Contrasts

Fruit at home...

 ...in a Moroccan bowl on top of paper Robert wipes his brushes on.

How strange and early in the morning it was...

when we had breakfast at a diner on Long Island. Lots of

little plastic containers of things and lots of paper to throw away. Diners do not

'get' tea --that you need to pour boiling water on top of the bag.....

A Florentine Morning

In Florence....

....cyclamen are very much in season.........

.....as are green cauliflower......

.......I want to eat every single type of pasta.....

 .....but the bread tends to be a bit plain (on purpose, so it doesn't conflict with the taste of other things).

 The shop owner was intent on his paper.
I pretended to be taking photos of the stuff in the window. Oh well.

Lunch at a vinio.  Parma ham on foccacia and lots of local red wine. Yum.

Excellent Dumpling

For the best scallion pancakes go to Excellent Dumpling

on Lafayette Street near Canal.

Totally no frills. You are in and out in about 15 minutes.

Wonderful.

My main blog is now here

Well...........

I don't think anyone wears boaters any more.

This character lives on the side of a magazine stand on the 54th 

Street subway stop. 

Question: Why does New York love him?

Quite near Macy's is a very strange food place.

They sell absolutely everything guaranteed to make you fat.

Ice cream, fries, doughnuts, hot dogs etc. etc.

It is really pretty scary.

It was so awful it mesmerized me.

After that, the balm of a bright white cloud.

Sunday in the Park with Bloggers

Deb of Bonbonoiseau had a brilliant idea: a chicknic in the park.

The rain had stopped at last.

So we all agreed and offered to bring food.

McCarren Park in Brooklyn.

There was an excellent balance of things that are good for you

and morally pure like tomatoes, melon, fruit salad

and stuff that is wonderful like

vanilla pudding and stuffed peppers wrapped in bacon

and stuffed eggs and cake.

So we ate and ate, and then ate more and talked about weddings

and blogging and various other topics of burning interest to all.

Bloggers are pretty good at words, food and connecting.

We talked of farflung bloggers like Maryam and Janelle

and wished they were with us but wondered if we were too dull.

On the way home, an old lady thanked the young man who helped

her off the bus. A VERY GOOD DAY.

Excellent Dumpling

On a cold Sunday we decided to walk from 23rd Street to Canal Street.
Our destination was "Excellent Dumpling" - the best dumplings in town.
This building - a little bit run down - is on Canal Street itself.It looks very Chinese.



This sign is on the corner of Lafayette and Canal - really cheerful looking.
Note the American flag behind it.
Lots of people are out on the street hustling handbags.
It reminds me of Marrakech and I want to say "Blesh" - "It's not necessary."
We realise we have learned the ins and outs of dealing with street vendors in Arabic rather well. not much intellectual conversation though.



In fact there are far too many people altogether on Canal Street.
Everything is amazingly cheap - but mostly the sort of thing that you wouldn't want if it was given to you.
For someone under the age of ten, it would be bliss.



Robert stands outside "Excellent Dumpling".
Here you get the fastest of fast food.
You sit at a table where the hot tea is already there in a metal pot.
We order scallion pancakes and steamed vegetable dumplings and a Tsingtao beer which arrive almost as soon as the words are out of our mouths.
Delicious. Best scallion pancakes in the universe.
Excellent dumplings.
We are handed our enormous bill - $10.36 -as we cram the last dumplings into our mouths.
As soon as the plates are empty, they are whisked away.
They make the service at McDonald's seem glacial.



It is early lunch time.
The tables are full -Chinese people, tourists,every ethnicity on the planet.
The servers are very busy and efficient.
People are waiting in line to get in.
We are back out on the street in less than half an hour.
It's a great place and totally worth it.
111 Lafyette St.