Day Three, The Day With Marco (2005-11-24)
We were going to see the Statue of Liberty but weather forecast was cloudy with drizzle, so we scraped the plan. We went to see the World Trade Center site instead. There weren't many people at Ground Zero at all. The relative scarceness of tourists, chilliness and overcast sky made the site look somber and sad.
We left Ground Zero and went to Chinatown where we were to meet with
Marco. Last night we bailed out on dinner, today nothing would
stop us! While waiting for him, we bought a stick of grilled
chicken from a vendor. It was good and just enough to whet our
appetite. Marco arrived as we started munching on the chicken, so
he was able to have a bite before it disappeared.
Since our guts were still probably trying to process that giant slab
of meat we had the day before, KL suggested something light like congee
(Chinese savory porridge) for lunch. We walked quite a bit to get
to a restaurant specializing in congee. One minute into checking
out the menu, KL was tempted by a host of other dishes. He
ordered various dishes but
congee including stir-fried flat noodles with beef! So much for
saying we had had enough beef to last us a lifetime the night
before...and it totally defeats the purpose of going all the way to a
congee restaurant and not having any. Other customers all had a pot
of congee on their tables but us!
After lunch, we made our way back to the hub of Chinatown where I
could do some shopping in one Hong Kong Supermarket. The store
was huge and I bought our favorite HK food (Garden cookies, sweets and
Ribena blackcurrant concentrate) to bring back to Tokyo, hooray!
When that important job was accomplished, we walked around Little Italy
and Soho where we bought more stuff such as pasta and olive oil.
We took a train afterwards and went to Marco's apartment in Queens.
Marco lives on the top floor of a three-story building with a
roommate from Taiwan and a cat named Charka Khan who is more shy than her master.
We had to coax her out from hiding and even then she appeared nervous
and jumpy around the unfamiliar visitors. KL used Marco's
computer for a bit and we had another round of good chat before leaving
the apartment to look for a place to feed our stomach.
Marco remembered an award-winning Italian restaurant just a stone's
throw from his apartment which he had never patronized, so we decided
to eat there. We were welcomed by a suited Matre'd who put us on
the waiting list. The restaurant is tastefully decorated with
flower
arrangements adorning the hall and crisp white linen cloths cover
closely-spaced tables. Most diners were Italians and almost all
of them were elegantly dressed. Customers who came and went
invariably shot a curious glance at the three musketeers standing by
the wall in grungy old
jeans and scruffy shoes with two fat backpacks and me holding a big
plastic GROCERY BAG looking like bums! KL had a cute little Dean
& Deluca
shopping bag that he was holding on to with his dear life to help him
tone down the bum look. He steadfastly refused to trade my
unsightly grocery
bag, rat! Marco fared better because he didn't have a big
ol' backpack and was not carrying an umbrella (it was drizzling
outside).
It was a relief when our table finally turned up. We were led
into a medium-sized dining room and thankfully our table was by the
wall where we could swiftly shove our lading close to it and hide
it. The rest of the diners didn't pay much attention to us which
was a good thing and the waiters were quite nice. We had nothing
but seafood that night, and it was great. The portions were huge
and we, at least me and KL, the hoboes left the restaurant feeling
satisfied and full.
We went directly to the station and took the subway home. Marco stayed with us for a section of the train ride to make sure we didn't get on the wrong train, which could very well happen in the chaos and confusion of the New York subway system.
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