Dear All,

We will give out another two free tickets to the lucky winners on Sunday, March 6, 2011. We will draw from the new facebook fans, Twitter followers, newsletter subscribers, and questionnaire participants. Become our fan, follow us, subscribe to us, and fill in our questionnaire. Spread out the words and tell your friends and families! Thank you for your support!

New York Food Tours Team

Feb 22, 2011

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Hey guys!

We’ve been so grateful for all your support these days, and we want to reward you by giving you the chance to win a ticket to our food tour!

Simply tell all your friends about our company, New York Food Tours, and tell them to join our Facebook fan page and follow our Twitter (foodtours)! And of course, we’re assuming that you are already our Facebook fan and Twitter follower.

Help us to increase our numbers, and you’ll be entered into our lottery for a free ticket!

The winner will be announced August 17, 2010.

I’m looking forward to all your help! We appreciate it 🙂

Guess what? It’s that time of the year again: New York City Restaurant Week, one of the city’s most anticipated attractions. Why? Because you get to eat and enjoy luxurious, costly meals at high-ended restaurants that may normally be out of your budget.

During Restaurant Week, New York City collaborates with some of the highest-rated, most popular, and priciest establishments to provide amazing lunch and dinner pre-fixe deals to the public. For the price of $24.07 (lunch) or $35 (dinner), you can eat a three-course meal—normally which would cost far more than that. More than 250 restaurants participate in this event, giving people the chance to taste new meals and explore new cuisines.

Some great restaurants that we’ll be checking out this week are:

• Barbounia on 250 Park Ave. South.
• The Breslin Bar and Dining Room on 16 W. 29th St. between Broadway & 5th Ave.
• The Modern–Bar Room on 9 W. 53rd St. between 5th & 6th Ave.

However, we can only visit so many. Please share your adventures and enlighten us! Do you know which restaurants you’ll be checking out? Here is the list of restaurants participating in Restaurant Week?

On another note, while Restaurant Week is a wonderful way to splurge on great food, when there are so many choices, how can you ever decide? A great way to really taste the cuisines of New York City and still save money is to check out one of our food tours. We offer tours in the East Village, West Village, Chelsea Market and Meatpacking District, and Chinatown.

All our tours not only include great tastings of foods from different countries, but also provide historical and cultural insight of the neighborhoods. Moreover, we feature special tours like our “Freakiest and Funniest Food Tour,” “The First Multicultural Bar Hopping Tour,” and “Everything Chocolate.”

Become our fan on Facebook, and you may win a free ticket to any one of our tours! Check out our tours today to join us for some fun-filled and tasty times!

Since summer officially began last Monday, the weather has been nothing been hot, hot, hot! With the humidity so high that it leaves us feeling uncomfortably warm and sticky, and with only occasional wafts of fresh, cool air, it’s no wonder that everybody wants to stay still and limit as much movement as they can.

Still, how can we let a day go to waste? After all, summer means longer days. The sun is like a temptress, enchanting us with its bright rays to play with her. We want to resist, but we can’t, and somehow we find ourselves outside, sweating like we’ve never sweat before. We’re doomed before the day even begins.

(Source: gothamist.com)

Luckily, to counter the effects of the hot and humid air, there is an excellent solution: ICE CREAM. Yes, with the weather we’ve been having, it is definitely appropriate to scream for ice cream. And where else to get the best ice cream than Sundaes and Cones on E. 10^th St. between 3^rd and 4^th Avenue?

Sundaes and Cones is a local ice cream shop in the East Village that is known for its premium quality ice cream. Rich and creamy, the ice cream from “SuCo”—as the locals call it—beats any other ice cream you have tried. In fact, SuCo is even more popular because it features unusual yet distinct flavors like Wasabi, Corn, Ginger, and even Sesame!

(Source: yelp.com)

For a wafer/sugar cone or a cup, SuCo charges $3 for 1 scoop; $4.29 for 2 scoops; and $5.54 for 3 scoops. For a waffle cone/bowl, it is $4.01 for 1 scoop; $5.31 for 2 scoops; and $6.55 for 3 scoops. While the ice cream tends to be pricier at this local parlor, it surely makes up for the cost with its high quality ingredients. Once you go “SuCo,” you can’t go back!

Just like this store, the East Village is filled with other restaurants, cafes, and dessert shops that can amaze your taste buds. Did you know that you can find takoyakis, rice balls, falafels, cannolis, Belgium fries, etc. all in the East Village? There are so many eateries featuring different cultures in this area that make it impossible for you to try all cuisines in a limited time.

That is why New York Food Tours is a great way to experience the gastronomic aspect of the East Village. We make sure we take you to all the best spots and have tastings of all the best “good eats” so that you leave feeling satisfied and more knowledgeable about the East Village. You don’t know what takoyakis are? You’ll try them on this tour. Never tried a falafel? Don’t worry! Join our tour so that next time, you can be just like a local and wow your friends!

Pizza, falafel, cheesecake, hot dog—you name it, these foods have been New York City’s favorites for over centuries. But recently, a new sweet treat has reached the crowded city of busy New Yorkers: cupcakes.

(Source: www.yelp.com)

Cupcakes became famous around the 1990s as part of the post-diet fad of sugary stuff and as a component of the girly-pop culture. However, cupcakes have quickly embraced the entire US dessert culture, and New York City ranked as the city that consumes the most each year.  A typical New Yorker will describe a good cupcake as not too sweet, flavorful and delicious, and moist, with a perfect butter cream frosting.

Popular bakeries include Sex and The City’s favorite, Magnolia’s Bakery and the Greenwich Village’s top spot, Sweet Revenge. After Carrie and Miranda devoured a cupcake in a bench outside of Magnolia’s Bakery, its popularity rose tremendously. Its cupcakes are fresh and not too sweet, but for not too many gourmet ingredients, they usually come at a high price with an extensive wait.

(Source: thevoguecity.com)

On the other hand, Sweet Revenge has a more cakey texture with a more favorable taste due to its use of gourmet ingredients. New York Food Tour’s Greenwich Village tour has long been stopping at this popular cupcake spot, ranked as one of their most favorite stops by our customers, due to its more cakey texture topped with the best butter cream frosting—a sure sign of a cupcake made with quality ingredients.

Sweet Revenge is a must stop for the Greenwich Village tour, leaving customers overly satisfied with a happy-sweet-ending. This versatile, one-serving size cake has packed New York City’s streets, bringing adults back to their childhood memories. Hands down, New York is the place to taste cupcakes, offering a nostalgic and sweet memory to take back home… especially Sweet Revenge’s moist and tasty cupcake!

One cannot visit New York City without eating its famous tomato and cheese pies. This Greek invention slowly modified by Neapolitans into tomato and cheese pies was brought to New York in 1897 by Italian immigrant Gennaro Lombardi. His pies quickly became a commodity and an on-the-go food for workers.

(Source: www.nycgo.com)

However, Famous Joe’s Pizza has become the essential pizza for New Yorkers and tourists, defining the true street pizza. Joe’s customers describe its pizza with a thin and chewy crust, thin but not too flexible, with just enough cheese and sauce, and having an ideal symmetry. Ask Ben Affleck what he thinks about Joe’s, and undeniably he will rate Joe’s pizza as his favorite in the Big Apple. This straight-out-of-the-coal-fired, brick oven pizza is definitely the best pizza in the city, prepared daily and with fresh ingredients creating a one-of-a-kind yummy tomato and cheese pie.

(Source: cache.virtualtourist.com)

Located on Greenwich Village, Famous Joe’s Pizza is a must stop—included in our Greenwich Village tour—when visiting the city, not only leaving New York having tasted its famous staple, but the best pizza in the entire city as well. New York City is well-known for its delicious greasy pizza, being the favorite snack, lunch, or dinner for every New Yorker since pie shops can be found as frequent as Starbuck’s on a block.  Famous Joe’s Pizza offers an outstanding pizza that is tried by our Greenwich Village tour members, being the perfect street food for a hunger killer or delicious filling snack.

Whether it is a celebrity’s favorite or the typical New Yorker’s on-the-go stop, Famous Joe’s pizza sure is New York City’s most known obsession. And New York Food Tours has included Famous Joe’s as one of its many tasty stops so that you can taste New York’s best pizza while touring Greenwich Village and learning about its historical background.

A crowd stands outside a tiny hole-in-the-wall stand on 9^th Street, between 2^nd and 3^rd Avenue. As you look closer, you see that most of them are eating small balls covered in a dark sauce. Takoyaki, known as Japanese octopus balls, is a street snack that is widely popular in Japan. This dish has made its mark here to Japanese and Americans alike. Otafuku is where you can get one of the most tasty and authentic takoyaki in New York City. On the East Village tour, this destination is one of the highlights where you can experience real Japanese street food!

Served straight off the takoyaki cast iron pan, you can feel the heat emanating from the plate. Take one bite and you find yourself pleasantly surprised, tasting both sweet and savory flavors. The octopus in the middle provides a nice chewiness through the dense batter and katsuobushi (fish shavings) enhances the seafood intensity. The ponzu brings the acidity that cuts the oil and the okonomiyaki sauce adds another layer of sweetness. There is also mayonnaise that brings out fatty flavor to the takoyaki. Immense pleasure overcomes you; your stomach satisfied.

You get to try takoyaki and Otafuku on our East Village Tour! Please check out our website for more details. Be sure to give us your impression on this dish when you participate in our food tour!

It can be difficult to comprehend the “New York lifestyle” just by standing in Times Square, seeing the Statue of Liberty, and walking down 5^th Avenue. Here at New York Food Tours, we believe that the best way to understand the history and culture of any place is by eating! Known to be a culinary center and melting pot, New York is comprised of numerous cultures that range from American to Vietnamese to Ukrainian. Since there are so many restaurants and food stands to choose from, New York Food Tours is here to show you where to go and what fun, interesting, and tasty things there are to eat around this marvelous city.

There are a number of different tours we provide such as:

• The Ultimate New York Food & Culture Tour
• The Original East Village Food Tasting and Cultural Tour
• Everything Chocolate!
• Exotic Southeast Asian
• The First Multicultural Wine & Beer Tour
• Healthy Asian Food Tasting and Cultural Tour

And many more! Visit and explore our website for more details and listings of the food walking tours we provide: http://foodtoursofny.com. You can also check out our Facebook and Twitter page for updates and current events.

If you want to read more about a particular food or restaurant, feel free to send an email to info@foodtoursofny.com and title your email – Blog Idea.  Also, leave a comment if you have something to say or just want to say hi. We are happy to start conversations and learn more about this food-centric city together.

We hope to hear from our readers and fans in the future. Happy Eating!

Times Square Photo Courtesy of d.dawg