Around New York with My Friends - Saturday 12/6/2008

My Beinu friends and I were on the go again, this time exploring Harlem and Upper West Side of Upper Manhattan in one day.

Around New York

The Cloisters, A branch of the Metropolitan Museum of Art
(Devoted to art of medieval Europe)
Fort Tryon Park
(Special Tour: The Christmas Story)

The museum was built in the 1930s with the generous endowment from the philanthropist John D. Rockfeller Jr. The “Cloister” is like a Chinese courtyard surrounded by art galleries (Chinese living quarters). The works of art cover chronological periods from AD 1000 to 1500 – the Romanesque period, the Gothic era, Medieval art.

We came initially to admire the magnificent museum architecture and attend a special “Christmas Story” guided tour.

I am no expert in European art; but I must say that, an excellent guide would make a world of differences for neophytes like us. We were lucky to have an extraordinarily animated, funny, and knowledgeable lady volunteer as our guide. Watching her telling the intricacies of Western religious/Christmas/nativity stories and the art spawning from them was like watching a one-woman performance, immeasurably enlightening and entertaining. I have gained a heightened appreciation of the Christianity faith and the European religious art and as a result.

Admission: $10 (We used a friend’s museum membership ID to obtain a discount)
Friends: Agnes Young, Kathy Ding, Susie

Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine
(This magnificent cathedral was burned down in 2001, and painstakingly restored to its finest form today.)

St. John Cathedral is one of the greatest urban cathedrals that blend great medieval Europe with modern New York traditions. After the fire, it took 8 years to clean and restore the architecture, stained glass, stone and wood carvings to their previous grandeur.

It wasn’t just the holy feeling walking through the restored church. It was actually a happy experience - There were public performances of edgy music and story-telling going on when we were there. We heard the fascinating stories of modern artist angst told by a poet named Master Lee, a long-hair, bearded, middle-aged man of Chinese descent in tuxedo. He was whimsical, philosophical, and occasionally even profane in his story-telling. I remembered him questioning about “out of the box” (What’s wrong with ‘in the box’? We live in the box – our houses, we die in the box – look around the church, it’s full of the tombs of deceased abbies. The box containers today enable the global trade, etc…)

Admission: Free
Friends: Agnes Young, Kathy Ding, Shan Lo, Susie

Saigon Grill – Vietnamese Cooking
620 Amsterdam (corner of cross street 90th)

I suggested this place on account of an old colleague’s recommendation, and my Chinese friends quite liked it. We didn’t know what we were ordering. So we asked the waiter to order for us.

And we ended up liking almost all what we’ve ordered, especially the Sate Vietnamese rice noodle dish, the shrimp summer rolls, and the Sate chicken dish. The price was also very reasonable. This restaurant is definitely our favorite West Side story.

Lunch for 4: $60 (4 dishes and soup)
Friends: Agnes Young, Kathy Ding, Shan Lo, Susie

(PS: We had coffee after dinner at, guess what, one of the Dunkin Donuts shops. Agnes and I both realized how Dunking Donuts meant so much to us, because both of our kids loved the Dunking donuts when they were little…now they are all grown up. This place brought back the unique memories of us as young mothers and our babies together…)


Susie
12/7/2008