Myra Alperson: A New York Foodie

In a city with scores of food writers and reviewers, Myra Alperson goes where few have gone before, places like the South Bronx, Ridgewood, and Harlem. As the creator of a walking tour called Nosh Walks, Alperson brings food lovers into Chinese markets, Turkish bakeries and kosher restaurants—“places that haven’t been written up in any guide book.”

The 51-year-old’s expansive career has taken her to the farthest reaches of New York City and the world. Alperson began her professional career while studying part-time for her MA in journalism at New York University. Through the student bulletin board, Alperson landed a job writing profiles of Iranian and South African immigrants for a Jewish-American affairs magazine called Present Tense. She also worked as a stringer researching court cases for The Wall Street Journal.

“I’m glad that I went part-time because I was 29 when I started at NYU,” Alperson said. “I felt like I needed to be working while I was honing my skills at school.”

After graduation, Alperson wanted to stay in New York so she accepted a job as a researcher for the Council of Economic Priorities. She lived in South Africa for four years, writing “Foundations for a New Democracy: Corporate Social Investment in South Africa” which was published in Johannesburg in 1995.

Alperson’s interest in economics is just one of many. A food and fitness enthusiast, she parlayed her two great loves into a successful bicycle tour business called Hungry Pedaler’s Bicycle Tours, one of the first to combine food and bicycling. And in 1988 she co-authored “The Food Lover’s Guide to the Real New York.”

“I didn’t set out to turn this into a business, it was more of a hobby,” Alperson said. “But we gained a local cult following and it became bigger than I thought it would.”

Alperson ditched the bicycle and now gives walking tours and publishes and accompanying quarterly newsletter called Nosh News. Her newest book, “The Food Lover’s Guide to New York City’s Most Delicious Neighborhoods,” is due out in the fall. A journalist who has made a living publicizing other people’s endeavors, Alperson is not uncomfortable with the reversed role.

While Alperson does not make a lot of money from the tours and newsletters, she is most satisfied by the community relationships she has cultivated.

“I love Nosh News and Nosh Walks,” Alperson said. “I wanted something that was mine. No one can veto me.”

Alperson is also the author of two other books: “How to Make Foreign Adoption Work for You” and “Dim Sum, Bagels, & Grits: A Sourcebook for Multicultural Families.” The single mother of an adopted daughter from China, Alperson lives on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.

–Bonnie Freidman, G’03