A Night with the Big APL: Visa or Mastercard?

Woke up at 5:30 and puttered for a while. Got to the Laundromat a little after seven and used the washer and dryer so my stuff would be clean and dry for the movers on Thursday! Cathy and I worked on tones and syllables for 45 minutes after I had a nice good-bye with Secretary of State Bill Gardner. Handed over the keys to the Project Laundry List office after a 1.5 hour meeting with a board member and our bookkeeper.

Left Concord at 3:40 PM after the official letter of invitation arrived by UPS and I am now in New York City so I can be at the consulate at 9 AM to get my Visa.

Rolled into town a tad before 9 PM. My friend and I went to The Ear Inn, first, which got its name because the owners wanted to avoid the hassle of getting permission for a new sign. It used to just say Bar. I had trout and horseradish. The waitress was Chinese from some unpronounceable city in the southeast of China. The food was mezzo mezzo.

We continued to Ferrara Bakery & Cafe:

New York in the Gay Nineties had almost everything, except for a place where an opera lover, after a night of Verdi or Puccini, could relax, play a Neapolitan card game called "scopa" and drink a cup or two of espresso.

This situation was remedied when our great grandfather, Enrico Scoppa and my great grand-uncle, Antonio Ferrara, opera impresario and showman, opened a cafe called Caffé A. Ferrara. Caruso thought the coffee marvelous but especially loved the cookies and cakes.

I had three kinds of sorbet--passion fruit, mango, and guava--and a raspberry flavored cappuccino. Full?

Hardly! We then went to the Great NY Noodle Town where I had congee with duck (of course). Doesn't it look good? My gracious guide had steamed shrimp dumplings. Now I was full, but who does not have a weakness for shawarma?

We went to Mamouns Falafel Restaurant and I had a sandwich without the bread. They looked at me like I was speaking Greek.

The Slovakian tour guide-ess knew just where to go and now it is time for bed, because a little confused cuisine awaits at Nusbaum & Wu (on the Upper West Side). Bagels with wasabi? Meeting at 7:30 AM with a Barnard student from Changchun and Jonah Phillips' mother.