New York in a Dozen Dishes

Book excerpt: Join New York City's most intrepid eater--Robert Sietsema, pioneer of outer-boroughs dining--in an urban adventure like none other. Through essays on the city's defining dishes, some familiar, others obscure, Robert paints a portrait of New York's food landscape past and present, and shares a life spent uncovering the delicious foods of the five boroughs. Gobble up a century of New York pizza, from the coal-fired pies of a thriving Little Italy to the slice joints of a burgeoning rock 'n' roll East Village. Discover Katz's Delicatessen as Robert did, on a foray into the hardscrabble Lower East Side of the 1970s. Take Robert's hand and he'll bring you through the Mexican taquerias of Bushwick--with their papalo leaves and piled-high sandwiches--then visit the underground Senegalese dining scene hiddenin plain sight in 1990s Times Square. See the evolution of New York fried chicken from Harlem's spare, ancient style to the battered-and-brined birds of hipster Brooklyn. Hunt with Robert for Hangtown fry and a vanishing Chinese-American cuisine, and follow him as he ferrets out the city's most elusive foods, including the Ecuadorian guinea pig.