Day 1 of A New York State of Mind...Incredible Moments!

Four Days...A Lifetime of Memories

It began with a window of six days that were shucked open when work and demands got too toxic, I needed a break.  It grew into opportunity when a friend needed a friend, and it felt to be the right thing to do.  It became an adventure of a lifetime when I bit the bullet and booked my trip, come hell and high water, the devil take the price.

Web check in is all the rage now...and indeed, it cut short the processing time that used to take a half hour of waiting to a quarter of an hour of processing to half that.  All they needed to do was exchange your printed seat assignment with a boarding pass, and much of their own guesswork and calculations were taken out of their hands. 

On board Korean Air, I slept pretty much all the way to Seoul, amid the gracious ministrations of unobtrusive yet efficient flight attendants, and despite the outrageously delightful bibimbap, and then onto New York, deciding that I needed to be as much awake for the brief sojourn I would have there when I arrived. 
I landed in JFK Airport at 8.10 in the evening of the 31st of October, but the plane taxied for another 30 minutes, it was such a long runway...and waited in line for an hour to clear passport control and customs.  Then I walked out into the autumn night air of New York, and it felt abuzz with excitement, even at 10 o'clock in the evening!!!

Destination was a lovely modern ranch home in Scarsdale atop Beech Hill built in 1950's by Frank Lloyd Wright, and the accommodations were casual but luxurious comfort.  Welcome was the homemade dish of sinigang na salmon belly, because in less than a day, I already missed home. Heartwarming was the true blue Filipino family welcome of gourmet gossip galore into the early morning, as though to make sure I was ready for bed to forestall the dreaded jet lag.

Morning outside my window was a sight to behold.  The sun rose later than usual of course, round half past six to just quarter before seven....  It was after all fall in New York, and the change of the colors was almost complete, the phenomenon that befell the greens we all otherwise took for granted.  The hues were magnificent...ranging from fiery reds to warm oranges, with golden shades of yellow in between.  Then one hears the rustle of dried falling leaves, and hears too the skip, jump, pop of bushy tailed squirrels rummaging through the mounds and mounds of leaves. 

And for the nth time since I arrived, and the nth time since I was born, I wondered why the Philippines remained tropical and not temperate...the better to plan a wardrobe for women like me, the better to romanticize the seasons for a writer like me, and the better to experience the cycles of life for a curious bon vivante wanna be like me.

The morning's agenda included a trip to the Bronx, to a curiously Jewish sounding named store called Teitel's, run by a father and son team, both named Mike Teitel. The store was a cornucopia of Italian treats and delights...from figs, to olives, to sausages, to sun dried tomatoes, to wheat, to dried chilies and fish named bacala, to cheeses that were infused with truffle oil, parmigiana reggiano, and all other choices one could only dream about in Godfather heaven, and endless possibilities in between.  It was so popular, the line ran outside the store into the street.  It was so popular, pigeons landed on the bins of wheat to feast!!!!

The highlight of the day was a brisk walk around the corner to Emelie's, a proudly and unapologetically Italian American restaurant.  Lunch started with Mozzarella Caprese, large chunks of mozzarella over a mound of olive oil and balsamic vinegar drizzled lettuce and enhanced with slices of roasted red bell peppers. It culminated in a feast of family style shared meals, including a tasty linguine vongole, a braised lamb shank, a linguine primavera, and nicely fried calamari. Dessert was to die for canoli, very much like the cream puff we knew in Manila, and gelato in De Lillo's homemade gelateria.

 

The day ended with a stint in Scarsdale's own strip mall in Central Park Avenue, for some good ol' fashioned New York retail therapy in Bed, Beth, and Beyond, and even a convenience store named Harmon's, there were just so much choices!!!

Day 1. Incredible!!!