APRIL 2019 • LONGISLANDPRESS.COM 75
MAIN DISH
ALL THE WORLD’S A FARE
NYC's Largest and Most Diverse Food Festival Coming to Queens
By JOE DISTEFANO
As a kid, I was always fascinated
Buy Tickets At theworldfare.nyc
100+ Global CuIsines
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Beer Garden
Music, Dance,
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CITI FIELD
MAY 18 & 19, 2019
by the World’s Fair.
It all started when I first
saw the glittering stainless
steel Unisphere from the car
window on the ride back to
Long Island from my grandmother’s
house in Glendale.
When I asked my mother
about it, she’d fondly recall
taking my brothers to the
1964-65 World’s Fair.
Many years later, I would move
to Queens and wholeheartedly
embrace its diverse cuisines
and culture and come to love
the Unisphere — a sculpture
originally commissioned as a
tribute to the Space Age — as a
symbol of the diversity of the
World’s Borough.
So when Joshua Schneps, CEO
and co-publisher at Schneps
Media and founder of LIC
Flea & Food, approached me a
few years ago to tell me of his
plans to pay tribute to one of
the largest events ever to take
place in the history of New
York City with a culinary
and cultural festival with
100 vendors representing 100
cultures, I jumped on board
immediately.
The second annual World’s
Fare, which will be held on
May 18 and 19 at Citi Field in
Flushing, features many of
my personal favorites from
all over the world, including
the Arepa Lady, the crown
jewel of Colombian street
food in New York City; Indonesian
desserts from Moon
Man; and Italian arrosticini,
succulent lamb skewers from
D’Abruzzo, which won first
place in the savory division
at last year’s Fare.
Newcomers this year include
Chef Troy’s Table,
representing Jamaica with
their nutritious and delicious
I-tal Rastafarian vegetarian
cuisine; Balkan Bites, flying
the flag of Kosovo with flaky
savory burek and sweet baklava;
Cafe Escencia, representing
Spain with scrumptious
sourdough churros
wheel; and a thoroughly
modern take on an ancient
Eastern Mediterranean
frozen confection from the
Republic of Booza.
There will also be a dessert
classic that many attendees
of the iconic 1964 World’s
Fair may remember: Belgian
waffles as prepared by street
food sensation Wafels &
Dinges.
In addition to Schneps, this
year’s culinary committee
features a trio of female
culinary powerhouses: Gael
Greene, Chef Alex Raij, and
Chef Anita-Lo.
These days, the Detroit-born
Greene is best known as
the Insatiable Critic and
co-founder of Citymeals-on-
Wheels, but as restaurant
critic of New York Magazine
from 1968 to 2002, she
changed the way Americans
think about food. One
could trace the evolution of
New York restaurants on a
timeline that would reflect
her passions and taste over
30 years from Le Pavillon,
which has its roots in the
1964-65 World’s Fair, to nouvelle
cuisine to couturier
pizzas, pastas and hot fudge
sundaes, to more healthful
eating.
Chef Anita Lo, author of
SOLO: A Modern Cookbook
for a Party of One,” has
appeared on “Top Chef Masters,
Iron Chef America, and
Chopped. In 2015, she became
the first female guest chef to
cook at the White House.
Chef Alex Raij began her
lengthy love affair with
traditional Spanish cooking
at Meigas, an ambitious Spanish
restaurant in Tribeca,
after completing her formal
culinary education at the Culinary
Institute of America.
She now owns and operates
four restaurants: Txikito,
Chelsea’s acclaimed Basque
restaurant; El Quinto Pino,
named the Absolute Best
Tapas by New York Magazine;
La Vara, exploring Jewish
and Moorish influence
in southern Spain; and her
latest, Saint Julivert, a petit
fisherie inspired by ports of
call near and far.
I am truly amazed that the
World’s Fare has managed to
assemble a lineup of cuisines
that almost rivals the diversity
of the World’s Borough.
In the coming weeks I’ll be
profiling some of my favorite
vendors. Check back next
week to learn how the Sainted
Arepa Lady got her start.
This is the first edition of a
weekly column written by
Joe DiStefano, a Queensbased
food writer, culinary
tour guide, and author of the
best-selling guidebook 111
Places in Queens That You
Must Not Miss.
CULINARY CELEBRATION: (Above) The World’s Fare — two days of food and performances
representing 100 cultures — is coming back to Citi Field on May 18 and May
19. Columnist Joe DiStefano (below) will be count-ing down the weeks to the festival.
The “Insatiable Critic” Gael Greene (at right), will serve on the culinary committee.
/LONGISLANDPRESS.COM
