Monday, July 15, 2019
As
it happened, the Upper West Side’s Power Couple left for a week in the
Berkshires midday Saturday and were sitting surrounded by second and
third generation family members in a lovely house outside Great
Barrington when the lights went out in Manhattan. We heard about it
first from my brother who knew where we had gone, but we eventually got
inquiries from others near and far concerned about our ability to
navigate in the dark.
Earlier
in the afternoon, we had lunch at Donaji Mexican Restaurant, 389
Stockbridge Road, Great Barrington, offering very good food with good
service in a nondescript setting. I started with a frozen mango
margarita ($12), delicious but not particularly intoxicating. It went
well with the complimentary tortilla chips and salsa that came to the
table immediately. I ate enchiladas verdes filled with shredded beef in a green tomatillo sauce, plus rice and beans, a bargain at $18.
Like
the famous chicken, we only had to cross the road to get to one of the
area’s major supermarkets to purchase sufficient potato chips, cookies
and diet soda to last for the week in our rented house.
. . .
My
semi-addiction to diet soda is no secret, but it doesn’t preclude my
simultaneous devotion to seltzer, an increasingly “hot" drink, if you’ll
pardon the expression. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/
In fact, I was guzzling seltzer as a wee tot in Brooklyn even before diet soda hit the market in 1952, No-Cal Ginger Ale. https://culinarylore.com/
Each
week, the seltzer man delivered a wooden crate of thick
glass siphons, blue or clear, to our home, removing the empties. Once a job more common than reality TV star, we may be down to our last seltzer man.
. . .
Had
we stayed in the Holy Land this weekend and survived the blackout, we
might have had brunch in one of the nine places recommended by the New York Times.
When I read that “[t]here’s
no finer place to eat dim sum in New York than Bamboo Garden in Sunset
Park, Brooklyn,” I sent out an all points bulletin to the usual suspects
arranging a lunch in a couple of weeks, report to follow.
. . .
Saturday’s newspaper carried the headline "Sanders
Struggles to Connect, but Refuses to Run on Personality." Interesting,
but more interesting was the headline that appeared over the exact same
article on-line "Why Sanders Wanted His Meeting With a Rabbi Kept
Secret.” Discuss.
Tuesday, July 16, 2019
The
usually prescient Nate Cohn provides an interesting analysis of
prospective voter turnout in the 2020 presidential election.
In brief, he says, on the one hand, on the other hand. You may be comforted or agitated as you choose.
. . .
A
few of us had lunch in Great Barrington, which necessitated a stop at
Soco Creamery, 5 Railroad Street. I had a cup with peanut butter
mudslide (peanut butter ice cream, fudge swirl and crumbled chocolate
cookies) and “Dirty Chocolate” (dark chocolate, darker chocolate and
milk chocolate) ($5.35).
. . .
The
male segment of our clan went to a baseball game tonight, an all-star
game at Wahconah Field, Pittsfield, which has stood since 1919 on a site where baseball has been played since
1892. It is currently home of the Pittsfield Suns, a member of the Futures Collegiate Baseball League. At first, you wonder about the connection between
the sun and Pittsfield, Massachusetts, far removed from Phoenix or Miami in
almost every regard. Once seated, though, you observe that the line
from the batter’s box to the pitcher’s mound runs due west. In summer,
the height of the baseball season, all afternoon through sundown,
the batter is blinded by the direct rays of the sun coming from above
and behind the pitcher. Of course, this disability applies to both
sides, but the pitchers of the Pittsfield Suns have this advantage in
all home games, half their season. As long as they can get the ball
anywhere near the plate, this should put them in championship contention
year after year.
Wednesday, July 17, 2019
As
has become the custom during our one-week family vacation, I hired a
chef to cook a nice meal for us. It was Austin Banach again, a talented
young man who has more than satisfied us before (banachaustin@gmail.com).
He started the adult meal with a bruschetta, diced tomatoes and peaches
lightly dressed in olive oil, with a glob of fresh burrata on the
side. "Burrata is a fresh Italian cow milk cheese made from mozzarella
and cream," can you imagine? What followed was a fabulous corn soup,
more a puree than a chowder, with three simple ingredients -- corn,
butter and cream. The main course was cod baked with mustard and
herbs. Asparagus in tarragon dressing and black rice
noodles in sesame vinaigrette were served with it. A very thick chocolate pudding
completed this outstanding meal. Sorry you missed it.
Thursday, July 18, 2019
We
had lunch at The Marketplace Cafe, 53 North Street, Pittsfield, a funky
place that all three of our generations can recommend for its sandwiches, quiche and salads. It is also
convenient to the Berkshire Museum, 39 South Street, currently
exhibiting models of Leonardo da Vinci's brilliant designs.
. . .
We ended our formal vacationing tonight by attending Inside/Out, a free outdoor dance performance regularly held at Jacob's Pillow. I have borrowed this photograph to give you a feel for the beautiful setting.
We saw the Bombshell Dance Project, a female (if I am allowed) group, presenting Like a Girl, in which "the company reimagines the phrase 'fight like a girl' through contrasts in athleticism and power dynamics." Okay, if they say so.
Friday, July 19, 2019
One might think that the Holy Land was carpeted with temples, shrines, churches, synagogues, mosques and yoga studios. In fact, we seem to be the favored location for chain drug stores and bank branches. So, I was surprised to read that "[s]ince 2009, the number of commercial bank and thrift branches [nationally] has shrunk nearly 10 percent, or just over 1 percent per year."
But, the Upper West Side is often out of step with the rest of the country. Within 2/10 of a mile of Palazzo di Gotthelf, you find 3 branches of Chase Bank, 2 Citibank, 1 HSBC, 1 TD Bank, 1 Bank of America, 1 Capital One Bank and 1 Santander Bank ATM for petty cash transactions. Apparently, we limousine liberals also like liquidity.
Having spent time in Great Barrington designing the play version of "The Diary of Anne Frank" at Barrington Stage many years ago, I recall hardly any major dining venues outside of the somewhat waspy-fusty Red Lion Inn (the last 19th century Inn in New England) up Route 7 in Stockbridge (saw Jennifer Anniston at dinner there in big sunglasses-at night... 'nuff said).
ReplyDeleteOf course, 8-10 hour rehearsals with the deprived Frank family made me feel starved, but also guilty for eating more than a bowl of porridge, dry bread, and cabbage soup. Thinking about Anne living on 790 calories a day dampened the pleasure of the Red Lion’s Grilled Faroe Islands Salmon, Lentils du Puy, Mustard Beurre Blanc, Rainbow Swiss Chard, and Pinot Noir (n.b.-don’t care- I drink red with fish…).
Thanks for your mouth-watering guide to Post-Dining Desert Great Barrington! Next time up there, I’m keeping this blog in the glove compartment… hopefully while designing A.R. Gurney's "The Dining Room"...