A Sunny Picnic Under Cloudy Skies

More from the archives.

It was a cloudy day at Coney Island and all the benches were filled, but that didn’t stop these determined picnickers.

They knew how to make their own sunshine; they just plopped down on the boardwalk next to the school bus parking lot and munched on hot dogs and fries wrapped in the distinctive, bright yellow of Nathan’s Famous.

Nathan’s Famous

Red Hook Ballfields

It began a few decades ago but until recently, the vendors who sell food at the Red Hook Ball Fields were known only to a select and enthusiastic crowd.

Once upon a time, a group of Latin American immigrants formed a soccer league and began playing regularly on the public sports fields in Brooklyn’s Red Hook Park. Located in a swath of open space between gritty warehouses, docks and a vast public housing project, the 59-acre park featured an abundance of room to run and the isolation to make plenty of noise.

There were only two drawbacks to the location: it was a long walk from the closest subway station, and there were no shops or restaurants nearby where the players could buy refreshments. In response to the lack of available food and drink, a few of the league wives brought grills to the matches and began cooking on the spot for their hungry broods.

Soon, the women were cooking at the fields every summer weekend, selling their regional and family specialities to the enthusiastic athletes and specatators. As the league grew, and other nationalities joined the matches, the variety of dishes sold at the field also expanded. Today, the Red Hook Ball Fields offer soccer, baseball, running and the finest of South and Central American home cooking.

When artists and hipsters began to move into the empty industrial spaces of Red Hook, they also “discovered” the vendors under the tents at the Ball Fields. Word spread rapidly, and in the last two years nearly every major local magazine and newspaper has run at least one feature on what New York Magazine described as the city’s “ad hoc Latin American food court.”

In fact, there are two groups of vendors at the Red Hook Ball Fields: the much-lauded, organized cooks near the soccer fields and the less noted vendors across Columbia Street near the baseball fields. Both locations offer home made Latin American specialties, but the newcomers rarely visit the baseball field vendors; as a result, the lines are much shorter there, but there is also far less likelihood of finding a printed menu or a vendor who speaks perfect English.

Lately, the vendors at the Ball Fields have run up against the bureaucrats at the Parks Department and the Department of Health. As a result, many foodies believe that this could be the last summer that the delectable Mexican, Central American, South American and Caribbean treats will be sold under the tarps and tents at Red Hook. Activist and organizer Cesar Fuentes is doing all he can to fight City Hall, but the outcome of his efforts won’t be known for months.

So, quick, lest they disappear, come down to the ‘Hook and dig into the Columbian empanadas, Ecuadorian ceviche, Salvadoran pupusas, Mexican huaraches, Honduran tacos, Chilean tuna stew and more, along with gallons of fruit waters and mountains of succulent, freshly-cut mango, pineapple, coconut and papaya.

You’ll run out of room in your tummy before you run short of cash; most of the delicious offerings cost less than $5.00 each. While you munch away, don’t forget to watch a game or two.

The sign at the soccer fields

Munching on a quesadilla

Waiting for papusas

Cut mango, jicima, papaya, cucumber, melon

Guatemalan goodies (including stuffed potato) on the grill

Grilling ears of corn

Preparing meat tacos

Jars of aguas frescas (fruit waters)

Grilling wooden skewers of meat

Preparing corn with lime, mayonnaise, cheese & chile

Making charcoal-grilled steaks for tacos

Eating a hurrache

Soccer players

Pitcher during a baseball game

It’s My Park: Red Hook Food Vendors Video
NY Magazine: The Last Summer of the Red Hook Park Vendors?
Eater: Red Hook Vendors Have 10 Days to Address Health Dept.
The Porkchop Express: Red Hook, the Drama Continues
NY Parks Dept: Red Hook Park
NY Magazine: Tour Red Hook Ball Fields With Chef Aaron Sanchez
Time Out New York: On the Hook
NY Times: A Latin Fiesta, Near the B.Q.E.
NY Times: Stuffing Tortillas and Parkgoers, Dawn to Dusk
NY Magazine: Mmmm, the Red Hook Ball Fields
NY Times: A Potted Palm Grows in Brooklyn
The Porkchop Express: Red Hook Soccer Fields
The Porkchop Express: Red Hook Soccer Fields Map
Gothamist: Soccer, Swimming Y Salsa
Gothamist: Soccer Mamacitas
Ed Levine Eats: Chuck Schumer Makes Goat Tacos Good Politics
onNYTurf: Red Hook Soccer Fields Map (w/subway lines)
NY Sun: On the Red Hook Waterfront
Village Voice: Plotzing for Masa (Not Matzo)

Swordfish and Roosters and Rams. Oh, my!

Deep in Brooklyn’s Sunset Park neighborhood, across from a tile factory and hard by an auto body shop, an eye catching sign stands at the corner of 21st Street and 3rd Avenue.

Adorned with images of a ram, a swordfish and a rooster, in three languages it advertises the Al-Noor Halal Live Poultry Market.

Intrigued by the sign, I ducked around the corner to visit the store. All I’ll say is that for a person like me (accustomed to meat that comes from a white-coated, genial butcher standing behind a gleaming, sanitized counter), slaughterhouses are not suitable for casual visits.

Oh, my!

Black Electorate: Growing Muslim Community Brings New Traditions To The Neighborhood

The Little Italy Pasta Eating Contest

Its heyday as a center of Italian-American life passed long ago. While tourists still flock to this section of lower Manhattan to eat spaghetti and buy souvenirs, several other neighborhoods in New York eagerly proclaim themselves as the real Little Italy.

But authentic or not, today this block had something no other neighborhood could claim — a pasta eating contest.

Presented by the Little Italy Merchants Association and sponsored by Tuttorosso tomatoes and Rienzi Pasta, the event known as the Fifth Annual Tuttorosso Pasta Eating Competition was held on Mulberry Street.

The participants, all male, work in shops and kitchens around Mulberry and Grand Streets. They gathered at a long table on the sidewalk in front of Sal Anthony’s S.P.Q.R. Ristorante. There, the contestants donned white aprons, sat down and — for eight long minutes — devoured bowl after bowl of carefully-measured spaghetti and marinara sauce.

Some barely spilled a drop of sauce, tightly clutching their forks until the end, while others threw decorum to the wind and dug in with both hands. The winner, Fabrizio Rinaldi, a waiter at Il Cortile, earned a cash prize of $250, a shiny gold trophy, a handshake from a politician and a fleeting, messy moment of glory.

The competition is underway

Digging in with forks & hands

Going for a close-up

Fabrizio Rinaldi received the cup

Little Italy Online: 5th Annual Pasta Competition
Association of Independent Competitive Eaters
Gothamist: Tidbits
NY Post: Lotsa Pasta
Sorrento Cheese Summer in Little Italy Festival
Little Italy Neighbors Association
Wikipedia: Little Italy
Sorrento Cheese & Italian street festivals
Menu Pages: Sal Anthony’s S.P.Q.R. Ristorante
Tuttorosso

Big Apple BBQ 2007

The smoke was billowing, the sauce was bubbling. The beer was chilling, the beans were heating, the slaw was cooling and the dogs were licking their chops.

It was a great day for eaters, a nightmare of a day for vegetarians and cardiologists. It was the 2007 edition of the Big Apple Bar*BQ & Block Party.

For the fifth year in a row, barbeque experts from around the USA gathered in Madison Square Park to cook, sell their tastiest creations and preach the gospel of the grill.

Although some folks decried the BBQ’s lack of a representative from Kansas City, the fest included pitmasters from Alabama, North and South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virigina, Boston and even Manhattan, dishing up tons of ribs, sausages, pulled pork, chicken, Brunswick Stew, beans, pickles, cole slaw, apple turnovers and blueberry pie.

And for dieters, it was a terrible, awful, no-good, very bad day.

Big Apple BBQ Welcome sign

Eating Baker’s Ribs

Manning the grill at Jake’s Boss BBQ

Cooking pig skin at Ed Mitchell

Dining on the curb

Bench full of barbeque eaters

Feeding the dogs

Eating from paper baskets

Using newspaper boxes as tables

Wendy the Snapple lady

Basting ribs at Rack & Soul

Picnicking on the grass

Using a window ledge as a table

Stirring the Proclamation Stew Crew’s Brunswick Stew

Ryan Shaw singing

Licking up every last drop

Big Apple Bar*BQ & Block Party
Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day
Eater: Let the Dieting Commence
Off The Broiler: Big Apple Block Party
Chowhound: Big Apple BBQ

With Liberty and Burgers for All

Tonight, a minor commotion occurred outside the Burger King on 14th Street. A statuesque woman emerged from the restaurant and was immediately surrounded by people screaming, shouting and begging for autographs.

Leaning against the front window, New York Liberty Guard Loree Moore graciously signed napkins, menus and scraps of paper and posed for photos with her fans.

A star athlete eating burgers? Aren’t they restricted to diets of filtered water, vitamins, protein powders and tofu? Moore laughed, shook her head, and said that she eats what she likes and she prefers burgers.

Hmmm. A scandal-free professional basketball player and role model who loves burgers? Sounds like an endorsement deal just waiting to happen. Burger King, are you listening?

Loree Moore  

The star with fans  

New York Liberty
Loree Moore
Burger King

Egg Rolls and Egg Creams Block Party

This section of the Lower East Side, Eldridge Street between Canal and Division, was once the home of a thriving community of Eastern European Jews. In 1887, they constructed the jewel of their block - the Eldridge Street Synagogue, an imposing Moorish-style building with a vaulted ceiling, stained glass windows, ornate brass fixtures, hand-painted murals and a velvet-lined ark.

Over time, the center of New York Jewish life moved elsewhere and the area began to fill with immigrants from other areas, primarily China. The Synagogue’s congregation dwindled, the operating budget became smaller and the building fell into disrepair. As a tiny group of worshippers hung on, the roof caved in, the walls crumbled and the entire structure neared collapse. Then, in the late 1980s, historians and community activitists “discovered” the building and formed the Eldridge Street Project, Inc., determined to restore and preserve this landmark.

Today, with the restoration project well underway, the Eldridge Street Project is sponsoring the 4th Annual Egg Rolls and Egg Creams Block Party. This unique event celebrates the evolving culture and traditions of this densely-packed community with nods to both its Jewish heritage and its Chinese present.

The block party features the language, arts, music, dance and foods of both cultures, including mah jong lessons, a Chinese calligrapher and a Jewish scribe, arts and crafts, performances in Yiddish and Chinese, and, of course, delicious home made kosher egg rolls (a fried variation of the classic Chinese spring roll which contains no egg) and egg creams (a traditional New York soda fountain drink which contains no egg).

How to Make an Egg Cream according to Fox’s U-Bet Chocolate Syrup

1. Take a tall, chilled, straight-sided, 8 oz. glass.
2. Spoon 1 inch of U-Bet Chocolate Syrup into glass.
3. Add 1 inch whole milk.
4. Tilt the glass and spray seltzer (from a pressurized cylinder only) off a spoon to make a big chocolate head.
5. Stir, drink, enjoy.

Making egg creams for an eager crowd

Master egg cream maker

Mah jong on the sidewalk

Calligrapher, scribe and the tools of their trades

Restoration in progress

Selling kosher eggrolls

The yarmulke is a present for Daddy

Her first yarmulke; she made it herself

Eldridge Street Project

Eldridge Street synagogue Tour

New York Architecture: Eldridge Street Synagogue

Fox’s U-Bet Chocolate Syrup

Greenmarket Morning

The Greenmarkets are a city-sponsored program designed to help regional farmers stay in business and give city residents access to fresh produce. The program started in 1976 and today nearly 50 Greenmarkets are located throughout the city on selected days during the growing season. The rules say that “all items must be grown, raised, foraged, caught, or otherwise produced by the seller.”

For many New Yorkers, the Greenmarkets are our only opportunity to interact with farmers, so every shopping trip becomes an education — for both buyer and seller. Many Greenmarket farmers have learned that we are happy to try new and exotic items, so, as the seasons change, the tables often feature products rarely (if ever) sold in most supermarkets: tiny lavender and white striped eggplant, cucumbers the size and color of ripe lemons, stalks of ivory-white rhubarb, baby golden-hued beets, pale green fiddlehead ferns, shiny, chocolate-brown peppers, deep blue fingerling potatoes, knishes stuffed with black beans and corn, ginger-flavored lumps of maple sugar, goat cheese studded with caraway seeds, red, yellow and orange nasturtium flowers and Japanese turnips sweet enough to be eaten raw like apples.

On summer Saturdays a Greenmarket operates on the plaza in front of Brooklyn Borough Hall and the Federal Courthouse. A bustling, green oasis in the middle of one of Brooklyn’s busiest areas, it is a movable community — a place where, once a week, the hustle and noise of the city seem to fade while people gather to snack on a fresh-baked cookie, search for the perfect centerpiece, exchange cooking hints, flirt and gossip.

This is a perfect, clear Saturday and season’s gorgeous, delicious bounty is filling the plaza. Sweet corn on the cob, crispy green peppers, tree-ripened peaches, fragrant raspberries, gigantic, bulbous leeks, carefully-packaged green and yellow squash blossoms and delicate, curling tendrils of garlic shoots are displayed next to stands filled with fresh baked goods, herbs and flowers, fish, meat, poultry, honey, eggs and cheese.

The turkey farmer was sizzling samples of his homemade sausage on a grill. At a bakery stand, a tray of broken cookies was available for sampling. A farmer who specializes in fruit spread her homemade jam on crackers and artfully arranged them on a paper plate while a girl nearby set out slices of ripe, juicy peaches. It was impossible not to taste and buy, taste and buy, taste and buy.

Banner hung on subway station entrance 

Flowers 

Sunflowers for sale 

Sidewalk sign 

Zucchini and basil 

Flower stand 

Bakery stand 

Peppers and eggplants 

Fresh corn for sale 

Sampling raspberries 

Greenmarket Farmers Market

Cornell University Community, Food, and Agriculture Program

U.S. Department of Agriculture Farm Service Agency