Veritasty: Truthfully Delicious

Show of hands, who eats food from street vendors??  If you live in New York City, chances are you do, early and often.  This past weekend, we went to Governor's Island for their last fete of the summer, celebrating food trucks and vendors in our area - The 8th Annual Vendy Awards.  Judges, members of the press, and regular New Yorkers gathered to sample the offerings of a diverse collection of finalists and vote for the ultimate winners in each category of food vendor.  Again, we were blessed with beautiful weather that buoyed high spirits as we ate our way across the field of contenders. Our first bite was from Phil's Steaks, a truck that specializes in Philadelphia cheese steaks.  I've never had a real Philly cheese steak, having never been to Philly, so I don't really know what to base my opinion on.  That being said, Phil's cheese steak was delicious and a great way to whet my appetite.  A warm mound of chopped steak, smothered in ...

I like pig.  Do you like pig? Pig Island is coming up, which means Veritasty is about to hit its first birthday !   Pig Island is an annual outdoor food extravaganza on Governor's Island.  It features pig, and lots of it: locally farm-raised pigs prepared in a vast variety of ways by local restauranteurs.  There is an emphasis on cooking all parts of the animal, snout to tail.  I've recently been watching Bizarre Foods and No Reservations, so I've seen just how many ways you can prepare a given animal, and just how many parts are edible.  Even the funny bits that Westerners might never consider palatable can be delicacies in other places (I am a big fan of chicken feet, oxtails, pig stomach, and tripe, for starters). But let's bring it back to the pig.  It's a creature unfortunately seen as "unclean" by practitioners of some religions.  I was embarrassed to tell my Orthodox Jewish boss that I was going to Pig Island, but she admitted that...

Who would have known that one of my friends from junior high school has become a burgeoning foodie and to-be medical student after almost 10 years of acquaintance. I invited Arthur Zak to be our guest blogger for our post on Cook Out NYC. Check him out at his Yelp page, too! ARTHUR IS A REALLY FUNNY GUY ! ------------------------------------------------------- STK's Slider Arthur Zak, of Yelp fame (not really) here. “Hey Arthur, want to go with me to Cookout NYC at Governor’s Island next week?” I says, Sure, Sandra, I says! Little did I know it would be hotter than Satan’s colon that day. However, I am a man of my word, so armed with press passes, I, Sandra, and two other friends strolled through the Cook Out NYC gates. The venue space thankfully wasn’t too large or too crowded; I was worried about this after hearing about the atrocity known as The Great GoogaMooga.  Luckily, we were able to walk around without bumping into the sweaty shoulders of beer-dr...

Governors Island in the summertime is a great treasure of New York City.  It is situated right between Manhattan and Brooklyn and accessible by free ferries from those two boroughs.  Only open to the public in the summer, it offers bike rentals (free on Friday afternoons!) for its visitors to zip around the waterfront.  It is an oasis of greenery, cute colonial buildings, and art installations.  Also during the summer, Governors Island is the host of many food-related events so obviously we made sure we were on the first boat over there. This weekend was the 5 Boro PicNYC (haha so clever!) on Governors Island.  The event is held in a wide open grassy lawn. Different food vendors from around the city have tented booths and distribute free food.  Because it is a pic-NYC, people plopped down on picnyc benches and picnyc blankets to enjoy their little plates of food and beer while enjoying the sun and listening to live music.  Alex and I had a ton of ...