New York. Again.

We made it back to London with just enough time to unpack our filthy trail clothes and re-pack our bags with clean, urban clothes.  Off to Heathrow, where our flight was delayed HOURS without warning.  Happily, the good people at Plymouth Gin had set up shop right out side the Duty-Free monstrosity and had a promotional bartender that was handing out gimlets.  There's nothing that makes a four hour stay in the airport better, but free booze did help with the tolerance of the injustices of airline travel.    

We finally arrived at JFK many hours late, and correctly assuming that we had missed the last fast LIRR train into Penn, we took the E train into the city.  Which was only running local and with the track work going on, very infrequently.  It took over an hour and a half to get to our hotel in Soho, and at this point, it was 1 in the flippin morning, and I was beyond done with the day.  I had optimistically thought we would be checked into our hotel and cleaned up for dinner time, but the silver lining was that the moment we hit the pillow we were out.

New York still brings out the worst in me- the gridlock, the crowds, the stress, the noise, the inability to keep up with anything or anyone. 

Happily, a few old haunts still exist, remnants of the old city that I really hope never change.  

And there were some new oddities as well.

Like that giant tower is pretty much done.  I spent years watching it slowly emerge from the ashes and it is weird that it is now part of the skyline:

It still catches me by surprise.

I stocked up on much-needed bras at Century 21.  I was tempted by many, many things, but in my ongoing efforts to keep my belongings to a minimum, I walked away from those many, many things.  All this moving around means I am slim and trim.  Well, my belongings are anyway.  

It's just such a hectic wash of a place.  Even coming from London, which is a HUGE city (or as they might say in New York, yoooge), it never ceases to be completely overwhelming to be in New York for any length of time, and after being away for a few years, I'm back to noticing all the details again and feeling kind of lost even though I know the city streets well.  I had lived here for 10 years.  I don't know how.

Since I was only spending three days, I didn't have much time for anything.  I always have grand plans to visit the Met, and I didn't even get a glimpse of Central Park this trip.  Between the Lawyers and the Embassy and the Doctors and Dentist and those stupid Biometrics screenings and trying to see as many friends as I possibly can...well, three days went by and a I barely even blinked.

It seems like NYC will never feel like home to be, but I miss my friends and the food there badly.

We were staying in an odd corner of Soho without a whole lot of restaurants that wouldn't let you in if you weren't wearing a Rolex, and a hoard of food trucks had smartly moved in to fill that niche and lined the streets every morning and afternoon.  One morning on our way to an appointment, Bry stopped at one and ordered a sausage roll.  I went off- did he have Stockholm Syndrome?  He should be getting a bialy with cream cheese and lox and an ice coffee, not something that you could get at every pub and gas station in Britain.  And I had to explain the situation to the vendor as he just thought I was a control freak and a nutcase for yelling at someone for getting a sausage roll for breakfast.  "But it's home made...it's really good", the vendor explained.

And it was.

See, that's the thing in New York: you can usually stop and get a random cheap bite and not die or at the very least, feel cheated.  Not only is it almost always good, but good in a way where you will be back for more.  In London, I do much research before darkening the doorway of any establishment, as there have been many disappointments, but also lots of good finds as well.  It's just so easy here.

I walked whenever I could and had my camera on hand, carefully avoiding stopping short in front of crowds of commuters as a good tourist should.  In London, people would walk around you while judging you as a punter.  In New York, it is a death wish.  Also, the subway is just awful in summer and I avoided it whenever possible- the trains are usually freezing cold, which feels really great when it finally comes because you have been standing on a sweltering, airless platform for the past 20 minutes.  I do love the Village, although there are so many fancy-ass boutiques, it's not the same place as when I first moved here.  Same with the meatpacking district.  It feels like no corner of Manhattan has been left to be the grungy, wild place of yore now that there is a starbucks and a bank branch on every corner.

I never had to work in the financial district, so I don't know the canyons down there well.  I ended up taking several trips there as the law office was on John St, but I thought this was telling:

A wee tiny "green space" confined by an old church on one side and sky scrapers all around.  It doesn't even seem like it is outdoors, does it?  Lower Manhattan is such a crazy oddity, as the narrow streets were laid out in the time of the Dutch and British, and the buildings just kept getting bigger and taller, but the streets are still no wider than a country lane.

Happily, a friend of mine had a day off and we had a nice but incredibly slow walk along the Highline with his two-year old son.

I love the little wading river they installed down by 14th street.  It's endlessly amusing for me, too.

Well, that was until someone clearly needed a nap and acted like a bucket hat was causing pain and suffering while thrashing around wailing.   That someone was not me.

Yeah, I totally pinched the baby.

Even though it is feels incredibly narrow and crowded at some bottlenecks, it is such a creative and fun park to walk.  The People's Pops stand is still there, and like a good auntie, I made sure the kiddo is on his way to a 3-pop-a-day habit.

I still found time to eat and drink, as it is essential as breathing.  A visit to New York is no time to exercise restraint.

Some good new finds and shamelessly nostalgic repeats:

X'ian Famous Foods for hand pulled spicy good noodles, and the opportunity to crowd around a tiny non-oft cleaned bench to inhale them while they were fresh, helplessly trying to preserve my clothing's cleanliness.  Also, it's cheap as hell.  Prepare yourself, this one is a game changer, and I had been walking past the original Chinatown location for years without giving it a proper try.

The bar I visited during the polar vortex last winter, The Wayland, is just as awesome in high summer.  Cocktails and a really chill room, and the food was awesome.

Dear Iriving, a fancy new cocktail bar in my old 'hood of Gramarcy, which was inspired by the film "Midnight in Paris".  Very chic spot, with private booths and a button to call the wait staff when you wanted a refill, and filthy wallpaper in the back room.

Sushi Choshi.  They aren't the best or fanciest sushi place, but they've been on that corner for-ev-er.  However- they were the first sushi place I tried when I moved to NYC and I credit them to kicking off my habit.  I went from "raw fish, yeck!" to "NEED MOAR NOW SUSHI YES" and now I know that if I ever am on a life raft with nothing but raw fish to eat, I would be fat and happy when the rescue boat showed up.

Tolache now has a taco take-out place downtown, which makes having to wind my way around down those streets so much more pleasurable and I tried to schedule my appointments there to coordinate with opening hours.  I love tacos so much.  They are the best thing in the theater district for pre-and -post theater dining, and the tacos they served up was downright addicting.  People should stop bitching about downtown being a "food wasteland" now anyway.

I had a bit of a kerfuffle as we were stopping in NYC to take care of business and renew our visas, which means we have to surrender our passports to the Embassy for as long as it takes them to process it.  Ultimately though, we were wanting to get up to Maine as quickly as we could.  I realized then that I had no valid ID.  Every other form of ID I had was expired, and because I had no US address or utility bills, I couldn't just go and get them renewed.  Flying was off the table, a long haul on Amtrak it would have to be.

On my last night there, I met up with a friend from Paris and some more friends from NYC for dinner and drinks.  I bowed out early to get back to the hotel to pack and begrudgingly hopped on the subway.  I took a seat on an empty bench, and right away realized why it was empty.  A man sitting opposite, squirming in his seat and breathing heavily was giving me the up-down.  "Girl, what you need right now is a bubble  bath and a foot massage...."...I got up and moved to the other, more crowded end of the subway.  Slightly pissy about his lack of decorum, but also slightly amused.  I've never been offered that kind of treatment on the London Tube or the Paris Metro.  What is it about New York?  OMG YOU GUYS IN NEW YORK THEY GIVE FREE FOOT MASSAGES ON THE SUBWAY!  Perhaps if he would have seen my mangled feet and missing toenails, he would have changed his tune to "You should probably see a podiatrist."

It is such a vibrant, energetic place, but it also has the ability to suck the life from your bones and leave you soulless and withered.  Which is why bone marrow was an appropriate choice for dinner.

Right before we left, we headed downtown to pick up some gifts.  And by gifts, I mean food.  Not having a weight limit on my enormous suitcase meant I could actually fill it!  A couple dozen from Kossar's, one of each flavor at the Donut Plant, and a small vat of half-sours at The Pickle Guys.  I make sure we are well-received when we show up anywhere.

While I was deeply sad I didn't get to spend more time in this terrible place, I was ready to go.  Another subway ride or lurching cab trip in gridlock probably would have been my undoing.  I was sad that I didn't get to see half the people I wanted to, and I didn't even make it over to Brooklyn and all my old haunts over there.  Boo.  You could spend a lifetime here and never do all there is to do.  By the time you got finished, the city would be new again and you would have all the more to see and do and try.

Although Amtrak did give us a nice send-off.  The friggin' Acela was late getting in, and they gave no information about how delayed it was or the track until about 10 minutes past the departure time.  Then it was just a mad rush of hundreds of impatient and freaked-out travelers packed to the one working down escalator in Penn Station.  I call them Slamtrack now.  I'm lucky I still have all my fingers and toes after that.  I would like to now let you know that in Switzerland, they announce the track numbers months in advance, and no one is killed because of it.

Bye, New York!

FO: Saroyan

Oh, Cashmere!



It's generally just way too precious for me to justify the cost, but it doesn't hurt to try every now and then.

The market is flooded with so much cheap cashmere.  Instead of being an ultra-luxury good, the Chinese figured out how to mass produce it and now you can get a sweater of low-quality, but a label that says 100% cashmere, for less than $50.  Ten or so years ago, you would be paying many hundreds of dollars.  It's astounding.  Still, when you come across the real, high-quality stuff, it's worlds different.  It feels like heaven.

So, back when I lived in New York, at one point I inadvertently signed up for Groupon.  Ugh, Groupon.  Your idealist sales pitches make me feel inadequate for not getting my hair straightened and my face microdemabraided and my cellulite lasered daily.  I would pop one into my shopping cart every now and then when it was something I would actually use: usually restaurants I was already known to frequent, or a good deal on a yoga studio package that was somewhere between work and home.  Occasionally, a fancy yarn store would offer up one, and being no fool, I would grab it.

So I had a Groupon for Knitty City- a place on the Upper West Side that was just a little too far out of my daily grind to be of any real use to me.  I think you pay $25 and got $50 worth of product, or something like that.  It's a nice way to try new yarns anyway.  I showed up, looked around, and instantly noticed that they had Jade Sapphire 6-ply cashmere bundled up as a scarf kit- 4 skeins for $100, when the yarn is normally about $50 a skein.  So, for $75 total, I ended up buying $200 worth of the nicest cashmere yarn money could possibly buy.  It was still ridiculously expensive, the color selection made me a little depressed, but it came home with me and sat in my stash, occasionally being gently petted and dreamed of the day when I might actually have the balls to make something with this wonder of the textile world.

Finally, right before I moved from France: much travel time, the need to use bamboo needles on the plane, and the need for a fairly mindless pattern resulted in this:



A lovely, wearable Saroyan scarf.  It worked out perfectly- the yarn is so soft and drapey and cushy, a simple pattern was best; something unfussy.  I still am a bit ashamed of the ungodly amount of money it cost me for the yarn, but it's so snuggly and amazing and warm, $75 seems totally reasonable now.



The lace-leaf edging gives it a nice touch.  I've worn it pretty much constantly since I finished it and it's my go-to scarf this winter.  As it should be!





Despite the fact that I finished it while in Costa Rica, I managed to weave in the ends with my stubby fingers and trim them off with my pocket knife (gasp!) and started wearing it instantly, regardless of it being quite tropical in climate.



But it's fantastic, and my favorite thing ever (at the moment anyway) and I might even take this time to admit that I have worn this to bed on more than one occasion.  It's that comforting.  When I do reluctantly take it off, it feels like I've sawed off a limb and I totally feel a sense of loss.  The bottom line is:  I refuse to have a bad day when I am wearing this scarf.

Totally worth it.

Link Fest! Also, NYC is Great.

The whole reason why I found myself in New York was to get my Visa taken care of with the embassy.  It couldn't have been done from France, so a trip back was in order.  Things being what they are, I faced a few delays and ended up being there for a bit longer than planned- a little over two week. 

Oh!  And we were right across the street from Central Park, and even though it was a frozen bitter place to be, I would grab my camera and bundle up and trudge along in my hiking boots.  A couple days later, the snow was gone.  It never sticks around for long here.

But, being New York, its filled with surprises, like crazy tourist who propose in the snow on a wee hill in on an afternoon so cold, I thought the red would never leave my cheeks.  

And ladies wearing hijabs sledding down a wee hill, having a blast.

Oh, you smug bastard, letting your skis take up closet space for these few days you could use them.

One of the first things I did when I got to New York and got wind of the upcoming polar vortex, I went out and bought the most amazing winter jacket I could find.  I had a craving for a Speiwak jacket, a classic still-made in NYC line of outerwear.  I became obsessed with finding a more feminine version that their adopted-by-hiphop puffy coats, and I did indeed find.  It's a long, hooded wool coat with toggles and it was so warm.  As long as I had some wool tights or wool pants on, and a scarf around my face, I was comfortable enough to spend a couple hours outside at a time.  Which was good because I had a lot to do.

Aside from the social aspect of my trip, I had a lot of paperwork and lawyers who needed a friendly visit, some shopping and repair work, some preparatory moving to a new country work,  and the whole issue of all our stuff in storage.  Rather haphazardly, we decided to move everything into a storage pod to save money while we were in the area.  Because there was no climate control on the pod, we had to empty out our rather stunning stash of wine and beer- we had four or five large crates that we pulled out from storage- and we became quite popular as we dolled this out on anyone who would drink it or take it.  I wept a bit inside when some of this went away, but it's better than coming back to ruined, exploded bottles that have leaked all over my clothes and furniture.  It's best we do away with these now, and sleep it off tomorrow.

Some lovely discoveries and visits to old haunts....

Century 21 is still the best place to shop for cheap in NYC.  There is good reason why it is always mobbed with Euro types, because even imported goods from the EU are somehow cheaper there when they are last seasons'.  You are going to have to go diving for your size, but with patience and luck, you can really make out like a bandit.  Some finds:  A Frye handbag for a hair over $100 that I had mulled over at the Frye store in Soho while it was over $400, my favorite French perfume for 70% cheaper than Sephora, the biggest durable suitcase we could find to assist with the upcoming move, designer blue jeans that fit like gloves for $35 a pop, and, my favorite, cashmere tights and Smartwool Socks that were heavily discounted.   I'm not a shopper by any means, but not being able to afford much in Paris (except for during Soldes!) meant we were getting kind of threadbare and had ignored some needs longer than we perhaps should have....especially after Bryan had taken a dive into a pool in Costa Rica which disintegrated his boxer shorts so that a few tatters remained attached to the waistband and that was about it.  

I pretty much lived on Ramen and Udon while I was there.  When it is cold out, it's the only thing I want and I don't seem to get tired of variations of it.  Ippudo being, by far, the best.  Momofuko still has the pretty amazing soups and they are still rocking the best pork belly buns on the planet, but Ippudo soups are life-changing in their complexity and delicacy.  Menchenko Tei is still my go-to for every day, and they have totally respectable soups.

I will still get a little tearful in the spring as the time where I crave Ramen for every meal is over.

Oh, and then there were burgers.  Royale on Ave C used to be my neighborhood fave.  It still makes a totally respectable bar burger.  It's not the best burger, but it's a perfect burger, and they do really great onion rings as well.  On the fancy end of the spectrum, I had lunch with a friend at Delmonicos downtown and went for the burger and was not disappointed.  Plus, Delmonicos radiates this old-school New York charm that I find irresistible, with really professional waiters who are almost psychic to your needs.

There was a great exhibit in the Brooklyn Museum of the works of Jean Paul Gaultier.  Check it out if you can- it was an extensive collection and full of amazing costumes and couture of all mediums, with creepy projected faces on some of the mannequins.  

I don't smoke, but I loved this very French cigarette thigh-holster, with a dress cut for access.

It made me a tad homesick for Paris, if only because you can't find Camembert in the states and the Brie taste like crap.  Also, there was a Magritte exhibit at the MOMA that was pretty amazing and surreal.

While I didn't get to my old standby in Brooklyn, Tanoreen, I did make some new discoveries across the river.  Pizza at Paulie Gee's in Greenpoint that will make you cry, The General Green had good comfort food classics with a modern twist that was just fantastic to have a bottle of wine with friends mid-blizzard there.  A great cozy time was had, especially since not too many other people braved the weather that nice and we had the place to ourselves.  

I am not a brunch person at all, thinking it's overpriced and over-hyped, but I must admit, Sidecar in Brooklyn did it up right.  I generally prefer to do dim sum instead, but I didn't make it out to my fave, East Harbor Seafood Palace in Sunset Park this trip.  It's...transcendent.  I also visited an old haunt, Schezuan Gourmet, which brings the heat like no other.

I wanted to check out more theaters and shows while I was there, but ended up squeezing in only one- an interesting bit off Broadway dinner theater called Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812.  It's based on War and Peace.  Go see it, it was fab!

I had several dreamy walks in Central Park.  It's the only thing that prevented me from needing a seatbelt extender on my next flight, I swear.

Oh, look, y'all are getting a Laduree!  Let the macaroon wars begin!  I did grab a baguette at the much-hyped  Eric Kaysier and was disappointed, but it was rather late in the day to be buying bread, so don't take my word for it.

I also got a chance to check out the dining scene in Hell's Kitchen.  I generally consider it too close to Times Square to harbor anything but celebrity-owned temples to mediocrity and Thai places with overly loud house music, but I found a friendly place to have cheese and wine, and another fine establishment that delivered emapanadas and arepas 24-7.  We also got pizza one night that had Gorgonzola, figs and honey on it that was pretty damn good.  I need to find out where we got that, as I ate it cold for breakfast the next morning after having dreams about it all night.

I had a Whole Foods right across the street, which was useful for all the wine and cheese parties that were going on.  Alas, it was a sobering reminder of why I moved away, as the customers there are rude and self-important like no others and would just as soon want to see you under the wheels of their shopping cart than alive and blocking their precious way.  Venturing in there was stressful, and I found myself unwilling to pay $7 for a wee bottle of artisinal tonic water when the 2 for $1 stuff at bodega down the street made gin just as tasty.

The Wayland became my new favorite cocktail bar.  I missed cocktails so, the ones in France were always watery and too sweet and I couldn't be bothered with them, and it didn't hurt Wayland had a delta blues duo wailing away the night I was there.

Some other finds:  I picked up some luggage organization pouches at Flight 001.  They have some quality products for travelers.  I also brought my old suitcase to get repaired at Lexington Luggage, and they were a class act and did a great job of saving something I would have otherwise thrown out.  

Other than that- I found a place that had bialys, which are still my preferred breakfast carb, and something no one outside of NYC knows about.  My dentist Dr. Urtula is still the best dentist in the world, and it's not just because there is a Doughnut Plant around the corner from his posh little practice.  I also spent too much time in Chelsea Market, where there is now a Num Pang, and then I spent too much time checking out rugs at the Moroccan importer there as well.

I spotted this large canvas by Alex Katz in the IBM lobby on the east side.  He's one of my favorites; he was born in Brooklyn but summered in Maine, and all his beach scenes are very quirky and comforting.

All of the above, and then some, was done in partnership with some rather fantastic people.    

Yeah, I miss New York.  It's quite indulgent.  Still, I'm done with it.  

On to the next adventure.