If you have ever visited New York City, you are probably aware that it is a city which has many diverse neighborhoods. Moreover each of these neighborhoods or ‘nabes’ as they are often called have their own inimitable character. One such prominent New York City neighborhood, is an area that is located in Midtown West, which is known as ‘Hell’s Kitchen’. The Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood encompasses an area that stretches from 34th Street to 59th Street from 8th Avenue to the Hudson River.
This neighborhood was known for its gritty, rough and tumble character as it has been home for years to a largely Irish-American working class population. The character of the neighborhood changed somewhat in the 1950’s when the district came to be occupied by Puerto Rican immigrants as they tended to get into violent skirmishes with the original inhabitants of the neighborhood. Today however this neighborhood like much of the Manhattan has undergone a rapid gentrification as old buildings have given away to shiny condominium apartment buildings which house young professionals and several actors who ply their craft in the nearby theater district, though some old time residents still continue to reside in the older buildings of this lively neighborhood which is now a major entertainment, transportation and infrastructure hub in modern day Manhattan.
Flea Market
Hell’s Kitchen is also home to the largest urban permanent flea market in New York City which is held every weekend on 39th street between 9th and 10th avenues. This Hell’s Kitchen Flea market features an interesting mix of nearly 170 vendors who come from all over the tri-state area and includes antiques sellers; vintage house wares hawkers, local-produce stands, and street-food vendors. It is in the midst of this flea market that the Ninth Avenue International Food Festival is held every year on the weekend after Mother’s Day (American). This year this exciting food fest is scheduled to take place over the weekend of the 16th and 17th of May. The Ninth Avenue International food festival is open to everyone as and there is no admission charge.
The International Food Festival
The Ninth Avenue International Food Festival originated in 1973 and since then it has grown to be a major spring time event in New York City which has been known to attract more than a million people each year. The festival draws huge crowds who gather along the stretch from 37th Street to 57th Street on 9th Avenue where many food vendors erect stalls and dole out their many delicious wares from 9.30 am to 6.30pm on both days of the festival. Ninth Avenue is closed to traffic for this food festival which is actually a New York City Street fair with a major food component.
All throughout the three month long New York City summer, street fairs that feature all kinds of vendors are usually held on the weekends. While all these street fairs feature food vendors, the Ninth Avenue Food Festival includes the active participation of the many ethnic and diverse restaurants that are located along Ninth Avenue. In addition to these restaurants the many merchants of Hell’s Kitchen also participate wholeheartedly in this vibrant community festival which effectively displays the multi-cultural character of New York City.
Smorgasbord of global cuisines
At Ninth Avenue International Food Festival you are assured of sampling a wide array of cuisines like Argentinean, Brazilian, Cajun, Chinese, Cuban, Dominican, Ethiopian, French, German, Greek, Haitian, Indian, Indonesian, Irish, Italian, Japanese, Mexican, Moroccan, Pakistani, Polish, Puerto Rican, Peruvian, Senegalese, Sicilian, Spanish, Thai, Trinidadian, Turkish, Ukrainian and Vietnamese amongst others.
Exotic and restaurant foods
Many Ninth Avenue Restaurants and shops like the Indonesian restaurant Bali Nusa Indah, Amy’s Breads, Esposito Pork Shop and Thai restaurants like Siam Grill, Wondee Siam etc also take stalls at the festival where they retail many of their signature dishes at reasonable prices to the enthusiastic crowds. Apart from these restaurant eats festival goers even have the chance to sample several exotic foods like alligator, shark, lobster, shrimp and catfish nuggets, fried elephant ears, roast pig, paella, soft shell crabs, steak sandwiches, arepa sandwiches, empanada, kokoresti (an eastern European dish which features offal and seasoned lamb) which they don’t really get to try at any of the other street fairs.
Entertainment
The festival typically features live entertainment on stages which are be set up in the middle of Ninth Avenue. Festival goers have the chance to take in several exotic acts Egyptian belly dancing, German folk dancing, and Arabian scarf dancing along with performances of Lindy Hop, Charleston, Peabody, Blues and Salsa routines andScottish Highland dancing .
If you are planning to be in New York City during the month of May and if you enjoy sampling various cuisines then you must plan to take in the Ninth Avenue International Food Festival. Come prepared to spend a few hours at the festival and the adjoining flea market and be sure to wear comfortable shoes as you will have to walk a fair bit. Since 9th Avenue will be closed to traffic for the festival the best way to get to festival will be by subway. You can use the A,C,E( blue lines) to get to the Port Authority terminal at 42nd Street and 8th Avenue or the C,E, trains to 50th street and 8th Avenue and then just walk to the food fest. However, if you are planning to stay at one of the many hotels located around Times Square like the five star Royalton or the four star Hilton Times Square or even the three star art deco historic Belvedere Hotel you can easily get to this foodie extravaganza via a short walk through the neighborhood. Happy Eating!
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This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 15th, 2009 at 6:39 pm and is filed under Festival, Food, Fun, North America. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
May 4th, 2009 at 2:58 pm
Absolutely It’s is awesome news.Thanks for sharing information with us.
Good luck for next
May 7th, 2009 at 10:50 pm
Thanks for stopping by Neil, do keep checking back for similar posts.
May 9th, 2009 at 3:29 pm
I have been living in the neighborhood nearly 21 years, have never seen fried elephant ears ? kokoresti is also a turkish dish.
The one unique food stand I love, is the one set up by International, the greek fishmongers on 39th St with an assortment of seafoods.
Since the closure of Costa del Sol, their paella stand is gonna be sorely missed. Not to be missed is Poseidon Bakery’s greek pastries, Little Pie Company’s pies, Amy’s bread’s bread twirls, McSorley’s Salmon sandwich and Uncle Nick’s roast pork.
May 9th, 2009 at 10:32 pm
Fried Elephant’s ears are the deep fried doughy confections which are seasoned with cinnamon. I had some last year from one of the funnel cake stands. Yes kokoresti features in Turkish as well as Greek cuisine in addition to the cuisines of the Balkans. I am so looking forward to this food fest next weekend.
May 11th, 2009 at 3:38 am
“OK” they are not real fried Elephant ears
If you have an international audience; they might mis-interpret. Today, two of the long time locals who participate regularly - decided to shut and give their staff off, and forcus on upgrading/replacings their equipment.
May 11th, 2009 at 10:24 am
You’re right,maybe I should have added an explanation of fried elephant ears. We are struggling through hard times and restaurants seem to be shutting everyday.
May 13th, 2009 at 11:14 pm
I wait for this all year.It is the greatest,and the belly dancers are good too
May 14th, 2009 at 3:35 am
Yes mike, even I am looking forward to this food fest which is to be held on this weekend.
May 15th, 2009 at 9:56 pm
Is the 9th Ave. Festival still going to take place on May 16 & 17? The “official” hellskitchen.bz site has disappeared, and I can’t find any mention in TONY or NYMag. Can anyone confirm, or (hopefully not) cancel?
May 16th, 2009 at 12:00 am
The official NY city site nycgo.com has it on its event list for the 16th and 17th of May as well. They would have updated it if there was a change or cancellation.
May 17th, 2009 at 9:56 pm
I did get down to the Ninth Avenue International Food Festival yesterday( 16th May) and it was as lively as ever with a great variety of eats.
May 18th, 2009 at 5:49 am
I went through tday, some great stuff there, had a fantastic Calzone and oysters 2 go. Yummee!
May 19th, 2009 at 4:44 pm
To me, 9th Ave. food festival was a disappointment. As a long time resident of Hell’s Kitchen, I have seen it shrink as a food festival and grow as a common summer street fair.
Missing were Amy’s Bread which of course was open as a store; by shortening the fair to end at 42nd st. the seafood stand of International Seafoods could not participate. A few of the restaurants on the street also kept away this year. As I mentioned earlier, I missed the paella plate from Costa Del Sol, a spanish restaurant that closed its door late last year.
May 19th, 2009 at 11:16 pm
Anu, I am sorry that you didnt enjoy the festival. I actually had some great Thai food from a stand and then indulged in some Indonesian eats from the Bali Nusa Indah stand after which my husband and I topped the spicy eats with a yummy apple strudel from the Poseidon Bakery stand.
September 23rd, 2009 at 8:30 am
Thank you for the interesting info,I’ll be checking back for more,would love to hear about polish Green Point.