Midtown Manhattan and Senegalese Fare

One of the things I enjoy most about New York City is the contrast of the different experiences that can be had all within hours of each other. One day you might be eating a fine Saturday brunch at a restaurant in the Upper West Side, and on another you could be dining with a West African crowd at a Senegalese café in Harlem. Friday night you could gaze out at the lights of Midtown Manhattan from the 86th floor of the Empire State Building, then the next morning visit the neo-medieval Cloisters north of the City. This week I was fortunate enough to do all of the above, and when looking back at it all it really is amazing what a variety of cultural experiences are available all in one city.

I’m determined to fulfill my goal of seeing one Broadway show every week for twelve weeks that I’m in New York. After entering the free lottery for front-row tickets at Jersey Boys and missing out twice, I finally bought a half-price ticket to ‘Exit the King’ from the TKTS stand in Times Square. Before seeing the show I honestly didn’t know anything about it except that it’s a comedy and the New York Times gave it a good review. The basic plot of ‘Exit the King’ is that the powerful, but insecure and sentimental King Berenger has just discovered that he will die at the end of the play and must come to terms with denial and regret. The play was surprising for a few reasons – first of all because I discovered about fifteen minutes into the show that it was definitely not a musical, and second because it included high-profile Hollywood actors such as Geoffrey Rush and Susan Sarandon. Altogether it was an okay way to spend a night after work, but there are probably other shows I would rather have seen. Two hours is way too long to watch an old man on stage pout about his inevitable death; even if there are a few laughs mixed in.

Thursday night I met up with my friend Allison and her friend Rebecca to have dinner at ‘Restaurant Le Baobab’, an authentic Senegalese place on 116th Street in Harlem. Rebecca told us about meeting with ambassadors from Bhutan, Bangladesh, and Belize as part of her summer internship working for the public relations department of the church, and I talked a little bit about traveling in those parts of the world (although I haven’t yet made it to Bangladesh… it’s not exactly high on my list of places to see). A distinctly West African crowd filled the restaurant – some in authentic West African apparel – and a small TV at the top of the room blasted Senegalese political rants on a channel that must broadcast from somewhere in Africa. Allison and I had a dish called ‘Thierry’; cooked chicken in peanut sauce accompanied by a pile of fine cous-cous. The Thierry was alright, but Rebecca’s dish turned out to be much better; juicy chicken kabobs with grilled onions, cous-cous, and fried plantains.

I vaguely remember visiting the top of the Empire State Building as a third-grade kid touring the East Coast with my Grandma Calder, but I decided was high-time to refresh my memory and Friday night was the perfect time to do it. After enduring an unbelievable series of long lines and elevator rides I finally made it to the 86th Floor Observatory at 7:30; just in time to catch the last rays of sun hitting the city, but late enough to watch Manhattan light up after dark. The crowds at the top were thick, but with a little strategic placement of my body and a little luck I had some great unobstructed views from all sides of the top of the tower. Looking south from the Empire State Building gives visitors a great view of the Flatiron Building below and a straight-shot look at Lower Manhattan. Looking north, though, turned out to be my favorite part. The Chrysler Building, Fifth Avenue, the GE Building, Central Park, and Times Square were perfectly laid out in front of me, and I snapped picture after picture with my new camera as the lights slowly came on in the city below. As the sky grew darker it was impossible to miss Times Square, which lit up all the surrounding buildings in Midtown like a giant, never-ending party.

In November I visited the American Express headquarters on a networking trip with the BYU MBA program and talked with a BYU alumni there named Kyle Poll about how to be competitive for a job at AMEX. I kept in touch with Kyle throughout the interview process, and when he called me Friday to ask for help with his engagement photos I was not only flattered, but also glad to be able to do something for him. Saturday morning I met Kyle and his fiancé Emily at ‘The Cloisters’ north of Manhattan, and together with Kyle’s friend Ashley I took hundreds of pictures of romantic engagement poses. I never imagined I would take any engagement photos, but it turned out to be a really fun way to experience New York’s own medieval museum. Ashley and I took shots of Kyle and Emily posing against stone columns, walking down medieval corridors together, and enjoying the landscaped gardens outside the museum. Even though the Cloisters was built in 1938 specifically as a museum, it felt just as classic as visits I’ve made to Rothenburg, Germany or York, England. Later this summer I’ll go back and spend more time at the Cloisters and get to know the authentic medieval art that’s housed inside.

After we all were satisfied that enough engagement photos had been taken, Kyle and Emily and Ashley and I headed to ‘Sarabeth’s’ restaurant on Amsterdam Avenue for a Saturday Brunch. As I ate my lemon and ricotta pancakes and Kyle enjoyed his pumpkin waffle, we uploaded the pictures to Kyle’s Macbook and previewed a few of the best ones. I’m secretly hoping they’ll choose one I took as the photo they send with their invitations, that would be a really random, flattering thing to happen during the summer.

As the day wound down I spent an hour or so wandering through Midtown Manhattan. I passed by the Chrysler building and gazed up at it from below, walked through Grand Central Station to 44th Street, then ducked in a few high-profile stores on Fifth Avenue. I enjoyed Facconable and The NBA Store, but my favorite was probably Saks Fifth Avenue. Iconic fashion shops like ‘Gucci’, ‘Prada’, and ‘Dolche & Gabbana’ lined the sides of the department store, and in my shorts and polo shirt I felt very out-classed, not to mention out-priced. A small handbag at ‘Dolche & Gabbana will only cost $1895 (yes, that’s nearly two-thousand dollars, I didn’t forget the decimal).

I can’t get enough of Thai Food. My favorite Thai restaurant outside of Thailand is definitely the inconspicuous ‘Thai Drift’ in Orem, Utah, but New York has some okay places too. I heard from a few different people about a Thai place in Soho that is well-known throughout Manhattan, so Saturday night I took the ‘R’ train down there for an Asian feast. The restaurant is a narrow room lit by neon-pink lights and graced with a golden Buddha, a classy chandelier, and loud techno music. I had the Pad Thai, which was excellent, and a dessert of chocolate mousse and banana sticky rice drizzled with chocolate and garnished with mint leaves (easily the best mousse I’ve ever had). Of course I enjoyed the food, but what I really came for was the bathrooms. After dinner I pulled open a mirrored door on one side of the dining room and, true to what I had heard, from the toilet inside I could look out and clearly see everyone in the restaurant. Mirrors on the ceiling of the dining room complete the one-way mirror theme of the bathrooms that inspired the name of the trendy Thai café: ‘Peep’.