Country Mice
Tom and I had a wonderful whirlwind visit to New York City - left Saturday and back Monday. Even though we had the noblest of intentions to culture ourselves at MOMA and the Whitney , we ended up eating our way through the Lower East Side and Spanish Harlem, puddleducking (looking in all the windows and people watching) along the way. It was splendid!
The cab picked us up at 5:30 AM Saturday, we caught the 6:00 ferry to Woods Hole and the 7:00 bus to Boston and then the train left at 9:40 to New York at about 2:00. It was a very pleasant trip - much nicer than driving or flying. We stayed with friends, Olivia and Anna, in Spanish Harlem. They have darling apartment - much bigger than we expected for that part of the world, and were very close to subways stops.
One thing we really wanted to do was eat outstanding Thai, and they knew just the place - Sripraphai in Queens! It had my favorite ever dish Mo Grop (spelling?) which is a crispy pork in chili and basil (on their menu it is C18). Also incredible was item A5, crispy fried Chinese watercress salad with shrimp, squid and chicken. This is now officially my favorite restaurant and it alone is worth a trip to the city.
On the way back we stopped by Olivia's favorite pastry shop to get croissants and a little pine nut tart for breakfast. Chef Samba at Samba Bakery Cafe in East Harlem is experimenting with serving a Moroccan meal once a month or so, and it sounds so very very good!
Sunday we headed out for a walk through China Town, admiring all the fresh produce and fish of kinds we just don't get on island. Side walk vendors were selling abalone! Our cooking would take a whole other turn for the better if we could get these kinds of ingredients! And, at a cooking supply place, we confirmed that no rack for a 16" wok exists, found some little dishes to match a set we are slowly filling in of the rice pattern ware, and found my little rolling pin. (I am going to learn to make tortillas from scratch and have been asking everyone who knows of tortilla making about a palote - a short, thin rolling pin. And everyone says to use a sawed off broom handle or sawed off [unused] toilet bowl plunger handle) Apparently Chinese dumpling makers need the same thing, and I found the perfect one. Then it was time for lunch and we met Anna's mom for dim sum at Delight 28 Restaurant (aka Hee Win Lai). We enjoyed the meal very much, and were pleased at how well our own favorite Boston dim sum place, Chau Chow City , stood up to New York. The real treasure of the meal was Anna's mom, who is even more of a foodie than we are!
We wandered around after lunch, and officially decided we would rather wander around than go to museums. In Little Italy we discussed cheeses with Lou Di Palo at Di Palo Selects . We stopped somewhere for gelato and ate it while watching Chinese dancers at a street fair.
Then, for dinner (not that anyone was all that hungry but we certainly weren't going to miss the chance at another incredible meal) we went to El Paso Taqueria in Spanish Harlem. The Quesadillas de la Abuela with home made tortillas, Oaxaca cheese, chicharon, epazote, chilis, and squash blossom was super good. We also had a drink (which is popular but we'd never heard of it and I'm blocking on the name) made of dark Mexican beer, hot sauce and lime juice.
Much science and medicine and food were discussed the whole trip, I turned a heel on a sock and am ready to turn a second one, the chickens did just fine under Glenn and Rosemary's expert care, and we loved looking at all the mosaics in the subway!
A wonderful mini-vacation - and we are almost caught up with our mail, I've made a batch of English muffins for lunch, and need to do a load of laundry.
