Arthur Schwartz's New York City Food: An Opinionated History and More Than 100 Legendary Recipes

Chapters on New York City's massive ethnic influences (""The Jews,"" ""The Italians,"" ""The Chinese"") mingle with ones on various kinds of eating establishments (""Grand Hotel Dining,"" ""Steakhouses,"" ""Hot Dogs"") and with sections on ""The Corner Bakery"" and ""The Golden Age of Cocktails"" in this sumptuous celebration of Gotham's cuisine. Schwartz, a native New Yorker, has been dishing about the city's food for years on the radio, and here he catalogs dishes that are known the world over as well as ones that are nearly extinct. He reveals, for example, that only one bakery--in Brooklyn--still makes Nesselrode Pie, a ""glorious mound of chocolate-curl-covered rum-, chestnut-, and candied-fruit-flavored Bavarian cream,"" and that New York Cheesecake is a descendent of the cheesecakes of Eastern Europe. He also includes concise profiles of famous New York foodies, like New York Times critic Craig Claiborne and Lutece chef-proprietor Andre Soltner. Scintillating photographs of culinary delights such as Lobster Newberg (created at Delmonico's in the mid-1870s) and Biscuit Tortoni (which, before ""the tiramisu explosion,"" was one of the city's most popular Italian-American desserts) complete this delightful volume.