IsabellaEatsNewYork & Her 2023 Food Picks

A harrowing tale of how she got into food, food writing, her top 2023 dishes and J. Kenji Lopez-Alt.

Mar 04, 2024

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For as long as I can remember, I’ve always had an interest in food and food writing. Although my parents definitely played a huge part in my interest with food, it wasn’t until high school when my brother and I would watch Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations almost religiously to decompress after a long day in the actual hellscape that was Deerfield Beach High School. The summer after I graduated high school, I went on my first big-girl trip to New York and made a funny list on my notes app called “NYC Eats” that listed restaurants I HAD to visit but were also not tourist traps or just plain bad. A lot of these are in fact tourist traps like Black Tap and Yonah Schimmel’s (that place is not good, sorry) and a lot of these have since been closed. Makes me sad but it is what it is.

Then, it wasn’t until I moved to Gainesville was when I remember following KenEatsGainesville, now disgraced food critic and writer, and actively visiting the restaurants and pop-ups he would recommend in Alachua County. But the permanent move to New York was really what solidified it for me. The food scene here is overwhelming, exciting, underwhelming, terrible, inaccessible, accessible, inedible, delicious, but perfect to me. Here are my top five favorite eats in not only New York but across America (kinda). I did visit Ireland and Toronto last year but none of them made the cut. I think Patrick would probably make an excellent case for Leo Burdock’s in Dublin because he made us go twice but I think these spots are better. All love though.

And in no specific order.

Project Hazelnut; Razza in Jersey City, New Jersey

Razza is a Neapolitan-style pizza shop located in Jersey City that has been in the news for possibly one of the best pizzas you can find in the world which actually is kind-of insane. We ordered the Project Hazelnut; a mozzarella, ricotta pizza with hazelnuts grown from the Rutgers University campus, and local, New Jersey honey. Your first bite of pizza is nutty, crunchy, sweet and salty from the mozzarella cheese. It’s dazzling. Very rarely do I find myself thinking more about a dish days after I consumed it but like a good movie, it kept reverberating in my head. Hazelnuts, hazelnuts.

Dry Hot Pot; MaLa Project in Manhattan, New York

My friend Andrea picked this spot. People rarely pick the restaurants for me! MaLa Project is, as described on their website, a neo-Sichuanese restaurant that serves dry pot and other Northern Chinese staple dishes. I’ve heard of hot pot, but never dry pot. For dry pot, you can choose from countless meat, seafood, noodles and veggie options but the main difference is that whatever you picked has been cooking in a melange of 24 herbs and spices for over six hours in order to create this indescribable flavor. I could not tell you what this tastes like. From hints of fennel to strong flavors of cumin and star anise, any protein and veggie mix you make will taste so fucking good. My picks are lotus root, pork belly and enoki mushrooms.

MáLà Project | New York Magazine | The Thousand Best — Price varies per Hot Pot order. Credit: New York Magazine.

Chip & Dip Omelette; Cafe Mutton in Hudson, New York

The chip and dip omelette are ONE of the things I would recommend here. When we visited, we ordered nearly the whole menu but to be fair, there isn’t much on there. Which according to Gordon Ramsay, is an indicator of a good restaurant. We ordered the orange muffin, sticky bun, crepes, C&D omelette, tomato salad and the lamb belly with eggs and salsa verde dish. It’s hard to pick the winner of all of the dishes offered here but every single one was delicious. The lamb belly was fatty but balanced well with eggs and the lightness of the salsa verde. The crepes were buttery yet rich. And this chip and dip omelette — weird, but much needed. The inside of the omelette is an onion dip layered with potato chips. It sounds like a pothead made it up in a pinch. Thank you pothead!

Brown Butter Donut; Mighty Donuts in Red Hook, New York

Not THAT Red Hook. There’s a Red Hook in Upstate New York that probably gets annoyed a lot with the one in Brooklyn. This is the only non brick-and-mortar place on this list and is still every ounce delicious. While visiting an apple orchard, my feet magically became suspended in the air as my body floated to a pop-up donut stand located on their premises. I ordered the Brown Butter donut with the mindset that I’m not that into donuts but I’ll give this one a try. I was super wrong about my feelings on donuts when I was immediately reminded on how much I should love them. And how much I love brown butter on anything. I’m currently living in the time of A.D. — After Donuts.

Smoked Jalapeno & Munster Bialys; Deli Desires in Orlando, Florida

I never eat Munster because it sounds like a cheese a villain would eat. We were living in Orlando for a week in January when I discovered Deli Desires on TikTok. Deli Desires is a spot in Orlando serving New York-inspired bialys sandwiches. What is a Bialy? It’s a chewy yeast roll, comparable to a bagel. It is imperative that you schmear your smoked Jalapeño and munster bialy with smoked jalapeño cream cheese. This is NOT overkill, it’s necessary. This bread is so light, flavorful and believe it or not, it can pack a punch. Ordering bagels, bialys, whatever, outside of New York sounds bizarre but trust me, Deli Desires handled the situation.

Jalapeno Bialy with Jalapeno Cream Cheese is $6.25. Credit: UberEats.

Honorable mentions goes to Sobre Masa in Brooklyn, Mama Yoshi Mini Mart in Queens and specifically the Earl Grey Morning Bun at Radio Bakery located in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.

I appreciate you reading this all the way through! I would love any recommendations on non-white food writers because that’s all I know. I was recommended J. Kenji Lopez-Alt while on a date but that date kept uncomfortably touching me so much that I am now turned off by the name of J. Kenji Lopez-Alt.