How to Spend a Perfect 72 Hours Eating Your Way Through New York

For lunch, make your way downtown to Chinatown and the Lower East Side and head straight for this charming spot owned by husband-and-wife team Jerald and Nhung Dao Head. Mắm is one of a new generation of Vietnamese restaurants making its mark in the city, introducing New Yorkers to dishes you’d likely find only in Vietnam — or Vietnamese American enclaves like Houston or Westminster, Calif. Come here for their signature bún dau mam tôm, a bountiful platter of grilled pork intestines, housemade blood sausage, sticky rice sausage, and tofu, along with fresh herbs and rice vermicelli, all to be dipped in a pungent fermented shrimp paste. (They also have an entirely vegan version.) Whatever you do, get some extra tofu — it’s all made in house, and it’s incredible.

Head to Essex Market for dinner at one of the city’s most acclaimed restaurants. Dhamaka, from James Beard Award-winning chef Chintan Pandya, has a no-holds-barred way of looking at Indian cuisine: drawing a spotlight on lesser-known regions and dishes, and preserving overlooked traditions and ingredients. That means a butter pepper garlic crab with Amul butter; a dahi waali bhindi with okra and Rajasthani red chile; and a can’t-miss roasted cauliflower with smoked yogurt and garlic. And save room for the housemade paneer.