Hi friends, welcome back! Today I’m taking you along on a Lower East Side Historical Food Tour with Devour Tours that Jon and I were invited to join. Most of their tours are in Europe, but they’ve recently launched some in NYC and Boston. Devour Tours recently joined the company Walks which provides sightseeing tours and experiences across major cities in Europe, NYC, DC, and Boston. This tour cost $79 a person and runs for three hours, which seems to be the going rate for this type of tour. Our tour started at 10:30am on a Sunday and there were ten participants including us. We discovered that one of the ladies on the tour lives in our building, small world!
Katz Deli was our first and favorite spot of the tour. Jon and I had never been to this iconic NYC spot or tried their pastrami. This deli opened in 1888 and has been family run ever since. Per their website, “Our corned beef and pastrami is cured using a slower method, which best flavors the meat, without injecting chemicals, water, or other additives to speed the process. Our finished product can take up to a full 30 days to cure, while commercially prepared corned beef is often pressure-injected (or “pumped”) to cure in 36 hours”. We got to try their pastrami and rye bread and it was a hit, although we all wished there was more to go around.
If you’ve seen the movie When Harry Met Sally, this is where they eat, and another diner delivers the famous “I’ll have what she’s having” line. There is even a sign to commemorate the table they sat at.
Economy Candy is the oldest candy store in NYC and has been around since the 1930s. They import a lot of candy too so the variety of products is a little overwhelming. Our guide gave us about ten minutes to look around, but any candy bought was not included in the ticket price.
Our next stop was at the Caribbean restaurant El Castillo De Jagua. We got a typical Dominican breakfast sample of mangú (mashed plantains), fried eggs, fried cheese, and salami. This restaurant has been visited by celebrities such as Marc Anthony, Ricky Martin, Benjamin Bratt, and Luis Guzman.
We then headed over to Formaggio Kitchen in Essex Market for a little cheese sampling.
Orchard Grocer is a vegan deli and food market that we stopped at next. We tried “The Edith” with a house made carrot lox, house made cashew cream cheese, capers, dill, and scallions on a fresh bagel. This bagel is $12 which seems expensive for a NYC bagel without protein. We could appreciate the creativity, but the lox had some mixed reactions in the group.
Shu Jiao Fuzhou Cuisine is a delicious, incredibly inexpensive Chinese spot. You can get 10 dumplings for $4.50 but our guide got the 6 dumplings for $3. We also got the noodles with peanut butter sauce that was only $3, although this was hard to share.
Doughnut Plant was the final stop on the tour and I’ve been to various locations across the city and it always delivers. We all shared a black & white donut, coffee cake, and a regular glazed donut.
Overall I appreciated the variety of food on our stop and the food tasted great, I think our guide just miscalculated the portion sizes at a few of the stops. What stop caught your eye?
Another good outing Lyssy. Portions do make a difference on a food tour. Not sure what formula your guide used. Too bad it came up a bit short. Katz’s Deli caught my eye. Very little beats a good deli and after 136 years in business I think they have it figured out. Thanks for sharing. Allan
I agree, usually there is more than enough food to go around these tours. Katz’s Deli will be a spot we will definitely go back to, especially when we have out of town guests!
I bet you and Jon could put together a much better tour! Can’t believe it was your debut visit to Katz. I went there many years ago with a girlfriend who used to live in NY and loved the food and ambience.
We do know some great spots! Katz does have great food and ambiance. My friend sent some of their soup and latkes to us when we were sick, but I agree it’s crazy it took us so long to get there.
Okay on my next trip to the Big Apple, I’m signing up for your Tour
You better come hungry 😀
You’re on!
That donut giving me Cruella vibes!
Ha it really does!
As usual, I’m stuffed just reading this. I think the Caribbean one sounds the most appealing to me!
Lots of good choices, the Caribbean one was definitely interesting!
I wasn’t surprised to read you’d already been to at least one of the businesses on the tour. The candy store looks great. I know I’ve become an adult when i can enjoy a nostalgic look around a candy store without buying anything. The Deli is my favorite, as much for the atmosphere as for the appetizing-looking sandwiches. So “New York”. As for El Castillo de Jagua, I noticed you didn’t give an opinion thumbs up or thumbs down. Good decision. “Mashed plantains” would make the podium of my least-appetizing foods. Simply UGH!
The candy store was fun to look around, they also had old baseball cards Jon was interested in but resisted. Katz was a great stop, we need to go back and get a full sandwich one day to share of course. Can’t beat a good sandwich. I am not a plantain fan, even when they are fried, so I just ate the fried cheese on the plate.
I have never done a food tour but they sound fun!
They are a lot of fun!
Lots of delicious eats in NYC! Katz Deli especially caught my eye: I love a good pastrami, ever since my partner introduced me to a good one at her favorite deli here in LA. The Fuzhou restaurant looks enticing, as I do appreciate solid Chinese food (at solid prices)! Glad you had a good time 🙂
I love pastrami too! Hard to beat a good deli, glad you guys have one too. The prices at Fuzhou were pretty amazing for NYC, way cheaper than going to the grocery store.
This looks like an awesome tour! I would definitely check out Katz Deli, you can’t go wrong with a delicious pastrami sandwich!
I agree, nothing beats a good pastrami sandwich!
I would have liked to try the different items in the Fromaggio box as well as the pastrami at Katz deli. And I think everyone should have had their own dumpling rather than having 10 people share six. That would have annoyed me.
It was a customer at another table who said “I’ll have what she’s having,” rather than Billy Crystal. Meg Ryan had just faked an orgasm while seated at the table. Very funny scene!
Fromaggio did have a good selection! I agree about the dumplings, especially for only $1.50 more, that didn’t make sense to me.
Oh yes you’re right, thank you! I haven’t seen that movie in a few years and didn’t know it was at Katz deli until our tour. I think it’s due for a rewatch 🙂
I thought all food tours would be on the generous side when it comes to portions to keep everyone happy. My favourite on this tour would definitely be the pastrami.
What better way to end your food tour than by sampling a donut! Looks yummy! I’d be all over those cheese samples. Mmm.
It looks like a lot of food to me, I’m full from reading. I love fried plantains so that and the cheese platter would be my pick. I wouldn’t eat the pastrami but I’d like to see Katz diner 😊
Katz’s Deli is iconic, I just watched a BBC programme a few hours ago where it was featured. Love the look of the place, the business and pastrami of course. I don’t eat enough pastrami. ‘When Harry Met Sally’ would be top of my list due to its cinematic significance, it’s such an iconic scene.
It looks like you don’t get *that* much food for $79! Having been to Katz’s and Economy Candy on my last visit to NYC, I agree both are definitely worth a visit :-)Shu Jiao Fuzhou Cuisine looks like somewhere I need to try!
Sounds like a good tour to get a sampling of NY food.