Reflections on the Village Voice Choice Eats Event (aka the “Meet These Soups” Post)

I love the concept of the Choice Eats event as much as anyone: Restaurants that the Village Voice has reviewed favorably over the past year are given a chance to showcase their food to a ravenous audience — as in, actually hungry as well as hungry for more input, more knowledge, about this city’s fine (and expansive) food culture.

You might romanticize the scene a bit (I did), imagining people mingling and mixing under the Armory’s expansive cover, long rows of decorated tables laden with plates of food tastes for the taking — after all, this is a tasting event, and we’re here to eat.

Arriving about 7:15p — or about 15 minutes after the VIP portion of the event was over and general admission had been let in — the scene was anything but civilized.

The masses of people crowding each table were so thick they blended into the next; not a single vendor could keep up with demand. The crowds were so deep in front of some booths — such as Baohaus — that they impeded the flow of foot traffic down the center of the aisle, which was at least 10′ from the table. It didn’t relent the entire night. (On principle, I refused to push my way through that throng for a taste of Chef Bao’s signature certified angus skirt steak “as seen on the Food Network.” I’d prefer to visit the restaurant and order it.)

in the weeds at Luke's Lobster station

But I give Baohaus, and its neighbor, Luke’s Lobster, a ton of credit for sticking with it and serving the throngs clear through the near end of the event, because a surprising number of vendors — Mooncake Foods, Fatty Crab and Fort Defiance among them — were out of food and packing up by 7:45p, not even an hour into the general admission session.

Other vendors who stuck it out until the end: Agnanti Restaurant of Astoria, Peppa’s Jerk Chicken of Brooklyn, Rajbhog Sweets & Snacks of Jackson Heights and Mumbai Xpress of Floral Park. (::applause::)

Curiously, these vendors are all from deep in the outer boroughs — not Manhattan, and not trendy Brooklyn. Which led me down this rabbit hole:

Q. So are they here the longest because people aren’t as familiar with their food, and so are less hesitant to try? — That can’t be true. Like a locust cloud, this crowd was systematically devouring every morsel in sight.

Q. Are they here the longest because they use inherently cheaper ingredients, and therefore can bring greater volume (e.g., vegetarian street snacks vs. porchetta)? —Well, I’m not sure whether that’s true or not, but look at Luke’s Lobster, making bite-sized shrimp rolls with sustainable Maine shrimp, and Baohaus. They’re using fairly premium proteins and they’re still here.

Q. So why are a majority of vendors out of food so soon? I mean, as a vendor, of course at some point you plan to run out — to take anything home would be a waste. But to see so many vendors shuttering up so early was shocking, even by tasting event standards.

…I’m going to leave that one open for debate, although certainly I have my own opinions. Instead, let’s wrap this post up with a short note on two of my favorite unexpected tastes of the night:

The first being Dumont‘s spring chowder, with cucumber scent, mussels, clams, shrimp and an herb pestou. I absolutely adored the color; the seafood wasn’t skimpy and as a bite; and in a bite you got both the traditional chowder flavors — the creaminess, the sea taste of the bivalves — with just a little something je ne sais quoi teasing your tongue around the edges. And green! So fun.

The second being (surprise!) another soup, this one the Cullen Skink soup from the boys at the Highlands, a new Scottish gastropub in the West Village that if I made a three-figure salary (ha!), I’d be there on the regular, working my way through their extensive list of single malt scotches.

I’ve never had Cullen Skink soup before. A quick Google search (and menu confirmation) reveals the soup’s named after the Scottish town of Cullen and that “skink” is an old Scottish word for “soup.” Of course.

The soup is a milky broth, each spoonful studded with soft potato chunks and smoked haddock that otherwise lurk beneath the surface. Mellow and creamy with just the right punch of smokiness and fishiness, I was a fan. (also pictured is the Highland’s vegetarian shepard’s pie.)

The Village Voice Choice Eats event is held every March in New York, NY. More information can be found here. (For contact information for any restaurant mentioned, click on the link.)

Thursday: Report from Harvest in the Square (the “Ohhh … Good Food Overload” Post)

To use a terribly-overused metaphor, I was like a kid in a candy store at Harvest in the Square, only the store was a cavernous tented event space stretching three city blocks and the candy was little menu tastes from several dozen restaurants located in the greater Union Square area — and wine shops, wineries and breweries to boot.

An hour and a half? No problem. As far as I can recount, here’s a faithful tally of my candy store rampage:

Tocqueville‘s chilled tomato consommé with a confit tomato (right) was beautiful to look at, but, pardon my unrefined palate, seemed a little oily. Also not quite a success was Back Forty‘s cold corn soup with Trinidad pepper relish — the soup had a sourness to it that I just didn’t get, and the texture was oddly … fluffy?

In the veggie sphere, I much preferred  Union Square Café‘s simple zucchini alla scapece or Gramercy Tavern‘s souffléd crackers stuffed with zucchini — so airy and poppable, it’s a good thing I didn’t discover these little gems until toward the end of the night because I would have kept popping them and not had room for, say, my second serving of Blue Water Grill‘s smoked bacon-wrapped lobster sausage (above, served with corn salsa and fennel pollen aioli). Never knew such a form of lobster existed, but my life is better for it now that I do.

The Strip House — I’ve never been, but they’re supposed to do good steaks — served a crab cake with fingerling potatoes. It was fine. But I much preferred steak places that did meat, like the Knickerbocker. Perfectly cooked strips of the restaurant’s signature T-Bone steak (right) were being snatched up faster than the chef could slice them. (If the point of a restaurant’s participation is to get you interested enough to come in sometime, and you’re a steak place, serve steak.)

More great beef: The grilled beef tenderloin and malanga fondue with truffle trumpet frisee salad (left) from brand new Pipa Tapas y Mas restaurant was a dark-horse contender for favorite of the night. And BLT Prime served a bacon-crusted Wagyu flatiron with corn roasted bell pepper salad and bacon chimchurri that sounded more complicated in the placard than what I got on my plate, but it was a nice bite.

Wildwood BBQ‘s whole pig (right) was definitely the most ambitious display of the night; the pulled pork sliders with coleslaw and chipotle BBQ sauce were okay, but a little boring compared to the smoked pork spare riblets being served at Hill Country‘s table (served with mac & longhorn cheddar cheese).

Hands down, my overall favorite of the night was Almond, who had a gorgeous, potatoes-overflowing and rock salt display and a brilliant dish (left): house-smoked blue fish and potato chips, dill, goat yogurt. It’s like chips and dip deconstructed, pure mouth bliss. And entirely original. I will go to this restaurant specifically to order this dish in the future.

More from the fish front: SushiSamba did a kanpachi tiradito with heirloom tomatoes, fresh yuzu and white truffle oil, which was clean and just a lovely bite of sushi. And while I wanted so much to love ‘Wichcraft’s fluke with vodka-infused watermelon, charred chilies and basil — sounds so exotic — it was really overwhelming. The charred bits were almost gritty, whoa there vodka-soaked fruit.

… and, dessert. The Stand‘s mini toasted marshmallow shakes were perhaps one of the most adorable presentations of the evening, each topped with its own chocolate-dusted marshmallow. The perfect serving size for this sort of event: a few good sips and you’re done and SO satisfied.

And the guys hand-shaving the ice for market-flavor treats at Todd English’s Olives table get the award for hardest working team. Literally, hand-shaving ice. It’s like kitchen time-out to have to do that job. The flavors were ambitious and fascinating: Horachata was the clear winner. The creaminess improves the shaved ices, and it comes dotted with tiny raisins. Other flavors were: butternut squash, spiced cider and pomegranate.

On my way out I grabbed at beignet from ilili — so glad I did. It was the perfect sweet bite to end on.

Other miscellany: Whole Foods’ “Ploughman’s snack,” which featured local ingredients from Rick’s Picks, Schoolhouse Kitchen and Sprout Creek Farm on these fantastic plates made from fallen leaves by VerTerra Dinnerware out of Long Island City showcased all the locally-produced items beautifully. You could tell it was a really thought-out presentation. And then there’s the guac — I just couldn’t say no, not when I see the Rosa Mexicano team pounding out fresh batches in giant stone pestels (left).

… And about those noodles from Republic that were handed out in tiny orange and blue-colored take-out boxes? Mine ended up in my purse for later…