May 22, 2013 NYC –Brooklyn Museum, La Morada, Matilda and Stage Door Deli

May 22, 2013 NYC –Brooklyn Museum, La Morada, Matilda and Stage Door Deli

We got up and went to the Brooklyn Museum because Suzette had been wanting to see Judy Chicago’s Dinner Party installation for several years.   When we arrived I saw one of the iconic paintings of early American art over the ticket counter, Edward Hicks’ Peaceable Kingdom and asked the Ticket salesperson, if that picture was in the collection.  When she said yes, I became excited to see it and the other pieces in the collection.   We were told to go to the fifth floor and then come down.   American paintings were on the fourth floor.  We saw the Peaceable Kingdom and many other great American works, such as a couple of good Eakins, and a wonderful portrait of Washington by Gilbert Stuart.   I have since discovered at Wikipedia that there are several versions of the Peaceable Kingdom by Hicks, there is another version that is probably more famous at the National Gallery, but in this one the animals look right at you and are more primitive, which I love.

 Then we went to the Feminist wing and saw the Dinner Party.  After two hours we went to the subway and went all the way to Queens on the express No. 2 train and guessed that the second Third Ave. stop would be the correct one for the restaurant   When we walked out of the subway we asked a man in wheelchair which way to Willits and he pointed across the street.

 So we walked across the street and were on Willits.  After walking eight blocks we came to La Morada restaurant at 308 Willits.  I ordered Mole Poblano with pork and Suzette ordered chicken tamales with green mole sauce.  Both dishes were served with rice and black beans.   There were two other friends of Rebecca and the parents of one of them and Charlie and Sarah, Rebecca’s uncle and aunt from New Jersey.    The mole was good but not as good as Topo, but it was much cheaper, only $12.00 for the whole dish with its three pork ribs in a rich chocolate mole sauce.  The tamales were good but with lots of masa, which Suzette did not eat, so I ate the cooked masa with my mole and it was just like the dish the other night at Topo in construction.  In fact, La Morada’s mole may have been more complex in its conception than Topos because it appeared to have used BBQ’d pork ribs (costillas de puerco) that were a little dry but tasty.  My guess is that the matron did not like me trying to speak Spanish and gave me the day old ribs.  But the mole sauce was definitely homemade.

After lunch we went with the Manhattan group to the No. 6 train and returned to Manhattan.  As we entered Manhattan from the north Suzette said we could stop three blocks from the Frick Museum.   So we stopped at 68^th and walked north the three blocks to the Frick at 71st and Fifth Ave.  The Frick is terrific.  It has three Vermeers and an incredible Giovanni Bellini of Saint Francis in the Wilderness and four Rembrandts including his self portrait as an old man and an incredible Hans Memling portrait of a young Man and a Duccio and a Cimabue that date from the beginning of the Renaissance in the 1300’s.   All in all, a fabulous Museum.

After the Frick we returned to the hotel and got our tickets for Matilda and went to the Schubert Theatre.  Our seats were under the balcony and I think that because of the sound system, our hearing suffered because of the back wash of sound from too many speakers.  Also, the performers’ speaking in English English made understanding them more difficult.

  

 

After the theater we went to the Stage Door Deli at 7^th Ave and 33^rd St. which appears to have changed hands, since all the waiters and cooks are now Mexicans, although the potato pancakes, blintzes, a bowl of matzo ball soup and a bowl of cream of asparagus soup were all very delicious.

 

A long and wonderful day.  Incredible if you count two major museums.

Bon Appétit