Greenwich Village Food Tour
My friend Peta is not only one of the most thoughtful, beautiful people in the world, she's also incredibly organised. She's just generally fabulous, really. I didn't even think of her skill when I asked Peta to be one of my bridesmaids, but boy has she been helpful these past few months. I am so lucky! What does this have to do with a food tour of Greenwich Village, you ask? I'll get to that...
My brother Jackson is my Best Man at my upcoming Wedding (a male Maid of Honour, if you will) but he's not so great with the girly stuff - what did I expect, really? He's wonderful in other areas though - he found the boys suits & he'll be all over the music. All my bridesmaids are amazing, Jackson included, but I'm mentioning Peta now because of her incredible organising skills, which have brought me much joy and happiness these past six, seven years we've known each other...
Case in point, our recent New York City Trip.
Thanks to Peta us girls did many fun things in NYC, one of which was a Greenwhich Village Food Tour. We decided to do a food tour based on her friend's recommendation, and I'm so glad we did! You can choose a number of different areas to tour, yet in the end we decided to go with the Greenwich Village one. We were keen to not only sample the food but to immerse ourselves in this funky area - by using the word "funky", I fear I just outed myself as a foreigner in "The Village"...blast.
And so, one Thursday mid-morning our group of hungry travellers met in Greenwich Village, ready to start touring!
1.Joe's Pizza was our first stop, for a slice of true New York City Pizza.
Sephra, our tour guide, with the pizza pie! Sephra was just outrageously funny. So dry and witty - one of those naturally hilarious people. Never a dull moment, I tell ya. I could not recommend her enough.
Joe's is a real institution in NYC, with a longstanding history. I've had a lot of good pizza in my time, so I was not blown away by Joe's, yet his Margherita Pizza slice is truly very yummy.
2. After that we went to Oliviers and Co., where we sampled Basil-Infused Extra Virgin Olive Oil (ummmm, yes please) and Truffle Honey (are you serious?? Amazing).
3. Next was a pit stop for Arancini and Sopressa - both quality bites.
4. To wash these first eats down we were introduced to The Manhattan Special Espresso Coffee Soda. It was....amazing. Espresso, sugar, bubbles. I loved it.
I felt a bit buzzed after drinking this beverage (clearly), but that was fine - it gave us energy to last the whole tour ;) Here we can see (Manhattan Special-induced) blurry Bhey, bright-eyed but still burry vicki, graceful Peta (how did she do that?) and crazy eyed me.
Completely craving that soda now.
Moving on...
All these first bites were located fairly close together, so now it was time for a little walking...
5. Around the corner we stopped off at Centro Vinoteca for some bar food.
Bellinis and our beautiful Bhey.
Prosciutto-wrapped Dates (always such an amazing combination), a little Artichoke and a stuffed Mushroom. Hello delicious bar food. I like you.
6. Dessert time! We headed to an adorable little shop, Milk and Cookies Bakery.
The owner, Tina Casaceli, has released a cookbook and I was so tempted to buy one. Alas, limited bag space loomed over my head. The Angel on my shoulder said to think of my bursting backpack. The Devil said to buy the book. Sometimes I wish I danced with the Devil more.
Our Chocolate Chip Cookie.
These were incredibly sugary, soft, true American-style cookies. 100%. They were even a little too sweet for our Australian taste. But boy, they were delicious. Oh, and they deliver - Bhey was thrilled to learn that in the freezing Winter, warm cookies could be delivered to her doorstep. I do not lie.
A little more walking lead to the skinniest house in NYC...
...and the Friends building!
Below the Friends building is a gorgeous (red!) cafe where they filmed No Reservations. We had brunch here another day - another day, another post.
There are so many beautiful houses in this area! A girl can dream...
7.Murray's Cheese Shop is filled with delights, beyond a huge range of cheeses to preserves, chocolate and cute little bottled yoghurts.
We were told these were the best tinned tomatoes, used by all the pizza joints for the perfect passata!
We wandered the store for a short while before tasting...CHEESE! They're mad for Gouda in The States, and I can kind of see why - it's not too sharp, but creamy and full of flavour. And it has a cool name...Gouda.
8. To end we had a small slice of Cheesecake - at this point I don't really recall where it was from...too many tastings happening up in here. It was a nice cake, though.
.....
And that, my friends, concludes our Greenwich Village Food Tour. We had a really fun time and certainly enjoyed some delicious eats. It was not the most memorable food of our NYC visit, as we were really spoilt with amazing food everywhere we went (see this post if you need convincing). Yet it was still absolutely worthwhile, as not only did we delight in yummy local food, we also got to see so much of gorgeous Greenwich Village and learn the history of the area. You all know I'm a big food history geek so I was very happy. Very happy indeed.