Sex, spice, and everything nice hides in Midtown East

No romantic candlelit dinner planned for this weekend? Go low-key instead and take a trip to the oft-unexplored Midtown East.

In addition to its bustling shopping and business districts, this curious corner of Manhattan is home to a host of Indian restaurants, vintage stores, and the raciest of museums. Here you’ll also find the perennial favorite treat for those celebrating Feb. 14 with or without a valentine—some pretty spectacular chocolate.

Opt for risqué on Valentine’s Day with a visit to the Museum of Sex at Fifth Avenue and East 27th Street. The latest exhibit, “Rubbers: The Life, History & Struggle of the Condom,” defines the condom as “a critical artifact of sexual history ... at the epicenter of debates regarding morality, religion, and disease.” A colorful collection of historical condom cases ranges from 1920s Trojan tins to 2008 Obama, McCain, and Palin condom boxes. An alphabetized list of condom slang spans “Anti-Baby” through “Zucchini Beanie,” and a collection of condom artwork by Randy Polumbo incorporates the titular object into multimedia pieces or “libidinal objects.” Through this reinterpretation Polumbo hopes to unsettle common notions of masculine and feminine.

The permanent collection features sex-related photography, including explicit vintage photographs, French postcards, male art nudes, and pin-ups. Other finds are a Pablo Picasso abstract vellum etching and several Keith Haring silk screens. There are also exhibits titled “Sex & Technology” and “Kink: Geography of the Erotic Imagination.”

The shock value draws museumgoers in but also serves a political purpose. The exhibits unsettle traditional ideas or misconceptions, with areas of the current condom exhibit dedicated to HIV/AIDS prevention, eugenics, and the female condom—the latter in the context of gender politics. The museum shop, of course, is unabashedly provocative, with a large selection of sex-themed coffee table books, masturbatory devices, and aphrodisiac chocolates.

Post-museum, stop at one of the many Indian restaurants in the surrounding Murray Hill, called “Curry Hill”by many residents. Bhatti Indian Grill at Lexington Avenue and East 27th Street has an extensive menu of delicious and affordable kebabs, curries, and kathi rolls. Especially notable is the vegetarian Tandoori Chaat Kebab ($6.95) which combines diced apple, pineapple, bell pepper, and sweet potato—tossed with balsamic vinegar and spices and grilled in a tandoor oven. The mango lassi is also praise-worthy for those in need of a sugar fix.

Then, in honor of Fashion Week, continue uptown to window-shop the spring and summer designer lines. Despite the snow, Barneys, Madison Avenue and East 61st Street, and Bloomingdale’s, Lexington and East 59th Street, have long moved on from the cold weather with colorful installations and light styles. While the windows bid welcome to spring, remember that the pink-and-red Hallmark holiday still has yet to pass. Pick up chocolates to give—or eat—at La Maison du Chocolat at 30 Rockefeller Plaza. The dark chocolate truffles make one forget all the pressure of Valentine’s Day.