Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan

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January 30, 2013 By cheryl

The Next Big Thing: A Preview

A lovely thing came out of writing my first book — I discovered a community of authors.

Through weeks-long residencies at artist colonies Yaddo and Djerassi, I lived with and learned from writers (and other artists) who listened to my stories and shared many of their own. All of this inevitably led to lasting friendships in which we’ve cheered one another on from coast to coast.

So when the talented and enormously entertaining Peter Mountford (my Yaddo mate as I holed up to write A Tiger in the Kitchen in 2010) invited me to join in on “The Next Big Thing Blog Hop,” I was most happy to oblige.

As Peter — author of A Young Man’s Guide To Late Capitalism — explained, this blog hop is a chance for authors to tell you what they’re working on. Authors answer 10 questions about their next book, tag the person who tagged them and at least five other authors. (You can read Peter’s piece about his second novel, The Dismal Science, here.)

Many thanks for the invite to the party, Peter. And here you all go — a sneak preview of what I’ve been cooking up in my little writing room …

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Books, Writing Tagged With: A Tiger In The Kitchen, Akashic Books, Baltimore Noir, Barbara Brauner, Booker Prize, Books, Boston Noir, Bronx Noir, Dennis Lehane, Djerassi, Fiction, Gordon Dahlquist, James Mattson, Jeet Thayil, Joe Yonan, Joyce Carol Oates, Kenneth Slawenski, Laura Lippman, Lawrence Osborne, Lisa Takeuchi Cullen, Memoir, Narcopolis, Neal Thompson, New Jersey Noir, Nova Ren Suma, Peter Mountford, Pulitzer, S.J. Rozan, Singapore Literature Prize, Singapore Noir, The Forgiven, The Next Big Thing, Writing, Yaddo

November 21, 2010 By cheryl

The Shop at Andaz Fifth Avenue: Style, With Some Substance


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As hotel restaurants go, the shop at Andaz Fifth Avenue tries pretty hard.

Determined to cast itself as a New York restaurant, it likes to broadcast just how local it is. Its Web site rattles off a litany of New York purveyors — eggs hail from Feather Ridge Farm in the Hudson Valley; lox comes from Russ & Daughters on Manhattan's Lower East Side, which has been providing New Yorkers with smoked fish since 1914. And there's even a self-conscious little area that sells snacks made by small, lesser-known brands in New York.

This is all in line with the in-the-know feel that the hotel, part of Hyatt Hotels & Resorts' chain of boutique properties, tries to give off. It's a pretentiousness you can already sense from the fact that it is the shop — spelled all lowercase, the hotel insists — and not, well, The Shop. (You'll have to check out my review of the hotel in the New York Times Travel section for more on this Andaz.)

How would the food stack up against all this posing? We decided to find out …

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Breakfast, Brunch, Hotels, Locavore, New York, Restaurants Tagged With: Anchovies, Andaz Fifth Avenue, Apple, Berkshire pork, Bloody Mary, Bolognese, Bone-in Virginia Ham, Books, Breadcrumbs, Breakfast, Brioche, Brunch, Cafe Des Artistes, Capers, Chicken Schnitzel, Cinnamon, Coffee, Compote, Crema, Eggs, English peas, Feather Ridge Farm, Fish, French toast, Greens, Griddle bread, Hotel, Hudson Valley, Hyatt Hotels & Resorts, Manhattan, Meatballs, Mimosa, Mint, New York, New York Times, Orange marmalade, Pastries, Raison, Restaurant, Roberto Alicea, Russ & Daughters, Sam Sifton, Schaller & Weber, Tarragon, The Shop, Thyme, Tomato, Travel, Wall on Water

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