservation and will be much easier with local friends if it is after hours. Table service is not recommended unless you are a large group. Do not forget that sea travel (with water taxi) is a much better travel option during spring and summer for the seaside clubs. You will avoid hours of traffic and crowded roadside entrances.

Here are a few of the most popular Istanbul nightclubs:

Anjelique
Set in a multi-floored villa right next to the Bosphrus in Ortaköy, Anjelique is known for its deep house music. Starting in 2009, its management, the Doors Group, opened up the lower floor to oldies and pop music lovers. Also known as a popular dinner spot, Anjelique is one of the most frequented nightclubs in the city during summer.

Reina

What makes Reina so special is how it is managed as a full-service entertainment wonder. It is one of the largest open-air nightclubs built seaside below the European leg of the Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge. It houses multiple restaurants during summer from Turkish to Chinese cuisine, overlooking the dance floor in the center. Köşebaşı, Park Şamdan and Dragon are all recommended for dinner. Reina changes completely during winter. Multiple restaurants disappear. Everything packs up inside with only one restaurant, Reina, serving food. The nightclub heats up after dinner around midnight with mainly Turkish and foreign pop songs blasting through the large speakers surrounding the middle dance floor.

Ulus 29
Also known as one of the best Turkish restaurants in Istanbul, Ulus 29 overlooks the city from one of the highest hilltops. The restaurant and the club are separated by a short corridor. 29′s owners usually rent out a place right next to the Bosphorus for the 4-month summer season, which is equally enjoyable as the winter location. The music is a mix of oldies remixed and Turkish and foreign pop songs.

Bird
This tiny French/American bistro in Beyoğlu hit the tabloids towards the 2nd half of 2010. Not primarily for its delicious food, but its disco-style dinner setting and funky/socialite crowd. I can’t push you to go taste the food here when you have a few days in Istanbul because it is nothing extraordinary, but I can tell you that this is the place to be (especially from Thursday until Saturday) if you are looking to have dinner and let loose while doing it. Since Bird’s popularity tripled over the past few months, it is somewhat of a nightmare to get dinner reservations (which are mandatory). You need the mobile number of the owner and have to somewhat know her to get one of the few tables tucked inside her exposed-brick, simple but elegant bistro.

W Hotel

Opened in 2009, this international hotel quickly became a popular winter night spot for its Tuesday night parties. Right above the ground floor lobby, house music lovers gather to enjoy drinks in an extremely crowded scene with lots of familiar faces.

Nu Pera – Nu Teras (Nu Terrace)

This restaurant/bar located on the roof of a historic building overlooking the ancient side of Istanbul in Tepebaşı has been one of my favorite places for the summer of 2010. The restaurant, although disturbingly hot for dinner because of air-conditionless outside seating, serves delicious food from mini burgers to lamb chops. The bar becomes an amazingly fun and relax nightclub with great music (the best especially on the weekends). The dress code is expandable from linen pants, t-shirts to sport jackets and jeans. Girls are usually in fun easy-going cocktail dresses. You need to make a reservation for dinner, but should be fine for the bar after-hours if you have a lady to accompany you. Otherwise, entry with a few buddies and no girls could be tough without a table reservation.