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

A mountain of food at the 9th Annual Taste of the Lower East Side

Many thanks to FoodBuzz for hooking me up with tickets to the 9th Annual Taste of the Lower East Side - I had a fantastic night of munching, way too much "sampling" of the wines and along the way developing a very fuzzy memory of exactly what went into each of the carefully prepared dishes at each sampling station. This is a great event to raise funds to support programs at the Grand Street Settlment  which expands opportunities for low-income families and individuals by providing culturally relevant services that support community-building, advocacy, self-determination and an enriched quality of life.

The setting:

Over 1,000 young professionals attended this event held in the beautiful Puck building in Soho.  Lots of beautiful women in spring dresses and guys all suited up.  The music was pretty loud which lent a very festive atmosphere, there were no lines for any of the stations and the event felt very well organized.

  

The food:

Apologies for any mistakes in dish descriptions - my memory is a tad fuzzy :) If you see any egregious errors, please leave a comment and I'll be sure to fix it asap!

From Falai Pannetteria: Mozzarella, tomato, basil on pastry

• A bit too soggy from having sat around for a bit but delicate and had good flavor

From Falai Pannetteria: Cream puffs

• Holy hellfire, these cream puffs were delicious - I would have tried to steal the tray but there were too many people around

 

From Tiny's Giant Sandwich Shop: 7-Grain toast with an avocado mash, bacon crumble, herb mayo, grape tomato and cilantro, served open face)

• A perfect combo of crispy bacon bits, creamy avocado and a lovely herb mayo - really, really good and I think I'm starting to understand Robyn's love affair with this place.  Must head back soon for a visit!

From Porchetta: Porchetta (roated pork with crispy skin, highly seasoned with aromatic herbs and spaices, garlic, sage, rosemary and wild fennel pollen)

• My first experience at Porchetta wasn't all that great (dry meat, I thought it was too expensive) but this tasting completely changed my mind.  I think I had 3 servings of this - beautifully crispy cracklings, tender and moist meat and lovely toasted bread to pair with it.  The only time I've had better porchetta is really when Tien Ho (the head honcho over at Momofuku Ssam bar) decided to experiment with a new porchetta recipe on Don and me.  I still think of that lovely hunk of porchetta with complete longing but he never put it on the menu :(

From Sorella: Bicerin (espresso fudge, chocolate pudding, soft whipped cream), Torta Di Marsala (orange spiked geniose, marsala zabaglione)

• Very light, not too sweet and delicious - Sorella has been on my list of winebars to check out and after these nibbles, I think I have to head there soon.

 

From The Stanton Social: Lobster Roll with old bay potato chips

• The lobster roll was incredibly buttery and fresh and I loved how the old bay potato chips cut through the richness of it

From WD-50: Sunflower-miso soup, shitake, malt

• I've done the full tasting menu over at WD-50 (see my review here) and liked many of the courses but I really disliked this dish.  The description itself wasn't all that appealing but the balance was all off and it had a very strong floral taste (but in a bad way) so I didn't finish it.

 

From Clinton St. Baking Company: Brooklyn Ice cream sandwiches (with ice cream from the Brooklyn Ice Cream factory)

• The cookies were amazing, chewy, slightly salty and just sweet enough and the ice cream was of course yummy - ice cream sandwiches are definitely one of the best concotions on the planet

 From Roni-Sue: Bacon caramel popcorn

• Man, this was so good - I have to go to Essex market asap to get some of their bacon chocolate which they sadly didn't have at the table

Closing Notes:

Definitely consider going next year - this was a great event for a good cause and the food was wonderful.

Full list of participating restaurants:

Alias

Allen & Delancey

Bacaro

barrio chino

Butcher Bay

Café Cortadito

Clinton St. Baking Co. & Restaurant

Double Crown

El Maguey y La Tuna

Falai Panetteria

Fat Hippo

il laboratorio del gelato

'inoteca

Kampuchea Restaurant

The Kitchen Club & Chibi's Bar

Kuma Inn

Little Giant

Loreley Restaurant & Biergarten

Macondo

Mercadito

Oliva

Palà

Paladar

Porchetta

Public

Rayuela

Rice & Jack's Coffee

Roni Sue's Chocolates

Salt Bar

Satsko

Saxelby Cheesemongers

Shang

Sorella

The Stanton Social

SugarSweet Sunshine

Think Coffee

Tiny's Giant Sandwich Shop

Thor

Tre

Veselka

Lunch street-cart style with David Chang

It's 70 degrees and brilliantly sunny here in NY and I just got back from a lunch thrown street-cart style by David Chang.  Life doesn't get all that much better than that.  I'm a big fan of David Chang's entire empire (note my very enthusiastic review of Ssam bar from a while back, Noodle bar, Milk bar and the soon-to-come Momo bar or whatever they're calling it) so I was really looking forward to seeing how he pulled off a hectic street-car style lunch. The entire shindig was sponsored by NBC New York and 160 lucky guests won pairs of tickets to the feast.

The scene:

A parking lot at the corner of Houston and Lafayette.

David Chang overseeing his newest territory to be conquered

 Happy diners!

The cooking stations and the magical soft-serve machine

The Goodies:

"Dealer's choice" - a random assortment of goodies put together by the chefs: Grilled lobster with bits of scallion and bacon, a poached egg and grits, a pork belly bun and pickled veggies.

The lobster was really rich and well-spiced and nicely complemented by the creamy grits and pickled vegetables.

"Pork choice": Crispy rice fries, pork belly bun, sweet/spicy red chili pepper rice cakes

I always love the pork belly buns and the rice fries were also extremely good - I could probably eat a pack of these easily if they were packaged.  I'm not a big fan of the sweet/spicy red chili pepper sauce they used so didn't find this dish all that great.

Donut soft-serve ice cream with cinnamon sugar topping

Tastes EXACTLY like a donut and not overly sweet at all with a really great, silky texture

I had a great time at the event and can't wait to check out the new bar at Ssam bar next week!  :)

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Chocolate Show 2006

Another year, another night of gluttony at the annual NY chocolate show. I think this will be my last appearance - one more visit and I just might explode. The loot I lugged home:

1 box of Connoisseur Collection chocolates from DeBrand - what an amazing combination of flavors. This is probably the best collection of chocolates I've ever tried - subtle, harmonious flavors and not overly sweet.

2 cannisters of drinking chocolate: Triple Chocolate & Chocolate Mocha and 1 Salty Pretzel bar from the Chocolate Bar.

Other highlights from the show: