NYC Wine & Food Festival

WOWZER.... is it that time of the year already? Yeah, you know what I'm talking about. Foodies doing cart-wheels down the sidewalks, winos... I mean wine connoisseurs lip smacking their way through vintage tastings, and cocktalians at cocktail seminars staring into the bottom of their glass thinking "Where did it all go right?" THAT'S RIGHT... Food Network New York City Wine & Food Festival is back for another year of fabulous chef's showing off their crazy culinary artistry,  genius mixologist's creating cocktails worth salivating over, all in events and parties that take over the city for four tasty days.

The impressive line-up of events include favorites like Burger Bash, Meatball Madness and SWEET and with new events like The Best Thing I Ever Ate Between Bread hosted by Duff Goldman which should be the next best thing since sliced bread; or you can Rock Out with your Bowling ball out with Anne Burrell, where you'll eat like a Rock Star while bowling at Lucky Strike. Too cool! Of course there's also FRIED, yes FRIED. Where eveything you indulge in will be... you guessed it, FRIED! Don't be chicken, you know this event is for you because it's going to be HOT!
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The Grand Tasting presented by ShopRite with KitchenAid Culinary Demonstrations presented by Buitoni will be an all day event on Saturday and Sunday. Expect the big tent to be even bigger with lots of food, drinks, and your favorite Food Network Chefs. On hand personalities smoking up the kitchen stage will be Sunny Anderson, Anthony Bourdain, Alton Brown, Jamie and Bobby Deen, Bobby Flay, Duff Goldman, Masaharu Morimoto, Michael Symon, Ming Tsai, Beekman Boys; and that's just a few to wet your palate.

Top it off  by attending one of the many wine tastings and cocktail seminars where you'll do some pinky-up sipping to your taste buds content, socializing with fellow cocktalians getting smarter about the new trends conjured up by mixologist extraordinaires whom call their drinks libations.

So hurry and get your tickets to the events of you choice because they are selling out faster than you can say BAM! (sorry, couldn't resist)

http://www.nycwineandfoodfestival.com/2011
https://www.imgtickets.com/OnlineCustom/default.asp?brand=NYC

Ford Focus at Atlantic City Food and Wine Festival

NYC Sidewalker was selected to participate in a cool partnership with the Fordcast Tour at the Food Network Atlantic City Food and Wine Festival. We were thrilled by the opportunity to help spread the word about the Focus VIP treatment that we got to experience first hand. NYC Sidewalker also had a ticket giveaway on Twitter and our winner also got to be a Focus VIP. We had a wonderful time. The Fordcast Tour Team was not only professional but a lot of fun too.

Food Network Atlantic City Food and Wine Festival was hosted by Caesars Atlantic City, Harrah’s Resort, Showboat and Bally’s where Robert Mondavi Discover Wines Presented The Grand Market and Italian Village all weekend within several sessions. There was food, copius amounts of different wine and liquor companies. It was a large event where vendors showed, provided many tastings and sold many products. Foodies attended cooking demonstrations from wonderfully talented chefs, also proffessional wine tasting seminars gave attendees a break from all the sipping to sit and sip some more.

VIP Fordcast Lounge was the center of attention upon arriving at Bally’s Grand Ballroom. It housed many activities meant to keep... um, people's "focus". There were three stationary new 2011 Ford Focus on hand to check out up-close and personal. The Focus Titanium is the top of the line. It features MyFord Touch Technology, push button start, SYNC Voice activated communication and entertainment system, rain sensing windshield wipers, Select Shift Technology that allows you to change gears at the touch of a botton and much more.
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To add to the fun, guests were treated at the VIP Fordcast Lounge to the Digital Station with the Twitter Aggregator and Related Video Content Screen where we were excited to see @NYCsidewalker tweets pop-up frequently.

There were different tables throughout the VIP Fordcast Lounge:

• Wii Activities (Food Network: Cook or be Cooked)
• Trivia Challenge (Food Network, Foodie, Atlantic City, Ford Focus Q&A)
• Contest for the "Neely's Chef On Stage" tickets, $500 Gift Card Raffle, Raffle Gift Baskets, Flyers, Nap Sacks, pens giveaways.
• Photo Booth with Dress-up chef hats, aprons and other funny playful props.

Event Highlight Video will be posted soon... yay!

It was our first time at the Food Network Atlantic City Food and Wine Festival so here's some of our favorites at the Grand Market and Italian Village. Lobster Bisque from Fin made by a mermaid, Vodoo Shrimp by Showboat,  Espresso Infused Van Gogh Vodka, Bally's Scallops with Vanilla Soy Sauce, Paul Goerg Champagne, Jeremiah Weed Lightning Lemonade mixed with Roadhouse Tea, Bakers Peanuts Brittle, Cortez Handmade Cigars and Torrie Espresso and Coffee.

Ultimate VIP Sweepstakes: You can still enter the chance to win the Ultimate VIP Sweepstakes. What does this mean? If you enter and win, you get to design your very own dream vacation! Click here for more information: https://www.fordcast.com

As always pictures were taken with an iPhone and Blackberry... pretty cool, huh?