Manhattan in a Day

So after Boston, mom and I flew down to New York. We took a cab from JFK and we were uniformly impressed with the taxis. My brother J and his girlfriend C live in Morningside in exactly the sort of apartment you think of when you think about Manhattan -- high ceilings, wood floors, white hexagonal tiles, and a long narrow bathroom with a tub as big as a coffin. After dropping off luggage and seeing the apartment, C took us out around their neighborhood. Once J got home, we went out to dinner at a french restaurant named Alouette. J was concerned that in my wide-load state, I might not fit at a table in some of the smaller restaurants. I wish I could argue that convincingly, but he's right.
The next morning, we had a great breakfast at Good Enough to Eat, then went to the MOMA which had been completely rearranged since I was last there. I hadn't noticed Claes Oldenberg's Soft Fan before, and I enjoyed the Jasper Johns, Picasso, and Van Goghs. We also had a good time in the museum shop, where J&C had bought the kids the coolest superballs and 3-D drawing kit. Very fun. Then we met J for lunch in the food court under Grand Central Station. Even the basement is better than anything we can come up with at home. Marble and a cool ceiling and any kind of lunch you can think of.
We rode the subway for sentimental reasons (panhandlers and the stench, mostly) and met up with C again for the afternoon. We saw Jaques Torres' chocolate shop, Crumb (famous for cupcakes), the Croc shop, Riverside Park, Duke Ellington's house, Robert deNiro's building, 5th Ave. and St. Patrick's cathedral, the building featured in Enchanted, Grant's Tomb, Columbia, the Manhattan School of Music, Seinfeld's coffee shop, the Bank Street Bookstore, and Lennon's memorial in Central Park.

That night we went to Sal and Carmine's pizzeria for dinner. In an odd twist, this is exactly the place that Rob was told to eat during his 14-hour marathon in NYC. It's a favorite of some friends of ours. J & C call Sal and Carmine the Bert and Ernie of pizza. Then we saw the New York Philharmonic at the Lincoln Center, still enthusiastic from their tour of Asia and the moving reception at Pyongyang in North Korea. They did
the Maria Theresia symphony in C major by Haydn, and Beethoven's 4th

(second time I've heard it this season -- it must be enjoying a renaissance) and then they did folk songs by Berio, sung by Dawn Upshaw. The orchestra was great, and I really liked their new conductor Alan Gilbert, but back to Maria Theresia for a second. We were wondering last night, how could she have had 14 of 16 children survive to adulthood, when Albrecht Durer's mother had 15 of 18 children die? I guess Ma Theresia had an extra 150 years or so, and certainly the best nutrition available, but I still think someone knew something at her palace.
The folk songs were probably the most memorable of the three, and the audience was very engaged. They came from eastern and western Europe, with a pair from the US, and Dawn Upshaw did an expressive job of it. We had to go get famous Magnolia bakery cupcakes for dessert afterward. They were really good. I've found myself trying to figure out how to make them that big ever since.

Me and mom in Central Park. I am going to have to make another post just to show the pictures of J & C's incredible neighborhood grocery store. Coming up next!




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