A Preview of the Third Annual Food Film Festival

I'm a bit cursed, I believe.  For the last 2 years, I've been out of town for the food film festival at Water Taxi Beach and alas, this year was to be no exception.  I did manage to get a sneak peek of the festival though - thanks to @Baconista for the invite to a very cool press screening of all the goodies to be shown (and eaten) at the festival this year. 

The location:

The event was held at the gorgeous new-ish Astor Center - I really need to take some of the very interesting classes they offer here.

The Itinerary:

The Food (and Films!)

The founders of the film festival really tried to impart the message that we eat as much with our eyes as we do with our mouths and the entire festival revolves around this theme of watching a bunch of food films vicariously and then getting to actually experience the food being paraded before your eyes.  I think this is a terrific way of getting people more engaged with the whole dining and food production process and it looks like there are some really great films on the roster.  And now, on to the food!

 

The famous Motz burger: loosely packed, extremely freshly ground beef, the super secret "schnack sauce" (chipotle mayo with a bunch of other undisclosed ingredients) on a buttered, toasted bun;Film accompaniment: Hamburger America

This is the burger sank a thousand ships... er, rather, that won Burger Battle of the Boroughs last year.  The texture of this thing was unreal - since the meat is so loosely packed, there are all sorts of lovely caramalized bits that you get hit with when you bite in and the chipotle mayo is the perfect crowning touch.  You can find piles of these burgers at Water Taxi beach (both the LIC location as well as the soon to be opened South Street Seaport location) on the weekends.

Mushroom Agnolotti from Buitoni; related film: Know your Mushrooms

Since Buitoni is a big sponser of the festival, they served these mushroom agnolotti as our second course and I have to say, these were actually surprisingly good.  I'd have throw a brown butter-sage sauce over this but the dough had a nice resiliency and the mushroom filling was savoury and delicious.

Pine Barren Cooler (Local cranberry, fresh lemon, pomegranate sugar-in-the-raw syrup, soda); related Film: New Jersey's Red October

A lightly sweet, slightly tart refreshing cocktail to wash down the decidedly un-light meal

Bacon Chocolate Chip cookie with bacon from pitmaster Scott Smith from R.U.B.; related film: Mutton: The Movie

Wow.  Bacon and chocolate has been done before but to suspend them both in a dense cookie dough is nefarious.  And absolutely delicious.

More Details:

The film festival runs from June 13th - 19th at Water Taxi Beach (LIC and South Street Seaport) and the Astor Center.

A trailer for the festival:

2009 NYC Food Film Festival Trailer from George Motz on Vimeo.

Official site: http://www.nycfoodfilmfestival.com