You may recall the self-made NYC pizza tour, Lance and I created several years ago.
A good food tour, I’ve realized, needs three things. Without even one of these it will be lacking:
- Good food*
- Relevant history**
- Good company
*Obv, right? But this is broader than the food simply being good. It’s portion size: too little and the tour feels cheap but too much and there better be take home containers at the ready. It’s how the food is eaten: is it rushed and served in a crowded space with no reaction time? And, it’s selection: are the stops so close together the word “tour” is a stretch, are the stops well researched and worth it?
**Anyone can make it their mission to visit all the highly rated pizza joints in the city, but knowing a little something about each and what makes them special—that requires research and understanding.
When we made the last-minute plan to participate in a Cannoli Crawl in NYC in December, I had mixed feelings.
It was December. I’d sworn off going into the city in December, especially the week before Christmas.
It was December. It was cold.
It was December. There were a million things to be done for Christmas.
But, cannoli.
How I love cannoli.
Casting care to the wind, we booked the tour.
We’d learned about Experience Sicily from a presentation owner and tour guide Allison Scola gave at my Italian school. Aside from also being amped up to take a trip to Sicily, we knew a cannoli crawl was something we had to do.
People I told in the days leading up had the same reaction I’d had: A cannoli crawl? That sounds awesome. I need to know more.
And yes, it was, in a word, awesome. We learned about Sicilian food, ate way more than only cannoli*, and learned so much not only about what we were eating, but about Sicily and NYC.
*Yes, almost everyone in our group, at one point, needed to take food home–which I enjoyed with relish in the following day(s).
Photo courtesy of Experience Sicily
Allison ticked off all the boxes. Our first stop was comfortable and relaxed. We were able to take off our coats and really embrace what the tour was going to be about. We were encouraged not to just eat, but to identify what we were eating and to rate each cannolo so that we could become “cannoli connoisseurs.”
Neither the weather nor the proximity to Christmas* were an issue. Every stop was prepared for our arrival, the food was incredible, and every moment was laid back and relaxed—exactly what I needed after having spent the previous three weeks in Thanksgiving and Christmas mode.
*Less than a week away
The best arancini I’ve ever eaten
I’m not going to give away all our stops, but I am going to say this: a Cannoli Crawl is worth it.
The only negative? When we came back to my parents’ house to pick up Stitch who had spent the day with them, they asked, “Did you bring any cannoli home?” and it was only then that we realized that we hadn’t even thought about buying any cannoli to bring home.
Next time*, we will not make that mistake.
*Would we do a Cannoli Crawl again? Absolutely**.
Photo courtesy of Experience Sicily
**So, if you’re reading this and wondering if I’ll go with you, the answer is yes. Absolutely, yes.
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