Metromix New York Events

You can get almost anything in New York City. But according to  Alton Brown, star of The Food Network’s “Good Eats” and “Feasting on Asphalt,” there’s one thing that’s missing, and there’s nothing the city can do about it. Despite all the great restaurants, swanky dive bars and street-meat vendors dotting the concrete arteries of the city, you just cannot get authentic roadside food.

“I think there’s probably a few places that if you put them on the highway, they might become the real thing,” Brown said. “But that’s just not what Manhattan’s about.”

And Brown should know, having hosted “Feasting on Asphalt,” a series that follows the host as he travels across the nation, dining at local authentic eateries that are off the beaten path. He recently completed a new book that tracks the second installment of the miniseries, “Feasting on Asphalt: The River Run,” following Brown and his crew’s travels up the Mississippi on motorcycles, from New Orleans to Minnesota.

The book is a travelogue of the adventure, complete with a travel diary, about 40 recipes and numerous photographs of the people and food from along the way. Having this record is important to Brown, who sees this as an act of preservation. He recalls a childhood trip with his parents where he traveled from Los Angeles to Georgia.

“As the landscape changed, the food changed,” said Brown, who hosts “Iron Chef America.” “And now, when I travel with my daughter, the food doesn’t change. We’re losing that authenticity. It’s all becoming the same stuff.” Paging through the book, you can see real American cuisine—greasy spoon diners, hand-painted barbecue signs and large tables of people chowing down with smiles on their faces.

While it’s practically impossible for the average person to embark on a trip of this magnitude, the book will make you want to pack into the car, set off in a random direction and search out the hidden culinary treasures of the American road. And even if you can’t escape the confines of the city, the book itself is still a valuable artifact and an engrossing read, complete with Brown’s quirky insights, dry wit and meticulous knowledge of all things food. Brown, though, just wants people to enjoy the book for what it is: “A book about a bunch of guys on motorcycles who ate a bunch of food.”

It doesn’t get more authentic than that.

Alton Brown reads today at 5:30 p.m. at Borders Seventh Ave.