Washing down a big bite of food with a comparable gulp of wine has long been a top pastime of the whole FT Crew. So much so that we’ve come to know the difference between a 2 Buck Chuck and a grape grown in Montalcino. Although they both have a place in our wine cellar (read closet), learning more never hurts. The Brooklyn Wine Fest does this learning thing in the non-snooty, approachable, fun kind of way. I guess you’d expect this from a Brooklyn born wine festival but the legacy of stodgy wine makers is still a hard ship to turn. The organizers have broken these stalwarts down and curated a producers list that will make everyone punchdrunk happy. In addition to the 50+ wineries repping their grape juice there’s some on point food to help coat that belly. Heavy hitters like the Mac Truck, Luke’s Lobster and the Brooklyn Oyster Party, just to name a few, will help you savor every wine wheel tagged sip. Time management alert, the day is broken up into two sessions. (12-4 and 5:30-9) Our advice is, BIG brunch, go early, pace yourself, no spitting and stay until the sun is gone. You’ll be fine. Enjoy yourself and stop by Dandelion Wines post fest to try your new knowledge out. Lily and team will be waiting to help. Saturday, October 28th from 12-9:30 in Brooklyn.

Bitten is a conference, an event series, a pop up video series and a food story blog. All things we LOVE. Their “big show” takes place in a few weeks in NYC. It’s line up boasts some up and coming names in the food game. The likes of fellow supper club runner, Brian Bordainick (Dinner Lab) will be in the house along with Kimberly Chou (Food Book Fair) and heavy hitters like Dana Cowin, best known for her two decades as Editor-in-Chief of Food & Wine Magazine. Coupled with all this food talk is a conversation on how it touches everything from high fashion to pop culture to insects lives. Think intellectual foodies soapboxing and waxing poetic in the best way possible. Friday, October 27th 8:30 – 4:30

In it’s 11th year the Food Film Festival never disappoints us. It’s not just because we get to eat and watch at the same time but because the films are always stellar both in story and production value. The idea that food pairs with movies just warms our hearts in way that only an ex-Dinema Supperclub runner could love the Food Porn Party, sorta just like it sounds. October 19th-22nd in NYC.

You may think that here at FTHQ, we’re partial to utensils of the four-pronged variety, but we generally appreciate any and all cutlery that helps us deliver food into our perpetually hungry mouths. Although we’ve been known to nearly jump up-and-down in excitement about all kinds of eating instruments — knives, salad tongs, corn-on-the-cob holders, you name it — it’s been a while since tableware has gotten us as excited as these 100% edible and biodegradable utensils from Bakeys. With funding from a successful Kickstarter campaign, and an aim to provide a viable alternative to the billions of plastic utensils thrown into landfills every year, Bakeys has it covered when it comes to usability and sustainability. Turns out sorghum, an environmentally-friendly crop you may have never heard of, seems to be the magic ingredient. Not only does sorghum allow Bakeys to produce 100 edible spoons with the same energy required to make a single plastic one, it also prevents the utensils from degrading in liquids — a particularly important fact for the environmentally-conscious ice cream enthusiasts among us.

There’s no doubt we live in a rosé world right now. If you have no idea what that means you’re either blinded by the latest micro, small batch, Queens brewery release OR you’ve been in more 12 step meetings than IG rabbit holes (Which we highly applaud). The reality is we’ve gone pink crazy thanks to some brilliant marketing by Yes Way Rosé, the White Girl boys, Pinknic, Summer Water and now Forty Ounce Wines. No doubt the ‘share-ability” appeal breaks the FOMO meter but does any of this tinted hooch actually taste good? Enter Patrick Cappiello, Food + Wine’s sommelier of the year and his idea to make young peeps more excited about wine by putting it into a 40oz bottle. Add in a St. Ides-Classic Muscadet mashup design by Carolyn Frisch and you have your next viral IG double like. Patrick, as we discovered, does back his bottle with flavor as one would expect from a dude who’s wine knowledge is his bread and butter. Although, this isn’t his first maverick wine move. He also hosts this crazy supperclub style dinner at Rebelle Restaurant that uses the wine focus of the night to create the menu. Sometimes it’s a region that leads the dinner, sometimes a grape and sometimes a specific vinyard. Either way, they are as renegade as their namesake and let’s just say, you’re not driving home. Back to the palatability of this Billy Dee Williams throwback with deep french roots, the wine maker Patrick and his partner, Chris Desor, worked with was actually responsible for the whole thing. Had the two not been on a wine trip visiting Julien Braud, a classic producer in Muscadet, and discovered he used 40oz style bottles to store his grape juice, there wouldn’t be a Forty Ounce Wines. (Full interview here.) Which is to say this fruity vino tastes as good as it #hashtags. Backed by some big restaurants and their somms, Patrick’s goal of making wine more accessibly was deemed a success when the first run sold out immediately. You can grab a bottle in person at these spots or, if in NYC, word is Marc Forgione, in the village, is pouring by the glass. If stocking up for a rosé draught is your game, smash the link below for online delivery.

For 7 years now, The Jamaican Jerk Festival has brought together some of the best in island music and food. In a time where music/food festivals seem to hop the bullet train to corporate run monsters, this little indie festival guarantees true local flavor. Even though the title sponsor is one of the largest producers of West Indian food products, you can’t rattle the “real” out of the 5 borough Caribbean community. This year will be the biggest, best and booyakasha of all years with Barrington Levy anchoring the vibes and a quarter mile of jerk stands to spice up the day. Appropriately hosted by our new home borough in Roy Wilkins Park, take the E train to Jamaica center and then get cozy up on the Q5 bus. We promise a Sunday adventure in sound, culinary and transit. Sunday, July 23rd from 12-8pm in Queens, NY.

For years hydroponics has carried a stigma associated with your sophomore roommate’s
cannabis closet experiment. On the contrary, hydroponics have been in play with far more practical benefits for some time. Ever have a juicy, red tomato in January? Yeah, that’s most likely the hydroponics. The Monsanto issues aside, Futurefarms Spacepot Hydroponic Grow System brings the benefits of nutrient rich water growing science to your kitchen countertop. The beautiful, sleek system boasts the ability for a simple three step path to delicious, hearty plants in just 5 weeks. The crew is a collaboration of scientists, creators and makers in California who are on a mission to bring hydroponics into our homes to improve our well-being and lifestyle. In our case that’s perpetuating the Italian-American stereotype with fresh basil all winter long. And hey, your college roommate might actually get another swing at the bat this time as a culinary herb dealer.

The whole SingleCut Brewery had me on the eyes with their label design but the Jenny Said IIPA got me on the lips. With all the hoppy hop hopness out there these days it was a pleasure to get some stronge floral and fruit bits for balance. We’re not real beer snobs here so enough with the tasting note commentary. Simple truth is, it’s an easy to drink IPA out of a dope graphic can. Plus, these guys hold up in Astoria Queens and you know we’re crushing on #QNS hard these days. Consider your Memorial Day started.

We’ve been drooling over Dennis Prescott’s IG for the last few years. He has this knack of making everything look so perfectly crisp and juicy that we theoretically lose our minds and literally salivate. That pavlovian response has now been chronicled in a 125 recipe book, Eat Delicious, that reveals not only the food. Dennis also reveals his photography approach, technique and gear in achieving the ultimate in food porn perfection. Although he calls himself a chef first and photographer a close second we might be so mesmerized with his images to even take a bite. In a recent interview he said, “My passion is cooking and photographing large, feast-style scenes that highlight the community table.” That gets us right in the soul. Hey Dennis, any time you want to shoot one of our feasts, open invite buddy. If you’re not already a long time @dennistheprescott follower here’s your moment to jump in both digitally and with a printed home version you can drool all over in private.

Today’s post comes on the heels of two commingled happenings. First, My Head of Culinary is trouncing about in Parma checking out brown cows and pig legs. Second, The Food Book Fair kicks off it’s 2017 edition. So, a book on Italian Street Food is more than appropriate. If any of you have spent any time in Italy, as Paola, the author of this guide to goodness, has, you know getting a bad meal is tough anywhere on the boot. But, the culinary road less traveled lies in the nooks and crannies that are street food. A rice ball, a porchetta sandwich or a panini from a stand or off the beaten path vendor with a tiny hole in the wall (literally sometimes) shop are the true diamonds in the rough of this food gem country. Paola Bacchia was born Australian but has always looked to Italy as her Italian migrant parents made it impossible not to. Her book chronicles the recipes of these undiscovered street classics in a way that only an enamored 1st generation non-Italain can. If this book redlines your drool factor, Paola hosts a cooking school in Melbourne, Australia and annual workshops at the Anna Tasca Lanza Cooking School in Sicily where you can taste some of the beauty this book reveals.

Ever since the discontinuance of the Turkey Leg Ball I haven’t had a convo with The Infatuation that didn’t start or end with, “When are you bringing back events?” When EEEEEATSCON was announced I had a mini imaginary umami party to rejoice, then I realized it was in LA. Not to worry because tons of you live there and they now make a thing called an airplane. The non-food festival promises, in true Infatuation prose, to be everything you want and none of the stuff you don’t. What that literally means is a mash-up of speaker series, band stage and food hall all inside a retro airplane hanger. More detailed programming was recently announced starting with the inventor of the “celeb chef”, Shep Gorden” talks with Stang (Infatuation co-founder). The Knocks play a set while the food pavilion rages with the likes of Badmaash, Mr. Holmes Bakehouse and chi SPACCA to name just a few of the mouth-watering lineup. May 20th from 12am-9pm in Los Angeles.

Do you have an amazing vegetarian mother-in-law like me? Perfect. This card is one of our favs. Spotted in Dépanneur Brooklyn last year we held onto this gem until the high holiday of mother’s rolled back around. Drop this I Eat My Vegetables Card atop a basket of hand picked, farmers market fruits and veggies and you’ve got yourself a Mother’s Day mic drop.

We love everything about the Food Book Fair. It makes it virtually impossible to capture the tasty in a paragraph. That’s why each year we choose one break out component and chew on that. This year, Literary Speed Dating. Description unnecessary but since you asked, the 90’s speed dating phenom mashed up with a mix of heavy hitting literary agents. We’re talking editors and publishers from Phaidon, Clarkson Potter, Abrams Books and ICM Partners++. Attention artists, There’s even an illustration publisher at the table. Mix it with a couple dozen authors-to-be and you might just have a cake. No not really, but a book on cake for sure. It should go without saying, seats are limited. If you want in on the book Bumble grab a spot fast. See you in the Dewey Decimal Catalog. What? They stopped using that you say? Friday, May 12th from 2 – 4pm in NYC.

If you know us, you know burgers are something of a perfected item in our purview. When we discovered the Burgabox we danced a ground meat jig and hollered to the burger gods. We’ve written about box concepts in the past. We love the idea that our on-demand world can now summon boxes of quality food to our door from a few swipes of a smartphone. The thing Chuck and his cofounders at Boston Burger Company didn’t like was how healthy the contents of most box delivery companies tended to be. Having made their way into the restaurant biz with 28 over the top burger concepts, they thought dropping the ingredients into a box so people, not in Boston, their home turf, could try their amazing product was genius. We agree. We we’re so intrigued that this ex-postal worker, ex-real estate guy and ex-bartender started a phenom restaurant dynasty we dug deeper. Read the burger names and tell me you don’t want to hop an Amtrak to Cambridge this afternoon. Some of our stand out favs, WHISKEY TANGO FOXTROT, KILLER BEE and VERMONSTER. That last one is offered in box form and boasts sautéed apples & red onion, bacon, maple mayo, sharp cheddar on top of an 8oz patty. In the box you get two or four burgers (depending on the pkg you choose) along with 2lb Pulled pork mac & cheese, 1lb Chili wedge fries, 1lb Chili wedge fries, 8oz side of Boston baked beans and 8oz side of homemade cole slaw. In case math isn’t your strong suit, that’s 6lbs of food goodness ding donging on your front stoop. We’ve already ordered two subscriptions just in time for the grill season kick off.

We first wrote about Chitra Agrawal when we discovered her Brooklyn Delhi products. Since then she’s been up to a lot more than just jarring delicious pickled things from India. Her latest edition to your Indian food education comes in book form with Vibrant India. South Indian cooking is not the Indian dishes that commonly pop to mind for us Americans. Having a South Indian mother-in-law has schooled me on these flavorful and light regional tastes. Chitra draws from her mother’s cooking bringing Bangalore all the way to Brooklyn where she adds her own twists to these vegetarian classics. I’ve often proclaimed, “I could go full vegetarian.” after eating at my in-laws for a weekend. As a pretty serious carnivore, that says a lot about her book and the deliciousness potential. Point is, there’s something for everyone in this book. Vegan, vegetarians, paleo or carnivore the flavors and simplicity will swoon you. We promise.

Now that we’re officially moving to Queens, there’s nothing we love more than a celebration of all things Brooklyn. Held in the new epicenter of Brooklyn making culture (Industry City), the eight-hour Best of Brooklyn Festival is a roundup of everything from craft beer to artisanal food to indie music to the best of Brooklyn product makers. That last one might not be true but the festival organizers tout “in-the-know finds”. We interpreted that as “stuff”. Tickets run you 30 bucks without upgrades. Early entry, a book and after party perks drive ‘em up to $125. Depending on how thick your beard or how colorful your jumper will determine what the necessary spend will be for you. No matter what your choice, ALL the BK bests will be in one giant, industrial, hard to get to space. Make the trip, the line-up will not disappoint.