On the occasion of a particularly nice accomplishment at work last month, my spouse took me out to celebrate and we decided to try MoCA.

Not the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art, the Museum of Computer Art,  the Museum of the Chinese in the Americas, nor the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles. Not even the Moca Bar and Lounge in Harlem.

Yep, on a slow and frigid Tuesday night, we dined at the pimped up, tricked out, feng shui’d, pan-Asian addition on FoHi’s “Restaurant Road.” I know some say it’s not “all that,” and we still think that Jade is better, but we had a very pleasant experience. The prices were high, but the food was tasty, the service was lovely, the decor was bizarre, and the tables were red.

Bravo to Moca for their stroke of genius: red-lit tables. Everyone looks good in soft, red lighting. You, your date, even your 80-year-old grandma will look rosy-cheeked and healthier.

First we started with soups to take the chill off of the night’s cutting wind. Both the Tom Yum Gang (Thai spicy shrimp soup) and the chicken soup with wontons were great! Sure, we’ve had these soups before many times at many venues, but these were definitely superior. The shrimps were large (and de-veined!!), the ingredients were fresh, the wontons delicate, and the noodles were tied in a cute little twine bundle.

The main courses were heavy-handed, but maybe that’s just us. I had a taro basket of seafood, and I thought the sauce was too sweet. But, again, the seafood was fresh and the taro basket was good. Next time we go, I think we’ll stick to appetizers and sushi.

“MoCA shines like a 1000-watt bulb in a darkened room, eye-catching in the already bustling shopping center.” - Citysearch review of Hewlett MoCa

“It’s hard to miss MoCA Asian Bistro, which looks bright enough to play understudy in Vegas. ” - Newsday review of Hewlett MoCa

Sure, we were among the eye-rollers who scoffed at yet ANOTHER pan-Asian restaurant in FoHi, not to mention one that’s, <shudder> from the suburbs. Hewlett, no less! There’s no denying that the decor is - how shall I put this? - unique. The rotating palm tree in the center of the dining room and the glass towers filled with water are not items you see everyday.

Stick to the appetizers and fun cocktails, and watch your budget. You’ll enjoy MoCa if you start out small.

…gets broadcast on YouTube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yq_tzS4sIPw

Warning: this is NOT the most FAMILY-FRIENDLY.

I usually don’t post items like this, but the fact that Kew Gardens and the E train is the backdrop cracks me up.

Check out this fun, social and yummy event coming to our neighborhood! Green Drinks is coming to Queens. And Queens Green Drinkers get amazing 2-for-1 specials on the full array of organic wines and beers at Tierra Sana!

6:00pm - 9:00pm
at Tierra Sana in Forest Hills
100-17 Queens Blvd at 67th Road

In case you don’t know, Green Drinks is a pro-environment drinking club. Or maybe it’s a pro-drinking environmental club? Either way, it’s an informal networking group for folks that are environmentally minded.

From their Facebook page: “Come and we’ll introduce you to some of the other like minded folks in and around Queens. If we’re lucky (which is likely) we’ll cross pollinate make new friends, catch up with old ones, and maybe even sprout an idea or three. Since this is a new little experiment for our borough, please help get the word out and tell your friends about it! Heck, why don’t you bring them?”

Here’s their Facebook Page. You can send them an email here to get their newsletter.

Queens Green Drinks has planned four more get-togethers so far in 2009. This edition of Queens Green Drinks is sponsored by Green Phoenix Permaculture.

Green Phoenix Permaculture is a non-profit organization dedicated to the promotion of and application of regenerative ecological design into our every day lives and the world around us. We’ve been rocking the Hudson River Valley with classes, workshops, and a full demonstration site featuring two forest gardens and a naturally built timber frame strawbale farm house since 2005. We work with a garden in Brooklyn and host a sustainable living action-learning group and meetups in Manhattan. Now we’re riding the green wave into Queens! Now forming local groups to learn and practice living well with each other and the earth, even in the big city.

Need a little escapism? Appropos of nothing, I want to mention to this dusty jewel I found at a Cape Cod used bookstore this summer.

 While I was laid up with the fractured foot, I finally got a chance to read it.

What a lousy piece of schlock, and it doesn’t even mention FoHi much!

It’s the tale of a loud-mouthed, egotistical, bratty American tennis star named “James McLaren” (gee, who could that be?) who quit in his prime and has become a drunk living in the south of France. He gets embroiled in drugs, murder and international espionage when the daughter of a suddenly-deceased tennis legend plucks McLaren out of near oblivion to be the spokesmodel for her father’s failing tennis clothing empire.

There are some mediocre passages about Flushing Meadows and NYC in the “bad old days,” but nothing really great about our neighborhood. But it does have great cover art!

Autumn on Austin Street is coming to a close, and my foot is not completely healed yet! Argh, 12 weeks and counting. Nevertheless, I did manage to take a little stroll around Austin Street to check out the scenery on an unseasonably warm day.

Speaking of fall, Rouge has officially fallen off Restaurant “Road.” Anyone know what’s going in that space?

 “La vie sans rose…”

Great colors in the falling leaves of the Bradford-Callery Pear trees.

But don’ t blink! Since the Feds are bailing out the turkeys this year, we’re jumping from Halloween to the Winter Holiday Shopping Season. Do not stop at Thanksgiving, go directly to Christmas!

The snowflakes have been strung across Austin Street…

 

…and the winter blossoming of temporary closeout stores is starting already.

Fox’s? U-bet!

The only thing that’s not turning white and wintery is the nursing home on 110th Street and 71st Road. Hooray! One less horrid white-brick building! Great face-lift.

 

Hmmm, would that make this a “phlog?”

Not much color - foliage or otherwise - to photograph this week. Most pics here are simply confirmations of the new stores popping up around the area, plus some intriguing bits of scenery around the nabe.

Halloween fun in front of Renegade salon. I hope your haircut doesn’t come out scary!

Pink Tree in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month

The Tap Room (the old “Cafe Moda”) - open for business, just in time for football!

Overheard: “That’s cool, but I can live without one more sports bar in my life.”

Site of new Fro-Yo competitor, OKO (where ColdStone Creamery used to be.)

Dollar Chic on chic Austin Street. Gimme LotLess anytime…

“This has nothing to do with the bailout! Really.” - TD Waterhouse buys Commerce Bank

New and improved Broadway Bakery on 71 Road! Still great coffee and cleaner equipment!

коли под наемThe new GameStop location on QB and 63rd Road, next to gas station, north side.

Menorah on top of T-Bone diner. Was this ALWAYS there, and I just never noticed it?

Boooo! I can’t go to this because my bum foot is KILLING me today, but you should go and have a drink for me!!

I’m having trouble posting images and other media (I’ve already had to retype this twice), so here’s the boring copy-paste about the event. Go have fun!

 

It’s Queens Membership Month here on the homefront of the TA Queens Committee and we’re having a party!

Come join us in an LIC penthouse and look out onto panoramic views of NYC

Thursday, October 23rd from 6:00 - 9:00pm.

Location:  47-40 21st St LIC, Queens, 10th Floor
(map<http://maps.google.com/maps?q=21st+%26+jackson+avenue+long+island+cit…>).

Directions: Plaxall is located on 21st St, just south of Jackson Avenue in
Long Island City.  It is three blocks along Jackson Avenue from the bike
path exit of the Pulaski Bridge.  By train: G train to 21st St, exit
at 21stSt & Jackson Avenue and walk ½ block south on 21
st St.  Or take the 7 train to Hunters Point Avenue and walk ½ block north
on 21st St.

For the month October only, we managed to finagle a special membership deal for all Queens residents (or employees). Ready? It only takes $20 for Queens residents renewing or becoming a new member. But, that’s not all..

$20 at the Queens Member Party gets you:
*Admission to the penthouse party at an exclusive location
*TA membership with all the benefits
*Open Bar & Food
*Free Raffle for a mountain bike, Summer Streets flair, messenger bags, and more.
*A chance to see and own the new limited edition I Bike QNS t-shirt.
*Free valet bike parking at the event

P.S. This is being co-sponsored by the Queens Chapter of Green Drinks - an environmental organization that likes to go to happy hours and bars. Or, is it a drinking organization that likes to support the environment? You decide!

 

You know me, I’m always looking for a bargain and a good cause!

During the whole month of October, Transportation Alternatives is offering all Queens residents a special discount on membership, only $20!  (Minimum single membership is regularly $30.  ) In addition to the TA magazine Reclaim, new TA Queens Members also receive a limited edition “I bike Queens” t-shirt.  It’s easy to sign up, just go to https://transalt.org/support/join/queens. By increasing increasing membership in Queens, TA will improve its ability to advocate for transit, pedestrian and cycling improvements in our fair borough.

Since I’m still sidelined with the fractured foot, I feel so out of the loop! I’m very glad to encourage others to get on their bikes and get out and walk in Queens, especially in the crisp, brisk fall season. Enjoy!

Personal Ad

Seeking local sweetheart who is into long walks into the sunset, good health and giving to charity. Must be kind to their mother.

If this describes you, join the Queens Boulevard walk for the American Cancer Society’s “Making Strides Against Breast Cancer” fundraiser, Sunday, October 19, 2008.

And while you’re at it, sign up yourself or a loved one for an automated mammogram reminder!

Now that I have succesfully predicted the arrival of Ricky’s Cosmetics to Forest HIlls (some say I successfully recruited Ricky’s here, but, please, please, your humble blogger is not comfortable with  that kind of flattery), I am riding a wave of clairvoyance and declaring that Lot-Less and the new competitor, Dollar-1, will be the discount duo to watch this fall!

I know I’m not the only one who enjoys what my family affectionately calls “schlock stores.” Anyone else’s mother bought them a popcorn maker, toaster oven and an ironing board for college at National Wholesale Liquidators? Who else cried when “A Real New York Bargain” closed? Who thinks that Jack’s 99¢ is just a poseur?
I don’t know if I can put the words “connoisseur” and “discount store” in the same sentence, but I will right here, right now, because I admit, I am one.  Look what’s available at the Lot-Less on the QB near 63rd Drive! Adidas bags!

They carry my preferred brands of shampoo, conditioner, my underarm deodorant, but much cheaper than at Duane Weed because I’m willing to tolerate their dowdy appearances in their old, discontinued packaging design. And, I don’t know about you, but I am a firm believer that Godiva chocolate has a very, very long shelf life.

But, it’s not just about the essentials. If you find yourself in an emergency situation where you need a necktie - and how many of us can relate to that? - rest assured that you can find these limited-edition beauties at extreme discount prices to complete that suit you got at Xios.

As part of my research, I conducted some reconaissance at the newbie’s. Frankly, Dollar-1 did not impress. Sure, their shower curtains were half the price of those at Lot-Less ($1 v. $2, respectively), but you get what you pay for. I’m willing to fork over the cash for those extra nanometers of vinyl.

Spet 22: Just added this photo of Dollar 1:

The winner is clearly Lot-Less, and I am confident they will prevail!

Say, I don’t know if I mentioned this, but I cracked a bone in my foot a month ago, the first week in August. For those of you who are in the medical profession or who like watching “Mystery Diagnosis,” I have the Jones fracture of the Fifth Metatarsal in my left foot. So, if you’ve ever wanted to know my “secret identity,” I’m the one in the area under 50, hobbling around with a funny shoe and cane that I decorated with stickers and day-glo tape.

But, this is not going to keep me down, sisters and brothers! That’s why I’m volunteering tomorrow, Sunday, at the Astoria Park rest stop New York Century Ride, from 8 AM to 1 PM. Come say hi! I’ll be the one not standing.

A photo I took at Astoria Park at the May 2008 Five Boro Bike tour

Map from the Parks Dept.

Believe me, as a recreational cyclist in our fair city, I’ve noticed how stunningly beautiful the weather has been this August. Wow. Hardly any rain or  humidity and NO heat waves! Oh, the agony of de feet!!

I found this photo on Flickr, and that’s exactly how I feel!

So enjoy our “August in Spetember” weather this week and maybe I’ll see you tomorrow!