Here is a view of the Christmas tree at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The display of Neapolitan figures around the tree this year is incoherent at best. However, I did like the pig crossing the bridge and the monkey with the cymbals. More on them later.
The Met – drat them – eliminated the nice metal buttons, which I enjoyed getting during my visits. Now they have these dreadful stickers. People put them on a board on the way out of the building.
Want some pastrami? I’ve got your pastrami right here. On rye. With a smear of spicy mustard. Pickles on the side. I now have another thing to dream about.
Yes, back to the Met. How can you not love a room that has a painting by Duccio?
On Christmas Eve/Day I must have panettone and prosecco. It’s my tradition founded on an experience I had many years ago now. R.I.P.
Fighting my way into Grand Central Terminal during the Christmas shoppers/tourists season.
On the Triborough Bridge… okay… the RFK.
How much is the skinned-goat in the window? The one with the curtailed tail? Bonus: a large metal tray of tripe.
Grilled soul in lemon…er… that would be sole. It’s a Greek thing, not an Infernal thing. If it’s Greek, it’ll probably involve lemon.
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“Grilled soul in lemon”? Does that indicate a particularly acerbic penance in the confessional, Father Z ?
;-)
(Sorry, couldn’t resist… Happy Christmas!)
Mulier: You will be punished at an appropriate moment. Perhaps with lemon in your drinking water.
There’s a painting of ‘The Young Virgin’ by Zurbaran at the Met that got a young lady of my acquaintance interested in Mary.
My what eclectic taste…!
That is one beautiful pastrami sandwich (and the Duccio ain’t bad either).
Now I have a mental image of Father Z and some of his priest friends re-enacting that “Pastra-ME!” commercial for that sandwich shop.
By the way, Father, just you go right on calling it the Triboro Bridge. All due respect to RFK, but that renaming never took for me. I call it the Triboro, anybody I know calls it the Triboro… The only people who call it the RFK are public transportation agency people (the MTA) who are obliged to do so, and radio station traffic reporters who are obliged to get along with the public agencies.
Charivari Rob,
When in the world did they rename the Triboro?? I missed the memo on that one. Everyone I know calls it the Triboro too.
Was that pastrami on rye from Katz’s?? If it was, it’s a work of art in its own right!
[Not Katz. Even better than Katz.]
I’ve been boycotting the bridge formerly known as the Triboro Bridge as its renaming for a member of a family that did its utmost to ruin politics for Catholics was highly inappropriate. If anything, we should start renaming the things that were already named after members of that family. Idlewild Airport, anyone?
So Father, explain to me…
…Did you take up a bow and arrows, don a spangly outfit, fly in a metal suit, summon thunder with a hammer, or get green and angry? And were the shoppers’ and tourists’ lasers beams… valid?
Skinned goat, yuck! I didn’t think they did that in the States. Oh wait, we’re talking about NYC. The sight reminds me of a glass-sided cart with skinned goat heads I saw somewhere in the vicinity of Greece once. At least I suppose one could get a decent meal out of a whole goat.
Astoria!
Why are food servings so inappropriately large in the USA? The pastrami “sandwich” pictured contains more than enough meat for several people.
[First, let me say that you have a great “handle”. Hank Igitur. Brilliant. That said, I invite you to stay in Australia. That way you will never be threatened by any large sandwiches (which can serve for two meals or for two people). o{]:¬) ]
Panettone and walnuts are completely essential for Christmas. Of course Champagne, Spumante, prosecco or cider are welcome too. Happy Christmas Father Z.
If you ever want to undertake a culinary adventure Father try making your own pastrami. I did once, and after that I very much appreciate each and every wonderful bite of each and every great pastrami deli sandwich that I have the good fortune to consume.
@Hank Igitur That’s part of the appeal of those deli type places. They really jam the food in there. And the color of the pastrami is really striking to look at (not that anybody spends too much time looking) when it is in between two slices of rye bread. It is a cultural thing I admit, but not one I’m ashamed of.
Katz’s!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Send a salami to your boy in the Army!
Hank Igitur says:
Why are food servings so inappropriately large in the USA? The pastrami “sandwich” pictured contains more than enough meat for several people.
Meat in Europe is so expensive that a sandwich like that cost at least $10 more than in the US. When I was in Rome, the cost of raw chicken was 4 to 5 times that of the US price. I can understand the high price of Euro beef (no grazing land), but chickens? It can’t be 4 to 5 times as expensive to raise a chicken. I always wondered who was making the money.
.
Also: it’s not unusual that with a sandwich that size, half of it will be eaten later.
I used to drive to NYC on occasion for work…a few years back when I started driving to NYC again for pleasure (after years of staying home raising kiddies) and I saw sighs for the JFK Bridge, I panicked and thought, what a new bridge? Then it dawned on me that there were NO signs for the Triboro, so they must have renamed it. As it is, I avoid this mess when driving in by getting off the 3rd Ave Bridge area and going down FDR Drive (coming from CT).
I notice a great shortage of Panettone this year. I bake all types of stuff for Christmas, and am pretty good at it (including a couple types of yeast bread) but I have never been able to duplicate that pannettone taste….just have to buy it and I greatly miss not having it this year.
A nice ‘still life’ with – travel icon? (I can never remember the distinct types and cannot place this one.)
Goat is good. If you’ve never eaten goat and you live in the US, get thee to a farm tour run by your county, and there will probably be at least one goat farm to visit (with sample meat!). Farm tours are usually run sometime in the summer or fall; they are fun, especially if a large number of farms of different types participate. It’s sort of like home-a-ramas and neighborhood tours, except with a lot more crops and animals (and food samples!).
“Goat is good.” It is, though I have only had it once (as far as I know…). And I am not sure I ever met a goat’s-milk cheese I didn’t like. Goat’s milk, however – seems better suited to cook with than anything else you might try with it (except if you know how to make cheese!), having at least that in common with Swedish-turnip wine (not the cheese-making part, of course)…
“On Christmas Eve/Day I must have panettone and prosecco. ”
I have some nice Chablis in the fridge (a part of it will go into egg tempera for painting), but will have to watch husband and child stuff themselves with the panettone, as I am now gluten intolerant.