THERE’S a moment in Ken Burns’ outstanding documentary series, ‘Baseball’, when Buck O’Neil, an old coach and manager, muses on the impossible glamour that was Manhattan in the 40s and 50s with a faraway look in the eye.

FROM steaks to sushi to gallons of melting ice cream, restaurants, delis and bodegas around the city tossed out hundreds of pounds of perishable food just hours after the blackout zapped the Fried Apple.