During the frenetic few days that I spent in New York last week I splurged, as always, on enjoying the city’s dining diversity.  Compared to home, it’s a gastronome’s playground far from Maine’s more preciously focused seas and fields. It’s like stepping out of an exiguous puddle into the vast ocean, from food trucks to haute fare.

On West 46th Street the food trucks are an international lineup

On West 46th Street the food trucks are an international lineup

This led me to enjoy Chomp Chomp, Obica and Marta, which respectively took in Singaporean hawker fare in Greenwich Village; a midtown mozzarella bar on Madison Avenue and in NoMad the thinnest crust wood-oven pizza imaginable—that in addition to a divinely urbane menu of Roman style cooking in the pop-culture panache of restaurant guru Danny Meyer and chef Nick Anderer.

What’s immediately apparent is how New York restaurants fixate less on local fare than we obsessively (and gladly)  feed on eating local.  That’s not to say that their greenmarkets aren’t cherished both by residents and restaurant chefs.

The dining room at Chomp Chomp on Cornelia Street

The dining room at Chomp Chomp on Cornelia Street

I read about Chomp Chomp in a New York Times review from 2015 and filed it away. I made a beeline for it on my first night in New York joined by a trendy downtown friend who frequents these places.  Hawker fare, he said, is popping up in a lot of places. And fancy chefs are recreating street food in various guises.  (Hairy crab en papillote?)

The food of Singapore is largely focused on food-truck style stalls that line marketplaces in the region–or essentially a mash-up of Southeast Asian street fare in the food-stall culture.  Often it’s just one dish that a stall cook masters and that diners crave.  It’s hardly fancy but can be incredibly delicious.

Owner and chef Simpson Wong has created an authentic Singaporean dining aerie on Cornelia Street.  Yet it’s just one of many dining haunts that line this internationally varied restaurant row that includes French (Le Gigot) and Italian (Po, originally a Batali foothold) as well as a clam shack style eatery, Pearl Oyster Bar.  This is owned by chef Rebecca Charles who is opening a restaurant this summer in Kennebunk, putting her New York clam shack outpost into its proper geographic locale.

Years ago Cornelia Street became a dining destination when chef Leslie Revson opened her eponymous restaurant in 1978 as one of the first woman chefs to gain recognition in New York.  Soon the limousines from

Off Bleecker Street, Cornelia spans one block to Sixth Avenue

Off Bleecker Street, Cornelia spans one block to Sixth Avenue

uptown lined this one-block long street to savor her Roquefort beignets and distinctively new American bistro cooking.  I still make her grilled chicken breasts with two mustards (see her cookbook, “Come for Dinner”). Alas her restaurant closed decades ago and she has since passed on.

We had four dishes, starting off with Lobak, a mixture of five-spice powder spiked ground chicken and taro inside a tofu skin wrapper. The crispy outer skin, as crunchy as a fried egg roll, with the chicken redolent with pungent flavors dipped in a plum sauce married savory and sweet flavors boldly.

A special that evening was soft shell crabs “sung choy bao.”  These were fried crisp and topped with a relish of mango, radish and herbs set in lettuce cups meant to be rolled around the crabs.  This wasn’t easily eaten without having a dribbling mess; the effort was, however, worthwhile, to chomp on this deeply satisfying finger-licking dish.

The slow cooked lamb shank with “a million spices” served with herb croquettes stuffed with potatoes and pickles was an adventure in the sultry flavors of a rich curried stew. It was the most filling dish so far.

Clockwise: soft-shell crabs, Singapore Fling cocktail and braised lamb

Clockwise: soft-shell crabs, Singapore Fling cocktail and braised lamb

But the star of the show was the Hainanese roast chicken, a Singaporean staple, served with chicken flavored rice.  The chicken is served room-temperature but was incredibly juicy, moistened with chili oil and soy.  It’s a must-have dish for the purity of its Asian flavors.

Hainanese chicken at Chomp Chomp

Hainanese chicken at Chomp Chomp

The room evokes a high-style food hall with white washed walls, diamond sparkle lighting, schoolhouse chairs and rustic touches everywhere.  We started our dinner at 7 with the  room  filled with neighborhood locals; by 9 it was a mix of millennials and generation Xers vying for attention and clamoring for the earthy food and creative cocktails.

A horse of a totally different color, I found myself at lunch the next day at Obica housed in a giant glass-walled atrium at the base of 590 Madison at 56th Street. I was with my team from the Douglas Elliman headquarters across the street.  We were there to discuss a deal in the works.   I didn’t realize, however, that it backed up to the Trump Tower and below-ground food halls—clad in the distinctively garish-glam setting of its unredemptive namesake presidential wannabee.

The glamorous space at Obica's Madison Avenue restaurant

The glamorous space at Obica’s Madison Avenue restaurant

Billed as a mozzarella bar, Obica is an international chain of eateries stretching from Dubai and Tokyo to LA and New York with London, Rome and Florence in between. The patrons are as diversely striking as the space.  From trendily dressed office workers, gallerists, high-echelon businesspeople and Upper East Side matrons it’s also where you can come off the street with a brown bag and have your own lunch at a table.  So democratic!

Obica's mozzarella bar plate

Obica’s mozzarella bar plate

Obica is all about mozzarella, cured meats and fresh greens. The trio of Mozzarella di Bufala Campana featured classica, affumicata and creamy burrata.  At $29 it was a luxurious plate, which the three of us shared with ready pleasure. The Antipasto Obicà – was a cutting board holding Prosciutto Crudo di Parma, salame Felino, grilled artichokes, quadrello di bufala scooped up with crostini– beautifully cured meats imported from Italy’s finest purveyors.

That evening I had another business dinner this time at a restaurant I’d been to before and enjoyed immensely on my last visit.  Marta, located in the uber- stylish Redbury Hotel in the heart of NoMad, is quintessentially a Danny Myer confection from the man who gave Manhattan the venerable Gramercy Tavern.

Its high-ceiling room is tended by a throng of hosts dragooned into service.  Without reservations, we were prepared to sit at the bar that overlooks the pizza station and ovens.  I actually prefer it there. But by some miracle we were offered a banquette near the bar.

Marta's grand dining room, flanked by the pizza bar and stationi

Marta’s grand dining room, flanked by the pizza bar and stationi

Marta’s specialty cocktail is the Negroni.  (Have you noticed that it’s become the drink of choice lately?) Here it’s served in a bottle filled with the pre-made cocktail. It’s made properly with gin, which I don’t drink, favoring vodka instead. I couldn’t get a vodka version pre-made in the bottle and went for the gin and survived without consequence. Of course my favorite drink is still a vodka gimlet—ignominiously made with processed Rose’s Lime Juice, a drink dubbed by a friend as The Golden Gimlet.

Marta's signature Negroni

Marta’s signature Negroni

An $8 appetizer of rice croquettes—similar to arancini—were log shaped and sliced into bite size pieces.  The filling of Parmesan and the heavy coating of black pepper made these fried logs thoroughly enjoyable as a perfect accompaniment to drinks.

You can’t go to Marta without having their Roman style rustic pizza.  Available tomato based or white without sauce, the crusts are ultra-thin and cracker crisp.  We chose the Pizzelle, studded with peas, rolls of speck, Parmesan and mint. The peas, nearly the size of marbles, were as bright tasting as fresh-from-the-field.  It added a luscious sweetness to the pie with its well cured speck and melted Parm and mint.

Marta's pizza bianche with peas, speck, Parmesan and mint

Marta’s pizza bianche with peas, speck, Parmesan and mint

We also shared the next two dishes: roasted carrots and duck breast grilled over an open fire.  The carrots were sensational, one of the best renditions I’ve had. Thin wands of carrot were wrapped around carrot logs, roasted and served with duck confit, dates and crispy quinoa.  The dates lent an earthy sweetness and you’d never realize that the crispy crunchy element was toasted quinoa.

Marta's roast carrots and duck

Marta’s roast carrots and duck

The duck was so tender and placed over well-dressed radicchio further enhanced by the sweet and sour flecks of cherries and pistachios.  The dish came off as a warm duck salad over beautifully dressed radicchio.

For dessert, pastry chef Jessica Weiss’s chocolate cake with olive-oil buttermilk was sheer bliss.  That Marta serves up terribly stylish fare and incredible pizza makes it even more appealing as a place to enjoy modern Italian-inspired fare.

Marta stays crowded until late night especially if you have cocktails and dessert such as this chocolate cake

Marta stays crowded until late night especially if you have cocktails and dessert such as this chocolate cake

Back in Portland I ended my culinary romp with dinner at Pai Men Miyake.  I love the food from Masa Miyake, especially the Fore Street restaurant.

Back in Portland, Pai Men Miyake's pork-belly buns are as good as ever

Back in Portland, Pai Men Miyake’s pork-belly buns are as good as ever

Pai Men, however, so good still, needs to expand its menu.  During the week it offers the standard lineup of ramen, sushi, vegetable stir fries, salads and dumplings.  The list barely changes until the weekend when specials are added that show Miyake at his most creative best.

Pai Men Miyake's Tokyo Abura ramen (mo broth) with noodles, raw egg, charred carrots, cabbage, spicy chili paste, nori

Pai Men Miyake’s Tokyo Abura ramen (no broth) with noodles, raw egg, charred carrots, cabbage, spicy chili paste, nori