Visiting New York City is overwhelming. There are the flashing lights, tall buildings, eclectic outfits and hot, smelly subways. Any visit to NYC requires proper sustenance to survive the city’s hurdles. But figuring out what to eat can be the most stressful task in a city where the tasty options never end. Here are 10 food experiences you should have while visiting NYC. 

But tacos are one ferocious reason for debate. Anyone who’s lived in California at any point usually detests all of New York’s taco options. Others who rely on tacos for cheap and hearty sustenance during or after a night of drinking have their own special spots that serve “the best” breakfast taco to cure their pain. The problem is, most breakfast tacos are amazing after a night of picklebacks and bad decisions. How can we trust these folks to know what good tacos are?

While Korean tacos are all the rage, the wildly popular Austin food truck has moved onto something even better – fries, on steroids. The Tex-Mex Korean fusion dish became so popular, it instantly put Chi’Lantro on the competitive food truck map, right up against other mega mobile eateries across the U.S. Now running five trucks in Austin and Houston, owner Jae Kim may come off as some kind of French Fries master.

Warning! Your brown-bagged lunch may be illegal. “Sounds Cheesy” you might think, but the Swiss or mozzarella cheese on your sandwich may be considered contraband if the international food police are successful. The same goes for many meats, salads, teas and hundreds of other foods produced without authorization. Food inspectors around the globe are engaged in a conflict over regulations for trade. Because of varied production standards across borders, food manufacturers have struggled to develop trade agreements to satisfy the global marketplace. 

McDonald’s might have taken off in France years ago, but it was the introduction of something even more casual that has the trendiest of Parisians talking today. Within the past year, something very American has been stirring on the streets of Paris. In a land that very recently was at the forefront of declaring that American food was nothing more than grease and a lack of imagination, suddenly, there is no greater praise for food amongst the young Parisians than “très Brooklyn,” a term that has come to symbolize something particularly cool and of high quality, not in spite of but because of its informality and creativity.

Turning lemons into lemonade may be an aphorism, but apparently some people prefer a more literal interpretation. After being laid off from a law firm in 2009, Alex Rein decided to make lemonade—as well as Spicy Ginger, Tangy Citrus and Green & Black Tea Slushes—and less than one year later, Kelvin Natural Slush Co. won Best Dessert in a 2010 New York street food competition.