NYC October 07

Friday, 1.5.07

Friday morning, after coffee and pumpkin bread at the apartment, we headed to the A Train for a ride to Columbus Circle. We got off early to walk through Times Square, a big noisy spectacle whose most memorable features included a singing Naked Cowboy and a tasty potato knish.

The other side of Times Square we reboarded the subway and took it down to the NYU area to Washington Square Park. We roamed the streets for a while, which would become a theme of this trip, before Cathy let me loose in The Strand bookstore. I forget how much I miss having access to good book stores until I'm in one. She left me for about an hour before I got a call asking if I was almost finished. A stack of books under my arm, I realized sadly that I'd never got farther than the fiction section. But, I bought my share and headed out. Great store.

We walked a bit more before stopping for a light lunch snack at Spice Cafe, an Indian place in the area. We had a few appetizers, as we decided our policy for the day would be to eat a little bit, often. The chutneys were outstanding, the roasted chicken very sweet and tasty, and the beer expectedly mediocre.

After this we walked some more, first stopping off at Other Music, a tiny tiny store packed with amazing music. I did some damage to the wallet there, too, before leaving the NYU area and heading to the East Village area.

Cathy took her turn shopping here, though not buying much, and we stopped at Guss' Pickles for some salty snacks to bring back to the apartment before giving in to our impulse to grab a table at Inoteca Wine Bar for another snack. We started with a glass of white each, small wedges of 3 types of cheese, a big bowl full of olives, and crusty bread. It was perfect.


Cathy spotted a shoe store across the street, and I decided I'd rather enjoy a glass of red and the rest of the olives than brave a frantic and pushy looking shoe sale. So I did.

From there we headed to Tompkins Square Park to meet up with Heidi at the dog run there. Quite the busy little patch of dirt that dog park is, divided into big dog land and little dog land, both sections jumping with furry activity.

The three of us walked from the park through Little Italy toward Chinatown, where we planned to meet Michael for dinner. It was a nice walk on a warm night, the streets busy but not terribly crowded or hurried, post-work traffic turning to going-out traffic, restaurants and sidewalks filling with people.

We stopped in Little Italy at a sidewalk cafe for a beer for me and a glass of wine for them, then headed just up the street to The Great New York Noodle, a suspectly-named joint that according to our hosts had amazing and cheap food.



The Noodle did not disappoint. Michael got there and we went in, ushered quickly to a table and asked if we were ready to order almost within seconds. Turnover is life at this place, so we got to it. We got mei fun, some Singapore street noodle dish, along with a fish porridge, a stir-fried snow-pea leaves, barbecued duck with rice, and stir-fried salt-fish with vegetables. And beer.

Man, what a meal. The porridge was the big surprise hit, a creamy and not-too-dense stew of fish and soft veggies, somewhere between gravy and tapioca in consistency, and absolutely loaded with fresh fish flavor. The snow pea leaves were bright and delicious, holding some crunch, and the salt fish was also outstanding. The duck was better than any Chinese barbecue I'd had, moist meat bursting with lightly smoky and sweet flavors.


After dinner we walked a bit, through Chinatown and Little Italy (which I was surprised to see meet at a cross street and butt directly up against one another), and stopped at a coffee shop for some dessert before boarding the A Train for home.

The train ride home was a long one, probably about an hour and a quarter, which explains why the days here would become marathon sessions: leave early in the morning, stay out all day, through dinner and just beyond, before heading northward to Upstate Manhattan, as they called it, for the night.