A Clean, Well-Lighted Place

It has been a sunny and breezy Sunday. It's great to be back in my own apartment in NYC. Everything is the way I left it, and the room was generously lit all afternoon.

Had lunch with my subtenant and ST, who dropped by the apartment afterwards, and it was, for some reason, enormously enjoyable chatting with them over a cup of tea.

Dinner was fantastic. N and I went to our favorite, Tartine in West Village. In addition to the satisfying grilled saucisson and grilled eggplant salad, we both ordered steamed mussels, hers in Indian curry and coconut milk and mine in white wine sauce. It was too much to handled, not to mention we downed a whole bottle of Chianti.

It is not only a place with great food but also a venue for people watching. The crowd tends to include professionals in their 20s and 30s, usually in pairs. And because it is such a tiny place and you sit so close to the other eaters, an interesting conversation is never too far away to catch. We got a window seat in the corner and saw this adorable couple on the other side of the glass, who seemed to be quite the social butterflies, as they seemed to know everyone who passes by--they spent as much time eating as talking to them. We waved them goodbye as they left hand in hand (with a half-empty bottle of white in the girl's other hand).

Sleek decor and candlelights make many of the shops and restaurants in this charming neighborhood irresistible. We ended our night at Doma, a simple but stylishly intellectual cafe.

So I am back in New York, my first summer in the Big Apple.