I'd ridden past it many times on my bike, a pizza parlor just off Bowery called Pizza Junkie. What an odd name, I thought. But really an appropriate one in this tiny neighborhood just off what used to be the city's skid row, limited on the east by the wide expanse of Chrystie Street and Sara Roosevelt Park, which was a place you could always find a used work if you sifted around in the dirt under the bushes for long. Pre-Pulino's, this little strip was one of the most hardscrabble in the city.

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Alexia Nader

Jamaican patties bring some serious spice.

Downtown Manhattan is seriously lacking in Caribbean pastry shops. This may not mean much to some, but other people don't want to have to hop the train to Flatbush just for a snack. Luckily for that second group, Miss Lily's Variety (130 West Houston Street; 646-588-5375) now has the downtown patty front covered.

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Alexia Nader

Tongue sopes

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Alexia Nader

Freshly fried rice balls

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Alexia Nader

Potato building blocks

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With all of the hype leading up to the opening of Danny Meyer and Floyd Cardoz's new Battery Park City eatery, North End Grill, there's one thing you probably didn't realize. That some of the duo's most interesting flavor combinations can't be ordered in the dining room.More >>

Noah Fecks

Once you pop, you just won't stop.

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While fried potatoes get top billing on most restaurant menus, zucchini fries have fallen into the background. For no good reason. Crisp and crunchy, with creamy sauces for dipping and vegetable bodies, the zucchini fry should be on more restaurant menus. Fortunately, it seems to be making a comeback.

Over in Williamsburg, Williams & Bailey is slinging zucchini fries, with ranch dipping sauce. Super-skinny with a crumbly coating, they're the perfect matchup of bar snack and sophisticated side dish, even if they're served in a plastic basket. (Sidenote: W&B also serves a formidable French dip.) But it's the zucchini chips at Lafayette Street newcomer Jack's Wife Freda that are seriously drool-worthy.

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Aaron Landry/Flickr

Gone, but not forgotten

A day in the life of Jeremiah Moss, the writer behind the blog Jeremiah's Vanishing New York, is outlined in the Paris Review Daily. In the profile, Moss pays a visit to the original Ray's Pizza on the last day it's open and laments the decline of the ever-gentrifying neighborhood. (A new pizza place has already opened in its place.) "Little Italy is shrinking like a sandbar at high tide," he writes. "Just outside, people obediently go for cupcakes, exiting with heads bowed, eyes glued to iPhones, thumbing reviews to Yelp."

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The mofongo de camarones at the musical-sounding La Fe comes with an extra large cup of Creole sauce to moisten the mashed plantain.

Presenting the fare of two opposing hemispheres -- the East and the West -- in a segregated setting, Sunset Park is unique in New York's gastronomic demimonde. In other words, the Domincan, Mexican, Peruvian, Ecuadorian, and Salvadoran places, and the stray diner and Hasidic spot, are all tumbled down the hill toward the Upper Bay, while an ever-expanding Chinatown on top lures you with Vietnamese, Yunnan, Sichuan, Cantonese, Malaysian, and the occasional Thai place. You pick. Either way, dinner will be cheap and tasty. Sunset Park is one of the city's great unsung food destinations.

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The mofongo de camarones at the musical-sounding La Fe comes with an extra large cup of Creole sauce to moisten the mashed plantain.

Presenting the fare of two opposing hemispheres -- the East and the West -- in a segregated setting, Sunset Park is unique in New York's gastronomic demimonde. In other words, the Domincan, Mexican, Peruvian, Ecuadorian, and Salvadoran places, and the stray diner and Hasidic spot, are all tumbled down the hill toward the Upper Bay, while an ever-expanding Chinatown on top lures you with Vietnamese, Yunnan, Sichuan, Cantonese, Malaysian, and the occasional Thai place. You pick. Either way, dinner will be cheap and tasty. Sunset Park is one of the city's great unsung food destinations.

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