IF & L

This space at 74 Orchard Street has housed three restaurants since I first moved into the neighborhood 6 years ago.  An Italian place which was kind of boring, a South African place called Saffa which I had high hopes for, but never took off, the most recent incarnation of this space is: Interstate Food and Liquor.

As you can see from the pictures below the space is long and narrow and high, a real design challenge, but of the three restaurants so far this one has managed to make the space the most inviting.

The easy to like American Bar and Grill meets diner menu also help make this place very accessible and when you add in that this familiar comfort food is made from locally sourced and organic raw materials I feel like three might just be the lucky number for this new comer.

Can't wait to eat here, will report back later, with more on my dinning experience

Things To Do in the Cold Darkness Ahead

Can I just tell you how depressing it is to me that today felt like winter and by 6:30 pm as I type this, it is dark out.

We should be able to hibernate like bears, it's a perfectly reasonable response, think it about it, you get a nice long sleep, you avoid the dreary long dark cold months and when you wake up you've shed lots of weight and its warm and sunny!

To pass the dark hours I have given my self many projects, well some of them were given to me like writing a proposal for a cookbook. Ugh. Love the idea of writing a cookbook, but the self promotional aspect of writing text for marketing people is so not my thing. Nonetheless it needs to be done and it is giving me a good sense of what kind of cookbooks are out there and where I might be able to find a niche. Although in a world filled with cookbooks it's a challenge.

I'm leaning towards the: urban, organic, local, sustainable, tasty, simple, eco-minded, politically astute, food activist, fun, Burma loving, New York focused, gay, lower east side with aspirations of urban homesteading (as much as that's possible in an apartment on the 14th floor) angle. What do you think?

Maybe I should make this a contest. The first person to be able to take the last paragraph into one catchy sentence gets an urbanfoodguy home cooked meal!

OK Go!

Then there are the cooking projects: Grape Ice Cream with Ice Wine - don't tell anyone - I want it to be my recipe claim to fame, just like Anne Rosenzweig's Lobster Club.

Sourdough starter, that's right by Sunday I will never have to buy yeast in little packages again if this little chemistry experiment works out. I have my doubts it will, but I am trying to be optimistic, it just seems so weird to me that yeast floats around and if you add water to flour and let it sit around for a while you can make bread with it? More on that later.

Walking, walking is very important to me, I try to walk at least 5 miles every day. Mostly my goal is the Union Square market, but I often meander off course. I love to walk around the East Village and the Lower East Side and see what's new. These days the southern reaches (from Grand to Canal) of Ludlow and Orchard are really hopping, economic downturn be damned!

74 Orchard Street has had several restaurants in it over the 4 years we have lived here, none of them have fared very well. The latest incarnation is Saffa 212-260-5317 (the site isn't up yet, hopefully soon). It's a South African restaurant and looks like it has what it takes to make this odd shaped room a hit (see picture above). I've never had South African food, so I'm excited to try it out.

Cooking classes, as the Brooklyn Kitchen people labor to get their new three kitchen and new store space open by November they announced a rockin' list of cooking classes pickle making with Bob McClure of McClures Pickles (love them and their mustard too!) . Kombuchaman teaches yo how to make Kombucha, Louisa Shafia is doing a class on Persian Food and the one I signed up for: Nathan Leamy's class on Sourdough Bread making!

Speaking of busy, I have Brussels Sprouts to de-stalk and a concord grape pie to bake!

The great thing about baking is how warm and cozy it is by the oven. The wine helps as well.

Bon Appetite!

Aung San Suu Kyi to Be Sentenced Monday

Here is the text of the latest email from the U.S campaign for Burma.

If you haven't signed the petition please I urge you to do so.

Next Tuesday, August 11th, Burma's military dictator Than Shwe will decide the fate of Aung San Suu Kyi. It is likely that the decision will take place late Monday night according to United States time.

While we don't know exactly what will happen, one thing is certain: the regime wants to keep Aung San Suu Kyi out of Burma's political future.

We wanted to share with you this press release we sent out yesterday -- we hope that Suu Kyi's verdict garners a great deal of media attention (see below).

Most importantly, we want the world to take concrete action. If you haven't yet, please sign our new petition to the United States and United Kingdom's ambassadors to the United Nations. If you have already, take some time to ask your friends to sign the petition.

Sincerely,

Jeremy Woodrum

================
PRESS RELEASE:

August 5th, 2008

Verdict Due: World's Only Imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize Recipient to be Sentenced In Six Days

Desmond Tutu Calls for UN Security Council to Take Action

Contact: Jeremy Woodrum (202) 246-7924

(Washington, DC) On Tuesday, August 11th, Burma's military regime will issue a verdict against the leader of the Southeast Asian country's democracy movement, Nobel Peace Prize recipient Aung San Suu Kyi.

If the military regime continues to keep her locked behind bars, it is likely that focus will shift to the United Nations Security Council, where Burma remains on the permanent agenda.

Human rights groups throughout the world are pressing for the Council to adopt a global arms embargo on the military regime, as well as an official investigation into crimes against humanity committed under miltary rule.

"Many world leaders have called for change in Burma, but now it is time to go beyond words and take concrete action at the UN Security Council," said Aung Din, Executive Director of the U.S. Campaign for Burma. "The world has many options, and with the United Kingdom and United States serving as President of the Security Council in August and September, there is an unparalleled opportunity for action."

South Africa's Nobel Peace Prize recipient Desmond Tutu called for specific measures by the UN Security Council in a recent opinion piece in the United Kingdom's Guardian newspaper, writing that

"Burma's generals are criminals, and must be treated as such. Than Shwe should be held accountable for abominable atrocities: his soldiers rape ethnic women and children, they torture, mutilate and murder at will. In eastern Burma, more than 3,300 ethnic villages have been destroyed, more than in Darfur. Civilians are deliberately targeted and shot on sight. The UN must establish a commission of inquiry, with a view to compiling evidence for prosecution. Failure to do so amounts to complicity with these crimes."

Suu Kyi was put on trial after an American man, John Yettaw, swam across the lake behind her home and broke in her house, where she was being held under house arrest for the past 6 years. Yettaw said he had a "vision" that Suu Kyi would be assassinated and wanted to warn her. Even though she asked Yettaw to leave, the Burmese regime has ridiculously blamed Suu Kyi for the man breaking into her home, and charged her with breaking the terms of her house arrest.

Suu Kyi narrowly survived an assassination attempt by the military regime in May 2003, when dozens of her party members were beaten to death by regime thugs.

Under the Burmese military regime's interpretation of its own laws, Suu Kyi's house arrest was coming to an end this year, and while most international observers believe the regime was not going to release her anyway, the break-in by Yettaw provided the regime the pretext it sought to keep her locked up.

Suu Kyi's ongoing house arrest had already been ruled illegal under both Burmese and international law by the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has called the trial "outrageous".

Burma's military regime has just completed a new constitution that guarantees military rule for decades to come, but also allows an extremely circumscribed election to be held in 2010. It is believed that even though the military will maintain complete control after the election, the regime wants to stop Suu Kyi from supporting any candidates. The constitution was written to bar her from running for office, with a clause preventing anyone who has children living abroad from participation (Suu Kyi's children live overseas).

Suu Kyi was originally due to be sentenced on Friday, July 31st but the military regime moved the date, it is believed, in part to diminish international media coverage of the sentence. At the same time, the military regime often chooses dates which are considered to be "lucky" for the head of the regime, Than Shwe, which includes the number 11. Thus, the date August 11th is relevant. In a recent example of the use of numbers, the regime sentenced leading dissident Min Ko Naing on November 11th, 2007 with a sentence of 65 years (6 + 5 = 11). The military regime also used the number 11 in its choice of dates to move its capitol city from Rangoon to Naypitaw in 2005, with the Washington Times reporting the move commenced on "November 11th, 2005, at 11 a.m. in 1,100 trucks carrying 11 government ministries".

"While the military regime may use numerology to choose dates for major decisions, there is no evidence to suggest that the underlying decisions themselves are influenced by numerology or superstition," said Aung Din. "Than Shwe's military regime has acted with cold, calculated brutality in attempting to crush Burma's democracy movement," which is comprised of students, Buddhist monks, and members of Suu Kyi's political party the National League for Democracy, added Aung Din.

Aung San Suu Kyi has spent nearly 14 of the past 20 years under house arrest and in prison. Most Burmese people see her in a similar vein as South African's view Nelson Mandela, as the rightful leader and moral compass of the nation. Yet, she is not just an admired human rights leader, she is the rightful leader of Burma. In 1990, she led a political party, the National League for Democracy, to win 82% of the seats in parliament during Burma's first election in decades. Military affiliated parties won only 10 seats in parliament, a stunning rebuke to military rule.

Suu Kyi was incarcerated before the election, but her party still coasted to a landslide victory. The Burmese regime refused to recognize the election results, locking up members of parliament and imprisoning (currently) over 2,100 political prisoners.

Suu Kyi counts among her supporters numerous Nobel Peace Prize recipients, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Hollywood actors Anjelica Huston, Jim Carrey, Eric Szmanda, Walter Koenig, and Maggie Q, musicians Ani DiFranco, Damien Rice, R.E.M., and U2, and over 100 former presidents and prime ministers throughout the world.

Her writing has invigorated a vibrant international movement calling for change in Burma, and sustained an active democracy movement inside Burma, despite overwhelming government pressure.

In July, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon traveled to Burma to seek the release of Suu Kyi, but in a major snub Than Shwe refused to allow him to meet the Nobel laureate.

There is ample evidence for action on Burma at the Security Council. A recent report by Harvard Law School's International Human Rights Law Clinic found that the United Nations is sitting on evidence showing that the military regime has carried out serious crimes against humanity and war crimes in Burma, including the destruction of as many villages as in the Darfur region of Sudan.

At the same time, the regime has recruited tens of thousands of child soldiers, forced 1.5 million people to flee their homes as refugees and internally displaced, and carried out a widespread campaign of rape against ethnic minority women under a system of impunity. 55 members of the U.S. Congress, led by Congressmen Joe Crowley (D-NY) and Don Manzullo (R-IL) recently sent a letter to President Obama urging him to pursue an official investigation into Burma by the UN Security Council -- the first step toward the creation of an international criminal tribunal or a referral to the International Criminal Court that would try military leaders for crimes against humanity. U.K. Ambassador John Sawers serves as President of the UN Security Council in August. U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice holds the same position in September. ##

Support 1991 Nobel Peace Prize recipient Aung San Suu Kyi and the struggle for freedom and democracy in Burma: Become a member of the U.S. Campaign for Burma. Or, make a tax-deductible donation today.