Detritus of a Bagel: Lenny's

Lenny's Bagels ("we're not just bagels") on 98th and Broadway. I
usually have an everything with a quarter pound of whitefish salad
(don't order the sandwich, it's more expensive), but today I had a
smear of vegetable cream cheese instead.

Not bad for $2.50. However, Absolute Bagels on 107th is far better.
But it's not around the block.

New Northern Thai restaurant: Far Upper West Side

Spotted this on 103rd and Broadway. Called Sookk. For a moment, I
thought it was Middle Eastern. It claims to have Bangkok-style
Northern street cuisine.

Decor looks nice. Am very curious. Decently priced lunch specials. The
new Upper West Side is being born before our eyes.

Inside the Norwegian palace

Eighteen dollars on a Wednesday gets you a full smorgasbord buffet of
gravlax, fish pudding, cheese, herring, and other Scandinavian snacks.
Waffles and preserves. Cloudberry cream. And it's in a church, which
is unusual. A brief sermon is delivered at some point, but politely so.

It was my Norwegian friend Charles' birthday. And he always likes
coming here.

Come yourself, up until May. Maybe I'll see you sometime.

Lunch with the Norwegians

Yesterday, I ate at the Norwegian Seaman's Church, at 52nd between 3rd
and 2nd. This is it on the outside.

Food of Yesterday: Subway sandwich, 97th and Broadway

I caved and ate a foot-long tuna sub with spinach and all the other vegetables. Subway has a few tables, occupied mainly by strange-looking single people, or nannies, or the nearly homeless. I eat with a vacant look in my eyes. I hadn't eaten much that day. I am one of those single vagrant folk myself.

Subway is filling after a half a sandwich. Then you forget you're eating it, and suddenly the sandwich is gone. I can't explain it.

The staff here are quiet, like they're keeping a secret. I always feel like the joke's on me. The line is also odd. It begins at the end of the narrow store, so you have to push through to get on it. It's like a two-dimensional idea in a one-dimensional universe.

By the way, welcome back to the Wandering Chew. I'll be posting now, semi-regularly.