Gray’s Papaya (& Mark Sandman)

Gray’s Papaya Baby!!!

http://www.papayaking.com/index.htm

(This first section written sometime in October) à I totally went to my first Gray’s Papaya Monday, October 23, 2006. It is one block away on 3^rd Avenue and 86^th street. And right beside it is a place called something Sliders. I am not sure if they are Nathan’s Hotdogs or not…but damn were they good.

Gray’s Papaya is apparently a freaking famous place. All I know is that is was cheap as shit and a damn good hotdog. I try to eat fairly healthy so I haven’t been to a hotdog stand since I moved here but now I have gone three times to this place, thanks to my friend Network who hooked it UP!!

First time he realized I had one a block from me he immediately got hungry and so we just had to go he said. Again, I try to eat healthy and mostly like to make my own fun foods. So, I have been cooking a ton. I had eaten dinner at this point because I also do not eat a bite of food after 7pm, 8pm at the LATEST. It was freaking 11pm when we made the hike.

We get there and he gets two dogs with chili and a drink, I still don’t know the name but it was a papaya drink. IT WAS SO GOOD. The drink is something I would drink because of the flavor and it FELT healthy haha. But the dog with chili was awesome.

I have given up trying to eat healthy here because I can do that when I am older. However, I do have to work out daily now to combat the pounds. And yes! I am one of those who do not like feeling or looking fat. But DAMN do I LOVE TO EAT – you do what you have to do hahaha. Unfortunately, I hate working out SO MUCH MORE that I tend to steer clear of fattening food and stick with healthy food for that reason – THUS – the vicious cycle that I am trying to break now by just eating what I want and working out –……………..(This is where I stopped typing months ago because it appears I just started to ramble.)

Now today is freaking January 5, 2007……….…I never finished and posted this note back in October when I wrote it and now I have gone back to the Gray’s Papaya so many times 5 pounds of my body has to be a hotdog with chili and cheese and another 5 pounds is Papaya juice!!!!!

The Original Papaya King is two blocks east of my apartment. It’s a five minute walk but I would walk farther for these bad boys!! This is a hole in the wall that is a very tight squeeze. It is a stand up place that can maybe hold ten people at a time. There is ALWAYS a line. I have only eaten about 600 hotdogs with chili cheese, an order of large chili cheese curly fries, which come in a cup and are covered with cheese goo and chili mixed in, and a papaya juice drink.

I, of course, have tried to take everyone who has ever come to visit me because, as you might read below, the place is pretty famous and a staple specific to NYC history. Jessie liked them so much on her visit here she snagged a few brochures about the place.

And The Papaya King story goes like this:

In 1923, a 16-year-old Greek boy named Gus Poulos arrived at the docks of Ellis Island from Athens, Greece, with no contacts and his family left behind. Penniless, but industrious and driven, Gus quickly immersed himself in the spirited mood of the roaring 20's and set his sights on achieving the American Dream. Working at a deli in the Yorkville section of Manhattan, it didn't take long for the hard-working Gus to make his mark. Within three years, he bought the business outright.

Now that he was a business owner, Gus was able to take his first vacation and, like many Americans, set his sights on the sunny beaches of Miami, Florida. When he got there, he noticed the plentiful supplies of excellent fruit: oranges, mangoes, grapefruit, bananas, pineapples and most importantly, papayas. He quickly came to love various concoctions of fruit juices.

When he got back to New York, he went looking for papayas and other tropical fruits to satisfy his newly acquired craving. None could be found. At that time, Florida was a world away by train and most tropical fruits were unknown to New Yorkers. In 1931, after several years of planning and developing fruit sources, Gus decided to sell his deli and open his first juice store, Hawaiian Tropical Drinks, Inc.

At first, no one came. His store piled high with perishable tropical fruits, Gus decided that if he couldn't sell his drinks, he would give them away rather than letting the fruit go to waste. So he hired waitresses to dress up in traditional Hawaiian skirts and had them stand on the corner handing out free glasses of fruit drinks as Gus worked a blender inside the store.

It didn't take long for New Yorkers to get hooked. Soon he had lines forming outside his shop on the days of his fresh fruit deliveries and the legend of his papaya drinks began to spread. In 1935, he opened another store in Brooklyn, and in 1937, he set up his third shop in Philadelphia. He expanded his drink lines to include fresh-squeezed strawberry shakes and coconut drinks mixed with papaya juice. Despite his success, however, he knew something was missing.

Gus' first store was on 86th Street and 3rd Avenue in Manhattan, which at the time was heavily populated with German and Polish immigrants. One day while trying to impress a young German-American woman named "Birdie" on his newly purchased roller skates, Gus took a fall and badly injured his ankle. The young lass took pity on him and helped him during his recuperation, bringing him food from the German establishments in the neighborhood. Gus quickly took a liking to all things German, and after he and Birdie decided to marry, he introduced the frankfurter to his juice stand. The rest is history.

As the decades passed, Gus' fruit stands grew in stature and fame. Gus opened several more outlets in New York and even opened restaurants as far away as Baltimore and Miami. Though still officially the Hawaiian Tropical Drinks Company, a regular patron (reportedly a Brooklyn Dodger baseball player who became addicted to Gus' fare) had dubbed Gus the "Papaya King," and customers began to refer to the fruit stands as "The Papaya King."

By the 1950's, the "Papaya King's" fame had spread across the country and the original store on 86th Street began to attract worldwide attention. Early in the 1960's, he agreed to officially change the name of the store to Papaya King. Travel guides began to hone in on the corner frankfurter shop as an essential New York City pit stop.

In 1958, his son Peter, fresh out of college, decided to join in and took over the day-to-day operations of the New York stores. Peter began to influence the business more and more, and opened up another very successful location on 59th Street and 3rd Avenue in New York City. In the 1960's, because the 86th Street store was so busy, Peter and Gus opened up another Papaya King directly across the street just to handle the overflow of customers!!

In the 1970's, Peter's cousin Alex, Gus' nephew, joined in the business. Despite their success, however, Peter and Gus wanted to focus their attention on the 86th Street store so as to spend more time with their families. By Gus' death in 1988, Papaya King was back to its original single store.

Today, say the words "Papaya King" to a New Yorker and hot dogs and fruit drinks will instantly come to mind. Papaya King has been called by Zagat the "best, cheapest (stand-up) lunch in the city", and a "must visit" highlight of any trip to New York City. Critic Ed Levine of New York Eats calls it the "best hot dog in the world." Over the years, Papaya King has become a tradition with local residents, tourists, political and business luminaries, and the jet set of New York society. Papaya King represents the ultimate in quick dining -- stand-up fare and ready-made juice drinks enjoyed as you rub elbows with all walks of people. Papaya King stands for inexpensive fast food made from all-natural products and the store provides a nostalgic visit to old New York.

The Zagat dining guide has called Papaya King the “best, stand-up lunch in the city” and a “must-visit-high-light of any trip to New York City. Critic Ed Levine of New York Eats calls it the “best hot dog in the world.” Papaya King has become a tradition with local residents, tourists, political and business luminaries, as well as the jet set of New York society. Papaya King represents the ultimate in quick dining – delicious stand-up fare enjoyed as you rub elbows with all walks of people.

There is a freaking Sausage thing that is made with bull testicles and other weird things. Chris and I saw the advertisement for the damn thing and about dropped our food. We were going to go back and take a picture but oh well!! I will be updating this blog with what it says when I remember. And unfortunately, I couldn’t find it on the internet! OK….If you are still not sold….THEY DELIVER all over the United States to your damn door step – THAT IS AWESOME!!!!!

Mark Sandman died on July 3, 1999 at 47 years old. During his life time he was not famous, but now….! He was an indie-rock icon, an American singer, songwriter, musical instrument inventor and multi-instrumentalist. He is best known as the lead singer and slide bass player of the band Morphine. (They are fun too by the way.) He was also a member of the Boston Blues band Treat Her Right and the founder of Hi-n-Dry, a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based recording studio and independent record label.

Some notable Hi-n-Dry artists are Asa Brebner, one of the important figures in the birth of PUNK and Rick Berlin, a guitartist and great storyteller.

His instruments were extensively altered and sometimes built by hand to create unique sounds. In Morphine, he played primarily a fretless two-sting slide bass guitar. He was also known to play a unitar (named after the one-stringed instrument in American blues tradition), and three-string slide bass. He sometimes paired bass strings with one or two guitar strings, creating the "basitar" and "guitbass". Ballew would later use both instruments in The Presidents of the United States. YES!!! POTUS HAHAHAHA…I used to Love saying POTUS!

Jackie's Birthday & The Typhoon Lounge (& Stanton Moore)

So January 2^nd was Jackie Bateman’s birthday and last day here in NYC. We had dinner at one of the neatest little places off St. Mark’s Place downtown in the Village. It is called the Typhoon Lounge. It is officially located at 79 St. Marks Place, New York New York 1003-7955. Phone is (866) 906-1280.

My friend Ned had picked out the place and took us down St. Mark’s to Typhoon. Walking down a few steps to reach the front door, you open the door and have to push aside some weird curtain that is really just a shower curtain on a shower rod and everything. Rings and all. Very very stange. ANd it was not sparkling new either.

Walking three feet into the restaurant the décor immediately changed into this beautiful fun medival feel. In the wall were carved booths made out of stone and looked almost like we should have been in some medieval tavern. I felt like there was an Aztec vibe going on within the Asian flair. It did not feel like a traditional Japanese restaurant until we were escorted downstairs. This is where we all fell in love with the place.

There were little rooms off the main floor that were like makeshift Japanese dinging rooms. The rooms were raised off the floor and had a traditional kneel-at table inside that was made out of a nice large piece of wood.

We explained that it was Jackie’s birthday and got escorted into the second of the tiny rooms. We had to take off our shoes and were seated around the table like an official Japanese family might do. We all had on our socks and out shoes had to rest on the floor outside. We crowded into the little room around the table. Note: Unless you have 6 people, they do not encourage you using those rooms. Since it was Jackie’s Birthday we talked out way into it!!! It is best to go with a big group and reserve a private room downstairs.

Ned did all the ordering and we tried to keep it under $100 for the four of us. Ned ordered an assortment of foods. Everything came out one dish after the other and we shared it all. The first dish to arrive was a dish called Buta-Kimchi. This dish consists of thinly sliced pork (buta) and spicy Korean pickled cabbage (kimchi). That was just delicious and the portion, even though split between 4 of us, gave us each a healthy taste of the dish.

The second dish that came out was the Okonomiyaki. Okonomiyaki is prepared much like a pancake. The batter and other ingredients are fried on both sides on either a hot plate or a pan using metal that are later used to slice the dish when it has finished cooking. Cooked okonomiyaki is topped with ingredients that include okonomiyaki sauce (similar to Worcestershire sauce but thicker and sweeter), nori, fish flakes, mayonnaise and ginger. Our dish was prepared this way.

While we were eating these lovely dishes, our serving of Edamame came out. Edamame is consumed as a snack, a vegetable dish, used in soups or processed into sweets. As a snack, the pods are lightly boiled in salted water, and then the seeds are squeezed directly from the pods into the mouth with the fingers. These are just steamed soy beans. LOVE THEM!!!

The third dish Ned ordered was a Curry Rice dish. This was simply white sticky rice on a side of the plate with a brown sauce with what I gathered was a beaten egg in the mix of the sauce. It was like the sauce was covering scrambled eggs but the dish was AWESOME!!

Finally we got an order sashimi and sushi. The sashimi ($6.00) brought a healthy variety of fresh fish pieces, generously sized and priced at about $1 a piece. The sushi contained a 6 piece tuna roll with four pieces of fish over rice. The fish were salmon, yellow tail, tuna and something else. We also ordered Sake and a Japanese beer called Kirin. The sake came in a round glass that was set inside a wooden red box. You picked up the box to drink the sake. This place is cheap and delicious for those who care for a nice piece of sushi or sashimi.

Here are some other suggestions if you ever want to try the place out: Chicken kara-age (amazing fried chicken, but be careful of the hot sauce), miso kalbi (beef slices cooked with miso), Saikoro steak (cubes of steak with a great sauce on the side and potatoes), omu-rice (kind of like a rice omelette, hence omelette-rice = omu-rice), korokke (potato croquettes), okonomiyaki (Japanese savory pancake, but you might want to ask them to hold the katsuo-bushi -- dried bonito flakes).

The prices were great. Everything was around $6.00 - $10.00. The restaurant is very affordable especially considering how incredibly fresh the food is. If you want top-notch sushi and don't want to pay ridiculous prices, this is your place. And do not expect a Americanized version of Asian food. This restaurant caters to mainly Asian clientele so that should tell you how great and authentic the food really is!

The service was whatever. When I am with friends, as long as the wait staff keeps up on our beer supply, I generally don’t mind the waiting. However, we had a decent server who stayed on top of our alcohol level as well as our spills caused by the alcohol consumption. The primarily Japanese wait staff is pretty good at leaving you alone. Because they're from Japan this may be partially attributed to the fact that they're used to being called when needed.

Leaving, I was noticed men playing an odd game of what looked like Japanese checkers? They were like mahjong tiles but on a checker board or maybe even a chess board. I couldn’t tell. And the bar to the left was stoked will all kinds of hot and cold sake. For those who enjoy that kind of drink. Then it was back to pushing aside that WEIRD ASS shower curtain. I mean the thing was old and moldy looking. It was one of those weird clear colors that look foggy with white circles on it. What the HELL was that about? I still can’t get over it. Other then that damn strange curtain, the place is awesome: amazing food, great atmosphere, great Japanese beer and hot and cold options of sake.

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WHO LOVES THE DRUMS!!!! I LOVE THE DRUMS!!!!

Stanton Moore, a founding member of the popular “steamroller funk” band Galatic, is a phenomenal jazz drummer. His has three CD’s, my favorite of which is called “Flyin’ the Koop” and I would recommend it highly that everyone go buy this CD.

Flyin’ the Koop is his second solo album. On this CD Moore plays with a all-star cast of groove-minded musicians, featuring bassist Chris Wood (Medeski Martin & Wood), saxophonist Karl Denson (co-founder of seminal acid jazz band the Greyboy Allstars and leader of his own band Tiny Universe), and guitarist Brian Seeger (New Orleans luminary and a member of Moore & More).

Moore also includes saxophonist Skerik and the vocal magic of the Wild Magnolias Mardi Gras Indians on "Fallin' off the Floor." The 12-track collection is groove-driven, jazz-informed, and stylistically eclectic, with tunes ranging from rhythmic cookers to straight-ahead jazz launches, from melodic beauties to raunchy funk-rompers.

There is an eclectic variety of sound in this CD. It is jazz music and drumming at its best and I hope even one person reading this actually buys the CD.

As well, with his deeply imbedded jazz roots, Moore has surprised everyone by drumming on the latest record by heavy metal band Corrosion of Conformity. He toured with them for a while until Hurricane Katrinia. The tour was cut short so that a member of the band could return to New Orleans and look after his bar.

Finally, Stanton Moore is part of another wonderful side project, a CD which I have had to buy three times because I wore it out. I have since downloaded it so that I may never have to worry about not having this genius group at my fingertips. Garage A Trios is a way out project from the fearsome threesome that Moore brought together on his first CD All Kooked Out! (Stanton Moore, Charlie Hunter, Skerik). “Club-ready but sample-free tracks take you back to the new school in dubbed-out style. Their live shows are legendary, and are often the hottest tickets at JazzFest.”

There is just too much great music in the world.

The Arsenal AKA The Office (& The Beatnuts)

This is just a random amount of information I found about the building I work in. I love walking into the park and entering up the stairs everyday and I wanted to know more. Thank god for brochures!! Now I can always remember how kickass my job really is!

The Arsenal and the Menagerie, c. 1870

Located at 64^th Street and Fifth Avenue in Central park, the Arsenal is home to the City of New York/Parks & Recreation, the Central Park Administrator, the City Parks Foundation, the Historic House Trust, the New York Wildlife Conservation Society, the Parks Library, and the Arsenal Gallery.

The Arsenal is one of two buildings within the park’s borders which predate the park itself (the other is a blockhouse at the north end dating from the War of 1812). It was built between 1847 and 1851 by the State of New York as a storage repository for munitions; the previous state arsenal had been located in Madison Square Park. The project’s funding was overseen by state comptroller Millard Fillmore, who later became President of the United States.

Designed by architect Martin E. Thompson, the crenellated structure, originally stuccoed, and marked by a crenulated cornice, resembles a medieval fortress. Its doorway is guarded by cast-iron eagle made by Daniel Meeker Foundry of Newark, New Jersey.

The building’s military use proved shortlived. Between 1853 and 1856, the State seized the land under it for a public park. In 1957 the City purchased the Arsenal for $275,00.00, removed all arms, and established park administrative functions on the premises. Certain park advocates and urban observers felt this structure was a blight on the landscape, most notably diarist Geroge Templeton Strong who in 1859 referred to the “hideous State Arsenal Building,” and hoped “this eyesore…[would] soon be destroyed by accidental fire.”

The Arsenal, 1864. Photo by: W.H. Guild Jr.

This was not to be, and over the ensuing decades the building served diverse roles. In 1857 the 11^th police precinct was stationed there. The newly created American Museum of Natural History took up residence at the Arsenal from 1869 to 1877, before its current home was built on Central Park West. Exhibits were installed on the second and third floors. Also at this time, B. Waterhouse Hawkins, an eminent British paleontologist, spent time reconstructing the skeletal remains of dinosaurs in a special studio established at the Arsenal.

Beginning in 1859, a burgeoning menagerie was located in and around the Arsenal. Gifts or loans of animals by the likes of impresario P. T. Barnum, financier August Belmont and Civil War general William Tecumseh Sherman could be seen in outdoor cages and in the basement of the building. The "great insecurity and danger" of this arrangement, as well as the stench, resulted in the removal of the interior cages by 1871.

A Gallery of Art, later relocated to the former Convent of Mount St. Vincent at the park's north end, graced the first floor space. Prior to moving to the park's Belvedere Castle, the Municipal Weather Bureau's instruments were atop the Arsenal roof from 1869 to 1918.

Various designs for remodeling the Arsenal emerged over time. Jacob Wrey Mould, the Architect responsible for much of the ornamental detail at Bethesda Terrace and elsewhere in the park, remodeled the Arsenal interior in 1870. An Arsenal restaurant existed early in the 20th century; plans for its renovation appear in an official parks report of 1916. Also in that year the Parks Department considered demolishing the building altogether and relocating the weather bureau and police station to the Belvedere and Sheepfold (later Tavern on the Green) respectively.

The Arsenal, Paleontological Studio at Central Park Museum, c.1868.

From 1914 to 1924 the Manhattan Parks Department operated out of the newly built Municipal Building in Lower Manhattan. During this period the Arsenal deteriorated to such an extent that in 1922 a headline in the New York Times read: "Parks Arsenal a Near Ruin." The paper went on to report that this neglected landmark had a leaking roof, broken windows, and missing brickwork among other structural defects.

At that time the City appropriated $75,000 for an overhaul of the Arsenal, including new central turrets and a clock, basement storage for "trees, plant and shrubs," and a conference room for park researchers (later a library).

Most of the space was set aside for Parks Department offices. During reconstruction an underground spring and a secret passage were discovered (the latter possibly from the building's days as an arsenal, for the undercover transfer of arms). The restoration was completed in 1924.

Allen Saalburg painting murals in the Arsenal Lobby, Central Park,
(southeast corner, east wall), 1936.

Having served off and on as the borough park offices, the Arsenal underwent another complete renovation in 1934 as the first and only headquarters of a citywide unified Parks Department. From his command posts at the Arsenal and at Randall's Island, Commissioner Robert Moses set about directing an unprecedented expansion of the parks system and the modernization of New York City's public facilities. By the time he had left office in 1960, total parks acreage had tripled, and the number of city playgrounds increased from 119 to 777.

In 1935-36 the Arsenal lobby murals were painted under the direction of Allen Saalburg. Saalburg researched images of old New York with particular relevance to city parks, and amplified on his studies in a series of scenes depicting recreational activities, notable park structures, and flagship parks.

The project was funded by the Federal Works Progress Administration. Also at this time, a new entryway was designed for the front of the Arsenal, including military drums over the doorway, and cast-iron musket replicas as supports for the banisters.

Bird's-eye view of the Arsenal, 1962

Over time the Arsenal has become a parks fixture, appearing on occasion in fictional feature films. In 1967 the Arsenal was designated an official New York City Landmark. The bronze eagles which presently flank the third floor entrance and conference room arrived in 1981; they were secured after repeated acts of vandalism necessitated their removal in 1962 from the Prison Ship Martyrs Monument in Fort Greene Park, Brooklyn.

Since the early 1980s, the central chamber on the third floor of the building has been used as a gallery and space for public forums. Eight to ten exhibitions of fine arts and photography are mounted annually, and preference is given to shows concerned with the natural environment, urban issues and parks history. The gallery may be reserved for private and public functions.

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The Beatnuts are a hip hop crew from Queens, New York. I remember listening to them years and years ago because I had tape of this random group that had been handed out back in the early 1990’s. I believe I was in 8^th grade at this point. I remember the name the Beatnuts and believe that tape is still in my father’s house back in Virginia.

Anyway, I have fallen back in love with this Latino Hip Hop Group. I have been listening to their album Street Level and suggest it to whoever might be reading this!

These guys actually produced an album for Common and Chi-Ali and were praised highly for their work. I am not one for Hip hop but I have always loved Common and The Beatnuts. They just make sense. The Beatnuts yall!!