The ritual of lunchtime dining is explored in British filmmaker Helen Downing’s gastronomic vignettes. Capturing meditative, rustic processes, the lingering frames of cured and smoked fish, alongside elastic pizza dough are composed into still life portraits. “We went out to play with palette and form,” says Downing, who’s worked alongside Heston Blumenthal and Jamie Oliver. “You have to let things breathe, then it is really possible to appreciate the beauty of its essence, color and texture.” In a culinary pairing for NOWNESS, Carey Polis of Bon Appetit magazine describes her lunchtime habits in New York’s Lower East Side.

Unlike the rest of the New York dining scene, the food we order for lunch—the same way, every time—is something that we don’t want changing. Even if a ‘let’s do lunch’ greeting might sometimes be an empty invitation, we need these specific foods and restaurants to anchor us to the city. Take Russ & Daughters Café in the Lower East Side, where you sit at the bar eating a bowl of matzo ball soup, even if it is stifling hot outside. The soup is nourishing and you can indulge in the culinary nostalgia of the 100-year-old Russ & Daughters shop. The usual deli suspects are present—smoked salmon, chopped liver, borscht. But then there are delightful twists: a pretzel roll for the pastrami-cured salmon, goat cream cheese paired with smoked sable. It’s strangely harmonious—something that can't be said for that questionable chicken sandwich from the corner bodega.

A Lower East Side Lunch: 

Russ & Daughters Cafe for the smoked trout and potato salad.
127 Orchard Street, NY 10002

El Rey for the grain salad and beet-pickled egg.
100 Stanton Street, NY 10002

Morgenstern’s Finest Ice Cream for the salted caramel ice cream
2 Rivington Street, NY 10002

Carey Polis is the Senior Web Editor of Bon Appétit.