The Big Apple
Last weekend, Gish and I traveled East, with our friend, Sherani, to visit some old friends in New Jersey. The plan was to spend Saturday touring around Manhattan and Sunday go to Princeton.
We arrived late Friday night after a predictable Northworst Airlines delay but were met at the Newark airport by Manomi and Brian, who drove us back to their house in Hillsborough. They had laid out a spread of hors d'oeuvres befitting royalty and we stayed up late quaffing good wine and homemade bruschetta and catching up on all the news, gossip and touring their house. Of course we met their "kids", aka The Zoo - Benny the energetic retriever and the three felines Zoe, Ameila and Singhy. Gish and I were put up in the Zen room, a quiet little room with a comfy simple bed and a gorgeous blooming orchid. Sherani slept in the Library room, complete with a wall of bookcases. We were clearly in for a weekend of pampering.
Saturday after a big breakfast, we all piled in Brian's Jeep and headed into New York City. The drive in was beautiful and the day was too - sunny and crisp. The highway that feeds into New York was a long downward grade, so the skyline became visible from miles away. We could see all of Manhattan, from the Empire State Building all the way south to where the Statue of Liberty stands. Quite a majestic approach for us newcomers.
We entered Manhattan via the Holland Tunnel and shortly after coming above ground in New York proper, we all had a simultaneous urge to take a pee break. My first foray in Manhattan was less than auspicious - the Ladie's Room at a Dunkin Donuts (the Men's Room was out of order).
After our stop, Brian took us up the Upper West Side, in the canyons of buildings of (I believe) 8th Avenue. Up, up we went, at a snail's pace due to traffic. Particularly jammed was an intersection near the Port Authority, which gave us ample opportunity to people watch all the travelers coming and going on the buses. Brian braved the traffic with the savvy of a New York cabbie and the patience of a Zen priest.
We continued up through Times Square, down Broadway, across Central Park and we even saw the old neighborhood where Brian once lived, paying an exorbitant amount of money renting an efficiency apartment only blocks from Central Park. It was a classic New York neighborhood and for a fleeting moment, I could almost see us living there.
We stopped for lunch at a cafe called Ollie's. All day dim sum was advertised in the window and that is what we had - dumplings, fried rice, soup. Then we strolled down to Zabar's, a New York institution. Zabar's is a packed deli, grocery mart that has the largest cheese selection we had ever seen. Also a huge rack of olive oils, chocolate bars in every variety from 60% cacao to 99% cacao. Needless to say, Gish was in heaven here.
My goal was to get my hands on a pound of the famous Zabar's Blend coffee, of which I had heard years ago roasting at Dunn Brothers in Saint Paul. Sure enough, at the back of the store, guys were standing at large barrels of coffee of different varietials and roasts, mixing by hand to the orders of impatient women with strong accents. I sent Manomi in line for me. :)
After a cup of coffee and a conversation with an eccentric older woman who told me she had taken the bus over from Queens and continued talking to me as she walked away, we headed back to the car and continued our driving tour, over now to the East Side - Park Avenue, the East Village and finally SoHo. We had a dinner reservation in NoHo at a place called Indochine, another New York institution. Indochine was at its height of popularity in the early nineties due to its East meets West decor, sexy waitstaff and eclectic menu, not to mention its celebrity clientele. Prior to dinner, we parked in an overpriced garage, next to an Aston Martin DB9 that even impressed Sherani and we all speculated who owned such an expensive car and who could afford to park it there!
We briefly visited the MOMA Store and Sur la Table before strolling to dinner. And what a dinner it was. The service was impeccable, the food extraordinary and the people watching excellent. I had a plate of grilled giant prawns that were presented with the torsos peeled but the heads lined up like a rogue's gallery on my plate. Each prawn had an accompanying lettuce wrap and a dipping sauce. Gishani had filet of sole cooked in banana leaf, Sherani had roast duck, Brian a vegetarian plate and Manomi had spring rolls. We finished with dessert and coffee before walking back to the garage and, $30 later, drove back to New Jersey.
Sunday we took our time over breakfast of Zabar's coffee and cinnamon raisin bread and then headed to Princeton to stroll the campus and have some lunch. Princeton is the kind of town where you can raise your IQ just by walking around. The campus is so beautiful and it was a perfect Ivy League kind of day. We went for a lunch buffet at an Indian restaurant just off campus , spent some time in a great bookstore and then wandered the old buildings of the campus that looked right off the set of a movie. Then it was time to head to Philadelphia to catch our plane (yes, Philadelphia. A Northworst Airlines snafu forced us to leave from a different airport.).
We said our goodbyes and headed home. It really was an amazing weekend with good food, great friends and conversation and wondeful sights. It was also good to get back to our own MinneApple.
posted by Outdoor2some @ 5:08 PM
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