Roaming Around New York City – 10 Foods to Try
New York is a bustling city with an estimated population of 8.175 million. With being the most culturally diverse and densely populated city of United States, it has the special advantage of equally diverse range of food to offer its residents and tourists alike. If you have come to greet the Statue of Liberty or to check the Empire state building, or many other attractive places the Big Apple has to offer, don’t stop roaming just there! We all know there’s no such thing as tourism without trying out all the celebrated food associated with the place.
Luckily for you, NY is the place where you will have the chance to try delicious new food as well as food you are already in love with — for New York is a culmination of all the best cuisines and delicacies! I have listed down ten foods that are a must try. Bon appetite!
- Pizza
Ever wonder why New Yorkers are so obsessed with their pizzas? You already may know this one because on your TV screens, these New Yorkers live, breathe and eat pizza. That may be the reason because the delicious original recipe was brought with the first Italian immigrants back in early 1900’s in NY. Hand tossed, with a light layer of tomato sauce and thin crusted so it is quite crispy yet foldable, the New York style.
Usually dressed with additional toppings with customer choice of plain regular or cheese. There are an array of mouthwatering flavors available for you to choose from provided that NY has the ethnic variety to offer. So you can choose NY Crust Pizza or cheesy burst pizza according to what your taste buds prefer.
- Bagels
Bagels are tasty and a quick choice to a breakfast. Warm, a bit bland in taste, soft and chewy, this doughy bread like delicacy is cooked in boiling water. Furnished with a light crisp on the outside which is perfected with an oven bake, bagels are ready to take you on your day. New York bagels are hailed to be the best. They can be paired up with cream cheese or taken up as a sandwich base to many combinations your imagination may cook up. The smell wafting from a bakery or coffee (coffee being bagel’s best friend) is practically enough to compel you into eating these treats and never getting off this addiction ever again!
- Cheesecake
If you have watched the famous comedy sitcom Friends (filmed in NY), you’d know what a true fan is ready to do for a heavenly slice of cheesecake. Eat it off the floor with a fork with your mate to have the finishing bite! Okay that’s a crazy and very unhygienic thing to do but hey, 5 sec rule anyone?
Jokes aside, New York has some of the finest cheesecake bakeries. Having a similar story as of pizza evolution in NY, immigrants that settled there perfected a recipe over time by tweaking it a bit and rebranding the new version as a New York style which is praised all around the world. This style consists of a rich, creamy and satiny texture which is due to the usage of heavy cream, eggs and cream cheese of course. If you have got a sweet tooth, it might be near impossible to resist it.
- Chinese Food
Be it take out menus or restaurant choice, Chinese food is almost as popular as pizza in this big city. Since New York has the largest Asian ethnic population in the world after Asia itself, there is no shortage of venues that offer you delicious and authentic Chinese cuisine, not the American Chinese version, but the real deal right in the New York City. You could go for a steamy rice roll, piping hot Sichuan, top notch Hot Pot, the fantastic soup dumplings or the life of Chinese: noodles. There are just too many tasty dishes for you to miss!
- Egg cream
Unlike the popular belief to the children, foreigners or the gullible misinformed locals, egg cream has actually nothing to do with neither egg nor cream. This classic, sweet drink is whipped up from milk, chocolate syrup or vanilla flavor and carbonated water to add the magic. You have to try this at least once.
- Hot dog
You can hardly pass by a New York street without also encountering a food truck or vendor that sells hot dogs. Enclosed in a long bun pocket is the grilled or steamed sausage which is then topped with spicy mustard and sautéed onion rings along with tomato sauce. While you can get a hot dog from about any street, Coney Island is most famous for their mouthwatering supreme hotdogs.
- Black and White Cookies
Gained fame after one of the German bakeries at the Upper East Side introduced them to New York, these cookies are not to be taken as any regular cookies; one, for they melt into your mouth after one bite since they are made of shortbread, and two, it has got the icing on it, wait not just single flavored one but double! Half chocolate and half vanilla. Black and white hence the name. However, in Germany it is known as Amerikaner.
- Ramen
Ramen deserves the recognition in New York separately from Chinese food, after being worldwide known as the packet noodles you microwave and eat at 2am in the morning on the kitchen counter because you are hungry and that’s your best option at home cooking. The truth is, there is so much more to Ramen than your average packet flavor. Once upon a time I saw a movie called The Ramen Girl (2009) and to be honest they made me salivate for 2 hours straight. You can find authentic Ramen Noodles in New York that will absolutely change your memory of what usually tastes like.
- Burgers
Who doesn’t love a good burger? There are a number of bistros and burger joints in NY for you to hit up that will fuel your addiction for burgers. Good cheese burgers are a specialty that will rock your taste buds with the addictive fries to go by with. Creativity does not fail the burger joints, for you can find burger patty to be stuffed with cheese and fried mushrooms that melt into your mouth like the gooey goodness they carry.
- Pastrami Sandwich
Another good eat with the semblance to burgers is sandwich, and in NY you have you try the famous sandwich that is prepared with cured beef laden with brown mustard and a pickle of your choice in rye bread. There’s nothing like a good pastrami sandwich so if you have not tried it yet, better late than never.
Some people eat food to stay alive and some stay alive to eat food. Whether you are a food aficionado or not, the list of foods above will hopefully make your mind into trying these.
Photo: Pixabay
Contributed posts are advertisements written by third parties who have paid Woman Around Town for publication.