I'm not a New Yorker but my wife and I recently took a quick weekend trip there.

We had very enjoyable meals at: the Park Bistro http://www.parkbistro.com - a place that we went to years ago and have always stayed on their mailing list, Lupa Osteria Romana http://www.luparestaurant.com - one of Mario Batali's places and Becco http://www.lidiasitaly.com/restaurants/becco/becco.html - one of Lidia Bastianich's places. We also went to Katz's Deli on E. Houston for a pastrami sandwich (I always like to get to at least one of NY's great deli's when I'm there - we usually go to the Carnegie Deli.) Also, we stumbled onto the NY branch of La Maison du Chocolat, which is on Madison near the Metropolitan Museum. Never got to Jacques Torres's place in Brooklyn Heights (just over the Brooklyn Bridge - which is supposed to be a nice walk.)

On Friday we took a walk around Greenwich Village (based on a walking tour in the AAA Guide) then went to the Forbes to see the Faberge Eggs, then down to the NY Library on 5th Ave. After that we checked out the Christmas windows at Lord & Taylor and Saks, then wandered around Rockefeller Center. On Saturday, since it was raining, we went to the Frick Museum and wound up spending about three hours there. Their Audio Guide covers so much of the collection that it was easy to spend a long time. After that we both had museum legs so we decided not to attempt either the Whitney, Cooper-Hewitt or the Met and instead paid a visit to my favorite places in NY # Zabars http://www.zabars.com and H& H Bagels http://www.handhbagel.com If I lived there I think I be at Zabars all the time - it's food heaven.

For theater, after checking the New Yorker web site, we decided to go to a performance in one of the little theaters in Lincoln Center of a musical(!) version of a movie called A Man of No Importance, which was itself based on an Oscar Wilde play. It was really good. It was only a 10-person cast and simply staged but very enjoyable. If you know the movie, you'd never think a musical version would work but they really pulled it off. On Saturday night we went to a one-man play in the basement of a Synagogue on 6th street between 2nd and 3rd avenues (in the Lower East Side.) It was an adaptation of a book named The Hero of the Slocombe about an East River ferry sinking in 1904 that killed over 1000 people, most of whom were Lutherans on an day-trip excursion. It was performed by a very talented actor named Patrick Tull, who is a favorite of ours because he's the voice on many audio books we've listened to (esp. Patrick O'Brian's books.) It was really good and very moving. The reason for the performance location was that the Synagogue was, up until 1924, the Lutheran church which was attended by many of the families who died in the sinking.

All-in-all a great trip with, as usual, too much eating. It makes me realize that I should have taken greater advantage of NYC's proximity when I lived back there. If it wasn't for the high cost of hotels, I'd probably go there twice a year.

So little time. So much to eat Al Sonoma, CA, USA