Weekend #6

As always, more restaurants to report on. My friend Eliot is a tour guide and he is preparing an eating tour so he invited a few of us to join him to check out a Dim Sum place in Chinatown and then afterwards we had coffee and dessert in Little Italy. The Dim Sum place was Mandarin Court on Mott St. I think the consensus among the four of us was the food was good and the price right ($44 total not including tip). But I have to admit I have been spoiled when I was in San Francisco a few years back and had Dim Sum at a place called Yank Sing. I highly recommend that place. Nice decor, good atmosphere and the food was excellent. Ferrara is the name of the place we had coffee and dessert. Not only do they claim to be the oldest esspresso bar in NYC but the oldest in America. My cappacino was good but the St. Joseph zeppoli with cannoli filling was excellent.

One tip I should share. As in most places in Manhattan timing is everything. We met at Mandarin Court at 11:30 and there were plenty of tables available. Within 30 minutes the place was packed and the waiting line long. Same thing at Ferrara's. We again just missed the crowd arriving at about 1:30. In fact it was difficult getting out of the place due to the line of people waiting to get in!

Saturday I spent the day in my neighborhood taking photos and finding new places. A few restaurants that looked interesting enough to try out someday include: Luzias, Cafe Ronda, Rain and New Wave.

I also ran into a Roman Catholic Church, Church of the Blessed Sacrament, on 71st St. Very beautiful both inside and out. I'll be posting some photos on flckr soon. They also have free concerts. The next one is next Sunday at 3 pm and on April 2 at 3 pm the Opera Orchestra of NY is presenting "Souvenirs of OONY's Glorious Past".

For me the real find was the New-York Historical Society. I'm a bit of a history buff so I stepped inside to get some information and found out they have many interesting lectures and events. One I missed but wished I had attended was titled 'We the People: Active Liberty and the American Constitution' with Stephen Breyer (Associate Supreme Court Justice). But 'The Rise of American Democracy: Jefferson to Lincoln' sounds interesting (March 30) as does 'The Supreme Court and the Struggle for Racial Equality" (June 13). Hopefully next week I'll see the exhibit 'Slavery in New York' before it closes next Sunday March 26.