A What Looks Good? Food Tour: New York City

The need to satisfy some of the demands of my non-foodie "academic" life made it necessary to visit New York City last week to do some research at the New-York Historical Society. It also gave me a chance to sample some of the good eats the city has to offer, and there are a lot of them. Beyond hot dogs and pizza--the two highest profile New York foods--New York has the most diverse and delicious food selection in the world. Overall, I'm very happy with the selection of meals I had while in New York, it represents a pretty good cross section of what I like to eat and what I like best about food. On this list you'll see high brow and low brow restaurants, along with some touristy stops and some hidden treasures that are not as well known.


Serendipity 3 - 225 E. 60th Street
The most memorable thing I had while in New York was Serendipity 3's Frozen Hot Chocolate, a wonderful concoction for those addicted to chocolate and who prefer their ice cream when it's nice and melted. I can't say that I actually know how the Frozen Hot Chocolate is made, but if I had to guess, I would say that it is half a cup of hot chocolate, with a hefty scoop of chocolate ice cream thrown in. By the time this lovely little dessert gets to your table, the ice cream has melted just enough to give it a unique texty: thicker than hot chocolate, thinner than a milkshake. Add on the usual chocolate beverage toppings--whipped cream and chocolate shavings--and you've got a dessert that is deceptively simple, yet is truly a delicious innovation. Also, I referred to the Frozen Hot Chocolate as a "lovely little dessert," but there is nothing "little" about it: it is served in a coffee cup the size of a cereal bowl, filled to the top with frozen hot chocolate. It was so big that even I, an accomplished chocoholic, was unable to finish one by myself.

Dylan's Candy Bar - 1011 3rd Avenue
Another dessert entry, from the candy shop one block down from Serendipity. Besides having a trendy name (Candy bar...get it?), Dylan's has an amazing selection of candy that includes old standards like jelly beans and gummi worms, and more unique novelty style candies such as Wonka bars and strangely colored M&Ms (gray?). Occupying two floors, Dylan's also has the space to feature an amazing variety of the candy available, such as the wall containing over 20 different types of jelly beans, all of which can be consumed by the pound. For those not interested in purchasing small bags of candy, there is also an assortment of ice cream drinks and shakes that can be ordered. These aren't as good as the candy, but they are a welcome addition to the Dylan's Candy Bar menu.

Gray's Papaya - 402 Sixth Avenue at 8th Street
If you're watching a movie set in New York, and the need arises to establish some New Yorkiness, usually Gray's Papaya gets mentioned. However, beyond the mention, there is little discussion of the hot dogs Gray's Papaya actually serves. They are, like a lot of the food I ate in New York, deceptively simple. Just a hot dog and sauerkraut, right? But the full taste of the Gray's Papaya dog--the taste that seems to come only with all-beef dogs, the taste the supermarket variety has yet to adequately replicate--makes you feel happy, guilty, and satisfied all at once. The dogs go best with one of the signature tropical drinks served at Gray's Papaya--I had Coconut Champagne--the subtly sweet taste compliments the sharp taste of the hot dogs.

Le Parker Meridien's "Burger Joint" - 118 W. 57th Street
This place is so laid back, it doesn't have an actual name, just "burger joint." It is secretly located in Le Parker Merdien Hotel, near Carnegie Hall and the Russian Tea Room, a small unpretentious nook in a sea of money, power and prestige. Burgers, fries and brownies are the only things on the menu, and the cheeseburger, available for a relatively plebian-friendly $6.50, is cooked to order and topped with the usual: tomato, lettuce, onions and pickle. The burgers have a simple look and a delicious taste, almost like a homemade burger from your grill at home would taste like, if you weren't such a terrible cook. It is worth noting that this no-frills establishment still caters to the Parker Meridian clientele, meaning that this place is known to the rich and the famous. In fact, during my meal at the burger joint, former Pittsburgh Steelers coach Bill Cowher came in and ordered a cheeseburger, which he ate at a table rather than take back to his room. And if its good enough for Bill Cowher, then it should be good enough for you.

Da Gennaro - 129 Mulberry Street
Little Italy suffers from an overabundance of Italian restaurants. All along Mulberry Street, overbearing maitre d's make their pitch for you to eat in their overpriced restaurant rather than the overpriced restaurant across the street. Because Little Italy survives only as a commercial district (surrounded on all sides by an ever-encroaching Chinatown) the small hole-in-the-wall eateries have been pushed out in favor of fancy gourmet Italian restaurants. These places are a dime a dozen, but Da Gennaro stuck for my brother and I, since our last name is...wait for it...De Gennaro. What are the odds? Pretty good, as it turns out--Da/Di/De Gennaro is far from uncommon--just check the phone book in Hoboken. Nonetheless, this was the first Italian restaurant that shared our surname, so that was cause enough to try their food. I ordered chicken marsala which was good enough, though I did not find it particularly noteworthy. Overall I was underwhelmed by the entire Little Italy experience; it is surviving only on the strength of its history and that of its cuisine, which even now seems overly commercialized. For a more authentic Little Italy dining experience, I recommend the North End in Boston, where it is still possible to find small family-run restaurants, the kind where the menu is full of pleasant surprises.

White Castle - 525 8th Avenue
As a native Californian, I have never had the opportunity to partake in the mini-burgers offered by White Castle (though I have eaten at its Southern counterpart, Krystal's), and our trip to New York made this a real possibility. It may seem odd to include White Castle on a list of must-have food while in a city as gastronomically diverse as New York, but you have to consider what it means to be denied a food item as iconic as the White Castle burger. Even though its mediocrity is legendary, we felt compelled to see for ourselves what the big deal was. Five burgers later, we had an idea as to why White Castle continues to persist in the face of the big chains: there is something wonderful about ordering a shitload of little, cheap burgers and eating to your heart's content. It is purely a matter of quantity, with just enough quality that you don't mind ordering a greasy sackful. With that said, now that I've finally eaten White Castle I won't be bending over backwards to eat it again.

Mama's Pizzeria - 108th and Amsterdam
This was actually the last meal I had in New York, which I suppose seems like a pre-planned move, but honestly my brother and I just needed a place to eat quickly before we caught a cab to LaGuardia. Mama's Pizzeria is, obviously, a pizza place, one of the hundreds of New York-style pizza purveyors in the city. When you are faced with the task of eating such a prolific food item, it is best to stay away from the usual "best" restaurants that people tend to talk about. That means when asking "Which is the best place to eat pizza in New York?" the answer is not "Famous Ray's." It's not "Famous Original Ray's." It's not "Sbarro" (good Lord, is it not Sbarro). No, the best answer to that question is usually to point your finger somewhere down the street and say "That one." That's precisely what my brother and I did in New York, and we were both happy with our selection.

Overall, the food in New York was fantastic, and I was barely able to scratch the surface of what the city had to offer. The quality of the food is so high and the selection so diverse that I imagine it would be difficult to go there and not be satisfied with what you eat. Overall, New York is a can't-miss city, one of the reasons for which is the food you'll eat when you go there.