Themes from a couple of recent posts came together tonight -- in our ongoing quest to make Friday evenings a happy family time, we went down to Chinatown this evening to have dinner (at Sweet & Tart) and listen to Graham Russell Hodges, the author of a book about Anna May Wong, speaking on the subject, at the Museum of Chinese in the Americas. Like last Friday, this evening was a bit of a mix; but heavily weighted, I think, toward the positive side. Before dinner, we went to the playground at the bottom of Mulberry Street, where despite the cold weather and the incipient drizzle, Sylvia got in a good half hour of play. There was only one other kid in the playground, a girl of about 4 years. She noticed us playing ice cream shop and, after passing by a couple of times looking interested, she came over and asked for some chocolate. Sylvia happily complied, and after not too long they were playing together avidly. I couldn't really get the details of their imaginary world -- I was reluctant to intrude too closely on it -- but there was a zoo or pet shop where they went to look at animals, and a lot of marching back and forth between that and another locale. But it was getting colder, and we were starting to feel hungry, so we dragged Sylvia protesting away from that and on over to Sweet & Tart, on Mott Street. Sweet & Tart, if you do not know about it, is one of my favorite places in New York City to eat Chinese food. There is a branch in Flushing and one on Mott. Their food is a bit eclectic -- the predominant style is Shanghainese but there are also a lot of Taiwanese stuff, and there is an extensive juice bar, which I haven't seen at any other Chinese restaurant. IIRC there is also some sushi at the Flushing branch. The vibe there is just really fun -- check it out if you have not been there. (Note: The Flushing branch of Sweet & Tart is where the photo at the top of this page was taken, when we were celebrating Sylvia's second birthday.) After an excellent dinner, we headed over to the Museum. We were a bit surprised to see a large group of people leaving as we entered the building, and further surprised when we got upstairs, to see the museum's caretaker putting a "closed" sign on the door and locking it. Turns out Ellen had written down the time the event ended thinking it was the the time it started; so no reading. Oh well. We drove on home.
posted evening of Friday, April second, 2004
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