Calvin Trillin in blue, on his "Come Hungry" eating tour for the New Yorker Festival.
The fine folks at the New Yorker were kind enough to let us stroll lower Manhattan with the one and only Calvin Trillin last Sunday, as part of their annual New Yorker Festival. Trillin's walking tour, the seventh annual, is titled "Come Hungry" and for good reason. Though, disappointingly, the tour stops haven't changed in three years, it remains a great primer on the food of Chinatown, Little Italy and, to a lesser extent, the West Village. While trying to pick 9 and only 9 stops on a tour of New York Eats is impossible, the tour is special—we met attendees who'd tried unsuccessfully to get tickets to the tour for as many as five years—because Calvin Trillin loves New York and has eaten his way through it. He'll point to Pearl Oyster Bar as one of his faves, cites the 1965 immigration act as one of the most important events in the history of food in the States and, note, is not a big fan of overpriced steakhouses. It's hard to do the tour justice in a recap (the Amateur Gourmet did a nice job of it last year), but we'll give you the full list of Trillin stops here, should you want to recreate the eating for yourself.
1) Home, Salami & Wisconsin Cheese (off the menu)· The New Yorker Festival [official site]
2) Grandaisy, Potato and Fenel Pizza
3) DiPalo, Fresh Mozzarella
4) SW Corner of Forsyth/East Broadway, Green Sandwich
5) Saigon Banh Mi, Banh Mi
6) Fried Dumplings, Fried Pork Dumplings
7) New South Wind Coffee Shop, Rice Noodle Roll-ups
8) 88 Palace Mall, Dim Sum
