Dinner at Zarela

After the theater we were all feeling very hungry, and so after taking the subway back to our neighborhood we stopped by Zarela for an early dinner. While not as good a deal as the Sunday night prix fixe, the food was excellent. J even tried the Cochinita Chiapaneca (pork shoulder) that I ordered, which made the dinner a success. The homemade tortillas were also very good, and matched well with the pork. Next time we will return on a Sunday.

Stomp

My wife has been wanting to see some kind of show here since she first came with me for her first visit to the city a few months ago. In fact, it had grown to be a bit of a sore point due to the fact that during that and subsequent visits we had not yet managed to squeeze it in. It's not that I was lacking in motivation; I am as up for a trip to the theater as the next guy, even more so. I can probably appreciate the craft more than most -- I played Motel the Tailor in my high school production of Fiddler on the Roof, after all. And yet, I think somehow she still thought that I was trying to evade any chance of catching a performance, when in reality it was simply a matter of limited time and so many things to do.

Nevertheless, in the lull of activity between our arrival and the chore of moving into our permanent residence, this weekend seemed like a good opportunity finally to take in some theatrical entertainment. The planning was slightly more complicated at this point, since we now had also the tastes of a five-year-old to satisfy with our choice of stage fare, but we thought we could find something. We were originally thinking about Mary Poppins, but after a quick check I found that it was long, even for a musical -- over three hours. That would test even my attention span, so we looked for something else.

Little J has a fondness for catchy rhythms, and so we quickly converged on Stomp. Not too long, and it appeared to promise enough movement and action to keep him interested. After a fairly brief trip through the TKTS line, we had tickets in hand for 3:00PM in the afternoon.

The performance was at the Orpheum Theater. Little J loved it; he was on the edge of his seat the whole time and really got into all the clapping.

Breakfast by the Park

This morning we went over to Central Park and ate breakfast at Sarabeth's. We had tried a quick breakfast at Sarabeth's bakery in the Old Chelsea Market building on a visit to Manhattan a couple months previously, and at the time we were impressed by the height if their English muffins. We were hoping to get similar muffins at this location, and on the way there we were selling the virtues of these muffins to little J in order to convince him that this would be a better choice than Dean & Deluca in Rockefeller Plaza, where he has previously enjoyed the Donut Plant donuts. Luckily we were not disappointed, and J enjoyed the muffin basket (including very tall English muffin) along with a side of bacon.

Pescatore Sans Bib

Despite the holiday on Monday, it's been a long week for all of us, not the least of which is due to the fact that if was the first week of kindergarten. For dinner tonight we stayed close to home, which in this case was Pescatore on 2nd Avenue. We had been here once before and liked it, so we were pretty sure it would be a safe bet again.

We had no problem walking in and getting a table at 7:00 on a Friday night. It seems to me that peak traffic in this neighborhood is on Thursday nights, and the rest of the weekend including Friday through Sunday is less crowded. This seems counter-intuitive to me, but that's been our experience so far. Apparently after Thursday everyone gets out of the city (or at least this particular neighborhood; it still seems plenty crowded in Times Square).

Like many of the restaurants here, during the warm weather months there is an outdoor seating area that affords the opportunity to peruse the board of fare while walking past, and previously I had spotted an appetizing combination seafood linguine. On a prior visit here we had tried other things, but tonight I was interested in finally giving that combination a try.

To start with they bring out out a little dish of assorted olives marinating in oil with Italian herbs. This is accompanied by Italian bread, which instead of being served family style in a basket for the table is distributed individually to each diner, providing a choice of white or whole-grain. I actually prefer this approach; not only does it obviate contemplating the fate of uneaten bread left in baskets at the table (which inescapably introduces a compelling temptation to the restaurant to correct for a significant margin of error between portion served versus eaten), it also provides the opportunity for a bit of additional elegance to the meal as the servers come around periodically to offer more. Surely this duty is preferable to being limited just to refilling the water glasses. As if all this weren't enough, it tends to throttle the rate of gratuitous carbohydrate consumption, serving the mutual interests of the diners caloric intake and the restaurant's bottom line. In short, I am on board with individual bread servings. But I digress.

Like many Manhattan restaurants we have tried there is no explicit kids' menu here, but the waiter was very accomodating in allowing us to choose a favorite pasta shape (linguine in this case) and combining it with a sauce in a half-order size for little J.

When the Linguine Pescatore for Two arrived, it was much larger than I remember seeing from passing by on the sidewalk; an enormous vat filled to the top with linguine (obviously), a light tomato sauce, and also a variety of seafood including half a lobster, clams, mussels, calamari rings, and small scallops. With it the waiter brought out a bowl for the shells, a shellfish cracker, and also two plastic bibs.

Now, I have to admit that the practice of issuing bibs is a sensitive point with me at restaurants. To begin with, I am sure the root problem lies with my insecurity and the fact that I am uncomfortable with the mental picture of myself sitting down to a huge vat of seafood wearing a conspicuous plastic bib with a bright red lobster on the front. After all, didn't Emily Post say that the first rule of etiquette is not to draw undue attention to onesself? In turn this feeds the feelings I have about how it seems the waiters are always just a bit too pushy in encouraging me to put on the bib. I always feel a bit insulted, as if they are suggesting that after decades of feeding myself I still haven't mastered the art of getting food from plate to mouth without splattering it all over myself. I always try to decline with just the right combination of light humor braced with underlying edge so that it is clear that it's not a big deal, but that they shouldn't pursue the subject unless they want to risk an unpleasant confrontation.

That was my approach tonight, and the waiter was content to leave the bibs at the table with us. The relevance of all this is that the Linguine Pescatore was the messiest meal I have ever eaten, even taking into account a long history that includes Cincinnati Chili, Lobster bakes, and chicken wings. By the end of the meal after wrangling sauce-covered mussels, lobster, and clams from their shells, my shirt was covered with orange spatters and I was feeling a bit silly about the bib sitting unused on the table next to the shell-bowl. I'm sure the waiter got quite a chuckle out of that as he brought out the check.

Of course, I wouldn't do anything differently the next time. It's still a lot easier to buy or clean my shirts than to undertake analysis of deep-seated self-confidence issues.

Madison Park at Lunchtime

After the kitchen store I decided to take a stroll past Madison Park on the way back to the office from lunch. The park is only a couple of blocks away, but this is the first time I have walked through it. In addition to the impressive chrome tree sculpture, the had a jumbo TV screen set up for the purpose of watching live US Open action.

Kitchen Supplies

The company I work for has an admirable goal of reducing waste by eliminating the use of disposable cups and cutlery, and therefore has requested that employees supply their own. Since starting work there I have not yet had a chance to acquire the appropriate items, so today at lunch I header out to The Haas Company on West 25th, which sells kitchen supplies. While there I purchased a giant green mug that doubles as a bowl, and also a paring knife with sheath. Both are key items for my morning breakfast return, which involves cutting up fruit and combining with yogurt.

Delayed Train

This morning when I got to the subway station on may way to work, the train was waiting at the platform with the doors open. As I got on, I heard an announcement over the loudspeaker that the train was delayed due to traffic on the tracks ahead.

The most significant thing about this event was that, unlike every other announcement I have ever heard in the subway, I was actually able to decipher the message. Ordinarily these announcements are so distorted that I assumed their only use was as a source of comic amusement to the train operators as they watch confused travelers trying to figure out what they might mean, full of anxiety that the missing puzzle piece in their travel confusion might be forever lost.

But not today. Today the message was clear, and I was surprised that everyone was waiting so calmly and quietly when I got on board, as if somewhere nearby a hall monitor were watching. Their apparent patience was impressive. Lucky for me, the doors closed and we were on our way immediately after I got on board.

Memories of Seattle at CPK

Tonight we indulged in a bit of west coast nostalgia by meeting at California Pizza Kitchen in the evening after I finished work. CPK was definitely a staple of our diet in Seattle, primarily because it was one of the few places where little J could be counted on to eat his dinner without reservation or complaint. In particular, he is a fan of the kids' Hawaiian pizza, going so far as to vow on many occasions his intention never to order anything but that. Despite our concerns that Canadian bacon and pineapple are not necessarily the most healthful items, at the very least we could be guaranteed that he would eat something there that would provide some minimal level of nutrition.

Despite the name, for us CPK has a strong association with Seattle. Certainly they have locations all over by now, but our first dining experience there was in Seattle, and after frequenting it there so often while we lived there it's natural to think of it as a culinary welcome center where we can stop by and remember familiar times.

Unfortunately, this particular evening the kids' Hawaiian they brought to the table was made with pepperoni rather than Canadian bacon, and CPK Hawaiian connoisseur that he is, there was no way little J was going to let that slide. The waitress admitted that it had been made incorrectly and graciously offered to bring out a new one (which J was happy to take her up on despite the additional wait), but it was a blemish on what would otherwise have been a happy reunion.

While I have tried many of their menu items over the past few years, of late I have fallen into a bit of a rut with my favorite California Club pizza. I like the fact that it's both a pizza and a salad, combining starter and main course into one. In a way I suppose I am just following J's lead since I have ordered nothing but this particular pizza on all or visits there going back at least a year (I'm embarrassed to say home many trips we have made to CPK during that time).

Celebrating at Serendipity

Today was little J's first day of school, and in advance of this occasion I had the forethought to make reservations to celebrate his anticipated survival with dinner at Serendipity 3. We first heard about S3 from Miffy Loves New York City, a fine children's book about New York City given to us by a friend to help prepare for the move. I don't know whether it was a paid product placement or not, but it was certainly effective in creating advance buzz about the place for us. We had tried to go there during an earlier visit but found the two-hour-plus wait too much and we weren't willing to return after midnight.

This time I prepared better, though, and had been alloted one of their apparently scarce reservations a couple weeks previously.

The book highlights the signature frozen hot chocolate, and so of course we had to open with that. As expected for an ice cream parlor, the food is more about novelty and quantity than taste or sophistication. That being the case, my Catcher-in-the-Rye BLT was better than I expected, but the best I can say about the other dishes at the table was that there was no questioning their generosity with melted cheese. Still, dinner was just a formality to be endured in preparation for dessert, and we thoroughly enjoyed the Banana Split (although we opted for the merely enormous Coward's Portion).

Strolling in Sutton Place

After dinner it seemed like a good opportunity for an evening stroll, so we walked down to Sutton Place Park by the river. It's a tiny triangle of a park, but there's a nice view of the water. We're still trying to figure out how to get down to the sidewalk path that is across the highway along the river.

End of the Summer at Angelo's

This evening we went out for pizza as a last fling before school starts tomorrow. We're now well acquainted with Angelo's, which offers coal-fired oven pizza and pasta. It's very convenient and looks like it will be a reliable staple of of our pizza repertoire. A favorite of ours since our first visit has been the mozzarella cheese pizza, which is simple but always very pleasing, with fresh basil leaves scattered on top and thin crust just as I prefer.

On tonight's version, though, the basil was nowhere to be found. It was still good, but I am a big fan of the fresh basil. On the other hand, little J (with whom I usually share the pizza) always has to pick off the basil leaves, and so he enjoyed it more than usual. I don't know whether they just forgot or if basil was scarce over the long holiday weekend. Hopefully this is not some consequence of the end of the domestic basil growing season, which I think is limited to the hot weather months. I'm all for sourcing food locally, but where my thin-crust pizza is concerned I have no qualms about flying fresh basil in from whatever far corner of the earth happens to be in the midst of basil season. After all, I gave up my car to move to New York so I figure I am within my carbon budget to indulge in year-round fresh basil.

School Shopping

After our filling breakfast at Les Halles, we headed over the the nearby Macy's (the "Biggest Store in the World") to do a little school-clothes-shopping for J. One might ask, "Can a store be too big?" I know now that the answer is, "Absolutely, see e.g. Macy's." This mammoth place encloses all the confusion and overcrowding of a busy suburban shopping mall packed into single store with really old wooden escalators and a floor plan that would confuse a minotaur. Not my favorite Manhattan shopping experience. I'll grant them the big part, though.

So, after fleeing the overwhelming Macy's we headed down to SOHO to pay our respects at my wife's favorite shopping Mecca, J. Crew. The SOHO location has a Crew Cuts section, which is the only bricks-and-mortar retail location we know of. In addition, the trip to SOHO offered the chance to visit Dean & Deluca, but we were disappointed to see that they were not carrying Crumbs cupcakes any longer (at least not today). We had fond memories of a pistachio variety from a previous visit a couple of months earlier.

Labor Day Breakfast

This morning we debated whether to go to a diner near our apartment or else venture farther afield for Labor Day breakfast. After some lengthy deliberation and negotiation (surely more than was called for on the simple topic of where to eat breakfast — luckily Michael Pollan came along and clearly identified this for us as a unique feature of the human condition, if not a pathological defect), we decided to hop into a cab for a quick ride over to Les Halles. We seem to be on the verge of becoming regulars there at this point, but this is the first we've been for breakfast.

This being a holiday, we went all out and splurged on Eggs Benedict and Steak and Eggs. Very satisfying, but of course after eating I was quickly reminded why we don't eat like this every day, as my heart strained to pump the cholesterol through my system.

Vegan for Dinner

This evening we headed out for dinner to Candle Cafe on 3rd Avenue at 75th that serves interesting organic, vegetarian and vegan cuisine. One of the things that attracted us to it was the interesting array of fruit/vegetable/herbal "cocktails" (I use quotes since there is no alchohol) and smoothies. They even had a drink section labeled Farmacy, for the contents' supposed medicinal properties.

I selected the presumed house specialty Candle Cocktail, a combination of beets, greens, carrots, orange, ginger, and probably some other things. I have been a big fan of beets lately (hmm, that's not a phrase I could have ever imagined myself putting down in print), and so that was the clear choice. It was very good, sweet from the beets and carrots with some spice from the ginger.

The food was excellent, including a very filling casserole with layers of sweet potato, black beans, millet, and sauteed greens. While millet may conjure up images of starlings and bluejays (at least it does for me), it was a very good basis for the hearty casserole. It even had a side of faux-gravy, which although not a substitute for the real thing had a pleasant poultry spice flavor that brought Thanksgiving to mind.

Amusingly given it's vegan credentials, Candle Cafe is situated right next to Le Steak Cafe, so patrons have a chance to make a last second decision to go for fauna over flora. No word on whether groups of mixed dining preference can sit together in one and also order in from the other.

Scooter Search

This afternoon we went out to do a bit of shopping, including looking for a razor scooter for J. Being new in town, the only toy stores I know of are FAO Schwarz and the Toys 'R' Us at Times Square. We chose FAO because of its proximity to Central Park, but much to my surprise there were none to be found, so we had to make the trip down to Times Square.

It was pretty crowded at both locations of course, this being Saturday of a holiday weekend, but by far 5th Avenue is the better shopping ambiance. For that reason in additon to my fondness to the giant piano scene in Big, I was saddened to see that clearly FAO has ceded the authority in toys to the much less storied Toys 'R' Us.

Sunday Market

We took a bit of a stroll around an outdoor market after we fished eating at Isabella's...

Brunch at Isabella's

This morning we went to brunch at Isabella's, over on the upper west side at 77th and Columbus Avenue. I went there last weekend with a friend and it was pretty good, so it seemed like a good place to try on the first Sunday brunch after my wife and son returned for good.

One interesting note: a highlight from last weekend's visit was the complimentary drink included with brunch, which in my case was the first Bloody Mary I have tried, based on the recommendation of my friend. It was very good, nice and peppery. I was looking forward to trying this again today, but alas we arrived before noon and they weren't serving alchoholic drinks until then.

I had forgotten about the quaint liquor laws they have in other parts of the country since moving to the west coast. It really does seem like a relic of prohibition.