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IT AIN'T ELEGANT, BUT...New York still leads the world in great ethnic food Certain eating experiences are mandatory for all residents and visitors to New York. No reservations or credit cards are needed--just a hearty appetite. If deli is to your liking, visit the Lower East Side. Katz's (205 East Houston St., 212 254-2246) has been hand-slicing its peppery and garlicky pastrami for sandwiches for 110 years. Give the counterman a buck with your self-service ticket to further fatten an already huge sandwich. Nearby, Mark Federman, a lawyer turned lox maven, presides over Russ & Daughters (179 East Houston St., 212 475-4880), a takeout business his grandfather started 88 years ago from a pushcart. Ask for a bagel and lox that's made with delicately smoked, satiny Gaspe salmon. For pizza perfection, drop by Lombardi's in SoHo (32 Spring St., 212 941-7994). More than a century after Gennaro Lombardi introduced pizza to Americans at his tiny store, his grandson, Gerry, and his partner, John Brescio, still turn out fabulous, coal-fired, brick-oven pies at an atmospheric location across the street from Gennaro's original site. Ask for a clam pie with fresh-shucked clams, garlic, and romano cheese. For a completely different ethnic experience, New Yorkers flock to Joe's Shanghai for soup dumplings. Joe's restaurants in both Chinatowns--Flushing, Queens (136-21 37th Ave., 718 539-3838) and lower Manhattan (9 Pell St., 212 233-8888)--feature baskets of delicious pork-and-crab soup-filled dumplings, which explode with flavor--and the soup--when you bite into them. New York is also the street food capital of America. You'll find Johannes Sanzin turning out world-class soups for Wall Street titans and office workers in his storefront at 77 Pearl St. (212 269-5777). Try his chicken soup with lemongrass and mint ($5.95 for a regular container). And don't overlook the falafel at Moshe's, whose huge cart infuses the corner of 46th Street and Avenue of the Americas with the smell of Frying chickpeas. Moshe enlivens his falafel with cumin, stuffing it into a fresh pita with creamy tahini and Middle Eastern pickles. For those with a sweet tooth, the flaky, buttery cylinders of rugelach at Margaret Palca Bakes in Carroll Gardens, an Italian neighborhood near the mouth of the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel (193 Columbia St., 718 802-9771), are sublime. And Maury Rubin's tarts at City Bakery (22 East 17th St., 212 366-1414) resemble Mondrian paintings--and taste even better than they look. Sample the Milky Way or creme brlee tart. And just try to resist the real frozen custard atCustard Beach (33 East 8th St., 212 420-6039), made with egg yolks and plenty of butterfat. You may find yourself exclaiming--as one ice cream executive did--that ''this is where God goes to get his ice cream.''
By Ed Levine RELATED ITEMS
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Updated Sept. 3, 1998 by bwwebmaster
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