TikTok Is Weeping Over NYC's Decadent Winter Village Foods
According to Veranda, New York City's Bryant Park hosted its first Winter Village in 2002. In 2005, the Village – an homage to the German Christkindlmarket — introduced an ice skating rink where folks could strap on a pair of rented blades and desperately try not to wipe out on the unforgiving ice. However, the promise of finding a great Christmas gift is what undoubtedly draws people in. Over the past two decades, the Winter Village has grown considerably. While the first one was made up of only 80 different merchants, it now boasts nearly 200 shops.
Aside from skating in circles and browsing stall after stall of holiday trinkets, one of the absolute musts of attending Bryant Park's annual pop-up is taste-testing the food vendors until you can't eat another bite. One TikToker understood the assignment and downed an utterly shocking amount of different foods. At one point, the fantastic flavors even drove her to tears.
Snacking through Winter Village
TikToker @babydumplingg feasted on a veritable smorgasbord at this year's Winter Village. She began her adventure with a salami sandwich on a fresh baguette dripping with gooey cheese. Next, she dove in to enjoy a Belgian waffle and its complementary mound of whipped cream.
She subsequently sampled a spicy chicken slider, commenting that the sandwich's fiery flavor was a literal tearjerker. She then showed fresh fettuccine alfredo being prepared inside a parmesan cheese wheel before scooping a healthy portion of the creamy pasta into her mouth.
Later, @babydumplingg was inclined to try various foods from around the world. She munched on a German bratwurst, which was loaded with mustard and extra sauerkraut, then crunched on skewers of fried fish tofu and shrimp balls before finally ending her tour de flavors with a Korean corn dog and a blowtorch-roasted Funfetti s'more that featured a multicolored marshmallow and chocolate sauce.
The Winter Village's delicious offerings might make you emotional
Although @babydumplingg doesn't name any Winter Village vendors she visits in her TikTok, other folks on the app have visited and named some of the same establishments. TikTok user @phoeberreynolds, for example, starts a Winter Village food crawl with the same raclette sandwich featured in @babydumplingg's video. Neither TikToker names the vendor, but a glance at the Shop + Eat section of the Bryant Park website reveals it to be the Baked Cheese Haus, a Wisconsin-based chain that offers a variety of food topped with crispy, caramelized cheese straight off the wheel.
User @phoeberreynolds also tries a few of the same sweet treats that @babydumplingg sampled throughout her TikTok. She snags a whipped cream-covered waffle at Wafels & Dinges, which offers Liège waffles, a Belgian creation made with caramelized pearl sugar, and a wide variety of toppings — or dinges. Additionally, @phoeberreynolds stops by S'mores N'more, though she opts for a classic s'more instead of the Funfetti variety enjoyed by @babydumplingg.