Eat Cetera: Luckyrice, Algonquin Hotel Flashback, Food Film Fest
3 photos
<p>The impending <a href="http://www.luckyrice.com/festival">Luckyrice Festival</a> is an 11-day celebration of Asian food and culinary culture, featuring some of the most talented chefs in town. Events include a "conversation" between chefs David Chang and <a href="http://gothamist.com/2008/11/10/eric_ripert_chef.php">Eric Ripert</a> on Buddhist ethics and food; a dumpling-making workshop with chef <a href="http://gothamist.com/2008/05/12/chef_anita_lo_b.php">Anita Lo</a>; an afternoon tea and dessert pairing hosted by chef <a href="http://gothamist.com/2009/03/20/pong_and_batch_close_batch_20_alrea.php">Pichet Ong</a>; and a "specially-designed (and priced)" Pan-Asian <a href="http://www.luckyrice.com/festival/restaurantweek">restaurant and bar week</a> (May 3rd-9th), featuring tasting menus at participating restaurants selected by the <a href="http://www.luckyrice.com">Luckyrice Culinary Council</a>.</p><p></p> The festivities commence Thursday night at the Bowery Hotel's open-air second floor lounge, where $50 gets you three hours of drinks inspired by Asian drinking traditions and curated by Albert Trummer, who runs the Chinatown "speakeasy" Apothéke. And on Friday night chef Chang and others to host Night Market in the <a href="http://gothamist.com/2009/04/20/manhattan_bridge_archway_reopened.php">Manhattan Bridge Archway</a> in DUMBO, featuring Malaysian hawker foods that draw upon the cuisine's Chinese, Malay and Indian influences. Individual tickets to Night Market are sold out, but you can still get in with the purchase of a <a href="http://www.luckyrice.com/festival/passport">Luckyrice Festival Passport</a>.
The Algonquin Hotel, famous for serving as the legendary hangout of various witty writers during the interwar period (and where The New Yorker was born, as the story goes), still functions as a welcome oasis after all these years, especially for those brave souls fortifying themselves for a foray into the theater district. The owners recently spent $4.5 million on a renovation, which included a face-lift to the lobby-level Round Table Room, where dinner and lunch are served daily in a big, relaxed space strewn with rugs, eccentrically mismatched furniture, and antique tables containing little drawers for stashing notebooks filled with all your cutting bon mots.For the next few weeks the Round Table Room is embracing its atavistic tendencies by serving a special menu from the recently re-printed cookbook Specialities de la Maison, which was originally published in the 1940s and features a diverse collection of recipes from Hollywood and Broadway celebrities, socialites, noteworthy writers, from Katharine Hepburn and Christian Dior to Eleanor Roosevelt and Charlie Chaplin. It's a charming idea, and reasonably priced, with the lunch prix-fixe menu costing $22 and the dinner menu $29. For reservations call 1-866-363-9011. April 26, 2010- May 2tAppetizer: Maine Fish Balls by Robert E. Sherwood (Page 50)tEntrée: Smithfield Ham by Conde Nast (Page 69)tDessert: Crepes Susette by Mrs. William Randolph Hearst (Page 110)May 3, 2010- May 9tAppetizer: Lentil Soup by Miss Norma Shearer (Page 29)tEntrée: - Steak Eros by Mrs. Vincent Astor (Page 61)tDessert: Pan Cakes by Miss Helen Hayes (Page 109)May 10, 2010-May 16tAppetizer: Sandwich Filling by Miss Anne Morgan (Page 24)t(Finger Sandwich, on white bread, no crust, 6 per appetizer plate)tEntrée: Chicken Burgundy Style by Miss Katharine Hepburn (Page 71)tDessert : Sponge Cake by Mrs. Ian McEwan
Page 103<p>The 27 films selected for the 2010 <a href="http://www.nycfoodfilmfestival.com">NYC Food Film Festival</a> have been announced, and <a href="http://www.nycfoodfilmfestival.com/films.html">the offerings</a> range from full-length documentaries like <em>Beer Wars</em> ("An amazing journey into the heart of corporate beer and the small independent brewers it leaves in its wake.") to shorts like the three minute <em>Night Market Taipei</em> ("Pig's Blood Popsicle anyone? This portrait of the night market in Taipei is inspirational."). Running from Wednesday, June 23rd to Sunday, June 27th, the fourth annual festival features mostly outdoor screenings in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens, with the main headquarters at Water Taxi Beach in Long Island City. Many of the films are paired with the food that the films focus on, so that if you're watching a film about oysters, you'll be eating oysters. Don't miss the Pig's Blood Popsicle screening!</p><p></p>This year the festival will also be presenting what's dubbed as "<a href="http://www.nycfoodfilmfestival.com/tickets.html">The Worldâs First Food Truck Drive-In Movie</a>, where the food trucks drive in and the crowd arrives on foot. A caravan of the regionâs best food trucks will assemble in Brooklyn, under the Brooklyn Bridge, offering authentic artisan fare from Waffles and Ice Cream to Pupusas and Cheeseburgers. Attendees can sample from this vast array of treats, and watch food films that celebrate the food truck tradition." The good news is it's free; the bad news is that tickets are already gone! But don't throw yourself under the <a href="http://gothamist.com/2010/04/23/citing_terrorist_threat_cops_make_s.php">Schnitzel Truck</a> yetâthe festival is "working to acquire additional space," and anyone interested should sign up for the NYC Food Film Festival e-mail list (http://tiny.cc/upjbs) to receive ticket updates.