The Edible Winter Warm Up was the first event for new magazine Edible Queens. Hosted by Long Island City’s LHaus residences, the event blended local Queens food with prime real estate in a way I never dreamed possible.
Rather than drone on how the event was also an open house for Lhaus’ luxury units, lets just get down to the nitty gritty shall we?
This event was about three things:
1. local Queens restaurants, cafes, and food artisans
2. The Queens Food Scene panel discussion
3. Book signing for Astoria based writers Tamara Reynolds and Zora O’Neill, authors of Forking Fantastic! Putting the Party Back in Dinner Party.
Tamara Reynolds of Forking Fantastic!
A dozen or so vendors had tasting portions available, but I’ll just mention a few.
Soon to be opening cafe/wine bar/market, LIC Market offered up a tangy tapenade and crostini. It was my first bite of the day and it proved to be the best.
Manducatis Rustica served up bites of tasty escarole pie and their Rustica puff with coffee cream. While the puff pastry itself wasn’t that memorable, the subtle coffee cream shined through.
Rustica Puff with Coffee Cream
Escarole Pie
Bareburger provided little cups of thick peanut butter and vanilla milkshakes using only organic ingredients. But dear God....please tone down the peanut butter. It was like getting a beat down from Mr. Peanut himself!
Gisella Civale of Dolce Nonna spoke to me about her marinated and pickled appetizers. She proudly practices her grandmother’s heirloom canning recipes and is exceedingly passionate about her Italian food heritage. I asked what her best seller was, and she said the eggplant, string beans and peppers were selling equally well and there is no front runner at the moment.
Dolce Nonna's jars of peppers, string beans, and eggplant
The panel discussion really wasn’t a discussion, as it was a semi-rambling hour long list of better and best foodie locations in Queens.
The panel featured:
Joe DiStefano: (Panel moderator) Food writer and Edible Queens blogger
Josh Ozersky: former Restaurant Editor for Citysearch and Editor of The Feedbag
Lee Ann Wong: Former Top Chef Contestant, producer and Astoria, Queens resident
David Cook: New York Times food writer and Eating in Translation blogger
Zora O’Neill: Co-author of Forking Fantastic, food and travel writer and Astoria, Queens resident.
From the discussion, I got the names of glorious hole-in-the-wall joints serving the best Egyptian kabab, Pork Souvlaki, and Halal Merguez in Queens. Thankfully, I’m not vegetarian.
The key takeaway from the discussion is that Queens has an authenticity and flavor all its own with restaurants offering ethnic home cooking from all over the world.
And in case you were wondering about those Lhaus residential units....I took the complimentary tour.
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