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Hottest NYC Food Trucks at New Yorker Festival

I love me a delish snackie from a food truck - even better when said food truck is dishing up some of the best street food to be found.

The best of the best will be serving up fantastic new menu items during the New Yorker Festival. a little something for everyone.

Here's what to expect when you see the trucks roll up:

• Rickshaw Dumpling: Peking Duck dumplings – Hudson Valley duck with Hoisin dipping sauce, five spice cabbage and scallions
• ·Schnitzel & Things: The New Yorker sandwich - chicken schnitzel with lettuce, tomato and a spicy sriracha mayo on a Ciabatta b
• Wafels & Dinges: S’mores Wafel – waffle with marshmallow fluff and Belgian chocolate fu
• Bistro: Chicken Pastilla – a Moroccan pastry special
• NYC Cravings: Porken - a combination of chicken and pork chop over rice with minced pork sauce
• Van Leeuwen: Pumpkin ice cre

HSBC partnered with the six local food trucks to bring foods from around to world to this year's festival.

What's for dinner: goat cheese stuffed chicken breasts

This is such an easy and delicious chicken recipe from epicurious.com. 

One of the 636 reviews called it a "go to" recipe and we can see why. I served it with a baby arugula and spinach salad and butternut squash risotto.

Heavenly.

Breakfast epiphany: fresh fruit-filled pancakes recipe

The last few days have been cooler and kinder. 

After the searing heat of August and early September, it's finally nice to sit outside on the patio again.  To celebrate the more temperate days, we decided to have breakfast out doors where we could enjoy soft golden sun and the winds whispering through the still green oaks and maples.

We did a quick early morning shop for fresh fruits and berries to make pancakes with maple syrup.  I'd seen a photograph recently of some really gorgeous pancakes, a sliver of carmelized banana running through the perfectly browned orb and I had to make some of my own. Sometimes a photograph inspires me as much as the recipe or the market.

I wanted blueberries but there were none organic, so I settled for peaches and bananas, with raspberries for garnish.

What I love about this breakfast is how astonishingly easy it is to prepare and how absolutely beautiful it looks and tastes. You don't need to be an expert at anything here.

Organic fruit-filled pancakes

yields approximately 6 pancakes

3/4 cup multi-grain pancake mix

1/2 cup vanilla soy milk

1/4 cup unsweetened coconut milk

2 tablespoons canola oil

1 banana, halved & sliced length-wise into thirds

1/2 peach, peeled & sliced into thin quarters

1/4 cup raspberries, washed & drainec

warmed or room temperature maple syrup

room temperature butter

In a medium-size prep bowl, mix together with a whisk the pancake mix, soy milk and coconut mix. Beat batter until just smooth and free of lumps. While preparing the fruits, allow batter sit for about 5 minutes. 

In a skillet, heat the canola oil to medium heat, being careful to avoid smoking the oil.

Ladle about a quarter cup of batter into the center of the skillet. Arrange banana and peaches in a pleasing pattern and cook fruit side up until air bubbles show in the surface of the pancake. 

Carefully flip the pancake over, fruit side down, to carmelize the fruits.  Continue cooking until golden, about 2-3 minutes.

Serve warm with maple syrup and butter. Garnish with raspberries.

Iron Chef Bobby Flay Turkey Reuben Sandwich recipe

The other day my son politely announced his school lunches sucked.

Was it the baby carrots? I rely heavily on baby carrots. They're so cute and so good for you!

Although he could do with fewer baby carrots, thank you, it was the same old, same old that was bringing him down.

My son, who has a pretty wide palate, was bored. Boring lunches are easy, but

brown bag lunches don't have to be boring.

With some help from chef restaurateur Bobby Flay, you can pack a lunch that your kid's friends will fight over.

Chef Flay, who's been associated with Hellmann's for three years, uses the mayonnaise to create flavor and interest in his signature sandwiches.

“I use Hellman’s to build layers of flavor. I love Hellman’s because it’s real simple food made from three ingredients – eggs, oil and vinegar.  I use it as a building block to create lots of flavor,” said Flay.

Flay spoke with me recently to mark the relaunch of Hellmann’s virtual Sandwich Swap ‘n’ Share on  Facebook.  Through its Facebook game, Hellmann’s is donating  $75,000 to Share Our Strength to stop childhood hunger. 

If you visit the site, you’ll see all kinds of ingredient choices, fillings and spreads to help you think about creating a sandwich and you'll get to support a great cause.

Flay's favorite sandwich is turkey and daughter, Sophie, loves his Turkey Reuben recipe.

"I love leftover turkey. For the holidays I’ll make a turkey for Thanksgiving and one for  the leftovers," Flay said.  "I take room temperature  turkey leftovers, make a cranberry mayonnaise.  It makes a fantastic next day sandwich."

Bobby Flay's Turkey Reuben

Prep Time: 15 minutes Cook Time: 10 minutes

1/2 cup Hellmann's® or Best Foods® Real Mayonnaise, divided

1/4 cup finely chopped dill pickle

2 Tbsp. ketchup

1 Tbsp. red wine vinegar

2 tsp. Dijon mustard

2 cups coleslaw mix

8 slices rye bread

8 slices Swiss cheese

1 lb. sliced cooked turkey

Combine 1/4 cup Hellmann's® or Best Foods® Real Mayonnaise, pickle, ketchup, vinegar and mustard with wire whisk in medium bowl. Season, if desired, with salt and pepper. Stir in coleslaw mix; set aside.

Top 4 bread slices with cheese, turkey, coleslaw mixture, then remaining bread slice.

Evenly spread outside of sandwiches with remaining 1/4 cup Mayonnaise.

Cook sandwiches, in batches, in 12-inch nonstick skillet over medium heat, turning once, 8 minutes or until golden brown.

And the winner is... Oklahoma City's Big Truck Tacos. We still love you dearly OnlyBurger.

Waiting with everyone else to find out who's got the best #foodtruck. Durham's OnlyBurger was #1 on the leaderboard but only #FoodNetwork knows for sure. Watch tonight on The Great Food Truck Race Sunday, September 19 9p/8c

You are what you Eataly: Batali & Bastianich slow food mecca

Fifty-thousand square feet of food heaven could be the best way to describe the latest addition to NY's already vast foodcentric culture.

Located in the Flatiron district, Eataly, (200 Fifth Avenue, NY, NY 10003, 646.398.5100) the ambitious Italian slow food emporium opened three weeks ago. 

Plans include a 300-seat partially covered rooftop biergarten to open in November as well as a cooking school headed by master chef Lidia Bastianich. 

Choose from more than a dozen restaurants and food stalls for meals and takeaway and shop for everything from housewares to provisions and wines - even a vegetable butcher

Eataly New York is the project of chef Mario Batali and restaurateur and vineyard owner Joe Bastianich,

Eater has the Early Word on the Eataly experience.

You are what you Eataly: Batali and Bastianich slow food mecca

Fifty-thousand square feet of food heaven could be the best way to describe the latest addition to NY's already vast foodcentric culture.

Located in the Flatiron district, Eataly, (200 Fifth Avenue, NY, NY 10003, 646.398.5100) the ambitious Italian slow food emporium opened three weeks ago. 

Plans include a 300-seat partially covered rooftop biergarten to open in November as well as a cooking school headed by master chef Lidia Bastianich. 

Choose from more than a dozen restaurants and food stalls for meals and takeaway and shop for everything from housewares to provisions and wines - even a vegetable butcher

Eataly New York is the project of chef Mario Batali and restaurateur and vineyard owner Joe Bastianich,

Eater has the Early Word on the Eataly experience.

Fresh from the Market Laurent Tourondel's new cookbook

Only the French could make a soft-boiled egg elegant and simple at once. Chef Laurent Tourondel's Oeuf Coque with Chive-Tarragon Mouillette does just that.

This is but one reason to love Chef Tourondel's new cookbook, with Charlotte March, Fresh from the Market (Wiley, September 2010, $35, 328 pp). 

There are a multitude of other reasons, most notably 167 seasonal, fresh food recipes with accompanying sensuous images from food photographer Quentin Bacon. Concise informational head notes and thoughtfully constructed, easy-to-follow recipes make this cookbook a pleasure to read and use.

Organized by the seasons, the cookbook includes wine and beer pairings, seasonality charts, profiles of local purveyors, and menus for typical special occasions - Easter, New Year's, Christmas, etc.  Particularly useful are the charts listing available seasonal produce.

Chef Tourondel's recipes rely on seasonal ingredients and are informed by his childhood in central France as well as a stellar, globetrotting career which began with a four year program at Saint Vincent Ecole de Cuisine in Montlucon, France.

 Named best new chef in 1998 by Food & Wine magazine and restaurateur of the year by Bon Appétit magazine in 2007, he created the popular BLT Restaurants (Bistro Laurent Tourondel) which integrate "haute French sensibilities into the hearty constituents of American cuisine."

 Chef Tourondel has worked at Relais & Châteaux's La Maison Troisgros in France and at Cello in New York City. He is also the author of two other cookbooks, Bistro Laurent Tourondel and Go Fish. 

Oeuf Coque with Chive-Tarragon Mouillette

serves 6

Special equipment

Six egg cups

Chive-tarragon cream

1/4 cup crème fraiche

1/4 cup roughly chopped fresh

2 tablespoons chopped fresh tarragon

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Mouillette

6 slices country bread

Soft-cooked eggs

1 tablespoon white vinegar

6 large farm fresh eggs

pinch of freshly grated nutmeg

Make the chive-tarragon cream

Combine the crème fraiche, chives, and tarragon in a small food processor fitted with a metal blade and process until green. Make sure not to overprocess or the crème fraiche will turn into butter. Season the chive-tarragon cream with salt and pepper.

Make the mouillette

Toast the bread and spread with the chive-tarragon cream, reserving six teaspoons of the cream to spoon into the eggs.

Cook the eggs

Fill a medium saucepan three-fourths full of water. Add the vinegar and a pinch of salt and bring to a boil. Using a large slotted spoon, place the eggs gently into the boiling water and cook for three minutes.  Remove the eggs from the water and place each of them in an egg cup with the oval tip facing up.

To serve

Briskly tap the top of the egg with the edge of a small metal spoon until it cracks. Remove the cracked top with the spoon. Sprinkle the nutmeg over the eggs and spoon one teaspoon of the chive-tarragon cream over each egg. Cut the mouillette into one-inch strips. Serve hot with an espresso spoon to scoop the egg out of the shell.

The French Laundry offers BMW concierge service

Yountville, CA  – Chef Thomas Keller today announced a partnership with BMW of North America, creating a concierge service at his acclaimed restaurant, The French Laundry, featuring the BMW ActiveHybrid 7. 

The partnership announcement was made from the BMW Championship at Cog Hill Golf & Country Club in Lemont, IL.  Chef Keller was a guest at the tournament, played yesterday in the BMW Championship Pro-Am Tournament, which pairs 70 of the world’s top professional golfers with amateurs.

To celebrate partnership, Keller crafted a seasonal, BMW-inspired recipe for The French Laundry dinner menu the evening of the announcement. The dish is Four Story Hill Farm Apple Fed Pork Loin with Bratwurst, Braised Red Cabbage, Apple Dumplings and Grain Mustard Sauce.

Keller and his staff were inspired by BMW’s Bavarian roots and wanted to create a delicious dish reminiscent of the foods from this area.

 “As a BMW owner for more than 32 years, I’ve always appreciated the brand’s attention to precision and detail because my very first vehicle was a BMW 320i,” said Keller.  “At The French Laundry, we’re always seeking out ways to heighten our guests’ experience."

The new BMW concierge service at The French Laundry will be offered to restaurant guests on a limited basis as available.

“The number one hobby and interest of BMW customers is fine dining, which makes a partnership with Thomas Keller and The French Laundry a natural fit,” said Tom Kowaleski, Vice President Corporate Communications, BMW of North America.