Friday was a beautiful day — clear blue sky, temperature in the seventies, low humidity. nice breeze. A perfect day for lunch at Spice Market.
Spice Market is a Jean-Georges restaurant in the Meatpacking District. It's set in a large building, on two floors, with lots of of carved wood balustrades, canopies and beams, all set with Asian motifs. On two outside walls, large doors raise to let in the street ambience — and the beautiful weather. Spice Market's menu is Asian street-vendor food of the sort found in the pushcarts of Bangkok. We started with a nice Sancerre, ordered four small plates to share, and munched on the addictive papadum, with its sweet and spicy chili dipping sauce.
Papadum, with chili dipping sauce The first two dishes out were the salmon tartare and the shrimp dumplings, both beautifully presented. The salmon and avocado layers blended nicely; the soy ginger dressing did not overpower. The shrimp dumplings were delicate and delicious, bathed in a sweet & sour shitake mushroom sauce.
Salmon tartare, soy ginger dressing, radish and avocado
Steamed shrimp dumplings, lobster and shitake mushroom sauce Next out was the tempura bass, followed by noodles with shrimp. The steamed buns surrounding the bass were light and airy, and the fish was nicely breaded, making for a tasty sandwich. The noodle dish was very good. There were lots of perfectly cooked shrimp, with the chili-garlic spicing giving it all a nice kick.
Tempura bass, steamed buns, crispy herbs and peanuts
Chili-garlic egg noodles, seared shrimp and star anise Spice Market no longer gets the three stars it did when it opened in 2004. But we still enjoy it; it's a nice change of pace. After lunch, we took a taxi uptown to the Neue Galerie, where we enjoyed a special exhibit, "Degenerate Art: The Attack on Modern Art in Nazi Germany, 1937." And after some downtime at the apartment, we walked to the Music Box Theatre for Pippin.
Regular readers of this blog may be starting to worry about us. Yes, we did indeed see this same production of Pippin last June. And while we go back to the same restaurants year after year, sometimes inadvertently ordering the same dishes, we don't usually see the same play more than once. But there was method to our madness here. We had learned that Annie Potts had taken over the role of "Berthe" (Pippin's grandmother) in the show. Annie had stayed at our home for five nights in September of 2004, when she came to Missouri to work for John Kerry's presidential campaign. We became fast friends and we've been in touch on-and-off ever since. We saw Pippin a second time to see Annie. Annie was delightful in the role; she was the prefect "Granny." After the show, she had us come up on the stage, where we met members of the cast, including John Rubinstein, who we'd seen in the role of "Pippin" in the original 1972 production, and who was now playing "Charles," Pippin's father. Alas, we were all getting older.
Annie Potts signing programs
John Rubinstein signing programs After Annie interacted wonderfully with the crowd awaiting her and other cast members outside the stage door, she had a car take us to Babbo for a late dinner and delightful conversation. Sorry, no review!
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