GUEST POST OVERVIEW:New York City! The Big Apple. The City That Never Sleeps. AKA, my home town. A place where delicious food is sold on every corner, 24/7. My personal favorites are slices of pizza, street vendor pretzels and the Halal rice and lamb guys by Wall Street. 

For a different take on some great street snacks in New York City, Aleix has written in with this great guest post…

 

The Empire State Building — as seen from 34th Street and Fifth Avenue
The Empire State Building — as seen from 34th Street and Fifth Avenue

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New York has a reputation for being a city where there’s a wide variety of fast food on offer. Obviously some will be more healthy than others but what cannot be denied is that they’re all very, very tasty. Here are five examples of what you should try on the streets when visiting the Big Apple.

Some misguided people say that all you can eat in the United States is fast food. That’s obviously as wrong as 2+2=5 as anyone who has been to New York will be able to tell you. If you’re hungry, look away now.

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Pastrami Sandwich

Pastrami sandwichI’ll start with my favorite, a recipe that one can never get tired of, the pastrami sandwich. Pastrami is a meat traditionally made from beef, which in New York, comes traditionally from the brisket. It’s coated in brine and in spices such as garlic, mustard seeds, black pepper and paprika among others and then it’s smoked.

In New York City, it’s traditionally served on rye bread and sometimes with salad and sauces. These sandwiches are really thick since they are almost stuffed with pastrami, which makes a mouthful of it feel almost like you’re eating just a piece of meat.

(image courtesy of Wikipedia)

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A Slice of Pizza

Let’s face it, unhealthy many times means totally delicious, and here comes a street food that perhaps isn’t the most appropriate if you’re on a diet. New York pizza is basically a margarita pizza, a huge margarita pizza, served in huge slices on the street in hundreds of different stalls all over the city.

These slices are nothing like those that are sold in Europe, these slices are a meal in itself and despite there being other types of pizza on sale, such as pepperoni or with other toppings, the margarita is the authentic New York pizza, so make sure you buy a slice to kill your hunger when visiting the city.

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New York Bagels

New York City BagelBagels are also something very typical from New York. For those of you who don’t know what they are, bagels are bread buns in the shape of a ring and with a hole in the middle that, toasted or not, are filled with spreads (cheese or butter) and anything that you wish to put on it, such as vegetables or meat among other things.

(photo courtesy of Daniel’s Bagels)

The bagels can also be of different types of bread, such as plain white, with seeds, wholemeal and made with any ingredient that you can think of, with the bread being just as important as the toppings. A personal favourite is the cream cheese and smoked salmon bagel. Get the idea?

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Chinese Food in Chinatown

If you walk around Chinatown, there’s a good chance that you’ll find street food stalls that sell all sorts of Chinese food, mostly noodles, topped with many different kinds of sauces, meats, vegetables and cooked in different ways. There are many types of fast food restaurants that serve this but none more original than those that aren’t franchises, especially if you can find them in Chinatown where the culture is local. It’s definitely a good way to kill your hunger in the middle of the day if visiting this part of town, it will be just like eating in Asia.

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Baked Potato King

Baked Potato KingLastly and this is a true gem I discovered during my second trip to New York is the Baked Potato King. This might sound a bit rudimentary but take my word that it’s absolutely delicious and quite popular amongst New Yorkers and it’s located on W39th and Broadway, not far from Central Station.

Here they sell baked potatoes with all sorts of toppings, such as cheese and different vegetables or meat such as chili, all served in a cut-in-half baked potato that goes with a plastic fork to eat it with. Simple, delicious, and pretty healthy compared to other fast foods.

 

 

About the Author: Aleix Gwilliam is a 24 year old from Barcelona who looks English but thinks like a Catalan. He enjoys traveling, especially on old Czech trains, and trying to start conversations in Hungarian with people at Pecs station, even though his Hungarian is as good as his Bulgarian, in other words, not very good. He’s a trier.