Late November Soundbites

The section of this blog for those who eschew Vanity Fair in favor of Lucky magazine, sentences not paragraphs more satisfying.

A good time was had this week at The Word Exchange: U.S./Mexico Playwright Exchange Celebracion held at HERE performance space in SoHo. Hosted by LARK Theater and filled with self-congratulating writers and minor stage actors, the good time occurred primarily after excerpts from four new plays (an exception to the mediocrity was Paola Izquirdo's cabaret piece Of Princes, Princesses and Other Creatures). A surprisingly lush Mexicano feast with pails of cerveza included the following highlights: chorizo and potato flautas with an ancho chile-cream dipping sauce, superb and sharp roasted tomatillo salsa, thick and rich guacamole, mini and square tamales drizzled with pumpkin seed sauce and cheese and skewers of chicken mole.

Though it's been three weeks since we gobbled up every last drop, Cafe Drake can't get Williamsburg's Marlow & Sons Rabbit Stew ($16) out of our minds. Sweetened with butter and cream and flecked with shreds of fresh mint, the whole is topped with crostini groaning under a thick and superb green pea puree.

Almost unbelievably, Noel Coward's correspondence (thankfully well preserved and documented) is even wittier and more amusing than his many glorious plays, film scripts and song lyrics. Hot off the presses is Cafe Drake's current bedtime reading, The Letters of Noel Coward . Treat yourself via Amazon's discounted prices.

A new mix especially created for Cafe Drake's Thanksgiving celebration is available now at Cafe D Radio, FIRZ - FM. Equally appropriate for all occasions, listen to it here.