New York Day

We vowed to do New Yorky things today. It all started with french toast and bacon, and of course coffee from our ultra luxe Italian coffee maker. Next we hopped on a subway to get our car fom the garage. Normally we'd leave sleeping dogs lie but we were headed to Fairway in Harlem to buy food, a lot of food. We hauled it all back to our apartment, found a parking spot, and geared up for some more NY fun.

First we had homemade curried mushroom-squash soup with some crusty bread. Then we took the subway uptown to MOMA, the museum of modern art. We saw two exhibits: the abstract impressionists which are old hat, and contemporary art which went from the ridiculous to the sublime. Viewing art always makes me hungry so we stopped at Cafe Sabrett before getting back on the subway. Hot dog!

Once home, we had cocktails with cheese and crackers, an old standby. The we got gussied up and subwayed to El Charro, a Spanish restaurant in the West Village we used to go to pre-children. The one thing I remember from this jewel is that it served one of my favorite dishes of all time, flounder or sole a la plancha with a rich buttery banana/cinnamon sauce. No matter that it's been 25 years since I last ate it there; I expected it to still be on the menu. It was not, so I requested they make it for me. For want of a banana they could not. The flounder was delicious anyway. Marty had the paella. What he remembered: it was two steps down; the cowboy (el charro) painting, and I think some of the waiters. What we forgot: the tininess of the place and how loud it is. For dessert we had creme brule (average) with El Charro coffee which was entertaining due to the flame factor and the brandy. We spoke Spanish with the waiters the entire evening and vowed to return soon, possibly with our friend Doug and/or our daughter Mariel.

We took a taxi home because we were sick of the subway and how erratic it was running.

It was a great day, in a great city.