While doing research online two years ago, I happened on information about historic preservation and Archeology Awareness Week in Jamaica. My interest piqued, I followed a link to the website for Falmouth Heritage Renewal (FHR), a charitable organization that is involved in historic preservation in Jamaica. On FHR’s home page was an announcement about a free walking tour of Falmouth. I fired off an email and scheduled a tour that...

I had never heard the term cellar restaurant until Liz of Ahoy New York mentioned it during our walking tour of Little Italy and Chinatown a few weekends ago. Cellar restaurants are located in the basement of a building. There are two in Manhattan’s Chinatown – Hop Kee at 21 Mott Street and Wo Hop at 17 Mott Street. Neither was a stop on our tour but I was curious...

A wine tasting was the last thing on my mind when I signed up for Ahoy New York’s Food Tasting and Cultural Walking Tour of Little Italy and Chinatown a few weekends ago. However, several hours after our tour, my friend, Joan and I were back at DiPalo’s to buy some of the cheeses we had sampled. A woman was standing at the counter next to us as Joan placed...

A few days ago, my best friend mentioned that her parents met on a blind date on Valentine’s Day. There were married for forty years until death separated them. I remember thinking what a sweet love story then immediately it occurred to me how easily we forget that our parents were once young. I thought I had filed the story away. But as I started outlining the post I originally...

Anchoring the corner of Mulberry and Grand Streets in New York City’s Little Italy is an attractive 19-century brick building that is the home of the Italian American Museum. The idea for a museum to document the history of the Italian community in New York came about after the highly acclaimed exhibition, The Italians of New York: Five Centuries of Struggle and Achievement, which opened at the New York Historical...

One of the perks of living in a city the size of New York is the diversity it offers, not only in things to do but also in culinary offerings. Food from almost every nation is represented here. Last weekend, my friend Joan and I joined Ahoy New York for their Food Tasting and Cultural Walking Tour of Chinatown and Little Italy. We started in Little Italy and ended the...

If the temperature here in New York had remained as cold as it was during the week, I would not have gone to the Chinese New Year Parade in Chinatown on Sunday. As it turned out, it was a welcome 53 degrees around the 1:00 p.m. start time for the parade, and a still balmy 43 degrees – warmer that it was in Denver (21) and Seattle (41) – when...

I’ve been to Little Italy and Chinatown many times to eat and to shop but never thought of doing a food tour. That is, until this past Saturday when I joined six other women for Ahoy New York’s Chinatown and Little Italy Food Tasting and Cultural Walking Tour. It was the perfect day to be outside. The temperature that had stayed stuck in the 20s during the early part of...