Food Festivals are the ultimate test of endurance. I mean sure, marathons and the like are impressive also, but hear me out. There are so many options and so little stomach space that it becomes a finely tuned and intricately planned dance between the offerings and your appetite. I do love a good food festival, but I use the term loosely – basically any place with a wide variety of food options is pure joy to me. That includes any buffet, food court, salad bar, etc. The Whole Foods food station? A revelation.

So imagine how excited I was when we passed Greeley Square on a visit to New York City the other day and saw the Urbanspace tents up. After a bit of online investigating, we found out that Urbanspace is a company that ‘creates immersive public markets’ and that the one that we saw was a summer pop-up called Broadway Bites. This one was located in Greeley Square, on Broadway, between 32nd and 33rd Street. We checked out the vendor listing (you can find it here) and planned the rest of our day. *insert spy music here with images of us rolling out a map, typing frantically on the computer, and strapping on the lightest gear to minimize drag*

Our plan was, go there to eat, then head over to the Macy’s in Herald Square (right across the street), and finish some shopping (because that place is huge!), then head back over for round 2.

You can find the full list of vendors here, but I was pretty set on dumplings so I found Silly Chilly and Daa! Dumplings on the listing. Daa! Dumplings was actually Russian cuisine. Tempting, but not what I was craving. Silly Chilly had a fantastic option that I’m really mad that I didn’t try: Grasshopper Dumplings. I told myself at the time that I’d regret it if I didn’t try it, and I well, I do regret it. Thanks, past me.

The dumplings are steamed fresh as you wait. My mom chose the very cool Chick’nCone (chicken in a waffle cone) and both of us were quite happy with our meals.

We later came back and bought food from Croton Reservoir Tavern, who offered a variety of Sliders, Frosé (a frozen Rose wine slushie which was so good that it played a part in getting my mom to buy me a beer) and sweet potato fries.

Other stalls were selling a pretty great variety of stuff – beer, California ‘street food’ which is basically a big bowl of healthy food, a doner kebap place that I kept feeling bad we didn’t buy from since the guy was very nice and polite, and Bao (and those I remember from the top of my head). For those of you who remember the Ramen Burger craze a while back (burgers but with ramen as the bread), there is a stall there too.

For my dessert (guess I’m the only endurance eater in the family), I thoroughly enjoyed a Luigi Ice Cream sandwich from Melt, which was pistachio ice cream sandwiched between two homemade chocolate cherry cookies.

This installation lasts until June 15 and is open from 11:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m., so you have some time to check it out. Urbanspace however has regular Markets in New York, so check out their site for their other locations.

Also if you try the Grasshopper Dumplings and loved them, be sure to tell past me that’s she’s an idiot. Its the that got (hopped?) away. Sigh.