The New York Fair: RESTAURANTS

The fair does handsomely by those with fat pocketbooks and fickle palates. Herring lovers will drool at the wide selection offered on Denmark’s $6.50 cold board. The Spanish pavilion’s Toledo and Granada restaurants dish up a numbing array of French and regional dishes por mucho dinero. Africans in native robes serve groundnut soup and couscous ($4.50) in Africa’s Tree House, while the diner finds himself eyeball-to-eyeball with an inquisitive giraffe. Indonesia’s seven-course, $7.75 dinner is spiced by whirling Balinese dancers. There are also many good, inexpensive restaurants. Cafe Hilton atop the Better Living Center offers cafeteria-styled choices of regional dishes from five gaily decorated international kitchens with entrees priced from $1.25 to $3.25. The Maryland pavilion brings the tang of salt water with its Chesapeake Bay crab and oyster recipes ($3.50), Greece’s taverna has stuffed vine leaves and mousaka starting at $2.50.

For those on a hamburger budget, most foreign pavilions have food stands selling specialties of their country at hamburger prices. The United Arab Republic serves falafel (50¢), a bean feast that tastes like a spicy meat sandwich. Morocco serves mint tea and pastry ($1) in carpeted tents. Try the Belgian Village’s crepe-suzette shop where a Grand Marniered pancake costs 75¢, or India’s chicken pakora and clay-oven-baked bread (45¢) served on the lawn by a turbaned chef. International Plaza, a noisy cluster of small shops and food stands, offers a culinary Cook’s Tour that takes only a few steps. Colombian tacos (75¢) can be washed down with Philippine beer (70¢), Ecuadorian banana dogs (50¢) with Brazilian coffee (15¢), Tunisian nougatine (45¢) with Indian tea (free), North African bricka (65¢) with Norwegian loganberry punch (40¢). Although the Vatican has yet to provide a snack bar serving fish on Fridays, the American-Israel pavilion caters to Jewish dietary laws with kosher frankfurters and kosher Kola (55¢).