Fourth of July Weekend – Hot, Steamy and Fun

Francisco Toledo

I seldom leave town on a holiday weekend and sometimes I regret it because the city is empty and all my friends are away but I had more fun and met more interesting people this weekend than I’ve had in ages.  There is still time for you to enjoy many of the things I did so here is a blow-by-blow description of  my activities: Thursday, July 11 The opening of the Francisco Toledo exhibit.    This Oaxacan artist is considered by many to be  the greatest Mexican living artist.  The event was a joint  project of the Mexican Cultural Institute and the Instituto Cervantes;  the theme is Toledo’s zoological paintings that  are based on a book by Jorge Luis Borges dealing with mythical animals.   Excerpts from  the book  provide  clever and very amusing  commentary to each piece . The garden setting for the reception is magnificent.  I was thrilled to be able to cater and serve appetizers from my book The Food and Life of Oaxaca and every one enjoyed it very much, including me.

The after-party was at my restaurant and it was wonderful to meet and spend time with the owners of the collection who are very private so I won’t mention names but they also own the Frida exhibition that is touring the world and at present is in Berlin.

Check out the Arvil Galeria if you are interested in purchasing some of Maestro Toledo’s work.

Instituto Cervantes New York

211 East 49^th Street

New York , NY 10017

Tel.: 212 308 7720

Fax: 212 308 772

Toledo
Jorge Luis Borges

Instituto Cervantes
Mexican Cultural Institute
Please don’t miss it.

francisco toledo frogs

Friday:

Even on a long weekend, I usually go to the restaurant on  Friday but this year I played hookie because my delightful intern from London, Lucinda, decided to make me dinner:  a steak and Guinness   stout pie.  She said she used a Jamie Oliver recipe.   Not only did it turn out beautifully  but it was delicious too .

Saturday:

Took Marissa and Manu’s children out to lunch in  to celebrate Catya’s graduation and acceptance and scholarship for Boston School of Fine Art s. It was also wonderful to finally get to see Shane’s gorgeous blue/green eyes that his new haircut show off  (not that I minded the old one but he looks even more gorgeous with shorter hair) and listen to his recording of a piece called Mariska with his new instrument –a CLARINET! Shane is in a rock band call the Bones Royal so this is quite a shift.

We drove to my formerly favorite Chinese restaurant in Flushing, The Hunan House, but most dishes were no where near as good as they had been on our last visit not too long ago.  The restaurant was empty at lunch and sometimes the employees get careless if they’re not in the groove.  My favorite preserved beef with bleached chiles was dry as was the sauteed smoked duck.  The lamb with cumin had very little cumin and was blah as was the tofu with scallion sauce.  The only thing that blew me away was a new dish to me –the smoked bamboo.

Saturday Night:

I am not much of a theater goer.  I normally take the best naps at most  plays but not at Love,Loss and What I Wore.  I won’t give anything about the clever plot away because it was such a a wonderful surprise to me and Penny Fuller is delightful.  I highly recommend it.  The play is written by Nora Ephron and her sister Delia and you can expect to laugh and cry but I was tingling when I left.

The 4th of July we had our staff party.  Every year Marissa and I cook the meal for them and my friends help serve.  They love it, I love it and we have a great time singing and dancing.  For some reason I don’t have pictures but I’ m sure we can put them up soon.

Not bad and this week is starting out great.