The Travel Chica

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The best way to learn about history and culture in NYC? … Food!

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New York City is known for having every type of cuisine possible.

On my previous trips to New York City, my focus was seeing the main tourist attractions.

On this trip, I made food a priority.

Yes, there are a million places to eat in New York City from pizza places to world-renowned restaurants.  In fact, I got several great recommendations when I asked for tips on my Facebook page.

In addition to just eating well, I wanted to learn more about the New York City’s history and explore areas I had never seen.

Eating my way through Chinatown and Little Italy with Ahoy Food Tours helped me do all of that and made for an awesome afternoon.

Little Italy

Learning the history of Italian immigration to the United States was especially interesting to me because my great-grandparents came here from Italy.

In the late 1800s into the early 1900s, hundreds of thousands of Italians migrated to this country working on the subways and railroads.  (My great-grandfather worked on railroads.)  Our guide Alana is an excellent storyteller, and I enjoyed the short stories she weaved together to create a vivid image of what Little Italy was once like.

Now just a few square blocks with some Italian restaurants and shops, this area was once much larger and crowded with immigrants living in tenements.  What I love the most about these Italians is that they thought American food was bland and decided to keep their own food traditions, even if it meant having to import foods from their home country.

Lucky for us!

Speaking of good Italian food…

There are few things in life better than good cheese.

Homemade Mozzarella and Prosciutto

Piave Cheese

I discovered a new favorite cheese called Piave.

In fact, I returned to the incredible Di Palo’s Fine Foods after the tour to buy ½ a pound of it and then stopped next door at their wine shop for a free tasting.

Perfect timing.

Grandma Pie

A food tour in New York City would not be complete without a slice of pizza.  This slice was absolute perfection.

Thin, delicate crust.  Homemade mozzarella.  And the special topping, a light basil cream sauce with olive oil.

The perfect cannoli

I didn’t think I liked cannolis… until now.

Maybe it was the quality of the ricotta filling.  Maybe it was because it wasn’t overly sweetened.  Maybe it was the fresh, crisp pastry (originally formed into shape around broom sticks).

My taste buds were already satisfied, and I learned so much about the history of the area and the culture of the Italian immigrants.  And we still had more to learn and – most importantly – eat as we moved to Chinatown.

Chinatown

Asian food is something I haven’t explored much, so I was looking forward to trying some new traditional foods.

What is more traditional than Chinese dumplings and egg rolls?

Egg Roll

I have had egg rolls before.  I mean, who hasn’t?

I always thought they were okay but usually don’t order them.   What surprised me the most was learning that what I thought was a traditional egg roll was nothing even close.

I could eat one of these every day.

And the cool factor is that we had this egg roll at Nom Wah, which is a restaurant featured in the first or second season of Sex and the City.  (Yes, I have watched the series so many times that I have them memorized.)

Our exploration of Chinatown was filled with more food, including Thai, since Southeast Asian cuisine is becoming more prevalent in the neighborhood.  the tour was filled with more stories about the culture and history, including what were once considered the roughest areas in the world.

Chinatown has gone the opposite of Little Italy in a way, increasing in size drastically from three streets to what is now the largest Chinese population outside of Asia.

The tour that keeps on giving

Not only did I leave Chinatown and Little Italy full and happy, I left with a huge list of recommendations for MORE food to try, including the best spots to get dim sum, noodles, soup dumplings, ice cream, and more.

There’s only so much a girl can eat in one day, so Chinatown and Little Italy are definite re-dos on my next trip.

Take the tour!

If food is your thing, and you like a sprinkling of history and culture with it, I highly recommend a NYC Food Tour.  Ahoy New York Food Tours exceeded my expectations.

What are you favorite Chinatown and Little Italy spots?

Comments

  3. When I first went to Sicily, I tasted real Cannoli for the first time.
    They were lined up without filling. I had eaten some of them in Central Italy, and they always were filled ready-to-eat. Therefore I was quite surprised when I saw the real, Sicilian way to serve them. Answering my question about that, my Sicilian friend told me “you want the coating to be crispy, don’t you? That’s way they are filled when served”.
    TheTuscan (@AnyLatitude) recently posted..Learning to drive on the left side of the road | Ten tips to make it easier

  9. I haven’t spent too much time in either of these places…my fav New York foodie things are the diners, street vendors and all the fantastic restaurants there. And bagels, of course =)

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