Jenn and Vin's Lower East Side Food Crawl

One of my very favorite things to do is torture my boyfriend by dragging him around the city for long walks through different neighborhoods. He calls them "aimless"; I call them "exploratory". On this particular venture, I made him happy by being specific about where I wanted to go and what I wanted to do. I wanted to go to the Lower East Side and I wanted to eat.

First stop...Yonah Schimmel's!

I'd never been here before (actually, I've lived in NYC and never eaten a knish before!), but Vin took my mother here about two years ago and I needed to see what all the hub-bub was about. This place is classic NYC and has been serving up fresh, tasty potato-y knishes since 1910. They can open all the new trendy eateries they want, but any business that's lasted 100 years must be doing something right.

We ordered one savory and one sweet. Vin paired his cherry knish with a chocolate egg cream, while I tried the special fried onion and garlic knish with a cherry-lime rickey. The drinks were outrageously good!

So, here's the thing. Add it to the list of foods I'm just not that into, but I guess I'm not a knish person. They're just a bit too heavy for me. Yonah's has the best knishes I'm ever going to eat, and I didn't go nutsy-bonkers for them. But don't worry Yonah! It's not you--it's me. I'll be back...and next time I'll order some latkes. Then I know we'll be lifelong friends.

They had journals at each table where people could leave their reviews of the fare. 

    Yonah Schimmel's
137 E. Houston Street/ knishery.com
                                                  

Then it was off to another NY institution--Economy Candy--

an old-fashioned mom & pop candy store that's been serving up sweets since 1937.

We didn't end up buying anything because we visited on the day before Halloween (wanna talk scary--go to a famous candy store on Oct. 30), but we had a lot of fun petting the gummy bears and cracking teeth on candy dots. And if you're looking for some old-school, hard-to-find treats, this is the place to go. They sell online too.

Economy Candy
108 Rivington Street
economycandy.com

Then I dragged the poor boy to Essex Street Market, which is a public market with 20 individual merchants selling everything from fine cheeses, fresh fish, meats and just regular old groceries. There's even a barber shop in there!

If you've never been to a grocery store in New York City before, bring your elbow guards. The aisles are usually very narrow. I get very excited to visit grocery stores in other towns because I can finally use a cart!

I was considering buying some corn husks from Batista Grocery to make homemade tamales, but let's face it. I'm never gonna make homemade tamales. I can buy them down the street for $1.50. 

I think Vin started getting a little bored with all the food. So he started juggling it. I can't take that kid anywhere.

Essex Street Market

120 Essex Street/ essexstreetmarket.com

En route to our final destination, we passed a place I'd like to try later...Pizza a Casa Pizza School, where they give workshops on making authentic New York City pizza at home. How fun would this be on your next trip to NY?

Pizza a Casa
371 Grand Street/ pizzaacasa.com

And then it was off to visit our old friend, The Doughnut Plant. We're no strangers to this ridiculously delicious doughnut haven, but we had only been to the newer Chelsea location. We thought it time to check out the original and see where the magic began.

We ordered the seasonal pumpkin and apple-cinnamon donuts, both of which were very good. But we also ordered the perennial favorite--coconut glazed with coconut creme and I'm now convinced that nothing will ever top it. 

The Doughnut Plant

379 Grand Street/ doughnutplant.com

Then we walked around aimlessly for 45 minutes, but that had a purpose too. We needed to walk off the day's eats!