swimming in coffee

August 1

On Lexington Avenue alone, between the subway entrance at 53rd and Lex and my office on Park and 55th, there are three Dunkin’ Donuts, two Starbucks and a Pret à Manger.
For a brief moment of maybe a couple of weeks, a large Dunkin’ Donuts iced coffee was $3.02 with tax and a Starbucks venti iced coffee was $2.98. Dunkin’ Donuts’ large iced coffee is in a bigger cup — 32 ounces instead of Starbucks’ 24 ounces — but I was still struck to be paying more for coffee at proletarian Dunkin’ Donuts than at yuppy, tree-hugging Starbucks.
But my Starbucks (or is the plural Starbuckses?) have raised their prices and now a venti is $3.03. The world continues to spin on its axis.
Pret à Manger only serves one size of iced coffee. I'd guess it's around 16 ounces, and the price was recently raised from $2.00 to $2.16.

Loubieh B-Zeit (Vegetarian green beans) - لوبياء بالزيت

Ingredients: (4 servings)
450 grs of green beans (fresh or frozen)

2 medium tomatoes (diced)

10 cloves of garlic (peeled only)

2 onions (diced)

1/2 cup of olive oil

1 tablespoon of tomato sauce

1/2 cup of water

Salt and pepper

1 teaspoon of 7 spices or allspice

In saucepan, put the olive oil with the onions and the whole garlic cloves, add some salt. Then add the beans, cook until the beans wilt then add the tomatoes and keep cooking, add the 7 spices and then the tomato sauce followed by the water and let it simmer for another 12-15 minutes.

Serve warm with pita bread.