Choice Eats 2011

On a last minute whim, A-Tooch scooped up her press pass 1.5 hours into the event and decided to drop into The Village Voice’s 4th Annual Choice Eats. Smartest choice made in a VERY long time.

I’ve been to my fair share of foodie events in NYC where a bunch of local known and unknown spots whip up bite sized treats for guests. They’re almost always fun, but there’s never any consistency in quality of restaurants, quantity of food and, well, pleasantness of guests. Behold — Choice Eats! How did I not know about this in the past? It is awesome. It’s nice to see a foodie event that really embraces the “other boroughs,” because some of the tastiest cuisine I’ve eaten has been outside of Manhattan and it’s time to recognize.

Banh Mi from Nicky’s

This year’s event was held at the 69th Regiment Armory — an awesome venue in itself. The space is on the National Register of Historic Places and still plays host to events (including good ol’ St. Patrick’s Day), if you’re lucky enough to get in there. Strangely, thanks to a former coworker/British Army man, I’ve been here before.

Entering Choice Eats is pleasantly overwhelming. Food places everywhere and frenetic people bumping into each other. The irony was — I went stag — and you never would have noticed me stuffing my face by my lonesome

I picked up food from the first table I walked past, which turned out to be a good plan because it was a Sloppy Joe on a potato roll from Black Shack Burger. Delicious, tender meat, tangy BBQ sauce and entirely too much sandwich for just my first course. Moving on…

One of my favorite spots was Patacon Pisao — a former Velezuelan food truck turned-storefront that was serving the most flavorful and delicious food I tasted all night. They didn’t skimp either — offering chicken, pork and veg-friendly mozzarella cachapas. The icing on the cake? A moist piece of tres leches cake for dessert.

All of the East Village favorites plus some new ones were at Choice Eats, too — Caracas Arepa Bar, This Little Piggy Had Roast Beef and Luke’s Lobster. Instead of their famous lobster rolls, Luke’s was serving up a shrimp roll I guess it makes sense, considering the hundred$ of people they were feeding, but a girl’s gotta hope, right?

And what event is complete without our favorite — cupcakes? I bypassed all of the other dessert vendors to get to Kumquat Cupcakery. Decadent little things! Sadly, I missed the chocolate bacon cupcakes but the new cherry port was delish.

…and I didn’t even get to talking about all of the beer and liquor sponsors at the event…