Taste of New York: Signature Dishes of the Best Restaurants

Lasagna from La Caravelle; veal chop from Il Mulino; frozen lemon souffle from Lutece. Zahler, a literary agent who has studied cooking in France, goes about collecting standouts from a number of New York's most celebrated restaurants. Some are, unsurprisingly, quite elaborate: How many readers will be equipped to deal with nigiri sushi, courtesy of Hatsuhana, requiring ``staccato-like arm movements'' for the preservation of moisture in the rice? On the other hand, it would be tough to go wrong with blue corn biscotti, surrendered by the Mesa Grill, or with blueberry-banana muffins from Sarabeth's Kitchen. The terrain is more or less limited to Manhattan, though Gage & Tollner, the Brooklyn institution, is represented by a blackberry cobbler, and the book's profile is pretty upper-crust, after all. This can wear. But the point is partially escapism, so the best-known glamour can and will serve. (Best-known, of course, is not always best.) (Oct.)