Foodieodicals at the Food Book Fair

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.

We’ve been talking a lot about tomatoes this month on the socials. The Killer Tomato Festival takes all that juicy, sweet talk and packs it up with an impressive chef line up and a musical act seemingly named for this convergence of nightshade lovers, G.Love and Special Sauce. By impressive we mean 33 local chefs and 4 visiting chefs all making tomato based dishes for you to taste. The food is backed by 20 mixologists from Atlanta’s best bars keeping this whole party well lubricated. The best part of the entire angry tomato theme is that in partnership with Georgia Organics, who’s mission is to connect organic food from Georgia farms to Georgia families, they are helping locals eat better at home instead of just in restaurants. The king pin on the vine for all this is Chef Ford Fry who, besides his Atlanta restaurant dynasty tearing up top 10 lists for years, he has the distinction of Esquire magazine’s Best New Restaurant of the Year. Not shabby on the kitchen chops we’d say. If you’re thirsty for some ‘matos and you’re local or visiting Atlanta, this might be your Sunday move. Sunday, July 15th from 1:00 to 5:00 P.M in Atlanta.

Eat to help kids. That sounds like a win win right? With Bouley, Bubby’s, Duane Park Patisserie, Gigino Trattoria, The Odeon, Tribeca Grill, and Walker’s on the docket the decision to attend really isn’t that tough. Taste of Tribeca was founded 20+ years ago to benefit PS 150 and PS 234 and has expanded since then to benefit even more kids. If you’ve ever wanted to feel like a neighbor in the triangle below canal, this event is the perfect way to feel comfortable, full of tasty and help kids get smart. Saturday, May 21 in NYC from 11:30 AM to 3:00 PM.

It’s hard to imagine what Essex Street looked like 76 years ago given the modern, melange of current architecture, boutiques and posh players drapping the concrete beat. The gold pineapple doesn’t help this reverie. I’m not sure this matters much except the fact that there is some history to this party. 76 years to be precise. The Essex Street Market is celebrating its 76 years with a true neighborhood throwdown. The whole ‘hoods in on it. Ice & Vice are even dropping a specialty flavor. If you are the historic type, Turnstile Tours has you covered. Just don’t get all tenement hood on us. Saturday, May 21 from 12:00 PM to 5:00 PM in NYC