Field Trips

Saturday, July 22, 2023 

The Upper West Side’s Power Couple took off for a weekend in Massachusetts.  We are staying at the Trainmasters Inn, 1292 South Main Street, Palmer, a little B&B, set up as a tribute to railroading.  Sitting on the former site of a nursing home, there are rails, a ticket booth, paintings and photographs, memorabilia and 19th Century furniture evoking the age of steam.  Even if it were not the only rentable space in town, I would have enjoyed staying there.  While the digital clock in our room was inauthentic, it was set to the right time and those of you who travel know how rare that is. 

But, why were we in the otherwise sleepy setting of Palmer?  #1 grandson is in sleep-away camp nearby and tomorrow is the only visiting day of the summer.  Attendance is required; it's right there in the Grandparent's Guidebook.

We took advantage of the location to have dinner with Richard and Shelley Holzman, New Yorkers who long ago relocated to a hilltop in the Berkshires.  Richard is the only Jewish man that I know who owns a tractor.  We met at Homestead, 7 Strong Street, Northampton, a homey place with about 18 tables.  I had bucatini (round not flat like linguini) with clam sauce ($24).  There were no shells, atypically, although the clams seemed fresh enough.  Richard and Shelley shared an attractive, large roast chicken ($35), while my bride had baked bluefish ($27).  I admired, but avoided the tiramisu ($10).  The only disappointment was the focaccia, four inches square by two inches high for $6; more than disappointing, theft.    

Sunday, July 23, 2023

Our Eastern Massachusetts family arrived, with many hundreds of others, to visit their camper.  It was good seeing them all; it was the first time that we were together since fleeing Egypt.  After lunch at the camp, the whole bunch of us drove to a local landmark, Rondeau’s Dairy Bar, 1300 Ware Street, Palmer, which offers these many flavors of homemade ice cream.  

Judging by the scoops of chunky chocolate cherry  and orange pineapple that I had, they sound better than they taste.  However, I might have to return to sample Monkey Butt, Peanut Butter Puddle and Chocolate Lovers Trash.  Portions were enormous, one flavor $5.25, two $7.25.   

Again, taking advantage of the location, we went to Amherst to have dinner with Barbara Alfange at Johnny's Tavern, 30 Boltwood Walk.  It is an excellent example of a bar/restaurant, solid, dark furniture, noisy, attentive service, large portions, sports on TV.  I ordered fried chicken, expecting three or four pieces, leg, wing, thigh, breast.  Instead, I got an enormous serving of chicken schnitzel, beautifully crispy fried, accompanied by buttermilk gravy, heirloom carrots and bacon scallion mashed potatoes, a steal at $24.  Now sit down when I tell you that I could not finish it.  My companions each had the Rare Tuna Sandwich on ciabatta, very generously sized ($16).  For a second night in a row, I skipped dessert; the midday snack at Rondeau's doesn't count.  

Monday, July 24, 2023

Heading home, we had breakfast at Tables at the Farm, 3092 Palmer Street, Palmer, a very country place, with just the sort of breakfast items you might expect.  I had the Country Skillet, country lad that I am, eggs, bacon, cheese, onions, mushrooms, green peppers and potatoes ($12.95).  

. . .

From a book review: “In many Asian American households, love is intermingled with food.  Rather than telling us that they love us, our parents feed us, guarding against physical hunger while an emotional one rages.”  I didn’t know that I was Chinese.

. . .

A new study offers an economic profile of elite college admissions.  "Children from families in the top 1% are more than twice as likely to attend an Ivy-Plus college (Ivy League, Stanford, MIT, Duke, and Chicago) as those from middle-class families with comparable SAT/ACT scores."  https://opportunityinsights.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/CollegeAdmissions_Paper.pdf

The result is that at Ivy League schools, one in six students has parents in the top 1 percent.  As to the value of the education, remember that Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley, Samuel Alito, among others, have Ivy degrees.

. . .

Professor Nate is in town before returning to California after several weeks abroad.  We had breakfast at Zucker’s Bagels & Smoked Fish, 273 Columbus Avenue, which I have taught him has the best whitefish salad in the Northern Hemisphere.

I had lox on an everything bagel with scallion cream cheese ($14.50), because it was a little early in the day for whitefish salad by my clock.  My sandwich was a delight and a credit to the Jewish people.

Wednesday, July 26, 2023

“DeSantis Offers Campaign Staff Opportunity to Work for Free in Exchange for Invaluable Skills”  The Borowitz Report

. . .

Terrific Tom, Stony Brook Steve and I had lunch at Joe's a/k/a Joe's Home of Soup Dumplings, 7 East 48th Street, a large, two-story, crowded, noisy place that you must visit.  We had chicken soup dumplings ($11.95 for 6 pieces), sesame cold noodles ($7.25), scallion pancake ($7), pan fried vegetable dumplings ($9.50 for 6 pieces) and moo shu pork ($22.45 with 6 pancakes).  The food was excellent, delivered promptly and accurately, although every waiter in the joint tried to take our order at one point or another.  Warning - Don't order Diet Coke, a tiny bottle costs $4.

Thursday, July 27, 2023

Four years ago, my niece Susan moved to Shanghai to work as a librarian in a new high school.  Her daughter Emma accompanied her, eventually graduating from that high school and coming to the USA for college, joining her two brothers who were already here.  Meanwhile, Susan was confined to her apartment complex for most of the last several years, so her visit here is especially significant for her and all of us.

We met for lunch today at Pho One, 181 US-1 South, Metuchen, New Jersey, because good Vietnamese food is easier to find in New Jersey than good Chinese food or delicatessen, for that matter.  Some people might say that the food is of no consequence when seeing your niece for the first time in four years.  Those people are wrong.  Good food stimulates the senses, making for better conversation and prevents the mind from drifting, "When do we eat?"

Pho One provided a good setting for Susan's accounts of her years in China, including the fascination many Chinese had with Emma's extremely curly hair.  The food played its part.  We shared summer rolls ($6.95 for two pieces) and vegetarian summer rolls ($5.95 for two pieces).  My young bride had vegetarian vermicelli noodle ($12.95), while the three of us had versions of rice vermicelli, big bowls with shredded lettuce, mint, pickled carrots & radish, cucumber, scallion oil, crushed peanuts and egg rolls.  My brother had his with beef, Susan shrimp and I chicken ($13.95-14.95).