There is an area of New York that everyone has heard of that does not seem to get enough credit. The southeast section of Manhattan is affectionately known as Little Italy and Chinatown. Admittedly very few people I know, even nearest New Yorkers, have gone through it in depth.
Little Italy and Chinatown Food Tour by Ahoy New York Tours and Tasting goes right into the heart of it with an in-depth look at both of these neighborhoods.
We started our tour in this beautiful tea shop in Chinatown (no spoilers here). Ahoy prides itself on selecting establishments visited as being multigenerational owned and operated and not tourist traps. After a perfect cup of jasmine tea, we wrapped up and around through the original streets of Chinatowns. The tour continued through Little Italy, where we tasted some fine cheeses, olives, and fantastic eggplant and cannoli.
These were parts of Chinatown that I’d never seen in my life. My spouse and I are both native New Yorkers and can say after nearly 50 years, we’ve never perused through half of these streets. This, in particular, is what made the tour so unique. Yes, the tastings are well thought out and well planned. The tasting themselves had a nice flow from one to the other and gave an excellent overview of Chinatown and Little Italy. But, what made the tour most impressive was that it sold us on a part of the city that we would never have gone through in our lives. The history and the direction of the tour and the general flow gave us an insight that we would have never experienced otherwise.
Zoe, our tour guide, was wonderfully friendly and exceptionally knowledgeable. You could tell she cared about her job and had highly detailed knowledge of the area.
If you have any family history of immigration to this country, your family probably passed through this neighborhood. This tour gave an in-depth look into immigration to the area. This is an excellent tour for families as it provides an authentic tasting and history of New York City. We highly recommend this tour.