A Thing in New York
Burgers, bagels, hot dogs, donuts, lobster rolls – the streets of New York are paved with them and always will be. But besides smashed avocado toast and nitro coffee, what else is currently a thing? Food editor at large Marjan Ippel on the city that always eats.
1. Truly original and authentic
Not foreign restaurants run by second- or third-generation New Yorkers, but 100 percent foreign chains making their first move beyond their own national borders in New York City. Such as the recently opened Ichiran, which has been serving ramen noodles in one-person flavor concentration booths in Japan for fifty years.
TsuruTonTan is also a Japanese chain. It has been serving homemade udon noodles for thirty years. Now it is also in Manhattan. The Chinese chain Hao Noodle & Tea by Madam Zhu’s Kitchen is likewise taking its first steps abroad in New York. And the upcoming food hall by Anthony Bourdain will even be filled entirely with branches of authentic foreign classics.
(photo: TungCheung / Shutterstock.com)
2. Ice cream cone alternatives
Even though New Yorkers eat noticeably more seasonally than we do, they queue for ice cream 365 days a year. And they keep coming up with new alternatives to the cone. From éclair to shortbread. Recently, Taiyaki NYC started serving ice cream in a traditional Japanese taiyaki. The originally fish-shaped, closed waffle, filled with, for example, red bean paste, has an open mouth here, from which soft serve rises in Instagram-worthy waves.
3. Breakfast things
Breakfast is definitely a thing. With eggs any style, bagels, biscuits and gravy, buttermilk pancakes, hash browns, morning cocktails, et cetera, for as long as anyone can remember. But besides breakfast kale, there are now plenty of vegan delicacies such as steel-cut oats (not rolled; we call them oat groats), brûléed grapefruit and mint, Asian black sticky rice pudding, paratha (Indian pancakes), and lots of hummus & co.
4. Oysters any style 24/7
Something that simply refuses to work for us on the North Sea can always be done anywhere and at any time in the city built on oyster shells. Including breakfast: eating oysters. From a grubby street cart to a Michelin-starred restaurant. Jealous.
