Why I love NY: 1

Last weekend, I went to the Met to watch Sylvia Scarlett and Stage Door (part of a Katharine Hepburn celebration), and avoided the thunder and rainstorm uptown by virtue of being inside when it hit uptown. I took the train to Kalustyan's on 28th street, because I needed ras al hanout for my Moroccan pitas, and realized as I came up from the subway that the rain was in Murray/Curry Hill.

It was a hard rain - even my beautiful new umbrella couldn't protect me entirely - and, as though in a movie, I looked to the left and the right in search of respite. And what to my wondering eyes should appear, but Les Halles! I snuck in for a perfect glass of Lillet and some of the best potato chips I've ever had.

When the rain let up, I took the train south to Sur la Table for additional champagne glasses, and then walked home.