NYC NOW - October 11, 2023: Midday News

Episode Date: October 11, 2023

Rep. George Santos is facing new federal fraud charges. Plus, a pedestrian-friendly makeover of Manhattan's iconic Fifth Avenue is being celebrated as a boon for business. Also, the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway will be mostly closed this weekend for repairs. And finally, WNYC’s David Furst talks with Robert Sietsema, senior critic at Eater New York, about a new online map of where to find the best pho in the city.

NYC, Welcome to NYC now. Your source for local news in and around New York City from WNYC. It's Wednesday, October 11th. Here's the midday news from Kerry Nolan. As you've been hearing a new indictment filed late yesterday charges Long Island Congress member George Santos with stealing the identities of donors to his campaign

and then using their credit cards to ring a up tens of thousands of dollars in unauthorized charges. Prosecutors say that some of that stolen money ended up in Santos' own bank account. The 23-count indictment replaces one filed earlier against the freshman Republican, charging him with embezzling money from his campaign and lying to Congress about his wealth, among other offenses. Santos didn't immediately respond to a request for comment, and his attorney declined to comment. Be sure to allow for extra travel time this weekend because the BQE will be mostly closed. The Queensbound lanes will be fully closed from two in the morning Saturday to Monday at 4 in the morning, and there'll be one lane open in the Staten Island direction.

DOT Commissioner Edanus Rodriguez says these repairs are necessary for the long-term stability of the BQE. For the future generation to come, it is important that we maintain the BQE safe, and that's why there's some area that there's some water that is leaking, and we have to remove some of those concrete, then we have to put new concrete in those areas. The DOT is adding additional concrete and reinforcing steel bars to parts of the crumbling cantilever near Clark Street in Grace Court this weekend. For years, officials have said the Brooklyn Heights portion of the BQE is at risk of collapse. A pedestrian-friendly makeover of Manhattan's iconic Fifth Avenue last year is being celebrated as a boon for business. WNYC's

Catalina Ginella has more. Stretches of Fifth Avenue at Midtown were closed to vehicle traffic for three Sundays in December as part of a holiday open streets program. Those blocks became crowded with people on foot instead of congested with cars. Now an analysis by MasterCard finds that businesses there saw a total of $3 million in additional spending. A team of public and private entities will work to transform the avenue to make it safer and more enjoyable for pedestrians. mostly sunny skies today we'll see highs in the upper 60s it'll stay mostly clear for tonight with lows in the lower 50s and another nice one tomorrow mostly sunny skies with highs in the upper 60s on wNYC i'm david first as the weather gets colder and the leaves begin to fall we also start

thinking about different foods but forget for a moment about Halloween candy and pumpkin spice and think instead about a steaming hot bowl of fah. It may just be the perfect comfort food for a cold and blustery day, and there are plenty of options for fah in New York City. Senior critic with Eater, New York, Robert Sietzima, just completed a new online map of where to find the best fah in the city. And he joins us now. Hey, Robert.

Hey, how you doing, David? Man, Fah. Now, for those of you out there who might not know, that's spelled P-H-O. Fa is the national noodle of Vietnam. And actually, the word fa refers to the noodle and not the soup. Well, how does New York City rate as a place for great Vietnamese and Southeast Asian food in the United States? For Southeast Asian food, great.

For Vietnamese food, mediocre, which is kind of sad because after the Vietnam War, many, many Vietnamese people, refugees came here. They tended to settle, for example, down in Louisiana and Texas, where they became shrimpers. They settled in the San Francisco, the Bay Area, the South Bay Area. They settled in Arlington, Virginia, you know, around Washington, D.C., and there's a giant Vietnamese community in Atlantic City, New Jersey. So where should we go for great fur in New York City? I have a whole bunch of places, and really there's nothing non-genuine about any of these kinds of fah. because as the national dish of Vietnam, it's spread all over the country, and it's different everywhere you get it. I would go to Hanoi House in the East Village if you want the northern

original kind of fa, which is much simpler. And actually, it's served there with a little saucer of garlic vinegar, which just makes it come alive when you throw it in there. Okay, that's Hanoi House in the East Village. And where else should we go? I like Van Da, which is, you know, actually the best place to go is the East Village because there's 10, by my count, places that serve Fah. So that's a really, really great place. On the other hand, if you happen to be up in the Bronx, there's a place called Com Tom Nin Q, which is a very old guard Vietnamese place that happens to be in a Cambodian neighborhood up on Jerome Avenue in Ford Manor. And that's a great place to get it. District Saigon in Astoria is a really great place because they put smoke.

moked brisket in it, which makes it kind of like Texas barbecue. Talk about the different choices that are available for meats and fah. What would you see in a lot of these different places? And what do you go for? Well, the classic five are the eye of round, which is usually thrown into the soup raw. The trick is to pick it up as quickly as possible and eat it while it remains semi-raw. Then there's usually brisket or some other kind of long-stued meat. there's tendon, then there's the tripe. You can avoid any of these things if you want or keep them.

And to my way of thinking, the thing that you always want in fah and is not always there, sometimes you have to ask for it is beef balls. Beef balls are amazing. They're like fish balls. What it is is like every part of the beef pounded into oblivion and turned into something that's like a rubber ball, but absolutely delicious. So get beef balls. And, by the way, here's a pro move that most people don't realize. You know, when you get the Hoyshin and the Siracha on the side, people like to squirt it into the bowl. Don't do it. Take a little saucer that you have on the side, put those two in the saucer and mix it and remove the meat from the soup and dip it in the sauce. That's the way it's eaten in Vietnam. For more information

on all of the places Robert mentioned today and more, just go to WNYC.org, we will also have a link to your new FAA map. Robert Sietzima with Ider, New York. Thanks again. And thank you, David. Thanks for listening. This is NYC Now from WNYC. Be sure to catch us every weekday, three times a day,

for your top news headlines and occasional deep dives. And subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back this evening.