New York Bronx Zoo

 This year, we went to the New York Bronx Zoo twice.  Although the Zoo is located close to the City right above its northern border, it takes about 40 minutes to drive via the northern route avoiding the always crowded Route 95. The Zoo has four gates with parking lots. Among them, the Asia Gate seems to be located at the best spot to reach animals. However, I never tried this gate as it is very difficult to reach from New Jersey where I live. During the first visit, I found the parking lot from the Fordham Road Gate near the Zoo Center where the huge rhino statute stands, and decided to come to this gate next time. Unfortunately, this parking lot is the smallest of all and it was full when I came next time, so that I had to redirect to the Bronx River Gate, the worst of all the four.

The outstanding characteristic of this zoo is huge open space, where animals are walking around rather than kept in cages.  Animals are separated not by grids but by ditches or glass panels. Peacocks are allowed to walk around freely in the zoo with people. They seem to be striving to display animals as natural as possible in their environments.

The Wild Asia Monorail Ride is the excellent attraction you should never miss. Riding on the mono-rail car, you travel across the Bronx River and enjoy various wild lives roaming around in the Asian wilderness in front of you. There you see tigers, elephants, hippos, dears etc., etc.   

  Another attractive place is the Congo Gorilla Forest. There you see the family of gorillas living in front of your eyes beyond the glass panel.  As if they do not see the world beyond the glass, they play mischievously together. The direct link with animals’ native land is another excellent feature of this zoo. Through movie displays and pamphlets, they explain where these animals naturally live and call for the support to conserve them.

NY Restaurant Week - Summer

For the summer restaurant week, we were searching the ones that offered soft shell crab dishes, the summer specialty dishes in New York. However, my daughter Yuki advised us to choose one of the top-class restaurants, taking advantage of the economical fixed price stipulated to the participating restaurants. We chose Water Club this time. It rained on the day that we had reserved our lunch table. Instead of taking the public transportation and walking to the restaurant, we had to drive. Here is the picture, as we approached the restaurant by car.

We knew Water Club, as we had often seen well-dressed people walking into this restaurant while driving FDR drive. Although we arrived fifteen minutes before noon, there were already quite a few people waiting in the front hall. We were advised to go upstairs and look around until the lunch table opens. This is a shot taken on the hallway upstairs. The decorations on the walls really reflect the atmosphere of the old boat house. There is an open deck accessible from the hallway and may be serving food when it does not rain.

We waited in the bar downstairs and this is the picture looking towards the front hall. The main dining room is accessible from this bar. We were lead to the table on the window side and, of course, we ordered the fixed menu for $24 each.  While we were waiting for the dishes, we enjoyed the splendid view of the East River from the window. As you expect from the top-class restaurant, the food was very refined and delicious and the service was superb. This is one of those restaurants that you would not be disappointed. The picture below was taken when the desserts were served.

RESTAURANT WEEK

SUMMER 2012

Tuesday through Friday

July 17th - August 10th

LUNCH 24.07

APPETIZER

Spicy Tuna

    golden sticky rice balls

Goat Cheese Soufflé

   grilled onions, pomegranate molasses

Chilled Vine Ripe Tomato Soup

   basil crème fraiche, sea salt pretzel sticks

ENTREE

Berkshire BLT Sandwich

   sliced tomatoes, tender smoked pork belly, whipped avocado, toasted five grain bread

Carolina Shrimp & Grits

   grilled corn & cauliflower salad, spicy remoulade

Wild Mushroom & Swiss Chard Cannelloni

   san marzano tomatoes

DESSERT

Raspberry Parfait

   raspberries, crème fraiche gelato, berry tuile

Peach & Blueberry Crumble

   Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory vanilla

Toasted Coconut Flan

   passion fruit sorbet

Historic tour of Fort Lee

Last month, I participated in the historic tour of Fort Lee. As you might know, the movie making in USA started first in Fort Lee. Now it is a quiet residential area with many apartment high-rises, but Fort Lee in the eraly 1900s seems to have been a thriving business area with a big amusement center and movie shooting studios.

Prior to the guided tour, we visited Fort Lee musium to learn about the history of moving making, where the special exhibition was presented.

 Mr. Barry Shiff, a local artist and volunteer guide of the meseum took us into the tour of historic Fort Lee movie industry.

Mr Shiff's studio is named "Nostaligic Art" and his works are focused on the scenaries of old New Jersey. If you are insterested in his paintings, you can contact him at barryshiff@gmail.com.
 

In the museum, there were two pictures of the Amusument Park that had been operating until early 1970s  Here is one of them. This picture seems to have been taken shortly before the close, as there is already one high-rise in the picutre. Now, on this site stand four huge high-rises and there remains no trace of the bustling park, except the name of the street leading to it. The stree is called "Railroad Avenue."

Many People showed up in the tour sponsored by the Historic Society of Fort Lee. They took us to many places, where facilities associated with movie making used to stand in early1900s. Later, they all moved to Hollywood, looking for good whether and escaping the chase of royality collectors sent by the movie patent holder, Edison.

Here is the picture of the only remaining facility from those days. This facility was built in 1910 by Mark Dintenfass as the Champion studio. He was one of the film pioneers and joined the Universal Film in 1912 as an executive, thus becoming the first Universal Studio in USA. This old building is still being used today for something else and we could not see the inside of the building. However, the tour guide explained to us that the film making was done clandestinely in the basement, under the pressure of Edison patent.