Travel Planning: What to Do – Page 17 – Writing With My Mouth Full

Urban Hike to the Little Red Lighthouse

I lived in Washington Heights for more than ten years and I spent my formative high school years uptown, but like most New Yorkers, I never really made it past my comfort zone even though that already meant way above 14th Street for me. “Hiking” down from 207th to 97th Street was a new experience for both Cameron and me. After a big lunch at home, we took the A train to the last stop in Manhattan and walked towards Dyckman Park where it looked more like New England than New York City.

It was an absolutely glorious day with the sun up and shining. The trees still had their leaves on and the light breeze was enough to cool us down. Through the park, we made it along the Hudson River where there was a walking path right next to the Amtrak rail. A short fence kept us away from it, but it was still exhilarating whenever a train would zoom by. For the next hour or so, we kept walking until we reached a dead end. We had no choice but to cut through thorny bushes and walk on the rocks right next to the river. We probably did something illegal, but the old mattresses we saw tucked under the rocks led us to think other people have gone that way, too.

Twenty-eight blocks later and still no dead bodies to be found, we saw our reward: the 75-year old George Washington Bridge. At the bottom of the bridge, a more legitimate-looking pathway emerged from Fort Tryon Park. We walked towards the picnic area where we saw our second reward: the little red lighthouse, the only one in Manhattan.

It was pretty cool to see it even though I haven’t read the Hildegard H. Swift book because I’ve had a fascination with lighthouses ever since the Dr. and I drove all over the coast of Maine to visit each one marked on our map. The little red lighthouse under the great gray bridge was actually used by mariners passing through the Hudson until it was deactivated in 1947. They were going to dismantle and auction it off, but a lot of people who loved the book convinced the powers that be to keep it as a reminder of an area once called Jeffrey’s Hook. In the book, the little red lighthouse is happy and content until a bridge is built over it. But in the end, the lighthouse learns that it still has an important job to do and that there is still a place in the world for an old lighthouse.

We continued walking until the sun started to set, past the huge sanitation building and the Fairway on 135th Street. Even New Jersey looked pretty harmless from our side of the river. It got dark right away and we made it to 97th Street just in time for red wine, sausages and cheeses at the Vintage Wine Bar on 93rd Street.

Finger Lakes Wine Trail

After doing the Long Island wine trail, we immediately scheduled a trip up the Finger Lakes region in New York. We had to postpone it once because of the Dr.’s, schedule but after finally making the trip over the weekend, I was glad we waited until the leaves turned all sorts of fall colors.

He recently got another golden weekend and I was able to convince him, with promises only a girlfriend can make, that he should drive the six hours upstate. The Yates Chamber of Commerce gave me three places with availability after I tried calling several hotels and B&Bs in vain. If I didn’t call the Robertson House, I wouldn’t have known that they had another property for rent not listed on their Web site.

On Friday, we started our long drive early, but ended up getting stuck in traffic around Scranton, Pennsylvania, home of Dunder Mifflin, Inc. We didn’t make it to the lake house until 10:30pm. Jane and Paul Robertson left the heat on to prepare for our arrival, so when we entered the house, it was all warm and toasty. We settled in, opened and drank a bottle of red wine we brought with us and sat talking for two more hours before we fell asleep.

When I woke up the next morning, I took a peek outside and saw what the Robertsons were talking about–peaceful Keuka Lake and red, yellow, orange, brown maple trees. It was so dark and quiet the night before that I had no clue the view was going to be incredible.

We had breakfast back at the Robertson’s main house before we started our drive around Seneca Lake to visit some of the local wineries. Besides the local Reislings I’m familiar with, we didn’t really know much about the other wines and vineyards. We randomly chose from a big list but stuck around Seneca Lake and skipped the scattered ones around Keuka and Cayuga. Following are what we tasted with some of the notes I scribbled on my book.

We started at Fox Run Vineyards where it was already a zoo at 11:30am. They were offering four complimentary tastings:

1. 2005 Reserve Chardonnay — ten months in oak with vanilla notes at the end
2. 2002 Cabernet Franc — bone-dry and not as spicy as other Cabernet Francs we’re used to
3. 2004 Sable — fruity wine from Cabernet grapes we imagined would be good with some cheese
4. Ruby Vixen — very peachy; the sweetest wine from their vineyard

We also paid $2 for extra tastings of the following:

1. 2005 Dry Reisling — apricot
2. 2005 Reisling — semi-dry; more like candy than fruit
3. Arctic Fox — a Reisling and Chardonnay blend; we ended up getting a case of this because it would be an outstanding table wine with almost anything

Another separate $2 fee gave us a taste of the 2005 Reserve Reisling which smelled better than the dry Reisling and with a cleaner finish. For $30 a bottle though, we skipped it.

Our next stop was at Hermann J. Wiemer Vineyard. Their 2005 dry Reisling was recently voted New York’s best wine. (I had my first taste last year and I ended up buying half a case of that winner.) We tasted a lot of their wines, but nothing really overwhelmed us so we only bought several bottles for friends:

1. Dry Rose Pinot Noir/Chardonnay — strong at the end for a rose
2. Pinot Noir — very light yet complicated; we would have bought several of these if a bottle wasn’t $35 each
3. Late Harvest Reisling — like juice; yummy and sweet
4. Cabernet Franc — a lot of alcohol (which could be a good thing, I suppose)
5. Estate Red — a blend of Cabernet Franc, Pinot Noir and Lemberger; very tart
6. Select Late Harvest Reisling — like candy but yummier than the late harvest

We stopped by Lakewood Vineyards where it was even more of a party room than a tasting room. Everyone was part of a tour so there were plenty of screaming and shouting, both from the staff trying to do their spiel about the wines and the tasters who drink the wines as if they were shots of Tequila. Their 2004 Chardonnay was pretty anemic although the vanilla at the end was quite nice. The 2005 Long Stem Red was a hybrid of four grapes but it still lacked character. The 2002 Pinot Noir had a licorice taste to it. The Borealis Ice Wine was like drinking Welch’s grape juice. We did like the 2004 Cabernet Franc because it was dry upfront and it pleasantly went on for a while.

For lunch, we stopped by the dock to check out the menus from the different restaurants by the water but were not impressed. Before getting something to eat at Stonecat CafÃ©, we had a pretty nice experience at the Atwater Vineyard for $2 per person:

1. 2002 Estate Selection Chardonnay — 13 months in oak; pretty complicated
2. 2005 GewÃ¼rztraminer — didnâ€™t smell so good
3. 2005 Reisling — easy-drinking that would be perfect for a hot, summer afternoon but alas, it’s not hot out anymore
4. 2005 Reserve Reisling — fruitier and gummier; almost chewable
5. 2004 Cabernet Franc — tasted like buttered popcorn but more like currant afterward
6. 2004 Cabernet Merlot — new release; well-balanced and tasty
7. 2003 Meritage — almost no tannins and very easy to drink
8. Estate White — we bought several bottles of these; crisp, light, citrus-y

The Stonecat CafÃ© is on the same grounds as the Bloomer Creek Vineyard. We had the pizette topped with mixed greens, goat cheese and pancetta. The Dr. had the cornmeal-breaded catfish sandwich. We asked for the green pepper salsa out of curiosity because they were charging an extra dollar for it. I couldn’t stop slathering it on my pizza even though I was tearing up. It was fierce!

I don’t know if it was because of all those peppers but we felt like we found some great wines afterwards at Lamoreaux Landing. Everything we tasted was better than everything else we’ve had:

1. 2004 Chardonnay — very drinkable with pineapple notes
2. 2005 Dry Reisling — a tasty wine that led to a cover on Wine Spectator last May
3. Estate White — a blend of Reisling and Chardonnay with pear and other tropical fruits
4. 2005 GewÃ¼rztraminer — good aroma and grapefruit taste
5. 2000 Brut Sparkling Wine — dry but creamy
6. 2005 Vidal Ice Wine — syrupy when pouring; overwhelmingly sweet

We haven’t been liking the red wines, but we were also pretty pleased with the Lamoreaux selections:

1. Estate Red — a blend of Pinot, Merlot and Cabernet Franc; strawberry and jammy
2. 2003 Merlot — floral mouth
3. Non Vintage Cabernet Franc — pine resin; less tarty than the other Cabernet Francs we’ve tasted earlier
4. 2004 Pinot Noir — complicated with a clove taste

We pretty much gave up after putting several more bottles in the trunk and went back to the lake house to unwind. Dinner was uneventful at Sarasin’s, a restaurant by Keuka Lake with a giant ship wheel outside. After almost 790 miles over the weekend and 12 hours of driving to and from the city–without any contribution from me–we have about twenty bottles of Chardonnays and Reislings. White is usually not the type you’d reach for in autumn, but we learned a great deal upstate. Reislings don’t always have to taste like dessert in a glass and that you can even cook with them and Chardonnay could be excellent with some curry dishes. The Finger Lakes might not have exciting food selections just yet, but I’m sure our wines will keep us full this season.

Hunts Point Fish Market

After a nice dinner at Peter Luger and a few drinks in the lower east side, we went back to Harlem, drank some coffee and drove to da Bronx. It took a lot of effort to stay past 3am.

We visited the Fulton Fish Market a couple of years ago, and when they decided to move the facility to Hunts Point, people didn’t know if it was going to be a good thing or a bad thing. Seeing how much bigger the space was, I doubt any of the dealers complain now. The 400,000-square feet space along Food Center Drive cost about $86 million to create, but it’s so vast, clean, well-lit and seemed like a much better space than what they had at Fulton Street. Plus, they’re a few blocks away from the cooperative market which sells meat and other produce, so one can make a trip and buy everything he needs.

It was like walking into a large freezer. The place was buzzing with the beeps from the forklifts and the hustle of the fishmongers and dealers. Most of them only sell wholesale, but one guy let us buy two yellow tail snappers for $11, which is definitely cheaper–and fresher–than anything I can buy in Chinatown for the same price. Besides, I rarely see whole yellow tail snappers in stores.

Storm King Art Center

The clouds finally lifted after seven days of rain and mist. We all woke up to the sun shining through our windows. Just in time, too, because this is our last hurrah for the summer. It took a while for us to get ready because of last night’s festivities in a few Fort Greene bars and a copious dinner at Blue Ribbon, but we were out the door by 1pm.

The drive to Storm King was beautiful. It was as if the trees were greener than they usually were; as if they were celebrating the end of the torrential rains. It was cool enough to keep the car windows open and have Arctic Monkeys and Jurassic 5 blasting through the car radio.

At Storm King, we parked our car and had a quick picnic with our Cuban sandwiches courtesy of El Partido in Washington Heights. We moved the car to the second parking lot afterwards and started our walk through the museum. The 500-acre open space in itself was a lot to take in. The oats, alfalfa and buckwheat plants are starting to take over the fields–part of the museum’s efforts to reintroduce grasses and wildflowers after the land became susceptible to invasive plants.

The sculptures made us feel insignificant. When you walk around them, you feel like there is nothing else to think about except for how tiny you are compare to everything else that concerns the rest of the world. It was tiny bit of a humility lesson, really.

The Dr. had been there before. He showed me his favorites which became mine, too, especially the Richard Serra “forks” jutting out of the small hills. My brother and I had the urge to climb the sculptures, but alas, we didn’t let our Filipino-ness embarrass him.

Searching For a Good Taco: Red Hook, Brooklyn

I have to admit that we didn’t drive from Harlem all the way down to Red Hook to look for a good taco. We made the trip to check out the Fairway Supermarket that opened a few months ago and do our grocery shopping for the week. Walking along the waterfront of Red Hook, you’ll be reminded that the city was a port city.

Giant machines, old warehouses, heavy containers, big ships, abandoned piers and the squawking seagulls make up the view. There is no subway close to the water so visitors need to have a car or trek from Carroll Gardens to get to Red Hook. It’s probably this inconvenience that’s stopping Manhattan folks from coming and moving in droves. But when you get there, you can imagine the old-school blue-collar New York way before the cafÃ©s and art galleries–and Fairway–started to open up in the neighborhood. Gentrification is well on its way, but who am I to snort when I live in one of the newest buildings in west Harlem?

The Times featured the tents outside the Red Hook baseball fields last week where all kinds of different foods are sold. We wanted to pass by and look for the pupusas we had in El Salvador and to slurp the vinegar goodness of Ecuadorian ceviche. We thought that if we find a good taco, then it would just be icing on the cake. Little did we know that we’d actually find the best taco. My search this year ends.

We parked our car and walked towards the park along Bay and Clinton Streets where we could already see blue tents set up for the forming lunch crowd. On Henry Street, however, we spotted a lone table with a tarp tied to a tree, so we decided to check the goods there before heading to the busier part of the field.

Large pieces of pork are stewed in a vat of boiling marinade then cut up into smaller portions before filling soft tortillas with finely chopped onions and cilantro. I haven’t tasted every taco sold in New York City but I’m going to have to lay it out there and say that this is the best taco I’ve had so far.

As a comparison, we bought a beef steak taco from the last stand on the far side of Clinton. Although it was good, it wasn’t enough to make us forget about the taco we just had. The Dr., my brother and I all voted for the first taco as the better one.

The secret in the second taco was the chicharron, or pig’s skin deep-fried into crunchy paradise. I think the lady was thrilled that we asked for extra chicharron when she was putting a taco together for us.