Chinese and Spanish may not even have an alphabet in common, but these two cultures will be coming together for the Upper West Side’s first annual Bilingual Fest, a charity event featuring music and dance acts in both Chinese and Spanish. The family-friendly festival, which will take place on April 20th at the West 83rd Ministry Center, was put together by Toni Wang of the children’s bilingual music organization, “A Little Mandarin,” and Bilingual Buds School- one of the few elementary schools in the city that teaches both Mandarin and Spanish.

Bilingual Fest is part of NYC Heritage Week, and has been endorsed by City Council Member Gale Brewer. The afternoon’s events will be emceed by broadcast journalist Pei-Sze Cheng. Kids can enjoy performances across the cultural spectrum, from a Chinese Lion Dance and songs played on traditional Chinese instruments, to salsa dancing and Spanish-language sing-alongs.

But the real highlight of the evening is when the Latino and  Chinese cultures will collide, for the musical collaboration between Toni Wang, and Bernardo Palombo of “El Taller,” a Spanish cultural community organization, who has written songs for Sesame Street’s Spanish language program.

“They may be different languages, but it is all still music for children and families. We don’t aim to put those two together, you can have a song go from English to Spanish to Chinese and its all enjoyable,” said Wang.

The collaboration will feature a Puerto Rican song with some verses translated into Chinese entitled “Le Lo Lai” (the Puerto Rican version of singing la-la-la) Palombo and Wang will trade off verses, and will be performing with children. Another subtle colliding of the cultures according to Wang is the performance by a Chinese dancer who will be dancing with a Hispanic partner.

Bernardo Palombo performing at a Spanish cultural center.

The Bilingual Fest started as Wang’s idea to do a concert with the Bilingual Buds School. As the school also teaches Spanish, Wang began looking for Hispanic acts to join the cultural effort, and found Palombo. They then decided to turn the concert into a charity event. Proceeds will benefit The Committee for Hispanic Children and Families, an organization that mainly works with families in the Bronx, and APEX, an Asian-American youth outreach group based in Chinatown.

While collaborating together, both Palombo and Wang noticed that the two cultures have more in common than the originally thought – a love of family and family time for instance, as well as cooking with a lot of rice. Palombo thinks that the experience will be educational for all ages.
“Two completely different languages on the same stage is very positive for the child,” said Palombo. “To not only be exposed to the differences but also the understanding and respecting that which isn’t your own culture is very important.”

The event will take place at 3 p.m. on Saturday on West 83rd Street between Columbus and Amsterdam Avenues. The cost is $10 for a child and $15 for an adult. It is expected to sell out, so Palombo suggested getting tickets ahead of time.

“I hope this will be an annual event because the timing is right,” said Wang. “People want their children to become more globally aware.”

It’s a well-worn trope that when the going gets hot, the hot eat spicy foods. It’s well-worn, sure, but if you’re like 98 percent of the Western world, it’s also totally unthinkable. Spicy foods are hot, right? And when you yourself are hot (a totally flawed linguistic leap of logic—we’ll get to that), the best way to counteract it is with cold things, isn’t it?

Well, yes and no. The primary problem is with that word, “hot.” Spicy foods aren’t actually warmer than others, they simply make you sweat, for a complex set of chemical reasons that have to do with pain receptors and neural trickery.
In the Western cultural repertory of foods, there is no indigenous source of serious spice, so we never evolved a language for dealing with it. The first time someone brought Christopher Columbus a jalapeño, he popped it whole, started sweating like a fiend and determined that witches had made him “hot,” and it stuck.* (*This scenario may not be historically accurate.)

Chile peppers have helped people in warmer climes survive summers since air conditioning was a palm frond fan and ice in your drink was a dream. Now that global warming is evening the score and energy costs have us thinking twice about letting the climate control run nonstop for the next three months, it’s a good time to revisit their techniques and, as a wise man once said, give spice a chance.

Thai food may be the second most bastardized food in this city, trailing only behind Chinese in white-guy-ification. Think of all the ketchupy Pad Thai you’ve been suckered into; the sickly sweet Tom Kha Gai that tastes more of Hawaiian Tropic than tropical climes. Thankfully Thai, like Chinese, is experiencing a revival that is placing an emphasis on regional differences—and like Chinese, you finally no longer have to go out to Queens to find chefs doing their thing.

At Zabb Elee (75 2nd Ave., betw. 4th & 5th Sts., zabbelee.com), the chefs specialize in the notoriously chile-laden cuisine of Isaan, the northeastern region of the country. Some dishes, like Som Tum Thai, green papaya salad, are recognizable in name, but their execution is miles beyond that of your corner takeout. Others, like Gang Som, a sour, coconut milk-less curry, and Khai Jiaw Kratiem Dong, omelet with pickled garlic, are full of flavors you’ve never experienced.

When you order, you will be asked about your spice level preference—be prepared to be assertive when asking for full strength, as every meal there sees at least one bro trying to impress his pals who ends up gasping for water and white rice. It’s a balanced heat, though; the kind that was designed to get you sweating happily through the summer night.
Miracle of miracles, there is now a surfeit of seriously spicy Sichuan restaurants in New York City. One of the best, and the most reliably spice-happy, is Szechuan Gourmet (21 W. 39th St., betw. 5th & 6th Aves., szechuan-gourmet.com).

Sichuan food uses fierce dried chiles and Sichuan peppercorn, which will numb you faster than a dentist’s novocaine, to achieve ma la, the signature spicy and numbing taste. The combination of the two means you’re never suffering for the sake of it.

For a real summertime treat, get the double whammy of heat and cool with cold dishes like ox tongue and tripe doused in ma la-heavy chile oil, ground peanuts and cilantro, and the spicy cucumber salad, which is like taking a Katz’s deli half-sour and lighting it on fire in your mouth. You’ll leave flushed and tingling, with a buzzing mouth that makes even drinking water a sensory delight.

Not enough? Take the phaal challenge at Brick Lane Curry House (235 E. 53rd St., betw. 2nd & 3rd Aves., or 308 E. 6th St., betw. 1st & 2nd Aves., bricklanecurryhouse.com). A true bro dare for the guys at Zabb Elee who managed to make it through and want their photos in a Hall (sorry, P’hall) of Fame. By all reports a British invention, the so-called “spiciest curry on earth” uses 10 or more ground chiles per serving.

Finish it, and you get a certificate of honor and a free beer, while your companions cool off the old-fashioned way, with top-notch curries like Nilgiri Korma, a brightly green South Indian specialty. At least the beer is a guaranteed cooler.

By Megan McGibney

It is said the world’s three greatest cuisines are French, Chinese and Turkish. While Downtown has plenty of the first two, it could use more of the latter.

Luckily, Soho is set to get a Turkish eatery of its very own Nov. 15, when the Midtown hotspot Pera Mediterranean Brasserie opens its Downtown version: Pera SoHo. The award-winning restaurant known for its elegant décor and softly lit dining rooms intends to provide this fashion-centric district with some of Turkey’s finest cultural dishes.

“I think it’s proven to be a great concept,” said owner Burak Karacam of his eateries. “Whether it’s the décor or the music that’s soft to people’s ears, it’s a very refreshing take on eastern Mediterranean and Turkish cuisine.”

Karacam hails from the country’s capitol, and the restaurants derive their name from one of Istanbul’s more eclectic neighborhoods. Since the 17th century, the place has been home to many non-Islamic cultures, including Italian, Greek, Jewish, Armenian and French. It was in Pera that these groups resided and set up their businesses, and it is at Karacam’s restaurants that a blend of eastern Mediterranean cuisine comes to life.

Pera’s menu mainly consists of Mediterranean staples like olive oil, zucchini, eggplant, beans, seafood and lamb. Dessert fans may mourn the lack of cake, but will rejoice at Pera’s selection of puddings and baklava.

Pera SoHo,designed by DYAMI architects with décor overseen by Karacam himself, will include a lounge area up front with a doorway leading to a garden, which will be open to patrons beginning in April. In addition, during the warmer months, private parties can go to the rooftop and watch the sun set before going downstairs to sup in a dining room that can seat 105. Karacam chose 54 Thompson Pl. for Pera SoHo because of the lack of neighboring tall buildings and the chance to be on the cutting edge of dining habits.

“I think Soho is making a comeback in terms of dining,” he said.

When it comes to making Pera SoHo different from its Midtown relative, Karacam is contemplating whether to make a quarter or a third of its menu different. The Downtown kitchen will be headed by the Turkish/American duo of Metin Calisir and Nathan Crouser.

As for the possibility of more Peras, Karacam said, “It’s not something we are against, but currently the focus is on getting this one up and running and reaching its potential.” After that, Karacam will look around for a new place for New Yorkers to experience one of the world’s greatest cuisines.

Istanbul native Burak Karacam in front of his yet to be opened Pera SoHo. phOTO BY Megan McGibney. Pera’s Downtown location will be similar to its uptown haunt, located on Madison Avenue. PHOTO courtsey of Pera Mediterranean Brasserie

Mike Daisey, called a “master storyteller” by the New York Times, has developed a special blend of personal history and gonzo journalism in his hilarious and touching monologues. This time around, Daisey narrows his laser-sharp wit on the empire of Apple in The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs, playing through Dec. 4 at The Public Theater at Astor Place.

Starting out as a techie and devoted worshipper of all things Jobs, a chance sighting of photos of an iPhone assembly line compelled Daisey to voyage to Shenzhen, the Chinese city where many Apple products are made. What he found on the expedition was shocking: factories that hold 430,000 people, 13-year-olds working over 12-hour shifts and twenty-something workers crippled by the chemicals used to clean iPhone screens. Daisey, once a worshipper at the altar of the upgrade, found himself forever changed by his most recent shows.

Is this piece a departure from your previous work, in terms of focusing on broader cultural and social issues?

A number of them have been in this vein, like If You See Something Say Something. It is a form of what you might call journalism—I research these broader issues and canvass people. Not every monologue is this kind of monologue, but I have been tending to do this for a while now.

Why do you think your work is going in this direction?

I think in large part I am interested in stories that I feel our culture is telling.

The Steve Jobs biography just came out—it is about 700 pages long. It is a comprehensive view of him, but through one lens. If we put on a different lens, Jobs’ story is fundamentally one about a man who made things. In the book there is not even one paragraph about how these things were made. Those are the stories that bind us together, but it is hard to see them and what they are.

Throughout the piece you mention “seeing” and how we are often blind to the things in front of us. I noticed that as the show ended, people whipped out their i-devices, but I bet everyone felt differently about them after seeing your piece.

That is the idea of the metaphor shift. Everything is back the same as it was a moment before, but now we see things in a new way and it changes our world. It changes the dialog.

Something that resonated is how Apple is helping to continue this First/Third World socioeconomic dynamic, which seems like a similar narrative to the Industrial Revolution. Looking at his work through this lens, would you say Steve Jobs was truly as revolutionary as some might say, if this narrative seems to be repeating itself?

This echoes something I wrote about in a New York Times op-ed column. I think if we are going to export these jobs [to other countries], we have an ethical responsibility to uphold fair labor practices. Steve Jobs choosing not to do this was actually the conservative thing to do.

Shenzhen invokes all of the images of the Industrial Revolution, but we didn’t need it to work this way. To say that this is simply the way a global economy works is an inherently false worldview. These changes are very recent. Shenzhen has really only existed for the last 30 years, and the factory was made only in the last decade or so. The whole reason the systems works the way it does now is to avoid U.S. labor laws. Change is not only possible, it is inevitable.

It is interesting that the sense of apathy is changing even now. I see it doing this monologue…and through Occupy Wall Street. There is a paradigm shift. People are remembering that it is possible to protest something.

What can people do to more ethically interact with Apple products?

One can educate oneself. There is a lot of information that is available about how this world works and Chinese labor laws. A large part of our responsibility is thinking about our upgrade cycle. I, for instance, haven’t upgraded anything since I went to Shenzhen.

Did you feel a quick pang of lust when the iPhone 4S was announced?

It was like a pang, but I am doing OK. It was far from torture.

Monologist Mike Daisey turns his eye to his beloved Apple and its creator, in the The Agony and The Ecstasy of Steve Jobs, extended through Dec. 4 at The Public Theater. Photo courtesy of The Public Theater

“I knew there were some out there, but I realized there wasn’t one in New Jersey,” she said. “I thought with Chinese becoming such an important language, there must be other parents who feel this way.”

She was right. Bilingual Buds, the school she founded, is not only a popular and growing school in New Jersey, but the demand has been so high that a branch is opening on the Upper West Side, in a new space in the Riverside South complex on Riverside Boulevard.

Students at the New Jersey Bilingual Buds school.

When her boys were 8 months old, Huang left her job in business to pursue the school full time. Bilingual Buds opened in 2005 at her home in Maplewood, N.J., with one teacher and two small classes of five children each.

The makeup was diverse, and consisted of a variety of families who did not speak Chinese in their own homes but who wanted their kids to speak the language. The program attracted those with Chinese heritage, adoptive parents with Chinese kids and non-Chinese families who were interested in the culture and language. Soon there were enough students to move in to rented space in a church in Livingston, N.J.

In 2006, Bilingual Buds moved again, to an even larger space in Summit, N.J., which now has a preschool and after school program. Combined, the facility serves more than 100 students.

The school just expanded through 1st grade, and Huang intends to continue growing until she adds a 3rd grade class. The Mandarin teachers are a group of native Chinese speakers with educational backgrounds, either in linguistic or early childhood education. Students attending the full-time preschool and early elementary grades learn English language arts and math from native English speaking teachers. Students enrolled in the preschool and early elementary grades learn all the subjects, from science, art, music and physical education, in Chinese, and math and language arts in both languages. Teaching the “high-interest” hands on subjects in Mandarin is incredibly helpful, Huang said, because it helps students learn more obscure vocabulary, and they also associate the language with joy and exploration. The faculty gets extensive training on the school’s educational methods, and learns how to work with the different age groups.

Interest from across the Hudson has percolated for a number of years.

“Over time, I’ve gotten a lot of phone calls from New York parents asking, ‘When are you coming to New York?’” Huang said. “I used to live on the Upper West Side and I love that neighborhood, so I’ve been keeping tabs. The area has ‘mommy and me’ programs, but not five-day-a-week immersion, which is what you need to have the foundations for fluency.”

Bilingual Bids is currently renovating a four-room space at 180 Riverside Boulevard, which has easy access to a playground, the river and a quiet residential neighborhood. The program already runs several classes in the neighborhood—at New York Kids Club and Barnes and Noble. This fall, families can sign up for “mommy and me” classes for children ages 1 to 3, preschool for children ages 2 and a half to 5 and an after-school program four days a week for children ages 5 to 10. The facility is currently scheduled to open in November, as the space is still under construction.

Huang thinks the advantages of bilingual education will appeal to a city crowd.

“If you introduce languages earlier, they’re more open about the world, so if you’re traveling somewhere with different toilets, food, it doesn’t bother them,” she said. “They’re flexible, which means the kids are accepting.”

Ellen Bialystok, a Canadian professor who has done breakthrough research on how bilingual education advances and strengthens children’s cognitive development, is slated to deliver a presentation on Saturday, Nov. 14. Families who are interested in the Bilingual Buds program can call 212-787-8088, or come to an open house on Saturday, Nov. 7 from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Applications are available online at www.bilingualbuds.com.

Executive chef and owner Michael Tong has overseen every last detail of the food, service and lush décor, by Adam Tihany. It’s a complicated space, with plenty to look at everywhere you turn. Colorfully striped upholstery adorns the banquettes and chairs at the crisply clothed tables. Track lights snake around the ceiling behind a long Plexiglass runner that twists and turns along with the lights. The staff, overseen by ever-alert manager Jerry Li, is friendly and attentive. And busy!

Adam Tihany conceived Shun Lee Palace’s lush décor.

The moment you’re seated, you are brought puffy sheets of fried wonton dough with ramekins of hot and sour sauce and that wonderful sinus-clearing Chinese mustard, China’s answer to wasabi. Alongside is a bowl of totally addictive honey-glazed walnuts.

A cool heap of hot-and-sour cabbage has a nice slow afterburn. Little ribbons of carrots wind through the shredded crispy Napa cabbage, and the dish—surely a cousin of kimchi—has distant notes of ginger and toasted sesame oil.

Szechuan boiled dumplings are stuffed with ground pork, minced black mushrooms and scallion bits, and are lightly sauced with a spiced up soy sauce with black vinegar and chili oil.

We’d been told that the signature dish at Shun Lee is Beijing duck, and it must be, because from the moment we arrived, we noticed a number of diners had ordered it. A whole large grilled duck is brought to the table on a cart, where it is carved by a past-master sous chef. First the crisped skin is sliced into ribbons, then the deeply flavored meat is carved, and all are tucked—make that stuffed—into house-made crêpes with scallions and rolled into a fat burrito-like tube and served with a bowl of hoisin sauce. No fuss, no do-it-yourself—just deep duck deliciousness that will make your eyes roll back in your head. The roasted duck’s legs are served on the side. The dish is so understandably popular that you don’t even have to order it in advance—there’s always plenty of slowly grilled duck on hand. One order is really enough of an entrée for two.

Veal scallops are sautéed and napped with a gingery barbecue sauce and stirred with straw mushrooms, which are only available canned and are virtually tasteless, but are treasured for their satiny texture.

Beef chow fun is a sumptuous Cantonese peasant dish featuring wide smoky noodles and nuggets of tawny beef. The noodles were a little too doughy; I guess I’m used to those wonderful slippery fat noodles you get from the noodle carts on the streets of Chinatown.

Desserts in most Asian restaurants are little more than an afterthought, if they even exist. Often, you’re offered little more than pot of tea and a bowl of sliced fruit. Not at Shun Lee. Almond butter cookies arrive with fortune cookies, and wonderful Shanghai fried crêpes are stuffed with slightly sweet red bean paste and served piping hot. Best of all was a bowl of medium-pearl tapioca in a warm and creamy coconut milk soup—not at all too sweet, so that the coconut flavor prevailed.

There is simply no reason to doubt that Shun Lee Palace will thrive for another 40 years, and probably beyond.
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Shun Lee Palace
155 E. 55th St.
Between Lexington and
Third avenues
212-371-8844
Entrees: $27 to $35
tom@hugeflavors.com