Over the weekend, Caryn (thoughts in italics) and I were invited to theDealist’s Taste of the Village. We love food festivals, so this event was right up our alley.
Taste of the Village was a ticketed event that allowed patrons to try 5 restaurants in the East Village on May 1 and 2. TheDealist provided a map, so we created our own little route of which spots we wanted to hit up first and picked out those that would be best kept for leftovers. We had visited some of the restaurants on this list before at a similar food festival, Taste of 7th Street, but we were excited to give these restaurants another try.
Here are some of the hits and misses from our visit to theDealist’s event:
- S’MAC: We went to SMAC first, just because it closed the earliest. We loved our sample of mac
and cheese – it wasn’t overly creamy and I loved as you put your spoon into the sample, you’d see the stringy bits of cheese. The sample size was fairly good – a small cup filled of mac and cheese. One of our correspondents has raved about this place before, so I was glad I had a chance to try it. I’m not the biggest mac and cheese fan, so I was happy that we were able to try the original vs some of the more unique combos (although the buffalo mac and cheese sounds outstanding). I thought it was excellent, definitely the right size for this kind of event, and my favorite part was how the top layer of the cheese was crispy; a nice contrast to the creaminess in the rest of the dish. - Luke’s Lobster: I have never been a fan of this place before – until Sunday. I absolutely loved my half of a lobster roll on Sunday. I don’t know what it was, but it was my highlight of the whole tour. While in the past I hated snacking on cold lobster in a warm roll, I think the combination on a hot May afternoon was very refreshing. I love lobster rolls and I like my lobster salad cold, so the temperature differences were never an issue for me. But I have to agree that when we tried it during the Taste of 7th Street event, I was underwhelmed. This time was quite different (I don’t know what made it special this time around) and I raved about it afterward to my roommate. I will definitely go back now.
- XOOM Juice: As VIP, Caryn and I were treated to XOOM smoothies again and could choose anything off the menu. I went with the Smashing Strawberry and found this to be much sweeter than the Blackberry Smoothie I had last time – mostly because this smoothie had an apple juice base. It wasn’t much different than something I’d make at home, but the fact that I didn’t have to clean the blender made it much better. Agreed that not having to clean a blender makes the smoothie so much more enjoyable. That is one of my least favorite things to do in life. I tried the raspberry smoothie, like Laura’s but raspberries instead of strawberries, and I loved it. I thought it was much better than last time’s because it wasn’t as thick and was definitely sweeter.
- La Lucha: This was supposed to be Led Zeppole, but it got cancelled due to a flood in the
basement. La Lucha was a great replacement though. I had a chicken taco, and it was delicious. While Caryn feared the cilantro, I enjoyed it as well as the onions and green salsa on our table. I’ve never been out west to experience California tacos, but I’d like to think this is what everyone is talking about whey they claim California has the best tacos. I thought they were very good, but I’m doubtful that these are what Californians rave about, and if so, then it’s not worth a plane trip to try them. Don’t get me wrong, they were quite good, but with the way people talk about Cali tacos…well let’s just say that when I try them, they better be the best damn thing I ever tasted. I had the pulled pork taco and would opt for the spicy chicken next time since my pork was a little dry. All in all though, it was delicious. - Baoguette: We were able to get a 3/4 Bahn Mi, or a sandwich, and I went with the sloppy Bao. Mine was spicy (perfect amount of spice), but the sandwich really didn’t do anything for me. In fact, I threw out the other half. I couldn’t even give the sandwich away to anyone in my apartment – no one wanted it (ok, maybe it is because they just ordered sandwiches, but still). I was really impressed with how much they gave us, it was huge! I also got the sloppy Bao (which I think is an awful name. When you say it, it almost sounds like “sloppy bowel” and that’s just not appetizing) and loved it. My favorite part was the matchstick pieces of mango which worked perfectly with the spicy meat.
- Dessert Club / Chikalicious: Here we were given a cupcake (choice of chocolate and red velvet) and 1 Signature Macaroon (salted caramel and rose). Honestly, this was a waste to me. My red velvet cupcake was falling apart when I got home and I had put it in the fridge (I like cupcakes from the fridge). I didn’t find the cupcake to be that moist. As for the macaroon, I took one bite, felt like it wasn’t worth the calories, and spit it in the trash. If I kept eating it, it was only because it was free. I agree that I wasn’t overly impressed. The red velvet cupcake was good, not great, and I didn’t like the macaroon much…funny thing is, I also spit it out because I didn’t think it was worth it. This coming from the girl who just ate her way through the East Village. Whatever. I much preferred Butterlane Bakery which we had with the Taste of 7th Street.
