A morning at MOMA and The Met

My meeting this morning was canceled, so I headed to The Museum of Modern Art and The Metropolitan Museum of Art for quick visits before my flight.

MOMA had a tiny Monet water lilies exhibit, which features only its own collection...all were from Monet's latest years. I guess once you've been to Musee d'Orangerie in Paris, it's hard to be impressed. :) Of course, I loved seeing work from Frida, Van Gogh, Klimt, Chagall, Picasso and Dali. The Scream is never on view when I'm in town, but I did see another Munch painting.

The American Wing Courtyard in the Met is one of my absolute favorite galleries. There are a bunch of Tiffany pieces, including both mosaics and stained glass. I could sit in there for hours. The Met also has a gallery with tons of sculpture...mostly dancers...from Degas, which is really cool.

Both visits were really abbreviated since I was so short on time, but at least I got to go! Back at the airport and getting ready to come home.

See you at Times Square, 9 a.m. sharp

This was the view outside my first meeting yesterday at 4 Times Square. Can't beat that view in a big city. (BTW, getting past security at the Conde Nast building is like trying to get in Fort Knox. I always end up calling the reporter I'm supposed to be meeting with to ask them to come get me since they take forever to let me up.)

The editor I met with and I discussed what chefs in Cleveland are reinventing examples of our city's "working man" dishes, which was a fun conversation. I think Michael Symon and Matt Fish (Melt) are doing it well with Lola's beef cheek pierogi and Melt's Parmageddon grilled cheese. Anyone else have other examples?

The pork buns at Momofuku Ssam Bar during lunch were to die for. I went with the prix fixe option, which is reasonable, offers choices and is oh-so-delicious. My dining mate ordered the opposite selections of what I ordered, so I was able to try a lot of different dishes. We also ordered paper-thin slices of Broadbent's country ham, which was amazing. And, I tried unfiltered (cloudy) sake for the first time.

The rest of my meetings went well. I met up with a friend/former client for dinner in the East Village, where she lives. We ate sushi at a dive in Little Japan and tried sake sangria, which was surprisingly good. Then she took me to McSorely's, NYC's oldest saloon for mini pints. It was jam-packed, so we didn't last long. We made our way to the swanky bar at Cooper Square Hotel (the Ginger Diablo was yummy) and then called it a night.

Tomorrow, I have a meeting over coffee in the morning and then I head back home.

Big bite of the Big Apple

I've had quite the NYC dry spell...even the bellman at my usual hotel asked me where I've been. Damn economy!

I'm lucky because most of this work trip revolves around food...either meetings during meals or meetings about Cleveland meals. Half of my meetings tomorrow are with foodie reporters.

This month's issue of Gourmet features hometown restaurant faves by well-known critics, so I tried one of the NYC listings for lunch today, Lupa. The restaurant is comfy and charming, and I really enjoyed my meal. I started with beets and pistachios and then the recommended spaghetti alla carbonara. The dishes were great, and my waiter was sweet as pie. Plus, lots of cute shops along the way on Thompson, including Clio, which I had on my always-growing must-see-NYC list.

Since my last meeting today was downtown, I headed back to SoHo for shop anc check more destinations off my list. I finally got to Madewell, Eryn Brinie (a Korean chain) and TopShop (a British chain). I loved Eryn Brinie and found a cute dress at Madewell, but TopShop was horrifying (picture jumpsuits, adult onesies and sequins on steroids). I was going to try on a dress from the Kate Moss collection, but then I saw sequin parachute pants displayed on the wall and had to leave the store immediately.

I'm excited to try Momofuko Ssam Bar tomorrow. I love eating my way through a city!