One of the greatest things about living in New York City is the ease of access to the arts and live performances and theater. We have historic venues and theaters to go with some of the most up-and-coming performers, some of the most talented artists in the world. It would be unheard of to be a singer/major music group, do a tour in the U.S., and NOT stop in New York City; some artists even have multiple dates just in New York City. We’re even luckier on average because we live just a few blocks from Lincoln Center and minutes away from the theater district, Carnegie Hall, and other major performance venues. So when I started subscribing to Lincoln Center’s email newsletter last year to keep an eye out for low/no-cost performances for littles, I also got email notifications regarding Lincoln Center’s annual Summer for the City series. The series consists of lots of different free or pay-what-you-wish performances and events. There’s a huge summer stage that has been built in Lincoln Center Plaza for things like swing nights. It’s definitely been popping. And it’s even more inclusive because the events are low or no cost.

I got pay-what-you-wish tickets for two orchestral events. The first one was tonight at David Geffen Hall for Huang Ruo’s North American premiere of City of Floating Sounds, followed by Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6 (“Pastoral”). A friend drove in from New Jersey to have dinner and see the show with me. Act I was the modern “City of Floating Sounds” piece, while Act II was Beethoven’s Symphony No. 6. I’ll be honest and say that City of Floating sounds… was a bit too modern for me. For the first ten minutes of the piece, I genuinely thought they were all tuning their instruments. But as the music heightened and became more intense, it became more enjoyable towards the end. The real highlight, as un-modern as this may sound, was Beethoven’s “Pastoral.” It was familiar and soothing, and I loved the way the sound of the violins and cellos grew more and more intense. The flutes were also a highlight of the performance.

Lots of theater and arts experiences are expensive in New York City, but we’re very lucky in that many more are also low-cost or free thanks to generous donors. The last few times I’ve seen live orchestral performances was during free NYC events: one was a jazz event at one of the open public spaces owned by Lincoln Center, another was at Damrosch Park (two blocks from us, and just steps away from Lincoln Center Plaza), where Yo-Yo Ma was the star performer, and the other was to see New York Philharmonic perform in the summer “concerts in the parks” series at the Great Lawn Central Park. The one paid instrumental performance I saw was Lang Lang and friends at Carnegie Hall. Before that while in college, I’d seen the Boston Philharmonic perform once. And before that… I honestly can’t remember. I remember seeing the symphony regularly while in elementary school, as these were field trips that were covered by school. In the last year, I’ve thought about things that I enjoy, and live orchestra music is definitely one of them and something I’ve kind of forgotten about over the years, regretfully.

While working during the day, while I do play Spotify occasionally, I realize that my focus is not great if I listen to music with words. So instead, I’ve switched to classical music and sometimes even sound scapes. I find it very soothing. I added the Chinese song “Butterfly Lovers” to a separate “Chinese instrumentals” playlist. It reminds me of my time in Shanghai in the summer of 2006, when I learned about the Chinese legend, the tragic love story of Liang ShanBo and Zhu YingTai as butterfly lovers… and their untimely demise.

From March to July each year here in New York, we get excited for our ataulfo mangoes, all yellow, plentiful, and sweet coming from Mexico. If you come to our apartment during this time, you can expect to see at least 5-10 of them, all lined up by our living room/kitchen windows, socially distanced comfortably to prevent over ripening too quickly and all at the same time. But once July hits, the supply of mangoes starts to dwindle. There are less sales for the ataulfos. And then eventually, we have to bid farewell to yellow mangoes for the summer. If we get lucky and see some nice green/red or Kent mangoes at an Asian or Indian grocery store, we may pick them up, but usually July is the last time we will have mangoes in the Northern Hemisphere for the year.

When we returned from South America, I was sad to see that the mangoes were no longer on sale at Whole Foods and regular priced. So this was an indicator to me that we would no longer have them regularly this summer. Then, my focus switched to summer exotic fruits we can get in Chinatown, like longans (my fave!), lychees, and rambutans. I went down to my favorite street vendors at Mulberry and Canal yesterday, and it was like a galore of all my favorite Asian fruit all lined up. I got three pounds of lychees (3 lb for $10!), one pound of rambutans ($4/lb), one pound of longans ($5/lb), and two pounds of very sweet red cherries (two pounds for $5). I had just bought seven pounds of fruit for $24. The fruit vendor at that stand was likely very, very happy. My shoulders were heavy carrying all that fruit, plus all the other goodies and groceries I picked up yesterday. But I know my stomach (and Pookster’s and Chris’s) will be full from all these seasonal exotic fruit delights!

While in South America, I was saddened to learn that one of the oldest and long-standing bakeries in Manhattan Chinatown is closing at the end of July. Once upon a time in the early 1960s, New Golden Fung Wong Bakery opened on Mott Street. Manhattan Chinatown was predominantly Toisanese and Cantonese due to restrictive immigration law and early immigration patterns. They became known among those who know (this is another case of #iykyk) for their moon cakes, winter melon cakes (lao po bing), and hopia, various flaky snack cakes filled with black bean or scallions with pork fat. I am embarrassed to say that while they had been on my radar for a while, because I always had so many places I wanted to try (and repeat places to return to) every time I went down to Chinatown, I did not actually step foot into this shop until the pandemic period, so 12 years after I first moved here. I loved their non conventional mooncake filled with black sesame ($7.50 is a steep price to pay for a moon cake, but given I knew it was all black sesame, I was happy to pay it and its rising price). And their lao po bing, aka old wife cake, aka winter melon cakes, were probably the best ones I’ve had outside of the ones my dad used to buy me at a specific bakery along Stockton Street in San Francisco Chinatown. Most places use a lot of cheap filler for their lao po bing; New Golden Fung Wong puts all the good stuff in to make this cake extra special for those who appreciate it.

I went into their shop today and after ordering my black sesame moon cake and lao po bing (fresh out of the oven, still on the baking tray!), I told the worker that I heard they were closing at the end of the month, and I asked why. She sighed and responded that the owners were retiring and had no family members or kids who wanted to continue the business, so they had no choice but to fully close down. It was really sad to hear this news in person, as well as to see the signs written in Chinese on the front that July 31 would be its last day in business.

New Golden Fung Wong is a no-frills bakery. They don’t sell anything trendy or any new bao that’s being developed by up and coming pastry chefs in Hong Kong. But it’s the type of bakery my grandma would have loved and frequented, and also the kind of place my parents would appreciate and want to give business to. Times are changing, and tastes are evolving. But it makes me sad that this institutional bakery is closing because it could mean that for the next generation, like Kaia’s, they may never even know what these classic, nostalgic Cantonese treats were and how delicious they are. I’m seriously tempted to go back to the shop one last time to get my fill of black sesame moon cake and lao po bing before July 31 to not only support the owners in their journey to retirement, but also to quell my own sadness that I won’t ever be able to enjoy New Golden Fung Wong treats ever again after July has ended.