3-2 Famous Fat Dave’s New York Food Tour

Reading

Famous Fat Dave was always Dave. He wasn’t always famous and fat. Dave proudly added the “fat” early in life while growing up in Maryland. Bottomless cones of Thrasher’s french fries doused in apple cider vinegar and countless bushels of blue crabs steamed with Old Bay Seasoning began a lifetime of eating good food until it hurt.

He enrolled at New York University mostly to be near the city’s myriad culinary institutions. The first job he applied for after graduation was as counter help at Coney Island’s original Nathan’s Famous. Told he was overqualified, Dave didn’t get the gig, but in the next five years he landed a number of dream jobs deep inside New York’s food world.

Dave drove a bread truck for Orwasher’s Bakery, delivering Black Russian Ryes and Challahs to the likes of Tavern on the Green, the Russian Tea Room, and the World Trade Center. He prowled a stretch of Orchard Street sidewalk behind an aromatic row of 500 pound barrels as a pickle man at Guss Pickles. He translated his pickle skills into the cheese world as a sample-happy cheesemonger at Murray’s Cheese Shop. He even managed to sell his beloved Nathan’s hot dogs in Coney Island, doing so as a bellowing vendor in the stands at the minor league Brooklyn Cyclones ball park.

In the meantime, Dave moonlighted as a New York City yellow cab driver, followed his belly across five continents, and worked as a freelance food writer. His food writing has appeared in Time Out New York, Not For Tourists Guidebook, Attaché Magazine (the in-flight magazine for US Airways), and Gothamist.com. But it is his critically acclaimed and wildly popular eating tour that is putting the “famous” in Famous Fat Dave.

Q and A with FFD

Q: Where did you get the idea to do the eating tour?
A: I do a lot of traveling, and I noticed that in a lot of countries it is generally accepted that cab drivers are the best tour guides. I took an amazing tour in a Cairo black and white cab of the twenty two ancient pyramids of the lower Nile region. My driver, Ibrahim, who had a gigantic stomach, looked at my burgeoning pot belly and said if I keep driving a cab I could have a belly like his. I thought, why not have a tour like his too?

Q: Has the latest health craze affected your business?
A: Usually people who obsess about their bodies don’t do eating tours. And I don’t offer a health food tour. But I say, what better way to give in to your cravings than to just take one or two bites of the most delicious samples of each of your favorite foods, spacing it out over a period of many hours. Deep fried twinkies sprinkled with powdered sugar and drizzled with strawberry sauce isn’t bad for you if you just take one bite to save room for just one bite of fifteen other things.

Vocabulary

Word	Meaning	Example
culinary	of or relating to or used in cooking	He enrolled at New York University mostly to be near the city’s myriad culinary institutions.
institution	a custom that for a long time has been an important feature of some group or society	Oxford University is one of the most famous educational institutions in the world.
apply	to formally put oneself forward as a candidate for a job	The first job he applied for was as a server at McDonald’s.
graduation	the successful completion of a program of study	His graduation from university made his parents proud.
original	preceding all others in time or being as first made or performed	He has a copy, but he lost the original document.
deliver	bring to a destination, make a delivery	Dave delivered pizzas for two years before changing jobs.
tavern	a building with a bar that is licensed to sell alcoholic drinks	They stopped for a drink at a nearby tavern.
aromatic	having a strong pleasant odor	The aromatic smell of garlic filled the restaurant.
translate	restate (words) from one language into another language	He translated the English sentence into Ukrainian for his uncle.
skill	an ability that has been acquired by training	His excellent computer skills got him hired for the job.
sample	a small part of something intended as representative of the whole	The supermarket demonstrators gave the customers free cheese samples.
manage	be in charge of, act on, or dispose of	He managed the company for thirty years before retiring in 2012.
vendor	someone who promotes or exchanges goods or services for money	He even managed to sell his beloved Nathan’s hot dogs in Coney Island, doing so as a bellowing vendor in the stands at baseball games.
continent	one of the large landmasses of the earth	Dave moonlighted as a New York City yellow cab driver, followed his belly across five continents, and worked as a freelance food writer.
amazing	inspiring awe or admiration or wonder	I took an amazing tour in a Cairo black and white cab of the twenty two ancient pyramids of the lower Nile region.
ancient	belonging to times long past especially of the historical period before the fall of the Western Roman Empire	We studied ancient Greece to learn about its influences on modern Western Civilization.
gigantic	so exceedingly large or extensive as to suggest a giant or mammoth	My driver, Ibrahim, who had a gigantic stomach, looked at my burgeoning pot belly and said if I keep driving a cab I could have a belly like his.
health	the general condition of body and mind	Q: Has the latest health craze affected your business?
obsess	be preoccupied with something	Usually people who obsess about their bodies don’t do eating tours.
craving	an intense desire for some particular thing	But I say, what better way to give in to your cravings than to just take one or two bites of the most delicious samples of each of your favorite foods, spacing it out over a period of many hours.