New York: The big appetite

I'd like to say that I found it hard to swallow. I'd like to pretend that, after a trip that took in 11 different types of food comprising eight different cuisines in three of New York's boroughs, my thin slice of pizza at New Park Pizza in Howard Beach, Queens, was a bite too far. Sadly, that wouldn't be true. Despite the fact that I had been eating for more than four hours, I gobbled it down.

But then, it would be a shame to ride with Famous Fat Dave on his "Five Borough Eating Tour on the Wheels of Steel" and not enjoy every bite. Famous Fat Dave – real name Dave Freedenberg – is a 28-year-old New York cab driver with such a deep love for his city's varied cuisine that he decided to share it with tourists and fellow New Yorkers alike. Now he spends his days ferrying strangers around his favourite eating spots.

"It's a crazy idea," says Dave. "You drive around and eat – but it's a great idea. I've never had a customer who was like, 'This is not fun.' Even if you don't eat, even if you don't like one or two or three places, you're still going to like five or six or seven of them."

Our tour (my wife, Claudine, came along to ensure I didn't explode) started in Manhattan. The first bite was a slice of Ewephoria, a sheep's milk gouda from Murray's Cheese Shop on Bleecker Street and Cornelia Street in the West Village. It was an encouraging start. This is not the bland, processed rubber you might recognise as American cheese: this was smooth, buttery, and rich. As we ate, Dave drove us south towards Nolita (the Manhattan neighbourhood "North of Little Italy). He said that being a cab driver had helped him discover good places to eat: when he was taking someone home, he would ask them where was worth going in their neighbourhood.

"People are proud of their little secrets; they're always proud to tell me where they eat," he said. "I pretty quickly got a list of a whole bunch of awesome places. That's where I find 90 per cent of my places."

One such "awesome place" was Café Habana, a Cuban restaurant on Elizabeth Street and Prince Street, where we stopped to pick up grilled corn-on-the cob with cotija cheese, chilli powder and lime: it was light, piquant and strangely refreshing.

The same couldn't be said for what we ate at our next stop, Katz's Deli on Houston Street and Ludlow Street in the Lower East Side. A Reuben Sandwich is a New York classic, a hunk of non-Kosher Jewish food consisting of a mound of pastrami, Swiss cheese, sauerkraut and Russian dressing on rye bread; it helped sustain the working people of the city throughout the 20th century. But now, as Dave explains, it appears to be on its way out, as delis close and health-conscious, office-bound New Yorkers turn away from the food of their forefathers. "Food like this is a novelty now," said Dave. "Lots of places like Katz's have gone out of business. It's working-class food: not very healthy. It's sort of dying out." Not very healthy is right. It's rich, heavy and very satisfying.

The Lower East Side is no longer the centre of the city's Jewish community but some vestiges of the area's past refuse to go without a fight. This is the case at The Pickle Guys (on Essex Street between Grand Street and Hester Street), a relatively new pickle shop that sells from the barrel in the traditional way. We ordered a variety of pickles, the tastiest of which were the crisp, crunchy, ultra-sour ones.

Pickles are close to Dave's heart: he used to work at another pickle shop called Guss' Pickles, a New York institution. His love for the pimply green spears was such that he lost a girlfriend while he worked there: he smelled too much of pickles, she complained.

Our final stop in Manhattan was Dumpling House in Chinatown (on Eldridge Street between Grand Street and Broome Street). Here we picked up some ludicrously cheap sesame pancakes with tuna, coriander and pickled carrots ($1/55p each) and fried pork dumplings ($1.50/80p for four) before heading across the Williamsburg Bridge into Brooklyn, the largest of New York's five boroughs.

Were it a separate city (as it was until 1898) rather than a borough of New York, Brooklyn would be the US's fourth-largest; its population is huge (around 2.5 million people) and remarkably diverse. Our first stop illustrates this variety: Reben Luncheonette is a Dominican diner at 229 Hevemeyer St, between South 5th St and Broadway in south Williamsburg. It is a part of Brooklyn that is home to, as Dave puts it, "Dominicans, Hasidic Jews and hipsters". The speciality at Reben is a Morir Soñado (which translates as "to die dreaming"), a soft, frothy mixture of orange juice, vanilla and condensed milk. Morir Soñados are pretty common in this neighbourhood, Dave explained, but the u ones at the Reben are best because they're made with fresh orange and if you don't like them – as a sign on the wall promises – you can get your money back.

South-west of Williamsburg is the largely Italian neighbourhood of Carroll Gardens, once the haunt of infamous New York mobster John Gotti. Ferdinando's (on Union Street between Hicks Street and Columbia Street) is renowned for a more palatable Sicilian tradition: excellent food. We bought some rice balls (which were rich, tomatoey and looked like Scotch eggs), and octopus and squid salad, and headed into what was, until recently, one of New York's most notorious areas – Red Hook.

"This was the murder-rate capital of New York when New York was the murder capital of the USA," said Dave. "There was tons of gang violence. I took a guy in my cab who has been living here for 15 years. He's seen, actually seen, 13 shoot-outs since he's lived here. But now there are nice restaurants, there are cops here – they're not hiding any more."

Red Hook is home to Steve's Authentic Key Lime Pies (Pier 41 off Van Dyke St), where a sign on the wall confirms what Dave said: "Red Hook – not just for crackheads anymore". We pick up two pies – one au naturel and one coated in dark chocolate – and strolled to the pier to gawp at the view of the Statue of Liberty. The pies were superb (even if the chocolate is a bit much) and the view wasn't bad either. It's one that few tourists in Manhattan ever experience, though.

"People might know midtown, and they go downtown a bit," Dave said. "But very few people get to Red Hook – it's good for people to see other parts of the city. I want to show people what a great town this is, all the different neighbourhoods."

Next stop: Coney Island. Dave knows it well, having worked here as a hot-dog salesman at the Brooklyn Cyclones' baseball ground. "I had to run up and down the stairs," he said. "I was like 'You want a hot-dog? Pant pant!' The good news was that all the hot dogs I couldn't sell I took home." The hot dogs Dave sold – from Nathan's Famous Hot Dogs in Coney Island – are the best-known in the US, partly because of the hot-dog eating world championship held here every year. We picked one up, piled high with sauerkraut, onions and mustard, from Nathan's original restaurant at the corner of Surf and Stillwell Avenues. Then we walked to the boardwalk.

Coney Island out of season is a strange, melancholy place. The things that make it lively in summer – the bars, the ice-cream parlours, the bizarre and infamous Shoot The Freak shooting range – are quiet and the beach is empty. Still, the hot dog was delicious. Which is more than can be said for the hot roast beef sandwiches at Brennan and Carr (Nostrand Avenue, Avenue U and Gravesend Neck Road in Homecrest), our next stop. The beef itself was fine, but the sandwich was served having been dipped in a vat of boiling hot gravy/meat juice. An acquired taste, perhaps.

Most of the world has acquired a taste for pizza, which we ate at our final stop just over the borough border in Howard Beach, Queens. This, incidentally, is extremely convenient for anyone flying out of Kennedy airport; forget the in-flight meal, feast before you fly at New Park Pizza.

New Yorkers are proud of their pizza and at Howard Beach it was easy to see why. Indeed, the city can be proud of having one of the most varied and interesting culinary cultures on the planet. My bulging gut will vouch for that.

Famous fat Dave's top five eats

Belgian fries with two kinds of mayo and mango chutney at Pommes Frites on 2nd Ave between 7th St and St Mark's Place, East Village, Manhattan: "Twice-fried Belgian fries that will end your use of the word 'French' in describing them faster than the US Congress. A classic stop on the tour."

Thick-slice pizza and spumoni at L&B Spumoni Gardens on West 9th St and 86th St in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn: "Relaxing at a picnic table on the outdoor patio here, with a steaming hot thick slice and a cup full of delicate spumoni from the deep freezer, is a unique culinary joy."

Kanom Cheeb at Sri Pra Phai at 64-13 39th Ave in Woodside, Queens: "These Kanom Cheeb, delicate steamed dumplings filled with chicken and shrimp, are delicious."

Pork Banh Mi (Vietnamese sandwich) at Ba Xuyen on 8th Ave and 43rd St in Sunset Park, Brooklyn: "It is $3, it is loaded with coriander just the way I like it, and it is better than any Banh Mi I tasted when I went to Vietnam."

Rice and beans, roasted chicken and maduros at El Valle on Melrose and 155th St in Melrose, The Bronx: "El Valle has character. Sometimes, a large part of the pleasure of a good meal comes as a result of an authentic atmosphere and a cultural exchange."

Traveller's guide:

GETTING THERE

New York JFK is served by British Airways (0870 850 9850; www.ba.com), Virgin Atlantic (08705 747747; www.virgin-atlantic.com), American Airlines (020-7365 0777; www.americanairlines.co.uk), Air India (020-8560 9996; www.airindia.com) and Kuwait Airlines (020-7412 0007; www.kuwait-airways.com) from Heathrow; Delta (0845 600 0950; www.delta.com) and Zoom Airlines (0870 240 0055; www.flyzoom.com) from Gatwick; and business-class only airline Eos (0808 234 8759; www.eosairlines.com) from Stansted.

Newark is served by BA and Virgin from Heathrow; Continental (0845 607 6760; www.continental.com) from Gatwick, Belfast, Birmingham, Manchester, Edinburgh and Glasgow; and business-class only airline Silverjet (0844 855 0111; www.flysilverjet.com) from Luton.

EATING & DRINKING THERE

Famous Fat Dave's Five Borough Eating Tours (www.famousfatdave. com). Tours from $100 (£53) per vehicle per hour (including all food).

Murray's Cheese Shop 254 Bleecker Street, Greenwich Village (001 212 243 3289; www.murrayscheese.com).

Café Habana 17 Prince Street at Elizabeth Street, Chinatown/Little Italy (001 212 625 2001).

Katz's Delicatessen, 205 East Houston Street, Lower East Side (001 212 254 2246; www.katzdeli.com).

The Pickle Guys 49 Essex Street, Lower East Side (001 888 474 2553; www.nycpickleguys.com).

Guss' Pickles 504a Central Avenue, Cedarhurst, Long Island (001 516 569 0909; www.gusspickle.com).

Dumpling House 118 Eldridge Street, Chinatown (001 212 625 8008).

Ferdinando's, Union Street, 151 Union Street, Brooklyn (001 718 855 1545).

Steve's Authentic Key Lime Pies Pier 41, Red Hook, Brooklyn (001 888 450 5463; www.stevesauthentic.com).

Reben Luncheonette 229 Havemeyer Street, Brooklyn (001 718 388 7696).

Nathan's Famous Hot Dogs 1400 Old Country Road, Westbury (001 516 338 8500; www.nathansfamous.com).

Brennan & Carr 3432 Nostrand Avenue, Brooklyn (001 718 769 1254).

New Park Pizza 156-171 Cross Bay Boulevard, Howard Beach, Queens (001 718 641 3082).

MORE INFORMATION

NYC & Company: 020-7367 0934; www.nycvisit.com

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