NYC NOW - August 4, 2023: Midday News

Episode Date: August 4, 2023

1700 nurses at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick strike over high patient-to-staff ratios. Also, an emergency court conference convenes today regarding the city's "right to shelter" mandate after asylum seekers spent days sleeping outside a Midtown hotel. Meanwhile, Yankees' first baseman Anthony Rizzo, diagnosed with post-concussion syndrome, is placed on the injured list. Lastly, if you love fried chicken, stay tuned as food critic Robert Sietsema shares his favorite NYC fried chicken spots with our very own David Furst.

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WNYC. It's Friday, August 4th. Here's the midday news from Lance Lucky. 1,700 nurses at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick are officially on strike. They say they frequently feel overwhelmed and need the hospital to set lower staff-to-patient ratios. Jeffrey Martin says he's marking his two years on the job on the picket line. He says he often has to take care of sick. six patients a day at the Level 1 trauma center, which receives the sickest patients in the region.

I'll feel that I did not provide the best level of care that I could for my patients because I had so many, or because one takes a term for the worst and you have to then prioritize them over the five others. I've had to apologize to patients and their family members and say, I don't have the time right now to update you or to do this. Hospital officials say they've hired replacement nurses and remain open to continuing contract talks. A state Supreme Court judge has called an emergency court conference today on the city's right to shelter mandate. The Legal Aid Society and Coalition for the Homeless requested it after dozens of people spend days sleeping outside a Midtown Manhattan hotel that has been housing asylum seekers. A mayoral spokesperson says the city is being overwhelmed by the number of new arrivals and must make difficult, swift decisions to deal with the crisis.

After struggling at the plate for two months, Yankee First Baseman Anthony Rizzo, has been diagnosed with post-concussion syndrome. He collided with another player May 28th and was initially cleared to play after a league-mandated concussion test. But last weekend, manager Aaron Boone said Rizzo complained of fogginess and struck out five times in a game for the first time in his career. Then on Wednesday, a neurologist determined Rizzo had cognitive impairment. He was placed on the 10-day injured list and will be evaluated at least weekly, but

there's no timetable for his return. 76 degrees. Chance of showers this evening. If you love the crunch of fresh fried chicken, our next guest has you covered. Food critic Robert Seatsima has been sampling the fried chicken of New York City, and back in July he released his list of the best fried chicken dishes in town. He is senior critic at Eder, New York, and was the chief restaurant critic for the village voice for two decades.

He spoke about his favorite fried chicken spots with our own David First. Robert, you call fried chicken the country's foremost comfort food. Why does it earn this title? It is, I mean, there's a couple of contenders, maybe pizza, maybe hot dogs, maybe hamburgers, but fried chicken stands above all of them with historical underpinnings that go way back, a dish that has been adopted worldwide. I mean, you have Filipino fried chicken. chicken and Korean fried chicken, all inspired by the national dish of New York City fried chicken.

Now, where does New York City rank when it comes to fried chicken hotspots in the U.S.? Oh, we definitely have the best. Okay. And one of the reasons is that our fried chicken originated in the Carolinas and in Georgia, came up here in the 20s with the Great Migration, set down at a number of little tiny man-pah restaurants of which few remain and just went like crazy, despite the fact that it is weathered so many health food storms. You know, the anti-grease 80s, the anti-carb 90s, the fat-free 2000s, you know, all of these things have just washed over it like a wave and it still stands. Okay, and here we are. There are over 20 restaurants on your list. We can't get to everything right now. You can check out Robert's full list at Eater, New York. But give us a few favorites. Let's highlight the original, the basic form of fried chicken that we have in New York City. And it is quite different from that of other northern cities and southern cities as well. Like I say, it originated in the Carolinas. It's a very simple kind of fried chicken where you basically just coat. The chicken with the skin on very carefully with flour and salt and virtually nothing else.

And then you're frying them so that they get crisp and brown. They're just absolutely delicious. I would say go to Mitchell's soul food, which is in Prospect Heights. It is resisted gentrification. It's been open since the 60s. And they do this chicken in the most fundamental Carolina style. So that's where to go if you want the classic. Right. And if you want even more kind of historically classic, go to Charles Gabriel's Charles Pan Fried Chicken up in Harlem.

There's one on the Upper West Side. In this guy, Charles Gabriel, he is still doing the chicken in skillets. That's the old-fashioned way. In other words, you don't put the chicken in the deep fryer. And with a skillet, you cannot let your attention wander for a second. You have to look at the chicken, turn it over as necessary. prop certain pieces out of the fats so that they don't get too brown, so they don't get too crisp, so they don't get too dry. And that's what Charles Gabriel, who is a genius of fried chicken cooking, and I hope he lives forever. He is still doing that up in Harlem. And man, to eat one of his pieces of fried chicken is to know a well-done piece of poultry.

Now, I know the focus is chicken today, but do any of these places offer choices, exciting choices, maybe even for vegetarians? You know, places like Mitchell's soul food, most of the food is vegetarian. You know, a lot of these soul food places no longer use smoked turkey or fat back in their collard greens, for example, because of health reasons. These places all became health conscious late in the last century. So you could get collard greens, you could get wonderful mac and cheese. As a matter of fact, the so-called proteins are in the United States. in a way, extraneous, because when these feasts were originally set out, you know, the most prominent things were the vegetable dishes. It was an agrarian phenomenon. And when you're

sitting in front of a plate of mac and cheese and fried chicken, I'm afraid you might just reach for the mac and cheese first. All right. Well, you can make your own decision when you check out all these places. We'll have a link to Roberts full list at WNYC.org. Eater, New York, senior critic, Robert Sietzima. It always feels like lunchtime when we finish chatting. Thanks again. Thank you, David. Thanks for listening. This is NYC now from WNYC.

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