Bite by Bite: Exploring the Latest Flavors on a Recent Trip to NYC

Joe's pizza slice!

In New York, the smell of sizzling halal carts mingles with the sweetness of fresh pastries in Little Italy, while the clatter of dim sum trays in Chinatown echoes a few subway stops from Michelin-starred tasting menus. No other city eats quite like this and no place I have visited is quite as colorful. I’m fortunate that my older son is living in New York and I continue to have opportunities to visit him and explore beyond the usual places.

It’s an exciting and enticing array of establishments with eateries from around the globe and for me, a chance to try new things along with the tried and true.

One tried and true place that recently opened up in Murray Hill is Utopia Bagels, which for many years has been a stalwart spot cranking out some of the best bagels in the city not far from the Whitestone Bridge in Queens. Walking into this new, large shop off Lexington Avenue, is a sight for sore eyes with virtually every kind of spread imaginable and four different kinds of nova lox. My favorite of the varieties I tried, which included an egg bagel with everything seasoning and a traditional poppy seed, was the sesame toasted with scallion cream cheese and a slice of a fresh tomato. Perfection! And even better? No lines.

We headed straight for pizza to stamp our passport and tried the famous Joe’s Pizza on Carmine Street in Greenwich Village. The service was middling at best, but the pizza was solid. It’s not my favorite slice in the city, (my preference leans towards Scarr’s, Rubirosa, or L’Industrie) but if you are looking for something simple and straight, this is the place to come. Another place we decided to hit again was Mama’s Too, which is famous for an array of Sicilian style square slices with a variety of toppings and a viral chicken parm sandwich. Although all of the ingredients were superb on the sandwich, it was very difficult to eat it even at a table, which we were fortunate to grab. There was a cold piece of fresh mozzarella, along with warm pesto and the warm chicken parmesan covered in a delicious vodka sauce. Being married to a native New Yorker, he took a bite and put it down. The traditional chicken parm sandwich, which he adores, is more his speed and apparently a lot easier to manage. I loved my vodka slice, but I think my family members prefer a more traditional pizza and a simpler execution on the sandwich!

The array of offerings at Tashkent

Lately, there have been a number of exciting openings of international and more traditional grocery stores in Manhattan. One spot I have been hearing about that I wanted to check out in the West Village was Tashkent Supermarket. This long time Brighton Beach, Brooklyn-based grocery store, known for its behemoth hot bar, has been getting everyone excited. Why? Well, the shear number of offerings is mind blowing. There are sour cherry blinchik, Adana kebabs, samsa pastries, and a number of fresh salads. Just taking it all in, I wondered how on earth they could turn out so many different dishes. It is a very complex operation! One item that was intriguing was a “sushi salad” which had raw salmon, layers of cucumber and other vegetables with a base of vinegary steamed rice. Another called “fantasy salad” had a top layer of pomegranate seeds with chicken, potatoes, beets, eggs, and walnuts. It sounds weird, but it looked fantastic. I picked up vareniki, which is a Russian dish my mother and aunt made when I was young during their Russian obsessive phase (I come from an interesting family!). It was a sweet cheese filled dumpling that is sometimes covered with sour cherries. They had several varieties. I also grabbed a momo, (a Tibetan dumpling) filled with pumpkin that was very flavorful. The cuisine seemed to cover a variety of different cuisines from Russia and the Middle East to Greece and Japan. If you find yourself in Manhattan or Brooklyn for that matter, I highly recommend making the journey!

Another grocery store we visited was the Butterfield Market in the Upper East Side. This is a top-end grocery store with a pristine hot bar and some hard-to-find offerings such as Arethusa Dairy ice cream, which hails from Bantam, Connecticut. I seriously wished I had a freezer bag, but alas as I was headed to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, I did not. The prices were fairly high as one might expect, but it was an intriguing mix of a lot of unique items with beautiful produce on display.

For some of our meals on this trip, we tried some new places. Rather than score some hard-to-get reservations, I thought it would be more fun to try some places I have read about but never experienced. One of those places was Flex Mussels, which is located on the Upper East Side a short distance from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The menu focuses on (no surprise here) mussels with some other seafood dishes, but there is something for everyone – even those who don’t like fish or seafood. My favorite dish of those we tried was my coconut curry moules frites which everyone else seemed to enjoy as the bread that came with it seemed to disappear very quickly! This was a great respite in the middle of the day if you are looking for something simple and you are museum hopping.

Vinyl Steakhouse in the Flatiron district was a spot I heard about from a profile I read of an actor who lives in New York and happens to enjoy it. They offer a multitude of records that you can choose for the DJ to play during the course of your meal. My choice was Prince’s 1999, and I was as excited hearing it play the night we were there as I was the first time I heard it! The food isn’t trying to set the world on fire, but it’s a fun spot, with interesting drinks and decent offerings. My favorite item interestingly was the kale salad which had lacinato kale, radishes, roasted pistachios, and blue cheese croquettes with a creamy lemon dressing. I definitely want to make it at home when I get a chance since it was terrific.

Potluck Club's Salt and Pepper Chicken

Our final stop and the favorite of the places we tried, was Potluck Club. I had never heard of it previously, but as we happened to be in the Lower East Side, we decided to give it a try. When we walked in, we almost walked out as we were more interested in a traditional Chinese restaurant, but we are glad we did not make that mistake, as it would have been a big disappointment. The vibe is modern Catonese-American, with some fun artwork and a fresh approach to Chinese culture and dining. All of the dishes we tried were excellent, including the salt and pepper fried chicken, with pickled jalapenos and scallion biscuits, tiger shrimp with candied walnuts and romesco, and stir-fried snow pea shoots. Our favorite though was absolutely the Berkshire pork pot stickers which were served in a spicy chile oil. It was a cool experience and although the menu was small everything was tasty, and the staff could not have been nicer. Out of all the places we tried this time, this is one I recommend the most!

The Rif from Softside

No Summer trip to New York City can ever be made without trying some ice cream. To that end, we made the trip to Softside in Nolita so I could grab the Rif, which is soft vanilla ice cream, topped with olive oil, sea salt and honey. It was sublime. My kids were dubious, my husband even more so, yet they all ended up loving it. Another famous spot that we stood in line for was Caffe Panna, which is over in the Gramercy district. I got Aud’s Dream, which is vanilla sweet cream ice cream with a thick peanut butter swirl. It was topped with chocolate fudge and whipped cream. One of my kids got Red Flag, which is also vanilla, but this time it’s swirled with fresh strawberries and graham crackers, topped with chocolate and whipped cream. I would have liked to have tried some of their seasonal specials which featured blueberries, but we arrived

late in the evening close to the time they were closing!

I continue to be amazed by all that the many establishments across New York continue to offer. There is something for virtually anyone and it’s fun to simply walk around as we did and find some of the hidden gems and a few of the well-trodden highlights of what is being offered. Whether you’re a local or a visitor like me, New York’s food scene is a never-ending adventure, and one I can’t wait to explore again.