AWESOME ALERT: Free Food Tomorrow 8/6 from the Stonefire Food Truck tour

There is not a single person on this planet that does not like free food. And Awesome's got your back with this hook up tomorrow at the Flatiron Pedestrian Plaza (right outside Eataly).

Join celebrity Chef Marcel Vigneron of Top Chef and the Stonefire Food Truck tour for some gratis samples of delicious, easy-to-make, plant-based recipes featuring Stonefire Authentic Flatbreads and Naan Crisps. The event will run tomorrow, Thursday 8/6 from noon to 6 pm and will also feature live entertainment. For updates on what is happening throughout the day, you can follow Stonefire on Facebook or Twitter.

AWESOME DEAL: Free Dinner Delivered!

It's a tale as old as time: Start the day with Google-worthy ambitions of preparing a 5-step, 3-course meal for dinner. Decide around lunchtime that eating the Lean Cuisine in your freezer would enable you to better spend your evening binge watching House of Cards. Go home from work and realize you ate that Lean Cuisine last week and since you've already changed into your sweats and sheepskin slippers, going to the grocery store is out of the question. So you spend way too much money on delivery, only to regret whatever you chow down on 45 minutes later because it wasn't healthy/tasty/homemade/hot/etc.

Enter Munchery. Munchery is a dinner-delivery service that's been serving chef-created meals for busy food lovers in San Francisco since 2011. Since it's NYC launch earlier this month, Munchery has collaborated with chefs like Eddie Montalvo of Blue Smoke and Rachel Hazen formerly of Pure Food and Wine to create daily menus of wholesome, affordable food.

Today's menu items include: Honey-Tea Braised Chicken Thighs with pineapple mango salad, brown rice, fresh cilantro ($10.50), Grilled Hanger Steak with creamy potato gratin, broccoli rabe, tomato confit ($13.95), and Vegan Tempeh Couscous Primavera with fava and asparagus ($10.50). They even sell desserts, drinks (including AINY favorite Harmless Harvest coconut water!), and kid-friendly items too.

The way it works is similar to any other food delivery service, but you must select your food and order by the daily deadline of 1pm. You then select the time frame that works for you--in hourly slots from 4 to 9pm--and voila! Dinner! All items are delivered cooked, chilled and packaged in microwave and oven-safe packaging for easy reheating. If you are expecting a particularly busy week, you can order meals up to 7 days in advance and never worry about what is going to satiate you when you do finally get home and around to your binge watching.

Munchery gives back as well. For every order placed, they donate a meal to a local food bank. Additionally, all packaging is made from recyclable and/or compostable materials.

Here's where it gets good...Munchery wants to buy you dinner! Sign up through this link and order up to $20 worth of food for free!

Note: Munchery does not currently deliver to certain outerborough locations (like Astoria, sad face). However, the simple solution is to have the delivery come to your office in Manhattan and just take your food home!

AWESOME ALERT: Free Burger at The Ainsworth

Adding to our National Burger Month coverage...who wants a free one? The Ainsworth NYC is promoting their new steak and burger menu with a Facebook quiz that will determine your perfect patty and bun match. Best part is, after you take the quiz they send you a coupon for a free burger. It's that easy!

I got the turkey burger, yum!

To grab your own, click here and fill out the quiz. Then share with your friends and prepare for a burger feast on the house! Just make sure to claim your burger by June 1.

Free Food from the Stonefire Authentic Flatbreads Truck Today!

There's no better news to kick off a weekend than free food right? Well if you're looking for something to do today, head to opening weekend of Smorgasburg to welcome NYC's newest food truck: Stonefire Authentic Flatbreads.

Stonefire is launching a nationwide food truck tour featuring some of their tasty looking dishes like Indian Pizza on naan, Gameday Naanchos, and a Chicken Naanwich with Pesto. They will be giving free samples from 11am-4pm starting at Kent Ave and N. 8th St. in Williamsburg followed by 14th St. Union Square and then 42nd St and 6th Ave near Bryant Park. Follow them on Twitter or Facebook for their exact location.

AWESOME ALERT: Free Donuts from Holey Donuts

I hear about a lot of openings in the city, but it's not often that one really stands out to me. Holey Donuts is opening their first store in Chelsea (101 7th Ave at 16th Street) in May and they want you to be among the first to check them out.

Holey Donuts claim to fame is "great tasting donuts without the fat, calories and guilt." While I have yet to try their goodies, this sounds like a great idea to me!

They are inviting all those in the know to stop by Thursday-Saturday May 1-3 to be treated to a VIP experience. You will be privy to a free box of donuts (filled and frosted as you watch!), gifts and their special reusable tote bag (seen above). Just picture yourself making everyone on the subway salivate by your carryall!

To be invited, you must email info@holeydonuts.net and choose the one day and time best for you to attend (put it in the subject line or they won't respond):

• Thursday May 1st: 3 pm, 5 pm or 6:15 pm
• Friday May 2nd: 3 pm, 5 pm or 6:15 pm
• Saturday May 3rd: 2 pm, 5 pm or 6:15 pm

Once confirmed, you will be allowed to bring guests, however, each ticket will allow only one gift bag and free box of donuts.

AWESOME ALERT: Macaron Day is TODAY!!!

One of my favorite days of the year is the day when the most elegant of cookies, the macaron, are given away en masse throughout the city. And guess what? (your day is about to get amazing..................)....................FREE MACARON DAY IS TODAY!

There are 15 participating locations in NYC (Gothamist has a helpful Google map if you want to try and get to all of them), and since I work in Midtown East I'll most likely hit up the Bernardaud store for MadMac macarons, FP Patisserie, and Macaron Cafe. All proceeds from further macaron sale will go to City Harvest.

Yummmmmmmmmmmmy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Free Cheese...FREE CHEESE!!

Life without cheese just wouldn't be life. I should really frame that quotation and hang it in kitchen. Anyway, don't you agree though?

One of my favorite cheese stores in the city, Murray's Cheese, is celebrating the opening of their 100th nationwide store by giving away free delectable creamy goodness in the form of grilled cheese sandwiches to the first 100 people who visit their flagship West Village store (254 Bleecker Street) on Saturday February 1 starting at 11 am. Their website says they will have other snacks to nosh on and beer will be poured.

In addition, Murray's is hosting a contest to win one of 10 $100 shopping spree in their store. You can enter here. So who's ready to get their cheese on?

AWESOME ALERT: Ben and Jerry's Free Cone Day Today!

The sun has (finally) come out to play and that means it's time to stuff your face with as much Cherry Garcia and Chunky Monkey as you can handle (read: A LOT).

Kick off Spring today by visiting one of three Manhattan locations (to see all Ben & Jerry's locations, click here):

Rockefeller Center

Rockefeller Plaza, Concourse Level

New York, NY 10020

212-218-7843

Macys Herald Square

151 West 34th Street, Macys - 4th Floor

New York, NY 10001

212-594-0018

Ben & Jerry's 104th and Broadway

2722 Broadway

New York, NY 10025

212-866-6237

An Elegant Afternoon of Eating Cookies

I told you all about last week's Macaron Day and you're ever so thankful about that notice right? Either that or you're slapping yourself now for not participating and missing out on all the goodness. Well here's a recap of my experience.

I'm fortunate to work in a neighborhood surrounded by participating macaron bakeries so at lunch I went with a couple coworkers on a mini-macaron scavenger hunt. After lunch in the Plaza Food Hall (yay Luke's Lobster!), our first stop was FP Patisserie. There I chose the chocolate and nibs macaron, which I found delightful. The chocolate flavor wasn't too overpowering, and the macaron's texture was perfect (read: the cookies themselves were hollow like they're supposed to be).

Chocolate and nibs macaron from FP Patisserie

Gift boxes

Macaron display

Our next stop was Macaron Cafe on 59th Street and they win the award for the most amount of flavors and colors (some are even sparkly!). I decided on classic pistachio, though I was tempted by the lavender vanilla and nutella cookies. These macarons were a bit denser but full-flavored and a good all-around cookie.

Macarons at Macaron Cafe

Pistachio Macaron

Lastly we stopped in the china store Bernardaud for MadMac macarons. Their display was very elegant and they were sampling 4 flavors. I chose raspberry and my coworkers and I decided that MadMac wins the award for best macaron of the day. We even met the chef Florian Bellanger, from Cupcake Wars!

MadMac Macarons

My raspberry macaron

This is always a great event and I particularly loved the charitable aspect. A percentage of every purchase at participating bakeries went to one of NYC's greatest charities -- CityHarvest. I hope they were able to feed a lot of people based on New Yorkers' love for macarons!

Holy Macaron-y!

We all love macarons but we all gawk at the ridiculous price tags and find it hard to justify purchasing more than one, am I right? Having attempted to make the confections more than once, I can understand first hand why macarons are so expensive--if you've ever tried, you know what I mean! However, it's because of this fact that tomorrow March 20, 2013 will be one of your most favorite days this Spring.

Sponsored by François Payard Bakery and benefiting Cityharvest, Macaron Day will feature many bakeries throughout NYC, EACH giving away free macarons all day tomorrow. Quantities are limited though, so I'd recommend you make this your lunch tomorrow. That's what I'm going to do :)

Here is the list of participating bakeries in Manhattan (go here for the full list):

Bisous, Ciao. Macarons, 101 Stanton Street (212) 260-3463, and 235 Bleecker Street (212)-675-6366

Bosie Tea Parlor, 10 Morton Street (212) 352-9900

Bakery at Time Warner Center, Ten Columbus Circle, Third Floor, (212) 823-9366

Bouchon Bakery at Rockefeller Center, One Rockefeller Plaza, (212) 782-3890

Butterfield Market, 1114 Lexington Avenue (212) 288-7800

Épicerie Boulud, 1900 Broadway, (212) 595-0303

Francois Payard Bakery, 1775 Broadway/3 Columbus Circle, (212) 956-1775

FP Patisserie, 1 W 59th St, (212) 759-1600

Macaron Café, 161 West 36th Street (212) 566-8300, 44 E. 59th Street (212)995-0888, and 750 Third Avenue (212)995-0888

Macaron Parlour, 111 St. Marks Place (347) 979-6023

Mad-Mac “The Authentic French Macarons” at Bernardaud, 499 Park Avenue at 59th Street, (973) 225-0930

Mille Feuille Bakery and Café, 552 Laguardia Pl (646) 626-6472

Todd English Food Hall at The Plaza Hotel, 1 W 59th St, (212) 986-9260

When All You Want Is A Doughnut...Or Ten

When all I want is a doughnut, or 10, I think a doughnut party would be the best place to be. I just found out about this awesome sounding doughnut party happening TONIGHT at Project No. 8 at the Ace Hotel. It's to celebrate the launch of All You Can Eat Now's New York Doughnut Map and to celebrate National Doughnut Month (frankly that should be every month). They will have donuts from Peter Pan, Dough, Doughnut Plant, Pies-n-Thighs, Dun-Well, and Van Leeuwen with Stumptown Coffee and drinks from Caledonia Spirits and Winery. It all goes down from 6-8, get excited!

The Best Little Known Cupcake Secret

NYC has it's fair share of cupcakeries to choose from. There's Magnolia with it's uber creamy frosting, Butter Lane with it's wide array of flavors. Baked By Melissa has the teeny ones and Crumbs has the Big Kahuna ones. West Coast transplant Sprinkles quietly opened up one location in midtown (Lexington between 60th and 61st) and what I'm about to tell you will blow your cupcake mind--they give away free cupcakes EVERY DAY!

Really, I feel foolish spreading this news with the world because I love knowing that should I ever have the craving, I can walk the 1.5 blocks to the shop (aren't I lucky to work so close?!) and grab a little pick-me-up with nothing expected of me in return. However, this deal is too good not to share and I honestly don't think they even give away the 50 or so they are allowed to every day.

How does this magical deal work you ask? Well, every day between 12-2 Sprinkles posts a code word or phrase on both their national Twitter account and Facebook page. Usually the code word will give you a specific flavor of cupcake, but some days you are allowed to choose what you want. You walk into Sprinkles, say the code word and you are handed a cupcake. I often get stares from people waiting in line to buy cupcakes with, you know, money, and that just adds to my overall satisfaction of the experience. Oh and did I mention that this codeword is good at all of the Sprinkles stores in the country? So if you ever find yourself in LA, Chicago, Dallas, DC, etc. you can still score yourself a free treat.

In addition to this lovely little promotion, if you join Sprinkle's birthday club you will get a coupon for a free cupcake on your birthday. Could it get any sweeter?

Macaron Gratuit (AKA: Free Macarons!)

Ever since attempting to make macarons on my own have I come to appreciate the beauty of a perfectly made little sandwich cookie. These guys are HARD to make and that's why they come with the hefty price tag you've no doubt seen at dozens of macaron bakeries that have popped up around the city in the past year.

So imagine my glee when I discovered that ALL 11 Financier Patisserie locations are giving away free macarons tomorrow 3/1 at 10:30 am. To get yours, you just need to show your loyalty card, which you can get from their website for free. From the email I received, it seems that supplies are limited so make sure to get there early if you want to taste some sweet goodness. If you miss the macarons, I'd highly recommend any thing else in their pastry display. Seriously, it's all good.

Tiramisu! Get Your Tiramisu!

It's not secret that I love the NYC food scene, but when I get to partake in it for no charge  is when I get excited. Savoia Restaurant in Caroll Gardens, is new to me but certainly not new to serving up classic Italian Cuisine in the big apple. After moving to Brooklyn from Chambers Street after 9/11, Savoia is family run and emphasizes the Italian experience, offering rustic decor and even waiters with true Italian accents. Most of their ingredients are imported direct from Italy, with perishable items locally sourced from organic farms and other food purveyors. Yelp reviewers rave about the brick oven pizzas, the paninis and even their brunch specials.

If you're in the neighborhood today, Savoia is celebrating their 10th anniversary by giving away a free glass of wine and piece of tiramisu with your dinner order. Also, they will be having a demonstration of how to make their Rigatoni alla Norma today at 5, complete with a tasting of course.

Check back soon for my review of Savoia and if you go today come back and comment how much you loved the tiramisu!

Free Groceries!

Whenever I leave NY, I love visiting those super huge "super"markets. I oogle at all of the varieties of everything, the spacious aisles and the rows and rows of convenient items - brands I've never heard of before! Alas, I come back home and can get a similar, albeit crowded and expensive, experience at Whole Foods, but in my neighborhood, I've settled for Morton Williams as my grocery store of choice.

Their selection is pretty good, they offer a fairly wide selection of produce, and the people at the check out line at least say hello to me in a pleasant matter (and that's saying a lot compared to the likes of some Gristedes I've shopped in). So when I opened my email this morning to find an offer for a $30 voucher to Morton Williams for only $15, I jumped on it. The best part, you can buy 2 per person! But hurry, there were only 600 or so vouchers left when I last checked and I'm sure those puppies are going to sell out soon.

AWESOME ALERT: Free Insomnia Cookies on the Upper East Side

Out to prove that cupcakes and macarons aren't the only kings of the dessert world, Insomnia Cookies is doing a mighty fine job of balancing out the top of the NYC sweets pyramid with their ooey gooey cookies. Even better, they deliver into the wee hours of the night, proving that it's never not time for a Snickerdoodle or White Chocolate Macadamia Nut (my favorite! hint hint!).

No newcomer to the sugar scene, the cookie chain launched at UPenn in 2003 is opening their 4th NYC store on the Upper East Side (1579 2nd Ave at 82nd Street) and celebrating with a Grand Opening December 14-18. The best part....they want all Awesome in New York readers to have a free cookie on the house! Just print out the coupon below, bring it into the new store and pick your favorite flavor! It's that easy! And feel free to tell all your friends and family as well -- you wouldn't want to be responsible for hoarding a secret about free sweets around the holidays would you?

Check out Insomnia Cookies on Twitter and Facebook for future cookie news.

Vegetarians Have More Fun

Vegetables have made a resurgence in NY cuisine in the past few years. With several upscale restaurants participating in "Meatless Mondays," and the Greenmarkets being one of the cooler places to be on a Saturday, it's no wonder there hasn't been a whole food festival to celebrate them yet. 

Entrepreneurs with a food background, Nira Paliwoda and Sarah Gross decided to start the NYC Vegetarian Food Festival this year to add to the eclectic mix of culinary celebrations in this city and promote a "cruelty free" message. Promising it will be fun for omnivores and vegetarians alike, the event (which is FREE to the general public) will feature samples and demonstrations from vendors and companies like Kombucha Brooklyn, Peeled Snacks, Peanut Butter and Co., Chicago Soy Dairy and Grab 'Em Snacks. 

The event organizers Nira and Sarah

The festival runs from 10-6 on Sunday 4/3 at The Altman Building (135 West 18th Street between 6th and 7th Avenues). I'll be there joining in the fun and snacking on some produce. VIP tickets, which include an uber-cool giftbag, quicker admission, access to the speakers series and a bottle of wine to enjoy) are sold out but Metromix is giving 2 away! You must enter today though so get on it!

Not Your Average Roach Coach

'Tis the week for free food in Manhattan, especially from trucks. 

On Monday, I caught up with the Air France Taste the Journey truck for a sampling of their new menu designed by acclaimed chef Joel Robuchon. It was fairly cold out and none of my coworkers wanted to join me fearing a huge line, so I ventured out by myself and was pleasantly surprised. Not only was the line short but by the time I finished filling out a form to enter to win a trip to Paris, I was at the front.

I was lucky enough to drop by for lunch on their last day of service, and was surprised by how pretty a plateful of food from a food truck could look! On the menu was Cucumber and Smoked Salmon Brochette, Grilled Beef Filet with Wine Truffle Sauce, Potatoes au Grain and a Carrot Cake Petit Fours.

I tried dropping by for dinner service, which included Smoked Salmon and Shrimp Rondelle, French Shepard's Pie with Duck Confit and French Macarons, but they were out by the time I got to the truck. Our friends over at I8NYC made it though, and has awesome pictures to show for it. This truck promotion is done for now, but several more are making their way through the city this week.

Though I missed the Air France truck for dinner, I wanted to make sure that I got to the Game of Thrones truck in Union Square - a promotion for the new HBO show featuring "medieval food" cooked up by star-chef Tom Colicchio. Duped again. The line was more than halfway down the block by the time I got there and they hadn't even begun serving yet. There's a lot of things I would do for free food, but waiting in the cold for an infinite amount of time isn't one of them. 

However, I saw that The NYC Menu Girl was successful with this truck and hopefully you can be too! Follow them on Twitter @GameofThrones and they will tweet their location every day this week. Today they will be near Lincoln Center at 6 p.m. and tomorrow who knows where they will end up.

Courtesy of Living Free NYC, I saw that the History Channel show Swamp People is also sending a promotional food truck around Manhattan, through tomorrow. The menu sounds, um, interesting, (swamp rabbit anyone?), but if you're open minded and want free food, track them down and then report back. Tomorrow they will be in Union Square at noon and 14th and 9th at 5 p.m. Happy hunting!

Just in: HBO will have another truck roaming the streets tomorrow serving up New Orleans-style food to showcase the show Treme. Grub Street has the deets.

Still Haven't Signed Up For Tenka?

With all of the daily deals sites out there, even I get exasperated. One of the newest, Tenka, from what I've seen, only really gives away free stuff, and you can never get too much of that. I was able to get a sandwich from Tina's Cuban, two warm and gooey cookies from Insomnia Cookies, a burrito from Toloache Taqueria and a latte from Bean and Bean all FREE! They've also created a nice little animated video to explain it even further.

Peanutastic!

Heading into the Nutripolitan Museum of Art, I wasn't quite sure what to expect. However, it's NYC, a city full of unique ideas, and I knew that this one was going to be awesome. My friend Jen came along for the festivities and as soon as we walked in, we were asked to "donate" a jar of peanut butter to the Food Bank just by putting a sticker with our name on it on the wall. Easiest thing I've ever donated!

Jen and I with the wall of stickers behind us

The invitation-only launch party was sponsored by a whole host of companies, but mainly put on by the fantastic folks over at Peanut Butter & Co. to celebrate National Peanut Month. The idea behind the gallery was basically, let's style peanut butter with a whole host of foods that may or may not go with it, photograph these creations and then display larger than life-size food porn posterboards.

Some of the food porn displayed in the gallery

Jen's favorite was titled "Pizzelle Perfect"

The crowd with a rotating peanut butter art slideshow above the bar

The space in Openhouse Gallery was packed to the brim with peanut butter lovers. I'm pretty sure they had more attendees than planned as the bar line stretched almost to the exit, but the creative peanut butter themed libations were well worth the wait. I sampled the PB&J Hooray which had Purple 3 Olives Vodka and egg whites shaken over ice with peanut butter whipped cream topping. It was quite the different sort of drink, but I liked the playfulness between the grape flavored vodka and the peanut butter on top. Jen tried the Peanut Butter Java Whiplash which had 3 Olives Vanilla, Chocolate and Espresso Vodka shaken with milk and topped with peanut butter whipped cream and chopped peanuts and graham crackers.

Peanut Butter Java Whiplash (L) and PB&J Hooray (R)

At a peanut butter party, one would expect peanut butter, but not quite in the myriad of combinations that were served by waiters who could barely pass their trays out the door before having to return to the kitchen for refills. The first thing I tried was the Peanut Slaw prepared by Chef Suvir Saran of Devi. It was rather spicy, but refreshing. Other savory favorites included the Peanut Potage by Chef Ben Leezal of Buerre d'Arachede et Cie. I still can't tell you what potage is, but it was like a viscous soup with maybe some potatoes and an essence of peanut. The Penne with Peanut Pesto and Chicken Sate were wonderful as well. 

Peanut Slaw with the event's menu

Onto more sweet options, waiters were passing around breads with four different combinations of peanut butters and toppings. Using Peanut Butter & Co.'s own flavored peanut butters, the combinations were White Chocolate Wonderful with fresh blueberries, Dark Chocolate Dreams with sliced strawberries, Crunch Time with toasted marshmallows and Mighty Maple with smoked bacon, although I think the flavors and toppings may have gotten switched around a bit. The Mighty Maple was my favorite peanut butter, but it was so nice to enjoy fresh strawberries for the first time in a while. To top it all off, we also tried Magic Bars, which are like an "everything but the kitchen sink" sort of sweet concoction. So delicious and I got the recipe!

Dark Chocolate Dreams with a Toasted Marshmallow

Mighty Maple with Smoked Bacon

The rest of the night was spent noshing, enjoying the art and palling around with my new monkey friend. Everyone seemed to have a great time celebrating an awesome New York idea brought to life.

Me and my monkey friend

To me, a great event is one that I leave happy, full and feeling like I've experienced something unique. Major bonus points come in the form of a great gift bag, and this party scored major awesome bonus points! Not only did I take home two jars of Peanut Butter & Co.'s famous peanut butters (Mighty Maple and Smooth Operator), but I also received Traditional Virginian Peanut Soup from Montebello Kitchens, a ladle to go with it, Protein Plus Peanut Flour, Sir Francis Bacon Peanut Brittle, Peri-Peri Good hot spiced peanuts, Q.bel peanut butter and chocolate cookies, peanut caramels from Liddabit Sweets and packaged peanuts from Ricky's Lucky Nuts. Let's just say I'll be getting my peanut fix for the next year. 

My awesome peanut goodie bag

Thanks to my friend Jeff, who writes the awesome food blog I8NYC, I also scored a jar of Peanut Butter & Co.'s The Heat is On peanut butter. I can't wait to experiment with that one!

The Nutripolitan Museum of Art is open through tomorrow at the Openhouse Gallery in Soho. I would totally recommend going not only for the art, but every guest will get to take home a jar of peanut butter. In addition, Peanut Butter & Co. will donate one jar of peanut butter to the Food Bank for NYC for every person who visits the gallery.