Eat First

Two win tickets to Pride of NY Harvest Fest

Brad Stalter of Syracuse and Jackie Dickinson of Poplar Ridge have each won a ticket to the Pride of New York Harvest Festival this weekend at the Horticulture Building at the state fairgrounds.

Thank you to everyone who visited my Eat First blog and entered the inaugural ticket giveaway here. It's my goal to have more freebies for Central New York food lovers up for grabs in the future.

Visitors to the Harvest Fest will have the opportunity to sip New York wine and craft beer and taste samples from dozens of specialty food vendors from throughout the state. Festival hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and noon to 5 p.m. Sunday. Admission is $25 at the door. 

Samples of McCadam Cheddar's Empire Pepper Jack cheese

While you're sipping and sampling, don't forget to register to win a “Pride of New York Basket of Bounty,” featuring a selection of NYS-made wine, beer, marinades, maple products, baked goods and more. Sign up at the table near the New York State Display. Entrants must be 21 years of age to be eligible. A winner will be selected at random at the end of the day Sunday. The winner does not have to be present to win.

I'll be at the event on Saturday and plan to post some photos. Hope to see you there!

 

Win tickets to the Pride of NY Harvest Festival

The folks from Keuka Lake Coffee Roasters will be there. Good to know. Christmas is coming and their spice rubs make super gifts and stocking stuffers. The grape/cherry growers cooperative Western New York will be there, too. Good deal. We're all out of their tart cherry juice concentrate, which we mix up to drink on its own and enjoy in adult beverages.

Mercer's Dairy, of Boonville, will be there, bringing gallons of wine ice cream to keep the crowd happy. Wine ice cream sounds weird but it is soooo delicious! The thought of a sample of Red Raspberry Chardonnay ice cream, alone, is enough to woo me to the encore presentation of the Pride of New York Harvest Festival in the Horticulture Building at the state fairgrounds in Geddes this weekend.

Thinking about going? You're in luck. I have two tickets to the festival (admission is $25 at the door) to give away. To enter: You must be from Central/Upstate New York, you must be at least 21 years of age and you must leave a comment including your name in the comment field below. Look closely -- it's kind of hard to see. Note to family members: You're not eligible to win. Sorry.

The deadline to enter is noon Thursday, Nov. 4. Winners will be announced here on Thursday afternoon or Friday morning. Names of the winners will be turned over to festival organizers and tickets will be available for pick-up at the fairgrounds.

The Pride of NY Harvest Festival features hundreds of specialty food producers, wineries and craft brewers from throughout the state. It's a fun event for mixing, mingling, chatting and -- best of all -- SAMPLING.  Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and noon to 5 p.m. Sunday.

Food seminars are scheduled both days in the Martha Eddy Room of the Art and Home Center.

For complete details, visit the Harvest Fest website.

 

To turn the clock back a year and read my post from 2009, click here.

 

Road trip! Taste of Buffalo

Photo courtesy of www.Buffalochow.com

When you think of food that's synonymous with Buffalo, you probably think of spicy chicken wings with blue cheese dressing and celery sticks on the side.

 

 Photo courtesy of www.Buffalochow.com

And beef on weck (full name, roast beef on kummelweck), the region's signature sandwich.

But  wrap your brain around the idea of chicken wings dusted with Indian spices and baked in a tandoor oven. And a soup that tastes like one of your favorite sandwiches -- a reuben. Or a fresh-tasting papaya salad with shrimp.

Now, set your GPS for downtown Buffalo.

On July 10 and 11, our neighbor to the west will showcase its more exotic culinary stuff at the 27th annual Taste of Buffalo.

Photo courtesy of Taste of Buffalo: Fireside Inn's bruschetta on homemade Italian baguette, from a past Taste of Buffalo

Buffalonians -- and other residents of the Niagara Frontier -- love their food. And more than 450,000 people are expected to jam the city's streets to check out the creativity of the region's restaurants, listen to music and take home some new kitchen tricks, thanks to a roster of chef demonstrations.

All told, promoters say, the event will spotlight more than 50 restaurants and six wineries. Most (but not all) of the restaurants are locally owned and operated.

Photo courtesy of Taste of Buffalo

"We really try to stay away from chains and show off our local culinary talent,'' says Jim Fink, a reporter for Buffalo Business First. He's a member of the Taste of Buffalo board and a long-time festival organizer.

Asked to share a few of his personal favorites, Fink listed the jerk chicken from Caribbean Experience, Buffalo; spicy chicken wing soup with homemade croutons from Danny's Restaurant, Cheektowaga and Orchard Park; blackened chicken over Cajun rice from Chester's Cajun Grill,  East Amherst; Indian-style wings from Tandoori's Royal Indian Cuisine, Williamsville; and the corned beef sliders served by W.J. Morrissey Irish Pub, Buffalo.

Organizers say Taste of Buffalo is the largest two-day food festival in the country, and they describe it as "fun by the forkful.'' Vendors set up shop along Delaware Avenue, beginning at Chippewa Street and stretching south toward City Hall, in the heart of downtown Buffalo.

Participating restaurants offer four or more menu items, including one designated "healthy option'' and one sample-size "Taste" item. There is no admission fee. Food ranges in price from two tickets (each ticket costs 50 cents) to eight tickets. Tickets are sold at booths along the festival route and are available in advance at Tops stores.

Heading west next weekend? Check out Taste of Buffalo. It sounds like a winner.

Photo courtesy of Taste of Buffalo 

Taste of Syracuse: savoring the memories*

The tents are broken down and packed away, the towering ice cream cones deflated and you might not see the familiar purple fried dough stand again until state fair time: Taste of Syracuse, the delicious kickoff of the summer festival season in downtown Syracuse, has come and gone.

Here's a recap of six stands/samples that stood out at the Taste and are worth seeking out in their regular homes, followed by *a complaint about the event. But first, the good stuff: 

1. Fresh, organic carrot juice from Speedy Greens. Their hand-lettered ORGANIC FOOD sign might have been a Taste of Syracuse first, and their "shooter" of fresh carrot juice was by far the healthiest $1 sample.

The juice and more vegetarian-vegan-gluten free food can be had at Speedy Greens, a restaurant, store and holistic health center in Cicero.

 2. Jamaican jerk chicken sample from Caribbean King. Not for  those with timid taste buds, the chicken was rubbed with a blend of chiles and other seasonings, including garlic, and then grilled. I've had curry chicken for lunch at Caribbean King (109 E. Seneca Turnpike, corner of South Salina Street) and plan to stop in soon for seconds -- a meal-size portion -- of their jerk chicken.

3. Hot dog sample from Liehs & Steigerwald. No baloney! Hofmann hot dogs are the hometown favorite, there's no doubt about it, but the franks made at Liehs & Steigerwald, a family-owned butcher shop on Grant Boulevard, near Butternut Circle (and on Route 31, in Clay), are deserving of a wider following. Hopefully the Taste won the Liehs & Steigerwald dogs some new fans, who will seek them out (they're not sold in grocery stores) and also try Liehs & Steigerwald's signature sausages, bacon, etc.

4. Salad sample from DG's Family Restaurant in Brewerton. DG's shredded salad was tossed with house-made Italian dressing and stuffed inside a small cone, along with a small bread stick. It was one of several salads on menus at this year's Taste, along with a baby bleu salad sample from Diamond Catering and antipasto salad sample from Asti Caffe.

5. Wine sample trio from Americana Vineyards. Three petite pours of wine ($1) from the winery in Interlaken, on the Cayuga Wine Trail, introduced me to three nice, dry wines, two white and one red: Gewurztraminer, Chardonnay and Baco Noir. I would have left with a bottle of at least one of them, probably the Gewurztraminer, but bottles to-go can't be sold at the Taste. I see a trip to the winery and its restaurant, the Crystal Lake Cafe, in my future.

6. Baklava sample from the Turkish Cultural Center. Baklava, a multi-layered pastry made with phyllo dough, nuts and honey, is a sweet, sticky treat. The baklava served at the Turkish Cultural Center stand was made with pistachios instead of the usual walnuts, and seemed less honey-soaked than some versions. Besides that, who knew there's a Turkish Cultural Center in Syracuse? I didn't. The center offers cooking classes and Turkish coffee nights, among other events and activities.

*Complaint department: The number of chain restaurants at the Taste seems to be growing, with Arby's, Applebee's, Bonefish Grill, Jreck Subs, Panera, Pizza Hut and others in attendance this year.

I realize that chains are a fact of life and popular with a large segment of the dining public -- witness the long lines for a sample of Bonefish's bang-bang shrimp. Meanwhile, I enjoyed a zesty bite of shrimp with roasted red chile sauce from AppeThaizing, an independent restaurant on the Syracuse University hill.

Sorry to single out Arby's, but what place does a chain with thousands of outlets all over have in a festival with a focus on local restaurants and local flavor? Around the corner, my partner savored a bourbon beef sandwich from Diamond Catering, which he was still raving about on Saturday.

I guess what I'm trying to say is I hope the Taste doesn't lose the thing that makes it stand out from other festivals: its distinct Central New York accent.

What are your thoughts? Please leave a comment and let me know.

The Pride of New York Harvest Festival

You learn something new every day, and Saturday was no exception.

Thanks to chef Paul Midgley and his cooking demo at the Pride of New York Harvest Festival at the state fairgrounds in Geddes, I learned I like cabbage, a vegetable I have loathed my entire lifetime.

Chef Paul's take on cabbage this time of year is to braise it slowly in butter until it is wilted and caramelized, which renders it sweet -- and not at all stinky. He pairs it on a plate with pumpkin risotto and tops it with seared scallops dusted with cabbage seeds.

Pumpkin Risotto with Caramelized Cabbage and Seared Scallops.

Chef Paul Midgley samples his creation in the Wegmans kitchen of the Art and Home Center.

Chef Paul operated two Pride of New York restaurants at this year's edition of the New York State Fair and plans to make use of as much locally grown produce, locally raised meats and other local ingredients at Cuento, a "gastro pub'' he is on track to open in Manlius before year's end.

Besides the cabbage revelation, another surprise at the chef's cooking demo was his pairing of a red wine, a Cabernet Franc from Hosmer Winery on Cayuga Lake, with his seafood dish.

The Harvest Fest, on the whole, was all about surprises. The event marked the first time the state Department of Agriculture and Markets held the event in Central New York. About 45 food producers from across the state shared space with about 45 wineries, most of them from the Finger Lakes region, and a handful of regional breweries.

By the time I left in the early afternoon to visit the Junior League's annual Holiday Shoppes shopping extravaganza at the Center of Progress building, a line of people eager to gain access, secure their wrist bands and complimentary wine glasses and begin sipping and tasting  snaked outside the Horticulture Building.

Here's a taste of some of the vendors and what they had to offer:

Split peas as a snack food, from Womb of Nature, a company in Baldwin.

Sauces, dressings and marinades in abundance, including Pa's Pistols Sweet Hickory Sauce, made in Salem. Use it for basting and barbecuing, or as a condiment.

At Keuka Lake Coffee Roasters, coffee beans show up in sauces and marinades...

 

... and in a full line of Java-Gourmet Rubs.

Soup and chili mixes from Healthy Sisters' Soup and Bean Works, in Rochester, are delicious and support a worthy cause: a program that helps women who have never worked before move from dependence to independence.

The New York Beef Industry Council, based in Westmoreland, served samples of Veal Chili ...

... and presented the chili it in a very elegant way.

Cheese was all over the place, from River Rat Cheeses, made in the Thousand Islands...

... to McCadam Empire Pepper Jack, also made in the North Country...

...to a tasty bite of salad topped with goat cheese, from Side Hill Acres, in Candor.

 

Pleasing to the palate and a refreshing change from wine were the tart cherry and Concord grape juices served by Growers' Co-operative Grape Juice Co., in Western New York.

Those craving sweet treats had plenty of choices, from DipStix pretzel barks and chocolate-dipped pretzels, made in Cazenovia. ...

... to the no-bake cheesecake mixes in a multitude of flavors from DeeDee Desserts.

For me, the best bites of the event were the wine ice creams -- Red Raspberry Chardonnay and Chocolate Cabernet -- made by Mercer's Dairy, of Boonville. This ice cream contains 5 percent alcohol, so it's not to be served as kiddie cones.

You might not think ice cream and alcohol don't go together, but trust me, the two make a delicious match. The wine flavor is subtle, but sublime.

Maybe Chef Paul can be persuaded to have Mercer's wine ice cream on the dessert menu at his new restaurant when it opens.