Tuesday

Film
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The last time I had my 120 roll film developed I had it back ripped. I was disappointed not just because the film got ripped but more so the shop never admitted it was their fault. I really don't think I could rip the film myself plus the print and scan came out perfect. So this time I decided to ship my films to California to develop and scan. I went to Grand Central, paid $4.95 to have four rolls of film shipped on priority mail. Hopefully everything will just be fine. Like most of anything, the USPS is by and large pretty reliable but then we do get some mail that doesn't belong to us delivered to my mailbox. Nothing is 100%.

Eating Out
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Last week a friend of mine came to town on business. I called up my foodie spy and he recommended Ivo and Lulu, a French Caribbean outpost in Tribeca near the Holland Tunnel. I checked out the reviews in the usual places and they are kind of mixed. But I believed in my spy so Ivo and Lulu he said and Ivo and Lulu we went. We got off at Canal Street on the number 1 line and as usual I quickly lost my sense of orientation and proceeded to walk the opposite direction. It took us about five minutes before we realized that we were actually walking away from Ivo and Lulu. And I totally forgot my Blackberry which has GPS for occasions like this.

The restaurant has two entrances and in the beginning I thought the place was totally deserted or not open yet and I actually went to the next door to ask what's going on with Ivo and Lulu. It's a bit awkward as next door is also a French restaurant. But I guess they got this often enough, the waitress actually told me the main entrance is at another door down. I was mildly embarrassed. I had no sense of direction and orientation.

The waitress, Lulu perhaps, wasn't as bad or rude as some of the reviews suggested. She wasn't eager to please but just laid back. My friend asked her to take a picture for us and she was happy to oblige. And mind you, the camera I had with me was from the '70s complete with optical viewfinder and full manual focusing. I set the camera at aperture priority and set the f-stop at 1.4 and let her shoot away.

My gastronomical spy par excellence told me the place was BYOB with no corkage fee but since neither of us drinks so we just had tap water. The waitress automagically brought us a big bottle of tap water without up selling us any fancy water from France or Italy. For me that was a good sign, a sign of down to earth no nonsense hospitality. Though sometimes I do enjoy fancy water but the tap water there was cold and tasted just as good. We ate the basket of bread with pepper flaked olive oil. I thought the French prefer to eat bread with butter. Well I guess the Caribbean part makes it different plus what do I know anyway?

I ordered some of the dishes as suggested by my spy, like the venison for apertizer, and boar and sage sausage as my main course. I have to say the food was savory and bursting with flavors. I had the coconut flan for dessert, it was good but not exceptional. The portion was on the petite side so feel free to order more and share. Overall I think it was a fine dining experience. I wish they have used some real linen napkin instead of the brown paper cafeteria kind of napkin. It kept flying off my lap. The decor is simple and a bit funky, kind of downtown spartan chic if you will. The restroom located at the far end of the dining room on the left of the kitchen, is unisex and furnished with a simple commode only, if you know what I mean.

I think I would go back for the food or if you have cash to launder you should go there too. It's a cash only establishment no credit card.