Sarah blew into town, and I haven't had time to write. I'm sure the readership has appreciated the break. Today, though, I want to talk about Central Park and some other interesting environs of New York City. Central Park is a giant swath of green literally in the geographic center of Manhattan Island. It's 843 acres of the most expensive land in North America. It's the largest urban park in the United States. It is a breath of much needed air in a jungle of concrete, high rise buildings, choked roads, blaring cars, buses and taxicabs foaming with wall to wall people. The park opened in 1857, and has been continually improved.
All the 'features' of Central Park except for the rock outcroppings are man-made. There are several lakes (all man made), 26,000 trees (all planted), miles of benches, walkways, garden areas, meadows, the largest ice skating rink in the city, statues both life size and larger than life size, and fountains. There are 24 playgrounds in the Park. People stream into the park from the surrounding streets. Housing with a view of the Park' is highly prized and extremely expensive - millions of dollars expensive. The first apartment house built in New York City was built at the edge of the Park.
As a tourist there are four ways to see Central Park: (1) hoof it - it's 6 miles around the park. (2) bike it - rent your bike at the Boat House (where you can also rent boats or gondolas to go out on the big lake). (3) Take an old-fashioned horse-drawn carriage ride, and smell manure for your entire tour, or (4) hire labor to pedal for you by renting a pedi cab with bicyclist. We chose option #4, and we had a thoroughly entertaining time being rickshawed thru Central Park. We wove in and out of bicycles and horse draw carriages while in the Park, and in and out of cars, trucks, buses and taxis on the short sojourn out of the Park. Our pedi cab driver confided that the horse carriage drivers hate the pedi cabs. I'm sure they do. These pedi cabs halved their business. It was a great and relatively inexpensive way to see a lot of Central Park.
We also went to another park - it's actually a new park in Manhattan in the Chelsea neighborhood. It's a park with a twist: the park is elevated. It's called "The High Line". NYC parks took possession of an abandoned elevated rail line, and turned that ribbon into a new urban park. It's wildly successful, and it's been cleverly executed. It's obviously bringing more people to the Chelsea area and thus more businesses and lots more housing is being renovated because of the High Line. There are benches, GRASS, flower gardens, trees, amphitheaters, and wide walkways on 6.73 acres that is elevated 30 feet in the air. It's got views of the New York piers along the North River (It's where the Hudson and East Rivers come together, and it's got it's own river name.) The High Line Park is a triumph, and a genius re-purposing of what was once a rusting eyesore running through this neighborhood.
Another 'environ' of New York City is the club/cocktail scene. No - Drake and I haven't suddenly given up our stodgy ways. We are living this part of the New York City experience through Sarah and Jay. At age 25 life begins at 11pm. One of the things they have wanted to do while here was go to cool clubs in New York City. As you look at the pictures, you will see one such place. They came to breakfast yesterday with a terrific story.
Upon getting ready to leave dinner, they asked the waitress if she could recommend any really "NY" places for an after dinner drink. She must have liked their looks because she sent them to a place with two, not one, but two bouncers out front. The waitress warned them to tell the bouncers they were joining someone's party inside, and they should be able to get in. The bouncers did give S & J a hard time because their function is to let in only deserving people (meaning NOT TOURISTS). Sarah and Jay just kept bullshitting them about joining "Jenyne's Birthday Bash", but I think the truth is that they didn't LOOK like rube tourists - that's my specialty. The place was everything they hoped: All New Yorkers. A specialty bartender (meaning, you just tell him you like 'gin', and he makes a specialty drink just for you.) A DJ playing music to set up a distinctive New York atmosphere. Sarah and Jay were popular enough to be invited back by the 'regulars'. A very satisfying New York experience for all of us.
Drake and I did make a THIRD trip to the Metropolitan Art Museum - I really wanted to see the Contemporary Art. It was gratifying to see that the artists being collected at the Met are the same artists that the Fort Worth Modern has been acquiring. I also wanted to see some Asian art, particularly Japanese art. My favorite Japanese artist - Hiroshige, a 19th century artist doing woodblock prints, was well represented. I also got to see the Alexander McQueen haute couture clothing exhibit in a less crowded setting. We closed the museum down at 9pm on Friday night, and we both feel like we saw everything we wanted.
I'm putting in two picture sites. The first link is the Parks, and the second link is the third set of Metropolitan Art Museum pix.
https://picasaweb.google.com/jalyss1/NewYorkCityCentralParkAndEnvirons?authkey=Gv1sRgCNz71K2Cx76cQw#
https://picasaweb.google.com/jalyss1/NewYorkMetropolitanMuseumOfArt3?authkey=Gv1sRgCMeEopa37tna9QE#
We've also eaten at four more terrific restaurants - scattered all over New York City. Tomorrow it's either the Guggenheim or the MOMA for Drake and I. Then one last blow-out outing for the four of us; the crescendo of this trip for me: The American Ballet Theater doing Swan Lake.
Saturday, June 25, 2011
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Would you Believe a FREE DAY? Well, almost.
Today we spent the least amount of money per diem since we got here. We haven't exactly been parsimonious while we've been here, and one of the very true things about New York City is that it's expensive. To be fair, we haven't exactly TRIED to economize either. I haven't cooked a single meal since we arrived (YEA!!!!!!) The only thing I could say we have done that has been a 'good buy' is to buy a $100 Metrocard (each of us) which is good for unlimited use for all subways and all buses for 30 days. Because these are so readily available and so easy to use, we haven't used a taxi once. That means that our daily transportation cost is about $3.00 each. A single subway ride without the card is $2.50.
So spending $35 for the entire day's entertainment AND food was a real aberration. It happened this way: We started the day at the American Indian Museum which is a Smithsonian Museum and is FREE. (I've heard more than one New Yorker tell me that if it's FREE in New York you should do it because it won't be free for long. ) The museum is housed in the Alexander Hamilton Custom's House built in 1910, and it is a spectacular building in the same architectural style (and time period) as the New York Public Library. We spent half an hour ogling the building before we even thought about the museum.
This museum was everything I've come to expect in a Smithsonian Museum - beautifully lighted, artifacts tastefully displayed, and interesting stuff. Having grown up in Oklahoma, another piece of land that was supposed to belong to the Indians FOREVER, I have a soft spot for Native American artifacts. One of the things that struck me today was how hard it was for the nomadic tribes to hang onto their culture and their art after being confined to reservations.
There was also a very interesting exhibit about the horse (brought by the Spanish to the 'New World' and adopted/stolen by the Indians), and how acquisition of the horse changed the tribal life of the nomadic Indians. Acquisition of horses really improved the lives of Indian women, freeing them from quite a bit of drudgery labor.
This is all in the Battery (which is the southern part of Manhattan Island). We hopped back on the subway and went up to Chinatown. We've been wanting to go here, but it wasn't convenient until today. One of the first things we learned when we arrived here is not to buy 'stuff' anywhere but Chinatown. As the tour guide on the Grayline bus ride explained, all the T-shirts, jewelry, handbags, sunglasses, and New York knickknacks all come from Chinatown. If you buy that stuff anywhere else, you're just paying the middleman. Today based on what I saw, that's absolutely true. You could buy the identical I Love New York T-shirts (where 'love' is the heart) 7 for $12.99 or $2.99 each in Chinatown. Some stuff I've seen sold all over the rest of New York was 50% cheaper in Chinatown. We had out restaurant all picked out to discover that some mysterious problem had closed the restaurant. No worries - there are restaurants every 3 steps. We wound up at a place that we liked the look of, and I liked the name: Shanghai 456. Our meal was $23 - and that included the tip.
My final word on Chinatown is that I thought the rest of New York City was busy and crowded - well triple the busy and the number of people and you have Chinatown. It was actually hard to walk down the sidewalks. The 'stores' were about 10 feet wide and 50 feet long - crammed with merchandise from the floor to the ceiling, one after another with no space between. There were vegetable stalls on the sidewalks and open air fish markets. I resisted the temptation to buy anything except for three collapsible fans at $1.00 each - and if I'd bargained, I probably could have gotten them cheaper!
We hopped on another subway and headed for the Lower East Side - this is the famous tenement area of New York in the late 19th and early 20th century. At that time it was the densest concentration of human beings on the planet. Today it seems to be a spacious, really calm, and very uncrowded area of New York. Surprisingly, it's little served by subways, and we had to take a bus to get to the Abrons Art Center - part of the Henry Settlement House (a charitable organization whose purpose was to help new immigrants integrate into the United States and American culture). When I was looking on the Carnegie Hall website - hoping to find a concert there we could buy tickets for, I discovered the the Carnegie season is over, but that during June they sponsor lots of free neighborhood concerts all over the city. We like chamber music, so we attended a free neighborhood concert in the Lower East Side tonight.
The musicians we saw are called ETHEL (don't know why), but they are the classic chamber group: 2 violins, a viola and a cello. All the musicians were trained at Julliard and have been playing together (paying gigs) for 11 years. They don't play traditional music, but rather play 20th century composers - contemporaries of themselves as well as some compositions they have individually composed. Tonight, a composer of one of the pieces was in the audience. This was very informal, and actually the audience lounged on cushions on the steps of the art center while children played around, and some young girls (5 or 6 years old) actually danced spontaneously to the music. It was very relaxing and very entertaining and it was FREE. This is supported by the Carnegie Foundation, and we were told that over 1000 free concerts had occurred in New York in June.
Coming home tonight on the subway, I figured we used 4 different subway lines today and one bus route both coming and going, and our total expenditure today was under $35. What a day! See it in pictures if you're interested:
https://picasaweb.google.com/jalyss1/NewYorkAmericanIndianMuseumCustomsHouseChinatown?authkey=Gv1sRgCNLghumBoKvOLw#
So spending $35 for the entire day's entertainment AND food was a real aberration. It happened this way: We started the day at the American Indian Museum which is a Smithsonian Museum and is FREE. (I've heard more than one New Yorker tell me that if it's FREE in New York you should do it because it won't be free for long. ) The museum is housed in the Alexander Hamilton Custom's House built in 1910, and it is a spectacular building in the same architectural style (and time period) as the New York Public Library. We spent half an hour ogling the building before we even thought about the museum.
This museum was everything I've come to expect in a Smithsonian Museum - beautifully lighted, artifacts tastefully displayed, and interesting stuff. Having grown up in Oklahoma, another piece of land that was supposed to belong to the Indians FOREVER, I have a soft spot for Native American artifacts. One of the things that struck me today was how hard it was for the nomadic tribes to hang onto their culture and their art after being confined to reservations.
There was also a very interesting exhibit about the horse (brought by the Spanish to the 'New World' and adopted/stolen by the Indians), and how acquisition of the horse changed the tribal life of the nomadic Indians. Acquisition of horses really improved the lives of Indian women, freeing them from quite a bit of drudgery labor.
This is all in the Battery (which is the southern part of Manhattan Island). We hopped back on the subway and went up to Chinatown. We've been wanting to go here, but it wasn't convenient until today. One of the first things we learned when we arrived here is not to buy 'stuff' anywhere but Chinatown. As the tour guide on the Grayline bus ride explained, all the T-shirts, jewelry, handbags, sunglasses, and New York knickknacks all come from Chinatown. If you buy that stuff anywhere else, you're just paying the middleman. Today based on what I saw, that's absolutely true. You could buy the identical I Love New York T-shirts (where 'love' is the heart) 7 for $12.99 or $2.99 each in Chinatown. Some stuff I've seen sold all over the rest of New York was 50% cheaper in Chinatown. We had out restaurant all picked out to discover that some mysterious problem had closed the restaurant. No worries - there are restaurants every 3 steps. We wound up at a place that we liked the look of, and I liked the name: Shanghai 456. Our meal was $23 - and that included the tip.
My final word on Chinatown is that I thought the rest of New York City was busy and crowded - well triple the busy and the number of people and you have Chinatown. It was actually hard to walk down the sidewalks. The 'stores' were about 10 feet wide and 50 feet long - crammed with merchandise from the floor to the ceiling, one after another with no space between. There were vegetable stalls on the sidewalks and open air fish markets. I resisted the temptation to buy anything except for three collapsible fans at $1.00 each - and if I'd bargained, I probably could have gotten them cheaper!
We hopped on another subway and headed for the Lower East Side - this is the famous tenement area of New York in the late 19th and early 20th century. At that time it was the densest concentration of human beings on the planet. Today it seems to be a spacious, really calm, and very uncrowded area of New York. Surprisingly, it's little served by subways, and we had to take a bus to get to the Abrons Art Center - part of the Henry Settlement House (a charitable organization whose purpose was to help new immigrants integrate into the United States and American culture). When I was looking on the Carnegie Hall website - hoping to find a concert there we could buy tickets for, I discovered the the Carnegie season is over, but that during June they sponsor lots of free neighborhood concerts all over the city. We like chamber music, so we attended a free neighborhood concert in the Lower East Side tonight.
The musicians we saw are called ETHEL (don't know why), but they are the classic chamber group: 2 violins, a viola and a cello. All the musicians were trained at Julliard and have been playing together (paying gigs) for 11 years. They don't play traditional music, but rather play 20th century composers - contemporaries of themselves as well as some compositions they have individually composed. Tonight, a composer of one of the pieces was in the audience. This was very informal, and actually the audience lounged on cushions on the steps of the art center while children played around, and some young girls (5 or 6 years old) actually danced spontaneously to the music. It was very relaxing and very entertaining and it was FREE. This is supported by the Carnegie Foundation, and we were told that over 1000 free concerts had occurred in New York in June.
Coming home tonight on the subway, I figured we used 4 different subway lines today and one bus route both coming and going, and our total expenditure today was under $35. What a day! See it in pictures if you're interested:
https://picasaweb.google.com/jalyss1/NewYorkAmericanIndianMuseumCustomsHouseChinatown?authkey=Gv1sRgCNLghumBoKvOLw#
Monday, June 20, 2011
American Museum of Natural History and some comfort food
Today was a museum day. We went to the American Museum of Natural History. This is a huge pink granite building built in that over the top Victorian style. This place was founded in 1869. The museum covers an entire city block and has multiple entrances on each of the sides. The 'main' one is designated by the huge statue of Theodore Roosevelt on horseback. Good choice. One of the things Teddy was known for was his interest in nature and in preserving it.
Once again, pictures speak louder than words, so check out the link to the pictures. Be prepared for birds, minerals, gems, meteors, space stuff, and DINOSAURS. The dinos were definitely the most impressive. This place is so massive that we just cherry picked stuff we thought we would like. We saw a great film about stars in a circular theater where the entire ceiling is a dome and is the screen. We skipped an entire floor. (It's 4 stories of exhibits and a basement food court.)
After the museum, we walked over to Amsterdam Avenue (this is the 'upper west side') - lots of $$$$ here. We found a restaurant that serves barbecue and pigged out on pulled pork sandwiches, onion straws, fries, and okra. Once again I was disappointed........no Dr. Pepper. They didn't have Dr. Pepper here when I was 16 and they don't have it now. I'm beginning to have withdrawal symptoms.
Another fun day - plus I got my hair cut! We are staying in an African American neighborhood, and the lady who cut my hair was quite startled when I walked in 2 days ago and asked for an appointment. However, as soon as I saw her bible open today, we immediately bonded.
Tomorrow is the American Indian Museum (this is a Smithsonian museum), and we are going to a chamber music concert in an outdoor amphitheater. Plus we are eating in Little Italy.
Here are today's pix: https://picasaweb.google.com/jalyss1/NewYorkAmericanMuseumOfNaturalHistory?authkey=Gv1sRgCIvDu4Wss93tugE#
Once again, pictures speak louder than words, so check out the link to the pictures. Be prepared for birds, minerals, gems, meteors, space stuff, and DINOSAURS. The dinos were definitely the most impressive. This place is so massive that we just cherry picked stuff we thought we would like. We saw a great film about stars in a circular theater where the entire ceiling is a dome and is the screen. We skipped an entire floor. (It's 4 stories of exhibits and a basement food court.)
After the museum, we walked over to Amsterdam Avenue (this is the 'upper west side') - lots of $$$$ here. We found a restaurant that serves barbecue and pigged out on pulled pork sandwiches, onion straws, fries, and okra. Once again I was disappointed........no Dr. Pepper. They didn't have Dr. Pepper here when I was 16 and they don't have it now. I'm beginning to have withdrawal symptoms.
Another fun day - plus I got my hair cut! We are staying in an African American neighborhood, and the lady who cut my hair was quite startled when I walked in 2 days ago and asked for an appointment. However, as soon as I saw her bible open today, we immediately bonded.
Tomorrow is the American Indian Museum (this is a Smithsonian museum), and we are going to a chamber music concert in an outdoor amphitheater. Plus we are eating in Little Italy.
Here are today's pix: https://picasaweb.google.com/jalyss1/NewYorkAmericanMuseumOfNaturalHistory?authkey=Gv1sRgCIvDu4Wss93tugE#
Sunday, June 19, 2011
Born Yesterday
I'm sure everyone is speculating on what we did today. Well, we had a fabulous, fabulous day. Any day you go to a Broadway show and out to an avant garde Mexican restaurant, believe me, it's a fabulous day.
This afternoon we went to see "Born Yesterday". All of us who are of a certain age (that means old enough to remember the 1950's) know that Judy Holiday owns the role of Billie Dawn, the female lead. After having seen this revival, Judy Holiday USED to own this role. The title has been passed to a virtual Broadway newcomer called Nina Arianda. She seized this role and was so sparkling that you never even thought of Judy. Now that's an acting feat. It's even bigger when you realize her co-stars playing Harry (the Broderick Crawford role) is Jim Belushi and Paul (the William Holden role) is being played by the guy who has the recurring role of House's doctor friend on the TV show "House". She could have been critically compared to Judy and totally upstaged by the two guys with all that experience. Didn't happen. This revival belonged to her. (For those of you who DON'T remember the 50's this is a Pygmalion story - go rent the movie - you'll like it)
The play was at the Cort Theater (owned by the Schubert group- still a family owned theatrical company). It was nice, and we had center orchestra seats about a third of the way back - 2 for 1, naturally. The play was fun, and the sets (which won the Tony) were almost an exact replica of what I remember of the hotel suite from the opening of the movie.
This is the 7th show/musical we have seen while we have been here. We were talking about how to rate them. Do you separate the musicals from the plays? Do you squish them together and rate them? What's the criteria? We quickly figured out that if you change the criteria emphasized, the ranks changed. We've seen four plays and three musicals. The musicals are easy. Drake and I agree: (1) Anything Goes, (2) Million Dollar Quartet, (3) Chicago. We've decided the Cirque de Soleil show is in it's own category and not really rateable. That was more about seeing Radio Music Hall.
The plays are much more interesting. Drake ranks Arcadia as (1) while I think Jerusalem is (1). I think I rated it (1) because I was more entertained by Jerusalem, and I suspect Drake liked Arcadia better because it had math in it. (He'll be mock outraged when he reads this.) Truthfully, he rated Arcadia as (1) because the discussions about the themes was our most interesting theatrical conversation. Coming in (3) would be the play we saw today. Not because it wasn't as well acted as the others, but because there aren't any real discussions that come out of this play. However, the Billie character was so charming, so physical, so unexpected that this play takes third place.
I would unhesitatingly recommend any of these three plays, although it helps to have a passing knowledge of Bryon, romantic era in England, and current cut throat competition in academia to really enjoy Arcadia. Someone sitting in front of us told us at intermission they READ the play before attending, and were enjoying it more. I believe it - Arcadia is very dense with rapid fire dialogue full of ideas. The play that comes in (4) is The Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo. I think the reason it's fourth is because it was emotionally hard to watch and seemed to leave the audience hanging at the end. It's without a doubt the most serious play tackling current events. (In its era Born Yesterday also tackled the current event - role of government - but it seems pretty simplistic now.)
As you can tell, we left the theater in a good mood after being totally entertained. As most of you know, my 'job' is to find what we are going to do and where we are going to eat. Since we've been eating out every day (is this heaven, or what?), this is becoming a serious matter. I would feel very foolish repeating myself (going to a restaurant twice) in New York City. I felt the restaurant sites I'd been using were getting stale, plus we are traveling everywhere, and it's been hard to pinpoint neighborhoods specifically to check out the restaurants.
Sherri (good friend of mine) to the rescue. She lived up here in her early 20's - her first real job was in New York, and she's visited both with her mom and with her then boyfriend, now husband. (Now SHE'S got a proposal story that involves Central Park - not the subway.) She clued me into a website called Serious Eats - it's a blog, it's restaurant reviews, it's foodie picks of specific foods and it has a great neighborhood search as well as landmark site searches for great individually owned restaurants. Individually owned is the only restaurant worth eating at in my opinion.
Today via that site we found an avant garde Mexican restaurant. (Toloarche) Now Mexican food is to Texans what Italian food is to New Yorkers. This restaurant had lots of raves at every site. Menu looked interesting - but not REALLY Mexican - more foodie. However, it is true that it's hard to find really excellent restaurants in the Theater District/Times Square. I digress, well, what else is new? Toloarche was great. I had lobster tacos with moritas (a type of pepper) sauce, and Drake had skirt steak tacos. He had a tomato tortilla soup. There was chips and salsa - excellent, and I had fried Brussel sprouts which sounds awful, but they were so good even Drake liked the bite I gave him. There were excellent black beans and orange rice. Drake has churros for dessert and I had a coffee flavored flan. A real success. Thanks, Sherri.
Tomorrow, we are headed for the Museum of Natural History. We both agreed that we need to look at something besides pictures, and Drake is excited to see the space/astronomy part of the museum. I want to see the dinosaurs. Serious Eats has already helped me pick a new restaurant for tomorrow. Some interesting pictures tomorrow.
This afternoon we went to see "Born Yesterday". All of us who are of a certain age (that means old enough to remember the 1950's) know that Judy Holiday owns the role of Billie Dawn, the female lead. After having seen this revival, Judy Holiday USED to own this role. The title has been passed to a virtual Broadway newcomer called Nina Arianda. She seized this role and was so sparkling that you never even thought of Judy. Now that's an acting feat. It's even bigger when you realize her co-stars playing Harry (the Broderick Crawford role) is Jim Belushi and Paul (the William Holden role) is being played by the guy who has the recurring role of House's doctor friend on the TV show "House". She could have been critically compared to Judy and totally upstaged by the two guys with all that experience. Didn't happen. This revival belonged to her. (For those of you who DON'T remember the 50's this is a Pygmalion story - go rent the movie - you'll like it)
The play was at the Cort Theater (owned by the Schubert group- still a family owned theatrical company). It was nice, and we had center orchestra seats about a third of the way back - 2 for 1, naturally. The play was fun, and the sets (which won the Tony) were almost an exact replica of what I remember of the hotel suite from the opening of the movie.
This is the 7th show/musical we have seen while we have been here. We were talking about how to rate them. Do you separate the musicals from the plays? Do you squish them together and rate them? What's the criteria? We quickly figured out that if you change the criteria emphasized, the ranks changed. We've seen four plays and three musicals. The musicals are easy. Drake and I agree: (1) Anything Goes, (2) Million Dollar Quartet, (3) Chicago. We've decided the Cirque de Soleil show is in it's own category and not really rateable. That was more about seeing Radio Music Hall.
The plays are much more interesting. Drake ranks Arcadia as (1) while I think Jerusalem is (1). I think I rated it (1) because I was more entertained by Jerusalem, and I suspect Drake liked Arcadia better because it had math in it. (He'll be mock outraged when he reads this.) Truthfully, he rated Arcadia as (1) because the discussions about the themes was our most interesting theatrical conversation. Coming in (3) would be the play we saw today. Not because it wasn't as well acted as the others, but because there aren't any real discussions that come out of this play. However, the Billie character was so charming, so physical, so unexpected that this play takes third place.
I would unhesitatingly recommend any of these three plays, although it helps to have a passing knowledge of Bryon, romantic era in England, and current cut throat competition in academia to really enjoy Arcadia. Someone sitting in front of us told us at intermission they READ the play before attending, and were enjoying it more. I believe it - Arcadia is very dense with rapid fire dialogue full of ideas. The play that comes in (4) is The Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo. I think the reason it's fourth is because it was emotionally hard to watch and seemed to leave the audience hanging at the end. It's without a doubt the most serious play tackling current events. (In its era Born Yesterday also tackled the current event - role of government - but it seems pretty simplistic now.)
As you can tell, we left the theater in a good mood after being totally entertained. As most of you know, my 'job' is to find what we are going to do and where we are going to eat. Since we've been eating out every day (is this heaven, or what?), this is becoming a serious matter. I would feel very foolish repeating myself (going to a restaurant twice) in New York City. I felt the restaurant sites I'd been using were getting stale, plus we are traveling everywhere, and it's been hard to pinpoint neighborhoods specifically to check out the restaurants.
Sherri (good friend of mine) to the rescue. She lived up here in her early 20's - her first real job was in New York, and she's visited both with her mom and with her then boyfriend, now husband. (Now SHE'S got a proposal story that involves Central Park - not the subway.) She clued me into a website called Serious Eats - it's a blog, it's restaurant reviews, it's foodie picks of specific foods and it has a great neighborhood search as well as landmark site searches for great individually owned restaurants. Individually owned is the only restaurant worth eating at in my opinion.
Today via that site we found an avant garde Mexican restaurant. (Toloarche) Now Mexican food is to Texans what Italian food is to New Yorkers. This restaurant had lots of raves at every site. Menu looked interesting - but not REALLY Mexican - more foodie. However, it is true that it's hard to find really excellent restaurants in the Theater District/Times Square. I digress, well, what else is new? Toloarche was great. I had lobster tacos with moritas (a type of pepper) sauce, and Drake had skirt steak tacos. He had a tomato tortilla soup. There was chips and salsa - excellent, and I had fried Brussel sprouts which sounds awful, but they were so good even Drake liked the bite I gave him. There were excellent black beans and orange rice. Drake has churros for dessert and I had a coffee flavored flan. A real success. Thanks, Sherri.
Tomorrow, we are headed for the Museum of Natural History. We both agreed that we need to look at something besides pictures, and Drake is excited to see the space/astronomy part of the museum. I want to see the dinosaurs. Serious Eats has already helped me pick a new restaurant for tomorrow. Some interesting pictures tomorrow.
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