Hitting the streets of your beat for the first time?  Make sure to head out there hungry – both for a great story and a great meal.  Some of NYC’s best food never makes it into Zagat’s, so an essential website for learning about your neighborhood’s cuisine is Chowhound.  Covering an area in Manhattan?  Search the Manhattan board for food in all areas of New York City.  Covering a beat that’s farther afield?  Try the Outer Boroughs board.  In addition, check out MenuPages, and find a restaurant by neighborhood, cuisine, or use the “Find-a-Food” search to locate restaurants that serve your favorite things!  Bagels, dim sum, falafel, ciz biz kofte, guacamole…

Remember that resources like Chowhound and MenuPages thrive on user input, so once you’ve sampled the cuisine your beat has to offer, weigh in with your own comments!