V Rating: VVV
Where: Central Park West, 79th Street, New York (main entrance at 81st street).
When: Daily: 11am - 4.45pm.
Tel: (212) 769-5100
Price: Reasonable from memory

The day we visited the American Museum of Natural History was windy, cold, and snowing. Perfect weather for contemplating the observable universe. Not so awesome for going outside to hunt for food.

Needs must, we took a punt on the Museum’s food court. I was sceptical about the quality of their food (largely because when we’d asked at the ticket counter for somewhere to have lunch we were assured the food court “did donuts). However, I was surprised to find a range of healthy, vegetarian options.

Running down the centre of the food court was a large salad bar. There were lots of pre-made, interesting and tasty vegetarian salads and hot dishes, but you could also make up your own with fresh ingredients and dressings. On top of this, there was brown and wholemeal bread, juices, and fresh fruit.

When I thought about it, the amount and prominence of healthy food was unsurprising because the Museum must get subwayloads of school children each year and would be under pressure to provide nutritious lunch options.

There were still some token deep fried foods, greasy pizzas, and cream topped sundaes tucked away in the corners. Proving you can lead an American to a salad bar, but you can’t make them eat well, all the diners I saw made a bee-line for the artery-clogging food. Fools.
Of course, the food court is not the sole reason for visiting the Museum.We went mainly because:

1. It was windy, cold and snowing outside.
2. The Museum had it’s own subway station, largely avoiding the need to deal with 1.
3. It was included in the New York city pass, a great buy if you’re going to be in NYC for a few days and plan to see the major tourist sites. Not only do you save about US$50 per person, you don’t have to line up for tickets.

Despite our less than auspicious motives for visiting the Museum, we had a great time exploring the new planetarium and history of human evolution wings, and checking out the older dioramas and American Indian sections.

If you do go, make sure you go on a free guided tour. We were taken around by a fantastic guide called Berne, who not only brought the exhibitions to life, she also peppered the tour with fascinating insights about the history of the Museum, and the intellectual debates it had navigated.

For example, in 2000 the Museum controversially opened it’s new Rose Centre for Earth and Space with only eight planets. To the chagrin of the Friends of Pluto movement, the Museum had decided that Pluto just didn’t fit the bill. Since then, of course, Pluto has been dumped renamed a “dwarf” or “minor” planet, validating the Museum’s decision. As Berne frequently noted, when it comes to scientific facts (and snacks), you need to keep an open mind.

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