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Letter from the Editor October, 2004 Dear Friends,
Perhaps with hurricanes, debates and the elections soon behind us we can get on with some of the fun in life. Even an activist like myself doesn't own boots high enough for all the inaccuracies and mud slinging.
We've been on the road visiting historic and wonderful Chinatown in New York City,
urban renewal and a ton of cultural attractions in Cleveland, Ohio and then Tacoma, Washington,
a few hours in Paris and home to catch up on the Washington DC culture and restaurant scene.
I love New York City and actually the rest of the state is pretty great too. It helps when you can live somewhere to really get to know it, understand the "flavor" and feel truly a part of the scene. Lately I'm not even home enough to qualify for that here and I've never stayed in New York City longer than five continuous days! The nice thing about Manhattan is how small it is and this last trip I used the city buses for the second time and thought they were perfect.
Another recent visit put me at The Mark - New York, a quiet luxury hotel on the historic upper east side, purchased by Mandarin Oriental and moving quickly through the process of renovation. Although there wasn't much they could do to better my suite and my friends with tiny expensive apartments were in awe. The hotel was originally a luxury apartment building and left behind some pretty decent amenities especially the large rooms. Ideally located at Madison Avenue and East 77th, with 120 rooms and 57 luxury suites, I could have had a large party just on my balcony overlooking the city.
I love classic hotels with lots of spacious areas, windows that open, big hallways and ample closets. All amenities that are becoming harder and harder to find as the cost of real estate everywhere skyrockets. The Mark has all these and another life saver for me - 24 hour room service. It's always a race against the clock when traveling, frequently missed meals and starving. Anywhere room service stops at 9:00 pm means eating dried fruit or vending machine junk or nothing.
Checking in at mid afternoon and really hungry after the four hour train ride but with a big dinner coming later, the best option was the Marks spectacular afternoon tea with Tea Master Ringo Lo. I've started to really enjoy afternoon tea in spite of being a diehard espresso drinker day or night. It's the clotted cream and tiny sandwiches that are my downfall.
Mr. Ringo Wing Chung Lo's knowledge and skill, honed after a lengthy career in hotels and tea, works well in advising guests on proper food and tea combinations, teas to revive the palate or aid in digestion, just everything one could want to know about tea. I hadn't thought about it before but tea is the world's most consumed beverage next to water.
Mr. Lo graciously assisted me in my choice of teas that afternoon and is also available during the dinner hour for patrons seeking guidance and compatible teas with different menu items. After a lifetime of tea study he was still so kind and no question too dumb or time consuming. It was such a peaceful luxury from the frantic pace of New Yorks streets.
People used to picture tea and tea rooms full of little old blue and white haired ladies or "Q tips" as they are sometimes called today - and as you can imagine irreverent moi, famous for her spiky red hair, finds this hysterically funny. Now everyone enjoys and feels comfortable having tea. In London, at the Ritz, it was a giant party with many celebrations going on, all the pomp and circumstance, gilt and mirrors one could imagine. The Mark is a bit more restrained but totally elegant and wonderful. In addition to myself the room was serving quite a number of business people, couples and regulars in with friends.
What an ideal way to have a small meeting and cover the 3:00pm brain dead low we all suffer. Ordinary grocery store teas are in decline and most people are checking out the fruit flavors, special blends and herbal teas.
At the Mark, afternoon tea is served from 2:30 to 5:30pm and includes a selection of international teas, scones, mascarpone and fruit preserves, a selection of tea sandwiches and pastries at a very reasonable $23.00. A "Strawberry Cream Tea" and "Mandarin Tea" is also available.
I believe I doubled or maybe even tripled the quantity of whipped cream for my strawberries.
The hotel features a Wellness Suite fully equipped to work off the day's tensions or too many scones.
Just a few weeks later I was in this eclectic cities Chinatown for a quick visit to become reacquainted with its shops, restaurants and hidden surprises.
Chinatown now is moving into an "Asia" town with restaurants and shops from Viet Nam, Thailand, Malaysia and all the countries throughout Asia.
Then to add to the excitement my weekend included the Festival of the Feast of San Gennaro in the tiny remains of Little Italy, now totally surrounded by Chinatown.
Many streets were blocked off to vehicles and those that weren't might as well have been! Forget ever getting a cab in this area and either take the subway or preplan to end up in a spot you can walk a few blocks say on Grand over to West Broadway and flag a cab. Canal on weekends is so mobbed no cabs will be seen there either.
Four of us had an opportunity to experience a true tea ceremony at the Ten Ren Tea Shop. I'm going to condense the process a bit for preparing a good cup of tea. We spent more than an hour in the preparation, explanation and history of the various items used and then time on the teas themselves.
To start the teapot and cups should be warm and the quickest way is to run hot water from the faucet over them. The more traditional way is for water to be heated for this purpose in another teapot (teapot A) and then poured into the one (teapot B) that will eventually (maybe) hold the tea leaves and the cups to warm them.
In our case teapot B was filled half full with leaves and then water added and brewed for a short time to fluff the leaves. This amount of leaves allowed multiple brewing and each time you added more water the brewing was extended approximately 15 seconds to make sure every cup tastes the same. To be a true purist and the way our ceremony was conducted the tea was decanted into another teapot (C) before being poured into the cups. A maid or dishwasher may be helpful on the cleanup! Unless you have some of the antique or collectors cups and teapots, many wonderful examples on display at Ten Ren Tea.
Water temperatures are important too. The hottest used for medium fermented, heavily baked or old leaves and lowest for Green Tea. Amazingly pots can be of stone, fired porcelain or ordinary pottery and there are some differences here but thank goodness color doesn't matter.
The store was absolutely packed with customers many regulars and mostly non Chinese. For the novice the large well versed staff would go to all lengths to explain the various teas and the many steps a leaf follows up to reaching the consumer stage.
Tea is like fine cognac and can cost as much or more. The best Jasmine is rolled into round shapes and their ginseng comes from Wisconsin. Ten Ren carries teas from a few dollars to hundreds. There are many attractive gift packs to purchase if you need to bring something back. It was an amazing experience.
This was one of those visits where I change hotels every two days and LaQuinta has invaded New York! Always nice hotels, I've been a guest in the west and now in Manhattan they've taken over a property at 17 West 32nd Street and are renovating it to LaQuinta standards. I thought my room was fine, pleasant colors, clean, not too small for New York standards, not surprisingly no view and the most reasonable rack rate in the $120 range that included a buffet breakfast on the main floor.
I also used their business center which was not elaborate but the computers worked and getting on the internet was free. So free breakfast, free local calls and an hour of internet access equated to at least a $30 savings in my book. There is a fee for internet use in your room.
The hotels location is spectacular with the Empire State building one block away and right between Broadway and Fifth Avenue. I walked and walked and easily caught city busses. You can see I like to stay above ground when I can and absorb all the sites.
Unfortunately I ran out of time before trying the rooftop bar, the restaurant or the new exercise room. All the staff was wonderfully helpful and the only downside was one elevator out of service and one very slow one working. But the mechanics were there.
In Chinatown, eating was reasonable and very good. I do think it helps to have a friend along who knows the neighborhood and speaks Chinese! It's easy to stay under ten dollars in many places and we enjoyed Yeah Shanghai Deluxe for a delicious Shangainese brunch of dim sum. Many of the restaurants are family owned and run, décor is simple and the rest rooms are a bit dicey. One person told me that if I wanted to be waited on hand and foot, with lavish décor I could triple the prices and go uptown. I thought the waiters did have a tendency to slap down the plates but tried not to take it personally!
After years of eating in gazillions of restaurants, one, Tutto Bene, a few miles from my home, stands out as having the rudest host, waiters and the cook I didn't meet, in my dining history. The food is overpriced and lousy Italian.
Well back to the good stuff. On my own one night I swung into 18 Arhans Vegetarian and Comfort food. Right on the edge of Chinatown, several locals had mentioned this tiny place. This unique vegetarian restaurant doubles as a Buddhist temple with its bona fide shrine to a giant War Bodhisattva. My absolute favorite décor item was the sign that no chopsticks or restroom was available. Unable to interpret that I finally asked Shi Jin Shi, a short Chinese Buddhist nun wearing a stocking cap over her shaved head and many jackets over traditional monastic attire. Well it seemed one sign held two messages.
The patron saint of 18 Arhans is Guan Gong, an actual historical figure (160-219 C.E.) who played an important role in China's Three Kingdoms period. The section at the back of the restaurant is dedicated as a shrine to him. People place offerings of oranges, bananas, crackers, or incense on a low table before the various statues of him and his friends. Meanwhile the massive Police Building looms over the restaurant directly on the other side of Centre Street.
Shi Jin Shi started 18 Arhans with Nancy Li (who does the cooking), a local friend and businesswoman. All dishes on the extensive menu are prepared when ordered and ingredients strictly vegetarian. Any items with "chicken, beef or ham" are to express the taste but actually all made with soy. They have seating for a few but most business is takeout.
I had a huge portion of rice and veggies to go and know why the restaurant has received good mentions in the New York Times, Time out New York and do a Google search to really hear the word.
There is a small bowl by the cash register that says send ET home and that is where you leave the tips. Shi Jin Shi says jokingly that her real name is "E.T., though I don't phone home yet."
The word "arhan" in the restaurant's title is another term for arhat, a Buddhist sage who has achieved nirvana.
Wanting to stay a little closer to Chinatown I moved into the brand new Solita Soho Hotel at 159 Grand Street right on the border of Soho and Chinatown. This is a true boutique hotel with only four rooms per floor newly constructed on a very small lot. From the stunning contemporary outside my driver had difficulty finding the discreet sign at street level. The lobby is sleek metal and marble with the friendliest young staff.
They arranged everything for my ride to the JFK airport including advice to leave at least 1 ˝ hours ahead of time. I found that hard to believe until we sat for a very long time inching along on the highway. That driver wondered why he was so insane as to be in this business! He should have gone the rest of the way with me to the airline counter.
The American Airlines lines were miles long and I couldn't believe I would ever get to the plane. Naturally after awhile there was a big panic among the staff to get the Paris bound ahead of everyone else. As it was we still were rushed and crushed through what seemed like 88 security checks. I think I was standing in my underwear at one of the last points. The inspector assured me I'd get on the flight to Paris.
In another story I'll relate the civilized Charles de Gaulle American Airlines counter, pick up and drop off areas and every else handled with precision and timeliness by the French.
My room was quite contemporary but not barren like many. Hard to be barren when you are really small! Instead of a in the wall closet, we had a sleek black cabinet for a few clothes, and the in-room safe. A desk and one night stand plus the comfortable and quite luxurious bed took up all the other space. The marble baths were quite nice particularly the dual shower heads. Although I could hear some sounds in the hall, inside the room was totally quiet. My window opened which was nice listening to the rain one night.
Rooms are equipped for high speed internet, in room coffee and Plasma screen TV's. I did have to call the desk to locate the secret coffee maker and once asked if they had to vacuum from out in the hall.
The Solita is so new their website is under construction meanwhile every room was occupied every night I was there and for the weekend. They give you a small sheet of paper at check-in with your room number, the hotels address and phone, fax and e mail address. I found that very thoughtful and handy.
New York is a wonderful city and great fun to explore the neighborhoods. More reports next month.
Happy trails my friends,
Mary Gallagher
For a wonderful guide to everything about Chinatown: | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
