I got to attend the Asian Feastival in Flushing this past Monday and it was fantastic! A great mix of samples from diverse Asian restaurants, as well as lectures, demonstrations, and an Asian green market too! (pictured above – Dduk sweet rice cakes).

One of the new things I got to try was Burmese noodle salad, which was part of the Burmese cooking demo. It had fish oil, shrimp flakes, tamarind, onions, and was really yummy!

More Dduk! I think these were from the Korean restaurant KumGangSan.

I got to try my first ever Durian and it was way better than I expected. It’s always hyped to be this really scary stinky fruit, but I don’t think it was too bad (of course it was cut outside, which may have made it less smelly). I actually really liked the custardy texture.

The best drink was Golden Star Tea, which was very Champagne-like.

Banana Langka Toron with Caramel Sauce from the Filipino restaurant Payag.

Payag also had Halayang Ube Cake. Ube is a purple yam jam.

Gorgeous carved watermelon by George Wong!

Mooncakes from Deluge Asian Fusion!

Shanghai Soup Dumplings from Nan Xiang Xiao Long Bao in Flushing. Considered by many to be the best in NYC!

Close-up!

Kazuko Nagao of Artisanal Japan and PecoPeco did a fun Hiroshima-style Okonomiyaki demo!

Lovely sugar cubes from Chambre de Sucre!

Natural Vegan Way had these cute cupcakes in Green Tea, Wasabi, and Pandan flavors!

We also stopped in at the Flushing Mall food court while we were in the area and got some dumplings! Dumpling makers in action!

Finished product! Yum!

Shaved ice in the Flushing Mall! We will definitely be back to check more of Flushing out, there is so much to see and eat there!

Fashion’s Night Out is this Friday 9/10, it’s basically an excuse to party in fashionable shops all over the city and a lot of them have food and entertainment featured! For instance Momofuku Milk Bar’s chef Christina Tosi will have a special cookie for Band of Outsiders at Opening Ceremony at The Ace Hotel, there will be a Food truck face-off at Lord & Taylor, La Maison du Chocolat will have samples, and Dylan’s Candy Bar will be part of it too! There is a very handy itinerary creator on their site so you can plan which parties you want to stop in at, so check it out! My entertainment pick is Limelight Marketplace where Lady Bunny will be DJing and Sherry Vine and other drag queens will perform! My salon pick is  Michael Angelo’s Wonderland Beauty Parlor where they’ll be having a champagne toast and vegan and cruelty-free Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics! The whole night will be a fabulous!

Tomorrow is another Parked food truck event. This time at Governors Island,  details below the cut!

“This time, we are inviting even more food trucks, such as Jamaican Dutchy Truck, Rickshaw Dumpling, Green Pirate juice, Joyride Truck, Red Hook Lobster Pound, Van Leeuwan Artisan Ice Cream, Halo Berlin, The Cinnamon Snail, Kelvin Natural Slush Co, Hermelinda Mexicana and more!”

WHEN : Sunday, September 5th
WHERE : Colonel’s Row @ Governors Island
DOORS : Noon – 5pm
COVER : Free!
RAIN DATE: Sunday, September 26th

The Dunk Mug for Cookies! (Jezebel) via InventorSpot
Snickerdoodles at Peels! (Sweet Freak)
Apples and Honey ice cream from Chozen! (Grub Street)
Chocolate and Cocktail Pairings! (Serious Eats)
“Best Chocolate Cake” to Open in Dumbo! (Fork in the Road)
Sesame Street’s Singing Orange! (Coilhoise)
Junior’s New Cupcakes! (Midtown Lunch)
Treats Truck Interview! (Fork in the Road)

(image from event site)

City Sweet Tooth friend Bun Lai of Miya’s Sushi will be participating in the Asian Feastival in Queens this Monday! Click below for all the details!

Asian Feastival
http://asianfeastival.com
Sheraton LaGuardia East Hotel
135-20 39^th Avenue
Flushing, NY 11354
tickets $55 in advance $60 at the door
Noon – 5pm

WHAT: The first Asian “Feastival” in Flushing, Queens to showcase the best of authentic Asian cuisines in the borough. All proceeds from the event will benefit the Food Bank For New York City.

An all-inclusive ticket to Asian Feastival includes:

• • • Tastings from over 20 authentic Asian restaurants in Queens covering the following cuisines
      • Chinese, Indian, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Malaysian, Nepalese, Pakistani, Sri Lankan, Thai, and Tibetan
      • List of participating restaurants
    • Beer, sake and wine tastings
    • Panel discussions with over 30 top chefs and culinary experts
    • Cookbook Corner, where there will be cookbook signings and a variety of books available for purchase.
    • Chef-guided Bike Tour to two local farms in Queens in the morning before the main event
    • Culinary Walking Tour of Flushing
    • On-site Asian Farmer’s Market featuring Asian fruits and vegetables
    • Cooking Demos throughout the day

WHO:                   The following people are available for interviews:

• • • • Akira Back, Executive Chef, Yellowtail Restaurant and Lounge at the Bellagio
      • Bruce Cost, Asian Food Expert and Restaurant, Fresh Ginger Ginger Ale
      • Joe DiStefano, Contributing Editor, Edible Queens
      • Cathy Erway, Cookbook Author, Art of Eating In
      • Ramin Ganeshram, Sweet Hands: Island Cooking from Trinidad & Tobago
      • Eddie Huang, Chef and Owner, Baohaus
      • Chris Johnson, Sakemaster, Owner of Bao Noodles
      • Akiko Katayama, Food Writer, Judge on Iron Chef America
      • Geetika Khanna, Indian Culinary Center
      • Kian Kho Lam, Culinary Educator and Chinese Food Expert, redcook.net
      • Bun Lai, Chef and Owner of Miya’s Sushi
      • Francis Lam, Food Writer and Editor, Salon.com
      • Youngsun Lee, Chef and Culinary Educator, Institute of Culinary Education
      • Maangchi (Emily Kim), Korean Food Expert, Cooking Show Host, Top Korean Food blogger
      • Leah McLaughlin, Editor and Publisher, Edible Queens
      • Nirmala Narine, Cookbook Author, Founder of Nirmala’s Kitchen
      • Kazuko Nagao, Editor and Publisher, PECOPECO!
      • Hari Nayak, Restaurateur, Chef and Cookbook Author, Modern Indian Cooking
      • Mamie Nishide, Chef and Culinary Educator, Institute of Culinary Education
      • Ed Schoenfeld, Asian Culinary Authority and Restaurateur, Red Farm
      • Timothy Sullivan, Sakemaster, Founder of UrbanSake.com
      • Cheryl Tan, Author, A Tiger in the Kitchen
      • Jamie Tiampo, Host of EatTV.com, Partner at dell’anima and L’Artusi
      • Michael Ty, President of the American Culinary Federation
      • Jay Weinstein, Author of Ethical Gourmet, Culinary Educator at Natural Gourmet Institute
      • George Wong, Chef and Owner of Chopstix
      • Lee Anne Wong, Chef and Consultant, Top Chef
      • Andy Yang, Chef and Owner of Rhong-Tiam restaurants
      • Grace Young, Author, Stir-Frying to the Sky’s Edge

WHERE:            Sheraton LaGuardia East

135-20 39th Avenue
Flushing, NY 11354

WHEN:          Monday, September 6, 2010

• • 9:30 AM – 12:00 PM           Asian Feastival Culinary Bike “Tour du Jour”
  • 12:30-1:30 PM                   The Asian Spice Cabinet / Wok the Wok and Talk the Talk
  • 1:15 – 1:45 PM                   Opening Remarks & Keynote Speech
  • 1:45 – 2:30 PM                   Rice: The Long and Short of It / Asian Fusion Confusion
  • 3:00 – 3:45 PM                   The Next Generation of Asian American Cuisine /Deconstructing Southeast Asian Flavors
  • 4:15 – 5:00 PM                   Tastehunting Tour of Flushing / Understanding Sustainable Seafood

Panya Bakery
8 Stuyvesant Street
New York, NY 10003
(212) 777-1930

Buy an 11×14 signed high quality giclee print of this comic for $29 (plus $6.50 shipping)!

Craving some wine sorbet to cool you down?  You’re in luck, because Gourmet Guild cart, currently set up by the New York Film Academy Cafe at 51 Astor Place is offering yummy sorbets made of rose, champagne, bordeaux, as well as more traditional lemon, chocolate, and mango flavors! You can check them out on Twitter here!

Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about Japan since I’ll be going there in November and visiting my cartoonist friend Yuuko Koyama. We have been pen pals since about 1996 and have collaborated on two comics together during my previous stays in Japan. We’ll be collaborating again this year and it made me want to dig up our old comics. Once I found them I thought it would be fun to post them in anticipation of our new mini-comic!

So here is a mini we made (we drew it in one night) in 1998, arguably my first food-focused work “We Love food! / No Word  With Food“. It is partially bilingual and one half reads English style (left to right) while the Japanese reads right to left. To read it that way start from the bottom and scroll up. Yuuko did her pages as lovely pencil drawings. So talented!

You know we adore Jacques Torres here at City Sweet Tooth, so I was really excited to see that he’ll be taking part in The New York Culinary Experience this October! Imagine taking classes with Jacques, Pichet Ong, David Bouley and many more! Click below for all the details!

The experience is hosted by New York magazine culinary editor Gillian Duffy and Dorothy Cann Hamilton, CEO and Founder of The French Culinary Institute. This incredible culinary weekend includes two classes with per day, breakfast, (educational/learning) lunch sessions, and a cocktail/wine reception to close each day. New York Culinary Experience benefits The Future Chefs Scholarship Program, created to make it possible for aspiring chefs to attend The French Culinary Institute.  The cost for the entire weekend is $1,595 per ticket ($1,495 for purchases of two or more tickets).

For more information about the New York Culinary Experience or to purchase tickets, please call (646)314-4413 or visit http://nymag.com/nyce/.

WHO:    Chefs and culinary authorities slated to appear at this exclusive event include Dave Arnold (Director of Culinary Technology of The French Culinary Institute), David Bouley (Bouley), Eric Bromberg (Blue Ribbon), Marc Bromberg (Blue Ribbon), Jean Francois Bruel (Daniel), Marco Canora (Hearth, Terroir), Andrew Carmellini (Locanda Verde), Cesare Casella (Salumeria Rosi and Dean of the Italian Culinary Academy), Ariane Daguin (D’Artagnan), Gina DePalma (Babbo), Alain Ducasse (Adour), Mark Fiorentino (Daniel, Café Boulud, and DB Bistro) Alex Guarnaschelli (Butter), Shaun Hergatt (SHO Shaun Hergatt), Ben Hershberger (Per Se), Peter Hoffman (Savoy, Back Forty), Craig Hopson (Le Cirque), Michael Laiskonis (Le Bernardin), Paul Liebrandt (Corton), Anita Lo (Annisa, Rickshaw Dumpling Bar), Michael Lomonaco (Porter House New York), George Mendes (Aldea), Masaharu Morimoto (Morimoto), Marion Nestle (Author, Professor in the NYU Department of Nutrition), Nils Noren (VP, Culinary and Pastry Arts of The French Culinary Institute), Pichet Ong (Village Tart) , Zak Pelaccio (Fatty Crab, Fatty ‘Cue), Ben Pollinger (Oceana), Missy Robbins (A Voce), Maury Rubin (City Bakery), Alain Sailhac (Dean of The French Culinary Institute), Marcus Samuelsson (Aquavit), Andre Soltner (Dean of The French Culinary Institute, Former Chef/Owner of Lutece), Bill Telepan (Telepan), Jacques Torres (Dean of The French Culinary Institute, Jacques Torres Chocolate), Laurent Tourondel (BLT).

WHEN:    October 2 and 3, 2010
WHERE:     The French Culinary Institute, 462 Broadway, New York, NY 10013