Rao's cookbook serves up spicy anecdotes with the meatballs

So one night, the story goes, Justin Bieber was in town, and had a hankering for Italian food. Not just any Italian, but Rao's, the tiny restaurant by a park in East Harlem that's been around for 120 years - and is one of the hardest-to-get tables in the country, let alone the city.

Some "serious society types" made inquiries for Bieber, according to an anecdote in the new cookbook, Rao's Classics. But the place was booked with regulars, as always. Would heaven and earth be moved? The answer came crisply and succinctly: "No one gives a (blank) about Justin Bieber."

Many things are said to be impossible in Manhattan. A taxi at rush hour in the rain. A parking spot on a Saturday night. Hamilton tickets in the current century.