Street food safari through New York City

I’ve been to New York plenty of times, but I’d never done a proper food-focused trip. This time I stayed for a week with one goal: eat as much diverse, delicious, cheap food as possible.

I started in Queens, the most ethnically diverse place in America. Flushing has the best Chinese food outside of China. I ate hand-pulled noodles at a restaurant where I was the only non-Chinese person. Soup dumplings at Nan Xiang where the line stretched down the block. And late-night skewers at a Sichuan spot where the ma la spice made my lips go numb.

Jackson Heights was next, known for its South Asian food. Samosas from a cart on 74th Street. Dosas at a Tamil restaurant where they serve them three feet long. And biryanis from multiple places because I couldn’t choose just one. The neighborhood feels like a subcontinental market transplanted to Queens.

Back in Manhattan, I hit the classics. Halal Guys cart for chicken over rice at 2 AM because that’s when you’re supposed to eat it. Gray’s Papaya for cheap hot dogs. Katz’s for a pastrami sandwich so big I could only eat half.

Brooklyn’s food scene is more spread out but worth exploring. I had pizza in multiple neighborhoods, trying to find the best slice. Di Fara is legendary, and the old man still makes every pizza himself. But honestly, the corner slice joint near where I was staying in Bed-Stuy was excellent and cost a third as much.

Brighton Beach, Brooklyn’s Little Odessa, was a trip. Russian restaurants serving borscht and pelmeni, shops selling Russian groceries, and old men sitting on benches speaking Russian. I had a massive meal at a Georgian restaurant, khachapuri and khinkali and way too much food, and it cost less than a mediocre meal in Midtown would.

The Bronx is underrated for food. Arthur Avenue is the real Little Italy, unlike Manhattan’s tourist trap version. I ate at a family-run Italian restaurant where the grandmother was still making pasta in the back. And I had some of the best Puerto Rican food I’ve ever eaten at a small place near Yankee Stadium.

Chinatown in Manhattan is touristy but still has gems. I ate at Tasty Hand-Pulled Noodles, watching them make the noodles in the window. At Xi’an Famous Foods, I had spicy cumin lamb noodles that were incredible. And I bought taro buns from a bakery that’s been there for decades.

What makes New York special for food isn’t fancy restaurants, it’s the immigrant communities that have brought their cuisines and kept them authentic. You can eat your way around the world without leaving the city, and often the best food is the cheapest.

One thing I realized: you can’t “do” New York food. The city is too big, too diverse, too constantly changing. Every neighborhood has its own specialties, every immigrant wave has left its mark. You can only sample, enjoy, and know that you’re barely scratching the surface.