Queens Taste 2016 Is The Worlds Fair of Food!

Queens has a rich history of multi cultural foods offered all throughout the borough, and has been long considered the go to place for great, cheap ethnic eats!  You can literally travel all over the culinary world within a few block radius in many parts of Queens.  So it would only make sense that Queens taste 2016 would be the most diverse food experience of the year.  And it definitely did not disappoint!

We tried everything from burgers to bakeries, fusions like Carribbean-Chinese and Eurosoul, and drinks to match.  Held at the New York Hall of Science, this was the perfect venue to sample the best of Queens, and below are some of our favorites!

Right from the start we had to check out the heavy hitters like F. Ottomaneli’s amazing bacon cheese burger, with the bacon and cheese mixed in the patty, served on a mini potato roll.  This perfect bite was so full of flavor, we had to go back for seconds…a few times!

Bareburger, also known for their unique burger meat selections, brought their A game with a beer braised “pulled bacon” slider served on a grilled pretzel roll with stout onions and spicy mustard.  The chewy roll really soaked up the bacon juices, and easily took our vote for best sandwich of the night!

And sticking with the Bacon theme (why not?) The Astor Room  at Kaufman Astoria Studios, served up some great candied bacon, the ultimate “Salty Sweet” treat!  Paired with their own libation, the “Astor Sundowner” with Galliano, lemon and orange juice, ginger and brandy, it was the best compliment cutting through that fatty slab of smokey pork.

Alobar was serving up some savory pan fried pierogies with a scallion dijonaise.  Crunchy and creamy at the same time, our tastebuds were having a party with this twist on a classic bite!

Zenon Taverna offered up a few delicious bites with poached octopus, hummus in a fill cup and grilled Cypriot Halloumi cheese on pita.  With deep Greek roots in Queens, this tasting really captured the essence of this event and the restaurant.  Of course we had to go back for seconds!

Thai Rock from Rockaway Beach brought their signature Thai crepe dumpling filled with turnip and peanut, which was light, simple and full of flavor.  A definite winner if you are beach bound this summer.

Onto the sweeter side of Queens Taste we tried classic cakes, sweet cookies, paleo mousse and something called a “buckle tart” (similar to a crumble, but creamier!).  The Rose House Tea Room from Flushing brought their delicate crepe layer cakes and beautiful china plates.

8-Bit Bakeshop brought their A-game and comic book inspired cookies with playful designs pleasing to the eyes…and bellies.

There were also bundt cakes from NYC Bundts   Really tasty coconut and chocolate chip mini bundt cakes which were crumble moist on the inside and a crunchy ring on the outside.

So what did we wash down all this amazing food with?  We tried some local wines from Brooklyn Winery and hometown beer OG Brooklyn Brewery.  Good to see they let some Kings County commoners in to join in the fun.  Astoria Distillery was mixing up their twist on a Tom Collins with some fresh raspberry puree, lemon juice with their own gin.  The gin on its own was fragrant of juniper and smooth going down.

But probably the biggest hit of the night was brought by Shake Shack with their Abita Root Beer Float!   Mixing this sweet, hard root beer with their creamy vanilla ice cream brought out the kid in all of us.

By the end of the night we had our fill of Queens food and drink, without having to leave room.  With all of these different offerings of cultural food under one roof, it really was representative of the worlds fair held there back in 1964.  And now we have even more reasons to go back to explore all of the delicious foods that Queens has to offer!