New Museum

This is a  post about where not to go in NYC.

The New Museum (235 Bowery) has patrons like Yoko Ono and all those old and new money people but unless you are a true art fart, don't go. It only costs USD7 but do you really want to go to a small museum filled half-filled with nonsense? Then again, it could just be me because I heard some people say on their way down "That was awesome!"


The building is very modern and sleek outside and the view from the uppermost floor is great too but the inside of the building is very small and feels rather cheap and flimsy. Maybe that's how it's meant to feel.






An installation made of Zimbawee currency. Other contenders: Asian currency.


Sticks on the walls.


A bucket with cut-out bottom.


Nail clippings; journey of drug money.


Not such what this is. Basic necessities of life--coffee, rice and flour/drugs?


A drawerful of DVDs is art too, remember that next time the kids don't put the DVDs back neatly.




???
By the time we got to the next one, I was begging my daughter to go. We laughed our way out of the New Museum.





I think it's me. I need to take a basic English course and an art appreciation course. But seriously, I think the best thing about modern art is how it evokes my feelings about it, how you have to think about what the artist is trying to say.

Two more posts and we'll move on to San Francisco.

Broadway, NYC

London's West End, specifically Leicester Square and the Covent Garden, is the entertainment centre of the city. I loved the 19th century feel of the area, with quaint shops, pubs and small theatres. So imagine my surprise when Broadway turned out to be flashing bright neon lights (which are on even in the day), tall modern buildings, American bbq fast food joints, retail shops such as Ann Taylor, Sephora, Gap, Victoria's Secret and tons of tourists with their cameras, and scores of friendly policemen on Times Square standing next to their NYPD cars, posing with tourists.

It was a cold and rainy night when I first stumbled onto Broadway but the lights were so bright and cheery that I clicked and clicked away on my camera even though my fingers were numb. When I got home, my daughter who had passed by Times Square on her way back from dinner with friends also shared the same excitement. I think that if you go to NYC, you must go to Broadway once, preferably at night.

Christie Brinkley was performing in Chicago. We wanted to watch Lion King but it wasn't on that night and the tickets for the next night was about USD145 each so I thought I'll wait till the show comes to Singapore again.Matinees are also cheaper, and so are online tickets but it's best to buy much earlier.


Sticky wings, somewhere on Broadway. If they didn't say so, I'd thought that these were turkey wings. They were BIG.

Broadway in the day is still lively and festive, full of tourists. The lights will make you dance and jump, which is what my daughter and I did.

Times Square btw, is a narrow triangle, hardly the place I imagined where the annual Christmas tree and new year countdown would be held. Can you spot us?

Reehannah was there.

I was about to take his photo but stopped when he saw me. He called out, "Take my picture, take it, please, no donations!" What a sport. And either he's candid or he found an ingenuous way to get your money.

We were in the Broadway area when some friends invited us for dinner. The closest joint to meet was an American-style restaurant but I can't remember the name. It is across from a large seafood restaurant (Red Lobster?). 

Grilled salmon.

Tenderloin steak.

Veggie pasta.

BBQ pork ribs, my order. It was good.

Angus beef burger.

Cheese biscuits.

Yi noted something which I didn't notice until she pointed it out. Serving portions in America used to be ridiculously big but on this trip, we found that servings have downsized. I think that's a good thing. The bad thing that hasn't changed is the free refill of fizzy drinks. In the last 3 weeks since coming home, I have been having sudden cravings for soda pop, something I didn't like before. Maybe it's the weather, which has been one of the hottest (34 to 35 C) we've had, or maybe it's the addiction brought on by those free refills.

Ground Zero 2

 When we finally got into the Memorial site, the place didn't feel as sad and tragic as I had feared it would be. The whole 911 thing was always there, in the air, in the emptiness of the space, but it's been nearly 11 years and the 911 Memorial beautifully remembers those who died in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center and the attack on it again in 2001.


We missed the lone tree that survived the destruction of the Twin Towers. The pear tree was nursed back to life in a nursery and has been replanted in the Memorial.





Two gaping holes in the ground where the twin towers used to stand before they collapsed in the attacks are now the memorial to those who died. The first one, nearer to the entrance, is for the victims on Flight 175 (the youngest was 2 1/2 years old) and the First Responders (the fire fighters and policemen).











The other pool is a memorial to the civilians who died in the first attack and second attack: those who died in and around the buildings, those who fell or jumped, those who died from falling debris and bodies and those in the hijacked plane.

I don't think anyone can look into the holes in the ground, see the falling beads of water, and not feel the tragedy. Anyone except a certain ex PM of Malaysia who said 911 could be a hoax. It is not religions but the basic humanity, that level of decency, inside us that makes us human or inhuman.

Ground Zero 1

We were around City Hall when my daughter suddenly pointed to a building very excitedly.


Archi students, tell me who designed this?

I didn't plan on visiting Ground Zero/World Trade Center because, well, I wasn't comfortable about going there. I can't explain it. But anyway, one day we had dim sum in Chinatown with my sister's SIL and she asked if we'd like to see City Hall and the area around it. Ground Zero was nearby and we ended up lining up for the tickets. The tickets are free and available online but if you don't get them online, you have to line up for them and you have to know where to line up for them or end up walking in circles on a cold and windy day.

Personally, I feel that the 911 Memorial is too touristy. I'm not sure if it is respectful to turn such a tragic site into a tourist attraction. Most of us were tourists, all taking photos like that was the main reason to be there. I also found the selling of photos of the tragedy by street vendors rather distasteful.








"We will never forget."


I'm not impressed by the tower that's already up. It looks quite ordinary although the reflection of the sky on the fully glassed walls look very clean and sleek.




St Paul's Chapel Of Trinity is right across the street from the World Trade center and the building and the tombstones remained unscathed although other buildings around it such as the Deutsche Bank Building, the Greek Orthodox Church and numerous other buildings were destroyed or badly damaged.

NY's Chinatown

Yes, I know, it says 'Welcome To Little Italy' but this was in Chinatown, or at the border between Chinatown and Little Italy.


More chaotic than the streets of Hong Kong.

One morning, we had dim sum in Chinatown. It was our second visit to Chinatown, the first one on the night we arrived. My daughter said I'm the typical Chinese who has to check out Chinatowns wherever I go. She's right but I bet when she's older, she'll do the same.

NYC's Chinatown at night is indistinguishable from many Asian cities. It looks and smells like any Chinese cities, except it is dirtier than most. The last time I was there, 24 years ago, it was dirty too. Maybe they think that Chinatown is more charming and authentic if it's dirty but it's time they visit China because most cities there are now cleaner than NY Chinatown.

Ah, but the food. I shouldn't make a comparison after eating just two meals in NY Chinatown and about 6 in San Francisco Chinatown but I found the Chinese food in SF oily, especially for Cantonese food. Although Chinese food in America is authentic, it somehow tastes different. Maybe it's because the ingredients are cut bigger (everything's bigger in America) or the ingredients, being grown/reared in America, taste different. I love the tenderness and freshness of their veggies but--this may bring many howls--they lack flavor. You won't taste the difference if you aren't discerning about your veggies, especially those that are lightly flavored. Western salads are mostly lettuce, unless you throw in the chicory and the rocket (or arugula, if you are American), so flavor of veggies isn't a big factor to consider, when eating western. The difference is more obvious in veggies that have a stronger flavor. Think watercress, cilantro and tung ho, 'chrysanthemum leaves', veggies that have a stronger flavor than most. These veggies are nearly tasteless in temperate countries (except China, and I'll tell you why later). I think that the reason maybe because the growing season is short (veggies sprout by the inch overnight in temperate countries) and also that large-scale farming is efficient in producing lots of quality produce that don't taste the same as veggies grown on small scale organic farms. In KK, I grow my own or source organic veggies and they are sweet and flavorful but because they are harvested older, they taste more fibrous. In China, veggies are perfectly tender and flavorful because they have a temperate climate and veggies are fertilized with organic chemicals. But as always with win-wins, there's a catch. If you want to know what organic chemicals really means in China, find out in my travel posts on China.

I noticed the same thing in dim sum. I love dim sum and I think dim sum in western countries are such an eye treat because the portions are so big and generous. However, I find that the meat in dim sum is so tenderized and swollen that they taste bland. Those under 25 years will not notice the difference. My daughter and youngest son don't like prawns but they love the prawns in Australia because they are "bouncy and flavorless". Hello. You might as well eat imitation prawns, I tell them. Bouncy and flavorless prawns are so because they have been treated with tenderizers. Western cuisines have revolutionalized (except for fast food chains) and turned/are turning to fresh, organic, flavorful produce but Chinese restaurants still use a lot of food enhancers and improvers.












My fave dim sum is ha gow, shrimp dumplings. Although the ha gow filling in SF and NY are very authentic, with tiny strips of canned bamboo mixed with the shrimps to give that particular flavor which we can't find in Malaysian ha gow, the ha gow in SF and NY have a chewy skin which is definitely not the way it should be. Ha gow skin should look translucent and taste soft but not mushy, and definitely not chewy.

All that dim sum and a pot of tea for about USD13 before service charge.






Chinese herbs are so fresh that I couldn't tell that this was 'yuk juk' (?) because what we get back home is shaved into thin slices and dried. Chinese herbs are fresher in NYC's Chinatown than in HK, it seems.


Let's say you go shopping. You have USD20 in your wallet.



You buy a bittergourd forUSD1.00. You still have USD19.00.



You buy two bunches of asparagus for USD2 (USD1 each!). You have USD17.00 left. (The asparagus were very sweet and tender, btw.)


You throw in a large punnet of strawberries and are left with USD16.00. The strawberries are very big, you eat them like you eat a prune, and they are very sweet so you dispel your habit of only eating strawberries with cream.



You get a lobster for USD8.50 and are left with USD7.50.





Your balance is enough to buy you a pound of crab, and you still have 10 cents left. Dinner is a feast. You have lobster with ginger and scallions, steamed crabs, stir-fried asparagus and bittergourd salad. Dessert is strawberries of course.

You can't even buy one papaya or any seasonal tropical fruit for RM1.00 in KK. What will RM20 get you here?

It annoys me when people insist that the costs of living in Malaysia is lower than in the US when it is a fact that Malaysia is only cheap if you convert the prices into USD. For the average person living anywhere, the actual currency and what you get for it shows the power of that currency. I'll say safely that you can feed a family of 5 easily for a week in the States, on an average diet of local produce, for USD100. RM100 for a family of 5 will mean eggs and instant noodles most of the time. What about houses? A friend bought a small detached house, for USD800,000 in SF but in KK, RM800,000 will get you a corner double storey house. I've forgotten all my finance and economics, but given that the average income here is so much lower than in the States, shouldn't everything be less expensive here? Even of you factor in the lower tax we pay, our cost of living and buying power are pathetic and just getting from bad to worse.

The other thing that annoys me is how Sabahans are so adamant that there's plenty of seafood in Sabah. There's plenty in the sea but the seafood that's caught has gone out of the state because we can't afford to pay the prices other countries can. I wanted to make clam chowder and the only place that had clams were the restaurants. I couldn't get the small manila clams and had to settle for big clams, 7 of which cost me RM17. We were at a seafood restaurant last week and they only had small crabs which cost RM22 per kg. Other than crabs and a couple of spiny tropical lobsters (all head and small body with no claws), a couple of fish and prawns, there was nothing else. In the States, there're so many varieties of seafood that going shopping is like a study tour for me.

Sabahans still think that there are lots of timber in Sabah too. Wake up and smell the carbon dioxide. If we are always in denial, we'll never change for the better. If things are so right, why are Sabahans, especially the young, working in KL, Singapore and Australia?