After seven years of fancy feasts in Manhattan, LUCKYRICE brought the festivities to Brooklyn for the first time, at Industry City in Sunset Park. The rain held up and the temperatures cooled, making this a terrific site to showcase 30+ restaurants and their Asian-inspired cuisines from around the city. The move to Brooklyn drew a younger, more casual crowd and honorary co-host Dale Talde made sure that Brooklyn chefs were well represented.

Mr. Bing’s Jian Bing – a crepe of mung bean & rice flour, filled with Manischewitz chicken, egg, sesame, scallions, cilantro, hoisin sauce, chili paste and wontons – captured New York City and Asia in every bite. Red Farm’s crab and shrimp dumplings – adorable in blue wrappers with sauce eyeballs – reminded us of their place atop the NYC dumpling hierarchy.

Bunsmith surprised us with endive, rather than bao, as a base for braised pork jowl – and we loved the interjection of bitter freshness. Bricolage’s pig ear salad merited repeat visits, delivering bursts of big flavor of (chili, fish sauce and soy sauce) around chewy bites. Yaso Tango – a place that’s new to us – riffed cleverly on spring rolls, with sauerkraut around poached chicken and carrots.

Perry Street brought a tuna tartare much like the one we devour regularly at their bar. Le Chine brought delicately-flavored sous vide chicken bites, plus fun fortune cookies. Tuome’s Snow Crab Noodles with Dashi Butter reminded us (as if we’d forget) why we’re huge fans of Tommy Chen’s cooking. Maharlika’s spam roulade crossed all sorts of borders (as we would expect from Miguel); poor Nicole was deluged by fans.

Amidst all this fermentation, cold Asahi beers obviously suited us fine – but there was much more drinking on offer. A sponsorship deal means all the cocktails were gin-based – which is fine in my book, particularly for a summer party. Some of the city’s best drink makers were out in creative force. Pam Wiznitzer of Seamstress added sake, white tea-infused vermouth, Suze and yuzu tincture to her Away We Go. Masa Urushido refreshed us with spicy Agua Verde punch. Robert Krueger of Extra Fancy brought out the blender to cool us off with frozen gin and tonics to end the night.

By Matt Bruck/Columnist for Chefs Society