Choose one restaurant.

[DFW]

70. I made it back with almost no trouble

Lufthansa had trouble finding my bags, and I spent two hours at baggage claim, hearing that they would show up in 5 to 10 minutes. I forgot that they meant 5 to 10 minutes EBT (European Bureaucratic Time), where each of their minutes is ten of ours. I then had to drag my two large suitcases and two handbags through the airport to the airport train station to get my (now re-booked) train up to Düsseldorf. First, I had to get the mandatory virus test, without which I had to self-quarantine for two weeks. The registering for that took half almost half an hour, and when I got done, I had 12 minutes before my train left. The testing place said, yeah, you can forget making that. But I was very cooperative and they suddenly became cooperative, too, and I made my train with two minutes to spare. It was 20 minutes late getting to Düsseldorf (it's an 85 minute trip if on time, which it rarely is), but my wife waited for me.

Sure enough, the test result (negative) was sent to me online within 24 hours as promised (non-government agency), and I was able to travel three days later. I had a backlog of stuff to do, so I was grateful for the speedy result. I was also at the U.S. consulate in Frankfurt to apply for a new passport, since mine expires in January, and Washington said it would take 4 months minimum to get a new one in the States. Frankfurt said 4 weeks, and I could keep my old passport in the meantime if I needed it for work. But when I got to the consulate, they said the rules had changed (thanks for letting us all know), and I had to give them my passport after all. I asked what I could use in the meantime, and they gave me a document signed by the consul general saying I had applied for a new one, and attached it to a photocopy of my current one. It might be OK with internal EU border guards, but who wants to find out if it isn't? I need to get down to France soon, and they are having a big new Covid-19 outbreak, and check the ID of everyone coming into Paris from outside France. Who knows if they'll let me in, or out again as a US citizen without a passport? I have my valid German residence ID, but it states clearly on it, only valid with US passport so-and-so, which I of course no longer have. So far, except for travel within Germany, I have only been to the Netherlands and Belgium, and they were no problem.

The Shun Lee Palace on East 55th street (at 3rd) has been one of my favorites for 40 years now. The former owner, "Patrick" has retired, but some of the old staff is still there, and, luckily, the quality of the food hasn't diminished. They make their own hot and sour soup (pretty strong), and have their own in-house recipe for hoi sin sauce for the duck, of which I haven't tasted the equivalent anywhere. The baby eggplant Szechuan style is to die for. Other favorite dishes of mine are the prawns and broccoli in Chinese curry (don't know if they still do that), hu-nan filet mignon (I'm not supposed to eat beef, but I make an exception here), chan-do chicken, Szechuan scallops, and "slippery" chicken, which is shredded meat with spinach. The lemon chicken has no kick to it, but a nice fruity flavor that is seldom duplicated. I NEVER tire of eating there. I haven't been there since January, but I don't think they have closed down.

When I'm in NY for a week (usually in January), I'm usually there at least three times.