Irwin Arieff

Irwin Arieff is a veteran writer and editor with extensive experience writing about international diplomacy and food, cooking and restaurants. Before leaving daily journalism in 2007, he was a Reuters correspondent for 23 years, serving in senior posts in Washington, Paris and New York as well as at the United Nations. He also wrote restaurant reviews for The Washington Post and Washington City Paper in the 1980s and 1990s with his wife, Deborah Baldwin.

UN EATS

Spring Greens Cropping Up Near the UN

April 16, 2012

by Irwin Arieff

Sure, it was a very mild winter. That does not mean you are still not eager to check out the first greens of spring. A visit to the greenmarket at Dag Hammarskjold Plaza or the bigger one at Union Square provides clear evidence that nature is moving along nicely. Along with spring onions, early …

UN EATS

broccoli rabe, Lunch Midtown East

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Schnitzel and Sides Ward Off the Midtown Fray

March 28, 2012

by Irwin Arieff

Ever since a long-ago family vacation to Vienna, I’ve wondered about schnitzel. Why take something as expensive and bland as a scant slab of veal and pound it even thinner, drown it in breadcrumbs and fry it? At Schnitzel & Things, a small, stylish new restaurant and carryout on Third Avenue between 45th and …

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German food Midtown, Lunch Midtown East, Restaurant Midtown East NYC, Schnitzel Midtown NYC

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Le Specialita: A Touch of Rome on 42nd Street

March 9, 2012

by Irwin Arieff

Cipriani is an international restaurant and catering firm whose holdings range from Harry’s Bar in Venice to Yotto, a Japanese eatery in Abu Dhabi. The business may be best known in the UN neighborhood for its 42nd Street party palace, an ornate, cavernous space housed in a converted old-fashioned bank building that is rented …

UN EATS

Cipriani, La Specialita, Restaurant Midtown East NYC

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BOOKS

A Search for Truth Behind UN Motives in Africa

March 8, 2012

by Irwin Arieff

“How can a beret colored blue … vaccinate against the racism and paternalism of people whose only vision of Africa is lion hunting, slave markets and colonial conquest; people for whom the history of civilization is built on the possession of colonies?” The question was asked by Patrice Lumumba, the Congolese premier, who was …

Africa, BOOKS, Security Council

Adekeye Adebajo, Patrice Lumumba, Rwandan genocide, UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations, UN Peacekeeping

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Master of Science in Humanitarian Studies at Fordham University

Finding the Best in the Falafel Triangle

February 16, 2012

by Irwin Arieff

The UN community, with its incomparable mix of people from around the globe, has a soft spot for falafel as well as for world peace. In the triangle stretching between the main UN gate on First Avenue and East 42nd Street to East 48th Street along Third Avenue, excellent spots abound for buying a …

UN EATS

falafel salads, Restaurant Midtown East NYC

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UN EATS

Desi Shack, Serving Elements of South Asian Style

February 2, 2012

by Irwin Arieff

Nothing gets in the way of a satisfying South Asian restaurant meal like hidden fat and unfamiliar names. What was that dish you ordered the last time, the one that took the skin right off your lips? A biriyani or a korma? And while you may no longer remember its name, can you ever …

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Indian food Midtown, lunch Lexington Avenue, Lunch Midtown East, lunch restaurants NYC, restaurant Midtown East

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Sophie’s Cuban Cuisine, Post-Revolution

January 21, 2012

by Irwin Arieff

The same armed revolution that brought Fidel Castro to power in 1959 drove other Cubans to flee to America, where they opened many excellent restaurants that have been teaching us ever since about the garlicky charms of their homeland’s cooking. One of these, however, was not Sophie’s Cuban Cuisine, which started in 1997 near …

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Cuban cuisine, Lunch Midtown East, Restaurant Midtown East NYC

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Alfama, Portuguese Tradition in Modern Digs

December 27, 2011

by Irwin Arieff

Sure, Portugal may be best known these days for the complaint that its slacker economy is weighing down the euro. But when it comes to the kitchen, Lisbon has always punched above its weight. And that is reason enough to be thankful that Alfama, a little gem of a restaurant that dished out fine …

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Alfama Portuguese restaurant, Lunch Midtown East, Restaurant Midtown East NYC

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UN EATS

The Elusive Great Sandwich: Potbelly Takes Manhattan

December 17, 2011

by Irwin Arieff

When it comes to grabbing lunch in the UN neighborhood, you can’t say there’s nothing to eat. There are lots of choices. It’s just that few of them are inspirational, particularly when you need to run out and grab something to eat at your desk. This is particularly true of that most noble and …

UN EATS

Lunch Midtown East, Restaurant Midtown East NYC, root-beer floats, sandwiches in New York

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Soba Totto: Slurping Up Flavors With a Side of Noodles

December 4, 2011

by Irwin Arieff

With cold weather setting in, what better lunch than a soothing bowl of soba (that’s buckwheat noodles to you Anglophones) swimming in hot broth? Now chase that with a good-size bowl of rice topped with stir-fried chunks of beef short ribs, or maybe fried oysters or thick slices of black cod, or maybe flakes …

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Lunch Midtown East, Restaurant Midtown East NYC, Soba Totto

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A UN Perk, an Autumn Pick-Me-Up

November 12, 2011

by Irwin Arieff

One of the greatest unsung pleasures of working at UN headquarters is the marvelous greenmarket that springs up on 47th Street east of Second Avenue every Wednesday year round. Over the years the market, known officially as the Dag Hammarskjöld Plaza Greenmarket (http://www.grownyc.org/daghammarskjoldgreenmarket), has gotten better and better, stretching closer and closer to First …

UN EATS

Dag Hammarskjöld Plaza Greenmarket, Kabocha Squash, UN greenmarket

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UN EATS

Dropping In on Shanghai’s Golden Age at Cafe China

October 29, 2011

by Irwin Arieff

You only need to wander a few blocks from the UN campus for a tasty portrayal of what it might have been like to eat in Shanghai in the 1930s. The recently opened Cafe China tries to be as much about theater as it is about food. But the kitchen is quite good, with …