I went to Manhattan twice this weekend. The main purpose of Friday's
visit was to attend Terry's daughter's art exhibit reception. It was
well-attended (a bit crowded but not uncomfortably so) and the star of
the show was radiant. Stan was there and we both enjoyed talking to
Terry, and also got to meet up again with her husband. Stan and I
spent a while talking to Terry's son as well. Terry has two bright,
talented kids- good job Terry!

Before going to the exhibit, I took advantage of the trek into
Manhattan to stop at Chelsea Market at 9th Ave and 6th St. My mother
had me assigned the task of finding caciocavallo cheese for a
co-worker and I found it at Buon Italia. I also picked up some
gianduiotti (think "solid Nutella") for mom. Then I went to Bowery
Kitchen Supply across the hall to look for fountain glasses and tulip
sundae dishes, but they were too thick (too much glass, not enough
room for ice cream). I did buy some silicone mini-muffin cups (I'm
going to try making chocolate candy cups and filling them with the
yummy peanut butter tofu cream I posted a few days ago). Otherwise, I
thought their silicone mat items were pretty expensive. There is a
dutch oven though that I might consider buying... I noticed that the
Moroccan shop in the hall is losing floor space. I hope that's not a
bad sign. They were setting out a beautiful wrought iron screen
when we passed by. Sigh.

The next day, I started out making a couple loaves of Oatmeal Banana
Bread to use up 4 ripe nanners. Then the resident college student
(RCS) had an assignment at the Metropolitan Museum of Art which
required her to have her photo taken in front of the museum as "proof"
that she was there, as well as photos of pieces relevant to the
course. So I accompanied her as photographer. First we went on the
museum website and planned the visit. We arrived at the hardcopy
after 4 pm (the museum closes at 8:45). Phew, no crowds. We did her
assignment (and were amused at how many other students with
assignments there were). We searched for (they don't make it easy)
the cafeteria for a couple of sodas and were pleasantly surprized at
the ambience. Also, the food people were eating looked really good,
not the usual museum cafeteria fare. Still expensive ($2.25 for a 20
oz Diet Coke). I was disappointed that the Islam exhibit was closed
temporarily because that's what I wanted to see.

Using Vindigo, we had chosen a Moroccan restaurant near St. Mark's
Place (Greenwich Village) which was easily accessible by #6 train.
It was a tiny restaurant with a little bar in the front with patrons
inhaling fruit-scented tobacco from a hookah. Unfortunately, we got
there around 8:45 pm, prime time, and had to wait an hour for a
table, in the line of traffic, shuffling to let the wait staff go back
and forth. After being seated, the order was taken quickly, the
appetizers we ordered (bourekas) arrived right away. They were good
but we were so hungry (our usual dinner time is 6 pm) that styrofoam
would have tasted good. Then.... we waited until 11 pm until our
entrees arrived! The kitchen was tiny and apparently the upstairs
dining room kept the waitresses scrambling. RCS got the chicken
kebabs and I got a chicken tagine with olives and preserved lemons.
Both were delicious and we vacuumed them up (famished!). We then made
an error- we ordered desserts. I ordered rose-petal ice cream and RCS
ordered warm chocolate cake. There went another hour of our life...
We didn't get out of there until 12:30, thinking "Free at last!!"

I would go back there again, the food was excellent,
reasonably-priced, the staff very nice, etc. but beware of Saturday
night. I would make a reservation for the upstairs room where the
belly dancing is, on a weekday, and not be in a hurry to get home.

But this night was not over. Heading home we walked to W. Houston to
get the train back to Queens. At that hour, some of the entrances
were closed so we had to re-route a bit east. That's when a bit of
good luck kicked in. I almost walked past it until it hit me that
Yonah Shimmel was open at 12:40 am!!! So I backtracked a few steps
and bought a couple of kasha knishes to take home. I still can't get
over that it was open

I'll spare you the details, but the train ride back was hell with the
Saturday night rowdies. The train announcer had the volume up too
loud so it was impossible to relax. The train we were on at one point
had to wait between stations for another train to pass by, one which
we should have switched to at the last station but I thought I could
tolerate a few more stops on this one. When we got off the train we
found out that the buses only ran once/hour at that hour of the night
and the next one wasn't due for 45 min. We gave up and walked. At
least it wasn't raining. Home at last at 2am!

Sue(tm)
Lead me not into temptation... I can find it myself!