KEEPING UP WITH ANN – EPISODE II
June 28, 2002

I wanted to wish everyone a happy and safe Fourth of July. Wherever you are in the world, I send you my thoughts for peace and happiness!
Ah, installment two. It’s taken me a while to whip this one out. It is now Day 62 of my summer in New York City. I made a short and wonderful trip back to Seattle (for a snowy and wet ascent of Mt. St. Helen’s, lots of eating and some great weather that made kayaking and some outdoor Happy Hours possible). But I’m back in New York and I do still love it here… it truly is the definition of living around the clock, as no other place can be (It’s actually almost 5AM as I type this). Now the summer has hit and the weather is a wonderfully pleasant 80 degrees at 2AM. Today was an incredible 96 degrees and weather.com reported it "feels like 103" which I’m sure was the case! A friend of mine who came to visit recently said, you often feel a drip from the sky and think it’s going to rain, but then you realize it’s not rain but the drip from the innumerable air conditioners from above. The streets in many neighborhoods are filled with people scrambling into the energy of the night and the early morning. My roommates – two Cuban actors from Miami – often invite me to get a bite to eat at midnight. On other occasions, I have braved the night and stayed up until 5AM, though mostly possible as I leave the house to go out around midnight. I have since moved into a great new apartment in the West Village on West 4th (between 6th and 7th) – it is a great room with exposed brick, great furniture and great windows in which to observe all the hubbub from five floors up (yes, and I have NO elevator.) And even being five floors up in combination with the heat, the waft of hot garbage heating on the pavement makes the scent of New York unique for my olfactory palate. Despite all the madness of New York’s concrete jungle characteristics, life here is wonderful in the West Village, starting from the day I moved in. The cook from The Bagelry next door saw me struggle with my bags from the cab to the curb, and as a result, helped me move ALL my suitcases up those aforementioned five flights of stairs – all I did was carry my little LV bag up. I also recently befriended the young streetside sunglass vendor on my street. After chatting for a few minutes, I learned he is from Tibet and he offered to accompany me to a local Buddhist group that I attend (with the venerable Gelek Rinpoche of Jewel Heart (www.jewelheart.org) –who flies between Michigan for his Tuesday talks and New York City for his Thursday night talks) – besides getting a great deal on some hip sunglasses. I feel like it’s now my neighborhood with friendly faces to greet me as I depart to or come home my day’s excursions!
And how can you ever talk about New York and not talk about food or money, or most applicable to me – money spent on food! After about 2 months here, the exorbitant cost of New York is no longer stifling nor shocking to me. (I paid $1.29 for a single nectarine the other day, though I must admit I did purchase it at one of New York’s trendy purveyors of food – a placed called the Gourmet Garage.) It is a city where the madness to be skinny and money collide - cottage cheese and a bottle of water costs more than a very good deli dinner that you could eat for days, and where you think you’re buying a Sundried-Tomato & Basil Smear made from cream cheese, when you get home you realize it’s flavored Tofu Spread! My "Food Tour" of New York City has continued through eating at some of New York’s highly noted restaurants. As I like to say, "A girl’s gotta eat." ( These locales are noted in my highlights below.) Whatever the name -there are bar/restaurants called Hell, Home and The Place, so you can say "Let’s go to…" - or neighborhood, there is good eatin’ in New York!
So, again, here some highlights of New York from Day 62 – the "Star Gazing Edition":
Invited by a friend to attend a charity event in Westchester County – home of the Clintons – for the Maria Fareri Children's Hospital of the Westchester Medical Center Benefit dinner, where local artists decorated bird houses for a silent auction; this took place at the beautiful lakeside Larchmont Yacht Club – Marianne Boesky of the Marianne Boesky Gallery had one of her artists commisioned to bring about a fusion between "art and healing"…
Went to another performance of the Gipsy Kings at Au Bar and got the chance to be a Spanish-English translator between famed record producer Russ Titleman, a friend of mine, and these two "members" of the Gipsy Kings – (these gitanos were supposedly kicked-out of the real band due to "indiscreet activities with another’s wife" though this was learned a bit late as Russ was trying to sign them to a new recording contract but learned they did not even have a right to the name! Industry gossip!) Besides this great linguistic experience - it was such a high! - I hasten to recommend Au Bar is one of the best French fry places in New York – the fries, served on a plate which a normal entrée would come on, carried the worthy cost of $12…
Went to a concert in the midtown NBA store of Michelle Branch, the hot new artists that sings "Everywhere," and then went to dinner at Joe’s Shanghai (Zagat: 22) with a friend where we feasted on their famous soup dumplings… and recently went to Central Park’s Summer Stage free concert series for up and coming music sensation Remy Shand…
Went to the famous Sugar Bar (Zagat: 20) with a friend (who was checking out the club as VH1 offered him a job to create a reality show out of their amazing Open-Mike Night), Russ Titleman and a fabulous French bassist named Jezebel who performs with the aforementioned pseudo-Gipsy Kings… (star sightings: Sugar Bar owners Ashford & Simpson, who I was personally introduced to)…
Lost some precious beauty sleep by attending some outdoor morning-show concerts – waking up at 5:00AM to get to Rockefeller Plaza even to get within 200 feet of the stage for both the Celine Dion and Enrique Iglesias concert on The Today Show. (If you’ve ever wondered how early you’ve got wake up to be in the front row, I am convinced that people in the front row arrive at around 4:30AM in order for the 8:30AM start time of these concerts)…
Enjoyed the wonderful visit of close friends from SF, where we enjoyed drinks at The Park (Zagat: 19); a complete walking tour all through SoHo, the West Village, the Westside Freeway, down through Tribeca and to the WTC site; saw (for Ann, slept through) the Broadway play The Crucible with Liam Neeson and Laura Linney… (star sighting: Issey Miyake inside his Tribeca Issey Miyake store designed by famed architect Frank Gehry – also got to attend a party and see Gehry’s famous corporate cafeteria, that is closed to the public, that he designed for Conde Nast (address: 4 Times Square, 4th floor ))…
Taken many trips to the Prada store in SoHo – where architect Lem Koolhaas (also who designed the Seattle Public Library) created a showroom that showcases technology more than high Italian fashion – the dressing rooms that have projected images so you can see how you look from behind with a few seconds delay… (star sighting: strolling through the store shopping was Laurie Loughlin of Full House fame with her husband)…
Dined at Nobu (Zagat: 28), a Tribeca restaurant collaboration between Nobu Matsuhisa and Robert de Niro, which is widely considered the best sushi and Japanese restaurant, dare I say, on this planet, and where it is reported to take 2 months to get a reservation…and we just strolled in… (star sighting at the next tables: actors Luke Wilson, Stephan Dorff, magician and performance artist David Blaine)…
A trip to Litchfield, Connecticut with close friends – a wonderful weekend full of eating, green fields, drives around the lake, where we stayed in a friend’s aunt’s beautiful old home with an incredible spa bathroom – two-person whirlpool and a steam shower where you can experience a complete aromatherpy massage for your senses… and where my need to get out of New York City, behind the wheel of a car and to lie down on big, grassy green fields were satiated…
Celebrated during the graduation activities of my sister Jaime from the Ben Gurion-Columbia University Medical School – where upon both my parents were asked by a friend of mine how they enjoyed this trip, and my father responding it was his favorite trip ever to New York "as the whole family was together" – a rare thing for the Nguyens (except for my oldest sister Wendy who was back in Fremont, CA taking care of her family)… (star sightings: Woody Allen and Jason Biggs outside Ruby Foos (Zagat: 19) in Times Square during this last meal with my family before they departed on their respective flights…
And other star sightings that happen when you’re walking down the street or are in a restaurant… Academy Award winner Hilary Swank and her husband Chad Lowe outside Bubby’s (Zagat: 19) in TriBeCa, and Talisa Soto (who just married Benjamin Bratt) inside SoHo restaurant Va Tutto (Zagat: 19) …
And after Nobu, the other great gastronomic feat…dinner at Danny Meyer’s iconic Gramercy Tavern (Zagat: 27) with a friend on a business trip to NYC where we feasted on their $90 Summer Tasting Menu of wonderfully succulent lamb, sautéed foie gras, lobster on a pesto sauce, tortellinis on sautéed vegetables… need I say more… and dessert… the creation by the number one pastry chef in New York City – Claudia Fleming – where our palates were in blissful ecstasy with the tastes of the best chocolate molten cake and strawberry rhubarb sorbet I’ve ever had, and then as an added treat, we were sent home with a delicious cranberry muffin in a cute little bag…
I LOVE NEW YORK. As always, the star power and food power in New York is such a pull to bring people into the insanity of this mega-mega metropolis. It brought me. The more I meet people, it is the quintessential place where people come to "be" for a few years… this is my time… I hope you’ve enjoyed this installment of KUWA…
Peace, and enjoy the fireworks!
Ann