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Another Camel Walk

June 26th, 2013 . Posted in Eastern United States, New York City, United States | Comments Off on Another Camel Walk

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Today’s adventure was another ‘Camel Walk’. Bullwinkle found a reference to an Armenian bakery in Brooklyn which baked fresh goodies every day. Several people on the internet highly recommended the ‘lavash’. They said it was the freshest on the east coast of the US. So, I had to go and try it!

The Armenian Brooklyn Bread House

The Brooklyn Bread House was located in the Sheepshead Bay area of Brooklyn, which is in the eastern corner of New York City along the Atlantic Ocean. It was also, according to Google Maps, 63.6 miles or one hour and 37 minutes from our house. Putting it plainly, it’s a hike for us!

  Plov is the National Dish of Uzbekistan

As retirees who like to explore less familiar neighborhoods, we set out this morning for the adventure. The Brooklyn Bread House is a small storefront just east of Brighton Beach and Coney Island. Although the stripes on the awning outside is the Armenian flag, all the signs in the window were in Russian. The patrons and clerks also spoke Russian. This was the result of Soviet Russian rule of Armenia for 71 years.

Chuchvara stuffed with Potatoes & Sour Cream

The shelves inside the bakery were full of groceries from the Republic of Armenia. There was a counter along the back wall for baked goods. I purchased two large pieces of ‘lavash’ and a box of ‘kata’. Lavash is the soft thin flatbread which is popular among Armenians. I remember my grandfather had it with just about everything at every meal. Armenian ‘kata’ is a tasty sweet bread. This one had cheese inside. It was very good and not too sweet. By the way, the young woman behind the counter was from Kazakistan, another former Russian satellite.

Exterior of Nargis Cafe

For lunch, Bullwinkle suggested an Uzbek restaurant in the neighborhood. I was excited because I never ate food from Uzbekistan and the country was on my ‘must visit’ list. We easily found Nargis Cafe on Coney Island Avenue and went inside the bright purple restaurant. What a treat! It was spacious, clean, and well decorated. The many young servers were personable and friendly. The food was delicious. I took some photos of our choices and we enjoyed everything.

Steamed Khonim

After a tasty lunch, we drove around Coney Island and Brighton Beach. Both areas had experienced severe damage during Hurricane Sandy last winter and it was reassuring to see these communities are rebounding.

Before leaving Brooklyn, we stopped at Gulluoglu Baklava & Cafe on Brighton Beach Avenue to pick up a few fresh sweet morsels of baklava to take home. Bulluoglu boasts the best baklava on several continents. We’ll see….

Turkish Baklava from Gulluoglu Cafe

As you probably guessed by now, Brighton Beach and Coney Island are neighborhoods which abound in ethnic diversity. Russian and, to a lesser extent, English are the common languages of communication here. Many signs are written in Cyrillic and not translated into English. It is truly an international smorgasbord of humanity. And what fun it was to be a small part of it today!

View of Manhattan from the Whitestone Bridge

 

Walk a Mile For a Camel?

June 4th, 2013 . Posted in Eastern United States | Comments Off on Walk a Mile For a Camel?

Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Today, the question was: would we drive an hour and a half for good pizza? The idea reminded me of a cigarette advertisement from my youth, I’d Walk a Mile for a Camel.  Of course, we would drive 80 miles for a good ‘tomato pie’.  My husband, I like to call him Bullwinkle, read that Frank Pepe’s made one of the best pizzas in the country and was located in New Haven, Connecticut. We had already sampled and enjoyed their pizza at the satellite shops owned by the same family, which were located in Yonkers, NY and Danbury, CT.

The Original Frank Pepe’s

We wanted to take a journey to the Holy Grail of pizza, the Original Frank Pepe’s Pizzeria Napoletana, est. 1925, which was located 79.8 miles from our house. Fortified with maps and a GPS, as well as strong coffee, we set out on our pilgrimage to the Mecca of ‘Italian tomato pies’ in New Haven. I have to admit it was an uneventful drive, although we took a scenic route, and we reached our destination just in time for lunch.

The Holy Grail of Pizza

The pizzeria was located in a pleasant neighborhood of renovated New England brick structures from the late 1800s. We passed several other pizzerias on the same street as Frank Pepe’s and we made note to return some day to sample the competition. But today, we were undaunted in our pursuit of The Best. We parked and entered the shop reverently.

Interior of the Original Pizzeria

“Sit anywhere,” someone shouted from the back where the famous coal-fired oven was located, so we humbly grabbed the first empty booth. The waitress greeted us and took our soft drink order of locally manufactured soda. As purists, we ordered the ‘Original Tomato Pie with Mozzarella’ with no other adornments or flavors to mask the subtle taste of Frank Pepe’s tomato sauce and special cheese.

Foxon Park Soft Drinks Since 1922

I’m not sure if I would categorize the experience as a Nirvana moment, but the pizza was good. It had tasty tomato sauce and gooey cheese artfully placed on a very well done flavorful crust.  Sorry, no photos!

New Haven, Ct. – Overlooking Yale University

New Haven, Connecticut is also the home of Yale University and, of particular interest to us, their famous Art Gallery. We wanted to visit the museum after our tomato pies and it was a short drive to the center of the city.  Once inside, (free admission, by the way) I asked for a map and we turned toward what looked like a medieval church.

Filtered Light on Ancient Statue

At the door, a friendly guard greeted us, “Welcome to the gallery.  Have you been here since the renovation?”  When we told him this was our first visit, he smiled broadly and said, “Well, you’re in for a real treat!  Welcome.”

Indo-Pacific Art

The Gallery was a wonderful museum with a vast and impressive collection of art through the ages and from around the world.  Each room held a surprise in time and place.

Sol le Witt Again

We began the journey with ancient European art and worked our way through time and ended in modern art.  The collection is stunning because curators have obtained excellent representative pieces of art from around the world.

Exterior Detail

We were surprised by the breath and depth of the collection at the gallery.  It was inspiring.  I thought how fortunate the students at Yale University were to have such a world-class museum on their campus.  We added the Art Gallery to our list of favorite museums and planned to return soon.  Yes, I’d drive 80 miles for another visit to the Yale University Art Gallery, I’m not so sure about the pizza.

Times Square Billboard 1940s

 Note: I found this photo of the Camel billboard on Broadway just north of 42nd Street.  As a child, I remember staring at it and wondering how the sign was able to puff out perfect rings of smoke.  It grabbed my attention and probably lodged in the minds of smokers for years.  Of course, this was long before Times Square became the tourist mecca it is today.

A Magical Day

May 12th, 2013 . Posted in Eastern United States, Travel, United States | Comments Off on A Magical Day

Sunday – May 12, 2013

Another good reason to go to Boston is the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.  Mrs. Gardner built an Italian Renaissance palazzo to display her magnificent collection of 2,500 objects.  There are artifacts from Egypt, ancient Rome, Medieval and Renaissance Europe, China, Japan, the Middle East, and the Americas.  Unfortunately, photography is prohibited so I have no lovely photos of the museum to share.

Mrs. Gardner’s museum has a breathtaking collection of art housed in a Venetian palace in downtown Boston.  The website provides a catalogue of the treasures, but doesn’t give the viewer an accurate sense of the size or grandeur of this unique palazzo.   http://www.gardnermuseum.org

Contemporary Art

This day, the Gardner Museum was crowded with Mother’s Day families.  As the sun streamed into the center courtyard, casting shadows on the spring flowers and palms, my shutter-finger flexed uncontrollably.  We decided that we would return soon, but during the week.

Institute of Contemporary Art

The morning clouds gave way to a bright blue sky and we had enough time to go to the Institute of Contemporary Art located on Boston Harbor.

Harbor-side View of the ICA

We read about the ICA and it sounded like an interesting place to visit, not only because of its excellent location on the waterfront, but also because of the unique architecture of the building.

Street Art Indoors

There were several works of contemporary artists on display in the galleries.  After two decades of working in San Francisco, “street artist”, Barry McGee’s works were brought inside for to create an inspiring exhibit.

Art Appreciation

McGee was a graffiti artist who also worked with “found objects” and discarded materials to express the pessimism of urban living, pollution, addiction,and poverty.  The market value of his artwork rose after several international exhibits.  As a result of the increased attention in the art world, his public pieces were scavenged or stolen.  I think they should have given cans of spray paint to the visitors for us to make art and participate in an interactive exhibit.

Graffiti Artists

Inside Outside

I enjoyed Barry McGee’s works!  They expressed the tension of working in the streets of San Francisco and the grittiness of street life.  It must have been a challenge to display his work indoors in a gallery space.

Art or Nature?

McGee’s work was a fitting end to our weekend.  We began with the memorial in Copley Square, which was a spontaneous public outpouring of emotions to honor the victims of the bombings at the finish of the Boston Marathon.  We ended with Barry McGee’s view of life on the streets in another major American city.  With the current thread of inequality, lack of respect for each other, and inhumane violence, it is a challenge to all of us to retain inner strength, maintain resiliency, and to question our values and attitudes toward other human beings.

Natural Mural

Barry McGee’s philosophy of art and life was recently quoted in a Boston newspaper: Are you into the magic of art? Just the magic of, how did that happen? And if you’re standing in front of something and just don’t understand it, but you’re drawn to it? I think it’s one of the last things that still has a magic to it. It just appears.  Perhaps we all need a little magic in our lives?

Fine Arts in Boston

May 11th, 2013 . Posted in Eastern United States, United States | Comments Off on Fine Arts in Boston

Saturday, May 11, 2013

We were able to shake off the sadness in the streets and celebrate our anniversary in high style at the Fairmont. It’s an easy place to forget the worries of the world and escape into pampered luxury.  The lobby was always busy and at night the ballrooms were full of men wearing tuxedos and women in beautiful long gowns.   

Lobby of the Fairmont Copley Plaza

After a delicious continental breakfast in The Lounge, we decided to take public transportation to the Museum of Fine Arts.  A “Charlie Ticket” is the reusable transportation card in Boston.  It reminded me of the song, Charlie on the MTA which the Kingston Trio made famous in 1959 about a man who didn’t have enough money to pay the “exit fare” and was stuck on the train:

Did he ever return?  No he never returned,  And his fate is still unlearned.  He may ride forever ‘neath the streets of Boston.  He’s the man who never returned…..

Purchasing Subway “T” Tickets

There actually was an MTA employee at the station (in shorts in the photo above) who was there to help tourists buy tickets for the subway.  He told us the original words of the song had been composed in 1949 for a Boston mayoral candidate and the Kingston Trio changed the words a bit.

MBTA Subway Cars

The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority or “The T” began in 1896 and is one of the oldest subway systems in the United States.  The cars resemble double buses attached together.  They run underground as well as above-ground like trolley cars with overhead wires.

The Museum of Fine Arts

One of our main reasons to go to Boston was to visit the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.  I have to admit that we’re museum and library people and we love to “collect” museums around the world.  The MFA is a world class museum with many wonderful artifacts and amazing works of art.

Samurai Sword Demonstration

As part of a special exhibit of Samurai warriors, there were martial arts demonstrations and a talk about making Samurai swords.

Family Snack

The museum has a good collection of European impressionist art and a wonderful collection of John Singer Sargent paintings.  A new contemporary art wing has been added since our last visit several years ago.

In a Gallery

Rest

It is impossible to see everything in the MFA in one day, so we saved some art for another visit in the near future.  It was a good day!

Boston Strong

May 10th, 2013 . Posted in Armenian, Eastern United States, Travel, United States | Comments Off on Boston Strong

Friday, May 10, 2013

We had planned a weekend in Boston for some time. When the bombings occurred at the Boston Marathon just three weeks ago, we considered canceling our trip but, in the end we were determined not to allow crazy terrorist activities to change our lives. “Boston Strong” was the motto exhibited by the residents on nation-wide television, so it was a Go for us.

Signed Marathon Poster & Sneakers

We leisurely drove north, taking our time and enjoying the ride on a beautiful sunny spring day. Our first goal was the Armenian Library and Museum of America in Watertown, Massachusetts, just outside Boston. (website: www.almainc.org) We remembered watching television and waiting for the police to capture the second terrorist hidden in a small boat in someone’s backyard in Watertown.  We easily found the museum, parked, and entered the modern building.  ALMA is a delightful small museum which is managed by friendly people.

Model of Armenian Cathedral

On the ground floor was an exhibit of the wonderful black & white photography of Yousuf Karsh. He is best known for his famous portraits of Winston Churchill and Ernest Hemingway. Karsh survived the Armenian Genocide in eastern Turkey, immigrated to Quebec, and became a Canadian citizen. He had a photographic studio in Ottawa and traveled the world to take photographs of well known people. Karsh lived in Boston during the late 1990s and died there in 2002. His wife, Estrellita Karsh, donated the portraits to ALMA in order to create a permanent collection at the Armenian Museum.

Armenian History

An informative exhibit depicted the long history of the Armenian people from pre-historic times through earliest Christianity, and the Armenian Genocide to modern day. This exhibit entitled, Who Are the Armenians, attempted to explain the long epic history of the little-known Armenian people.  It was a testament to human strength, survival, and resiliency.

Nonny Hogrogian Paintings

Another current exhibit highlighted the work of the Armenian-American author and illustrator, Nonny Hogrogian. She wrote and illustrated many books and won two Caldecott medals for her children’s books, Always Room For One More and One Fine Day. Her charming books beautifully retell Armenian folk tales.

Copley Square

After an enjoyable time at ALMA, we drove into downtown Boston. We found our hotel, the Fairmont Copley Plaza, and happily gave our car to the valet for the weekend. We dropped off our luggage and went out to explore the neighborhood. Copley Square is a public park in the Back Bay neighborhood of Boston and was named after the painter, John Singleton Copley.

Memorial

On April 15th as the winners crossed the finish line of the 2013 Boston Marathon at Copley Square, two bombs exploded killing three people and injuring almost 200 more people. The shock sent chills through every American who immediately remembered the awful events of September 11th. Millions were glued to televisions, radios, and listening devises to receive news of the unimaginable events in Boston and Watertown. Now, a mere three weeks later, Copley Square was quiet and peaceful.

Wall of Running Shoes

We crossed the street and walked into the square, between Trinity Church and the Boston Public Library, to see the public Memorial created by locals and visitors to honor the people hurt by the bombings. A international crowd of people quietly walked among the artifacts. We looked at the running shoes, flags, tee-shirts, candles, and photographs which honored the innocent victims of the recent senseless and brutal acts of violence.

Origami Birds

 

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