I spent the day without an agenda and walked most of the length of Central Park from Columbus Circle to Harlem, and there was still a red canopy over the ponds and lawns. The upper reaches of the park, which I haven’t visited much, felt empty and remote like the woods in snow. We met my cousin for dinner at Calle Dao, a Cuban restaurant that’s based on the cuisine from what used to be Chinatown in Havana, and I had a caipirinha with duck empanadas and a stew of prawns and plantains and other types of fish in a tangy sauce. Since my cousin has lived in New York for decades, she knows where to find the out-of-the-way corners even in the thick of Midtown, so we ended up at The Archive, a bar that is “like a library” and is free of lost tourists, and has a soothingly dark interior.
(Photo: Zuccotti Park, Manhattan.)
365 Days of Food 