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Sunday-morning visits to the grocery store are vastly improved by samples of toothpicked sausage bites and tiny cups of squash soup. Humanity's mysterious love affair with trial-sized morsels is in full effect with today's deal: for $20, you get access to one walking food tour of the Strip District from 'Burgh Bits & Bites, a $38 value (including tax and service fees). Tours meet at the Old St. Patrick's Church courtyard and depart at 10 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. on Thursdays and Fridays. Call ahead and namedrop your Groupon to reserve your spot on a tour.

The melting pot of downtown Pittsburgh cuisine offers a great place to try different tastes from different ethnicities in different Euclidean spaces. Your palate will encounter six different tastings during your approximately two-hour restaurant crawl. Snack on Italian specialties such as imported meats and cheeses, or be introduced to some fine French crepes. Other possibilities include Mediterranean eats, such as hummus, or bites with universal acceptance, like pizza. Tours are kept to groups of 10 or less per knowledgeable guide, ensuring that you get individual attention and probably a cool tour nickname. Your small group will leap nimbly from stop to stop, avoiding the dreadful fate that befalls ravaging hordes of hungry tour goers who exhaust the sample supplies of the entire district, causing panic, chaos, and environmental disaster.

After the tour, participants will have been fed enough tiny bites to equal a small meal, pushing stomach-o-meters from E (extremely unfilled) to F (food-containing). A bottle of water is provided at the start of the tour, and you will have the option to bring your own refreshments. Children and infants are free, as long as they aren't eating.

Get out of the house and taste what the Strip District has to offer. Even if you're a frequent visitor in the area, you'll likely discover something you never knew existed, just like discovering a new species and then seeing what it tastes like. Pick up a few for friends to share the experience of discovery or retain Kobayashi-caliber focus by exploring the foodscape solo.

Reviews

Pittsburgh Today Live, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, USA Today, Neighbors in the Strip, and Dave's Travel Corner are just a few of the publications that have featured 'Burgh Bits & Bites Food Tour:

• …Sylvia is a most excellent tour guide: charming, knowledgeable and enthusiastic. Sylvia spent most of the previous decade in Switzerland and exploring the food markets of Europe. Sylvia has also volunteered as a tour guide for the Pittsburgh Historic Landmark Foundation, giving her a wealth of experience and knowledge about the city. – Neighbors in the Strip

Eat.Drink.Smile says this of Pennsylvania Macaroni Company, one of the stores highlighted in the tour:

• [Penn Mac] was a pretty amazing place. It's like stepping into an old-world Italian grocery store. They have a full line of grocery items including loaves of fresh breads, huge vats of olives from all over Italy, sausages, pastas, the list goes on and on. But what impressed me the most was the biggest room full of cheese I've ever seen in my life. – Beth