Bedford Ave Brooklyn - Hasidic Jewish Community

We wondered down Bedford Avenue in Brooklyn Yesterday and discovered the Hasidic Jewish community enjoying an after school Side Show Fair

They have large families , 6 kids seems to be an average. In a very average working class area.

This boy won himself 2 goldfish.

The kids in each family wear a kind of matching uniform. The mothers are dressed plainly in fact drably while the fathers all wear the traditional costume. They all stick closely together.

Men buying leaves  as part of the Sukkot harvest festival - apparently they whack them on the ground for forgiveness of their sins.

Jam

We met Colin at the Dumbo Arts festival , he was selling jam he had made . Colin travels arround on his bike complete with  portable pantry  , collecting berries from urban trees and making his jam on the spot . He has some other interesting projects , check out his website , I like what he does. www.emceecm.com

Just Shots #1

Kirsty's group -1 of 5- won the scavenger hunt photo shoot at school.

A perfect bike cover.

My Dr says you should walk bare foot in the park as much as possible.

If you can hold your dog it can go on the train.

Kirsty, Jeanette and Shatze, East Village.

La Sirena walking tour.

Not long after we arrived in NYC we came across a great little Mexican gift shop in the East village, La Sirena" - www.lasirenanyc.com- run by Dina , a Bella Pacific kinda gal , once a month she takes a walking tour of the Mexican part of Queens - take the 7 train to Jackson Heights - Queens side , and there under the railway lines just like Brighton and Flushing you'll find an area that caters to yet another NYC ethnic group.
We had a fun afternoon , not your usual tour, every one on the tour lived in NYC , most spoke Spanish and where customers of Dina's.

We started off with a great Mexican lunch in a local family run bakery and restaurant that specialised in cakes for all occasions , the food was as good as Mexican food can get, fresh tasty and cheap - we'll take you there when you come over - then strolled the streets looking at religious supply shops , food markets where you could buy all the varieties of chili available in Mexico, Oaxacan cheese, 6 different kinds of fresh tortilla, fresh cactus for eating it was almost as good as being in Mexico, we also browsed shops selling Mexican cowboy boots, shirts , hats, chaps and spurs.
Plus other shops selling traditional puffy fluffy gowns for Quincenera a Latin celebration when girls turn15- christenings and weddings, colourful yarn shops and finally hit a local bar to have a few cervecas.

The hard core remained at the end of the day.

I may even carve a pumpkin

For the past week we have been staying in Danielle's apartment in Brooklyn while she is away . Its a great area lots of brownstones with stoops , pretty tree lined streets and  great for shopping, bars and restaurants.

Just across the road is a fab food market , probably twice as expensive as anywhere else but the variety is mind blowing , you don't even realise as you bop your way around the aisles to great jazz and sampling fresh guacamole and cheeses from around the world - just how quickly your trolley is filling up, and how you probably don't actually need dinner from all sample sampling.
If only they had champagne and oysters...... perhaps next week.

Grand Central Oyster Bar

A magnificent restaurant set under the tiled arches at Grand Central Station , choose from an enormous variety of oysters from all over America ,Canada , Ireland and even NZ Cleveland , but lets not tell them about the Bluff , freshly shucked for each order, not a bad place for lunch. The place is huge, its got to seat 100 or even 200 ! and the oysters scrumptious.
Check out www.oysterbarny.com for the daily menu.

Flushing

Glimpse down a quiet side street

If you catch the 7 train to the end of the line from Mahattan , you'll descend from the overhead railway into the hectic streets of Flushing in Queens, another pocket of NYC that is home for a large part of the Chinese population.

Geoduck or gooey duck, is a major aphrodisiac - Love Muscle!

Frogs

Or perhaps a packet of nice fresh ducks tongues.

Fantastic fruit and veges fresh meats and fish , steaming pork buns , noodle bars and nail bars.
We brought a couple of delicious fresh red hook lobsters which we cooked up and devoured wordlessly when we arrived back home.

We Love Bryant Park

An impressive Midtown Manhattan park is an oasis in the bustling  throng of this great city.

Before the crowds descend.

Surrounded by an array of skyscrapers built over the past 150 years or so , including  important NYC landmarks like the New York Public library and the stunning black and gold roofed American Radiator Building.
Its moments away from Kirsty's school and absolutely the best place to hang out , grab a bite to eat and people watch.
Amongst the many great features of the park are the  free yoga classes , not that I'm ready to bare my lycra clad butt to the business folk of Manhattan but some do.
You can borrow a book or read a magazine for free , play ping pong and petanque , watch the ballet , listen to jazz bands ....the list is endless and it's all free , there are enough tables and chairs for everyone .
When the humidity on Friday night was getting too much for us off we went to the park to drink beers at the south west corner where you can loll around in rocking or cape cod chairs and if you're lucky- swing away in a double swing chair,  Ella Fitzgerald singing away in the background, its a fairy tail.
I could go on for ever about this fantastic park,
In the winter you can ice skate ! so checkout www.bryantpark.org to see whats coming up next.

Even the lous are palatial , complete with beautiful flower arragnments , fresh toilet seat covers every time and a soothing violin concerto to pee away to.

Brighton Beach - Little Odessa

Just 15mins down the boardwalk from Coney Island is Brighton Beach.

The population is  predominantly Russian.

 One street back from the beach boardwalk is Brighton Beach Av the main shopping street which runs underneath the busy rumbling railway lines.

Not every one is old in Brighton.

Kirsty has a penchant for , gray hair , wrinkles and walking frames.