Urubamba and more in the QNYC Evening Edition for Thursday January 17, 2013

Urubamba is great for a “distinctive date”

So says the folks at Serious Eats. For their Date Night column, they headed to Jackson Heights (last month they were at Gottscheer Hall in Ridgewood) for dinner at Urubamba, a quite nice Peruvian spot on 37th Avenue. There they had some things the were “puzzling” – like the choclo and cheese dish (choclo is corn that has huge starchy, and sometimes chewy kernels), but they loved the arroz con camarones, which is rice with shrimp cooked with butter, garlic, and parsley. Chicha morada was also drunk – it is a non-alcoholic beverage made from purple corn. Theirs comes with little bits of sour apple floating in it, which is a nice touch. This place is definitely worth a visit.

Great old photos of Jackson Heights

We were charmed by this old photo of construction of the elevated 7 train at the intersection of Roosevelt Ave and 82nd Street in 1914 and followed the link that came with it… and found a whole page of great old photos of Jackson Heights! Here’s a shot of the tennis courts that used to be in the neighborhood, ca. 1928.

Jacob Riis bust survives the wrath of Sandy

This week we learned that the bust of Jacob Riis – a replacement for the one stolen in 1964 – miraculously survived Hurricane Sandy. It was found out on the boardwalk by local resident Vivian Carter (author of the book Images of America: Rockaway Beach), and it’s amazing that it sustained no damage. The other part of the story is that the bust was funded by a $10,000 gift from the children of the Aquinas Honor Society at Immaculate Conception School in Jamaica Estates (GMAP). So Carter took a photo and sent it to the school so that the kids would know that the bust survived. They are looking forward to taking a trip out to Jacob Riis Park as soon as it is safe.

Interview with Chris Haber, creator of the I Heart Astoria tshirt

You may have seen the I Heart Astoria tshirts, sold at SITE in Astoria:

Image source: I Heart Astoria

The folks at Indie Loop took some time to interview Chris. She talks about the genesis of her shirts, the popularity of Astoria, indie businesses in the neighborhood, and sangria as cocktail representative of Astoria.

The Coalition for Queens releases its Year in Review for 2012 – lots of great things have happened in the LIC tech world

Anne Shisler-Hughes has put together a great overview of the LIC tech world last year, inspired by the Coalition for Queens’s Year in Review for 2012. Here’s an excerpt to give you an idea of what the Coalition accomplished:

The summary of the year’s accomplishments includes the launching of the very successful Queens Tech Meetup series, a forum for sharing products and ideas; the offering of entrepreneurship classes in partnership with the online community, Skillshare; and gaining the support of significant elected officials on federal, state and municipal levels, including Governor Cuomo, Speaker Christine Quinn and Representative Joseph Crowley. The Coalition also responded to the devastation of Superstorm Sandy by providing timely pop-up locations for tech entrepreneurs.

Along with their accomplishments, LIC is home to  3D printer Shapeways, which opened this past year, as well as the success achieved in 2012 in both the US and Canada of Songza, a music streaming service.