"Arthur Avenue e la mia vita" = Arthur Avenue is my life! I love that here the little Italy in the
Bronx everyone is speaking Italian everywhere I have this opportunity to
actually practice my super rusty Italian: (breaks into Italian) ciao sono Jen, la tua guida locale
di nueva york e benvenuto nella piccola Italia del Bronx. = (I am Jen your local NY guide and welcome to the little Italy in the Bronx. This is the real little
Italy a lot of people think the real little Italy is actually in Manhattan
down next to chinatown and that is totally wrong the real little Italy is
here in the bronx and I've got Diego, @DandyintheBronx to come hang out with
me we're here in the Bronx really we have some mozzarella and eat all day!
I have had this mozzarella before and I like didn't even eat breakfast I'm just like
so ready I gotta start my day with mozzarella and we're just gonna keep
eating until we're so full it hurt and then we're gonna continue eating and
then we're gonna eat more and then we're gonna go home.
I'm so excited I told you to be hungry you're hungry yes I think for a couple
of hours yesterday I'm ready I'm so excited we're gonna eat some of the best
Italian food not just in New York City honestly like it's pretty close up like
outside of Italy it's hard to get really good mozzarella and this spot knows what
they're doing, let's go!
okay great transition.
Here at Casa della mozzarella they are so sweet he's like you only want one
little piece of mozzarella oh please he gave it to me for free two! He's so nice very nice oh my god I already know that this mozzarella is
so good I've had it before but I can't wait oh my god so we do it
cheers, cheers!
the saltiness mmm hints of salt there that really gives it a little kick Wow!
When it pulls apart oh my goodness
heaven it's so good yes this is the winner come to Casa della mozzarella
hmm Wow Wow! So one thing I really like about Little
Italy here in the Bronx is that there's not really any tourist traps because
they're not trying to trick you to get into these places they're all legit
places so I appreciate that! Arthur avenue in the bronx around 187th Street
Belmont is known as the real Little Italy and has more 100 year old family
businesses than any other area of New York City if you are looking for a
specific Italian brand or a dish like your grandmother's this is where people
flock actually eighty-five percent of its customers travel over five miles
just to dine here there's even a movie and new musical a Bronx Tale that is all
about an Italian boy growing up in this area
how do you get there you can take the D subway line from midtown which is about
an hour or the fastest way is to take a slightly more expensive Metro North
Harlem line to Fordham station which is about 20 minutes from Grand Central to go.
If you are visiting the Bronx Zoo, Fordham or the New York Botanical Garden
this is where you make dinner reservations or go early and spend the
entire day eating and shopping so you have time to wander around the market
and stores before they close early if you are going at a popular time like a
weekend night you will need a reservation for most places like the
historic Mario's where they filmed a Sopranos scene, so call ahead!
Fun fact because I love fun facts Arthur Avenue was actually named after the 21st
president!
For the best burrata you must go to Mike's deli which is found in the Arthur
Avenue Market what is burrata it is a shell of fresh mozzarella surrounding a
soft creamy stracciatella cheese it is the best Arthur Avenue actually began as
a pushcart market
and this retail market was the first enclosed market in the Bronx. Walk past
the Bronx beer hall a fun spot later on and past the groups of Italians who come
from neighboring boroughs and states just to pick up fresh ingredients for a
family dinner Mike himself welcomed me to try some of his homemade fresh
burrata which was just made this morning he put it in hot water to bring it to
room temperature in Italian it is called "el bagno" meaning the bath.
Mike insisted on cutting the burrata and plating it over a bed of greens fresh
bread and radicchio,
add a little shake of salt and pepper and top it off with speck or the
shoulder of the hog they grilled it on a panini grill monitor this is something
you taste and he tells me there's no such thing as bacon bits in an Italian
deli. A pinch of extra-virgin olive oil and their own special truffle oil - we
call the burrata a love cheese he says, and you cannot forget their own basalmic
reduction. "Chi mangia bene viva bene" = who eats well, lives well. It's all about the
quality you could buy burrata from Italy 90% of those burratas could stay 65 days
in a container how full of chemicals, mine stays two weeks and that's it stays beautiful.
Your first burrata. "My first burrata here in the real little
Italy in the Bronx
so much flavor it's rich Wow good job Italy. While walking around and
going into all these adorable shops and hearing Italian spoken everywhere which
is so amazing I want to practice my Italian and I'm constantly trying and
it's honestly just so refreshing to hear that almost everyone working here is
speaking Italian they know Italian they think they treat with me with .... (noises)
... they treat you with love we've been to multiple places where
they've given us free mozzarella they've given us free things they're like oh
you're doing this like you know like let me let me plate this for you let me make
this extra give me give me a second like he comes back he gives us Prosecco he
gives us the burrata it was amazing at Mike's deli it was the ultimate
treatment and I think that it's just part of that Italian vibe that culture
that love that like they treat everyone like family and they welcome you like
family they they want you to enjoy yourself to love it as much as they do
and I just feel so loved and like everyone here is like welcoming me and
everyone like family like you don't even have to be Italian I'm half Italian and
I just like feel so loved but you don't even have to you can just be walking
around and just appreciate it and everyone just wants to give you a sample
of their food their bread their cheese because they want to share what their
grandmother's taught them their recipes everything with you because that's kind
of their form of love and I just feel so loved here it's just amazing.
This is a real Italian hot chocolate it is super thick here and it's basically
like melted chocolate in a cup amazing and we've got some panna cotta which is
whip cream on top with shavings of chocolate I am obsessed.
This is at Prince coffee house I had to double check yes I almost said Prince
Street PIZZA that was a very different thing!
Prince coffeehouse here in Little Italy the Bronx let's take a sip.
mmm oh it's so good and warm up mm-hmm
good I love it ah it's just so good I
just really appreciate the you know passion that goes into creating these
dishes whether it be the foods or drink here you can really taste it you know
that there's love and the passion that's being used to create these things.
So why dandy in the BRONX? So I'm born and raised in the Bronx -
Hunts Point and when I started my blog in 2014 all the other bloggers I saw at
the time they're all Manhattan this Brooklyn that and I really wanted to
showcase you know the Bronx and what it was doing I didn't feel it's a lot of
representation at the time so I wanted to be you know so show people that I can
be doing the exact same thing those other bloggers are doing but in the
Bronx. Since then the Bronx has been changing a
lot there's a lot more eyeballs now here in the Bronx and I'm just happy to be
able to show people all the cool things are happening here from amazing places
like Little Italy you know up-and-coming places like Mott Haven awesome places
that have an amazing you know Latino food, Dominican food, Dominican Chino food.
What I got to show you that later for that part part though! But yeah there's a
lot of places here and I think a lot of people
you know give it a bad rap or just have their own assumptions about the Bronx
you know people think about the Bronx they're like oh I'm gonna get jumped or
something yes but no I you know it's like of any place there's there's safe
places and then there's there are more shady places and you know I just so
people just got to play be smart you know don't be an idiot,
don't take your iPad out to take pictures you know I just want to show
people all the cool things are happening in the Bronx and you know just on your
money here! (voiceover Jen again) Now if you have a sweet tooth like me you might want to do a pastry or
cannoli crawl so here are the top seven best dessert spots in the Bronx's
Little Italy. Number one Gino's pastry shop the best cannoli is filled with the
cream right in front of you so that the shell does not get soggy and here they
do it right right in front of you here you can get a fresh cannolis svogliatelle
and cappuccino with great service yes what do we have here it is I'm not
willing really well versed with Italian pastry so you're actually gonna show me
and so what do we have over here,
wonderful flaky pastry that is filled with cream it is so good they get that
focus get close get even closer and there it is it's in it's in focus
taking a moment for that yep mmm hmmm yep feel free to rotate it take your
time you can come thank you so much and now we can talk again oh so what do we
have here again so this is this is the sfogliatelle not to be confused with the lobster-tail.
Let's try it out and this is your moment my moment all right go for it
Cheers oh my gosh so flaky. "you have it on your nose"
Saving it for later... yeah we're gonna have so many more we have so many more
ahead of us this is only the beginning of the desert tour... it's so good and I love
like the softness in the center the texture it changes from flaky to softer
in the middle you understood on top of it yeah you gotta get that powdered
sugar on top
you're going all-in you're eating it off I mean he might as well it's not like
we're on a food tour or anything you weren't gonna eat a lot more food... (he says) I'll pay for it later.
Number 2 Morroni pastry shop: I love the cannoli shells with a hint of
cinnamon. Number three DeLillo pastry shop try the lobster tails that are
extra flaky and crunchy on the outside with soft cream on the inside. Number
four Egidio pastry shop they're saying is life is uncertain so eat dessert
first! Number five Addeo & Sons bakery, here for amazing breads but also to
satisfy your sweet tooth you must try the chocolate bread. Number six Artuso
pastry shop come for a variety of cookies and pastries. Number seven
Madonia bakery: Legend says that the first owners son was born on the floor
of the bakery
the thing that makes the Bronx you know really unique is that there's so many
different cultures lifestyles people here you know we're here in Little Italy
here in the Bronx but there's also a lot of Albanians and the Bronx Dominicans,
Puerto Ricans you know so you'll get a taste of almost everything here in the
Bronx and they're almost like the little miniature versions of their countries
are present here actually here in Little Italy like we just walk in mind there's
a lot of cool Albanian places so you can check out some food from there people as
well so there's a little bit of everything here the best thing that I
really love about the Bronx is just the community aspect it's all these like
different people coming together and just you know representing the best
aspects of their country the best food lifestyle everything you can find here
whether it be Italian, Puerto Rican, Albania and you can find it here in the
Bronx and I think that's what makes it really unique. Jen: One of my biggest tips... CAR HONKING... I
love it ok ... one of my biggest tips is to come here early I have been here to Little Italy in
the Bronx this whole area of Arthur Avenue and I come here at like 6 p.m. on
a Saturday and I was like whoo yeah plenty of time the Sun doesn't set for
like another hour and I was so wrong everything was so crowded and so packed
it was chaotic last time I was here it was just it was you couldn't get into
any of the restaurants it was a mess we ended up I think at like it was just it
was just too much so my biggest tip is to please come here early get here at
9:00 a.m. go to casa della mozzarella make your way through all the pastry
shops the coffee shops just like we did go to the market take your time at 12 a
lot of the restaurants open get in there for lunch
not dinner because especially on the weekends they get packed you really need
a reservation ahead of time unless and if you don't basically have a
reservation get here early that is my biggest tip
okay done with rant! Grazie per aver guardato come sempre d'i si
ala nueva aventura e ci vediamo la prossima Volta Ciao! = (thank you for watching, as always, say yes to new adventures and I'll see you next time, bye!) I love that okay that
was good that was really good.