12th Annual Egg Rolls and Egg Creams Festival – Eldridge Street
June 13th, 2012 by Mr. C
(corner of Canal & Eldridge Streets)
I can always tell the summer season is just around the corner when two of my favorite block parties come a knockin’ to NYCs door, the BIG APPLE BARBECUE Block Party and the EGG ROLLS AND EGG CREAMS Block Party! It is no coincidence that both of these festivals revolve around food!
But seriously, the Egg Rolls and Egg Creams festival is a relatively small block party (Eldridge St between Canal & Forsyth) that packs a tremendous cultural punch! The Lower East Side is where Chinatown meets the Jewish community. My favorite area of the L.E.S. is everything below Delancey. Eldridge and Canal are two of my most adored streets in the NY! Gritty storefronts pumping out immigrant food such as noodle houses (Super Taste) & dumpling shops (PROSPERITY, VANESSA’S), malaysian style beef jerky (LING KEE), chinese bakeries (WONG WAH), to jewish run electronic stores on the south of canal, furniture stores (M. KATZ AND SONS) , G & S SPORTING GOODS store for my Everlast gear, and for my eyeglass/contact lens needs – MOSCOT! Not sure if it’s run by Jews or the Chinese for that matter, but CUP AND SAUCER (diner food) on Eldridge and Canal is one of my favorite pit stops in NYC!
The Egg Rolls and Egg Creams festival is basically a Chinese & Jewish day of celebration and appreciation for each others culture. After all, we’ve been living side by side in the L.E.S. for many years now! A big THANK YOU to Hanna Griff-Sleven – The Festival Coordinator for this NEW YORK MOMENT!
(Hanna Griff-Sleven — Festival Coordinator)
(Margaret Chin – City Council)
While perusing Eldridge street on this festive day, you will find kids of all ages and races making yarmulkes, painting paper fans, creating chinese opera masks, and getting their face painted! While the kids are at play, a Klezmer band marches along the street playing tunes on the tuba, accordion, clarinet, and drums! Look to your side and you will see senior citizens playing an intense game of mah zhoong! There is also someone on hand to teach newcomers how to play as well. The Klezmer band would then be followed up by a traditional chinese folk band. If you get hungry or thirsty, there are plenty of Egg Rolls & Egg Cream stations selling their wares! I personally love Egg creams! For all that do not know what an egg cream is, it basically is chocolate syrup (traditionally U-Bet’s brand) mixed with milk fairly rigorously then followed up with carbonated water. The resulting concoction is a bit of foam on top which resembles a beaten egg white! Egg Cream is essentially a New York – Jewish thang! OK, going back to the festival – enter into the historic 1887 landmark – the Eldridge Street Synagogue and you will find a whole host of other events going on! On the first floor, you will find a Hebrew sribe demonstrating his sacred art side by side with a Chinese Calligrapher. The same Klezmer and chinese folk band would also perform inside the main Synagogue space as well. Go upstairs and you will find Sifu Ken Lo greet and treat you to a traditional chinese tea ceremony! Sifu Lo is also a 7th generation Grandmaster in the Wu Mei style of Kung Fu. Go down to the basement of the synagogue and you can learn how to speak Yiddish and Mandarin! A backroom would also be dedicated in learning how to make Challah bread! Still in the basement, you can check out an older chinese lady show off her chinese paper folding techniques! Not to far from this table was a friendly lady explaining and demonstrating Jewish paper cutting techniques.
Some visuals from the day’s event might help explain better…
(Making a Yarmulke)
(Making fans)
(Face Painting)
(Chinese Folk Music)
(Klezmer Band – Traditional Jewish Music)
(Tell me your favorite food, kid!)
(Feed me a story – The Last Supper – wall)
(Do not play with these people! Hustlers!)
(The very beautiful Eldridge Street Synagogue – Musuem at Eldridge Street)
(Sifu Ken Lo with a traditional Chinese Tea Ceremony)
(Jewish Scribal)
(Learn how to speak Yiddish and Chinese!)
(Jewish Paper cutting)
(Stroller valet parking!)
(Making an NYC Egg cream)
(The preferred chocolate syrup for NYC Egg cream: U-BET!)
(Making Chinese opera masks)
(Making Challah)
—————————————————————————————
Egg Cream Recipe
1/2 cup whole milk
1/4 cup chocolate syrup (ideally Fox’s u-bet brand)
Soda Water
Directions: Place milk and chocolate syrup in a large (16 oz) glass, Stir well, then top off the glass with soda water. Serve immediately with a long spoon and straw.
(Recipe from: Braiden Rex-Johnson’s Pike Place Market Cookbook)
——————————————————————————————-
Tags: egg rolls egg creams festival
Posted in community, food, mr. c, music, photos | Comments (0)
