http://www.nypost.com/p/lifestyle/food/tour_de_food_2xURyQRJ6vppUOZSbqz1KM
CARLA SPARTOS, MARY HUHN, MAX GROSS
What do you do with your out-of-town guests now that you’ve stuffed yourself with turkey and braved the Black Friday crowds? Skip the usual tourist haunts for a walking tour that will help you work off that second helping of pie while offering plenty of places to refuel. Whether your tastes run to English garden houses or urban oases, cachapas or shawarma, these five itineraries offer out-of-the-ordinary sights and out-of-this-world eats.
Carla’s tour of urban treasures and edible delights
Long Island City to Greenpoint
A trip along the industrial waterfront — and the notoriously sludgy Newtown Creek that divides the two communities — yields startling glimpses of urban beauty. Culinary surprises are also conjured from the debris — from an old chrome diner that serves foie gras to a cafe cobbled from salvaged materials pouring top-notch brews.
Subway: Take the 7 train to Hunters Point.
Total Walk: 2.4 miles
Stop 1: M. Wells Diner (21-17 49th Ave.; 718-425-6917): This retro diner has a gourmet bent, a friendly vibe and a constantly changing menu to suit the seasons and the chef’s whims. You can’t go wrong with a plate of $8 hash — peppery potatoes, bacon, mushrooms and market vegetables crowned with a poached egg whose yolk is perfectly golden and gooey.
Stop 2: Gantry Plaza State Park: Turn left on 21st Street, right on 50th Avenue, then walk until the road ends at this urban oasis with sweeping skyline views. Explore the wooden piers jutting from the industrial gantries once used to unload barges and enjoy the park’s northern edge with its view of the iconic Pepsi-Cola sign.
Stop 3: Sweetleaf Coffee(10-93 Jackson Ave.; 917-832-6726): Walk down 48th Avenue, turn right at 11th Street and head to this cafe with a serious coffee program — think single-origin espresso and pour-over coffee that yields a sweet, clean-tasting cup. In back, you’ll find a small “Vinyl Room” with a turntable and LPs for patrons to play. Crank up the Black Sabbath or grab your joe to go.
Stop 4: Newtown Creek Nature Walk: Time to get moving! Cross Pulaski Bridge over Newtown Creek to reach this gonzo walk by Greenpoint’s gleaming onion-domed sewage treatment plant. The industrial scenery is oddly compelling — there’s not much greenery, but you might spy a giant claw heaping scrap metal onto a barge from your creekside perch.
Stop 5: El Encanto Mexicano (1005 Manhattan Ave.; 718-349-2885): From Paidge Avenue, turn left onto Clay Street, then left onto Manhattan Avenue. At this tiny bodega, grab a glass bottle of sugar-sweetened Mexican Coca-Cola ($1.75) and chorizo tacos (right) stuffed with avocado, lettuce, onion and cilantro (three for $7), before heading home via the G train at Greenpoint Avenue.
Max’s Foodie tour for architecture geeks
Jackson Heights
So you think you know Jackson Heights because you’ve been to the buffet at Jackson Diner? Sorry, but you don’t know Jack! The neighborhood’s other spectacular offerings include Korean fried chicken and taco carts as well as massive apartment buildings with planted courtyards and houses with English gardens.Subway: Take the 7, E, F, M or R to Roosevelt Avenue.
Total walk: 1.2 miles
Stop 1: Unidentified Flying Chickens (71-22 Roosevelt Ave.): Technically in Elmhurst, this spot — three blocks from the train — has some seriously excellent Korean fried chicken (try the soy-garlic). If you prefer, start at the taco carts a few steps from the subway (a chorizo taco costs $2 — few things on the menu are more than $5). You’d be hard-pressed to find a better taco at any Mexican restaurant in the city.
Stop 2: Pearson’s Texas Barbecue, Legends Sports Bar (71-04 35th Ave.): This Queens pub has an older, Irish vibe, and you can banter with the regulars as you sip some suds. The whiskey and beer aren’t particularly fancy, but they churn out decent barbecue brisket in the back.
Stop 3: Garden apartments (35th Avenue between 76th and 88th streets): Most of these buildings were built as part of the “garden city movement,” a vision for leafy urban planning started in Great Britain at the end of the 19th century. This neighborhood was one of the first in the country to embrace the movement, resulting in these massive buildings with beautiful courtyards. Between 34th and 35th avenues along 84th Street, check out the English garden houses — single-family houses with front lawns!
Stop 4: Jackson Heights Greenmarket (Travers Park, 34th Avenue between 77th and 78th streets): This market, open Sundays, has seasonal fruits and veggies, with an emphasis on Mexican produce such as tomatillos. Nearby, vendors hawk tamales or corn dusted with cheese.
Stop 5: Pio Pio (84-02 Northern Blvd.): Feast on jaw-dropping Peruvian chicken — moist, tender and roasted — and sip sangria (left). On Saturdays, the eatery feels like a football stadium, as throngs of people show up for seafood platters overflowing with golden fried calamari, octopus and shrimp, and French fries (paired with hot dog slices and called salchipapa).
Max's 'O Bay can you see' tour
From Bay Ridge to Verrazano Bridge, Brooklyn
Famous for “Saturday Night Fever,” artery-clogging red-sauce Italian joints such as Casa Calamari and great Middle Eastern restaurant Tanoreen, Bay Ridge is also a wonderful place to shop, pick up treats and snack along the way. Its Shore Road Park offers a fabulous view of the Narrows that Giovanni da Verrazano first sailed in 1524.
Subway: Take the R train to Bay Ridge Avenue.
Total walk: 1.5 miles
Stop 1: The Family Store (6905 Third Ave.): This Middle Eastern food shop, similar to the ones on Atlantic Avenue but without the chaos, has a terrific selection of nuts, cheeses and delicacies ranging from moussaka to crab cakes that you can take with you and munch on as you walk.
Stop 2: Nordic Delicacies (6909 Third Ave.): While most of the Scandinavians long ago abandoned neighboring Sunset Park, this shop remains a place where you can still load up on fish puddings, herring salad and Spekeposie (Norwegian salami). Just avoid looking at the slightly creepy troll dolls in the window.
Stop 4: Karam (8519 Fourth Ave.): For something quick and on the go, you can’t do any better than Karam. Try the chicken liver skewers, which are unlike any liver that your mother made you eat. Or go for a shawarma — the lamb and chicken versions are by far the best in the city, filled with pickled cabbage and garlic mayonnaise. Warning: These things are addictive, so be prepared to come back to Bay Ridge a lot.
Stop 5: John Paul Jones Park (Shore Road and 101st Street): Once you’ve bought all your booty, picnic at this 5.15-acre park near Fort Hamilton, a Revolutionary War-era fort that’s still active. If you go Monday through Saturday, visit the fort’s museum. Sit on the benches next to the cannon to dine in the shadow of the Verrazano Bridge and take in Staten Island at its most alluring.
Mary's 'old NYC meets new NYC' tour
Bel Del (below Delancey) to South Williamsburg
Stroll through an old Jewish neighborhood (most shops are closed on Saturdays) on the Lower East Side, then take a scenic walk across the Williamsburg Bridge for a jaunt in a newer nabe, once solely known for Peter Luger Steakhouse.
Subway: Take the F or M train to Delancey/Essex stop or the D train to Grand Street.
Total walk: 2 miles
Stop 1: Kossar’s Bialys (367 Grand St.; 877-4-BIALYS): Walk down Essex, turn left on Grand and grab an old-world kosher bialy at this LES landmark with heavenly scents and fresh goods— including onion and garlic bialys (90 cents each) and bulkas (giant bialys, $2 each). There’s no toaster, but you can buy butter (25 cents), cream cheese (starting at 50 cents) or spreads (lox, tuna or whitefish, $3 each).
Stop 2: The Pickle Guys (49 Essex St.; 212-656-9739): The shop’s 34 barrels are filled with pickled edibles such as peppers (at least five types, from jalapeño to sweet), tomatoes and string beans — and odder items such as pineapple and watermelon. Try a sour (or half-sour) pickle for 75 cents or pick up a quart (about 10 to 12 pickles, $6.25) for later. Other yummy sandwich accessories are sauerkraut and fresh “superhot” horseradish. Bring a knife to sample your selections outside, using wooden pickle barrels as a table.
Stop 3: Williamsburg Bridge : Turn back up Essex and walk along Delancey to the Williamsburg Bridge’s red-framed, cage-like bicycle and walking path. To the south, check out gorgeous views of the East River, the Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridges and even a tiny Lady Liberty. To the north, look for the closed Domino Sugar factory. Once off the bridge, take a right and turn right again onto Broadway.
Stop 4: Marlow & Sons (81 Broadway, Williamsburg; 718-384-1441): If it’s morning, stop by this cozy spot for a pumpkin muffin or scones with Devonshire cream. Need an afternoon pick-me-up? Try an espresso and a slice of salted chocolate caramel tart or some oysters and a glass of local tap beer. For something more substantial, there’s always the popular brick chicken, as well as daily specials based on local, seasonal offerings, which are written on a homey chalkboard.
Stop 5: Brook Farm General Store (75 S. Sixth St., Williamburg; 718-388-8642): This relatively new shop, where vinyl records crackle on the stereo, seems like it’s from another era. Browse the pretty, mostly affordable jumble of vintage items (jewelry, glass bottles, cast-iron skillets) and modern ones (dishware, lamps and the store’s own line of $225 wool blankets). Its best-seller? A $10 wall-mounted bottle opener.
Skip’s grazing and gazing tour
Inwood
Tucked away at the northern tip of Manhattan, this neighborhood features a spicy mix of leafy parks, Latino merchants and New York history. Bring hiking boots and a camera for your trek through centuries-old forest, but leave trail snacks at home: There are too many good places to eat once you step off the path.
Subway: Take the A train to Dyckman Station.
Total walk: 3.6 miles
Stop 1: Inwood Hill Park: Enter off Payson Avenue , near Dyckman Street. Boasting 160 shady acres of tall timber with trunks often 3 feet in diameter, Inwood Hill features the largest tract of native forest in Manhattan. The park is roughly a mile end-to-end, but hikers will easily cover two miles by wandering Inwood’s crisscrossing paved paths (and numerous informal dirt detours) amid the impressive maple, oak and tulip trees.
Stop 2: Indian Road Café & Market (600 W. 218th St.; 212-942-7451): End your hike at Inwood Hill Park’s northeast corner, where you’ll find this inviting neighborhood treasure. Lobster macaroni and cheese (right) rules the entree menu, but hungry hikers might prefer a house-made German chocolate cupcake and a steaming mug of coffee.
Stop 3:. Church of the Good Shepherd (corner of Broadway and Isham Street): A memorial garden features the “iron cross” recovered at Ground Zero. To get a homespun glimpse into Manhattan’s more distant past, stop at Dyckman House (4881 Broadway, at 204th Street; 212-304-9422). This 1784 farmhouse is now a city-run museum.
Stop 4: Cachapas y Mas, (107 Dyckman St.; 212-304-2224): This busy eatery fills hungry bellies with its namesake cachapas, a Venezuelan sandwich that uses pancake-flat fried plantains in place of bread. If your meal makes you want to cook authentic Latin American dishes at home, nearby La Antillana Meat Warehouse (572 W. 207th St.) sells staples such as goat meat and fresh yucca.
Stop 5: Papasito Mexican Grill (223 Dyckman St., 212-544-0001): Several inviting Latin bars along this welcoming stretch of Dyckman can quench your thirst. Try Papasito for its signature Tulum, a blend of pomegranate, mango and lime juices mixed with rum and pineapple. From your bar stool, it’s an easy stumble downstairs to the A train.
You’ll get a chance to take your photos in front of the Huxtables’ house from The Cosby Show!And you’ll visit the apartment building that was home Monica, Chandler, Joey, and Rachel fromFriends. You’ll also see parks like Washington Square Park from I am Legend, Enchanted, When Harry Met Sally and August Rush and Tompkins Square Park from Die Hard with a Vengeance. Stop in for a slice at Ben’s Pizza, one of the most famous pizza places in New York City, and filming location for Men In Black II.