I love food. You know that by now. I also love the West Village. Put the two together, and I'm pretty much in awesome heaven. Group buying site The Dealist recently organized a food tour called Taste of the Village: West and I was all over that. I especially liked how the title left open the possibility of a sequel in either of the Villages Greenwich or East.
The deal, if purchased through the site, was $17 for six tastes at W. Village establishments plus drink specials at different bars along the way. My dad was in town for the weekend so he came along on my culinary tour.
First stop was the hole-in-the-wall Vietnamese sandwich shop, Num Pang. A huge crowd gathered outside in line to participate in the tasting and we were able to select from either the Duroc Pulled Pork or Veal Hoisin Meatball slider. We tried one of each and they were delicious. The meat was moist and the bread was not too overbearing, as it can often be with these sandwiches. I thought the little eating nook up the spiral staircase was charming and felt like a little hideaway from nearby Union Square. The outside line reminded me of a drive-thru of sorts, without the cars obviously, but that just made it all the more New York.
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| Sign at Num Pang welcoming food tour participants |
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| Duroc Pulled Pork and Veal Hoisin Meatball Sliders from Num Pang |
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| Me enjoying the sliders |
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| Fish and Pork tacos from Cabrito |
Just down the block was stop #3, Spunto thin-crust pizza. I've never been much of a pizza afficionado, but I like a good thin crust (almost as much as a juicy thick-crust). There's something so delicate about a crispy crust that still maintains a bready consistency with flavorful sauce and gooey cheese that strings from your mouth when you take a bite that I can appreciate. Spunto has perfected this. We were each able to sample (an understated word in this case) a piece of cheese and a piece of pepperoni. This could have been a whole meal in itself! Out of all the stops, this was my Dad's favorite and we'll definitely be back.
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| Thin-crust pizza from Spunto |
Next, we made our way north to the long and skinny Satay Junction. The sample choices here were two satay sticks with a choice of chicken, beef, pork, lamb, shrimp and tofu. Since satay is on a stick and meant to be eaten easily and quickly, and with only 45 minutes left in the tour, we figured we'd be quick here and make our way on. However, this was not the case. After placing our order, we waited 15 minutes before we even got an update on our food. While it did feel good to sit down for a bit, we were weary of missing our last stops, and I decided to walk up to the Donut Pub to pick up our samples there before the tour was over. Of course the satay came minutes after I left, as it always does, but honestly, it wasn't that good. Oh well.
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| Half-eaten lamb and shrimp satay |
Donut Pub - what a great name - excited me because they had advertised red velvet donut bites. When I got there however, all they had left were glazed and powdered sugar. After the long satay debacle, I wasn't going to turn down donuts. WIth only five minutes left in the food tour, I picked up four mini donuts for my dad and I and headed back to Satay Junction.
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| Impressive donut display at The Donut Pub |
Although we didn't make it to Pasticceria Rocco for mini-canolis, I was full and happy from a successful tour. Thanks to The Dealist, my dad and I had a wonderful afternoon and I can't wait for (hopefully) Part 2 and 3!
