Foods of New York in the News
Trip Report: Chelsea Market Food Tour
(Visit the original post to see Ayersian's fantastic photos from the tour.)
Foods of New York Tours is a company that offers walking tours with food tastings in historic districts of New York City, and I was lucky to join the Chelsea Market & Meatpacking District tour yesterday. The converted indoor market contains dozens of different food shops, most of which operate at wholesale prices.
We started at the Chelsea Market (75 9th Ave. between 15th & 16th Sts.), a beautifully renovated indoor warehouse where the Food Network headquarters are located. The building symbolizes the recent and speedy gentrification of the Chelsea meatpacking district. You can tell that it used to be a derelict space, but the renovations retain the original feel of the spaces with a tasteful roughness. This was the birthplace of the Oreo cookie, as the National Biscuit Company’s (Nabisco) former home. Exposed ductwork, raw granite, and girders inside the concourse spotlight this artificial waterfall:
These torches were once lampposts from the city of Philadelphia:
Our first stop was Eleni’s Bakery, known for their hand-frosted cookies, brownies, and beautiful cupcakes—and their astonishingly love/hate reviews on other food sites. Eleni started out by making her signature oatmeal raisin cookies years ago. Today, her shop boasts dozens of different sugary treats, including the cupcakes made popular by the Sex and the City series.
We sampled their Cranberry Everything cookie (chocolate chips, cranberries, oatmeal, nuts, etc.), and it was soft and chewy and delicious without being dominated by the chocolate, which is often a cookie’s downfall:
My friend Olivia went back and bought a Red Velvet cupcake, which was small and manageable. She loved it, though I wondered how it stacked up to the same from Burgers & Cupcakes further up 9th Ave.:
Next stop was Ronnybrook Milk Bar, where they serve what our tour guide Ed called “the best chocolate milk in the world”:
Flash-pasteurized and not homogenized, it tasted like melted chocolate ice cream—amazing! Here’s Ed divvying it up for us:
We would taste fresh bread from Amy’s Bread later in the tour, but we watched the baker knead and prepare dough through the window:
We then entered the seafood extravaganza of the Lobster Place, with their eye-popping displays. Not only is the selection of the highest quality, all products are sold at wholesale prices!
Ed whisked us into the back cooler where the lobsters are wriggling in large tanks. He pulled out this five-pound beauty with claws bigger than my hands:
I watched in awe as these sushi chefs rolled eel in seaweed and rice:
Then came the tasting—on the right, an ultra-creamy lobster bisque, and on the left, their wonderfully spicy Cajun crab and corn chowder:
Browsing in Buon Italia grocery was fantastic:
…but the sampler plate with mortadella, smoked mozzarella, garlic olives, balsamic onions, and Amy’s organic seed-bread with artichoke tapenade was magnificent:
The colors and scents of the Manhattan Fruit Exchange, the biggest wholesale fruit vendor in the city, were fabulous:
Their photogenic produce lends itself to a photo essay:
And the biscuits with blueberry-cherry and strawberry-peach “spreadable fruit” (thus named because they don’t contain powdered pectin) from Sarabeth’s were darn wonderful, too:
The T Salon tearoom offers various organic meals, most of which include tea in the preparation or cooking. These wild-looking blooming teas reminded me of those toy animal capsules that you drop in water, and little foam animals emerge after the capsule dissolves:
This panna cotta gelato (vanilla with a caramel swirl and pinenuts) from L’Arte del Gelato was one of the best I’ve had outside of Italy:
Then came the celebrity chefs’ quarter, with Morimoto of Iron Chef fame up first:
We spoke to the line chefs in the kitchen, then headed downstairs to the bar where Morimoto, Mario Batali, and other top chefs hang out between show tapings:
Across the street is Batali’s Del Posto, a very posh restaurant that I must try:
According to our tour guide, a little-known option on offer is a $52 chef’s tasting menu. It’s a great way to discover the Michelin-2-star restaurant without overindulging. Ed took us downstairs to the kitchen and staff eating area:
This is a small fraction of their wine cellar, containing bottles worth more than I can imagine:
Ed then led us through the Meatpacking District, where a few meatpacking facilities share the block with art galleries, ethnic restaurants, fancy bars, and clothing stores. This unfinished hotel is slated to open later this year:
…along with the renovated High Line (in the foreground above), an elevated railroad bed that will soon become a walkway/garden for Manhattan’s West Side.
All this history and fabulous food in three hours! I can’t wait to go on their other tours of Chinatown, Greenwich Village, et al. Hope you enjoyed this, Chris
P.S. Extra-special thanks to Olivia for co-writing this report, to Amy for photo help, and to David, Shane, and Megan for making this tour happen!
