Pig Island!!

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New York City is a wonderful place--every possibly language, culture and cuisine has a home here. And pork gets its very own island! I took the ferry out with That Sara (of NYCNomNom--her review is here) and her BF, Mike. It was a beautiful, albeit humid, day, in September.

Make no mistake--this is no place for vegetarians or vegans (although they offered a vegetarian ticket, what we saw was definitely not worth it!)

We got there bright and early---I'd read many a time that food events on Governor's Island quickly went south, running out of food and causing outrageous lines. We weren't taking any chances! Since we'd bought the Thrillist discount, we also got to go through a little faster: advantage: US!

We planned to make a quick loop around the area and see what we wanted to come back and try, but it didn't really work out that way. Too many tempting stalls stopped us in our tracks. There's so much to show you, but I'm going to narrow it down to my 3 favorite bites:

Ici (remember how awesome they were at Brooklyn Uncorked??? Still awesome) had a stand where they had a shredded pork over spicy greens. This contained peppers, so Sara ordinarily wouldn't be able to try it, but they offered to make a non-pepper version just for her--so we came back about 30 minutes later and they had it waiting. I thought that went above and beyond! It was delicious--the greens were fresh, the dressing had lots of black pepper, and it was just bright and scarfable. I must get to this restaurant in 2012!!

The Smorrebrod stand had 3 bites: 2 bits on bread and a meatball. The pork terrine on the most amazing rye bread--holy crap. I could have stopped here and been so, so happy. The pickled veggies on top gave it a nice crunch, too. I have to track down this bread--it was so delicious that I found out which person at the stall was responsible for it told her repeatedly how amazing it was. A-may-ZING.

The meatball was just okay..but look! Another butter-slathered slice of that to-die-for bread!

Rounding out the top 3 is Austrian restaurant Edi & The Wolf. I had just seen the owners on The Today Show a week or two ago, and everything they made looked amazing. I can't even remember what this bite is--I just know that normally I would have passed it by, but after seeing the spot on the Today Show and talking to the enthusiastic workers at the stand, I had to give it a shot. What a delicious, transformative mix of flavors. Get ready, ABF--we are GOING HERE!

And there was a sweet bite I loved too--bacon-maple-cinnamon rolls. Yeah, you heard me. I went back for a second one. I could have gone back for three, four, five and six, but I didn't.

The beer flowed a-plenty, too, courtesy of Six Point Beer. I'm not much of a beer person, but the Belgian White ws light, refreshing, and not too malty.

Overall, the event was excellently organized--there were only long lines at a few spots, and plenty of food to go around. Even the bites that were just 'ok' were still fun to try. Things started disappearing around 1:30, but by then we'd eaten our fill and then some!

I can't believe this was my first trip to Governor's Island-- I will be back to rent a bike, ride around, and take in the gorgeous scenery, including jaw-dropping views of the NYC skyline that I love so much.

Will I be back for Pig Island 2012? Hmmm...maybe. But if you've never been, I definitely suggest going at least once! And do yourself a favor: go hungry.

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