January, 2015 | Shimmie Horn-New York

Maille Makes it to Manhattan

01/30/201501/22/2015 admin

French Dijon mustard Maille has just arrived in the Upper West Side. There are over 20 varieties showcased here, at the Columbus Avenue/68^th Street location. And for those non-experts who want to know more, Pierette Huttner is there to help.

The mustard sommelier enjoys describing the various flavors that range from truffle-type to nutty-type and everything in between. She’ll also suggest pairings such as mashed potatoes with black truffle and Chablis. For those who want to go all out there is the black truffle that retails at $45 for a 4.4 ounce jar.

Perhaps this mustard was just what midtown Manhattan was missing!

NY News

Canine Café?

01/20/201501/19/2015 admin

It’s not always so easy to have a dog in midtown Manhattan. Indeed, cities in general are a more challenging environment in which to house a pet. But for dog lovers in the area, there may soon be a solution. Maggie Chan and Mandy Chow are two 24-year old women who are hoping to get their Indiegogo campaign to raise $75,000 to build the Dog Café – a doggie playground and café for humans to match up New Yorkers with adoptable shelter dogs.

For those who just want to hang out with a dog and not adopt it, the café provides them a service too. The two women thought the lower east side’s Cat Café was pretty cool and based their idea on that. Their idea is a large indoor space in the area that will offer pet-sitting services, as well as give dogs the opportunity for playdates. New York shelters could then send in dogs that café-goers might be interested in adopting, getting to know them at the café before bringing them home. There are currently numerous abandoned dogs looking for homes in the city. As well this could help solve the city’s stray dog issue, by getting these dogs adopted too.

So just because you’re in Manhattan might not mean you to have to ditch your love for your canine companion.

Technology

Selfies: The new Foodies?

01/10/201501/07/2015 admin

Selfies seem to be the ‘in’ thing these days. Whereas it used to be that people would post pictures of the food items they were enjoying in various eateries to boast of their prosperity and joie-de-vivre, now it is selfies. But go one step ahead and you’ll get the selfie stick.

Selfie sticks are the latest craze in the city that never sleeps. And that was definitely no less the case a week-and-a-half ago as tourists and natives alike saw in the new year around Rockefeller Plaza and Times Square. One would have been well advised to watch their back (or front) for these digital sticks as getting poked was not such a strange possibility on December 31^st in the heart of New York City.

The selfie stick – a kind of rod that can attach to a smartphone – is used to snap selfies without having to have someone’s arm lurking in the end result. Apparently they have been very popular in Dubai now for quite a while. But in New York – and the rest of the nation – it is a gimmick that is only just starting to gain popularity, even though phone-holding rods have been available in the country for the last four years. It was iStabilizer CEO Noah Rasheta who thought of the idea as he was frustrated on a trip to Asia that every picture had his arm in it. So he started working on a selfie stick, and thus the Monopod was born. Retailing for around $35, there have been approximately 40,000 of the device since 2012.