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Tags: Best-Jewish-Delis-Map / Food Travel / Delis / Meg Ryan / Sandwiches / → All Tags

The Best Jewish Delis in the World:: Katz's in New York

When Shira Lazar went behind the counter at Schwartz's Deli in Montreal, it got us craving some overstuffed pastrami sandwiches and potato latkes with applesauce. So this week Jaunted is taking a look at the Best Jewish Delis in the World. Got your own suggestion for tasty goody delis? Let us know.

It won't be easy to determine which deli counters make the cut, but at least the first entry should be obvious. Katz's Deli on Manhattan's Lower East Side is by most accounts the oldest of New York's old-school delis still standing (it opened in 1888…a looooong time before LES got hip).

Today, Katz's attracts its fair share of tourist crowds (mostly because the interior was the setting for Meg Ryan's famous faux-orgasm scene in When Harry Met Sally), but somehow still hasn't lost an ounce of credibility among New Yorkers.

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Tags: Rental Cars / Zipcar / Drinking / Driving / → All Tags

The Cult of Car Sharing Grows at Zipcar Open Bar

There is only way to go about drinking and driving in New York City, and that is apparently the Zipcar Open Bar way. Kicking off a series of monthly Zipcar member parties last night on the Lower East Side, Zipcar invited its NYC-area posse to get together over the goodwill of car sharing and trade some road trip stories.

We, however, were most attracted by the promise of free drinks upon flashing your Zipcard at the bar and the offer of $75 in driving credit for you and a friend if they sign up then and there.

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Tags: Dunkin' Donuts Alternatives / Donuts / Dessert / Lower East Side / → All Tags

A Doughnut That Will Change the Way You Think About Doughnuts

The tiny Doughnut Plant storefront is hidden on one of the few still-old-school stretches of Manhattan's Lower East Side, set among housing projects, Jewish delis and Chinese groceries, rather than shiny new condos and frolicking hipsters. So you'd be forgiven if you expected this hole-in-the-wall bakery to be the kind of old-school place that only serves simple cake doughnuts, rather than the futuristic wonderland it really is.

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Tags: Flight of the Conchords / Flight-of-the-Conchords-Map / TV Set Travel / → All Tags

Where to Find NewZealandtown in New York...or Not

This week's episode opened with Bret and Jemaine playing a gig at the Bar and Grill on the Lower East Side at Houston and Attorney Streets. Yes, there is a street called Attorney Street here. And the actual establishment is called The Parkside Lounge which is located at 317 East Houston Street.

You can go here to watch variety acts or listen to Bluegrass music or attend a potluck dinner night. (Visit the MySpace page for more details. Or you could go to watch Bret and Jemaine play to a crowd of zero.

But really why would you want to do that when you can go visit NewZealandtown which is on the block between Little Italy and Chinatown, so says Prime Minister Brian. Actually locating NewZealandtown is quite difficult to do on a map and indeed it only takes up the space in front of a nail salon. Oh, and it was only up for one day.

But if you're really jonesing for some Kiwi action in NYC then we suggest hitting up the Kiwi Club of New York for some suggestions. Or you can just show up to their next Pub Night at the Galway Hooker on E. 36t street on Wednesday, March 11 at 7pm. Don't forget your hair gel. It makes you cool.

Related Stories:
· Parkside Lounge [Official Site]

Tags: Flight of the Conchords / Flight-of-the-Conchords-Map / TV Set Travel / → All Tags

Jemaine is a Victim of 'Garfunkeling'

With such a jam-packed Flight of the Conchords episode full of New Zealand jokes, celebrity impersonators, real-life celebrities, a Judas Priest-tribute video, a Korean karaoke love song and FOTC stalker/fan Mel, it was almost hard to pick out what we loved most about this episode--until Jemaine revealed he was engaging in some unwanted "Garfunkeling." Here's how it went down.

The ever-resourceful Murray obtained a gig for Bret and Jemaine as Simon and Garfunkel lookalikes. While the gig may not have gone so well in Mel's eyes, Jemaine did manage to snag a date with Karen, played by 24's Mary Jane Rajskub. On their first date to Alias Restaurant on Clinton Street, Karen is disappointed that Jemaine was not in costume. Ever one to please the ladies, he goes home to change into his Garfunkel gear. Later, when it's time for sexytime Karen won't let Jemaine remove his costume. And so begins the start of their sexual relationship or as she calls it "Garfunkeling."

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Tags: Top Chef Travel / Food Travel / Reality Television Travel / → All Tags

Leah Cooks Her Last Supper

Top Chef was down to the final five this week, and each chef'testant had to prepare a last supper chosen by a culinary god. Fabio aced it cooking roast chicken for Lydia Bastianich, Carla wowed Jacques Pepin with her perfect peas, but Leah couldn't impress Wylie Dufresne and was asked to pack her knives and leave.

We thought Leah's poached eggs and bacon looked pretty tasty, so we're wondering, what exactly did Wylie have in mind? So we checked out the menu at his molecular gastronomy super-kitchen, WD-50 on Clinton Street in New York and it looks like Leah just wasn't thinking small enough.

Yes, the photo above is Dufresne' version of eggs Benedict. Fried hollandaise cubes battered with English muffin crumbs, gelled egg yolk, and Canadian ham crisps. Come on Leah, how hard would that have been to do?

Seriously, have you readers dined at WD-50? Let us know if it is worth the hype because it sure doesn't look like it would fill us up.

Related Stories:
· WD-50 [Official Site]
· Checking In At Jamie's Place [Jaunted]

Photo: [Kent Wang]

Tags: What Recession / The Box / Simon Hammerstein / Laid-Off Travel / → All Tags

The Box Is Not Worth Your Severance Package Pay-Out

Simon Hammerstein, with his Lower East Side high and low-brow burlesque nightclub, The Box, isn't one to play by the rules. He's already gotten himself into some sticky situations on and off stage. But unlike most struggling businesses who are attempting to adapt and stay afloat as our nation sinks further into financial FUBAR, The Box is keeping it's steep prices fixed and not thinking outside of, err, the box.

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Tags: New New York Restaurants / Restaurants / Food Travel / → All Tags

Sorella

December 2008 is probably not the best month in the history of the world to open a restaurant serving pricey small plates of high-end food in a neighborhood only recently getting accustomed to fancy eateries.

But that's exactly what Lower East Side newcomer Sorella is doing, and we're hoping this is one collection of tiny, fancy plates that's able to weather the storm. The kitchen is helmed by Emma Hearst, the former chef at Union Square Café, and the menu is inspired by her trek though Northern Italy's rustic village cafes.

Sorella does what a lot of similar restaurants attempt to do and fail: It puts a trendy, modern spin on Italian classics without seeming too silly or over-the-top. Crispy veal sweetbreads are served with quince bacon marmalade; risotto is spiked with hazelnuts, sage, robiola cheese and a gooey "squash fondue;" and the pate de fegato is sort of an uber-classy breakfast sandwich—an English muffin smothered in duck fat and topped with chicken liver mousse, a fried egg and, of course, bacon.

Related Stories:
· Sorella [Official Site]
· New New York Restaurants coverage [Jaunted]
· Food Travel coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: Sorella]

Tags: The Real World Brooklyn / Television Travel / TV Travel / Chasing-Real-World-Brooklyn / → All Tags

"Real World: Brooklyn" Goes Back to Manhattan

After enjoying the local scene at Prospect Park, it seems the cast of "The Real World: Brooklyn" jumped back across the East River for some Manhattan-style nightlife.

Says a tipster:

The cast was out Friday night at Libation on Ludlow Street on the LES.

Ugh. It's reality show antics like this that reminds us why they call that part of town Hell Square!

Related Stories:
· "Real World: Brooklyn" Keeping It Local in Prospect Park [Jaunted]
· Chasing "The Real World: Brooklyn" coverage [Jaunted]

Tags: New New York Restaurants / Dessert / Restaurants / → All Tags

New NYC Restaurant: Luxee

New York has no shortage of cute Japanese things, decadent desserts or hole-in-the-wall eateries. But there's no reason why we can't welcome a new place that combines all three.

Luxee, a dessert cafe that opened last week on the Lower East Side, offers tiny-but-over-the-top treats like vegan chocolate cake with avocado mousse, cherry and champagne.

The restaurant only has a few dishes out so far, but will be adding a full, Japanese-tinged dessert menu shortly, designed by a crew of chefs plucked from Tokyo culinary school L'ecole Vantan.

Related Stories:
· Luxee [Official Site]
· New New York Restaurants coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: Luxee]

Tags: Travel Media / David Farley / Travel Books / → All Tags

David Farley Planning Travel Writer Meetup

Travel writer and holy foreskin expert David Farley is fed up with these wandering scribes and their jet-setting ways. So he's put together the Restless Legs Reading Series to get everyone in the same room.

Kicking off the bi-monthy event will be Tony Perrottet (author of "Napoleons's Privates: 2,500 Years of History Unzipped") and Cullen Thomas (who wrote "Brother One Cell: An American Coming of Age in South Korea's Prisons").

The first Restless Legs reading will be July 23 at Lolita on the Lower East Side. Farley says he'd love for it to turn into a monthly thing; we'd love that too.

Related Stories:
· Restless Legs Reading Series [Official Site]
· Q&A about the Restless Legs Series [WorldHum]
· Travel Media coverage [Jaunted]

Tags: Fall-Culture-Travel-Map / Galleries / Bars / Iraq / → All Tags

Fall Culture Travel :: Iraq in NYC

Cold, rainy fall days make for the best museum visits. So over the next few weeks we're mapping the latest shows worth seeing--and a nearby spot to nurse your art hangover.

It's easy to hate on 20-something hedge fund dudes for their career successes, but we can't extend the same pessimism to Ashley Gilbertson, the 29-year-old photojournalist whose book chronicling the war in Iraq, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, will hit shelves in just a few weeks.

In honor of the book's release, from Thursday, October 18 to November 29, 10 life-sized photos and selected excerpts will hang on the walls of the hip Lower East Side space, GalleryBar. Selected images of the 2004 battle for Falluja, the early occupation and Iraq's recent national elections are examples of what you can expect.

After absorbing the realities of the world, grab one (or two, or three) of 39 beers at the newly-opened Spitzer's Corner at Ludlow and Rivington to ruminate on foreign policy and ponder how excited you are for the next presidential election.

Related Stories:
· GalleryBar [Official Site]
· Fall Culture Travel Map [Jaunted]
· Fall Culture Travel coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: Ashley Gilbertson]