Taste of Jewish Culture

I don't know what it's like in other cities, but one of the ways you know it's summer in New York is an endless barrage of street fairs. Avenues and streets closed one or both days of the weekend with many of the same vendors showing up week after week. Some are different like the Ninth Avenue International Food Festival which has a lot of local vendors, and sometimes there's just something special in the middle of a regular fair, like today's Taste of Jewish Culture put on by The Workmen's Circle.

We were really excited about the vendor list as there were some great places lined up, and one place we knew we wanted to stop was Taim. We keep meaning to bike down to one of the shops, now that the truck doesn't stop by us anymore, but haven't found time this summer. Their truck was at the first corner we got to, so we immediately ordered a falafel sandwich to share.

Their special today was harissa falafel. I had never tried it before, but A had it once before. The harissa falafel is a little zestier and a little spicier than the regular green falafel, but just as delicious. We got it with everything, so they loaded on the vegetable toppings and the s'rug. We don't remember there being any pickles or amba (chutney sauce) though.

After taking a break in a public atrium with our falafel sandwich, we headed back out to the fair and checked out the other food options. The most interesting one was from Shelsky's, a Brooklyn smoked fish and appetizing shop. They were serving stuffed latke boats topped with your choice of either chopped liver or smoked whitefish salad. They both sounded delicious.

We opted for the potato latke topped with smoked whitefish salad and sriracha. This was so good, and we quickly wished we had opted for the 2 stuffed latke boat deal (saving $1) so we could have tried the other variation. The latke had soft creamy potato inside and the fried exterior was just crispy. The whitefish salad was fantastic, and it's clear why Shelsky's is known for their fish. The salad wasn't fishy at all. It just delivered great smoked fish flavor mixed with some vegetables like celery. The bit of sriracha on top gave it a good bit of tangy spice. This was a really delicious treat.

Instead of going back for another latke boat, we stopped by Baz, which has a restaurant located in the Little Italy area. They opened earlier this year and we were excited to try the food since the sample plates on the table looked good.

We opted for the sampler of bagel bites so we could try as much as possible. Each sampler came with three mini bagel halves (it looked like plain, poppy and pumpernickel), and they were topped with nova and onion, cream cheese and cucumber, and egg salad and tomato. The bagels were pretty good, a little chewy, and the toppings were tasty. Our favorite was the nova, followed by cream cheese, and finally the egg salad. It was a little pricey though, for 3 mini bagel halves (much like their regular restaurant menu).

One great part of the fair was that, while we ate our tasty lunch treats, they had performances from various musical groups on stage. The music was fun. 

Overall, our visit to the cultural fair was good. We were hoping to get a bialy but they weren't selling them solo, only in packs of 6. That was disappointing. We didn't go to the food fair to shop for food, just to eat lunch. But we had some really tasty treats, especially our favorite falafel sandwich and that delicious latke boat.