Food festival season is just beginning in the city and I can already add two tallies to this year’s adventures {with more to come soon hopefully}!
First up was The Village Voice’s Choice Streets! This was the third year of the food truck driven food festival that took place at the Intrepid Museum. This festival was unique to others I’ve attended because it was ran by a punchcard system {which was totally genius}! When you entered the festival you received a lanyard with a punchcard, a map/guide, and a drink glass.
The punchcard system worked great because everyone was allowed one serving at each truck and it allowed you to keep track of where you had been.
I’ve been to a couple of other festivals with food trucks that the lines were pretty unbearable, but this festival did a good job of managing the lines so that the waits weren’t too bad. Props to the truck employees for busting it out for 3 hours too, troopers!
Some of the top trucks around the city were featured, so I was pretty excited to get to try a little bit from each so that I know which ones to track down over the summer!
The festival also had a pretty impressive line of liquors and spirits to sample as well! You could have easily gotten your ticket value worth of drinks at a couple of the stands.
One of my favorites was the drink from Kelvin Natural Slush Co. They made slushies with a fresh fruit puree and they were truly awesome. I’ll definitely be hunting down their truck for some refreshing treats soon!
After we had our fill of food and drink, we headed upstairs to stop into the museum. The bonus to your ticket was you also received free admission to the museum, score!
We had fun checking out some of the exhibits and checking out some of the planes and helicopter on display!
I must say, I was impressed! I’ll definitely be adding this festival into my yearly rotation!
Next up, my favorite free food festival of the year… The 9th Avenue Food Festival. On the surface it looks like one of the regular street fairs that take place throughout the city each weekend, but take it from me, this one is worth checking out.
I got this festival started with some extra delicious buffalo chicken meatballs, followed by a Romeo & Juliet guava empanado. Both, great choices!
The really awesome thing about this food festival is there are stands that really do represent every corner of the world. Whatever ethnicity or location based food you’d like to try, this street fair has it.
Here’s a look at my friend’s {very spicy} jambalaya. I wasn’t brave enough to actually try it so I’ll take his word on that one!
At the end of the day, I really only have one motive when I go to this food fest though, and that is to get a blooming onion. It’s the only festival {that I’ve found} that offers them and I simply can’t get enough of them.
I’m 4 years and counting for this one. No matter what type of delicious new foods I try at this fest, I always keep coming back. It’s also worth noting the same man is making these each year. Like I literally have pictures of him making them every year!
So there you have it! Two food festivals down, many more to come!
