Friday, October 25, 2019: New York City, museums, Time Square, Korean for dinner

Started this morning with breakfast at Friedman's on W 31st. It was a busy place. Maria had eggs and I tried the morning's special, pancakes. First pancakes I've had in years. Didn't like them much.

After breakfast, Maria had a teleconference so I walked back over to the Madison Square Park to read the paper and people-watch. It was a nice cool morning.

Maria later learned that our flat in this building is the ONLY residential flat in the whole building. Everything else in the building are businesses.

Before going back to the flat, I hit the corner grocery and got some coffee beans and some sunflowers for Maria.

Then we were off. Our first stop was the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum (modern art), often referred to as The Guggenheim. It is located at 1071 Fifth Avenue on the corner of East 89th Street in the Upper East Side neighborhood of Manhattan. https://www.guggenheim.org/

We found it to be delightful. Well laid out with a spiral walkway. Not cluttered and easy to appreciate.

I found myself starting to like the "drop cloth" works. Like starring at the clouds, you can see all kinds of things.

Next we walked over to the Frick Museum. It was about a 30 minute hike along Central Park. We passed The Met on the way.

The Frick Collection (https://www.frick.org/) is an art museum located in the Henry Clay Frick House on the Upper East Side in Manhattan, New York City at 1 East 70th Street, located at the northeast corner with Fifth Avenue. It houses the collection of industrialist Henry Clay Frick. 

The house is beautiful with a large central enclosed courtyard with fountain. The woodwork throughout the house was spectacular (no photos allowed except in central courtyard). The art work throughout was great.

While no photos were allowed, somehow I mistakenly came away with a couple.

Maria had made reservartions for us at the Tavern on the Green for a 3:15 pm late lunch. We crossed through Central Park and took a break to watch a sidewalk jazz quartet. They were good.

We made it a bit after 3:00 pm.

We have dinner reservations for 8:00 pm, so we didn't want a heavy lunch.

Yep, more oysters...but only a dozen each. Maria had a crab cake and I had fish and chips.

It was time to head back to the flat. Our dinner reservations were for two, but we really wanted to have Maria's brother, Ani, join us. Maria called the restaurant several times, but they were booked. Finally, they called her and told her they could squeeze one more in with our party.

On the way back, we drove through Times Square (https://www.timessquarenyc.org/). I did not realize it yesterday morning when I took my walk, but the Hard Rock Cafe that I walked to on W 42nd is just a block from the iconic billboards and lights.

S

We dined at the Korean Jungsik (http://jungsik.com/) described as an innovative, high-end Korean fare served in elegant, contemporary digs with an extensive wine list. It is located at 2 Harrison St, New York, NY. It was truly a unique experience. We opted to go with the five course seasonal menu as opposed to the nine course signature tasting menu. There was only a couple of selections to be made. 

Ani and Maria

Both Ani and I chose the urchin. The waiter assured us we would never have urchin of this quality and flavor anywhere else. While he said that the flavor was intense, neither Ani or I thought there was much flavor at all. It was good. What surprised me the most was the texture, creamy or even mushy.

Urchin

Black Cod

Desert

It was a good dinner and quite the experience. The service was stellar, the food very good and satisfying and my dining company very pleasant.

Got back to the flat around 11:00 pm, exhausted. I took a couple of photos of the Empire State Building all lit up.