Food
Best Macaroni and Cheese
Shelly's New York
104 West 57th Street
212-245-2422

Don't let starchy menu snobs take away our national food. Let them gussy it up if they will. Memories of penne smothered in a lush béchamel sooted with black truffle haunt our macaroni reveries. But for everyday eating, give us the purity-with-a-touch-of-excess of macaroni and cheese at Shelly's New York, once home to the Automat (where mac 'n' cheese came in its own baking dish, for a quarter). Pasta elbows tossed with bits of Black Forest ham and a scandal of cream, crustily Parmesaned. Not all that far from Mom's Velveeta triumph.