Astoria Culinary Walking Tour: Stops 4-5

       On the 4th stop our guide (a nice and free spirited lady I might add) took us to an Irish pub for a shot of whiskey chased with a spicy pickle juice. Our guide was talking about this for most of the tour. You can tell shes closer to my age than some of the adults on the tour.

The whiskey was so smooth I wanted to take all those shots, but wasn't looking to sleep with the homeless on the street

We also had fried pickles, which I never tried before

 

 

      Next up is my favorite stop: "Dave & Tony's Salumeria"--these guys were awesome. We originally were supposed to go to a more "authentic Italian" deli or so says the guys from the more "authentic Italian" deli but due to schedule complications we had to go to Dave & Tony's. I did not mind, because as I previously stated, these guys were awesome! We walk into the deli that is open for regular business, and I expected them to look pissed for having a huge walking tour come in for free food last minute. Quite the contrary because we are greeted by dudes with Italian accents toting trays of fresh salami, spicy capicola ham, kalamata olives, mozzarella, and crackers...needless to say, even last minute they were ready for us. We scarfed down the tray of deli goodies and watched in awe (or at least I did) as they did a demo of how they make fresh mozz in house...or in deli? Let me tell you the mozzarella they made was by far the best mozzarella I have ever had, and probably the best your going to find anywhere except 'Italia' itself. My dad is a sucker for cold cuts, especially fresh mozz so natually this deli would have been his mecca. I was thoroughly enjoying the mozz and cold cuts when one of the delicatessans(?) said, "Hey Tony! Show 'em that balsamic glaze..." In retrospect, that is probably one of the best sentences ever said by man. Tony grabs the glaze and squeezes a dab of it on everyone's plate while he explains what it is exactly. I swirled a piece of their freshly demoed mozz in the balsamic glaze and popped the little cheese nugget into my mouth. I've never seen anyone's face after they won the slot machine in person, but I can imagine it was identical to my facial expression at the time. Cue your favorite cheesy food Network catchphrase, whether it be: "BOOM!", "BAM!", "PHENOMENAL" or the like. If you say "yummo!" or any other Rachael Ray line, I will freaking kill you. I don't hate Rachel Ray, she's quite talented, has built a beast of a culinary empire, and grew up 20 minutes from me in Lake George; its just that she has the most annoying catchphrases.

Fresher than the prince of Bel-Air whattttt?