Central Park’s 15-acre Sheep Meadow is a respite from busy Midtown Manhattan. © SAM74100 | Dreamstime.com

• Share

PRINT

I love New York. Who doesn’t? The theater, the museums, the music, the food, the subways…well, maybe not the subways.

This past spring, my wife and I had the opportunity to sample it all during a one-week visit to, in the words of writer Bruce Jay Friedman, the “city of class.”

Of course, we did the usual — a play, a museum, Central Park — but we also explored the far reaches of the city’s outer boroughs in search of the unusual and unfamiliar.

MoMA and Broadway

What’s a trip to New York without a visit to one of its world-class museums? For us, it was the Museum of Modern Art, or MoMA, as it is best known. We wanted to see the special exhibit on the inventive, prototypical New York artist Jack Whitten, an African American who pioneered the use of unconventional materials in his art.

Many of Whitten’s pieces are dedicated to jazz musicians, such as John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk and Ornette Coleman. An aspiring jazz musician, Whitten mingled with them and others in the 1960s, after he arrived in the city from Alabama. Their experimental, improvisational spirit inspired his art, leading him to create large abstract canvases from complex mosaics made up of cubes of acrylic paint.

The swirling pieces in the exhibit were accompanied by ambient music from the very same musicians who inspired him. A hardcore jazz fan myself, I was transfixed by the art and swept away by the music. It was one of the most profoundly affecting art exhibits I have ever experienced.

As for a Broadway show, we were fortunate to grab a couple of (expensive) seats at the historic Winter Garden Theatre to see George Clooney in “Good Night, and Good Luck,” a play about Edward R. Murrow and his CBS news team’s confrontation with Sen. Joseph McCarthy during the “red scare” of the 1950s.

I am not a theater aficionado, but there is something about the immediacy of live theater that grabs me every time I see a great play. And this was one of them.

To be honest, I was skeptical that any theater production would be worth the $303 each I paid for seats toward the back of the theater, but I left the theater exhilarated by the outstanding performances, the production and, most of all, by the relevance of the play.

We also took advantage of what little good weather we had to take long walks in Central Park, past its zoo, skating rink, carousel, meadows and lakes. I’ve spent many hours wandering through the park, one of my favorite places in New York, lured down one path or another by a glimpse of blooming trees, a classic 19th-century stone building or skyscrapers towering above meadows.

Off the beaten path

Few tourists venture out of Manhattan, but this one was willing to endure long subway rides in search of great food.

Our first excursion was to Flushing, Queens, one of the most diverse neighborhoods in the world. Forget Chinatown; this is the new Chinatown — not a tourist destination, but a real community where people work, live, shop and most important (at least to me), eat.

Our destination was the food court in the basement of the New World Mall, one of the biggest Asian malls in North America. A sprawling collection of stalls encircles one row after another of Formica tables and plastic chairs filled with people chowing down on a variety of inexpensive, authentic Asian delights.

During our hour-long lunch, we consumed some of the best noodles, bao, dumplings and Chinese pancakes I have ever tasted. I estimate that the three of us — my wife, her sister and I — spent about $35 total. I was stuffed, but not so stuffed to pass up the egg custard tarts and warm sesame balls from the bakery counter.

Not only was the food delicious and cheap, but the peoplewatching on the streets, in the mall and at the food court made me feel like I was in Shanghai or Hong Kong.

Our other excursion to an outer borough in search of great food was to the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn to a hip new restaurant, Laser Wolf, named after the character in Fiddler on the Roof. Once known mainly for its tight-knit community of Hasidic Jews, Williamsburg is now a trendy neighborhood of chic boutiques, cafés and restaurants.

The Israeli restaurant serves a main course of skewered meats cooked over a charcoal grill, preceded by an array of exotic sides including Israeli pickles and onions, babaganoush, roasted cauliflower, grilled carrots, Tunisian potatoes, red cabbage and possibly the best hummus I have ever had. The sides were so good, I could have made a meal out of them alone.

Laser Wolf is located on the roof of the upscale Hoxton Hotel, so in addition to the great food, there are views of the Manhattan skyline from almost every table.

My last excursion was to downtown Manhattan to the Stone, a legendary performance space that features the latest music from some of the most creative musicians in the world, including such luminaries as John Zorn, Laurie Anderson and Nels Cline. Formerly a funky storefront on the Lower East Side, the Stone is now housed in a sleek, ultra-modern space on the campus of The New School.

The Stone is dedicated to serious listening. No drinks or other refreshments are available, conversations are discouraged, and patrons are urged to use the bathrooms before the performances begin.

I was there to see Zoh Amba, a diminutive young tenor saxophonist whose sound belies her small stature: loud, fast and intense. As if to relieve the tension of her cacophonous playing, she at times picked up a guitar to sing sweet, melodious songs that reflect her Appalachian roots.

Yes, New York is the city of class. But it is also the city of far-flung ethnic delights, obscure music and much more. Who knows what I’ll discover the next time I visit?

If you go

Amtrak’s round-trip fares from Washington, D.C. to New York average about $150, but you’ll get a deal if you buy tickets a couple of months in advance.

The average price of a hotel is over $300 per night. Thankfully, I stayed at my nephew’s apartment near Central Park. Try to find a deal on Hotwire.com, the website that offers deals on surprise hotels (almost like a blind date).

We ate excellent meals at Momofuku Noodle Bar (momofukunoodlebar.com), the Carnegie Diner and Café (carnegiediner.com/central-park-new-york), The Brooklyn Diner (brooklyndiner.com), Due (duenyc.com) and The Smith (thesmithrestaurant.com/location/lincoln-square).