In 2012 62 of New York’s restaurants received Michelin Stars, which is all fine and good but not everybody can afford to dine in these opulent eateries, and if you want the real taste of the Big Apple, you need to head a little more down market and even onto the street.

Pizza

New York style pizza stands out a head and shoulders above all others for its uniquely supper-thin and crispy bases. America’s first pizzeria was opened in Manhattan more than 100 years ago, and started this Italian staple on its road to becoming one of the most popular fast foods on the planet. Originally they had a simple cheese and tomato topping, but these days anything can find a place on the 18-inches of flat dough, including fried eggs, black pudding, cashew nuts, oysters, and even chocolate.

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Hotdog

Ah, the lowly frankfurter; anybody who grew-up watching an American cop show will have at some point seen the heroes taking a short break from their crime fighting duties to queue at a street vendor selling this fine German sausage. It always looked so appealing as they buried the sausage and bun under a mountain of sauerkraut and splattered it with mustard and ketchup.

Cheesecake

Not for the faint hearted, this is a super-dense delight that you wouldn’t want to drop – partly because it’s a waste of food, but also because it could probably sink a ship. In 1872 a chef from New York, while trying to recreate a soft French cheese accidentally stumbled across a way of making a heavier creamier cheese. This found its way into the ancient Greek cake, and these days the New York style had added heart-stopping power with heavy cream, sugar and vanilla. An extravagant variant involved adding sour cream to the cooked cake and baking it for a second time. I can feel my left ventricle slamming shut just thinking about it.

Pretzels

This is another hugely popular street food for which we can thank the Germans. Introduced to America by German and Swiss-German immigrants known as the Pennsylvania Dutch, bakeries sprang up around the Pennsylvania countryside making these hard breads, famous for their knot shape. Before long they spread to the major cities including Chicago and Philadelphia, but New York became renowned for its soft pretzel.

Falafel

These deep fried balls made from ground chickpeas or fava beans originated in the Middle East, but before the 1970s it wasn’t found outside the Middle Eastern and Jewish districts. Prepared with spices onion and garlic, served in flat bread with salad, it became hugely popular as people turned to vegetarian and vegan diets.

New York holidays just wouldn’t be the same without trying all of these foods, so make sure you schedule time to sample all of the culinary delights of the city that never sleeps – maybe not all on the same day though.