Salted Lemonade Soda, Vaudeville, and Beer

Yesterday, Neilson and I started out the day by walking across the Manhattan Bridge.



It's not the most picturesque of the New York bridges and the subway makes a lot of noise, but it gives you a beautiful view of the Brooklyn Bridge and the East River. Plus it provides a straight shot from Neilson's neighborhood to Chinatown, where cheap, delicious food always awaits you. We headed to a Vietnamese restaurant on Bowery, where we feasted on pork meatballs with rice noodles, sauteed veggies, and spring rolls.

But the highlight of the meal for me was the salted lemonade soda. This drink consists of a lemonade concentrate, seltzer, and salt. It is suprisingly refreshing, and great if, like me, you like the salty sweet combination.



After lunch, we headed up to the Performing Arts branch of the New York Public Library, located in Lincoln Center, to see the exhibit Vaudeville Nation. Some of the exhibit text was strangely stilted and awkward, with phrases such as "This shows that ..." and "This tells us that . . . ." But the artifacts were a fascinating look into an important part of our cultural history and the creation of the mass culture that now consumes us all. My favorite item was the photograph of Billie Mae and her Boxing Cats. Neilson also checked out five cds from the library, including a lot of old roots music that is hard to come by.

As we were up town, we strolled over to Riverside Park, stopping by the dog run to watch the fun. The dogs seemed particularly frisky--maybe it was the lovely weather, maybe they knew the day ushered in the year of the dog and were feeling some species pride.



In the Gotham Imbiber, we had read about George Keeley, a bar specializing in craft beers and cask aged beers in the neighborhood, so we walked over Amsterdam and 84th to check it out. It lived up to its reputation and was a true beer-o-philes heaven. The very friendly, knowledgable bartender steered us through the selection process, and some helpful folks sitting at the bar also weighed in on what they considered the best beer. Neilson tried one of the Six Point ales, and I sampled the Hoptopia. They were both delicious. If this bar served burgers, and was in my neighborhood instead of the dreaded Upper West Side, it would be perfect.

We finished the day with Drunken Noodles at Galanga. Then it was on to some quality time with the kitties.