Afternoon in Queens

Today, U-chan and her husband graciously treated us to an afternoon of Queens culture and cuisine, stringing together several destinations which are not easy to link together by public transportation.

We started with the Noguchi Museum, which I'd never been to before.

Water fountain with a profound sense of stillness

I liked the twisted square pillar

High-contrast lighting brought out the
interplay of light and shadow when needed

We liked the "bite" out of this wooden piece 

The sculptures were cool, but I really liked the exhibit focusing on Noguchi's painting apprenticeship with Qi Baishi in Beijing (1930).  The brush painting of crabs was beautiful in a very traditional way:

I also loved one of the mother and baby drawings, where a dramatic arc in the torso created a sense of strong and nurturing protection of the infant, and the brush strokes descending into the legs gave a sense of the skeleton within:

Next was  SriPraPhai for lunch.  We were seated immediately, but the placed filled up within 10 minutes of our arrival - we were very lucky!  We ate family style, and my favorites were the drunken noodles with pork and the fried rice with salted beef.  Loved the Thai iced tea with bubbles, of course.

I didn't buy anything at Tortilleria Nixtamal, but U-chan and I reminisced about making tortillas there with G-san a few years ago as part of the "Keys to the City" event, while others stocked up on  tamales to cook at home.

We took the tour at the Louis Armstrong House Museum (we'd only been to the gift shop and visitor's center before with "Keys to the City", so it was all new to us).  It was really cool - especially the bathrooms (gold-plated fixtures, anyone?) and the kitchen, which was apparently inspired by the Armstrongs' trip to the World's Fair a few blocks away.  Yes, it was the "kitchen of the future" featuring all the latest built-in appliances and bright blue cabinetry custom-made of lacquered wood, commissioned from piano manufacturers.   Music was understandably important to both Louis and Lucille (who had been a dancer at the Cotton Club), and there were built-in speakers throughout the house.  Lucille was Louis's fourth wife, but apparently she was a keeper - their marriage lasted nearly 30 years (i.e., until Louis's death in 1971).  Lucille's main hobby, it seems, while Louis was on tour, was redecorating their home -- our guide explained that the house had been restored to approximately 1965 in most places so that it would reflect how it looked during his lifetime.  

After we dropped off Patricia, we descended on Canelle Patisserie.  They were out of canelés, but I had a non-sugared apple turnover, which was flaky and delicious and not too sweet.