Film and Food: In Search of Israeli Cuisine

The most impactful journey of my recent travels was meandering through Cuba in 2016 just as the country started opening up it’s doors to mass US travel. The Havana Film Festival New York’s closing film, Cuban Food Stories, touches a nerve and floods back many of those memories. The director, Asori Soto, calls it “a road-trip adventure all around the island to discover the most authentic flavors and stories behind the Cuban cuisine.” With access to remote parts of this culturally rich island nation, Asori goes beyond the cliches, Ropa Viejo and cigars to show us the kind of Cuba Cubans know. Beyond this film, there’s a whole incredible week of programming. In collaboration with Havana’s International Festival of New Latin American Cinema, Havana Film Festival New York showcases Cuba, Latin American,Caribbean and Latino creators and their films in a light that makes for a multi-cultural experience for the Latino culture and more importantly, beyond. In other words, if you like film, this is for you. If you like food and film, closing night is on order. April 6th-17th in NYC. Cuban Food Stories is April 17th at 6:30PM in NYC

Foodstand is debuting their Food Book & Film Club which is exciting to begin with. They decided to debut with one of our an old friends and frequent collaborators, Ben Flanner, making this event doubly exciting. The Brooklyn Farmer follows the story of The Brooklyn Grange and their mission to create an urban farm network across New York City. Besides the screening their will be some networking, a Q+A and, of course, food and drink. We’re looking forward to this and FoodStands continued series. Monday, April 25 @ 6:00 PM in Brooklyn

This post is a bit different from our usual events. It’s not only near and dear to our hearts and ‘hood BUT it’s an event, inside a game, inside a TV show, LIVE. Mouthful right? Mouth of seafood, if you back Ben’s Hunt for Dr. Klaw. TV project. Those of you who don’t remember the Underground Lobster Pound or Ben’s Hook, Line and Dinner – Read up. He does a fantastic job explaining the project and how to get involved over on Kickstarter. Check it out and join in the salt water adventure. See you on the Periscope show.

Is it just me, or is watching foodie films and TV shows part pleasure, part torture? All those drool-worthy dishes trapped behind a screen with nonstop chatter about their prep, taste, and texture is enough food foreplay to make a person go crazy with desire. It’s all talk, no action, and I’ll be honest, in my case, it’s led to more than one unnecessary takeout order that I’ve been less than proud of the morning after. But, this month, the NYC Food Film Fest’s going to let us taste what we see with a four-day roster of indie food films paired with their starring cast of culinary characters. Tickets include movie showings, after-party access, and, of course, scrumptious sustenance served up by some of the world’s best chefs. So go forth and fill up on film-inspired food to your belly’s content. Try not and get used to this perfect pairing. Uber Eats has yet to partner with Bourdain’s Parts Unknown to deliver Vietnamese noodles to your door. October 20 – 23 in NYC.