Even with all the cooking we do around here, we enjoy taking a break sometimes and getting out to try some interesting restaurants around our city – after all, we live in New York and there’s so much excellent food here.  So today we’re going to highlight two spots we visited recently that are both in midtown Manhattan but which serve some very different cuisines.  We enjoyed each for what they offered, and they represent just how diverse and interesting New York City’s food scene can be.  So without further ado, here are our two recommendations for today.

First is Lions and Tigers and Squares, which is probably the most cleverly named place we’ve ever seen because what they serve up is square Detroit-style pizza (if you’re still struggling with the name, just think about what teams play professionally in that city).  Each pizza there is individually-sized, so we got a sampling to try out – here’s their classic, with just cheese and sauce:

This one is made with a vodka sauce:

And this is topped with sausage and onion:

Lions and Tigers and Squares is excellent for take-out food, but if you’re looking for more of a sit-down experience, and one from a very different culture, you can head just a mile north to Farida, which serves up all manner of Central Asian food.  Most likely you’ve never had food from Uzbekistan, or Ukraine, or Kazakhstan, so you’re in for an interesting treat.  When we visited, we started our meal with this mini umka puff pie, served with a tomato sauce dip – ours was stuffed with spinach, but you can also get pumpkin, chicken, or steak varieties.

Then Miriam had the vareniki, filled with potatoes and cheese and with sour cream on the side.

And Cyril had an order of manti, which are steamed dumplings stuffed with either meat or pumpkin.

Pizza and Central Asian food definitely don’t have a lot of overlap in terms of flavors or ingredients, and yet in the heart of Manhattan you can find these two different cuisines just a short walk from each other. That’s what we love about New York:  the abundance of different types of food and the diverse cultures whose dishes are on offer.  We think both Farida and Lions and Tigers and Squares are excellent examples of these two types of foods, and if you get a chance you should visit both – after all, there’s plenty of room in this city for both pizza and Uzbek dumplings.