New York-Famous Fat Dave

To help get ourselves acquainted with one of the world’s most famous cities we decided that instead of hopping on the Metro, or a bus tour that we would call Famous Fat Dave and eat our way around the boroughs. Famous Fat Dave (www.famousfatdave.com) provides custom food tours in an old checkered taxicab that pulls the eyes of Nostalgic old New Yorkers, kids, and tourists alike. Dave will take any food request you have and hand you the best of what New York has to offer. He gives you a commentary of the boroughs and hundreds of famous buildings and districts that you pass to get to your next edible landmark.

Fat Dave picked up our trio of Canadians in uptown Manhattan and tossed a Max Brenner chocolate chunk cookie our way as part of our introduction. He told us a little bit about his car as we told him some of the foods we wanted to try and had us rolling toward a coal burning pizza oven before we knew it. New York style pizza has a very thin crust, and when you use a coal oven you get to taste pizza the way it tasted a hundred years ago in NYC. It is no longer legal to use coal ovens but about 60 restaurants in New York have managed to keep theirs running, allowing us to enjoy our first of many New York City pies.

From the Pizza we continued on the Italian theme to have Roman Broccoli fried with Italian Sausage and served with garlic knots and Had a Hero sub from Delfonte’s Sandwich Shop, where the Sopranos like to eat. They served up Italian ham with fried potatoes and egg on a sub with house brewed sweet Tea.

By this point we would have been full, but Dave taught us to pace ourselves from the beginning and had about 20 minutes between each delicacy to digest and feast our eyes on the city. With stomach room to spare we had Vietnamese sandwiches, with lychee and avocado shakes, then stopped for some fresh beef jerky in China town. It was the softest and tastiest Jerky I have had in my life. We managed to keep eating, having key lime pie, and chocolate dipped key lime pie on a stick, but the boundaries were about to be pushed.

Finally we went Jewish, a must in New York, eating blueberry blintzes, and had a visit to the pickle bar, new pickles, aged pickles, pickled okra and green beans. However by the time we got to the pickle bar we were nearly incapable of masticating, swallowing, and ever peristalsis was threatening to come to a halt. Resultantly we left the cab with a bag of pickled goods, peach, blueberry, and vanilla doughnuts, and some left over jerky.

We were so full that we self subscribed ourselves a day of walking off our 3.5 hour marathon to shop through SOHO and have only fluids until a late night doughnut and coffee binge. Famous Dave is a 5-star way to see New York with your eyes and your stomach.