1st Annual Choice Eats Food Fair

The East Village's historic Puck Building was recent host to the 1st Annual Choice Eats Food Fair, a selection of 35+ restaurants hand-selected from the five boroughs by Village Voice food critic and ethnic cuisine adventurer Robert Sietsma. Sprawling through two large ballrooms, vendors set up booths and hawked their exotic wares, while attendees were kept well-lubricated and peckish via passed cocktails and local artisan brews and wines. A few major snafus on the planning side occurred, primarily, an over-booked space, intense crowding and an eventual shortage of food. Cafe Drake and foodie pals Jorge, Dorothy, Susan and Kenna found plenty to eat however, and waddled out the grand lobby doors stuffed to the gills and in need of further cocktails only. See a few photos above from the uber-event and a couple from after-party drinks graciously hosted at Jorge's Williamsburg pad.

Standout offerings included: Chiyono's (www.chiyono.com) pickled lotus root salad, Deshi Biryani's (www.deshibiryani.com) fragrant and sweet namesake rice dish and tiny chat pooris, house-cured pastrami with super hot mustard courtesy of Williamsburg's Fette Sau, impossibly creamy and rich hummos, tender pita and fava bean stew from Hummos Place (www.hummusplace.com), greens, fruited couscous and goat cheese fritters dished out at La Maison du Couscous (www.lamaisonducouscous.com), NY's first South African restaurant Madiba's (www.madibarestaurant.com) gooey vanilla corncake, Mercadito's (www.mercaditony.com) tiny shrimp tacos, intense jerk chicken perfectly prepared by Peppa's, lentils and Ethiopian beef stew from Queen of Sheba (www.shebanyc.com) and superb rice pancakes with all the trimmings spooned up graciously at Tiffin Wallah (www.tiffinwallah.us).

Among the few disappointments: leaden pot stickers at Vanessa's Dumpling House, bland Greek drudge from Philoxenia, lukewarm franks at Schnitzel Haus and underwhelming Barbadan fare a la Bajan Cafe. The true dog of the night was also Bajan - Culpepper's dry mac-and-cheese, too salty fried rice and gag-inducing roll-ups of oily, grimey fish.