Queens

At MoMA's hip contemporary outpost, you'll be peering at videos through floorboards, schmoozing at DJ parties and debating the meaning of nonstatic structures while staring through a hole in the wall. Exhibits include everything from Middle Eastern video art to industrial boilers covered in gold leaf. Many are site-specific installations – Meeting (1986), an installation by LA light artist James Turrell, is definitely worth seeking out, especially just before sundown.

This supercool complex is one of the world's top film, TV and video museums. Galleries show the best of a collection of 130,000-plus artifacts, including Elizabeth Taylor's wig from Cleopatra, an epic bounty of vintage TVs and cameras, 19th-century optical toys and a room of vintage arcade games. Interactive displays – such as a DIY flip-book station – show the science behind the art. The museum also has fantastic temporary exhibitions and regular film screenings; check the website for details.

These neighborhoods at the far reaches of New York City are unlike anything else in the five boroughs. Some parts look like the rest of southern Queens, others like a mid-Atlantic sea town that happens to be reachable by subway. Most people come for the beaches, known for their surfing, but it's worth sticking around as the neighborhood has been working hard to rebuild after Hurricane Sandy. There is plenty to enjoy on dry land that is worth the trip.

When it comes to sidewalk grazing, it's hard to beat Roosevelt Ave and its army of late-night Latino food trucks, carts and secret delis. Just one stroll from 90th St to 103rd St will have you sipping on champurrados (a warm, thick corn-based chocolate drink), nibbling on a cemita (Mexican sandwich) and making a little more room for some Ecuadoran fish stew. It's cheap, authentic and quintessentially Queens. Hungry? Then set off on a taste-testing mission of Roosevelt Ave's best.

On the south side or Roosevelt head for the intersection with Forley St. Here you'll find the celebrated food stall Taco Veloz, which whips up delicious tacos as well as first-rate cemitas ($7).

A short stroll further east along Roosevelt Ave lies the corner deli La Esquina del Camarón. Never mind the nondescript entrance; head to the back where you'll find a food counter where skilled staffers whip up some of the best shrimp cocktails on the planet. They come loaded with shrimp (and/or octopus) and are topped with sliced avocado – zingy, refreshing and mouthwateringly good.

Keep rolling along Roosevelt Ave to Warren St. A major Warren St star is El Guayaquileño, famous for its Ecuadoran encebollado – a stew made of tuna, yuca, cilantro, onion, lemon, cumin and toasted corn kernels. It's flavorsome, wonderfully textured and a meal in itself. If you're more in the mood for something meaty, the food truck a few feet away serves up roast pig with crackling and all the fixings.

The intersection of Main St and Roosevelt Ave, downtown Flushing, can feel like the Times Sq of a city a world away from NYC. Immigrants from all over Asia, primarily China and Korea, populate this exuberant neighborhood, and its markets and restaurants burst with the delicious and exotic.

To the southeast is Corona, most notable for Flushing Meadows Corona Park, Queens' massive green heart. Besides several worthwhile museums, the park (created to host the 1939 World's Fair) also contains the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, where the US Open is held every August.