Who were the members of this merry band?
Me, Mom, AND....Is it a bird? Is it a plane? NO! It's the long-lost TUNIE!!!!!!
That's right folks! My fellow namesake and the lady whose voice has enlivened this blog on many occasions, (most unfortunately silenced of late by crazy schedule) carved a couple of days out of said schedule and deigned to grace us with her illustrious presence! (If we are very, very good, we may even get some commentary on this blog from the lady herself...) Ohhh, we were in for a good time, yes we were.
The day started pretty darn early, 2:30 AM to be exact, as we had a 6 AM flight to catch. Painful, but worth it when you consider we arrived at JFK International Airport at 8 AM, with a long, beautiful day ahead of us. Just to clarify, the day itself was not beautiful, it was freezing and rainy and altogether miserable. But that is beside the point, we were in New York, and that alone made everything positively and utterly fantastic.
It was actually a good thing we arrived at 8 AM, because it took us approximately two hours to navigate the AirTrain and subway systems and deposit ourselves in Midtown Manhattan. (Yes, I take responsibility for steering us onto the wrong train, subjecting us to an additional 8-block walk.) Us country bumpkins don't have us dem unnergroun trains where we come from.
(I post the following two pictures because, if you look closely, you will see subtle signs of preoccupation, a.k.a. mild stress, triggered by our struggles to make sense of the maze that is New York City's public transit system.)
Well OK, we weren't all stressed out. Some of us were cheerfully changing our footwear.
Anyway, the subway. You know how the subway always looks in the movies? It really looks just like that. Kind of yellow and dingy and full of people reading or sleeping or staring at nothing (and why does everybody wear earbuds everywhere nowadays? What if something dramatic happened and you missed the whole thing because your music was too loud? But I digress...) The whole subway thing was pretty cool, actually. AND, we successfully navigated it! Yay for us! One other thing before I move off the subject of subways - all throughout the city, here and there, you'd see this sort of hole in the sidewalk (with railings and a sign, of course), right in the middle of whatever action happened to be taking place (parks, residential areas, shopping, offices, etc.), and people ascending and descending into what seemed like the bowels of the earth. It was really interesting to think of this entire subterranean network humming along directly beneath our feet, carrying people to and fro below as we went about our business above.
See what I mean?
So anyway, we walk up the stairs and out of the subway into....CHAOS! Noise! Traffic! Honking! People everywhere! And huge, huge buildings, crammed together and overshadowing the whole crazy mess. Welcome to the Big Apple, folks!
This is literally the sight that greeted us. I'm sure you can devise a soundtrack in your mind.
We hadn't eaten since, well, the night before, so first item on the agenda was food. Tunie and I are huge, huge fans of Thomas Keller (we would probably never recognize One Direction on the street, but I am pretty sure Keller would get hit up for an autograph if he happened to pop into view) so Bouchon was an absolute must. Bonus: Bouchon is located within the Rockefeller Center, so we were able to kill two birds with one stone - fill our bellies and catch the world-famous Rockefeller Center Christmas tree. After some travail (reference afore-mentioned wrong train and subsequent 8 blocks of needless walking), including a quick detour into Bryant Park and its Christmas tree and bazaar ("Gosh, is this really Rockefeller Center? This tree is downright puny!"), we finally arrived. The real thing did not disappoint. There it stood in its glittering majesty, like a beacon standing watch over the soggy crowds ice-skating and shopping and sightseeing. (This was a real highlight for my mama.)
The Real Thing.
The Imposter.
Oh, and the food? Did not disappoint. We had a variety of sandwiches - Tuna Nicoise (pronounced the best tuna sandwich ever), Honey-Roasted Turkey, and Roasted Squash with Goat Cheese and Pear Marmalade. (I'll let you figure out who ate what. :) All followed up, of course, by pastries - chocolate hazelnut tart, apple frangipane tart, and "Nutter Better" - a Keller riff on the Nutter Butter (it was).
Sigh. I know. I have a gift for capturing those unwelcome photo props, i.e. extraneous tourists.
After lunch, we headed towards Times Square and our tour bus. We invested in one of these 48-hour "all-you-can-ride" tour bus packages, and friends, if you are visiting the city for the first time, I would highly recommend it. It's a great way to get one's bearings, not to mention a great overview of the city, complete with history, pop culture, tons of wonky data, colorful tour guides, and the like. Granted, the tours are long, but they are "hop-on, hop-off", meaning you can jump off if something catches your eye, and then jump back on whenever you're ready. Good stuff.
Here, let me interject, it was cold. Very, very cold. And rainy. My limbs went numb. My mind became completely preoccupied with attempting to balance paying attention to the tour guide and absorbing the sights with trying not to contract hypothermia. So there aren't very many pictures of this phase of the day, and the ones that do exist are not great, to say the least. (Some of them, I can't even remember why I took them.) I'll try to keep this part short.
See all the crud? This was right smack in midtown, probably right next to some gleaming highrise. Classic Manhattan.
Now THIS is the way a Post Office should look. Nice and dignified.
Macy's. Or as much of it as would fit in my viewfinder.
A slightly...different perspective of the Empire State Building. Like I said, I was cold.
NOW do you believe me?
It was still fun though, it really was. Who wants to come all the way to the city and then just park in some coffee shop or hotel room? We are DOERS, people! When our tour ended, we had to find a coffee shop and thaw out, though. (Plus, my mother cannot travel far without feeding her very powerful coffee habit.) Then we had to find an Anthropologie for the Tune. Rockefeller Center obligingly provided one. A huge, multi-level one, to be exact. And the city steals another chunk of our hearts.
Warmed and refueled.
We stopped off at the hotel to freshen, and then we headed to an early dinner. Mom had somehow managed to snag reservations at Le Cirque, a bit of a New York institution. It felt a little like Alice in Wonderland, to me. I don't belong in that world, probably never will, but it sure is fun to sneak in and pretend a bit now and then. You walk in shivering from the noisy, dripping cold to a world that is warm and quiet and softly lit. The room swarms with suave, professional waiters and handsome, suited overseers; the maitre'd hands us off to the coat check lady, and we are seated in a dining room lush and sparkling with crystal and china and silver. This is not so much a meal as it is an event. We order the tasting menu (why not?), and a panoply of dishes begins to parade before us, all accompanied by the constant attentions of the roving bread man (four kinds if I remember right) and the subtle presence of a myriad of waiters. Scarcely do we drain our glass and it is almost imperceptibly refilled. Scarcely have we taken our last bite and our entire place setting is whisked away, to be replaced with new and fresh, in preparation for our next bite. Through it all, our primary waiter was the very definition of hospitality - offering guidance and suggestions where needed, support and encouragement when appropriate, and hesitating not at all to make positively certain our dining experience reached the very pinnacle of perfection. I'll quit blathering on now and let pictures do the talking.
An amuse-bouche of Red Beet Gel with Gorgonzola Cream
Marinated Tuna
Langoustine a la plancha
Seared Foie Gras
Loin of Venison
Chocolate Stove Cake (Really. That entire thing was edible. Utterly magnificent.)
Praline aux amandes avec du selde mer (basically chocolate pudding in a meringue thing)
Gosh, I just feel fancy even saying that stuff. And it was fantastic. Cooking on a level I don't even aspire to. And then, of course, they send out a little tray filled with itty-bitty candies and bite-sized cookies. And then, of course, they present each of us with a little gold box, which opens to reveal two little drawers, each containing its own confection. It was just a really, really cool dinner, what more can I say? I don't intend to forget it any time soon, I'll say that much.
Two hours later, we finally did emerge from the jewel box. Our all-you-can-ride tour providers offered a night ride showcasing the festive holiday lights of the city. We climbed on board, but the rain and cold conspired with our fatigue, and we only rode about half-way before asking the driver to let us off in the vicinity of our hotel. It was early, maybe 9 PM, but it had been a long, long day, and we were more than content to walk back to the hotel and sink gratefully into bed.
No comments:
Post a Comment