Skip to main content
 
Plant Talk

Inside The New York Botanical Garden

Savor the Tastes of Arthur Avenue, the “Real Little Italy”

Posted in Exhibitions, The Edible Garden on July 7 2009, by Plant Talk

Carol Capobianco is Editorial Content Manager at The New York Botanical Garden.

Arthur Ave Cookbook

Arthur Avenue.

Those two words conjure up so many sights, sounds, smells, and flavors all having to do with great food—Italian, that is.

As a kid growing up in the neighborhood I remember seeing round men with a napkin about their neck dousing raw clams with hot sauce and then slurping them down. I remember hearing the cacophony of clucking, caged chickens awaiting their turn with the butcher at the fresh poultry and rabbit market.

And the smells of the beloved “real Little Italy” were overwhelming and everywhere: fresh bread from the bakeries, sausage and peppers grilling at the street feasts, and from open apartment windows, tomato sauce (or “gravy” as we called it) simmering away.

But it was the flavors—and the quality—that are most reminiscent and what still brings me and countless others back to the area. The melt-in-your-mouth ravioli and fresh mozzarella, the sharp cheeses and imported prosciutto, the fine cuts of meat and the specialty fish, the incomparable breads and pastries, the strong espresso coffee.

And for those who don’t cook or who want to taste Italian food at its best in America, there are the restaurants, with menus filled with so many delicious meals that just reading the choices makes your mouth water. When I take my first bite into a dish made at these places, I can’t help but close my eyes and sigh with appreciation for these superior, soulful foods that can be savored right here in New York—and so close to The New York Botanical Garden.

Some of these delectables will be available for you to sample this Thursday from 6 to 9 p.m. at A Taste of Arthur Avenue, the first of seven Edible Evenings planned during The Edible Garden.

If you’d like to try your own hand at cooking some of the special dishes found on Arthur Avenue, you’ll find dozens of recipes in The Arthur Avenue Cookbook carried at Shop in the Garden.