#9 - A second home

I have a second home in New York. It's not really a refuge where I go to for a weekend away. Also not a particular place to sleep or to have my things neatly at hand. I could never afford it anyway. Rather, this is where I go to rest my eyes and mind. And challenge other senses. This national historic landmark devised in 1858 is the home to many species of plants and animals. However, I think the animal that most profits from its existence, in my biased opinion, is the Human. This is the iconic Central Park.

Like animals in the wild

Central Park has been referred to, and depicted in, an "endless" amount of movies and cultural manifestations. Before I ever visited it, my mental image of it was not much more than the mysterious and sort of surreal impressions I would gather from watching countless episodes of Law and Order Special Victims Unit, movies with a couple of scenes taking place in it or seeing fashion ads with its pictures. And although all that fantasy still amuses me I feel absolutely no connection between such images and the real Central Park, my real image of it. There is so much more sense of depth, smell and touch to it.

Central Park extends itself beyond the Ramble, the bridges or the Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Reservoir. There are smells in the air (mostly good and exhaling from the myriad of trees and bushes around). There are squirrels galore and marvelous insects. Over it hovers an atmosphere that shifts as one walks from forest-like shady areas to open grass fields, to promenades and cafes. In Central Park people walk their dogs, stroll around, play baseball, soccer, tennis, ice hockey. In pairs, families, with friends or on their own, they stop for brunch, they go to the theater, they sit quietly on a bench or chat rowdy on a swing. They are stereotypical New Yorkers, business persons crossing the park drives by foot hastily and phoning, they ride a bike or a skate at high speed. Others are just passers by from all corners of the world. They close their eyes while lying on the grass on a warm evening, and listen, for free, to the music emanating from the SummerStage. 


In Central Park people run. All running fanatics in Manhattan (dare I say New York City) end up running, at some point, the small and large loop of the Park, the loop around the Jackie-O reservoir, up the "Cat Hill" and past the Boat House on the East, down the Strawberry Fields on the West. Whatever paths they might find interesting. I am no exception to this. And with my friend L., running buddy, inspiration and coach all-in-one, this touristic attraction has ceased to be so for me. I really feel ever more compelled to call it my "shared second home" as I add an extra mile to my running shoes.

Another friend, J., joins for a Saturday morning run and
sneaks a shot on the way down the West side 

#8 - sun + shade = ?

It's hot. Sunlight is intense.
People deal with it in different ways:

1) they don't seem to mind it;
2) they want to have more of it so they actually bury themselves on what I would call the "UV-coffins" to get even more orange than what they already look (they look like coffins and their are surely not doing any good to the DNA of those skin cells... yes I am an advocate of mindful interactions with sunlight);
3) they protect themselves from the sun with what I thought "it's a sunbrella"!

I thought it was a brilliant word! Of course someone as creative and way faster than me has already thought of it before... and patented it... Sunbrella.com ...selling acrylic canvas-like fabric for in and outdoor furniture and shading. Bummer...

Anyway, around this time of the year there are a lot of 'my' sunbrellas walking up and down NYC's avenues.

#7 - chal lah noun \ˈḵä-lə, ˈhä-\

Like the "melting pot" of cultures that the City is, or whatever metaphor it is now identified with, cuisine and great food are no exception when it comes to her signs of diversity. Among the many influences and types of snacks, delicacies or simple local comfort foods there is surely and not surprisingly a strong Jewish signature. Yes, yes, there is of course the obvious bagel, the rather famous pastrami (which I will skip since I don't "do" meat) and many other things. But one thing that got me at first glance is the challah. 

Challah (klingersbread.com)

"Looking" tempting at me, from the windows of many bakeries and bagel shops (from the most rustic to the a bit too ubiquitous Hot & Crusty), there it was. This huge loaf of bronzed, tanned crust and a yellowish inside peaking out. With a little bit of a glaze (surely brushed over with eggs) and in sort of cluster of lumps. It looked just like... or well, it reminded me instantly of one of my forever favorite Portuguese sweet goodies, the folar-da-Páscoa or Easter bread. Every year I demand for its baking! Provided I am home of course to convince my mum to do so (which is not that difficult ;)) or to "treat" me because after all I happen to be home.

Folar-da-Páscoa ( tentacaodosabor.com)

It's a very slighty sweet bread, of an egg-containing bread dough spiced with ground fennel seeds. On top of the loaf there is a cross of dough and under it there are 2-4 hard boiled whole eggs, hidden like eggs in a nest.  It's such a simple and unambitious thing, but it absolutely drives my craving. In Old Amsterdam I found out, around Easter time, something similar named duivekater which was close enough to keep me happy but not enough to deter me from baking my own folar one Easter that I was neither home nor could "import" my mum to bake it for me.

The challah tastes similarly, but it is a bit lighter, fluffier in consistency and often it contains raisins or it's sprinkled with poppy seeds. The funny thing is the challah reminded me of folar, not only in taste and shape/color but also phonetically. Maybe the latter is kind of a mind leap, what would folar have to do with challah anyway? Nonetheless, old Portugal was an earlier "melting pot" which once hosted many Jewish people (that we infamously expelled and oppressed later on, thus furnishing the streets of Amsterdam and other metropoleis with some rather important Portuguese-Jewish entrepreneurs and thinkers). Maybe it is faint the possibility that challah and folar are relatives but I really like musing on the idea of that ancestral link... regardless, both breads make my taste buds extremely happy!

And in case curiosity takes over your own taste buds:

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/challah-i/ 

http://www.portuguesegirlcooks.com/2012/04/portuguese-easter-bread-folar-de-pascoa.html