Mmmmm...pork ribs...

...as planned had a pint at the hotel bar (they serve Stella now, used to only serve Boston Lager ;), then went on a little walk, took this snap of the tallest building in town (after 9/11) which shouldn't need too much of an introduction -



- then headed in the "downtown" direction on Park Avenue (only about 1 block) to "Houstons" which seems to be on the ground floor of an enormous bank building (on par with the Natwest tower, no height regulations here!) -



- I went in and was met at the door by a young lady who told me that the full menu was available as bar food but there was a bit of a wait for tables at the moment, so I took my place at the bar, ordered a drink and was offered the menu...I smiled and told the bar-girl "thank you very much, but I am here on a personal recommendation" and she replied *immediately* "Oh, the Ribs? Yes, they are excellent, coleslaw and French fries with that okay?"...I stuttered an affirmative and settled down to observe the everyday folk of New York drinking, laughing, swearing, and eating large pieces of meat...and was just reaching the day-dreaming stage when a small waitress appeared next to me with a napkin large enough to cover my entire chest and lap, a viscious looking knife and fork and quite possibly the largest, stickiest rack of ribs I have ever seen in my entire life -



- with a strange green coleslaw and fried potato nothing like I have ever seen in France, however - "Knife and Fork" was quite right, this meat had been done "low and slow" as they say over here, it fell off the bone with the slightest of encouragement in centimeter thick, sticky, sweet and sour, smoked pit BBQ prepared slices...absolutely unlike anything that mistakenly bears the name "rib" anywhere in the United Kingdom and frankly quite delicious... ;)

Just back in the hotel business suite now (having been asked for ID to buy a can of Bud in my local shop which was rather flattering considering the age I am, and I told him so, and he let me off (passport is locked in the safe) ;)...I will shortly be retiring to my room for a bit of a freshen up and to read my book until sleep time, which will doubtless be rather soon in coming...(always takes me a day or two to adjust, even going this way, it's a hell of a lot worse coming home, this way at least the day just goes on forever, coming home, you *loose* five hours, that means that the night is effectively 2 hours long)...still, don't have to worry about that for a week...

Lets have a think what time it is in the UK right now...urm, about 2 in the morning I think...so I'm doing okay so far...a couple more hours and I should be right for tomorrow...hope you are all sleeping okay! ;)