What better place to spend a cold overcast day in New York City than the Metropolitan Museum of Art? I wasn’t the only one with this brilliant idea – the museum was packed last Tuesday, which is part of the fun of going to the museum (I spend as much time looking at the people as I do looking at the art.) I started in the revamped Arab Lands exhibit where I saw the new courtyard installed by artisans from the Middle East and admired the illustrated pages of the Qur’an, then just wandered through one exotic land after another thinking about my favorite book as a kid, From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, by E.L. Konigsberg, where two kids ran away from home and lived in the Met, having a grand old time. I ended up in the American wing – after a brief wander through the Modern Art area and the Medieval art area – and happily toured the historic rooms full of period decorative art from the Shakers through to Frank Lloyd Wright. I was particularly captivated this time by the Tiffany windows and blown glass bowls and vases. (Next time I’ll try to follow the tour in sequence so I can see the “progression” of style more clearly.) Also enjoyed the room full of John Singer Sargent portraits including the one of the captivating Madame X portrait. And I also happened upon Washington Crossing the Delaware.
Madame X (Madame Pierre Gautreau), 1883–84
John Singer Sargent (American, 1856–1925)
Oil on canvas
I ate a light lunch downstairs in the basement cafeteria, where I ended up talking with a woman from “rural” Long Island (Orient Point, which we passed through last summer when we took the ferry from Connecticut to Long Island) who “LOVES” Iowa and specifically Iowa City where she attended a U of Iowa Writers Workshop seminar. (She even loved it after being evacuated from the campus – she was there during the horrific 2008 flood.)
After the museum, I wandered on Madison Avenue until I found William Greenberg Desserts ( 1100 Madison Avenue.
btw 82nd and 83 Street ), a famous Jewish bakery with a delicacy from my childhood: schnecken, (featured in the photo above!) a sticky bun that’s sort of the Jewish version of a cinnamon role but crispier and with more cinnamon, pecans, and raisins. Fun Fact: on a recent episode of Mad Men, Don’s new wife Megan gives Trudy a red tin full of Greenberg brownies as a hostess gift before an awkward dinner party in Cos Cob. Trudy is most impressed!(“Our special sour cream yeast dough, rolled up with raisins, pecans, brown sugar and cinnamon. Our customers’ favorite for 50 years!” reports the handy Greenberg website where you can order gift tins – hint, hint family!) The bakery is also famous for its black and white cookies and rugalah.
Less impressive was the too-hard, too-expensive raisin and nut roll I picked up at E.A.T.
