Who Says You Can't Be Paid in Food?

Ah volunteering. The best way to get free stuff in my experience. And with all of these high end events happening in NYC practically every day, there's sure to be an event that piques your interest and offers substantial awesome value.

One such event that I salivate over every year, though the expense has been a persistent hurdle to my attendance, is the New York City Wine and Food Festival. Practically every star chef, baker, mixologist and sommelier will be cooking, chopping, pureeing and most importantly feeding the masses at many specialize seminars and demonstrations throughout the Columbus Day weekend festival.

Here's the good news for you if you didn't RSVP for some of these events back in April or can't really justify spending $400 on a one-hour event, you can volunteer. Fill out the form and if you're lucky enough to be contacted you may be doing some heavy lifting or gift-bag packing (if you're super lucky there might be an extra for you to take home!), but you'll get to hobnob with Food Network chefs, sample elegant and tasty culinary wonders and get a discount code to attend an event.

I wouldn't wait if I were you to fill out that form because I'm sure these spots will fill up fast. If you happen to snag one, come back and share the awesomeness in a comment :)

New York Knowledge (and perks!)

One of the best decisions I made in the past year was joining the Museum of the City of New York as a "Young Member." If you've ever been, you've undoubtedly sampled some of the most superb exhibits in the entire city and (BONUS!) you actually get to learn about your surroundings and how they got that way. You've also oogled at some of the museums collection of furniture and other artifacts from the turn of the century. (And I'm not talking about the one that just happened 10 years ago).

General admission is a suggested donation of $10 ($6 for seniors and students) and that will enable to you see three rotating exhibits ranging from NY State ecological history, original Dutch artifacts from the time of Henry Hudson and classic Life Magazine photographs that defined eras in the city. This is a museum you can get through in about two hours, feel like you saw everything and not doze off in the process. My kind of place.

I joined because of the extra perks. A one-year Young Member's Circle membership is $100 and is available for people ages 21-39. Hosting a new and exclusive event every month, the museum does a great job of entertaining us. In the spring, we were granted access to a behind-the-scenes tour of the NYC Auto Show, which coincided with the museum's exhibit on the history of the car in the city. With artist studio visits and movie screenings (hello, how do you think I got in to see Dinner for Schmucks?), the events are amazing experiences which I would be jealous of if I wasn't already there.

Me "driving" a REALLY expensive car at the NYC Auto Show

In addition to the monthly events, I'm invited to all museum openings with a plus one. Champagne is always a flowing and hors d'ouevers are a plenty. There are lots of the right noses to rub wandering around as well. MCNY's newest exhibit, Notorious and Notable: 20th Century Women of Style, opened to the public yesterday and I attended the opening on Monday night. From what else I've seen at the museum, this is a special presentation MCNY's costume collection. It recognizes women from across the past century and showcases some lovely, stunning and some pretty extravagant ensembles which have been exquisitely preserved. If I knew how to make silk chiffon from the 1920s look good as new 90 years later like they do, I'd be rich. My favorites were a dark purple Dior gown and a 1996 Norman Norell gown for Lauren Bacall.

The red section of the exhibit (Photo courtesy of NY Social Diary)

Lauren Bacall's 1966 gown I loved ( (Photo courtesy of NY Social Diary)

MCNY also has a very very very informative exhibit on John Lindsay, the former mayor of NYC, and the era in which he served. For a relative newbie to the city (2 years and 1 month today!), the history presented through the photographs, videos and explanations gave me a great background to understanding how the city got to be the way it is. All I have to say is that things were just plain crazy here in the 60s and 70s. It's only on view until October 3, so hurry over and make sure you get to check it out.

Another perk for joining, as if you need another one, is you get a book of one of the current exhibits. They make great coffee table decorations and conversation pieces. Lastly, if you're over 39, you can still join the museum and enjoy all the great benefits. 

It's your city, go learn about it. And then you can impress all of your out-of-town guests with your even larger bank of NYC knowledge.

Because You Just Can't Have Too Many Aerial Shots

I recently visited family in Denver and as the plane took off out of La Guardia airport, it took a different route over the city than it normally does. In fact we went right over the South Bronx and the tip of Manhattan. I was quick to grab my ever handy camera (even though technically electronic devices weren't supposed to be on yet...shhhh!) and snap some pretty awesome, though hazy shots of the city on a Wednesday afternoon. Enjoy!

The Biggins, Nuf Said

Thursday was a very good day. Not only was it a great day for freebies throughout the city (ie: Fekkai styling products and Van Leeuwen Ice Cream), but it was a great day for a Biggins Cupcake from the Cupcake Stop Truck.

I was updated via Twitter that the truck would be giving away 200 of these heavenly monstrosities at 1 p.m. last Thursday and chef Robert Hesse from seasons 5 and 6 of Hell's Kitchen (my guilty pleasure food show) would be on hand to sign autographs and hand out cupcakes. Sugar + Reality Show Celebrity? I pretty much had to go. 

The crowd outside the truck near Madison Square

Now the Biggins is no ordinary cupcake. Talk about gluttony. It's chocolate cake with a secret compartment of caramel and pecans on the inside, topped with a mound of peanut butter frosting and a double chocolate cookie and drizzled in caramel. I was able to pick up mine after only a short wait and I think my taste buds exploded just upon touching the thing.

The Biggins Cupcake

Before I made a mess of myself and enjoyed my dessert, I wanted to get a picture with Robert for the kids back home (that's you guys). He's a really mellow sweet guy - totally different in person than on the show being ridiculed and lambasted by Gordon Ramsay.

Chef Robert Hesse and Me

This is the second time I've experienced a free cupcake from the Cupcake Stop Truck, so if I were you, I'd make sure to follow their Twitter feed so that you can take advantage of the next one. Happy mmmmmm-ing!

Gratis Wining

Don't you just love when you find out about a series of ongoing events that you can attend free of charge, without a reservation, in a centrally located establishment, where you can taste (and by taste I mean get pretty tipsy off of) about four dozen different alcoholic beverages made from grapes, sometimes sample food and then purchase said beverages at a discounted price? Well, I do. If you do too, I highly suggest visiting Union Square Wines for one of their future Saturday wine tasting events.

 I popped in to the fairly large wine shop on the NW corner of 13th Street and 4th Avenue last Saturday afternoon for their Spanish Wine and Tapas Party with a couple of USW veteran friends. It's rare for me to turn down a free tasting so off I went, half expecting to be there for maybe half hour then find some cool coffee shop nearby and stay out of the rain. The store itself is neatly laid out with wines from all over the world, an exclusive tasting room up front where members can enjoy samples of some elite wines whenever tickles their fancy, and a bar area in the back where a good number of staff members were curating the tasting.

Even as a recently discovered oenophile (I don't claim to be an expert, but I have gotten know bit of terminology) I was lost in the Spanish descriptions and the Spanish names of the different grapes. So I was happy to just grab a glass and follow the herd. All said and done, we probably walked out of there after tasting at least 20 different wines. The selection ranged from sparkling whites, oaked whites and roses (very unique), smoky reds which tasted like a bbq in a bottle, and some fruity reds. Pricing on the bottles was very affordable, from about $10-$40 on average. I ended up purchasing one of the oaked roses, and if you know me, you know I'm sort of finicky on the rose side, so that was definitely some yummy stuff I tried. Since we got there on around 3:45, they were out of food, but word has it some great tapas samples were being circulated.

If you make a purchase, you are eligible to join USW as a member. You get a fancy card and everything. Basically, it's a point system. They start you off with 500 courtesy points and you get about 10 points per dollar spent every time you buy. You can spend the points in that elite tasting room previously mentioned, where they sometimes offer wines sold at more than $100 a bottle.

The next advertised event is for this Saturday from 2-5, the USQ's BLT Fest 2010: The Summer Series Final. They'll be pouring an assortment of different wines along with some good ole bacon, lettuce and tomato.I would get there closer to the 2 side so as to be able to snag some food. If you can't make it this weekend, keep checking the website all year long for some awesome looking ways to get drunk for free, I mean ways to be classy and refined. I'll definitely be back!

Squeals of Deals

You've heard of a love-hate relationship. Well, I have a love-love relationship with a website called Postabon. I've written about the fanciful prizes both my boyfriend and I have won by being active members (Met's tickets, iPad, Peter Luger's gift certificate, helicopter tour...) and people often ask me a one word question - HOW?!

First let me give you a little background. Postabon started as a final project for a couple of Harvard Business School students and turned into a full-fledged company after obtaining financial backing in 2009. The idea behind the site is sort of a community for deal sharers, Foursquare meets Retailmenot meets Google Maps. Users earn "Karma Points" for posting, sharing and commenting on deals around the city. I caught on to this genius back in May when they were offering Met's tickets to the first 20 users who earned 500 Karma Points. Simple enough.

Next time I logged in and the steaks were raised. An iPad was up for grabs for the user who earned the most Karma Points in a week. That's when I went a little gung-ho and ended up winning the contest, much to the surprise of pretty much everyone I knew. When I actually whip-out my new favorite toy is when I get all the queries of how they can get in on the action as well.

Another great thing about the site is that it's easy to use and provides great benefits for little effort. If you want to casually share some deals you find walking down the street, great. If you want to use the site and it's iPhone app (soon to be newly designed and available at the app store) to find deals in your neighborhood, cool. Or you can also get super into the site, apply to become a Guru (involves sending an email and getting a super-cool icon next to your name) and go for the contest wins, I'd welcome the competition. There are options for everyone.

Postabon also holds awesome events for Gurus. I recently attended a happy hour at West 3rd Common and a dinner at Brasserie Les Halles where I got to meet other Postabon-ers and swap deal tips. They also keep a pretty cool blog which features deals members post.

The majority of activity is currently in NYC, but they are expanding into other major cities like Chicago, San Francisco and Boston so all you have to do is sign up and start posting. Trust me, it's worth it :)

Let's Get Schnitzified!

One of my first Twitterelationships was with the Schnitzel & Things Truck. I was just learning about hashtags and follow fridays when a blog that I follow, Midtown Lunch, did a feature on the fried flattened chicken (as well as other proteins) on wheels business. I was intrigued. I grabbed a friend and we stood in a 15-minute long line honestly not knowing what to expect. We saw large platters being carried away by people who looked like they had waited their entire lives for this moment and we were excited. We wait and wait and finally we're first in line and...the truck has to move. But then it sat there for a good while after we left.

Disappointed and with only 40 minutes left on lunch break, we grabbed a deli sandwich and I Tweeted. 

"@Yaelleah: Sad 2b first turned away by @schnitzeltruck. But u sat in the same spot for @ least a half hr while u were "closing"? I wanted chik schnitz!"

An hour later, I learned the power of Twitter. I was offered a free lunch just for speaking up. About a week after, the truck was back in my work neighborhood and I grabbed another friend and we were off to get some schnitz. Surprisingly, both of us were offered free sandwiches and signature Tahitian vanilla pana cottas. We were in schnitz love.

The Schnitzel Truck parked downtown

One year later, I'm a devoted Schnitz fan. For those of you unfamiliar with this awesome food, it's basically flattened and fried chicken/pork/veal/cod/burger (yes, burger) on a sandwich with grilled bread, lettuce, tomato and a choice of gourmet condiments. My favorite menu items are the Chicken Schnitzel sandwich with pesto mayo ($8) and for sides the beet and feta salad and the Austrian potato salad ($10 with a schnitzel platter).

Chicken Schnitzel platter with beet and feta and Austrian potato salad

One of my other favorite things about Schnitzel & Things is its origins. The man behind the truck and Twitter account, Oleg Voss, was a former investment banker who decided that life looked better on the schnitz side, turned his life upside down and started this business. I say kudos to him and his business partner Jared Greenhouse for having an idea and sticking to it. Makes my lunch breaks that much more exciting. See you downtown next Monday!

To check with the truck will be in your neck of the woods next, follow their blog and twitter account and let me know how much you love the food :)