The First Annual NYC Honey Festival - An Afternoon in Rockaway

So I pick up my most recent edition of Edible Queens and I see an ad for the First Annual New York City Honey Festival on September 17th.  What fun!  I love honey and it would be awesome to spend the day at Rockaway Beach and taste local honey.

I think a lot of people had the same idea we did.  We showed up at about 2:30pm and the place had almost run out of honey already.  Sad, but we did each get a small jar of local honey before the supplies were depleted.  We checked out the vendors which included the likes of NY Bee Keeping advocates and local farmers.  There was a pickle vendor (Horman's Best Pickles), a HOT honey vendor (Mike's Hot Honey), two honey based craft beers (Six Point Brewery) and screen print your own bee hive t-shirts.  There was also a tasting/ranking of your favorite honeys.

We ate at Ode to the Elephant (Thai food) and AND Coffee (the BEST Hot Chocolate I've had out in a while, though they were out of marshmallows) both located in the Rockaway Beach Club (aka the NY State Park pavilion on the boardwalk).

The weather was perfect, the location was beautiful, the festival was educational and fun but the only thing missing was Stella, my sister's pup.  She would have had a blast with all the sand, surf and bees.

These hard workers didn't stop to wave to the crowds.

NY State has approved bee keeping the the boroughs -
roof tops of Brooklyn, here they come!

This poor little guys just didn't want to let go!

Honey Extraction - scrapping the wax from the comb to
get that beautiful golden liquid from its caves

The difference between a dark, amber looking honey (late season)
and a pale, golden honey (mid summer).  You can see the light color
on the top of the light wood and the dark combs in the metal racks.

No rest for these busy bees...haha...get it?

A Cuppa and a Scone - Irish Style

When you think of the Greek Fair, do you immediately want a hot dog? Not usually. When you are at NYC's San Gennaro Festival, do you desire Zeppolis and Sausage and Peppers? Yes!

Last weekend was the Great Irish Faire of New York at Coney Island. This means two things to me...Coney Island - Nathan's Hot Dogs and Irish Faire - Guinness!

Nathan's was not a problem and definitely a great choice (I actually had a corn dog, but I'm a sucker for their sweet meaty taste on a stick!). The wait was about 1/2 hour, as expected, and as always, it was worth it. I think it might actually be sacrilegious to not go to Nathan's if you are in Coney Island.

The surprise came from the Irish Faire...the GREAT Irish Faire...the GREAT (no Guinness or other Irish Stout) Faire. There was Harps and Hard Cider, but it's not Guinness. What did I get? A cup of tea and bit of Irish Soda Bread. Can I tell you...It was all amazing! I have tea every day, but this was tea, with a soda bread scone made lovingly by the fine AOH (Ancient Order of Hibernians) surrounded by the Celtic tunes emanating from the stage made it the perfect Cuppa and the "Irish" experience I was looking for.

What is my point? I think that there is something to the concept that Italian food tastes better in Italy. Food is a function of so many of our senses. When setting up a restaurant, there is a lot of planning that goes into the design and layout. One of the most important parts of that is atmosphere. What do you want the feel of your restaurant to be? Where to you want people to imagine they are? Do you want people to remember they are in a strip mall surrounded by a dollar store and a bagel shop, or do you want people to think they are in the ivy covered terrace of a bistro on the French Riviera? The reason for this is the simple fact that the chef is the same, the ingredients are the same but still, food served in the atmosphere of it's origin creates a whole experience making the food, in a sense, taste better!

In trying to make everyday a little journey into culinary exploration, I think that the weekend helped me to truly understand this concept. Coney Island is the place for a Hot Dog and an Irish Faire has the best Cup of Tea and Soda Bread I've tasted.