Category: New York City

Manhattan Moments: Art, Books, Food

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FABULOUS FRICK!

Expanse of Frick courtyard

Frick, The Man & The Mansion

Many visitors to Manhattan are familiar with the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, better known as MoMA, and also the Whitney Museum of American Art.  But not everyone knows the Frick Collection. It took us longer to discover this stately mansion and its art, but once we did, we became fans.

Henry Clay Frick was a 19th century financier and industrialist involved in the early years of the steel industry in Pennsylvania.  Andrew Carnegie was an occasional business partner, and he and Andrew Mellon became close friends.  Frick was also a serious art collector.  When in 1913, his business interests extended to New York, he built the lovely mansion at East 70th Street.  Today, the Frick is considered one of the finest collections of European art in the United States.

New Renovated Frick

Closed for almost five years for a major renovation and expansion, the Frick re-opened last month.  For the first time, the family’s second floor is open to the public.  These small rooms are now galleries showcasing more art, and a narrow corridor is lovely with walls and floor clad in pink marble.  A majestic green marble staircase was added to the building to provide a smooth flow of visitors from the upper floor down to the new shop and café level, and then on down to the main floor.

On the main level, we re-visited some favorite works.   Holbein’s paintings of Sir Thomas More on one side of the fireplace and Thomas Cromwell on the other, plus the looming Fragonard series, The Progress of Love, on the drawing room walls.  Lastly, we checked out the beautiful courtyard with its central fountain, the only area in which photos are permitted.

Frick courtyard fountain

The Frick was very crowded given the pent-up anticipation for its re-opening but is still a gem.  We look forward to returning at a quieter time.

ON THE PAGE:  COOKING BUSINESS

Be Ready When the Luck Happens by Ina Garten

Garten (nytimes.com)

I own several of Ina Garten’s cookbooks.  I’ve also recently watched her on Facebook videos preparing chicken or fish.  One might think, given her wild success, that Garten’s life was always easy-peasy and comfortable.  Not so.  Garten held a series of often boring jobs after college.  She finally found her calling when she purchased her first Barefoot Countess store in Westhampton, Long Island.  Then she opened a second store.  Needing yet another challenge some years later, Garten tried her hand at writing a cookbook and later hosted her own TV show.

Garten’s style is bracing, frank, and even effervescent.  Her childhood was a difficult one, with parents who were controlling and emotionally abusive. She easily made friends at school, but her self-esteem suffered.  Fortunately, she met and married Jeffrey whose calm approach and supportive stance enabled her to take risks and buy the first store.  Impulsive and creative, Garten made mistakes along the way, some unwise investments and trusting her staff too much.  Throughout it all, she was determined and viewed obstacles as challenges to be overcome.

At times, her statements that she and Jeffrey didn’t have the necessary resources ring hollow against the backdrop of highly placed friends ready to recommend contractors and the ease with which they purchased expensive real estate.  Nonetheless, I found this an enjoyable fast-paced account of how to create your own success.  Recommended for Garten fans and food lovers! (~JWFarrington)

DINING FIND

Bayon (Upper East Side)

Bayon interior

Bayon is a new Cambodian restaurant on E. 64th Street just off 1st Avenue.  Ten years ago, the Chief Penguin and I spent a few days in Cambodia in Siem Reap visiting Angkor Wat. We enjoyed the food there, culinarily a cross between Thai and Chinese, but had never eaten in a Cambodian restaurant in the U.S.

We were pleased and delighted with Bayon. The space is attractive with highly polished wood tables and comfortable chairs with saffron-colored seats.  The wait staff were welcoming and helpful in their suggestions.  We started with some spicy fried fish cakes and cumin lamb dumplings, the latter beautifully presented on a glass snail plate. Both appetizers were delicious.  

Lamb dumplings

We then shared the basil rice stir fry with chicken and sampled a traditional rice corn pudding with coconut milk for dessert.  

Rice corn pudding

We zipped up the stir fry with some chili sauce, and the Chief Penguin enthusiastically tucked into the pudding.  Bayon is now on our list of preferred restaurants, and we hope to return soon.

Note: All unattributed photos ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved.). Header photo is of twisted cone sculptures on Park Avenue by Alma Alan.

Manhattan Moments: Seeing & Viewing

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AN ENDURING MAGAZINE

A Century of The New Yorker (New York Public Library)

New Yorker cartoon

Started in 1925 and still going strong after more than 5,000 pages, The New Yorker is a mainstay of the periodical world.  This major exhibit in the New York Public Library’s historic building at Bryant Park is informative, fun, and rich with examples of its distinctive style of writing and humor.  (Early in his career, our son worked at The New Yorker as a fact checker. This cartoon is for him and also for our older granddaughter.)

From a lighter worldview in its formative years, The New Yorker took on serious issues of the day as noted in this text from the exhibit:

“During the 1960s, Shawn ushered in a golden age of nonfiction writing at The New Yorker, one infused with the era’s ethos of activism and social change.

In short succession, the magazine published revelatory pieces on the political and psychosocial nature of race relations in the United States, the impact of industrial pollution on the environment and the human body, and the troubling legacies of Nazism. Recognizing their absence in the magazine’s pages, Shawn began publishing more contributors of color…“

Editors such as William Shawn and Tina Brown are cited, and milestones in publishing celebrated:  Ann Petry’s short story in 1958, the first by a Black individual, and John Hersey’s complete Hiroshima for the entire issue of August 31, 1946. Examples of playful and disgruntled correspondence between authors and their editors also have a place.   

There are photographs and much to read, but the hall is enlivened by a long line of colorful New Yorker covers at the ceiling above the exhibit.  Seeing the exhibit also offers an opportunity to experience some of this building’s grand architecture. 

Interior, NYPL
My Leo and one of those lions

 If you’re a fan of The New Yorker, the exhibit is definitely worth visiting and is on view until February 21, 2026!

BRITISH CRIME VIEWING

Towards Zero (BritBox)

Neville & Audrey (chicagotribune.com)

Towards Zero is a stand-alone Agatha Christie mystery. It’s quite different and yet retains some quintessential Christie hallmarks.  Set in the 1930’s, it’s in three parts and troubled Inspector Leach is the low-profile, low-key detective.   

Tennis champ Neville Strange is a wunderkind whose life has run smoothly until his wife Audrey divorces him for infidelity in a very public trial.  He quickly marries Kay, his paramour, and prepares to visit his aunt, Lady Tressilian, at her coastal estate.  His parents are no longer around and it’s clear Neville views himself as heir apparent.  Also on the scene are Mary, his aunt’s long-serving maid of all work; Mrs. Barret, the cook; Neville’s new valet Mac; lawyer Treves and his ward Sylvia; and Neville’s former wife Audrey, whom Neville invites to join them.  

Class distinctions and the disparity between the monied and the staff create tensions which are exacerbated with the mostly unexpected arrival of Thomas Boyde, a relative.  When a death occurs, and then another, Leach is called in.  True to form, all the principals are gathered in the drawing room to await Leach’s individual questioning and examination. The series moves slowly and deliberately without a lot of suspense initially, but I was kept guessing as to who the murderer was and the motivation.  Recommended for Agatha Christie fans. 

Note: Header photo outside NYPL and the literary lion one ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved.) Other photos are from the exhibit or the source is noted.

Manhattan Potpourri

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NYC HISTORY AND CULTURE

Museum of the City of New York

I don’t believe the Chief Penguin and I had ever been up to 103rd Street and 5th Avenue, but we ventured forth to visit the Museum of the City of New York.  It was well worth it!  The building itself is impressive, and a gorgeous staircase with a hanging light installation leads to the second level. There are two fabulous exhibits on through July 28, one, NY at Its Core: 400 Years of History, and the other, This is New York: 100 Years of the City in Art and Pop Culture.

The downstairs exhibit focuses on four attributes that define New York: Money, Diversity, Density, and Creativity.  A wonderful interactive map shows how the city grew and expanded, what industries developed, where people lived, and how it thrived.  A series of alcoves along the side walls of a dark room home in on specific time periods with more details and artifacts.  

“New York at Its Core”

In the open center are free standing kiosks with screens.  Each kiosk features a series of historic figures and even animals relevant to NY’s history.  I engaged with the one on Alexander Hamilton.  You can keep swiping up on the screen to get more info or not.  Or you can choose to focus on another noteworthy individual such as Aaron Burr or see and read about the 20,000 pigs that roamed parts of the city in its earlier days.  Initially I thought perhaps all the featured folks were male, but happily discovered Emily Roebling, a force behind the Brooklyn Bridge construction, and Elizabeth Jennings Graham, a 19th century Black activist.  

Upstairs, the pop culture exhibit introduces a series of photographs of movie production in the city.  Sixteen screens on three walls in an adjacent room project a nonstop ever changing set of film clips all set in one of the city’s boroughs.  Most of the time the screens are not in sync showing the same picture, making for at times, an almost dizzying array of images.  

Overall, these clips capture the energy and liveliness of the city and the love its residents have for their individual neighborhoods.  There’s singing, dancing, cursing, love, and romance.  As you exit, you can scan a QR code to get a list of all the movies that are featured. (~JWFarrington)

DINING OUT: TASTY CHINESE FARE

Land of Plenty (Midtown)

Sichuan noodle dish (eattheworldnyc.com)

We enjoyed a delicious dinner at Land of Plenty with our family last Sunday evening.  The menu at this Sichuan restaurant on E. 58thSt. is extensive, and our daughter-in-law took charge of ordering.  We ended up with an array of tasty vegetables and starters:  green beans, bitter melon, wood ear mushrooms, cucumber salad, scallion pancakes, and dan-dan noodles.  

We also dined on Kung Bo chicken, shrimp fried rice, and a tureen of white fish in a tangy, slightly spicy broth.  The six of us enjoyed this feast, leaving nothing to take home!  The Chief Penguin and I vowed to return to sample more dishes.

WHAT I’M READING

George Eliot & the Constraints of 19th century Marriage

(wikipedia.com)

I have several books going, but I’m well into The Marriage Question:  George Eliot’s Double Life.  This nonfiction title by Clare Carlisle discusses Eliot’s informal “marriage” to George Lewes, a writer and married father with several children.  It reflects on her personal life and how she arrived at this relationship after being attracted to Herbert Spencer and John Chapman among others.  Her feelings in those relationships were not reciprocated, and they remained primarily friendships.  Using Eliot’s personal life as a lens, Carlisle probes her depiction of marriage in her novels, and comments on the legal constraints married women faced in the 19thcentury.  Single women had more freedoms and retained the rights to any money they may have earned or inherited.  I look forward to more exploration of Eliot’s work and may well have to go back and re-read one or more of her novels!

Historical romance novels, the good ones, depict the plight of women who marry and lose control of their property as well as their person to the demands and desires of sometimes controlling husbands.  British writer Evie Dunmore is the author of a new romance series called A League of Extraordinary Women.  Set in Oxford, these four women go against the established order, are actively engaged in women’s suffrage, think nothing of lobbying a duke in parliament, and publishing what many would call subversive ideas.  The writing is good, the women are smart and funny, and their men are sexy and ultimately surrender.  If you’re looking for a romp of a read, try one! 

Note: Header photo of cafe space at Museum of the City of New York ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved.)

Manhattan: Tulips & Art

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TULIP TIME

With the cold, somewhat snowy March followed by cool April weather, the trees here are just leafing out. But, there are tulips galore!  I love the little fenced square and rectangle gardens along the streets with their big bold tulips. Jefferson Market Garden was also a riot of tulip beds. Makes for a lovely spring!  Usually we come in May and any remaining tulips are bedraggled and beaten down.

AT THE WHITNEY

American painter Grant Wood is arguably best known for his portrait of a farm couple called “American Gothic.”  Actually it’s meant to be a father and daughter and if you look closely, you can see the difference in their ages.  Most people just assumed it was a husband and wife.  

Wood painted farm scenes and the rural folks of his native Iowa, but he did it from an idealized perspective based on memories of his childhood and his view of a simpler time.  Lots of rounded shapes and flat surfaces.  

Early in his career, he made the requisite European tour and this exhibit includes several impressionistic works from that time.  

But I was also taken with his “Women of Revolution,” a less than admiring portrait of three women of the DAR.

What comes across here and what I enjoyed most was getting an enlarged sense of the variety in Wood’s oeuvre. The exhibit at the Whitney Museum of American Art runs into early June and is well worth a visit!

 

GRANDPARENTS’ DAY

The Chief Penguin and I had the pleasure of experiencing Grandparent and Special Persons’ Day at Brearley, our granddaughter’s school.  Fortunately, all four of her grandparents were able to attend.  It’s an impressive place and it was great to hear and see how these kindergarten girls are being empowered to be creative, bold, and caring individuals.  

RETURN VISITS

We will eat a lot of meals out while we are in the city.  Here are several places we’ve re-visited.

Lenox Hill Grill.  The all-American comfort food you would expect from any respectable diner. Grilled ham and cheese with fries and a tuna salad sandwich with cole slaw on the side made for a quick tasty lunch.

Amali. Now billing itself as “sustainable Mediterranean” with a new menu with more veggies and small plates, it’s easy to avoid ordering an entrée.  We had prosciutto, chorizo, and buffalo blue cheese, followed by chickpea and cauliflower croquettes with a spicy salsa, grilled asparagus and green onions, and fluke crudo.  All delicious, with Greek and Italian overtones, and mostly healthy!

Gradisca.  This Italian restaurant on W. 13th Street was jumping on a Thursday night and service was slower than we’ve experienced in the past.  But, the pasta was as wonderful as always!  One of the specials was farfalle with little chunks of zucchini and shrimp in a light lemon cream sauce; another was Mama’s homemade beef tortellini that we watched her make at a side table in the dining room.  And our friends B. and A. were pleased with the cavatelli with eggplant.

Note: All photos by JWFarrington.