4th Annual NYC Food Film Festival

The Fourth Annual NYC Food Film Festival started today, and tickets are still available for some events. Attendees will be able to sample food from around the world while receiving a "heaping helping of mouth-watering films."

A can't miss would be tomorrow night's event with Chef Brad Farmerie's Southeast Asian Street Food Market. The Kiwi (New Zealander) chef is known for preparing innovative dishes in his popular downtown spot Public. I've been there a few times and have always left satisfied.

Here's the festival's schedule:

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Chef Mario Batali's World Cup Recipes

With the World Cup games underway, soccer/football fans everywhere are gathering in groups to watch their favorite team vie for the trophy.

If you are planning on hosting a World Cup party over the next few days, ESPN added a fun feature on their website to help you out. The feature has Chef Mario Batali sharing recipes of each participating countries' signature dish and cocktail.

For example, Team Brazil fans can enjoy sipping caiprinhas while supporters of Team Spain can chow down on some homemade paella. And for those loyal Yankee fans, Chef Batali gives you a mean hamburger recipe to be washed down with a killer martini. Enjoy!

To access Chef Mario Batali's World Cup recipes, click here.

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Amateur Cooking Hour: Poulet Au Paprika

Perhaps it's because I'm an amateur in all things food, but it took a couple of tries to cook the rather simple French dish, Poulet Au Paprika or Paprika Chicken. The recipe I followed came from Phaidon's I Know How To Cook, and it called for a 2 1/4 lb. chicken, butter, stock, crème fraiche and paprika.

My troubles started when I couldn’t find a chicken that was exactly 2 ¼ lbs., and I assumed that the slightly heavier poultry I purchased would need to be accompanied by more of each ingredient. So, I estimated how much more butter to include, which inadvertently led to estimating how much more stock, crème fraiche and paprika to add.

After an hour of cooking the chicken in the oven, I quickly combined the leftover stock with the remaining ingredients to make the sauce. In five minutes, the meal was served.

The result was soggy chicken drenched in a thin, white sauce. And the sauce itself tasted like stock bothered with the sourness from crème fraiche. If it weren’t for my dislike of wasting food, I would have thrown the whole thing away.

Now, there were two things learned from this experience. The first is do not estimate the measurements for ingredients, especially for a dish that you never tried cooking. The second is patience. In this case, the chicken needed to sit on the pan and brown before putting it in the oven for an hour. The sauce needed time to boil and thicken, even if it meant adding an extra 30 minutes or more to the overall cooking time.

Last Sunday, I gave cooking Poulet Au Paprika another try. This time around, I stuck with the measurements and patiently waited for the chicken skin to brown to a slight crisp and the stock to truly merge with the crème fraiche and paprika.

The end product was exactly what I expected it to be the first time around: tender chicken coated in a butter cream sauce. The sauce itself reflected the mild, smoky flavor of paprika. Delicious.

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The 5th Annual Taste of Long Island City

The 5th Annual Taste of Long Island City will take place next Tuesday evening at Gantry Plaza State Park. Aside from enjoying perhaps the best view of Manhattan's skyline, attendees will have the opportunity to sample Long Island City’s burgeoning culinary scene.

Tickets to enter begin at $50 per person, and all proceeds go to The Chocolate Factory Theater, a center that provides year-round theater, dance, music and visual arts programming.

While Long Island City food has a long way to go to catch up with its Astoria and Brooklyn counterparts, there are a few stars worth noting. Tuk Tuk (an inexpensive and creative Thai restaurant), Communitea (which offers some of the best herbal tea combinations) and Blend (a funky and tasty Cuban restaurant) are participating and should be sampled while there.

To purchase tickets for Taste of Long Island City, click here.

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A Tour of How The Whole Roasted Pig Is Served Around the World

The whole roasted pig is a favorite among many, and, for most cultures, is usually served during big celebrations. Some pigs are small enough to be prepared in an oven (suckling pigs are usually slaughtered when they’re 2-6 weeks old), but you’ll receive the best result cooking it in an open fire or pit. And while I find it hard to pick my favorite part to eat, the rear and the crunchy skin are must haves.

Here’s a quick round up of my thoughts on pig worth trying:

Testaccio Ristorante in Long Island City, New York serves all-you-can-eat roast suckling pig—or Porchetta Arrosto—every Thursday. The Roman restaurant displays the whole pig on a table, and Executive Chef Ivan Beacco carves the pieces for you himself. It’s served with a variety of side dishes including lima beans, spinach and potatoes. While they compliment the pig just fine, I suggest you skip them, save yourself some room and focus on the main attraction.

Roast pig prepared for a Hawaiian luau is perhaps the most exciting process to watch. Here, the pig is covered with banana leaves and steamed in an underground pit—or imu—for hours. Digging up the pig usually requires a team of people, but the result is some of the tenderest pork you will ever have. It is rare for someone outside of Hawaii to attempt to cook pig this way. This isn’t surprising, since volcanic stones, guava wood, and banana leaves can be difficult to find if you’re not living on a tropical island.

Travel to Spain and order ochinillo asado (roast suckling pig) at the world’s oldest restaurant, Restaurante Botín. This dish has been the restaurant’s specialty since 1725. The pig is served simply; it’s dressed in its own juices and accompanied with two small pieces of potatoes. Wash down the food with the restaurant’s full and tangy red sangria.

But my favorite is the Filipino’s style of roasted pig or, as we call it, Lechón. Lechón is usually served during all major holidays and festivities. Usually, the pig is dipped in a thick, liver based sauce, which is appropriately called lechón sauce. I’ve lived in New York for almost nine years, and I still haven’t found a place that serves good, Filipino lechón. If you know of any, please let me know. I’ll be sure to try it out.

Porchetta Arrosto at Testaccio Ristorante

Ochinillo Asado at Restaurante Botín

Lechón

More links:

Lechón Baboy

The Foodista on Testaccio Ristorante

Essortment: How to Roast a Pig (for a Hawaiian luau)

Best Madrid Restaurants (Restaurante Botin)

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El Mercado de San Miguel

If you’re ever wandering through the narrow streets of Madrid and stumble upon a structure with glass walls and an iron and wood roof, you’ve come across el Mercado de San Miguel. The marketplace, originally built in the early 1900’s, was reopened in May 2009 after private investors decided to return the building to its glory. The result? A bustling venue that houses the best Spanish food and ingredients.

During the day, its vendors sell their most beautiful produce, jamon (ham), cheese and pastries. But I liked to go during the evenings, when I could grab a glass of Rioja wine and wander from one stall to another, ordering tapas made from the freshest ingredients.

When you do make your way to Madrid and el Mercado de San Miguel, have a plate of Iberico ham, a glass of champagne with raw oysters, bacalao on bread or gambas al ajillo (shrimp with garlic).

Whatever you choose to eat, give yourself a few hours to spend at el Mercado de San Miguel. You will not be disappointed.

Queso (Spanish cheese)

Gambas al ajillo (garlic shrimp)

Jamón ibérico (Iberico ham)

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Making My Best Beef

I recently attended Chef Sabrina Sexton’s “Best of Beef” course at the Institute of Culinary Education. I am shamelessly carnivorous, and cooking quality pieces of steak is something that I have wanted to learn for a long time.

The recipe I took home from the class is the filet of beef with shallots and ruby port wine. I recreated the meal at home, and found the dish to be shockingly simple to make. The number of ingredients used is minimal. I only needed ruby port wine, olive oil, rosemary, shallots, veal stock and butter.

My main takeaway from this experience? Don’t be afraid to splurge on a good bottle of ruby port wine. It makes the sauce so much richer and sweeter.

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