NEW Y TRAVEL
EAT YOUR
Most people go for the sights: the shimmering upturned ice cream cone of the Chrysler, the razor clam spikiness of the Empire State Building, and the cheesecake wedge of the Flatiron. As you can probably tell, I’ve come for the food, and New York does not disappoint. It’s the city to live in if you crave Chinese take-out with chopsticks at 3am, if you want to sink your incisors into giant, sloppy burgers, and gnaw on mahogany-coloured pretzels and obscene, orange corn dogs from roadside carts. Manhattan crams its 22.7 square miles with bagel joints and juice bars, coffee shops and donut stalls, gourmet food halls, Thai, Vietnamese, Korean - the choice is overwhelming. So how do you decide to what to eat? This year, all eyes may be on America’s politics, but these emerging food trends will be shaking things up too...
AMERICAN SOUTH
Southern American food is in full-on revival mode, so if you haven’t time to take in it’s homeland, Louisiana’s New Orleans, during your US trip, New York will plug the gap. Promising ‘honest Southern food’, Root & Bone in the East Village, is all rustic wood, exposed piping and wire buckets of fried chicken, served alongside golden waffles and molten mac and cheese. The rural American grub is so moreish and earthy, I’m still chewing on the salty, lemony chicken bones when a gooey Mississippi mud pie arrives. At Harlem’s Red Rooster, the food is more technicolor - think crimson sauces that match the restaurant’s frontage and bold portion sizes - but its fare is no less Southern. We sit on plastic red chairs (everything is red) out on the street, people-watching between trying to stuff humongous crispy bird sandwiches in our mouths. They’re massive - filled with half a chicken at least - and dripping with a signature, terracotta-coloured sauce that’s tomatoey, without being too sweet. It gets smeared all over your wrists and forearms, no matter how many napkins you grab.
n Root & Bone, www.rootnbone.com; mains from 19 USD (about £15); expect a queue if you don’t have a reservation
Over near Hudson Square, back in Lower Manhattan, Harold’s Meat + Three serves decent fried chicken, but their Southern side dishes eclipse it. I wolf down three nuggety ‘biscuits’ (like savoury scones, stuffed with sweetcorn, bacon and spring onions, and slathered in butter), before getting started on grilled asparagus spears and traditional creamy grits.
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ISLE OF MAN PREMIER MAGAZINE