A couple of weeks ago I attended Parked, the food truck festival on Governor’s Island. I went into it thinking it would be similar to Meatopia, meaning there would be long lines, but plenty of beer to make it better, and a big payoff with amazing food. I gathered a group and got there right when it opened.

Well, the lines were already ridiculously long, snaking across each other so you had to ask several people to make sure you were in the correct line. We employed the divide and conquer tactic, but many of us had to wait for over 2 hours in the hot sun. By the time we all gathered with our food, we were exhausted, dehydrated, and the food tasted like crap. What did I really expect, right? Truck food. But this was supposed to be good and special truck food! I would not recommend this food festival for next year. For the money we ended up spending, it was not worth it. They didn’t even have hand washing stations - how can you have port-a-potties without hand washing stations at an event where people are CONSUMING FOOD??? Good riddance. I will seek out my favorite truck vendors when I want them, thankyouverymuch.

But not to be a complete Debbie Downer, because there were a couple of redeeming vendors that came out of this. #1 is Van Leeuwen, of course. #2 is Robicelli’s. They were tucked away with a table between two truck vendors. They had no line! Because they had nothing to cook - everything was ready! So without these, I would most definitely have passed out while waiting in line for the rest of the day. I must say, they saved my life. I was lucky enough to consume an entire Chocolate Caramel Pretzel cupcake and part of a Chicken n’ Waffles! These are some of the most original cupcakes I’ve ever had. These people are serious about their cupcakes! Their flavors change all the time. Follow them on tumblr to keep up with their flavors, and to find out where you can find them. I can’t wait to sample some of their new offerings like Caramel Apple - perfect for fall, paired with a beer at Cakeshop.

Cupcakes from Robicelli’s at Parked: Chicken n’ Waffles, The Maltz (bacon and bourbon), Chocolate Caramel Pretzel, Peach Cobbler, and Funky Monkey (banana and peanut butter)

In August, I found myself in Michigan. I had been told by family and friends (who have lived or currently live in Michigan) to make sure to try to visit Zingerman’s Deli in Ann Arbor. So, a few hours before having to return the rental car and fly out of Detroit airport back to New York, we made a pit stop in Ann Arbor for lunch. It was so amazing that later in the week I dreamed that I was working at Zingerman’s.

It’s a good thing that we had to wait in line for almost 20 minutes, because it took that long to pick out what we wanted from the vast menu. And, hey, we’re New Yorkers now. We’re used to waiting in line for good things.

We ended up ordering the #13 Sherman’s Sure Choice - corned beef, swiss cheese, coleslaw and Russian dressing on rye bread. It was recommended to us by one of the employees, and we felt that we should probably try the corned beef, which was Zingerman’s first sandwich, and has withstood the test of time of 28 years, and so we figured it must be good.

We were not disappointed. It was absolutely amazing. I’ve never really cared for corned beef, and because of this sandwich I now crave it all the time. Be prepared for many more entries to come detailing corned beef adventures in New York, trying to find a sandwich equal to the caliber of Zingerman’s.

It also came with pickles - again, I’m not normally a pickle fan - but these were amazing and made me think about making my own pickles. One was an older, garlicky pickle, and the other was a brand new, still-tastes-like-a-cucumber pickle. So satisfying.

The best thing about Zingerman’s is that they take their ingredients very seriously. If we didn’t have to get on a plane that afternoon, we would have been buying multiple loaves of bread and hunks of cheese. It’s more than a deli. It’s like a miniature deli empire - they’ve even expanded into a coffee shop in a house next door to the deli. They cater. They ship! And it’s all built on the best high-quality ingredients. I definitely recommend you make the trip if you can, or if you attend University of Michigan, you lucky bastard - eat here all the time!

Corned beef at Zingerman’s Deli in Ann Arbor, MI

A couple of weekends ago I attended Meatopia, an outdoor meat festival on Governor’s Island. My friends and I showed up a couple of hours after its start, and what we found was long lines for the different booths of meat. Some were already out of food! So we rallied. With our hands and mouths occupied by plastic cups full of SixPoint Sweet Action, we split up into various lines of food. The result was out of 30 food vendors, we sampled about 7 different kinds of meat. Towards the end of the day, the vendors stopped stamping tickets at the booth, so we probably ended up with a little more food than we paid for (a $45 ticket included 6 samplings). The pinnacle of the day was finally getting our hands on our last sample - and the last remaining booth - where one of our friends had been standing in line for over an hour by the time we joined him, and probably up to two hours by the time we got to the front of the line. Big raindrops started to fall as we grabbed our sandwiches of “Montreal Smoked Meat,” slathered with mustard and piled high with thick pastrami-like slices of meat. We took shelter at a wet picnic table under a large umbrella, chowing down as we watched the rain fall while the sun shone brightly on the now-empty landscape of the festival.

So the moral of this story is: Go early, or go with a group. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have gotten our money’s worth. Hopefully next year there will be more vendors involved, or a better system for serving up the meat, but I will definitely be attending again! Oh, and beer solves just about everything :)

Not pictured:

SixPoint Sweet Action

Suenos Restaurant’s Smoked Duck Tacos

High Plains Bison

Pulled Pork Shoulder w/ pickle slice soaked in Kool-Aid (amazing!) from I don’t remember where

Chipotle tacos (it was free and we were hungry, but it was the worst thing we ate all day)

Ice cream from The Bent Spoon (yummy chocolate, and a fruity kind)

Abe & Arthur’s Country-Style Pork Ribs w/ Tomatillo Salsa

Definitely deserved the pork win.

Honey-Glazed Baby Back Ribs with Thai Basil & Mint from The Hurricane Club

Montreal Smoked Meat from Mile End

Jeffrey Steingarten going to town on a hunk of meat (he was one of the judges)

surawesome:

Butter Poached Narragansett Bay Monkfish, Brandade Canneloni, English Peas, Yellow Tomato Conserve, Rosemary Olive Oil

Fancy!

To think that monkfish used to be considered a “trash” fish. Also known as “poor man’s lobster.”