Saturday – an early birthday lunch

I forgot to mention the tulips next to my bed. There is a deep red / pink / purple / green bed cover/doona cover on my bed. On the bedside table is a vase of light purple – just the right colour  to match – real tulips. There are lots in the shops, but it is a nice touch.

After breakfast and a Skype chat I set off down Broadway looking for a DVD rental shop that Mr Google said existed. No luck.  After getting sidetracked for a while looking at the craft magazines in a bookshop, I went to the nearest subway station, bought a monthly subway pass, caught a train and walked to the Union Square  area  and went to the Strand – supposedly the biggest bookshop in NYC.  I wanted a map of the burroughs other than Manhattan.  They had a big range.  Then I wandered around the greenmarket  (.farmer’s market to us, but better)  held 4 days a week in Union Square. I bought an interesting fairly flat Finnish rye bread roll and some apple and oatmeal cookies made to support a refugee group. There was a place with quite a few large bins where you could put your fruit and veggie scraps.  Near Union Square was another Wholefood shop. I returned the ‘natural bristle’ toothbrush because the first time I tried to use it some bristles came out!

It was 11.45 and I was getting peckish. I remembered that I had been recommended a nice place to eat – Gramercy Tavern, that was not far away. I got there to find a queue of about 20 people, thought this a bit odd at that time and discovered that the restaurant was not yet opened, they did not take bookings, so I looked at the menu on the door – thought ‘Why not, it is my birthday tomorrow ‘ and joined the queue. I will worry about another excuse if I need to when tomorrow comes.  At first  I thought I was in a flower shop that sold only yellow and white flowers. There were huge arrangements all over the place. I couldnot help smiling. Other people seemed regulars and took no notice – aparently it is normal.  Everthing was delicious and interesting.  For appetizer I had roast  brussel sprouts, goats cheese, pecans and pickled onions – all cut up in a nice looking salad. For entrée I had cobia , mushrooms, ramps and potato dumplings. Mr Wiki says that one of the alternate names for cobia is ling, but the flakes were bigger than the ling we get. It did taste like ling though. The mushrooms , called maitake, looked like broccoli gone wavy and wrong and grey. I have probably seen them in Asia and may well have eaten them chopped up in Asia, but not served in a large bit like they were. I had to ask the waiter what ramps were too – a cross between a small spring onion and garlic. Apparently they are eagerly awaited in restaurant food because they are a sign that spring has come. These ramps obviously did not know about the weather yesterday.  Accompanying this I had a glass of pinot gris from Oregon. I could choose between a 3 oz and 6 oz size glass. I asked for a 3oz glass making  noises about while I enjoyed a glass of wine with a nice meal, I had to be a bit careful in a strange city on  my own and it was good to have the choice of a smaller than normal size. A few minutes later she brought me a glass that clearly had more than 90ml . I said ‘that’s a goodly amount’ . She replied in a deadpan voice, but a twinkle in her eye,  ‘My hand slipped’.  I had a delicious  individual apple pie with vanilla bean icecream.  I like the meal portions – an appetizer is a bit smaller than an entrée in Australia and an entrée here is a bit larger than an entrée in Aust. That is usually quite enough, as it was today. The apple pie was gluttony. I had a good seat on the edge of the room where I could see other people and see into the open kitchen where a lot of the food was being prepared.

I then caught another train to the tourist bureau to collect some info , then came back here, stopping on the way for more delicious navel oranges from the nice corner-shop man.