Tuesday night I entered into food blogger heaven. The Third Annual Choice Eats sponsored by the Village Voice at the Armory is one of the biggest New York City tasting events. It featured restaurants from all five boroughs in one location with wine, beer and liquor pairings. After finding out about this event, tickets were bought immediately and a count down ensued. The restaurant list was amazing. There were places that I've been dying to try and places that I've already been to all in one place - like I said Heaven.
Doors opened to the common folk (non VIP) at 6:30 but the line started avenues away way earlier than that. My lovely sister got there before me and was almost at the front when I arrived so I jumped right in. My apologies for all the people that I cut, but you gotta do what you gotta do in the name of good food.
I don't know how I've never noticed the Armory before. Located on 26th and Lex, I probably pass it at least once a week and it's HUGE! I was extremely over whelmed when I got inside after seeing 4 long rows and hundreds of people fighting for their tastes. We started at the first row we saw and worked our way to the right, down the back row and finished at the last row on the left. There was no strategy but it worked out well. It turns out the last row didn't have that many great items, but two of the ones I wanted to try - Cheeky and Spot dessert bar - were sold out and packed up.
The hits of the night are as followed:
Max - meat lasagna. While it could have been a little hotter, it was delicious with the right amount of sauce, meat ratio. I've been to both Max locations in the city and its a great local Italian eatery that's low key. The prices are great, but they are cash only.
Mercadito- shrimp mini taco. I've actually never been to either locations of Mercadito and was excited to try what they had to offer. They were making mini shrimp tacos at the station and they were so good. Not too spicy and they put a whole slice of avocado on the top. The mini tortilla was the perfect size for this type of event because it didn't fill you up as much as a bigger one would. Mercadito is still on my list but it moved up higher after Tuesday night.
Dirt Candy - tofu crostini with butternut squash. Don't worry I'm not converting to vegetarianism any time soon, and probably won't visit this establishment in the near future, but I'm glad I got to try what they had to offer. Tofu is never my first choice unless it comes with hot and sour soup but the combination of the tofu with the crostini and pieces of butternut squash was great. I definitely didn't hate it!
Despana - gazpacho. I had never heard of this restaurant until the other night and I don't know why! Their gazpacho was awesome. A little on the creamy side which isn't typical for original gazpacho and no chunks of vegetables, but it was smooth and comforting. They offered two versions, one normal and one with bacon shavings on it - an added touch.
The chef, Eddie Huang, was just featured on Food Network's Ultimate Recipe Showdown for his signature skirt steak Bao (a mini steamed bun). I knew I had to try this place. Once I got closer to the front, I could see why the line was taking so long. They were literally steaming the buns table side and making each Bao perfectly. When it was finally my turn, I got one of each - a skirt steak and pork belly. They both are served with crushed peanuts, cilantro, relish and a Taiwanese red sugar. The buns had come right out of the steamer so I couldn't taste them right away and I was really scared someone was going to bump into me and my Boas would fall to the floor. I was safe though and my first bite into the pork belly bao was amazing. The bun was warm and fluffy and much better than Momofuku - sorry David Chang! I liked the skirt steak better than the pork but it could have been that I had wayyyy too much pork that evening. The steak just had more flavor. It was the best thing I ate all night and I definitely need to go the the LES restaurant to experience it again. Eddie was there the whole night making his baos personally which was also great to see. 
There were so many other great things that I ate but unfortunately, I can't remember where they were from. There was an amazing Thai cold noodle dish, a bbq pork, a Swedish meatball with mashed potatoes, a corn, cheese and creme arepa, tres leches cake and a shrimp roll from Luke's Lobster. There were a lot of pork dishes, some good some bad, not enough dessert items and a great wine selection. I 100 percent got my moneys worth and will be returning next year with a new strategy:
1. Take more time to try all the places
2. Share more so I don't fill up too fast
3. Get the VIP ticket. It allows you to enter at 5:30 instead of 6:30 so you have more time to try everything before the masses arrive.
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