NEW YORK CITY DAY 2: KATZ'S, HAMILTON, AND JAVA INDONESIAN

 February 15, 2020

By mid-February, winter is almost over in Southern California, so it was hard to face a day that only made it to 26° by noon and reached a high of 31° in the afternoon.

Andrew had to work, so we were on our own until evening. We desperately needed to catch up on sleep, having slept on the plane the previous night and then spending a very active day in NYC ending with a late night at the theater, so we slept in and got out of the hotel by about 10:15 AM. We had theater tickets for a 2:00 matinee, so we decided to eat lunch and then head to Broadway.

When we visited New York in January 2018, Andrew introduced us to Katz's Delicatessen. We thought we could get a quick bite to eat there, so we took an Uber from the hotel to the East Village. 

We underestimated the Saturday crowd. The line stretched from the counter to the door . . . 

. . . and a solid block further outside.

This is what it looked like in the dining area (one month before the Covid shutdown).  We were lucky to get a table.

However, we did NOT get the table under this sign.  (If you don't understand this reference, go watch the movie yourself.)

This is worth waiting for: a Reuben sandwich that has pastrami, corned beef, sauerkraut, relish, and cheese on toasted rye bread. It was at least as good as we remembered from two years past.

We finished our lunch and waddled over to Times Square.

Bob had given me Hamilton tickets for Christmas. We had actually purchased tickets for the Los Angeles production in April at the Pantages Theater, but then an irreconcilable conflict come up. Disappointed, we sold the tickets to some friends, but then Bob had the idea to buy these tickets on Broadway as a replacement. (Note: Ultimately, our irreconcilable conflict was cancelled because of Covid, but NO ONE saw the April production at the Pantages because the theater closed due to Covid. Luckily, we got a full refund of the ticket price and could refund our friends who bought our tickets.)

Anyway, part of my Christmas gift was a CD of the Hamilton soundtrack (Yes, we still have a CD player) and a copy of Hamilton, The Revolution by Lin Manuel Miranda and Jeremy McCarter.

The text of the entire musical is included, with commentary by the author, Lin Manuel Miranda, in the sidebars. We followed the libretto while we listened to the music to prepare for actually seeing the play. Knowing what was going on in Miranda's head while he wrote the play and knowing the tie-ins to historical events that he wrote about in the sidebars also added a lot.

In addition, there are short chapters interspersed throughout that give more details about the evolution and production of the play itself.

There are also two-page spreads of scenes from the play. We appreciate these more now that we have seen the play and can remember the scenes.

The play was in the Richard Rodgers Theater on 46th Street. I was pretty excited to see it.

Plus, remember that the high that day was 31°.  It was nice and warm inside. 

We had great seats. Of course, it's a relatively small theater, and all the seats are great. Here is our view of the set:

Wow, what an experience! We loved it and have already purchased tickets for August 2021 to see it again in Los Angeles, Covid willing.

By the time we left the theater, it was getting dark and, unbelievably, we were starting to feel hungry again.

We had a trip planned to Indonesia about five months after this trip, so we thought it would be fun to get a preview of the food we might eat there. New York, the Melting Pot of America (or Salad Bowl, if you prefer that image), has just about every cuisine imaginable, so Bob scouted out an Indonesian restaurant in Brooklyn that gets good ratings. After the play, we met up with Andrew, who we know we can count on to get us anywhere we want to go in New York.  

Java Indonesian Restaurant has a fairly big menu (see it here), and we wanted to try as many dishes as possible. We started  off with garuda, a blend of pineapple, mango, and orange juices and coconut creme. It was excellent, and something that would be easy to duplicate at home.

To maximize our tasting experience, we ordered the fifteen-course dinner for three. One of the best dishes was the first one, mie bakso, which is egg noodles with bean curd, celery, scallions, and tofu. It hit the spot on a cold, rainy night.

Our next three deliveries included (clockwise) acar, a salad of pickled cucumber, carrot, and onion; bakwan, corn fritters; and what I think is gado gado, mixed boiled veggies, bean curd, potatoes, and boiled eggs, topped with peanut sauce.

In looking at the fifteen-dish menu, I can only guess at what most of these are, but I'll do my best. Clockwise from top left: kare ayam, curry chicken with potatoes in coconut milk; empal goreng, beef marinated in sweet Java spices, fried, and topped with Indonesian soy sauce; sate bali, grilled skewers of beef marinated in tamarind juice and turmeric and smothered with peanut sauce; sayur tumis, sautéed veggies and bean curd; sambal goreng udang, jumbo crispy shrimp in coconut milk; and ikan belado, crispy cod and bean curd in spicy red paper sauce.

Two more dishes finished us off: sate madura, grilled skewers of chicken marinated with tamarind juice and turmeric and smothered in peanut sauce; and kambing goreng, sliced lamb in a zesty sauce.

Dessert was coconut pandan pudding, covered in a sweet caramel syrup. Pandan is a tropical plant that grows in Southeast Asia and has a sweet taste with flavors of rose, almond, vanilla, and coconut.

I wouldn't say it was the best meal we've had in New York City, and the location was a bit out of the way and not super close to a subway stop, but the sheer variety of food made this a very fun dining experience. As it turned out, our planned trip to Indonesia was kiboshed by the Covid-19 pandemic, so we were glad we got this little taste of the country anyway.

Lunch at Katz's, a Broadway production of Hamilton, and dinner at Java Indonesia--what a day, what a day!