Walking Through a Winter Food Wonderland

For the month of December, New York City is on display: shows, lights, shopping, and of course, food. If your idea of holiday spirit is a gingerbread latte at Starbucks, take the time this winter to discover the wonders of the season.

Many foods come out of the woodwork at this time of year, and tend to stick around for only a month, making them a prime attraction. As the weather turns colder and the holidays come upon us, the warm spices of apple cider and gingerbread seem to be everywhere, only to disappear by the time the ball drops on New Year’s.

The best way to take advantage of the scrumptious holiday scene is simply to hit the streets. Outside markets are a great way to begin your search for holiday cheer. Both Union Square and Columbus Circle’s Christmas Markets that are open to the public every day from Dec. 1 to Dec. 24.

Breezy Hill Orchard & Cider Mill, from Staatsburg, N.Y., has a booth in both markets where they sell “Gingerbread boys and girls,” as well as ginger snaps, chocolate chip cookies, and apple cider, fresh from the farm. “They make it at the farm and they bring it overnight,” said Michael Lama, a Breezy Farms employee from Hong Kong who works the booth in Union Square.

The orchard has booths at the Christmas Markets, and then at different farmers’ markets throughout the city during the summertime. The apple cider and gingerbread is the winter theme, while in summer the booth sells chicken and eggs. In between, Michael attends college at the University of Mississippi.

Then there are those who have no farms, and work only outdoor markets in the city. For them, the winter months can be difficult as street fairs disappear and the city culture retreats inside to the nearest Starbucks until the thaw. Daisy and Patrick Acevedo have a booth selling candy apples, chocolate-covered bananas and strawberries, and popcorn.

They work the street fairs throughout the city from March to November, before becoming fixtures at the Christmas Market in Columbus Circle during December. They have to take the months of January and February off because there is nowhere to work. “Sometimes I work in Florida, but I have my daughter in school—I can’t go to Florida,” she said.

Patrick sees it differently. He says that he takes the months off to spend the money that he has made throughout the year. “Maybe one day, somebody kill me,” he said, “I am making money—I have to spend the money.”

Business tends to be better at the Christmas Market, they said, because it attracts so many tourists that are in the city. Patrick also said that his chocolate-covered bananas are more appetizing when it is colder because the chocolate tends to melt during the summer, which tends to turn customers away. In the end, though, Patrick concludes that during the holiday season, it is more about the people than the product. “The people are the best. All the food is the same,” he said.

One of the most interesting booths to be found at the Christmas Markets is German Delights, Inc., in the northwest corner of the market in Columbus Circle. Ingo Bergman and his sister, Maike, visited the market as tourists from Germany four years ago, noting that it didn’t have anything like what can be found in the famous German Christmas markets. Every year since, they have been back to bring a touch of Germany, just “because nobody else did,” said Maike.

The other 11 months of the year they live in Bremen, Germany. The Bergmans sell various specialties from Germany like the divine chocolate-covered gingerbread called Lebkuchenherzen from Nürnberg, an assortment of German Christmas cookies in cute little tins, and warm fruit cider based on the German drink Gluehwein. “It has the same spices as mulled wine, but is nonalcoholic so we can sell it at the market,” said Ingo. He ships all of the products in the booth from Germany specially for the month of December.

The Bergmans do great business, and really like the time that they spend here. Maike said that she sees many German tourists who love the little slice of Germany run by “real Germans.” Both Germans and Americans pack the stall, especially on the weekends. “On Saturday it was so bust that we could hardly do it,” said Maike.

The holiday mood at the markets is contagious. Vivian Fatovic, SIPA ’08, was spotted sipping Breezy Farms cider before heading back uptown for class, but commented on the Bergman’s holiday drink. “The Gluehwein, that’s key,” she said. And from the looks of things on a Saturday, most of the city has the same thought.