New Bronx City

I wrote this blog posting 4 1/2 years ago and it has been in draft since then. I'm going to post it today (December 24, 2013)and will be curious to see where it turns out in the order of blogs. This post described my first version of the New Bronx City tour. That tour has changed significantly, with a completely new meeting place, several new areas that we visit that we didn't then (including a block of Jerome Avenue filled with interesting shops and a stretch of White Plains Road in Van Nest that has an emerging Arabic-speaking community representing several countires) and the feel is completely different. I've led the tour three or four more times since then... So here goes: I'd like to reflect on my Saturday tour and add a recommendation. My New Bronx City tour, which took place on Saturday, has been a "work-in-progress." With the weather so lousy, there were just a handful of us. So I did something new: I told the folks that instead of paying me they'd have to lay out for all their food though but we'd do some extra exploring not in the original plan.

It turned out to be a long and fulfilling day - the tour lasted almost 5 hours! Our starting point at the Bronx Central Post Office to see a set of Ben Shahn murals painted during the Works Progress Administration in the 1930s turned out to be a bit of a letdown. I'd seen them myself prior to the tour, but I think we all agreed that although these are magnificent works of art, the setting is so drab that they almost vanish into the background. If the post office would install spotlights to showcase these murals, they would draw much attention.

The Shahn murals depict various aspects of American labor, and are especially pertinent today when the labor movement is undergoing a sea change - but there's almost a couldn't-care-less sense about them. This is a great contrast to the wonderful setting for the murals in the Flushing, Queens, post office that is part of my Flushing tour; I'll be scheduling it for the fall.

[In the years since, the Post Office has indicated possible plans to sell the building. Since its exterior is landmarked, and I think the Shahn murals are, too, it's hard to know who could possibly take it over except nearby Hostos Community College.0

We wandered to the so-called Bronx Walk of Fame, which consists of signs at corners from 149th Street north on the Concourse to at least 161st Street. (I didn't continue to follow it in the rain!)

Here are some recent photos from Joyce Kilmer Park at 161st Street and the Concourse - north side.

We then spent an unexpectedly long time at the Emigrant Savings Bank on the Grand Concourse north of Fordham Road looking at some beautiful murals depicting the early Bronx. What made this visit special was that the branch manager took time to give us some background on those murals and on the building itself, which is landmarked. This type of personal contact often makes the difference during a tour. However, at that point we hadn't eaten yet - our first tastes didn't come until afterward, when we visited a cluster of nearby markets - Cambodian, Guyanese and Bangladeshi - for beverage and snacks. However, it wasn't until we took the bus to the Pelham Parkway area and had lunch at Rawal Restaurant (641 Lydig Avenue) that we hit our culinary stride. This is where I took last year's New Bronx City tour for the first time and a large custom group in April. Sometimes I have to go back to a place to truly appreciate it, and yesterday's lunch was spectacular - flavorful, rich, varied, inexpensive, with nan and roti breads brought to us directly from the oven. We followed soon after with bureks at Burektorja Dukagjini 758 Lydig Avenue
The tour concluded at Enrico Caffe on Morris Park Avenue, a 15 minute walk from Lydig.

This Nosh New Yorker is back to blogging - after a three year absence!

It has been over three years since I last posted on this blog! In that time, I've not only continued to operate Noshwalks and published several issues of Noshnews, but I've made a special effort to explore the Bronx, where a lot is happening foodwise, culturally and residentially. There's an emerging artisanl sector - mostly, as far as I can tell - with the establishment of two rum distilleries and some craft beers. I included a visit to one of them - Rine Tirado in the Port Morris neighborhood - to my Crossing 149th Street Noshwalk in the summer. Since September 2010, I've visited Istanbul and Quito - taking food tours in each city and collecting more food lore. I didn't travel last summer - it was my daughter's last in NYC before heading to college, so NYC neighborhoods were my destinations. I led quite a few custom tours this past year. Other news: I'm transforming Noshnews from an 8-page newsletter focusing on one or two neighborhoods at a time to a soon-to-be-published free four-pager that will be more wide-ranging and flexible so that I can produce it more often and more easily, drawing on experiences I've had leading tours and exploring on my own. There won't be one concentrated neighborhood theme. Each will depend on what I see, what I"m thinking, new observations on neighborhood food trends, and so on. Each will be packed with infornation, which I think is the strong ponit o0f Noshwalks and Noshnews - that people learn more about New York City neighborhoods from being with me or reading what I've written. It got to the point where it took 10 months or more to produce one issue - very labor intensive - but I did publish 24 in that format - not bad! In October I offer the first "Dining Out With Noshwalks," a now-periodic get-together in a different neighborhood, visiting a restaurant I've been curious about but couldn't include on a Noshwalk because it didn't really fit in. The first took place in October, when we wen tto the Yemeni restaurant Oasis in the Van Nest section of the Bronx - an area where there's an emerging community of people from different Islamic countries, including Egypt, Yemen, Palestine and Turkey. The second took place in Sunset Park, where we met at Pacificana, a huge dim sum place (although dim sum was not offered in the evening - my error - some places have it 24 hours and I thought this place did...). Then we decided to go elsewhere for dessert and headed to Fifth Avenue in Sunset Park, stopping first at Gran Via, a Dominican/Cuban Bakery and then sat down at Flor de Izucar, a Mexican bakery. We had tastes at each one. That addition to our dinner was so much fun that I'll propose that the nest Dining Out will have the main meal and dessert at two different place. Expect announcements on my Facebook page about the next meal in mid=Kamiaru! You really should "like" my Noshwalks Facebook page. It's full of photos, including pictures from my travels. But in my next posts here, I will add photos from both cities. The photo in this blog is of a bunch of guys who work for Google in NYC and hired me to lead a custom tour. At first they asked if I'd lead a tour in the Meatpacking District, which I don't cover. Their offices are near there, so I told my contact that it would be much better to go someplace new. We went to Elmhurst and had mostly Thai food. A big, big yum! They loved it! I always love going there. I'm glad to be blogging again! Please let me know what you think! Myra

Kvetching about Markets

Most foodies talk about restaurants and cafes; most NY food guides focus on eateries, not markets. But Noshnews and Noshwalks - and my book, Nosh New York, puts emphasis on both. If anything, I prefer the markets because I get a close up look at many more ingredients than I can taste in one place... (and I can't tell you how much odd stuff clogs my shelves at home). The pictures shows Ariana Afghan market on Main Street in Flushing. Those dour merchants don't own it anymore, but I think they're photogenic in a kind of ironic way and I love this picture!

Anyway, just a few thoughts : Truly the best food markets are in the boroughs or far from central Manhattan. Yes, of course, Zabar's and Fairway and Whole Foods are great, and, yes, I go to all of them. But when I REALLY want interesting food, I'd rather go to Sunnyside or Elmhurst or Astoria or Flushing or Richmond Hill or Brighton Beach... and Belmont for great bread, cheese and pasta. I even like to go to El Pais on St. Nicholas and 184th Street for certain things, but it's a MESS inside.

Harlem has NO good markets. (Young Spring on West 125th Street just east of Malcolm X Boulevard is OK, and the Sea & Sea My favorite African market closed a few years ago (the best are in the Bronx), although you can find ingredients for African cuisine in the neighborhood. (But I noticed huge jars of Skippy peanut butter in one place, presumably used for the mafe - peanut butter stew).

Forgive me - a few exceptions: International Market on 9th Ave, & 40th St.; Pars Persian market on West 30th just east of 7th Avenue (north side of the street), Kalustyan on Lex between 29th and 30th... and I'm a big fan of West Side Supermarket, but especially enjoy its lower-cost Bronx counterpart known as Garden Gourmet, on Broadway and 234th Street.

Do I sound like I'm kvetching? Maybe it's just that in its vast and rapid gentrification, Harlem is welcoming too many generic places, and I far this will happen in other neighborhoods.

Comments?

Back to Belmont

I love shopping in Belmont, Bronx, (aka "Little Italy of the Bronx" or simply "Arthur Avenue") and have recently begun going there from time to time during the week late in the afternoon. I like to stop in at Joe's Deli on East 187th Street, where his son, Nick, who says he was "born" in the store (or at least raised there) is always extra helpful. Those quiet afternoons are a wonderful time to shop: You don't get the hectic energy of the weekend crowds, and you do have the delightful opportunity to buy what you want at Teitel's, or anywhere else, for that matter, without waiting on line.

Terranova Bakery sells its bread at a discount late in the day, which is nice to know, but Madonia doesn't, at least during the week. About 10 years ago, I had taken my daughter to the Bronx Zoo (she was in a stroller then), and we then headed to Belmont. It was a Saturday, also around 5 PM. Madonia was selling off a lot of its bread for half-price, so I indulged!

It seems like more cafes and delis are opening in Belmont, including a new Bistro owned by Roberto Paciello, who operates the famous Roberto's on Crescent Street (actually, it hasn't quite opened yet, but will soon), and Umberto's Clam House has already opened an outpost here. I wonder whether more of Manhattan's Little Italy places (not that there are too many left...) will similarly come to the Bronx.

But what is utterly striking is that you don't have to stray far from the immediate neighborhood to see how Belmont is almost an "alien presence" in the Bronx. I know my way around the many buses to Belmont and I sometimes like to take a different side street either to Fordham Road or Southern Boulevard when I'm heading home. It's one of those New York experiences: turn the corner and you're in a different neighborhood. It's almost eerie, but it underscores the extent to which Belmont is NOT residentially Italian at all (with a few older hangers-on; but even many of the older proprietors now live in Westchester, Long Island, or further north in the Bronx).

At one time Belmont's Italian center was considered fragile. The Bronx was in decline; neighborhoods were not safe; mass transit was unpleasant; the retail market was not fully occupied and not in good shape. Things began to change in the early 80s when community developers and business owners decided to go all out and make Belmont a destination, and they have succeeded wildly: the market was renovated (but still has a somewhat seedy air), and folks crowd in on the weekend. (It helps that Fordham University is across the street...). And the gourmet craze has helped enormously.

But this afternoon, as the stores closed and the "real" Belmont emerged, I wondered whether it is in fact a fragile neighborhood. The surrounding housing is nothing to shout about, unlike some neighborhoods (take almost all of Harelm for example!) that have beautiful housing stock.

So I shopped, schmoozed with a few market owners I know, and had a delicious slice of eggplant pizza at Giovanni's (whose owner is Albanian, like many places in Belmont).

(Here's a photo of the owner of Giovanni's - George - making a pizza.)

I bought two big cartons of strawberries for $1 each - wow - cannoli shells and cannoli cream at Egidio's, and mozzarella at Joe's Deli, which has become a favorite place ever since I got to know Nick, Joe's son, who's just a great guy. (He let me watch the mozzarella being prepared.) Of course I went to Borgatti's and got some fresh ravioli for my daughter. Then I turned the corner and was back in "the Bronx" and headed for the bus (actually two buses and a subway) to get home.