NYC Hurriquake Week, Shop

So, I was working in NYC last week, surviving the earthquake and flying out just before hurricane Irene. But there was still plenty of time for fun. I'm divvying things up this time, shop first, eat second, because I'm still digesting.

My new favorite store is Kiosk – the entrance pictured above. It's a wonderfully curated selection of items from around the world. Almost as if I picked them out myself – everything from German nun tonic to Japanese powder coated steel toolboxes. I picked up a Kaweco Sport Pen as my expandable Rotring finally fell apart.

To go with my pen, SB picked up a Whitelines notebook for me at Sam Flax. White grid lines (or ruled lines) on a light gray paper instead of dark lines on white. Genius!

For some reason, I had never been to the Strand bookstore – "18 miles of books." The entire second floor is the art section. I picked up Luc Sante's Folk Photography: The American Real Photo Postcard 1905-1930. Now that I know they have a website, I might have to pick up the other books I put down in the store that day.

Needing a friendly neighborhood drug store, I wandered into Thompson Chemists just down the street from my hotel where I was able to find both generic Claritin and Marvis toothpaste.

Lastly, a great store called Love, Adorned that carries beautiful handmade items – especially jewelry. And they had a shoe-maker in-residence making custom moccasins.

Small Bites #11

I've been saving up some nuggets for a while so here goes:

Here's a cool resource for Graphic Design from the 20s and 30s. It's mostly travel ephemera, but you can search by country and there are sections for advertising and design journals.

Most people use food processors and multitudes of kitchen gadgets these days. But occasionally you have a tedious and lengthy food prep like peeling and chopping apples or snapping the ends off beans where technology fails. And you'd like to watch TV or sit outside while you do it. The solution here from Tomas Kral.

Lots of interesting projects here from Nancy Wu, but if you click on "Humor" you can see her 100% Beef Jerky purse.

I don't often see headwear I like, but the hats and headbands from Muehlbauer are awesome.

If you asked me what Swedish cooking was all about, I wouldn't have a good answer. I'd maybe be embarrassed to say Swedish meatballs. But I recently saw an episode of New Scandinavian Cooking and Tina Nordstrom made some pretty great looking food. Haven't tried it yet, but the Sauteed Cabbage, homemade Mustard, and Apple cocktail with Absolut Vanilla are on my to do list.

Lastly, pictured above is a collage from Carl Kleiner's Everyday Geometry. They're deceptively simple and with beautiful color.

Liquor-cycle

Some cool outdoor kitchen gear at NYTimes. Love the mesh grill pans and the Liquor-cycle.

Gadgetry

Recently, we discovered Calphalon cookie sheets at Target. They have a nice offset "handle" you can easily grip. We tend to have difficulty finding cookie sheets that fit well into our Chambers stove because the racks are a bit narrow. The small size is great for making a few biscuits and fits in either orientation. But, the best part is the large size either fits on a rack perpendicular or essentially becomes its own rack if placed in the oven parallel.

We've changed our tune about the cookie sheets. See the revised post here.

Edible is a new online shop where you can buy everything from Mopani Worms to Reindeer Pate and lots in between including that coffee that civets have pooped. I'm filing it under gadgetry, because it's the kind of thing you'd buy as a novelty. I mean, I'm all for tasty exotic delicacies, it just all feels a bit trendy.

And this just in! A cozy perfectly sized for your 40-oz at Urban Outfitters. Just in time for summer.