Don’t read on an empty stomach

New Yorkers always think they know the real thing when it comes to Chinese food. Forty years ago it was egg rolls, chop suey and drinks with paper umbrellas. Then it was General Tso’s chicken and sesame noodles.

But over the past decade, as large communities of people from India, Peru, Korea, Trinidad and Guyana have formed here, New York has had to expand its ideas about what Chinese food can be.

Dishes like chili-spiked, deep-fried chicken lollipops [(recipe)], which are a Chinese-Indian specialty, and lo mein topped with chunks of peppery jerk chicken, served at De Bamboo Express, a Chinese-West Indian restaurant in Brooklyn, are what Chinese food is now to thousands of New Yorkers.

Although we are lowly Torontonians and not classy New Yorkers, a friend and I have been inspired by the article: tomorrow we fuse Jamaica to Mexico (well, Texas really) and will be making jerk chicken tacos.

I want to fly this bird

Despite cancellations from Air Canada, due to union woes, and Northwest and Delta, due to bankruptcy, Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner has already notched up an impressive 200 orders in one year. It boasts all sorts of technological features I don’t pretend to understand (lightweight poly-something), but my homosexuality is all a-twitter over its radical new approach to interior design.

I prefer it over Airbus’ ostentatious double-decker 380 that will feature lounges, gyms, boutiques, and restaurants that remind me a little of the Love Boat and that the likes of me will never be allowed to see. Check out the swooping arches, enormous windows, and calm nightlighting on the 787.

The 787 Dreamliner enters service in 2008.