EAT
As you explore the festival, consider ordering food from one of these local restaurants. Students in Dr. Willa Zhen’s Research Methods for Applied Food Studies course at the Culinary Institute of America are conducting this research in June, 2020.
Ziatün--Middle Eastern/Mediterranean/Palestinian
244 Main St. Beacon, NY 12508
845-765-8268
Futur Sampler: One of the most popular dishes on the menu at Ziatün is the Futur Sampler. It is a medley of staple ingredients including hummus, foule, baba ghanouj, falafel, and pickled turnips, salad, and za’atar. Not only does it give diners a taste of Palestine, but it also happens to be entirely vegan.
Aba’s Falafel—Middle Eastern
54 E Market St. Rhinebeck, NY 12572
845-876-2324
Menu:
www.abasfalafel.com/menu
The Sabich plate consists of roasted eggplant, potato, falafel balls, and amba sauce (mango curry sauce) over salad. The falafel plate is the most popular dish on the menu (chickpeas, spices, herbs). It is served with tahini sauce (ground sesame seed base) as well as cucumber & tomato salad, cabbage salad, and onions with sumac. Guests can either have the pita on the side, or all of it in a pita. Don’t forget about the delicious condiments such as Harisa, Amba, and cilantro garlic hot sauce!
Aroi Thai
55 E. Market Street, Rhinebeck, NY 12572
845-876-1114
Tofu Tod is light-as-air squares with sweet chili sauce and peanuts. Chicken Satay is a generous appetizer of tender chicken with pickled carrots and peanut sauce.
Lunch Nightly- Global/International Cuisine
636 Broadway Kingston, NY 12446
845-663-2028
One of their most popular dishes is their homemade pastrami sandwich that goes out almost instantly as soon as they open. After talking with the manager Gabriel, I asked him what they want people to feel when they eat at their restaurant, and he told me “I want the restaurant to act as a cool house party on the weekends and home on the weekdays. We have a special thing going here, yes, we’re a Jewish deli that serves sandwiches, but that’s not what defines us. We’re also a straight forward bar and restaurant, anyone is welcome here, whenever you need a place to relax and get away from the stress of everyday life, or if you just need a cheap and delicious meal to eat, we got you covered.”
Reginato Ristorante—Italian
34 Leggs Mills Rd. Lake Katrine, NY 12449
845-336-6968
In the 1770s, there lived a young boy by the name of Michele Pezza in Naples, who at an early age survived a harsh childhood sickness that nearly killed him. As part of an old Italian tradition, Pezza and other youngsters who recovered from serious illness were dressed as monks on the second Sunday after Easter for a yearly procession in honor of the patron saint of sick children, St. Francis of Paola. Little Michele was apparently such a notorious handful on these solemn occasions that someone once labeled him “fra diavolo,” meaning “brother devil.” The highly combustible nickname stuck and, in an extreme example of a self-fulfilling prophecy, Michele “Fra Diavolo” Pezza went on to live a hot-tempered early life before growing up to eventually lead Italian insurgents in a revolution against French occupiers. Today, the memory of Pezza and his fiery disposition lives on in a name affixed to any spicy Italian sauce served with pasta. Fra diavolo is a tomato-based sauce that gets its flavor mostly from olive oil, garlic and oregano—but what sets it apart from similar sauces is the recipe’s heavy use of chilies or red pepper flakes, which delivers the infamous heat. Served over spaghetti or linguine, seafood is usually the main source of protein in the dish.
Super Bowl Cuisine—Chinese
300 Plaza Rd. Kingston, NY 12401
845-339-6888
According to owner Kuan He: "On Spring Festival, All family member get together have a nice dinner. They hope the new year every family member keep healthy and happy. They cook Sweet and Sour Ribs, the ribs means people keep healthy and get promotion on their jobs. The sweet and sour ribs is crispy and sweet."
Downtown Cafe—Farm to Table
91 Broadway Kingston, NY 12401
845-338-3380
Graziano is highly experienced in meat, fish and poultry manufacture, does his own butchering, grinds and stuff his own sausages. He focuses on what local products he can get that are of the best quality and decides his daily menu from there. He incorporates sound nutrition and thoughtful flavor combinations. He makes everything himself and takes special pride in the quality of his handmade pastas.
Top Taste-Jamaican Cuisine
448 Hasbrouck Ave. Kingston, NY 12401
917-915-1310 or 845-663-2068
Malenda, one of the owners, says: “I want to thank the whole entire community because they’ve supported us this entire time [during COVID-19 restrictions]. They haven’t let us go under. People from neighborhoods near and far, they’ve come out and kept us going. They want us to keep
going. They really have stuck with us through these hard times...Jamaicans are known for having Jerk chicken. It is recognized by all cultures. Because a lot of people don’t know what that is, and I would like to expand their tastes, I recommend oxtails. It’s good for people to try new things and not just what they know. Most of the time when I recommend oxtails to people, they always come back for more. When they get it here, they come wanting more.”
Crazy Bowlz-Asian and Mexican Fusion
301 Frank Sottile Blvd Kingston, NY 12401
845-382-6955
Menu:
www.crazybowlz.net/contac
www.toasttab.com/crazy-bowlz-kingston/v3#!
@CrazyBowlz.Kingston
@crazybowlz
They let customers create their own bowl, which they love to do. Their top choices are: Korean Beef and Kimchi Nachos. It’s made of fresh tortilla chips with lettuce, pico de gallo, bulgogi beef and grilled kimchi, topped off with sour cream, spicy mayo, cheese, and garnished with scallions. They did not want this restaurant to be just a traditional restaurant. They wanted to mix things up and give it a twist which included a fusion of using fresh ingredients for today’s generation to love and eat.
Masa Midtown-Turkish and Mediterranean
666 Broadway Kingston, NY 12401
718-408-0468
Chef Oz’s favorite dish, both to prepare and to eat, is manti, which is a style of Turkish dumpling. It is made of pasta dough stuffed with a mixture of ground beef, onion, and black pepper and served in a tomatoey buttery sauce topped with yogurt and sometimes butter on top. It is the most labor-intensive dish that she makes, but is also the most fun to make.
Namaste Indian Restaurant–North Indian
3112 Rte 9W, Saugerties, NY 12477
845-247-03590
Lamb Vindaloo is a fiery hot dish from Goa made with our succulent lamb in a tangy sauce. Served with basmati rice. “Everyone here had a lot of experience in other restaurants and with that we used our own unique approach to both preparation and ingredients.”
Ruby Mae Soul Food–African American
40 Broadway Kingston NY, 12401
845-481-4627
La Toya Flood, one of the owners, says: Customers come in already knowing what they want to try because of word of mouth. Most requested items are mac and cheese, fried chicken, cornbread, chicken and waffles and shrimp and grits. “We saw a need and wanted to do it, not a lot of African American restaurants in the area. Nothing local from the south, wanted to bring to Kingston.”
Seasoned Delicious Foods-Carribean
Saugerties, New York, 12477
845-616-1689
Orchard Delight Hot Sauce. This hot sauce pairs perfectly with pork.
One of the owners, Martin, comes from Jamaican descent and would commonly cook the foods of his ethnicity, and his friends began telling him he could sell his products. After selling his products for a while, people began asking how he was able to create the flavors used and sauces he serves, this began the wholesale of spices, hot sauces, spreads, and more which is now their main focus with catering as an addition.
Ole Savannah Southern Table and Bar- Authentic Barbeque and Comfort Food with a Modern Twist
100 Rondout Landing in Kingston, NY 12401
845-331-4283
Owner Max Beard thought that introducing a barbeque and southern food restaurant would be successful because at the time there weren’t any in the area. The building used to be an old repair shop for boats ferrying people from Albany and Manhattan, and they thought the building sort of went with the rustic, southern theme for the restaurant they had in mind. Ole Savannah has plenty of waterfront seating on Rondout Creek that feeds into the Hudson River.
