mappel

Try Jaya for Malaysian on Baxter near Walker (just south of Canal). Their crispy squid is awesome as is their roti canai (like an Indian paratha served with a spicy sauce with a piece of dark-meat chicken in it). Or Marco Polo noodle shop just north of Jaya for a good-value giant bowl of noodle soup to power you through your proceedings (which usually involves just sitting around reading email or making friends or reading a book). Sadly, I would have said chow on Mei Lai Wah's beef dumpling soup but they're now out of business. They had the best steamed pork buns in town, too. You'll also be close to Little Italy so stop by Di Paolo's on Grand St for a sandwich and snag a tin of salt-cured anchovies and homemade sheep's milk ricotta to take home while you're there.

Without a corkscrew, I usually push the cork inside the bottle. Theory being that if I'm without a corkscrew, I'm usually without good stemware and usually not drinking anything that would be adversely affected by the part of the cork the wine wasn't already in contact with. This produces less spoilage than cork-damaging methods. Mark