Day 5 (and counting!)

This was Wednesday, a little more than half way through our vacation. We slept in a little this morning and then headed out. We went to Penn Station and met our guide for a "Food on Foot" Tour. I think there were seven or eight groups(families, couples, or individuals) on the tour. They were from Germany, Australia, Canada, Texas, California, Florida, Ohio and us. We rode the subway to the first stop and then walked from there. We went to six different shops and tasted their food. The guide would tell you about the area, and the store and their food. He would make some recommendations, and then you would order and pay for what you wanted, whatever the amount. Because their were 6 of us, we were able to taste more things! We would get one of several different things and everyone could have a taste. The food was good and the variety was fun. It was also fun to walk along and talk to different people about where they lived and what they did for a living etc. There was a Dad with a son in between Tim and Caleb's age and they enjoyed visiting with him. So, here we go!

Our tour guide is the one in the blue striped shirt, that everyone is looking at! He lost his job a few years ago and after not finding another one, decided to try something he loved...eating! He picked some of his favorite places and created "Food on Foot" tours around them. You can do a Sweet and Savory tour, a baseball stadium tour, ours which was Go West and took us west of NYC into an area called "Hell's Kitchen". I think he would pretty much create any kind of tour you want! He did give us recommendations for other places to eat during the week. We went to three of them and they were all really good!

Our first stop...some of the best tacos we've eaten! Yum!

Next stop was a bakery. We had some great bread and a potato pizza...basically a crust with scalloped potatoes, delicious!

We walked a little way to this Bistro where the basis of their business is biscotti...probably 20 or more flavors. We aren't big fans of biscotti, but it was the best I have tasted! They did have cupcakes, too and we had one and it was delicious! I liked the inside of the store so here is a picture of that!

Next, we went to a sandwich shop. The owner/chef is the child of Italian immigrants and was raised in NYC. He has spent the last 8 years in Lisbon, Portugal learning to cook new ways. He came back and opened up this shop and it is extremely popular. He doesn't use mayo on the sandwiches, just a spiced yogurt. Our sandwiches were really good. He has some "usual" meats, but most are a little more daring...the dad and his son (asian ancestry) did try the octopus sandwich and said it was good. We weren't so daring, but ours were tasty and we were happy!

Someone offered to take a picure of all of us, so this was after we ate our sandwiches...

We walked a little farther, never more than a block or two, and went to this Greek Bakery.

We learned they are one of very few bakeries that still make their own phyllo dough...so we ordered several kinds of filled treats!

Our last stop was the Shake Shack. Here they serve frozen custard. Some people hadn't heard of it, but being from Utah and having eaten Nielsen's Frozen Custard, we knew just how good it would be. No small bites for sharing here! Plus it was really hot and ice cream sounded great!

This was where the tour ended...we said goodbye to our new friends, and spent the afternoon shopping around. We went to Toys R Us and the kids rode the giant ferris wheel...

a Barbie Car, no less!

That evening, we headed out to Harlem and had dinner at a place called "Sylvia's" that Clark had eaten at in February. It was a soul food restaraunt that is quite famous. There are pictures of Nelson Mandela, Bill Cosby, and Oprah Winfrey, to name a few! We all had either fried chicken or ribs and mashed potatoes and other delicious sides. We were stuffed when we left and headed back to our hotel! It was an awesome day of eating, good thing we did a lot of walking!!