Viva La Comida 2013 – Fabulous Food All Around

Friday night I had the pleasure of attending Viva La Comida, a food and cultural festival that takes place on 82nd Street in Jackson Heights, Queens. It’s in its second year now, and going strong. They had more space this year compared to last, and more food vendors, too. My friend Jeff Orlick is the organizer of the food side of things, and has done an excellent job getting great food vendors to participate. I ate some extremely delicious things—two dishes that stood out were from a new vendor and a returning vendor.

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It was great to see food that represents so many different parts of the world—El Salvador, Ireland, The Phillipines, India, Tibet, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru. I also understand there was Ecuadorian, Dominican, and Italian food represented too. Additionally, I picked up a pandebono (Colombian) from Las Delicias En Pandebono (they make THE BEST pandebono in Queens) a cup of fresh strawberry-tangerine-carrot juice from 82 Market, and a glass of horchata from Taqueria Coatzingo, all local businesses on 82nd Street.

I was also happy to hang out and share food with my friend Dayna, talented animator and food fan (so good to see friends and fellow food writers Sue, Bradley, Anne, and Joe during the evening, too!). We got there early, which was great for getting food relatively quickly. First dish we tried was two pupusas from El Oolmega, a truck based at the Red Hook Ballfields, home to amazing, authentic global food. They’ve been in business for 23 years, and their pupusas were one of the highlights for me.

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We got two pupusas, one stuffed with pork and cheese and one stuffed with loroco and cheese. Loroco is a flower from Central America and used commonly in pupusas. It was delicious! They were topped with curtido (a traditional tangy cabbage condiment) and we got the optional pickled jalapeños on it, then sprinkled a bit of hot sauce and crema over everything. I couldn’t get over how fresh and delicious it all was—the masa yielded easily to the fork, with flavorful fillings. Definitely a high point of the evening.

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My other favorite food of the night was the arepa con queso from Jackson Height’s own Arepa Lady crew. These arepas are excellent and have quite the glowing reputation. I especially love these smaller, thick, soft, and cheesy arepas, that are topped with more cheese. They are a little sweet, too, so it ends up being this wonderful mix of sweet and savory, one of my favorite meta flavor combos. Gorgeous looking thing, too. Continue reading “Viva La Comida 2013 – Fabulous Food All Around”

Sights and Sound: 2 Videos and 1 Podcast of Note

I’ve recently come across a couple of videos and a podcast that I’ve really enjoyed, and wanted to share them with you here.

For months, I’ve heard about Unique Eats, a show on the Cooking Channel, from my friend Tamara Reynolds. Tamara is the force behind The Sunday Night Dinner, a supper club in NYC – that’s where these bacon lollipops came from. She also works with Unique Eats as an “eating and talking head” – and rightly so, because she knows her stuff.

One of the UE episodes is all about Queens, which is my home borough right now. They highlight three of my favorite spots in the borough: Mombar (lamb cheeks!), an Egyptian restaurant, Tortilleria Nixtamal (carnitas!), a taqueria in Corona, and The Queens Kickshaw (Gouda sandwich!). I was unfamiliar with the Korean restaurant, Sik Gaek, but I must say – after watching a little bit about it, I want to check it out. Here’s the video:

Continue reading “Sights and Sound: 2 Videos and 1 Podcast of Note”

Sustainability and 100 Posts

Happy Friday everyone!  This post is my 100th post – quite a happy milestone for me, and the blog.  In honor of that nice juicy round number, I wanted to share this video that really had an effect on me.

Deepak Chopra “True Sustainability” from Omega Institute on Vimeo.

I love the idea that the world around us, the environment, is our extended body. With that in mind, how else can we treat the world around us but in a sustainable way? Chopra says, “There will never be social transformation unless there is personal transformation.” I couldn’t agree more; change always starts with oneself.

Personally, I like to think that I have made some changes-to-practice in the direction of sustainability. These days I’m composting as much as I can, using both my worm bin and the outdoor composter; eating as locally as possible; not driving, but walking and taking public transportation; drinking out of reusable containers at work; using a cloth towel instead of paper towels to dry my lunch dishes; refusing plastic bags at the grocery store and elsewhere.

I’m sure I can do more, though. And with the idea in mind that the world around me is simply an extension of myself, paired with the fact that I do my best to nourish myself in myriad ways, nourishing the world around me is a logical conclusion. That includes the I we treat myself, those around me, the earth, sky, water, to be kind and show compassion. I’ll be exploring ways to implement change and will share it here on the blog.

Here’s to many posts to come!

Recent Inspiration

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I’ve come across a number of writings and videos that have inspired me recently, so I am going to share them with you!

First, I’ve been inspired to get back into sourdough bread baking, thanks to  Katy’s recent post at Thought For Food, Sourdough: pages two, three, and four.  She references Clotilde’s post, Sourdough Baguettes, which I’ll also be taking a look at.

Leda Meredith over at Leda’s Urban Homestead shares a recipe for lacto-fermented garlic. I hadn’t thought of using lacto fermentation on garlic!  This is definitely something I’m going to try.

Last week I mentioned how much I enjoy dates, and I recently came across an intriguing date and rice pudding recipe over on My Feasts.  It sounds delicious!  I think I will adjust the small amount of sugar to either maple syrup or sucanat/rapadura.

I’ve been really impressed with the videos from food.curated. They are informative while being entertaining, in all the right ways. Here are a couple that I’ve really liked:

Shit-Talking & Sausage Making: Just Another Day at The Meat Hook from SkeeterNYC on Vimeo.

SCRATCHbread: A Brooklyn Chef Creates Food from Scratch to Start A Movement from SkeeterNYC on Vimeo.

I’ve also been watching Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution, which has a lot of food for thought in it.

What has inspired you lately?

Jamie Oliver – 2010 TED Prize Winner

This year Jamie Oliver won the TED Prize, granted just this past week. The video of him making his plea has been flying around the internet, and for good reason. It’s excellent – an intelligent and impassioned plea to fix something that is pretty much preventable – obesity.

The TED Prize is a pretty extraordinary thing.  According to the organization:

The TED Prize is designed to leverage the TED community’s exceptional array of talent and resources. It is awarded annually to an exceptional individuals who receives $100,000 and, much more important, “One Wish to Change the World.” After several months of preparation, they unveil their wish at an award ceremony held during the TED Conference. These wishes have led to collaborative initiatives with far-reaching impact.

And Jamie’s wish is:

I wish for your help to create a strong, sustainable movement to educate every child about food, inspire families to cook again and empower people everywhere to fight obesity.

I think it’s a wonderful wish, and one worth granting.   Want to help work towards making it a reality?  You can start by signing his food revolution petition, if you are sympathetic to his cause. He plans to take it to the White House after his TV series airs, share with the President and First Lady, and show how many people across the country really care about this issue. Finally, he’ll ask for their support in return.

At the least, watch the video.  I think you’ll be happy you did.