Spring break a time for the beach some might say. Nay my friends. There can be other places. I spent my part of my spring break in the great city of New York. Where cultures collide, mix, and mash together in one big mess of bustling boroughs and tall buildings.
Everyone who goes to the city has there special places that they enjoy going. The park, uptown, downtown, midtown, etc. But me, I like to spend my time in Little Italy and China town. Odd? Yes. But the FOOD. My god, the food is indescribable, well some of it.
I spent my three days in the city walking around the market places of these parts of town. Thats where you find the best of the best of foods, as something Andrew Zimmern. These foods are not served to you in a restaurant, not served to you on a platter, but served to you by a the hands of the people who make the food or create or catch the food themselves.
Now i know i just said the best of the best foods are not found in restaurants, I was right. Jelly Fish anyone? Duck feet? Yes duck feet. Es Cargo? (i know its french but we stopped in a french restaurant.)They are very, very hard to describe. Jelly Fish is like when you first bite into a pickle and you get that crunching sound, that is what it is like to bite into jelly fish with EACH bite. Every bite is crunch, crunch, crunch. But you would never expect it, because its flimsy and wiggly. Not exactly the greatest thing on the planet. But if you are daring enough try it. Duck feet, BLECH! It showed up on a plate, and i took a look at it and saw D.U.C.K. Feet there. It looked like they just cut it off and put it on a plate. But they were slimy and smelly. They were real hard to cut and they tasted horrible. I actually have no idea how to describe them to you. But my mother says that they would taste better if they were fried, but they were disgusting and should never be consumed. Es Cargo is french for snail. It was actually a decent delectable delight. Though you can't, CAN NOT, think about what you are actually eating or else you wont be able to get it down. I suggest you try Es Cargo at some point in your life.
In Little Italy there is just an indescribable amount of AMAZING cheeses, breads, pasta, oils, chocolates, ANYTHING you can think of is just amazing. I went into this little italian deli and found an assortment of cheeses and meats. They had sausage links and salami galore. I, loving mozzarella, bought 2 huge like chunks? or balls? I don't know what to call them but they were the most delicious giant balls of cheese EVER! perfectly salted and everything. Mmhmm. Then we went to think other little deli thats been open since the late 1800's that had the most amazing italian bread and other deli meats. Nothing beats the taste of anything from those places.
I also stopped in this one, i guess it was a specialty food shop because they had jars upon jars of CRAZY delicates from China. Most of it was in chinese but there was one thing in a jar that I remember I could tell what it was. It was a shark fin that was being sold for $2,000 dollars. Incredible that anyone would even buy it.
You don't always have to go to the nicest places to get good food. Explore be daring, its safe to eat in little dirty shops along the street. You'd be surprised what you will find. And now I leave you with these parting words once again. Food. The Worlds Past Time. Eat Foods, try new things, put your stomach to the test.
