New York East Village Food Tour
The Lower East Side (L.E.S.) was once the stomping grounds for an 18th-century melting pot of immigrants (Dutch, German, Jewish, Italian, Ukrainian, etc). Today many parts still remain true to this cultural heritage.
The neighborhood’s beginnings, history, and gentrification are highlighted through an authentic tour of several dining establishments with City Food Tours. They graciously introduce tourists and New Yorkers alike to the many delicious gastronomic pleasures in the East Village.
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East Village Food Tour: Ahhh the Flavors!
City Food Tours shares with locals and visitors many of these easily missed restaurants. The tour is well worth it for foodies, history buffs, and lovers of New York. Experience the tastes and the stories of each location on the two-hour Lower East Side Artisan Food Tasting Tour.
Listed below are a few of the stops of the City Food Tours
East Village Meat Market
The East Village Meat Market is a local butcher shop. The windows and display cases are filled with very Old World handmade (yes, everything is handmade) meats and charcuterie that is at the top of New World food trends.
This Ukrainian-owned and managed butcher shop offers Ukrainian and Polish meat specialties: salami, hams, headcheese, and sausages. They also offer other native food products like pierogi (dumplings traditionally stuffed with potato). Tasted on this tour were the shop’s peppered studded salami, rye bread, and mustard.
Veselka
Somewhere over the Veselka (Ukrainian for “rainbow”), lies a 24-hour 7 days week operation. Veselka established itself in the East Village in 1954.
Beginning as a candy and newsstand on the corner of 2nd Avenue and 9th Street Veselka remains a family-owned restaurant serving up some of Ukraine’s conventional fare. A favorite breakfast spot for locals and a new favorite for spot-on beet Borscht for yours truly.
Milk Bar
Christian Tosi, the pastry chef/owner of Milk Bar is definitely one who thinks outside of the box. Affiliated with David Chang’s Momofuku Noodle Bar and other hit restaurants, Milk Bar is simply the most creative place I have walked into in quite some time.
Tosi has taken her ideas and creations and has intelligently trademarked them in order to keep competitors from claiming them as their own. The mere size of a New York City kitchen (think on a very small scale), Milk Bar’s menu hangs on the wall.
The signature items, not to be missed: Cereal Milk (just that, milk that tastes like cereal) in bottle, soft-serve, and milkshake form. Compost Cookie (Coffee grinds? Potato chips? Pretzels?) Tosi took on-hand ingredients from her pantry and threw them in to a cookie…brilliant. Crack pie (so good it’s addicting).
Veniero’s
The last stop is dessert. Veniero’s originated 115 years ago as a pool supply store that quickly flopped as the number of pools in the city are were slim to none. Luckily it became a full-blown bakery (and now a restaurant) offering some of the finest Italian pastries in the city.
Cases of cannolis, tarts, eclairs, cheesecakes, and cookies have customers flooding through the doors and picking a number for their order. Open for 115 years, Veniero’s has to be doing something right.
All in all, the City Food Tour is a class act not only for “foodies,” but also for anyone with an interest in New York, its history, and current hot spots. City Food Tours offers a number of daily tours as well as private events and dining programs.
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