CHOWHOUND Andrew Zimmern has eaten his way around the globe while filming his TV show “Bizarre Foods,” which kicks off its fourth season Tuesday on the Travel Channel. He’s tucked into roasted bats in Samoa and feasted on blood in Uganda, but despite such culinary adventures, nothing compares to his hometown of New York. “It’s the greatest city for food in the world,” says Zimmern, who grew up on the Upper East Side. So, what makes NYC tops? “The money, the diversity and, most importantly, the new immigration,” says Zimmern. “There’s no greater amount of people so fixed on spending discretionary income on food as there is in New York City.” This is his bizarre-food New York.
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Marea, 240 Central Park South,near Broadway
“In the high-end category, I don’t think there’s anything more wondrous than what Michael White is doing at Marea. The two dishes that fall into [the bizarre] category are his uni and lardo crostini and his fusilli with bone marrow and octopus. The fusilli is so good that if you don’t tell someone what’s in it and they refused their whole lives to eat bone marrow or octopus, they’re still gonna lick the plate and ask you what’s so special about that dish.”
photo by Zandy Mangold
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Kum Gang San, 49 W. 32nd St., at Broadway
“I go at 3 in the morning for short-rib barbecue. I love Korean food late at night. I usually get a little jellyfish salad or a spicy raw tuna salad. I love the little pickles. I’ll do a pork rib-soup that’s fantastic and mix it with lots of fermented white chili bean paste. The explosive big flavors [mean] you don’t have to fill up — [all you need are] a couple pieces of grilled meat, some spicy pickled things. I think kimchee is great for your diet — and your digestive system.”
photo by Christian Johnston
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Barney Greengrass, 541 Amsterdam Ave., at 87th Street
“They’ll actually take the fins from the smoked fish — from the white fish and the salmon — and put them on a sizzle platter underneath the broiler, and they get crisp and hot and fatty. I have those with my scrambled eggs and toasted bialy. It’s a little off-the-menu item that’s just heaven.”
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The Breslin, 16 W. 29th St., between Broadway and Fifth Avenue
“April Bloomfield really knows how to cook, and she doesn’t do it in a clichéd, ‘Hey, I’m serving you something off-the-wall here, pay attention’ kind of way. It’s just honest. To see a room packed full of people competing to get at this kind of stuff [proves] New Yorkers want to eat good food no matter what it looks or sounds like.”
Zandy Mangold
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Papaya King, 179 E. 86th St., at Third Avenue
“I’m often asked what’s the most bizarre food I’ve ever eaten, and I always go back to the American hot dog. I just don’t think there’s anything [more] mysterious or insanely gross. I can’t land in NYC without grabbing a couple of hot dogs with mustard, onions and sauerkraut from Papaya King.”
photo by Jonathan Baskin
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Ali’s Kabab Café, 25-12 Steinway St., near 25th Avenue, Astoria
“Ali El-Sayed is something out of a 1940s Humphrey Bogart movie: [He’s] fast-talking, always telling stories, taking a piece of bread and swirling it around the inside of a pot before it’s [cleaned] to hand to a customer as he walks in the door. Like other cooks not born in the US, he’s still cooking with hearts and livers and other parts of the animal that a lot of people aren’t really working with.”
photo by Christian Johnston
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M&I International Food, 249 Brighton Beach Ave., between Brighton First Place and Brighton Second Street, Brooklyn
“If you don’t offer up the English language, you probably won’t hear it the entire time you’re in there. Yet I don’t want to dissuade anyone who doesn’t speak Russian or some other Eastern European language from going out there. Everyone’s very helpful. [They have] 20 kinds of pickles and 300 types of dried, cured salami and sausages. Everything is dirt-cheap, but the quality is insanely high. Upstairs, there’s a restaurant with homemade stuffed cabbage, blintzes and all kinds of goodies made by a Russian grandmother.”
photo by Christian Johnston
