New York Magazine
Flu food: 30 healthful things to eat and drink if you're sick. http://nym.ag/X8NhFV
Flu Food: 30 Healthful Things to Eat and Drink If You’re Sick
Matzo Ball Soup From DBGB.Photo: Hannah Whitaker/New York Magazine
You’re Either Bed-Ridden or Quarantined and You Need Delivery:
Pulled Duroc Pork Sandwich With Spiced Honey From Num Pang: Pork is a good source of zinc, which helps your bod fight off infections, and honey soothes your throat. But it's the Parisi baguette that can cure all.
Market Plate From Westville : This combo of four veggie sides is perfect delivery fare because it reheats well in the microwave. To maximize antioxidants and all that jazz, go for the honey Dijon Brussels sprouts, garlic pesto mash, roasted sweet potatoes, and green beans with almonds.
Tortilla Soup From La Esquina: The ancho chile gives this soup a kick, and spice thins mucus (gross, but true!). The avocado and carbs from the tortilla strips will give your sad, weak body a needed protein boost.
Chicken With Hot Red Pepper From Hunan Kitchen of Grand Sichuan: This is considered one of the spiciest dishes in New York. It'll make you cry (happy) tears as phlegm leaves your system.
Garlicky Pork Chops From La Caridad 78: Yes, there's the pork, but it turns out that garlic is also helpful because of something called allicin, which is a strong antibacterial and antiviral. The restaurant made the cut as one of New York's top delivery spots.
You’re On a Liquid Diet:
Usain Bolt Immune Booster Juice From Melvin’s Juice Box at Miss Lily's: If it's named after the fastest man alive, it's good enough to get your JV body up to speed. This concoction's packed with apples, beets, ginger, garlic, carrots, Vitamin C, spirulina, echinacea (what?), golden seal (the hell?), B-complex, and banana. The banana flavor overpowers all the scary health stuff, and it actually tastes awesome. Plus: Melvin's delivers.
Strawberry Blond From the Butcher’s Daughter: This new café from cocktail pro Heather Tierney makes health food taste all right. This juice spritzer has blood orange, basil, and strawberry, which provides Vitamin C.
Elderflower Tea From Frankies 457: Elder berries are an old folk remedy to fight the flu; they have antioxidant, antihistamine, and anti-inflammatory effects, which are probably maximized when not inside a cocktail.
Soy to the World From Liquiteria: Shit's not going well if you can't stomach food. This "liquid meal" (meh) consists of banana, blueberries, melon, vanilla soy milk, lecithin, and organic raw honey. Bananas keep your colon healthy, and honey, which is an antiviral, promotes digestive health. In sum: You'll be regular.
Winter Flu Brew From Podunk: Tea maven Elspeth puts homemade strawberry mint cayenne jam, the juice of one lemon, hibiscus, orange peels, eucalyptus, honey, and your choice of black, green, or herbal tea into this magical pot.
You Can Muster the Energy to Pick Up Food to Go:
Jim's Matzo Ball Soup From DBGB: This Bubby-approved soup's double-stock broth will thin out your mucus while the carbs give you energy. Plus: Chef Jim Leiken adds schmaltz to the balls.
Sweet Potato Casserole From Mighty Quinn’s BBQ: This super-veg side dish helps get rid of toxins, and it comes topped with maple syrup and pecans. But don't forget a slab of pulled pork while you're here.
Broccoli Béchamal With Gruyère From Arancini Bros.: The broccoli in the rice ball is packed with immune-fighting Vitamin C, and fried food always makes you feel better, right?
Carrot and Onion Tartine on Sunflower Rye From Bien Cuit: Sunflower seeds are stocked with vitamin E, which gives you an excuse to eat this sandwich and get a loaf of extra bread on the side (yeah, it's that good). The veggies on this open-faced sandwich can't hurt, either.
Pibil Tacos From Cochinita: Winner of the most flu-fighting ingredients packed into one dish: pork shoulder braised in oranges, spices, banana leaves, with hot salsa. Might as well get the meat sweats if you already have a temperature.
You Can Act Like a Functioning Human and Eat at a Restaurant:
Roasted Whole Hen of the Woods Mushroom From the Marrow: 'Shrooms fight infection and support white blood cells. Plus: Harold Dieterle's dish comes with kale, and this wouldn't be a roundup of health food without the omnipresent Queen Green.
Watercress Salad With Roasted Carrots and Cumin Yogurt From L’Apicio: Yogurt is a smart thing to eat because it keeps disease-causing germs out of your digestive track. This salad's far tastier than out-of-the-carton Fage (but feel free to go to 16 Handles and cough without covering; the fro-yo chain is invading the city).
Salmon From Cafe Tallulah: This new Upper West Side restaurant and cocktail lounge aims for an "Elaine's-style" vibe. If that's telling, you'll feel better after eating vitamin-D-packed fish from a former sous-chef at Blue Hill at Stone Barns.
Iowa Farms Pork From Louro: If you're finally taking off your sweatpants, you should have a little fun and try a new restaurant. This West Village spot from chef David Santos is getting good hype, and probably because it serves pork loin and belly with barbecue baked beans.
Oysters From the Leadbelly: One medium oyster provides all the zinc you need for a day, and you'll eat at least ten Kumamotos here. There's also comfort food in the form of truffle fries, Scotch eggs, and artichoke macaroni and cheese.
You Insist on Acting Like a Kid Home From School and Will Eat Only Sweets:
Warm Sweet Potato Cake from Kyotofu: This Hell's Kitchen Japanese spot specializes in desserts, and they taste damn good despite the vaguely healthy ingredient list. This one's got sweet-potato caramel, which must be flu-fighting on some level.
Banana Split From the Birdbath Bakery Pop-Up at Books of Wonder: Sometimes, all you need is an ice-cream sundae. This organic dessert is topped with pain-fighting cherries, cocoa nibs, and dark chocolate sauce. And, yes, vanilla ice cream — which is definitely a treat for your sore throat.
Green Tea Mille Crepes From Lady M Cake Boutique: Twenty or so layers of delicate crepe, subtle whipped cream, and enough immune-boosting matcha to turn the whole thing green.
Chocolate Loaf From Blue Duck Bakery Cafe: This rich bread's made out on Long Island, but it's sold at Union Market. With 72 percent cacao chocolate, it's packed with antioxidants.
Almond Brioche Toast From Amy's Bread: Take it home and pan-fry it for a quick and easy French toast. You could even heat this up in the microwave and it'd still taste great. Almonds give you vitamin E, too.
You're Going to Drink the Pain Away:
Start Me Up From the NoMad: The mix of bourbon, rum, strega, honey, ginger, lemon, and orange bitters will go down easy and soothe your throat.
Warm Ginger Cocktail From EN Japanese Brasserie: This cocktail's normally served cold, but all you have to do is ask for it hot and the bartender will happily comply. Ginger helps digestion and clears congestion, so it'll put you in good shape for the evening to come.
Rum & Raisin From Saxon + Parole: We already told you about how good Greek yogurt is for your malnourished, sad state of a body. It's what makes this cocktail creamy.
Fraise Sauvage From Employees Only: With wild strawberries, lemon juice, Plymouth gin, and Prosecco, this fruity drink is both refreshing and vitamin-packed. It's not a girly cocktail when a master mixologist makes it.
Sour Cherry Old Fashioned from ABC Kitchen: Cherries, which are also a good hangover-preventing food, fight pain. And Maker's Mark never did any harm.
From Forbes
Robert Procop's Jewelry Collaboration With Angelina Jolie Brings The Gem Expert To The Masses
Anthony DeMarco
Robert Procop
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. —Robert Procop has become known to most people as the jewelry design partner of Angelina Jolie. The two are creating high jewelry pieces using statement gemstones under the Style of Jolie brand. It’s a charitable undertaking where all proceeds from the sales are used to build schools for girls in impoverished countries through the Education Partnerships for Children of Conflicts, co-founded by Jolie.
However, Procop’s involvement in the upper tiers of the jewelry and gemstone industry runs a course that has immense depth and breadth. He currently owns and operates, Robert Procop Exceptional Jewels, where he sells his own jewelry creations, and buys and sells statement gemstones in a confidential and secure environment to well-heeled buyers. Before this venture, he was the CEO of the famed jewelry house, Asprey & Garrard, where he led the organization through a difficult period by returning it into the two separate entities they originally were. He then led Garrard for a while. The remarkable thing about this is he had no prior experience running a luxury jewelry house. He has also owned retail stores on Rodeo Drive.
Robert Procop 63.27-ct. cushion blue sapphire ring
“I only buy for value,” he said in the Beverly Hills showroom and studio. “I never buy something where I’m going to make a design. I buy it if I could make an offer competitively and it can be sold in the trade.”This means he doesn’t get involved with auctions or other competitive bidding situations. He also tends to avoid white diamonds, turning instead toward rarer and more valuable fancy colored diamonds.
He says he only deals with gemstones that haven’t undergone heat-treatment or has had very little treatment. Almost all gems these days undergo some kind of heat treatment, which enhances clarity and color. Large, recently mined gems with the most sought after colors (“pigeon-blood” rubies; luminous green emeralds; deep, rich blue sapphires) are rare enough. Being able to purchase them without heat enhancements is even more difficult. But Procop says these stones exist if you know where to look.
Robert Procop Exceptional Jewels Long Emerald Earrings
His knowledge of gemstones and diamonds is so great and he is so respected, that he has become the editor-in-chief for the next edition of Famous Diamonds, considered by many to be the world’s most important book about diamonds. It was first published by Lord Ian Balfour, a noted diamond historian and a longtime employee of diamond mining giant, De Beers.
Procop, who refers to the book as “the bible,” explains that after five editions, Balfour, in his late 80s, can’t continue updating the coffee-table-sized tome—with its lush images and vibrant stories about the world’s most famous diamonds. Balfour personally chose Procop.
“I had been honored by Ian Balfour to pass on his legacy,” Procop said. “(Balfour) is very good at finding these romantic stories. He always says the diamond business is not only full of trading but full of everything from emperors to smugglers.”
With his expertise in colored diamonds, Procop said he will update the book with some of the rarest colored diamonds in the world and will provide explanations of how diamonds get their unusual colors.
“Pumpkin orange, unusual greens … diamonds that come from the Argyle mine (in Australia, famous for its pink diamonds) that are a deep violet, then they get brighter blue,” he said. “We’re going to try to come up with a rainbow of colors because people have never seen some of these.”
Procop’s studio and workshop is well organized and immaculately clean. Walls are painted white and a row of windows fills the room with light. It’s here where his small staff designs jewelry based on his sketches and specifications that are then sent to master craftsmen to build. It is also where his customers can come to look at his jewelry creations and gems. His clients, which he never reveals, include every U.S. president since Ronald Reagan, other notable politicians and, considering its location, the best known and most powerful names in Hollywood.
On this day several Style of Jolie pieces, including an emerald necklace, bracelet and ring set in rose gold (his metal and color preference) were among the jewelry pieces on a white table. All of the emeralds are cut in the tablet shape (which resembles a cushion cut) created by Jolie and Procop, and a signature part of the Style of Jolie collection. Procop said Jolie wanted something with an historical message. She spent a great deal of time studying how a tablet is held and together they designed the shape.
As mentioned before the idea behind the jewelry is to build girls schools in impoverished areas. The business model is rather simple. They design the jewelry together. She wears the pieces. Then they are sold.
Procop pointed to the ring. “This is a 27-carat emerald,” he said. “When the stone is sold we give the money to the charity and then we build another school.”
Please join me on the Jewelry News Network blog, the Jewelry News Network Facebook Page, and on Twitter @JewelryNewsNet.
Nathan Rabin
via @TheAVClub - Read This: an epic expose on Scientology's implosion and fundraising chicanery http://avc.lu/URs6sm
Read This: an epic expose on Scientology's implosion and fundraising chicanery
The Internet is full of interesting things to read outside of The A.V. Club—no, really! In our periodic Read This posts, we point you toward interesting or noteworthy pieces that caught our eye.
These are dark days for Scientology, as L. Ron Hubbard’s controversial church/cult/business takes one massive hit after another. The famously litigious sect’s notorious veil of secrecy is steadily lifting as a series of high-profile ex-Scientologists have publicly come out against the organization. There's Academy Award winner Paul Haggis, whose defection inspired a 2011 New Yorker article by Lawrence Wright, who is also behind the expose Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, And The Prison Of Belief, which will be released on Thursday; and Jenna Miscavige Hill, the ex-wife of Scientology leader David Miscavige, who will be releasing her own Scientology tell-all next month in Beyond Belief: My Secret Life Inside Scientology And My Harrowing Escape (which we’re guessing from the title is not overly positive).
Now Buzzfeed has released a fascinating expose on Scientology’s seeming implosion. The article centers on the controversial construction of “Ideal Org” buildings, extravagant and expensive Scientology worship centers that are financed by massive donations. In an exhaustively researched piece, Alex Klein argues that these Ideal Org buildings serve dual purposes: Though the number of Scientologists internationally and nationally is shrinking rapidly, due in no small part to the hurricane of bad press the church has received as of late, the constant building of expensive new Scientology buildings creates the illusion of growth and robustness among the faithful and the general public. And these buildings have been a massive cash cow for the perpetually cash-hungry organization because they glean untold millions of dollars in contributions from the faithful, only a small percentage of which actually seems to be devoted to building them. The article posits these buildings as elegant metaphors for the state of Scientology: gaudy and glitzy on the outside but empty and hollow on the inside.
Buzzfeed follows the numbers on the donations and discovers, not surprisingly, that they don’t add up. Nailing Scientology on something like real estate fraud is a little like busting Al Capone for tax evasion, but if a lengthy article about fraudulent fundraising practices sounds dry and tedious, it reads like a gripping legal thriller. These might be dark days for Scientologists, but it is a Golden Age for the sizable segment of the populace that derives exquisite schadenfreude out of its never-ending public foibles. If you have a few spare hours, it’s very much worth your time.
These are dark days for Scientology, as L. Ron Hubbard’s controversial church/cult/business takes one massive hit after another. The famously litigious sect’s notorious veil of secrecy is steadily lifting as a series of high-profile ex-Scientologists have publicly come out against the organization. There's Academy Award winner Paul Haggis, whose defection inspired a 2011 New Yorker article by Lawrence Wright, who is also behind the expose Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, And The Prison Of Belief, which will be released on Thursday; and Jenna Miscavige Hill, the ex-wife of Scientology leader David Miscavige, who will be releasing her own Scientology tell-all next month in Beyond Belief: My Secret Life Inside Scientology And My Harrowing Escape (which we’re guessing from the title is not overly positive).
Now Buzzfeed has released a fascinating expose on Scientology’s seeming implosion. The article centers on the controversial construction of “Ideal Org” buildings, extravagant and expensive Scientology worship centers that are financed by massive donations. In an exhaustively researched piece, Alex Klein argues that these Ideal Org buildings serve dual purposes: Though the number of Scientologists internationally and nationally is shrinking rapidly, due in no small part to the hurricane of bad press the church has received as of late, the constant building of expensive new Scientology buildings creates the illusion of growth and robustness among the faithful and the general public. And these buildings have been a massive cash cow for the perpetually cash-hungry organization because they glean untold millions of dollars in contributions from the faithful, only a small percentage of which actually seems to be devoted to building them. The article posits these buildings as elegant metaphors for the state of Scientology: gaudy and glitzy on the outside but empty and hollow on the inside.
Buzzfeed follows the numbers on the donations and discovers, not surprisingly, that they don’t add up. Nailing Scientology on something like real estate fraud is a little like busting Al Capone for tax evasion, but if a lengthy article about fraudulent fundraising practices sounds dry and tedious, it reads like a gripping legal thriller. These might be dark days for Scientologists, but it is a Golden Age for the sizable segment of the populace that derives exquisite schadenfreude out of its never-ending public foibles. If you have a few spare hours, it’s very much worth your time.
