Brooklyn Local

On September 17th, City Harvest hosted their first annual Brooklyn Local event.  Artisan food vendors from all over Brooklyn came to showcase their delicious and handmade delights.  Local Brooklyn brewery Sixpoint along with several other beer and wine vendors kept us from going thirsty.  What  I found most compelling was the event space.  The Brooklyn Tabacco Warehouse is this charming open air venue reminisant of medieval times.  In the 1870s it was used as a tobacco customs inspection center, and saved from demolition in 1998.

I had the great opportunity to volunteer with City Harvest in the kids area and decorate cookies all morning!  The cookies and decorating supplies were provide by The Good Batch.

Here is a link to all the participating vendors.  And some of my favorites!

My Friend’s Mustard,

Cuzin’s Duzin

Pie Corp

Kings County Jerky Co

Stinky Bklyn

I took some fun pictures of the kiddie creations!  Each cookie was very expressive of each kid, it was like cookie psychology.  And I could pick out a few that would probably resemble the mess that I would have made as a kid!

The end of the gallery has pictures from the actual event.

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Cooking Matters

Early this month I completed a six-month Family curriculum course through City Harvest.  You may remember last year I participated in the program as a Class Manger, but this year, with my new culinary degree I was able to be the volunteer chef.

The program was for children and their parents who either belong to Hour Children Food Pantry or are residents of My Mother’s House.  Both are centers in Queens that assist people with food and guidance.

While the experience ended up being a little more than I bargained for assisting with the grocery shopping and testing recipes ahead of time, the results were heart-warming.  It was challenging finding jobs for the littlest class members and then also figuring out a task that would keep some of the older kids engaged.  Luckily the parents always volunteered to cut the onions and mince the garlic!  It was amazing to see how their skill sets developed and interest level grew.  Krystal (pictured second to my right) became an expert at thinly slicing ANYTHING, and Miranda (last one on the left) was my go-to banana masher.

If anything, I think the kids will be more inclined to  help out their parents in the kitchen, and hopefully take away some healthy options.

Eating Right in Bed-Sty

One of the many good things that has come from being unemployed is an opportunity to volunteer with City Harvest’s Operation Frontline.  The project takes a chef, a nutritionist and a class manager (me) and drops them into underserved community centers throughout the city to teach nutritional education and do cooking demonstrations.  While my parents nearly had a heart attack when I told them I’d be in Bed-Sty I was pleasantly surprised by the joyful and enthusiastic women (and one man!) at the Mount Sinai Baptist Church.  While my job was assisting the chef and nutritionist in anyway they needed, I had a chance to teach one nutrition class and really got to take part in a lot of the cooking.  And having the chance to work with a real life chef and nutritionist was invaluable, we were a great team including our City Harvest representative!  Everyone was so appreciative of our work and it really filled my heart with purpose and gratitude.  Sometimes volunteering is really self-fish!  Below are some pics from our recent class, we did spices and breakfast including a Frittata and Sweet Potato Fries!  Also made smoothies but they’re not pictured.  Hope to get the chance to do another class soon!!

Spices- Love Star Anise!

Sweet Potatoes are Ready!

Brandon and Carolyn address the class about today's lesson

Brandon shows Ernestine how to chop the potatoes

Frittata is ready!

Group Shot!

Great Food, Good Hearts

City Harvest has posted their 2010 Edition of Great Food, Good Hearts, a guide to New York’s most generous restaurants.  One of the great things about food culture in New York is that sucessful chef’s and restauronteours are so generous to those in need.

Download the full list here: http://www.cityharvest.org/restaurant-guide/

Some of my personal favorites on the list:

Hearth – 403 East 12th St.  Great ambiance and focus on season, and locally sourced ingredients.

Scarpetta– 355 West 14th St.  Based on previous posts one can gather my slight obsession with this place.  A portion of the famous spaghetti dish goes to charity!

The Stanton Social– 99 Stanton St.  Creative menu with a great ambiance.  Awesome for sharing and big groups.

Rickshaw Dumpling Bar– 61 West 23rd St.  A neighborhood favorite, Anita Lo took a great product and adapted it to modern face-paced living.  And the truck is fun to follow on Twitter!

Tabla – 11 Madison Ave.  Solid Indian food (even my plane jane mother loves this place!) with awesome service and ambiance.

Dawat Haute Cusine of India – 201 East 58th St.  Another Indian classic.  Some Indian friends took me here and I was widly impressed!

Hudson Cafeteria – 356 West 58th St. I also feel so NY posh when I go into the Hudson Hotel.  And this restaurant has great food and the open kitchen pit makes for great entertainment.

Honorable Mentions that are on my hit-list:

Aldea – 31 West 17th St.  Has been getting great reviews and Mediterranean flavors sound great!

Annisa– Anita Lo is an awesome chef and contributor to the community.  Would love to patron her place!

Blue Hill– 75 Washington Place.  One day when the gods of reservations work in my favor!

Dirt Candy – 430 East 9th St.  Such an interesting concept on modern vegetarian, and always on the food blogs

The Little Owl – 90 Bedford St.  Joey Campanaro is another great contributor to the community.  Would love to stop in for the famous meatball sliders!

Locanda Verde – 377 Greenwhich St.  Right up there with Blue Hill and the gods of reservations.

Market Table – 54 Carmine St.  I met Mikey Price at the New York Wine and Food Festival Chef’s panel.  I real believer in educating kids about healthy eating.  My kinda guy!

Any of the Momofuku’s

Spice Market – 403 West 13th St.  I can’t believe I haven’t made it there yet!