One delicious borough

The morning dawned bright and sunny, albeit a little chilly with the wind.  We started our morning out with a trip back to the Tasty Deli for breakfast.  Pancakes, eggs and/or french toast later we were back on the street headed the Green-Hill Cemetery again to do the exploring we were timed out of the night before.

 Dex about to munch on some banana at breakfast

Once we arrived, Dave's mom found a grave on the map that she was keenly interested in visiting, that of Jean-Michel Basquiat, a graffiti artist from New York who died in 1988 of a heroin overdose at age 27.  However, his grave was at the absolute back of the 640 acre cemetery.  But with nice sunny weather we decided we'd give it a whirl anyway. I would guess the walk was a little over a mile each way, but we enjoyed each others company along the way, finding all the tombstones with names that could be considered inappropriate.  Finally we arrived at a line of newish graves (there a civil war era graves in the cemetery, so anything in the last 40 or so years you'd consider new).  Let's just say Basquiat's grave was more than a little anti-climactic.  As a well known artist, we were expecting something large, ornate and a little out there.  But his tombstone was of normal size with his name and dates of birth and death, sitting side-by-side with grandmothers, war veterans and others, all in a line.

Strolling through the cemetery on our way back from Basquiat's grave

After deciding we'd had enough of the cemetery we headed back to the hotel to regroup and decide on a venue for lunch.  Yet again, Dave's yelp-ing ways didn't disappoint.  He had several suggestions for more hole-in-the-wall restaurants, this time near Prospect Park.  So we hopped on the subway and away we went. 

Gotta love the NYC subway - RODENTICIDE

Amy, Alyce, Dex and Patrick on the subway. This is one of several times Dex decided she was offended by Patrick, took one look at him and proceeded to get quite upset.  Poor Patrick. 

We arrived at "The Islands" to find a TINY takeout restaurant that specialized in delicious Caribbean food with its only seating up a crazy steep staircase in what felt like the inside of an old ship. 

The frighteningly steep stairs leading to the seating area at "The Islands" (pic stolen from Alyce)

One end of the crazy ship-style seating

Amy and Tony inside the tiny restaurant

While the place had a menu, we had arrived after prime lunch time and many of its specialties were already gone for the day, so we had to choose between just a handful of their remaining dishes.  But we learned that they make more of their best dishes so we were able to enjoy some amazing things, even with the limitations of our arrival time.  Amy, Tony, Jody, Patrick, Ben and I, who were all at one end of the crazy ship seating decided sharing was the way to go and settled on four large dishes to split, including two orders of the BEST jerk chicken I've ever had, garlic shrimp and curry goat.  All of them were delicious and made the long wait and cramped quarters completely worth it.

 Garlic shrimp with Jasmine Rice

Curry goat with Jasmine rice

Amazing jerk chicken with rice and beans and plantain

When we'd eaten our fill (and we basically cleaned all the plates) we got the bill and all shook our heads at the marvel of $27/couple for the delicious meal we'd just had. Yes, you're reading that right. $27 per couple for lunch in New York.  Proof that if you know where to look good food doesn't have to be expensive.  Way to go, Dave! Again! 

While we were quite full all of our mouths were burning from the extreme spice of our meal.  So Jody whipped out her trusty Iphone to find us some dessert that would cool us off.  Five blocks later we were standing in Blue Marble Creamery for some tasty treats.  It had many interesting flavors including cinnamon, pistachio, and blood orange sorbet.  Everyone found something they liked.

Ice creams in hand we headed back out onto the street for the Brooklyn Museum of Art.  We arrived at 430 giving us about an hour and half to explore the five floors filled with galleries.  We split up as soon as we got inside, each couple choosing to pursue our different interests. Ben and I spent a fair amount of time in the Contemporary Art galleries.  Being from the Detroit area, the piece pictured below was my favorite from the museum.

Ignore my reflection in the glass

A metaphor for the auto industry

At about 545, Ben and I headed back downstairs for a much needed seat on the benches, thinking we'd have a few minutes to wait for everyone else. Alas, everyone was a tired as we were and within 5 minutes we had all congregated on the benches to chill for a few minutes before the museum closed and we had to be back on our feet.  A few minutes later we were rather unceremoniously tossed out onto the street headed for the subway and our hotel.  Sadly, Amy and Tony had to depart for their puppies and we had to say our goodbyes as we would be leaving before they came back to the city on Sunday.  After they left, we all retired to our rooms for a few minutes of much needed rest and relaxation before meeting back downstairs at 730 for dinner.

Unfortunately, as our little group started to reassemble in the lobby my cell phone rang.  I answered to hear Alyce telling us that Dex, who had been a little fussy all day (we assumed the travel was just not agreeing with her) had spiked a fever and that they would be staying in for the night.  I'm not sure if we were more disappointed for poor Dex, feeling gross and being away from home, or for Alyce and Dave having to handle a sick baby without their normal comforts either.  In the end, we went on to dinner without them, but all three were greatly missed.

While we'd been waiting in the lobby, Patrick had done some more Iphone searching and had located a restaurant near the Brooklyn Bridge called Noodle Pudding that had great yelp reviews, was decently priced and was cash-only (a good sign for Italian restaurants as we were told by both Jody and Patrick who used to reside in Boston's little Italy).  One very long wait for an R train and a 10 or so block walk and we had put our name in and found a seat at the bar to wait the approximate 45 minutes required to get a table.  Once we had an appetizer and a drinks, beers for Ben and Patrick and Prosecco for Jody and I, the 45 minutes went quickly and we were soon seated.

One annihilated appetizer plate (it was an antipasto platter when it started)

We'd spent a good part of our time at the bar deciding what we'd have for dinner since we were all ravenous.  We started with two orders of beef carpaccio, piled high with arugula and shaved parmesan.

Mmm...thinly sliced raw meat!

For our main courses, Ben and I both selected the gnocchi with butter and sage.  These little potato dumplings were homemade and absolutely perfectly prepared, tender and buttery!  Patrick ordered the ravioli with a tomato sauce, eggplant and ricotta salata.  It too was extremely delicious.  Finally, Jomo order lasagna which Ben dug into so fast that I didn't get a picture but the bolognese it was made with was fantastic.  If you can't tell, we're big time food sharers, all of us, which means everybody gets a bite of everything.  It's a great way to eat! 

Gnocchi with butter and sage

House rigatoni pasta with eggplant and ricotta salata

Since everything we'd shared had been good, we decided we had to sample the dessert too.  Jody and Patrick shared a warm gooey brownie with hazelnut ice cream.  Ben and I shared spicy chocolate gelato (he ate the gelato and I ate the berries).  Both were tasty and a nice, sweet end to the meal. Since it was after midnight when we finished dinner, we hopped a cab back to the hotel for another shot at sleep.  All in all, a wonderful day.