Your favorite NY food !

[toto2]

Since i had such rapid and exellent answer to my post on Cheese stores , i am coming again for your advice !

Since we plan on munching most of the three days in february we will be in NY , do you have any Unusual food experience to suggest: special food cart , foreing delicasy , the unbelivable cupcake , or pie , or sandwich etc !

Last time i was in NY , i went to Cupcakes ( found on the Roadfood site) and while the cupcakes where amazing looking , they were not the best...

It can be your favorite canolly, a place whre the have the best saucisson etc. How about a place where the would sell artsanal food products !

I really lke the Papaya KIng hotdog place in the Village...it those type of experience i am looking for ! (no sit down restaurnt please !)

Thank you again for your help !

And feel free to ask me some questions about Montréal !

[gweixel]

i imagine you've heard of or been to magnolia's bakery on bleeker and w11th for the most amazing cupcakes - there is always a line down the block for them no matter how cold it is - so if you havent tried it yet you should!!

veniero's on 11th st bet 1 &2nd ave for the best cannolli and San Loco's on second ave bet 7th & 8th for the best bean tacos (get the gauco-loco - its a taco wrapped in a gaucamole covered tortilla - delicious and only about $2.)

[toto2]

You got exactly what i am looking for !!!!

Keep the suggestions comming, in that vein , and our munching weekend in NY will be incredible !

[=Mark]

Margarita at Los Dos Molinos, 119 E. 18th. You can stand at the bar...

[Gastro888]

Mei Lah Wah Bakery in Chinatown. Best Cha Sui Bao in NYC. Experience the grump old farts along with crumbly old 1950's decor.

Fay Da Bakery - Japanese cheesecake. Damn. Good stuff.

[Luckylies]

I must strongly dissagree with gweixel on the magnolia issue. please, go, take pictures of the people on the long line outside, even if you must, enter the place....but do not! not! get a cupcake! think, yellow box cake mix (but not as good) covered with confectioners sugar and crisco dyed a pretty color to mak it's inherent evil unknown. if you must go have some of the bananna pudding, or perhaps the flourless chocolate mini cake.

really dude, not good.

but in saying that, venieros is nice. try the stawberry sponge whipped cream cake thing it's great.

This is a nice walk around the village..in order.

Afer Murray's for cheese you can pop around the corner for fried oysters at Pearl (on cornealia st off bleeker) then you can buy some fresh italian pork products at Faiccio's which is also on bleeker st..then wander towards Bar Pitti for a nice espresso and perhaps a carpaccio (they also have great other food) this is on bleeker and 6th avenue aka avenue of the americas...still not full? walk down 6th ave to soho and stop at prune on houston st...they have a lovely menu and you can eat at the bar. now go to the angelicka and see an art movie...have a snack at their overpriced concession stand, perhaps a brownie?

good luck.

[Suzanne F]

Thank you, Luckylies, for breaking the taboo and telling the truth about Magnolia. I believe they do make the batter from scratch, but you are correct about the :blech: frosting. (I know from working on a book of their recipes, in which those horrible ingredients were indeed listed.)

I don't know if Billy's has corrected for those faults, but if they have, might be worth trying. But indeed, Veniero's is a good experience, and a good example of commercial "Italian" baking.

And if you mean Gabrielle Hamilton's Prune, that's actually on First Street (one block above Houston), way over east between 1st and 2nd Avenues. I've only been there once, mostly loved the food, but it is very cramped (discussed here).

[Luckylies]

oops I meant jane...I'm not a morning person. I think the place before it may have had a fruit name though...plum? anyhow jane is a nice place to grab a affordible, good bite.nice wine selection too. as for prune, yum yum, yet totally different and far from where I was leading my conceptual walking tour. I didn't think that the cupcakes from magnolia were made from a box, I just kind of wished they were...

I hate to knock such a popular tourist destination, as well as a place so often copied...someone must like the cupcakes...but I must, say otherwise or my conscience will ea at me eaternally. It's lousy having a dessenting opinion...

[rozrapp]

It's lousy having a dessenting opinion... 

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Luckylies, Absolutely do not berate yourself for having dissenting opinions. It's what makes for much more lively discussions. Maybe you should have called yourself "Luckytruths"? I've only had a Magnolia's cupcake once, and I didn't think it was all that bad. But I'd never stand in a block-long line for one.

Toto2, here are my suggestions:

Yonah Schimmel's, 137 E. Houston St., is the place to go for a very tasty hot potato knish. Then, for the quintessential NY drink -- the chocolate egg cream -- go a short distance away to Avenue A, b/t 7th St. & St. Mark's Pl., and look for a tiny hole-in-the-wall "candy" store with no name. Their egg creams are the best!

P.S. Since you're from Montreal, should we presume that the last time you were here, you did the pastrami vs smoked meat comparison?

[dknywbg]

The chocolate chip cookies at City Bakery (18th St betw. 5th/6th Aves) are the best. cookies. in. the. world.

If you like gelato, Il Laboratorio del Gelato on Orchard Street (Lower East Side) is worth a special trip. It's the guy who founded Ciao Bella, making small-batch, intensely flavored stuff. Try the chestnut, the dark chocolate, the pistachio...

Nearby on Rivington is Economy Candy, an old-time penny candy store with an impressive array of high-end stuff, too.

Also not far, Kossar's Bialys on Grand Street. The best bialy you'll ever eat.

And I'm sure this'll ignite an argument, but I think the best bagels in the city are made by Ess-a-Bagel. They've got a couple of locations around town.

[rooftop1000]

I dont eat nearly enough streetfood in NY and most that I have had was while....umm er drunk. But the best cupcake I ever had was at Citarella up by the Beacon Theatre ... it was massive, dense, amazing icing, it was even better than the concert which was great trans-siberian orchestra

back downtown there is the donut plant 379 Grand which is near the Bialy place I think .....isnt there a whole thread......

http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showto...hl=hallo+berlin on Carts like Hallo Berlin etc

i still cant do links

tracey

[dknywbg]

Mmmm yes, the Donut Plant is just a few doors east of Kossar's. The Lower East Side/East Village is just filled with good foodie places. I thought of a couple more:

-Katz's deli on Houston, for perfect NY pastrami (in case, as Rozrapp suggested, you still need to sample some).

-Russ & Daughter's, also on Houston (near Yonah Schimmell, suggested above) for smoked fish & "appetizing"

-Moishe's on Grand St (another is on 2nd Ave in the E. Village) for black & white cookies & Jewish rye bread

-Veselka on 2nd Ave for pierogies & hearty soups

-Pepe Rosso To Go on Sullivan Street for great, inexpensive Italian (they have a couple tables, but it's not a restaurant by any stretch of the imagination)

I'm sure there are more... You could spend an entire day eating within a 15-block radius.

Oh, and if you want to see old-school NY foodies in their natural habitat, take a trip to the Upper West Side and check out Fairway, Zabars, and Barney Greengrass.

[docsconz]

Pizza, Check Out The NYC Pizza Survey for a discussion with photos of some of NYC's best.

Chinese Dumplings and Dim Sum. Check out The Best: Chinese Dumplings if you haven't already.

A Knish is a must, too.

[bloviatrix]

The chocolate chip cookies at City Bakery (18th St betw. 5th/6th Aves) are the best. cookies. in. the. world.

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If you hit City Bakery, you absolutely must try their Pretzel Croissant. Imagine a buttery croissant with lots of crispy bits with sesame and salt. Absolutely delicious!!

[tomweir]

There's a cute little bakery, Sugar Sweet, on Rivington between Norfolk and Essex that does cupcakes. You get to sit down too and have a coffee while you are at it. I never tried their layer cakes but they looked great. It's pretty mellow and you can watch the owners do their stuff down the back. Me, I just used to buy their coffee cake, I don't really get the whole cupcake thing.

Russ and Daughters for a bagel and cream cheese with lox. Now you're talking.

[toto2]

Thank you everybody ! Keep them comming !

I will have to try to do the Pastrami/smokemeat comparrision !

I must say that i lived in NY for 7 month many years ago , doing the actingstudent/café waiter thing , and never had pastrmi ! Shame on me !

All of you really got the driff of what i was looking for ! My friend will be very impress with my knowledge of the Ny food millieux !

[Busboy]

I feel as though I'm in the minority, but I like pastrami at the 2nd Avenue Deli better than Katz's. And I once sat next to Jackie Mason at the Carnegi Deli in Midtown, so I feel assured by the quality there, as well, despite the fact that it's not actually kosher.

No place is better to stumble into after a late-night binge than Vaselka's, which dknywbg mentioned upthread. Try the latkes.

I suspect that I will never again spend a Saturday in New York without having lunch in the front room of the Grammercy Tavern.

[SobaAddict70]

I'd have to say Jamaican beef patties....unless they're not indigenous to NYC.

Right behind a knish (with mustard and onions) and a Nathan's, of course.

Soba

[Pan]

Soba, tell us some place(s) where you like to go for patties.

[SobaAddict70]

I'm pretty pedestrian when it comes to patties.

There's a hot dog/falafel street cart on the corner of 50th and Park Avenue (northeast corner) that has them. The grilled dogs are kind of ok.

Hey, you asked.

Seriously, there probably are great beef patties that transcend street food...but I haven't encountered any thus far.

Soba

[Todd36]

in the true NYC experience.....

1. You have to try a good pizza somewhere, maybe more than one place. I leave it to more of a pizza expert to suggest something. I don't eat as much pizza as I used to.

2. Katz's, for a very good hot dog and pastrami. The meats are the things to get here.

3. Barney Greenglass the Sturgeon King. Herring in cream sauce, nova with eggs. If you like this sort of thing, this is a must.

4. Zabar's. Just walk though it. All of my out of town friends really enjoy it.

5. A coffee cafe. There are dozens of them in town, and many people have their favorites. examples include things like Cafe Dante. These can be a little bit past their prime and touristy, but still, are interesting.

6. It may be too cold, but the Green Market at Union Square is interesting if you like the idea of a pretty large farmer's market in a very big city.

7. A good bread bakery like Sullivan Street.

8. If you have never experienced a large scale Chinatown, Manhattan has a large and interesting one.

9. A good bagel place. I favor Murry's.

[Gastro888]

I vote H&H for good bagels (next to Zabar's) and a stroll through Dean and Deluca for gourmet food shopping. There's a Japanese pastry store in midtown near Takayashima. It's next door to Alfredo's and it's breathtaking in it's display of Japanese sweets. Contrast that with the Chinese bakeries. Discuss amongst yourselves...