Monday, October 16, 2017
Tavish McMullen is visiting from Key Largo, Florida, or what remains of it. He arrived Saturday and we set off on a whirlwind tour of Manhattan by land, air and sea. From Palazzo di Gotthelf we took a bus crosstown to Second Avenue and walked to the Roosevelt Island aerial tram. We rode it over the East River with a large crowd of other curious people. We walked around Roosevelt Island and found that the tram wasn't the only way to get off the island. There's a new (to me) ferry service on the East River ranging from Astoria to Rockaway Beach. For $2.75, the same price as a subway ride, we took the ferry to Wall Street, stopping in Long Island City and 34th Street. It took 30 minutes, which went quickly in the mild, pleasant weather. Sitting on the open top deck, I even got a sunburn.
From Wall Street, we walked a mile to Chinatown, not just Chinatown, but Wo Hop, 17 Mott Street, the cathedral of Chinese food. At 4:30 in the afternoon, we had to wait to get in, a very worthwhile wait. We only needed the large portions of beef chow fun ($7.75) and shrimp egg foo young ($10.25), with a bowl of brown rice ($1.75), to fill us up and put a smile on our faces.
The subway got us back uptown, leaving out only helicopters as a way to get around the Holy Land.
. . .
Our sports report
Columbia University 5-0
New York Jets. 3-3
New York Giants. 1-5
. . .
Tavish and I went to lunch today at Ess-A-Bagel, 831 Third Avenue, at his request. He recalled that I took him there in the past when I lived on the East Side. In fact, I probably averaged 40 visits a year for most of my inter-marital period, 1980-2003. These days, I typically bring home bagels and accouterments weekly from Fairway Market, 2131 Broadway, which I did on Sunday when Dean Alfange visited. Tavish had gone off to brunch with friends, so he missed a treat.
I was thus able to compare Everything bagels. While both are much larger than bagels used to be in my youth, I generally adhere to Mae West's teaching: "Enough is never enough." I liked the dough and chewability of Ess-A-Bagel more, but, unlike Fairway, its Everything includes kosher salt crystals sprinkled on top, leaving you thirsty until the next meal.
Ess-A-Bagel was convenient to our next stop, the United Nations, on First Avenue, where we booked a guided tour. Admission to the UN is free, but 1 hour tours available in several languages cost $22 for an adult, $13 for us enfeebled elderly. The tour was interesting, but yielded no policy insights for the few of you who still read newspapers.
We walked through midtown to Num Pang, 1129 Broadway (26th Street), now one of six branches of a local Cambodian sandwich chain. We both had the Ginger Barbeque Brisket sandwich, served on toasted baguette, with pickled shredded carrots, cilantro, chili mayonnaise, and cucumber slices ($9.75). Seating is on bright orange metal stools grouped at high rectangular tables with butcher block surfaces. The somewhat battered walls and floor of this joint must be the holdover from an earlier operation, one that must have been around for a long time. The high walls were covered with square white ceramic tiles bordered by green tiles; the floors had a similar pattern in mosaic tile. Both surfaces needed significant repair or replacement.
From Num Pang, we went right next door to Rizzoli Bookstore, 1131 Broadway, relocated from its classic spot on West 57th Street after 29 years. Professor Deborah Dash Moore, University of Michigan historian, was discussing her new book Jewish New York: The Remarkable Story of a City and a People. This work is a restatement of the three volume City of Promises: A History of the Jews of New York, which she co-authored. I asked whether she considered titling the book New York Jews instead of Jewish New York, akin to the ongoing question of identifying us as American Jews or Jewish Americans, she replied that she wavered on this point, but choose the less edgy title. I'll have to read the book, maybe even buy it.
Next stop was Monday Night Magic at the Players Theatre, 115 MacDougal Street, in the heart of Greenwich Village. This weekly show has been going on for 20 years, with a different cast each week. I admit to being a sucker for good magicians and there were several on stage and in the audience during intermission. Best of all was Eran Raven who concluded with pulling a paper out of a sealed envelope, which had remained in sight during his act, containing a set of numbers and letters, that turned out to be the serial number of a dollar bill taken from a random member of the audience by another random member of the audience (unlike the present administration, no hint of collusion). We were impressed.
. . .
My young bride had caught an earlier flight and was already home when we returned for a happy reunion.
Tuesday, October 17, 2017
I gave up the formal study of science many years ago, but with Tavish as my lab partner I proceeded to Zucker's Bagels & Smoked Fish, 146 Chambers Street, to compare their Everything bagel to Fairway's and Ess-A-Bagel's. I patronized Zucker's regularly when still working at the courthouse nearby and ordered the poppy seed bagel consistently with happy results, but today's mission focused on the Everything bagel. It was a little smaller than the other two Everything bagels, a little denser, a blander dough and no salt topping. It's not a bad or disappointing bagel, it just does not go to the head of the class.
We were downtown on our way to the 9/11 memorial site. Outdoors, where the twin towers stood, there are excavations exactly at their location, with waterfalls dropping into what appears to be bottomless pits. The walls surrounding the waterfalls are engraved with the names of all known victims in or around the buildings, on the airplanes, and at the Pentagon. I was moved seeing the sheer volume of names and the heterogeneity they conveyed. Victims came from as many as 90 countries. https://web.archive.org/web/20080516171333/http://www.america.gov/st/washfile-english/2006/September/20060911141954bcreklaw0.9791071.html
We took a guided walking tour of the grounds first, the Official 9/11 Memorial Guided Tour ($17), 45 minutes giving an informative introduction to the physical setting. Then, we walked a few feet to the 9/11 Memorial Museum and encountered some unnecessary confusion. Having looked on-line a few days earlier, I purchased tickets for the 9/11 Tribute Museum, which turned out to be a discrete enterprise located 5 blocks south of ground zero, not the 9/11 Memorial Museum, considered effectively to be the "official" museum. Admission tickets for one were of no use at the other; $17 on Groupon for the Tribute Museum, adult $24 and senior $18 at the Memorial Museum. We spent some time at the Tribute Museum, but chose to return to the Memorial Museum for 2 hours, a fraction of what is needed to see it all. There are a variety of packages combining the outdoor tour, Memorial Museum admission with or without guided tours. I recommend seeing some or all of it, but, unlike me, check carefully in advance on what there is on offer before purchase.
. . .
The subway took us to midtown, where we ate dinner at Ben's Kosher Delicatessen, 129 West 38th Street, as a launch point for what came later. First, Tavish and I had combination corned beef and pastrami sandwiches on rye ($17.99), piled high and particularly good tonight. From there, we walked the few blocks to Madison Square Garden to see my beloved New York Rangers play the Pittsburgh Penguins. Yeah, they lost.
Wednesday, October 18, 2017
Since Tavish was leaving in the afternoon today, we were less adventurous. At his request, as someone who spent many years in Chicago, he asked to have "New York pizza" for lunch. Therefore, we went to Patsy's Pizzeria, 61 West 74th Street, one of its three locations. We had a large pie ($20 for 17"), with meatballs ($3.95) and mixed roasted peppers ($2.75) added.
On the way back to Palazzo di Gotthelf, we stopped at Levain Bakery, 167 West 74th Street, and Jacques Torres Chocolate, 285 Amsterdam Avenue, so that Tavish could supply himself with great chocolate chip cookies for his return to the outside world. Levain bakes butter-soaked golf balls ($4), while I prefer Torres's 4" flat discs ($3, higher for some versions). He left shortly thereafter, resisting the temptation to sample his purchases at least until he got on the airplane, as far as I could tell.
Thursday, October 19, 2017
On the fifth day, I rested.
. . .
Speaking of chocolate chip cookies, I have just learned from Danny Macaroons that She's the First, an organization devoted to the education of girls in poor countries (http://shesthefirst.org) is sponsoring a competition among about 20 of the Holy Land's top bakers, including Levain and Jacques Torres. It will be held on November 4th at the Strand Bookstore, a confluence that is almost unbearably exciting. But the good news is more than balanced by the bad news. I will be away at the time and, were I not, the event sold out almost immediately, before I even knew of it.
Danny, whose medium is macaroons not cookies, nevertheless is invited to participate in recognition of the quality of his efforts. I hope this events recurs at a time and place available to me and you.
Friday, October 20, 2017
More chickens are coming home to roost. Yesterday, there was news of a chocolate chip cookie contest and today the New York Times attempts to get to the heart of the bagel. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/20/nyregion/new-york-today-what-makes-a-new-york-bagel.html?_r=0
It's almost embarrassing to be ahead of the curve so often, but it's the least that I can do to repay the public that provided me a tuition-free education from PS 159 through CCNY.
Tavish McMullen is visiting from Key Largo, Florida, or what remains of it. He arrived Saturday and we set off on a whirlwind tour of Manhattan by land, air and sea. From Palazzo di Gotthelf we took a bus crosstown to Second Avenue and walked to the Roosevelt Island aerial tram. We rode it over the East River with a large crowd of other curious people. We walked around Roosevelt Island and found that the tram wasn't the only way to get off the island. There's a new (to me) ferry service on the East River ranging from Astoria to Rockaway Beach. For $2.75, the same price as a subway ride, we took the ferry to Wall Street, stopping in Long Island City and 34th Street. It took 30 minutes, which went quickly in the mild, pleasant weather. Sitting on the open top deck, I even got a sunburn.
From Wall Street, we walked a mile to Chinatown, not just Chinatown, but Wo Hop, 17 Mott Street, the cathedral of Chinese food. At 4:30 in the afternoon, we had to wait to get in, a very worthwhile wait. We only needed the large portions of beef chow fun ($7.75) and shrimp egg foo young ($10.25), with a bowl of brown rice ($1.75), to fill us up and put a smile on our faces.
The subway got us back uptown, leaving out only helicopters as a way to get around the Holy Land.
. . .
Our sports report
Columbia University 5-0
New York Jets. 3-3
New York Giants. 1-5
. . .
Tavish and I went to lunch today at Ess-A-Bagel, 831 Third Avenue, at his request. He recalled that I took him there in the past when I lived on the East Side. In fact, I probably averaged 40 visits a year for most of my inter-marital period, 1980-2003. These days, I typically bring home bagels and accouterments weekly from Fairway Market, 2131 Broadway, which I did on Sunday when Dean Alfange visited. Tavish had gone off to brunch with friends, so he missed a treat.
I was thus able to compare Everything bagels. While both are much larger than bagels used to be in my youth, I generally adhere to Mae West's teaching: "Enough is never enough." I liked the dough and chewability of Ess-A-Bagel more, but, unlike Fairway, its Everything includes kosher salt crystals sprinkled on top, leaving you thirsty until the next meal.
Ess-A-Bagel was convenient to our next stop, the United Nations, on First Avenue, where we booked a guided tour. Admission to the UN is free, but 1 hour tours available in several languages cost $22 for an adult, $13 for us enfeebled elderly. The tour was interesting, but yielded no policy insights for the few of you who still read newspapers.
We walked through midtown to Num Pang, 1129 Broadway (26th Street), now one of six branches of a local Cambodian sandwich chain. We both had the Ginger Barbeque Brisket sandwich, served on toasted baguette, with pickled shredded carrots, cilantro, chili mayonnaise, and cucumber slices ($9.75). Seating is on bright orange metal stools grouped at high rectangular tables with butcher block surfaces. The somewhat battered walls and floor of this joint must be the holdover from an earlier operation, one that must have been around for a long time. The high walls were covered with square white ceramic tiles bordered by green tiles; the floors had a similar pattern in mosaic tile. Both surfaces needed significant repair or replacement.
From Num Pang, we went right next door to Rizzoli Bookstore, 1131 Broadway, relocated from its classic spot on West 57th Street after 29 years. Professor Deborah Dash Moore, University of Michigan historian, was discussing her new book Jewish New York: The Remarkable Story of a City and a People. This work is a restatement of the three volume City of Promises: A History of the Jews of New York, which she co-authored. I asked whether she considered titling the book New York Jews instead of Jewish New York, akin to the ongoing question of identifying us as American Jews or Jewish Americans, she replied that she wavered on this point, but choose the less edgy title. I'll have to read the book, maybe even buy it.
Next stop was Monday Night Magic at the Players Theatre, 115 MacDougal Street, in the heart of Greenwich Village. This weekly show has been going on for 20 years, with a different cast each week. I admit to being a sucker for good magicians and there were several on stage and in the audience during intermission. Best of all was Eran Raven who concluded with pulling a paper out of a sealed envelope, which had remained in sight during his act, containing a set of numbers and letters, that turned out to be the serial number of a dollar bill taken from a random member of the audience by another random member of the audience (unlike the present administration, no hint of collusion). We were impressed.
. . .
My young bride had caught an earlier flight and was already home when we returned for a happy reunion.
Tuesday, October 17, 2017
I gave up the formal study of science many years ago, but with Tavish as my lab partner I proceeded to Zucker's Bagels & Smoked Fish, 146 Chambers Street, to compare their Everything bagel to Fairway's and Ess-A-Bagel's. I patronized Zucker's regularly when still working at the courthouse nearby and ordered the poppy seed bagel consistently with happy results, but today's mission focused on the Everything bagel. It was a little smaller than the other two Everything bagels, a little denser, a blander dough and no salt topping. It's not a bad or disappointing bagel, it just does not go to the head of the class.
We were downtown on our way to the 9/11 memorial site. Outdoors, where the twin towers stood, there are excavations exactly at their location, with waterfalls dropping into what appears to be bottomless pits. The walls surrounding the waterfalls are engraved with the names of all known victims in or around the buildings, on the airplanes, and at the Pentagon. I was moved seeing the sheer volume of names and the heterogeneity they conveyed. Victims came from as many as 90 countries. https://web.archive.org/web/20080516171333/http://www.america.gov/st/washfile-english/2006/September/20060911141954bcreklaw0.9791071.html
We took a guided walking tour of the grounds first, the Official 9/11 Memorial Guided Tour ($17), 45 minutes giving an informative introduction to the physical setting. Then, we walked a few feet to the 9/11 Memorial Museum and encountered some unnecessary confusion. Having looked on-line a few days earlier, I purchased tickets for the 9/11 Tribute Museum, which turned out to be a discrete enterprise located 5 blocks south of ground zero, not the 9/11 Memorial Museum, considered effectively to be the "official" museum. Admission tickets for one were of no use at the other; $17 on Groupon for the Tribute Museum, adult $24 and senior $18 at the Memorial Museum. We spent some time at the Tribute Museum, but chose to return to the Memorial Museum for 2 hours, a fraction of what is needed to see it all. There are a variety of packages combining the outdoor tour, Memorial Museum admission with or without guided tours. I recommend seeing some or all of it, but, unlike me, check carefully in advance on what there is on offer before purchase.
. . .
The subway took us to midtown, where we ate dinner at Ben's Kosher Delicatessen, 129 West 38th Street, as a launch point for what came later. First, Tavish and I had combination corned beef and pastrami sandwiches on rye ($17.99), piled high and particularly good tonight. From there, we walked the few blocks to Madison Square Garden to see my beloved New York Rangers play the Pittsburgh Penguins. Yeah, they lost.
Wednesday, October 18, 2017
Since Tavish was leaving in the afternoon today, we were less adventurous. At his request, as someone who spent many years in Chicago, he asked to have "New York pizza" for lunch. Therefore, we went to Patsy's Pizzeria, 61 West 74th Street, one of its three locations. We had a large pie ($20 for 17"), with meatballs ($3.95) and mixed roasted peppers ($2.75) added.
On the way back to Palazzo di Gotthelf, we stopped at Levain Bakery, 167 West 74th Street, and Jacques Torres Chocolate, 285 Amsterdam Avenue, so that Tavish could supply himself with great chocolate chip cookies for his return to the outside world. Levain bakes butter-soaked golf balls ($4), while I prefer Torres's 4" flat discs ($3, higher for some versions). He left shortly thereafter, resisting the temptation to sample his purchases at least until he got on the airplane, as far as I could tell.
Thursday, October 19, 2017
On the fifth day, I rested.
. . .
Speaking of chocolate chip cookies, I have just learned from Danny Macaroons that She's the First, an organization devoted to the education of girls in poor countries (http://shesthefirst.org) is sponsoring a competition among about 20 of the Holy Land's top bakers, including Levain and Jacques Torres. It will be held on November 4th at the Strand Bookstore, a confluence that is almost unbearably exciting. But the good news is more than balanced by the bad news. I will be away at the time and, were I not, the event sold out almost immediately, before I even knew of it.
Danny, whose medium is macaroons not cookies, nevertheless is invited to participate in recognition of the quality of his efforts. I hope this events recurs at a time and place available to me and you.
Friday, October 20, 2017
More chickens are coming home to roost. Yesterday, there was news of a chocolate chip cookie contest and today the New York Times attempts to get to the heart of the bagel. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/20/nyregion/new-york-today-what-makes-a-new-york-bagel.html?_r=0
It's almost embarrassing to be ahead of the curve so often, but it's the least that I can do to repay the public that provided me a tuition-free education from PS 159 through CCNY.
Thanks for the Tavish Travelogue. It seems that all you missed was seeing Jesus in the Village.
ReplyDeleteDaddy Mac thinks everything bagels should include salt, but exclude garlic....you?
ReplyDeleteEverything means everything.
ReplyDeleteAre you aware of the Everything seasoning that they sell at Trader Joe's. It can help compensate for an inadequately everythinged Everything bagel and can turn many other foods into Everything foods.
ReplyDelete