NYPress.com - New York's essential guide to culture, arts, politics, news and more » Openhouse Gallery

Night Moves: TAP-NY’s first annual Night Market brings Taiwanese street food to the masses

Regan Hofmann — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 16:52:07 +0000

The New York hierarchy of Chinese food is as follows: Cantonese, Sichuan, everything else. Seems impossible, given the size of the country and the diversity of its regional cooking styles, but unless you dig deep into the Flushing, Queens, pedagogy, most people don’t know their Henan from their Hunan, their Dongbei from their Fujian.
Lost in that crowd is Taiwanese food, one of the most distinctively different of the bunch. The cuisine punches up sweet and sour flavors, with rock sugar factoring heavily in braising liquids for meats and pickled vegetables moving from mere condiment to the spotlight. It’s a food culture of extremes.
Paradoxically, it’s also a cuisine of comfort foods and little-kid delights; stars that have managed to break out of the ranks of anonymity include the Bian Dang Truck’s fried pork chop with meat sauce, a glop-tastic bowl of thick, savory gravy laden with ground pork over a crunchy chop and white rice, and the Shaved Ice Shop’s towering insanity desserts topped with ice cream, fruit, candy, condensed milk and whatever else you can throw at them.
The Taiwanese American Professionals Association of New York (TAP-NY) has finally decided to do something about this city’s unacceptable ignorance. The organization, dedicated to strengthening and promoting the Taiwanese-American community in the city, is hosting its first annual Night Market this Friday at the Openhouse Gallery. Organized by Carson Yiu, the Shaved Ice Shop’s founder and a member of TAP-NY, the night of eating and drinking is the group’s first event for the city at large.
“We’ve done a lot of [Taiwanese-American] community events—tech nights, movie nights, we did a Chinese New Year’s dinner,” said Yiu. “This is our first external event; we’re hoping to gain some exposure for the group and for the small businesses who are participating.”
Those small businesses include a list of food truck purveyors and small brick-and-mortar shops that reads like a who’s who of the Chinatown elite. A-Pou’s Taste, a cart selling potstickers that regularly pops up around Water Street and in the East Village, will be handing out their famous dumplings. The HK Street Cart will be serving gua bao, those now-ubiquitous soft steamed white buns stuffed with pork belly braised in the sweet and savory tradition. Wooly’s Ice, Yiu’s own Shop and the venerable Chinatown Ice Cream Factory will be leading the frozen treats charge, while Macaron Parlour and Filled with Sweets follow them up with dessert.
Yiu started the Shaved Ice Shop in 2010 but has been working in food for a decade. “Because of my connections to the food industry—especially with the trucks and other mobile vendors like we are—TAP-NY reached out to me to put together an event that would draw the city’s foodies along with our own community members,” he explained.
And what better draw than a night of food, games, music and—oh yeah—beer? “Taiwan Beer is the No. 1 beer in Taiwan, but it’s really hard to find here,” Yiu said. “They’re really trying to break into the retail market, so they were happy to sponsor us.” Over the course of the evening, raffles will be giving away iconic prizes from Apple Sidra (a Taiwanese soda that inspires Mexican Coke-like devotion) and Pocky to iPods.
While this is the organization’s first such event, it’s unlikely to be their last. “Night markets in Taiwan are an amazing phenomenon, but nobody knows what they are here,” Yiu said.” We want to bring some of that energy to New York City.”

TAP-NY’s first annual Night Market is Friday, April 13 from 6-10 p.m. at the Openhouse Gallery (87 Lafayette St., betw. Walker & White Sts.). Tickets are $35, $50 for VIP early entrance, and all proceeds go to benefit the nonprofit Taiwanese American Citizens League, of which TAP-NY is a chapter. For tickets, go to tapnightmarket.eventbrite.com.

Gotham CNET Hands-On Holiday Guide

admin — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 19:23:07 +0000

Holiday gift guide for the tech-savvy

By Kristina Diggins-Reisinger

Any vintage style devotee, shopaholic or foodie would feel right at home in Nolita. Boutiques, chic shops and eccentric bars and cafés line the streets. In the midst of this trendy neighborhood, I found CNET’s Hands-On Holiday Guide, a tech-centric pop-up shop for the gizmo whiz in your life.

Hosted through Sunday, Nov. 13, the four-dimensional guide found a temporary home at Openhouse Gallery. The place was packed with electronic gurus and customers drooling over walls lined with the latest toys accompanied by helpful explanatory note cards for technological amateurs like myself.

CAMERAS

When I entered the shop, I was met with an array of featured cameras, including the Canon EOS Rebel T3i, the Nikon D3100 and the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX9V. The Canon Rebel was on the pricier side, starting at $659.99. This finely tuned piece of machinery boasts excellent video capabilities as well as high image quality. When shooting stills and video, however, the Rebel’s controls can be frustrating to operate, and it’s not terribly fast for spontaneous shooting. This wouldn’t be a good option for parents like myself looking to capture those first steps.

Conversely, the Nikon D3100 has a markedly smaller viewfinder but features excellent photo quality and well laid-out buttons and controls.

The one that nabbed CNET’s editor’s pick, however, was the Sony Cyber-shot. While considerably more affordable at $269.99, it boasts shooting features including face detection and image stabilization.

According to the experts, one key piece of advice this holiday season if you are buying a camera is to ditch any obsession with megapixels. Most cameras on the market today have more than enough megapixels to get the job done. Instead, opt for a cheaper body but a higher quality lens. Buying an expensive camera and putting a cheap lens on it is like buying a Lamborghini and putting a four-cylinder engine in it; better to buy a Honda Civic and add a souped-up V-8. The lens is what focuses light so your pictures are crystal clear.

ENTERTAINMENT

For the in-home entertainment field there were three clear frontrunners: Apple TV, Microsoft Xbox 360 Slim and Sony PlayStation 3 Slim. Apple TV lets you stream all of the movies and TV shows available on iTunes to your HDTV on a pay-per-view basis. It offers Netflix, streams content from any iOS device or computer running iTunes and costs about $349. The Apple TV, however, won’t work with older, pre-HD TVs.

A mammoth product in terms of features, the Xbox Slim, at $299, includes a sleeker design, much quieter operation, a better cooling system, touch-sensitive power and disc tray, 250GB hard drive, built-in Wi-Fi and five USB ports. The new Xbox, however, doesn’t warrant a purchase if you already own a working older version.

The Sony PlayStation 3 Slim, also $299, won editor’s top pick and is sure to indulge your gaming needs with all the best features of the Xbox Slim plus a Blu-ray and DVD player.

COMPUTERS

If you are looking to splurge for your loved one this season with a fancy new computer, the first question to ask yourself is, how often do they travel? If they seem to be out and about quite often, a laptop with a screen that has added weight might slow them down. Pick one with more compact dimensions, around 13 inches in length, but skip the Netbook, since your smart phone isn’t significantly smaller and still offers all the same functions.

CNET editor-at-large Brian Cooley’s presentation encouraged consumers not to fear the death of the PC. Tablets and smart phones are an adjunct, but people are still using PCs as their home base.

CNET’s shop featured laptops including the Apple MacBook Pro 2011, Dell XPS 14z and HP Pavilion dm1z. At $1,700, the MacBook Pro offers incremental updates to its processor and, according to the CNET experts, has the best trackpad and gesture controls of any current laptop. The Dell XPS 14z is attractive with its unprecedentedly thin body and packs all the punch of a 14-inch laptop in a 13-inch body, with plenty of configuration options.

Winning the editor’s pick was the HP Pavilion dm1z, a far more affordable laptop at roughly $400 than its competitors that features a better touch pad and updated processor.

SMART PHONES

Okay, let’s talk smart phones. Android vs. iPhone: which is better? While the iPhone offers tons of music and a simple, intuitive interface, Android offers more control. When buying a smart phone as a gift, remember to think about the tech ecosystem the person is already submersed in. Chances are, if your sister owns an iPod, iPad and a MacBook, she is going to want to stick with the iPhone so she can easily transfer data between devices.

At her talk, CNET’s Jessica Dolcourt discussed the hottest smart phones and highlighted the Droid Razor, which was released on 11/11/11 and is, for a limited time, being sold for $111.11. The Razor is a 4G phone with HD display, 8 megapixel camera and splash resistant screen, in case someone spills the eggnog.

The iPhone 4S will run you about $299, but aside from its faster processor and upgraded camera, there isn’t much there that the iPhone 4 didn’t already have. The editor’s pick was the Galaxy Nexus, featuring a huge 4.65-inch HD display and a slightly curved face intended to hug your cheek when holding the phone to your ear, which offers impeccable speed.

TELEVISIONS

LG advertised its latest TV with the phrase, “Seeing believes.” Their new LG Cinema 3D TV offers 2D and 3D conversion functions, smart TV and a magic motion remote. Like a mouse for a smart TV, the remote lets you drag, flick and select your preferences without the hassle of using multiple buttons and arrow keys.

Other featured televisions were the Samsung PN51D7000 and Sony Bravia KDL-46NX720. The Samsung, at $1,200, offers outstanding overall picture quality, with excellent black-level performance and extremely accurate color. Key features include built-in Wi-Fi, comprehensive picture controls and more apps and streaming services than competitors. At $1,099, the Sony Bravia produces deeper black levels than any LED-based TV tested and includes built-in Wi-Fi as well as an Internet suite that streams services and widgets.

Visit www.cnet.com for more information on these and other products. Happy shopping!

A CNET techie, one of many, helped shoppers in Nolita decipher the best gadgets for the holiday season at a pop-up shop at the Openhouse Gallery. Photo courtesy of CNET

Capturing the Remains of Breast Cancer

admin — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 19:25:53 +0000

By Veronica Hoglund

Veronica Hoglund

As I walked down Mulberry Street toward the Openhouse Gallery in the Lower East Side, I was mesmerized by a photograph visible through the glass exterior of the gallery’s storefront. As I gazed at the image of a woman, bare-chested and marked with a large scar along her breast, I was for a moment paralyzed by its implication—so much so that I did not immediately realize that I had, in fact, arrived at my destination.

The SCAR Project, by fashion photographer David Jay, is a powerful exhibition that documents the experiences of young women who have suffered from breast cancer. The series, which began as a coping mechanism for Jay after discovering a close friend—his girlfriend’s identical twin sister—had been diagnosed with the disease, has now transformed into a five-year project devoted to spreading awareness through raw portrait photographs.

The images, which are as extraordinarily beautiful as they are emotive, each magnificently portray an individual and, more importantly, a human story. Whether as a result of their posture or their gaze, the women in Jay’s photographs seem to reveal their relationship to the disease. After only a few minutes in the gallery space, there is no questioning the honesty that radiates from each picture, an honesty that is anything but artificial.

For more details on The SCAR Project, visit www.thescarproject.org.

[photosmash id=30 layout='gallery_view_layout']