On our final day in New York City, we started with a morning stroll around a nearby farmers market.
In this post:
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Afterwards, we went on a mile and a half walk through Central Park to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. We stopped along the way to admire the model sailboats on Conservatory Water.
Parents and their children were taking turns driving the remote controlled boats. In fact, people have been racing model sailboats there for over 135 years. At every turn in Central Park, there's something fun to do and see.
Finally, we arrived at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
The Met is enormous. A person could spend day after day just going to the museum.
In fact, that could be a good way to do it. Take a couple of hours every day of vacation when you're fresh and check out a new wing.
Tickets to the museum are a suggested price of $25 per person. However, guests are allowed to pay whatever they desire.
When you get up to the ticket counter, they simply ask you what you'd like to pay. Many people told me that they regularly pay as little as $5.
It makes the museum an achievable experience for a family, students, or struggling artists who dream of having their own work there someday.
The area of the museum I was most eager to see was the Temple of Dendur in the Sackler Wing. This Egyptian temple was built around 15 B.C.
Museum-goers are able to walk right up to the pharaonic temple to admire it and marvel at how it was built.
Peacefood Cafe
That night, we went to dinner at Peacefood Café on the Upper West Side.
I had visited the downtown location on a previous trip. I was surprised at how different the locations are in tone. The downtown location is modern and trendy. The Upper West Side motif is casual with an eclectic collection of odds and ends on the walls.
We ordered the chickpea fries to start, one of Peacefood Café's most popular appetizers.
The fries are made with chickpea flour, hardened into cakes, sliced into sticks, and fried. They are filled with Indian spices and served with a dipping sauce.
I am always tempted by vegan crab cakes. Theirs were toothsome and inviting. They were served on top of a massaged kale salad with corn and shredded carrots.
After the chickpea fry appetizer, I was only able to finish half. But that meant I had lunch for the airplane the next day. Even at room temperature, they still stood up.
(Want to make vegan crab cakes at home? Check out my recipe with artichokes & chickpeas.)
David had the mushroom duxelle pizza, which comes cheeseless by default. It was topped with roasted sweet peppers, zucchini, and onions.
The mushrooms on the pizza were made into a paste and spread across it. It made for a squishy texture that wasn't entirely appealing, even for two mushroom lovers.
With that, we headed back to the room to get some sleep before leaving the Big Apple the next morning.
New York City never disappoints, and the only regrets I had upon leaving were that there were still things on my to-do list left unchecked. All the more reason that I'll need to go back. Until next time, New York!
Caitlin
of course, everything looks delicious! i’ve been to the met probably 10 times because, as an art history major, it was always the field trip for every class during my undergrad. i really think i may have seen it all since i was there so many times for the entire day! and it is gigantic, the largest in the country. after i graduated, i said i never wanted to go there again, but after eight years, i kind of miss it 😉
Cadry
Wow, lucky you! That’s a far cry from the tiny museum we’d visit when I took art classes in college. Even though you got tired of it, I bet you’d make an excellent tour guide now for your friends and family.
Joey
Such a good way to do it at the museum – pay what you want means you’re more likely to get people who would otherwise get put off. I love the look of those crabcakes, and I’d definitely have spent a lot of time loving on the breaded tofu!
Cadry
Absolutely! In the long-run I bet they get a lot more guests and therefore money, because people aren’t immediately turned off by the pricing. Plus, I imagine they get more in the way of tax exemptions, because of the number of guests they serve.
Rose
It’s wonderful that the MMA offers a “suggested” admission; it’s so important that it be realistic for anyone to enjoy these places, regardless of their economic situations.
I would love to eat any of these dishes…the breaded tofu on lentils looks elegant!
Cadry
I agree! I grew up in the theatre, and it’s always seemed off to me that the very people who have devoted their lives to the pursuit of artistic endeavors are the same ones who are kept from experiencing them. Many artists don’t have a lot of money, and tickets to live theatre, especially in places like New York, are out of reach. By making art accessible at the Met, the museum isn’t losing out on $20 if a person only pays $5. They are gaining $5, because the person would have stayed away at the cost of $25.
lysette
Yes! I wanted to book tickets to a show I was very excited to see and not only was it almost sold out but 80$ a ticket! Combined with traveling and hotel I had to let it go, such a bummer.
At the theatre company I work for we do a pay-what-you-can night and while some people -actually quite a lot- pull up in luxury cars and pay half the ticket price, there are large young family’s and teenagers who thank us for the opportunity to see the show.
Cadry
Aw, what a shame you weren’t able to book tickets to that show. David and I go through the same thing whenever we’re in NYC. We’d love to see a Broadway show, but the tickets are often hundreds of dollars, and for two people, that is a lot of money for a few hours of entertainment, especially when you already have other travel costs.
That’s too bad that some people abuse the system of pay-what-you-can, but I’m glad you offer it for young families and teens, who would have otherwise missed out.
Susan
That is really cool that the museum allows you to adjust how much you pay. I like visiting museums and galleries when I travel but sometimes the cost means I don’t go. US$25 is like half a kidney on the black market in Australian dollars at the moment!
Cadry
Yes, I think it’s cool they offer that too! In the long-run, I bet the museum gets more money and visitors because people aren’t put off by the price. It’s somewhere you could go after dinner on a Friday or Saturday night for a couple of hours. (They stay open late those evenings.) But if you had to pay $25 to get in, a person would only go if she had lots of time on her hands. Plus, for a family of four a trip to the museum would be $100. I could see that being too much for a lot of parents, and kids missing out on exposure to art.
It also keeps people from selling a kidney on the black market… So that’s a win. 😉
Samantha
Ahhhhh these restaurants look incredible!
Cadry
There’s a reason NYC is considered a food mecca. The restaurant quality there is crazy.
Veganopoulous
that Cajun seitan sandwich looks massive and utterly divine! Thanks for the tip about the museum, must remember that when I make it to NYC 🙂
Cadry
It was a terrific sandwich. You would love it!
lysette
We had the pot pie and a kabocha sandwich with seitan on the side at Peacefood. It made us both very happy. We ate at Candle Cafe too! Other than Franchia, all of our meals were pretty on the fly trying to fit in as much as we could like the Met! Barely made a dent in our viewing there but always better to leave wanting more 🙂 Love that picture of you in Central Park!
Cadry
Yes, it would be nearly impossible to see it all at the Met! If I lived in NYC, it would be fun to go regularly, so that I could do it just a bite at a time and go on days when it’s less crowded. We went on a Sunday, and it was packed.