It’s just about possible to find near anything in Manhattan. For entertainment, it’s the greatest city in the world, with the best theatre, live music, dance, and just about anything one could imagine. It does indeed live up to its reputation, and the daring tourists are often surprised, and even delighted, to discover what’s considered experimental these days. For real experiments, though, it’s a challenge to try to find a food that a hundred locals don’t have an opinion about.

It’s all here, in the place where all cultures converge, and for a true gourmet, it’s a paradise. If one happens to prefer to get their food fried and on the cheap, it’s also a pretty glorious place, too. These days, two of the foods that the locals and the visitors are all raving about are, once again, probably unexpected for all the salivating they seem to muster. But one visit to each of these places, and it will be clear what the fuss is all about.

Close enough to NYU to walk (but everything is close enough to walk to, if one has the time), is Pommes Frites . Customers can eat these Belgian French Fries in the place, if there’s any room, or sneak away to the luxury NY hotel and indulge in private. This is the real thing, too, the way they do it up in German-speaking countries, where the potatoes are fried twice to give them the extra crisp, and ketchup is available, but mayo and curry or other sauces are recommended for a dizzying experience.

It didn’t take Sex & the City to put Magnolia Bakery on the map, but it probably didn’t hurt much. The secret golden offering here is the cupcake. It’s not the ordinary grocery store kind, although no one would expect that of New York. This is a blast of flavor and rich goodness, the kind that reminds people of childhood. These places are worth trying when visiting the city, though not necessarily on the same day. It’s good to stretch these guilty pleasures out, so that the memory can sink in.

My friend Robert has lived in New York his entire life, save the four years he attended Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona.  We met at the university, and became forever friends, and it is he I hold partially responsible for my love affair with his hometown.  Throughout the years I have been to visit him many times, each time he lives in a different neighborhood.  First in Queens, where is originally from, then in Alphabet City, to the Upper East Side, to Brooklyn to Chelsea.

We both have a bit of an indulgent side when it comes to food.  Not that we a lot, but in that we love different flavors, and one thing about the best restaurants New York City offers, is that each one will have its own uniqueness, its very own kind of flavor.  Flavor in the food, and flavor in the atmosphere.  During my last trip, which was only a short three day visit, I experience more of a variety then I do in an entire year in Phoenix.

And it started the night I arrived.  We ordered out for pizza.  Simple mushroom and spinach pizza right?  Wrong, okay it’s a cliche, but New York pizza truly is the best.  Some say it’s the water, I don’t know.  Perhaps it’s a bit of that, combined with the view of the city skyline from the apartment window, a bottle of very fine Chianti and the company of a dear friend.  I think it’s a bit of all of that combined.  The next day we headed for a falafel sandwich, for $2.50.

Now there are good Mediterranean restaurants in Phoenix, but nothing beats walking just to the edge of Korea Town in New York and sitting in a crowded little place that has been there for 40 years.  We later ate at an Italian bistro in the East Village.  For the next two days, it was Dim Sum in Chinatown, a hot dog on Fifth Avenue, a cupcake from the Magnolia Bakery, and garlic knots from Ray’s in Times Square. I left New York with a bit of a belly ache, but it was worth it.