Shuffle Off

July 25-26

The 25th was a Sabbath, so we largely made it a day of rest.

The biggest project was to follow the shore of Lake Erie for a couple of hours to reach Buffalo.

We checked into La Quinta in Amherst, a suburb of Buffalo, shortly before two in the afternoon, and after all the intense excitement of Jamestown—old TV shows, a walk around the block, and so forth—we decided to take it easy.

The biggest adventure of the day was dinner. Joanna asked one of the family who run the hotel about places to eat. He suggested one of his favorites, Roma, which serves Thai and Burmese food.

I don’t know how the place got that name. I forgot to ask. 

It’s a friendly, family-run eatery in a little strip mall. It has the feeling almost of a neighborhood pizza parlor.

In addition to traditional Thai and Burmese dishes, Roma also serves sushi. So we started with a couple of vegetarian rolls.

Vegetables can be hard to get on the road. So the rolls were especially good.

I was having a hard time deciding which curry to choose. Thai has several, red, yellow, green, Penang. They are a family of flavors, all subtly different.

The owner, whose name I learned later is Sinlin, suggested something altogether different, Burmese curry. That was new to me, so I had to try it.

After Sinlin assured me that it was a traditional way to have it, I opted for the version with goat. 

How hot did I want that? One, two, three or four stars hot? Well, the extremes are risky. Too little heat, and you may miss out on the experience. Too much, and you may miss out because all you may feel is the heat. And you might end up in a hospital.

I decided to be conservative and opted for two stars. To be safe, my order included white rice and tea. When it comes to anodynes for chile on the tongue, those two will go a long way to soothe you. Cheese and milk are the best, by the way, but they weren’t on the menu.

Joanna ordered fried rice with chicken and vegetables. It came as a huge mound of food with a fried egg on top. 

There was one ingredient in there that we never did identify. It looked like a miniature chick pea, about one size bigger than the garden sweet peas that were also in the mix. It was a bit starchier, though.

My goat curry had a mix of flavors that was new to me. It was definitely not like Thai or Indian. One of the strongest flavors was cardamom. Recipes for Burmese curry online call for garam masala, a mix of spices, often with cardamom as a leading ingredient.

Two stars hot was a lucky choice. I put a lot of the rice into the curry, and saved some to eat plain at the end. I drank two or three cups of tea. Even my lips were burning.

Back at the hotel I had energy enough to watch TV for a while and then went to sleep. I was too lazy even to drink a beer.

It has been almost three years since I’ve visited Pigeon Forge in Tennessee. I haven’t been on a Jersey boardwalk for a long while, either.

Needless to say, I’m overdue for some All-American kitsch.  So there I was a few weeks ago planning a trip that would cross the Southern Tier of New York. 

Niagara Falls? Slowly I turned—north. Step by step. I couldn’t help it.

Like the cast of “42nd Street,” I would shuffle off to Buffalo.

I saw the falls and some of the surrounding attractions years ago. No, decades ago. I may have been eight at the time. I remember the boardwalk feel, that curious mix of the slapdash and bizarre.

What I didn’t remember is the fine state park, which doesn’t clip you for anything, except maybe a parking fee.

The lot was full when we got there, and we found a municipal parking deck a couple of short blocks away. We parked on Level Four. 

The elevators weren’t working, so we walked down six flights to the street.

As we walked to the park entrance, I was hit by that sense of deja vu. I had experienced this many times, from the Mannekin Pis in Brussels to the Jersey shore, the redundant arrays of T-shirt shops, the junk hawkers, young couples, families with kids, a busload of Amish speaking Plattdeutsch.

But the thing that took me straight back to the boardwalk was the unmistakable aroma of rancid frying oil wafting on the air. 

Right across the street from all this hustle is a quiet green park, with shade and a visitor center. Joanna read somewhere that it is the oldest state park in the country. 

There is an observation deck that looks like a bridge to nowhere. It reminded Joanna of the remaining part of the broken bridge at Avignon, where we danced one afternoon,

The steps were jammed by people waiting to get up to the deck. I’m too old to waste time like that. Besides, standing on the ground at Prospect Point is spectacular enough.

The sun was shining on the mist coming up from Horseshoe Falls. As we were driving into town, we could see that mist, clustered like the smoke of a factory fire, from at least a mile away.

The falls nearer to Prospect Point, American and Bridal Veil Falls, were under clouds of fog.

This big drop is the main reason they had to build the Erie Canal. It was the only way to get the cargo of Great Lakes shipping to the Atlantic. I guess ships built on the lakes stayed on the lakes. Cargo came down in barges pulled by mules.

It was a pleasant stroll to the sound of water rushing to the edge where it fell to crash on rocks. So we wandered around the park and took pictures of water 

and rocks 

and Canada.

Then we walked back to the car. The whole time I was dreading the climb to Level Four. 

I actually made it, though, without too much delay and without passing out. 

As we drove out of the parking garage, a few raindrops landed on the windshield. By the time we came to the end of the block there was a downpour. I had to stop to let panicked tourists cross the street to the shelter of an awning.

We have been staying in a wasteland of suburban sprawl. 

It would be nice to see what the city part of the City of Buffalo looks like, so we went from Niagara Falls to Buffalo’s city hall, which is billed as an Art Deco gem. 

It is that. 

The building was dedicated in 1932, the city’s centennial.

It has a central tower 28 stories high, flanked by two shorter towers. The entry is a Classical-looking colonnade topped by a sandstone frieze that is an allegory of commerce. The city is personified in the center as a sibyl with an open book.

The lobby is the same generation as the Chrysler and Empire State Buildings in New York. Murals are filled with statuesque figures. Looming giants in stone represent modern ideals. Elevator doors are decorated with Egyptian motifs. Meanwhile the lobby suggests a Roman basilica set in the 1930s idea of the Space Age. Buck Rogers meets King Tut and Marc Antony.

I’m a dedicated Art Deco fan. 

We went up to the 13th floor to see the Council Chamber. We couldn’t get in, but could get a good view of the skylight, which was the big draw in the first place.

It’s a golden sunburst that reminds me of Bernini’s Holy Ghost window at St. Peter’s.

Across the street from City Hall is a plaza with an obelisk, a memorial to William McKinley, who was shot at the Buffalo Exposition in 1901 and died a week later in the city.

Another popular skyscraper in town is the Liberty Building, a few blocks away. It dominates the skyline looking west from City Hall, and judging from the artwork in the hotel, seems to be a favorite subject for photographers.

When we returned to La Quinta, I had gone a long time without food and wanted red meat for dinner. The best we could find nearby was an Outback Steakhouse franchise. 

It was OK. The beer selection was disappointing, though. I settled on a house brand called Bloomin’ Blond Ale, which supposedly “was made for steak.” 

Meh.

But we had stopped earlier at a supermarket on the way back from City Hall. I found something good and local, Big Ditch Hayburner American IPA, “proudly brewed in the Electric District of Downtown Buffalo, New York.”

It’s named for the Erie Canal mules. It runs a little over 7 percent ABV. It’s sharply hopped. It has good malt, but isn’t sweet.

A great dessert.

I’m coming up on —no, just passed 1500 words.

Time to sign off and open another Hayburner. 

Good night, all.

Harry