In case you couldn’t tell, we love pizza, and in fact we’ve written before about some great pizza spots we’ve discovered around New York.  Well, recently we’ve set out on another quest to check out more unique and delicious pizza places, and we’ve had some pretty tasty results.  Today we’re going to show you some great slices we’ve had all in the same neighborhood of Manhattan, and next week we’ll feature pizza from Brooklyn.  And the best part:  all of the pizza here is vegetarian!

On the Upper East Side you’ll find a cluster of places serving up Roman-style slices – officially, pizza al taglio – which have a light, airy, and crispy crust and are always served in rectangular pieces.  Here is a sampling from My Pie:  a slice with red sauce, mozzarella, basil, and eggplant; a slice covered in mushrooms, shredded zucchini, and artichokes; and a white slice with mozzarella, rosemary, and thinly diced potatoes.

Just a few blocks up from My Pie is Farinella, which serves up slices with gourmet ingredients.  Here’s our sampling from there:  clockwise from the very top is the Felice, topped with burrata, mozzarella, and arugula ; the Cacio e Pepe, with fresh mozzarella and a lot of pepper; the Arrabbiata, with mozzarella, red sauce, and spicy peppers; and the V.I.P, made with a layer of artichoke pesto, then romano and goat cheeses on top.

And finally, if you head about a mile north of Farinella, you’ll get to PQR.  There we had one slice of with shredded zucchini and cherry tomatoes …

… plus another slice with eggplant, red sauce, and fresh mozzarella.

We really enjoyed all of these places, and it was a nice contrast to be able to sample both the Neapolitan and Roman pizzas.  Check out any of these places, and check back next week to see some delicious pizza in Brooklyn!

Where We Ate: Around Jackson Heights

Jackson Heights is a neighborhood in Queens that’s known for being incredibly diverse:  about half the people living there were born outside of the United States, and there are large populations of people from south and southeast Asia.  So, as you can imagine, there’s lots of interesting and delicious food to be had there!  On one recent weekend we visited two very different places serving up very different food, and we wanted to highlight the amazing things we got to eat (just be aware that we there are some meat-based foods featured here).

First, we got a chance to visit Potala, a food truck that sits right at the intersection of Broadway and 37th Road in Queens.  In case you have trouble finding it, here’s what it looks like:

Potala serves up momos, which are steamed dumplings from Tibet filled with either ground meat or vegetables.  Here’s one from Potala, covered in the nicely spicy red sauce the truck provides.

And here’s all the momos we got that day – on the bottom are 8 with beef and on the top are 9 with mixed vegetables and one with potato (because it was the last one left when we got there).

Less than half a mile from Potala is SriPraPhai, one of the most popular Thai restaurants in all of New York.  The restaurant is huge, and yet it’s still packed every weekend because the food is so good and the menu is so wide ranging.  They also have an extensive selection of vegetarian food, so there was a lot for Miriam to choose from.  We started our meal there with the fried taro and peanut fritters, which come with a sweet chili sauce for dipping.

And we had an order of the chive dumplings as well, with soy sauce on the side.

We also both got soups:  for Miriam, a vegetarian Tom Yum made with mushrooms, tofu, lemongrass, and snow peas in a spicy coconut milk broth.

And for Cyril, the non-vegetarian Tom Yum, with pork and mushrooms in a hot and sour broth.

Miriam also had the vegetarian green curry, which SriPraPhai is famous for – it comes with tofu, eggplant, bamboo shoots, and noodles in a coconut milk sauce.

And Cyril got the Gai Yang Combo, which consists of a papaya salad made with dried shrimp, some barbecue chicken, and a side of coconut rice.

If you ever find yourself in Jackson Heights, these are two places we would definitely recommend.  Or, if you’re feeling adventurous and you want some delicious Thai or Tibetan food, make the journey to this neighborhood – which is easy to get to, because the E, F, M, R and 7 trains run nearby – and check these places out.  It’s definitely worth a trip to this interesting area of Queens.

Where We Ate: West Village Snacks

Here are some more fun, interesting, and delicious places that we’ve eaten at recently around New York.  As it happens, the places we feature today are literally right around the corner from each other, and they’re all cool spots where you can get some tasty, hearty treats.

First is somewhere we were really excited to check out, because we love the food it’s based around:  Hold My Knots is a stand in the Gansevoort Market that sells garlic knots in many different varieties.  Since garlic knots were originated in Queens, it’s pretty fitting that there’s an entire place devoted to just this one type of food.  But it’s not just plain knots you can get here, although those are certainly on offer:

No, Hold My Knots has come up with plenty of inventive ways to serve up their signature food.  For example, here is eggplant parm on a garlic knot slider:

This is a cheese-filled garlic knot:

And this garlic knot is filled with pepperoni:

Also in Gansevoort Market is Chip NYC, which serves up batches of fresh-baked cookies daily.  When we arrived at the market there was a line almost out the door at Chip’s stand, so we knew we had to try something.  It was the day before Easter, so we went with this chocolate chip cookie with chocolate eggs embedded on top.

And finally, down the street from Gansevoort Market is Sherry B Dessert Studio, a bakery and dessert bar which first set up shop a little north of the city in Chappaqua and has recently moved into a storefront here.  They serve all kinds of baked goods – brownies, cookies, pies, cakes – plus ice cream, but one of their signature items is build-your-own ice cream sandwiches.  You get to select two cookies and stuff them with your choice of ice cream flavor, so of course that’s what we wanted to try.

Cyril went with s’mores ice cream (chocolate infused with marshmallows) between two oatmeal caramel chip cookies.

And Miriam got two “disco cookies” with dark chocolate ice cream in the middle.

We’d like to note that we didn’t eat all of this food on the same day, thank you very much.  We did enjoy everything, though:  Hold My Knots made for a nice, satisfying lunch, the cookie from Chip NYC was a good holiday-themed treat for later, and our ice cream sandwiches at Sherry B Dessert Studio were a great snack right before a movie.  So we’d recommend visiting any (or all!) of these places the next time you find yourself in the West Village – and check back later to hear about other places we’ve been to around (and outside) New York.