Hester Street Fair » Markets of New York

Markets 2.0 Event Recap by The Experimental Gourmand

Markets of New York City Guide (photo by Kathy Blake www.TheExperimentalGourmand.com

I want to thank everybody who came to the New York Public Library’s Mid-Manhattan Branch for the event last Thursday, Markets 2.0: The Resurgence of Traditional Markets in New York City. We were hoping for a crowd of 50, and we ended up with 89 wonderful, engaged people in the audience!

The talented and dedicated food blogger Kathy Blake, aka The Experimental Gourmand, wrote an excellent, detailed summary of the event! If you couldn’t make it, Kathy’s posting will tell you everything you missed and more!

My heartfelt thank you to Robert LaValva of the New Amsterdam Market and Ron Castellano of the Hester Street Fair for their fascinating and valuable insights into their markets. Thanks as well to SuChin Pak, who could not be with us because she was called away on some exciting business that we’ll hopefully all be hearing about very soon! And a sincere thank you to Ms. Deborah Hirsch, Principal Librarian of the Mid-Manhattan Branch of the NYPL, for her kindness, thoroughness, and enthusiasm for this event!

Some Things to Amuse You While I Go Eat BonBons

Hi!

I’m taking a few late summer days off before the fall season starts. In my absence, I invite you to explore the postings on the site and read about the amazing people, places and things at the markets.

Please mark your calendar for this event next week:

Markets 2.0: The Resurgence of Traditional Markets in NYC:

Join us for this panel event at the New York Public Library Mid-Manhattan Branch featuring SuChin Pak of the Hester Street Fair and Robert LaValva of the New Amsterdam Market, moderated by yours truly. It’s going to be a fascinating look inside this wonderful movement in the city. Thursday, September 1 at 6:30 PM.

And now, here are a few things for you to amuse yourself with while I’m reading cookbooks and guidebooks on the sofa, and munching on peach ricotta crostini:

Earthquake Damage at SchoolHouse Kitchen in Brooklyn:

If you know their Anytime Spreadable Fruit, you understand the tragedy of this image.

100 Images: Markets of New York City

Featuring the people, products and events in the markets over the last year.

Saturday Afternoon at the Hester Street Fair

I love love love how this video captures the spirit of this wonderful market on the Lower East Side. Love the song too (Luckiest Guy on the Lower East Side by the Magnetic Fields) – it’s on my “River Running” playlist.

This is just the funniest dog video. Poor sweet boy.

I think 56M of the 57M views are mine.

I’ll be back soon! In the meantime, let me know what you found and ate at the Markets of New York City!

~ Karen Seiger, Author, Blogger, Market Enthusiast

Weekend Market Picks for August 20-21, 2011 And Orange Foods at the Greenmarkets

As I walked through the market this week, I noticed the beautiful, bright variations of the color orange. Here are some of the fresh and delicious products I found at the Union Square Greenmarket during the week to remind us that summer is still with us. Enjoy all of the seasonal wonders of local foods at our farmers markets throughout the city. The photo gallery features these items and farms:

Orange Carrots from Phillips Farms
Orange Tomato Soup from Central Valley Farm
Bright Zinnias from The River Garden
Sun Gold Tomatoes from Race Farm
Translucent Red Pepper Jelly from Berkshire Berries

This weekend, I’m focusing on Food and Farmers Markets! All the best trends come out of the markets, so here’s a little tidbit to think about as you stroll through the markets this weekend, nibbling on a meatball or a cake pop:: Food in the form of a ball is the new Cupcake!

Saturday and Sunday, August 20 & 21

Chelsea Market: Chelsea Market is an indoor market filled with foodie pleasures. I often have breakfast meetings here, or I’ll pop in for a cookie or a taste of chocolate. That’s the great thing about this market: you can also have brunch, lunch and dinner here, or pick up fine fresh, local, and imported ingredients for a special meal.

Saturday, August 20

Hester Street Fair: I foresee about 19 courses in a meal at the Hester Street Fair – their food lineup is fantastic, as usual. Go to this market to eat. And eat some more. Not to mention the goods, with some of New York’s most creative designers and makers all under the London plane tree canopy on Hester Street.

Smorgasburg: A frequent Market Pick, Smorgasburg is another market where you’d better be hungry to eat right then and there. Seriously tasty stuff, freshly baked, grilled, sauced, and scooped. And the Williamsburg Waterfront Greenmarket has the season’s best produce and tasty food demos.

Sunday, August 21

New Amsterdam Market: It’s the Second Annual Ice Cream Fest! Try 10 amazing artisanal ice creams! Sad to say that advance tickets are sold out, but there will be plenty to taste! This event is a benefit for the market, so come and show your support!

Fulton Stall Market: Situated across the street from New Amsterdam, the Fulton Stall Market has a much different vibe. They’re there to serve the local neighborhood and tourists with delicious food you can grab on the run, fresh produce, and also handmade crafts from members of the {NewNew} Etsy Artisan Group.

Go forth and build up a big weekend appetite! And if it’s food in the shape of a ball, snap a picture and then eat it. Mark my words – it’s a trend.

Photo of the Day – August 10, 2011: Tea by Tiffany

I am a tea lover. I’d be a tea-totaler if the French weren’t so handy with a grape. My mom used to give me sweet, warm tea in my baby bottle, which explains both my love of tea and my inability to nap as a small child.

So when I say that the cup of iced, sun-brewed English Breakfast Tea from Tea by Tiffany that I drank on Opening Day at the Dekalb Market might be the best tasting iced tea I’ve ever had, you know that I mean it was out of this world. And not just because it was 4000 degrees out and humid that day.

Tiffany’s tea was icy cold but not diluted by melting ice. The color was a lovely red/gold, and there was the perfect amount of simple syrup. The flavor was rich and traditional with no hint of the bitterness that sticks to your tongue with some teas. It was smooth, fragrant, tasty, cold, and delicious.

Tiffany serves a wide variety of teas to satisfy different cravings and preferences. Other flavors she was serving on that day at Dekalb included:

Hibiscus Romance
Golden Monkey Black Tea
Summer Breeze Green Tea with Lemon Grass and Spearmint
White Rose
Blue Moon English Breakfast with Lavender
Rooibos
Spiced Chai

Tea by Tiffany has a permanent location at the new Dekalb Market. Follow Tea by Tiffany on Facebook to keep track of what’s on her menu. I can’t wait to see what she has in store for colder weather!

Weekend Market Picks: July 9-10, 2011 + Cherries!!!

It is going to be a fantastic weekend to spend outdoors in New York City. If you are second homeless and therefore staying in town all summer, then come hang out with me at the markets. And if you are visiting New York City, definitely check out the fantastic food and buy all your souvenirs directly from New York’s finest artisans!

And stop by any Greenmarket to pick up plump, juicy cherries, like the ones in the photo from the Cheerful Cherry Farm!

Saturday & Sunday

Brooklyn Flea: I’m definitely feeling the need to visit the Brooklyn Flea, as it’s been a few weeks. Looking forward to seeing my usual favorites and checking out what’s new in food, artisans, and fleas! Saturday in the Ft. Green location and Sunday in Williamsburg.

Hell’s Kitchen Flea Market and Sunday Gourmet Food Truck Bazaar: The Hell’s Kitchen Flea Market is one of the largest and best traditional fleas in the city, and they have invited members of the {NewNew} Etsy Artisan Group to add to the variety. The first Sunday of every month, they also host the Food Truck Bazaar, featuring some of the city’s fabulous food on wheels!

Saturday

Hester Street Fair: Gotta send you to the Hester Street Fair this Saturday! In addition to the well-selected vintage, flea, and handmade sellers there, they sent out the list of featured food vendors. Appetizers, main course, main course, dessert, dessert, dessert. Take notes and let me know what you ate!

St. George Greenmarket: This is a good weekend to hop on the Staten Island Ferry and visit the St. George Greenmarket. It overlooks the harbor and the New York City skyline, and it features premier Greenmarket sellers of fresh fruits, vegetables, baked goods, seafood, and more. This borough features amazing vistas, architecture, and even wildlife – more than 117 species of birds!

Sunday

Astoria Market: Yes! The Astoria Market is back this weekend. Handmade and vintage goods at this artisan market in the Main Hall of the Bohemian Hall — you know, the one with the Beer Garden! Check out some of the very cool products you’ll find there this weekend on the Astoria Market Blog!

New Amsterdam Market: The New Amsterdam Market is back this Sunday after a July 4th hiatus. This weekend’s food market lineup includes breads, meats, mead, lobster rolls, artisanal sodas, sweets, imported tea, and many more edible luxuries.

Take pictures and let us know your favorite finds and tastiest treats! Someone is making me a cherry pie on Sunday! If you have a great recipe, please share!

Photo of the Day – Tuesday June 28, 2011: La Newyorkina

La Newyorkina is making New York City sweeter and more delicious than ever! Proprietor Fany Gerson is bringing her creative confections everywhere we want to be: the New Amsterdam Market, the Hester Street Fair, and now the new section of the High Line.

I caught up with Fany at the New Amsterdam Market recently, where her lovely friend Liam (pictured above), was giving out samples of her homemade ice cream with a Mexican influence, such as cinnamon strawberry and cajeta. Fany also created many of the donuts for Dough, one of New York’s top donut shops. I had one of Fany’s dulce de leche donut when I participated in a donut tweet-up, for which I am eternally grateful to Food Culturist, Nicole Taylor. If you haven’t tried La Newyorkina’s frozen pops, you will definitely want try all the flavors, especially the mango-chile and tamarind, as you explore the High Line.

Fany’s lovely dessert cookbook, My Sweet Mexico, was nominated for a James Beard Foundation Award this year. And her brand new book, Paletas: Authentic Recipes for Mexican Ice Pops, Aguas Frescas & Shaved Ice, was just released earlier this month. Check back here for a book review coming soon!

Weekend Market Picks for June 25-26 and It’s Strawberry Season!

We’re in the middle of Strawberry Season in our Farmers Markets! The berries are just getting plump, juicy and ripe — perfect for enjoying one delightful bite at a time, or for burying your face in to win the Messiest Eater Award at this Saturday’s Strawberry Shortcake Eating Contest at the Grand Army Plaza Greenmarket!

This weekend boasts several brilliant annual markets, including Funday in Carroll Gardens, the Makers Market in the Socrates Sculpture Garden, and the new Independent Designers Pop Up! Check out all these unique events this weekend:

Saturday & Sunday

Independent Designers Pop Shop at Chelsea Market: I just posted about this fabulous collection of clothing and accessories designers, as well as our fine friends from Australian Scent with their highly effective and wonderful smelling beauty products. The event runs through Monday evening.

Makers Market at Socrates Sculpture Park: This is the third year for this outstanding collection of over 30 makers from across the country. “Experience the convergence of design and contemporary craft in an open-air marketplace.” The Market runs Friday – Sunday.

Saturday

Grand Army Plaza Greenmarket: According to GrowNYC, strawberry season is “almost over.” Wha?!! Where have I been? The good news is that you can get your fill of strawberries at the Grand Army Plaza Greenmarket’s Strawberry Shortcake Eating Contest! It starts at 11AM, and anyone can participate if you mosey on over to the Market Information Tent a few minutes before 11. The fastest, messiest, and cleanest eaters get an award!

Hester Street Fair: Hester Street has a KILLER lineup of sellers this week – looks like 75 top notch artisan, food, and flea vendors. I love their picnic tables at the back of the market, and also the grassy space beyond the fence where you can snack on your pickles, lobsters, meatballs, macarons, pies, and so much more!

Shout out to Jersey: Not Yo Mama’s Craft Fair: Jersey City is hosting almost 100 local artisans at this third annual event! I know they put on a great show, so head over to The Morgan Lot at 107 Morgan Street on Saturday, 11am – 7pm!

Sunday

Carroll Gardens Greenmarket: The Carroll Gardens Greenmarket is a big part of the Sunday mornings in the neighborhood. Once time I visited this market on a day they were holding a grape stomping demo. You could pop off your shoes, jump inside half a barrel of grapes, and stomp away. Then you could rinse your feet off in a bucket of water. It reminded me of this. This weekend’s market doesn’t have grape stomping, but it will have 19 farm stands, so you can pick up everything you need for your table this week.

Smith Street Funday: It’s “Brooklyn’s most exotically perfect bazaar,” according to Carroll Gardens Blog Pardon Me for Asking. Local artisans, independent designers, food purveyors and more make up the eight blocks of this event. There will also be music and entertainment at 4 different venues. Stinky Bklyn sponsors the Fourth Annual Stinkfest and Cheese Eating Contest, which starts at 2:30 PM,! Who’s in?!

Have a great weekend at the markets! Let me know what treasures you find!

Photo of the Day: Saru Star Makes Dirty Jewelry

When I see dirt, I get inspired to clean it up. When Sayo Granich-Lee sees dirt, she gets inspired to make it into jewelry.

Sayo is the designer behind Saru Star. She creates fine, beautiful jewelry, which she sells online and at the markets around the city. I met her at the Hester Street Fair, and I saw her this weekend at 7th Heaven in Park Slope. Upon closer look, those pearly white stud earrings are made from acrylic denture teeth. And those earthy, mosaic-like cufflinks? Dirt.

Yes. Sayo and her little sister go around town and collect dirt. Then it goes into the studio, where it is processed, waterproofed, and set in sterling silver. And so a humble clump of city refuse is transformed into fun — and very interesting — designs.

Meet Ms. Granich-Lee in person at local events in the city, or shop for her designs on Etsy.com

It’s Fleet Week: Market Picks for May 28-29

It’s Fleet Week!

So in honor of our sailors and marines visiting the city, we New Yorkers have arranged for splendid weather and some wonderful market events. This weekend already feels like summer through and through!

Two very special events this weekend:

The Washington Square Outdoor Art Exhibit (Pictured Above): Back for its 81st year, this market was originally founded by Jackson Pollack and Willem DeKooning in 1931. Both were strapped for cash, and they brought a few paintings down to the street to sell to passers by. Today, the exhibit features fine artists and artisans from around the world, all showing their work on the sidewalks of Greenwich Village. This is an event not to be missed! It runs this weekend (Sat – Mon) and next weekend (Sat- Sun).
Better Than Jam Pop-Up Shop on Governor’s Island: While not exactly a market, this pop-up shop is an extension of Better Than Jam Co-Op in Bushwick, which features fine, fun, high quality handmade items from The {NewNew} Etsy Artisan Group, who sell at the markets all over the city. Better Than Jam is sponsoring these artisans in the Pop-Up on Governor’s Island. Grab a free ferry ride to Governor’s Island and visit this very special shop in Historic Home 6B, Nolan Park, on Governors Island. The shop opens today and runs every Friday, Saturday and Sunday through September 25.

Other picks for the weekend:

Hester Street Fair: Hester Street is hosting members of the Japanese Folk Dance Institute, who will be selling kimonos, obis, fans, cards and more to raise funds to help the people of Japan who struggle to rebuild their homes, communities and cities after the earthquake and tsunami. Our awesome friends from the Big Gay Ice Cream Truck will be there too, providing Salty Pimps and Bea Arthur in a cone to hot, hungry people. Last week the BGICT helped raise over $2000 for Doctors Without Borders with Ottavia and Anthony Bourdain. Good karma, good eats, and good fun all around this weekend!
The Market NYC/Young Designers Market in the Meatpacking District: Find the latest trends in clothing, jewelry, and accessories at this market. Its regular location is on Mulberry Street, but this weekend they will be opening up shop on 328 West 14th St. between 8th & 9th Ave. There is no doubt that you will find something to impress your friends with at this market.
Madison Square Market Eats: This food extravaganza is running every day from 11AM – 9PM through June 3rd. It is a great place to grab lunch in the shadow of the Flatiron Building. At night, it is a charming spot to grab dinner and a beer with friends under the festive twinkly lights. Check out some of my favorites, including Bar Suzette, serving delicious crepes, P&H Soda Co. for refreshing artisanal sodas, Cookie Panache (try the almond curry cookie – seriously delicious!), and NuNu for handmade chocolates and craft beer.

It is also the second weekend for Smorgasburg on Saturday, so maybe, just maybe it will be a little less crazy crowded. And show some love to the Essex Street Market, which is in peril from developers. Pick up some delicious cheeses, seafood, handmade chocolates, any kind of international ingredient, and please sign this petition!

On a personal note this Memorial Day weekend, my dad, aka Captain Marvo, enlisted in the Army at the tail end of WWII as a tender teenager. He later transferred to the Navy to attend Annapolis. At local Memorial Day celebrations, he would stand for both the Army and the Navy anthems, which is such a great memory for me and my sisters. He was as crafty as my mom, making his own fly rods and flies, brewing his own beer, and even making wine from exotic things like artichokes and watercress. No gourmand was he though. In college, I’d meet him for lunch in his biology lab, where he’d cook us up some hot dogs in a dented pan from the Salvation Army over a Bunsen burner, washed down with day-old coffee from an old thermos. Lunch never tasted better.

Have a great weekend! Don’t forget your sunblock outside and sobriety behind the wheel!

This Weekend’s Market Picks: May 14-15, 2011

Wowza! This has been one busy week for me! I’m planning to do a lot of strolling with my camera in tow on Saturday. Here’s where I’ll be:

Saturday:

9th Avenue International Food Festival: I love that they feature local shops and merchants in this street fair, and proceeds go to support neighborhood programs.
West 25th Street Flea: I owe this market some love. I’ll stop by the Antiques Garage also to say hello.

This is also the final weekend of Crafts on Columbus. I went last weekend, and the selection is beautiful and super high quality. And if you are there on Sunday, definitely also cross the street and visit the Greenflea, which is hosting the 79th Street Greenmarket while Crafts on Columbus is running. It’s asparagus season!

I am taking Sunday off to get caught up on all the wonderful market things I want to write about, and to make the Plum Crumb Cake from Beth’s Farm Kitchen’s new cookbook, Cooking with Jams and Chutneys. Book review and photos coming next week! I also need to rest up for the following weekend, which is LOADED with fantastic market events!! I’ll give you lots of advance notice so that you can map out your market excursions.

Note: Beloved Gus’s Pickles is making their triumphant return to the Lower East Side this Saturday at the Hester Street Fair. It’s kind of a big deal.

And thank you to the Meeker Avenue Flea for being open for us 7 days a week! My friend needed a kitchen table urgently, and she found the perfect one here!

Happy Marketing!