August 2006
Food Blogs
by Celia Cheng
CRAVINGS
New Pickles
Guss’ Pickles
Pistachio Soft Serve Ice Cream
Ray’s Deli (Ave A & 7th St)
Sicilian Rice Ball
Ferdinando’s
FAVORITE FOOD BLOGS
Slice
The Paupered Chef
Gothamist
When I first learned of The Hungry Cabbie, a.k.a. Famous Fat Dave, I just knew I had to meet him. The premise? 27 year-old, New York City cab driver provides eating tours around the five boroughs of New York. What? Come again? It’s like I just said, Dave offers different food tours that he will take you on in his yellow cab at $100 per hour, minimum four hours, maximum of four people, within the five boroughs of New York City.
Dave Freedenberg is one of those individuals with no boundaries. I don’t mean that he’s intrusive; I mean that he sees no limits to life. He’s bright, outgoing and open-minded. He wants to take advantage of every moment and explore different things in life, and so he does. I admire him because he doesn’t just talk about things, but he actually takes action and does them.
He loves pickles and always wanted to be a pickle man, so he worked at Guss’ Pickles. He wanted to learn more about cheese, so he became a cheesemonger at Murray’s Cheese. He’s interested in different peoples and cultures and so he’s driving a cab — He sees this as the best gateway to meeting people, learning and making a living at the same time. Dave’s interests lie in international relations and he’s seeing the world through a different lens while deferring from two of the nation’s top IR graduate programs, SIPA (Columbia University) and SAIS (Johns Hopkins University). He resents it when people ask him snootily why he’s driving a cab because he finds it to be a perfectly noble profession. And this is what I mean when I say he has no boundaries. It’s absolutely delightful and refreshing to meet someone like this.
On a trip to Cairo, a cab driver took Dave on a tour of the 22 pyramids of the lower Nile region, including a stop for some amazing kebab and humus. The experience confirmed to Dave that cabbies make the best tour guides. As a cab driver himself, he frequently asks passengers for food recommendations. If he has time, as soon as he drops off his fare he’ll drive to try the tip, or else he’ll take notes for a future adventure. By doing this, he’s been able to amass his own database of food knowledge. Initially, his food tours were just for friends and family, but they urged him to offer the tours to the public.
I requested a mini-tour from Dave to get an idea of the full experience. Our time was limited at less than an hour, but he did manage to take me to Brooklyn Heights to try the fried pickles at Henry St. Ale House and the Sicilian rice ball from Ferdinando’s before dropping me back off in Manhattan. Both dishes have now become part of my personal cravings. So here’s my conclusion: Famous Fat Dave’s Five Borough Eating Tour on The Wheels of Steel is totally worth experiencing. With Dave as your guide, not only will you find some good eats at great bargains, but you’ll also get lots of entertainment along the way.
Dave is currently working on a pilot episode of the tour to pitch to the Food Network, so catch him now in person before you see him on TV.
