THERE is little more depressing when travelling alone than that moment, about 7pm, when you acknowledge that once again you must haul yourself from your hotel room and strike out into an unfamiliar city for another solitary meal.

Tiredness, hunger, a little embarrassment and a reasonable reluctance to put yourself at risk wandering the backstreets, can mean that rather than going off the beaten track, you can find yourself paying through the nose or, more often, settling for something that at home you wouldn't hesitate to send back to the kitchen.

How is the travelling foodie to avoid the tourist traps and find that simple but elusive prize - the truly decent local restaurant?

Recently, I found myself preparing for a work trip to New York. I've visited the city once before, as a teenager on a school trip, and apart from the view of a brothel from our hotel window, I remember shamefully little.

Top 10 US presidential addresses

Riding Bush country, Jimmy Carter's B&B... Martin Symington picks the locations

• Nostalgia tourism in Washington DC

Take the back roads across the USA

Paul Connolly heads off the highway and discovers the real heartbeat of America

• The best places to eat in New York

A New Jersey girl's homecoming

Amy Lamé borrows a Mustang and sets off with photographer Helena Christensen to rediscover her youthful haunts

• Nostalgia tourism in Washington DC

Sarah Palin's home town haunts

Did the Republican pitbull's home town make her? Shane Shanks searches Wasilla for clues

• Arizona: escaping the US elections

• Obama v McCain fever in Washington

This time, I was at least in more salubrious surroundings, but my budget wasn't going to stretch to a week's worth of dinners at Daniel, the high-class - and high-priced - French place down the street. Even if it could, I didn't want to do it alone. What I needed was some local foodie friends, fast.

Chowhound.com is a US chatroom focusing on all things food. Visit any of the message boards and you'll find a buzzing community discussing restaurants, lamenting the demise of much-loved establishments and suggesting recipes for everything from foolproof hollandaise to vegan, wheat-free birthday cake. When I mentioned to a friend that I had posted an open invitation on the New York board to a “chowdown”, at a venue to be agreed by my respondents, however, he gaped. “Are you mad? They're all weird, geeky, middle-aged men.”

Thus, one drizzly evening, I found myself in the bar of a New York hotel, making small talk with five people I had never met before.

Michael, a retired 54-year-old, was our guide for the evening. Fluent in Mandarin from a stint in the East, he had the inside track on New York's Chinatown. It's not difficult to find a restaurant in Chinatown, it's true, but had I even happened upon Eastern Noodles in Forsyth Street - a strip-lit, scruffy canteen with an open kitchen at the back and busy with Chinese who eyed us in surprise when we trooped in - I might well not have had the courage to try it.

“The first three times I came here, they were so suspicious,” Michael said. “I think they thought I was from immigration.”

The restaurant is celebrated among locals in the know for its proprietor Mr Gao's fresh, hand-pulled noodles. The sight of him standing in his apron behind the metal counter, separating the soft white dough and stretching it put me in mind of an Italian pizza-maker. It looks easy, but it isn't.

We made a second stop at Best Fuzhou in Eldridge Street for a Fujianese banquet (Fuzhou is the capital of Fujian province, the cuisine of which favours seafood and soups). We chattered away, all of us, Lorraine, 33, a magazine editor, and Rosemary, 31, a project manager, as student Justin, 18, schooled me in the best restaurants of my home city, London, while his Brooklyn-bred mother, Ann-Marie, looked on, dewy-eyed at the thought of him leaving her again.

The following day, Justin had a treat in store - a tour of Jackson Heights, an ethnically diverse part of Brooklyn. Food sold on the pavement is not the sort of thing I eat if I can still remember my own name in London, so the street-corner carts selling everything from chicken quesadillas made from a bucket of fresh dough, to tacos filled with yielding pieces of fried tongue, were a revelation.

We strolled and talked and stuffed our faces for a couple of hours, then I rolled back to my hotel full and happy - and not a little smug. My gamble had paid off. I had found friends and food of superior quality, without having to fight off any weirdos. I'd do it again, in a moment.

www.chowhound.com

NEED TO KNOW

Getting there Virgin Atlantic (0870 5747747, www.virginatlantic.com) has flights from Heathrow to New York from £283 return. Where to stay The Hotel on Rivington (001 212 475 2600, www.hotelonrivington.com) on the Lower East Side, has double rooms from about £287, including breakfast. It has a fashionable restaurant, Thor (001 212 796 8040).

On a budget The new edition of NYC - Free & Dirt Cheap (Frommers, £11.99) is published this month, with tips on how to make your dollars go farther in the Big Apple.

EAT LIKE A NATIVE NEW YORKER

Shopsin’s General Store, Essex Street Market: a Chowhound haven, with an eclectic menu — try the cheeseburger “slyders” and the chocolate malt.

Chengdu Heaven, Flushing: Sichuan food in a tiny basement, no English spoken, no English on the menu. Point and hope — you’re unlikely to be disappointed.

La Economica, Bronx: Dominican rotisserie chicken. “It is hands down the best chicken I have ever had in my life,” Justin says.

Chao Thai, Elmhurst: excellent Thai, particularly the curries. Sometimes they will translate the specials for you, sometimes they won’t.

Di Fara’s, Brooklyn: quintessential NYC pizzeria. Rude service, superb Sicilian pizza.

Wafels & Dinges (various locations): Simply a truck, moving around the city, selling light, crispy, Belgian waffles. To find it, visit wafelsanddinges.com

Le Bernardin, Midtown West: Very Formal, very expensive, but superlative. Every flavour is perfectly calibrated. I actually welled up at one point.

Sugar Sweet Sunshine Bakery, Lower East Side: A picture of Jackie Kennedy on the wall and heavenly cupcakes. Try the pumpkin with cream cheese frosting.

Times recommends

• Oasis of the Seas: the Times review
• The 20 best new year party places to stay
• Green Spaces 2009: are you the winning writer?