Harlem's graffiti hall of fame. -- Photos by Paul Turenne, SUN

AS I walked by the kosher bakeries and delis of New York City's Lower East Side, Bob -- a New Jersey man who was visiting with his daughter and grandson from Minnesota -- turned to me and said "You know, I could walk through this area 100 times on my own and it would mean nothing to me. That's why this is so much better." But Bob and I were on a tour. Not a double-decker bus tour that stops at Times Square and the Empire State Building. Not even a boat tour that takes black-socks-and-sandal-wearing tourists to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.

We were on a culinary tour with The Enthusiastic Gourmet, a company that takes small groups of tourists off the heavily beaten paths into New York's far more interesting underbelly -- the Lower East Side, Chinatown, Little Italy, and Hell's Kitchen.

Participants are fed churros in a Latin market, pickles and bialys at kosher shops, cheese, sausage and cannoli in Italian delis and cafes, and taught to buy fruit and fish at Chinese markets.

It's one of a number of small niche tours that has sprung up in the city over the last few years, taking advantage of what the real New York has to offer.

"People can do the major tourist attractions on their own," said Susan Rosenbaum, who started the Enthusiastic Gourmet tours just over two years ago. "But tours like these give people entry into a different area that they might not otherwise see. People are typically thrilled to be learning about a different part of town and they're happy to be exposed to something different."

"New York has so much to offer. If you can just think about what excites you, there's someone here who can introduce you to it," she said.

Indeed, the list of available tours in New York includes hip-hop tours of the Bronx, gospel and jazz tours of Harlem, architecture, photography and history tours, as well as tours that will show you famous locations from movies and TV shows like Sex And The City, Friends, The Sopranos, and Seinfeld.

NEIGHBOURHOOD PHENOMENON

Debra Harris founded Hush Tours in June 2002 after conducting informal surveys of tourists visiting the Empire State Building. Harris grew up in the Bronx, and had watched hip-hop music grow from a neighbourhood phenomenon to a juggernaut industry that's now worth about $30 billion globally.

She started asking tourists if they would be interested in learning more about the early days and pioneers of hip-hop music either through a museum or a guided tour.

"Almost 99% of the people I surveyed said it's something they would do," Harris said.

So Harris rounded up some of the genre's pioneers, including the likes of Grandmaster Caz, Kurtis Blow, DJ Red Alert and DJ Kool Herc, and recruited them as tour guides.

She started running monthly tours of Harlem and the Bronx, where participants get to visit important hip-hop culture sites like the graffiti hall of fame, the site of Notorious B.I.G.'s funeral, and the site of the former Harlem World Entertainment Complex, where many of the first hip-hop shows took place.

The tours grew in popularity to the point that Harris now offers them every Saturday. She's also planning to expand the company to include tours of Queens and Brooklyn in the near future.

Grandmaster Caz leads a Hush Tours group.

Harris said people appreciate the opportunity to be shown around parts of town that they've heard so much about, but might not dare to venture into on their own.

"Most of the guide books tell you not to go above 96th Street, because it's not safe. We'll take you there and show you that it is a neighbourhood just like any other. It kind of changes people's perceptions of it," Harris said.

Niche tours also give you the opportunity to spend more time with people, rather than just landmarks.

"The smaller tours are more interactive," said Rosenbaum. "You get more interaction with the guide, with the store owners, just with New Yorkers. They can introduce you to how cool and how friendly the people really are."

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Niche tours take visitors off the beaten track from standard attractions such as the Statue of Liberty.

BOTTOM LINE

MORE INFORMATION: Visit hushtours.com, enthusiasticgourmet.com or go to nytix.com and click on guided tours.

TOURS: The number of specialty tours is growing and already includes:

- Hip-hop tours

- Gospel and jazz tours

A new type of tour takes you out to the oldest U.S. Italian deli.

- Architecture, photography and history tours

- Tours of famous locations from TV and movies

- Culinary tours

Enjoying pickles on the Lower East Side, in Little Italy.