Greetings from Brooklyn, NY

[mountaingal]

Re: Greetings from Brooklyn, NY

where was i? o yes, the second half of my last day in Brooklyn. After the Farmer's market, went back home, tried to nap, then got ready to go out with my cousin. o gawrsh i was tired my mother was staying home and resting, lucky her.

cuz and i took bus to a West Indian bakery - sorry mi nain tek no pix, i was not expecting to go there. plus that was the bus ride we never had proper fare for, and mi was still flustered. i think the bakery name Toto or sittn like that. got a piece of coconut loaf with glace cherries (it was delish). Cousin bought a whole heapa currant rolls as gifts.

next stop the botanical gardens for the chili festival. so onto the subway. boy, the train station and trains really are a lot cleaner than what i recall from my youthful trips to Brooklyn



not a graffiti in sight still cant mek out what the conductor dem a seh over the intercom tho. is like demma speak a foreign language.

[mountaingal]

Re: Greetings from Brooklyn, NY

we walked along Eastern Parkway and passed this school for the deaf


o gosh, it was so quiet i started to miss a bit of the old brooklyn edge. i think i said already that my cousin pointed out that not a lot of black folks lived that way anymore, mostly european whites. all sanitary an ting. i felt like i was in some part of toronto.

[mountaingal]

Re: Greetings from Brooklyn, NY

we passed the brooklyn museum. theyve made some renovations - add some glass structure to the front, and a playing fountain that little groups of folks sat and enjoyed. good lord. as homer simpson would say, "where am i, planet cornball?" it must have been my tiredness making me cranky.

[mountaingal]

Re: Greetings from Brooklyn, NY

then mi get it inna mi head fi tek pickcha a di "philosophers" that decorate the top of the museum. halfway thru the photographing, mi realize seh mi a look fi a black man name among the illustrious carved in the museum stone. marcus garvey, maybe. even MLK if they wanted to go truly american. not a one, not even an american. huh.

[mountaingal]

Re: Greetings from Brooklyn, NY

we get to the botanical gardens, pay we $15 entry fee, and get set fi enjoy the chili festival.

now, mi no know why, but i had in mind lots of dancing and hispanic music and culture. what we got was this:


different ways to nyam pepper in chocolate (nuffa dat). in sauce. in cookies. i mean... mi walk round walk round, cyaan believe seh is a food fair mi come to. my cousin looking at me sympathetically. then mi juss say what the heck. and started sampling.

[mountaingal]

Re: Greetings from Brooklyn, NY

sauce


some kinna peppa

[mountaingal]

Re: Greetings from Brooklyn, NY

they had a grace booth. colourful. tried two of their sauces - NOT hot. jeezam.

[mountaingal]

Re: Greetings from Brooklyn, NY

i ended up buying some expensive chocolate chili cashew biscotti, espresso marshmallows and what were called "rescue chocolate" which were really fruit and nut bars. you buy them and proceeds go to animal rescue groups.

i was gonna ask if the bars were made of dogs (yes, it was on the tip of my tongue!) but my better nature saved me, and i asked instead if the bars were <span style="font-style: italic">for</span> dogs. &quot;for dogs, nooo,&quot; the lady tinkled merrily. &quot;they're for humans.&quot; i noticed later on the package that no animals were harmed in the making of the bars.

it was time to cut our losses.

we bought some expensive raspberry basil popsicles that had not a trace of basil taste. meh. it was good all the same. just not really worth $3.50.

[mountaingal]

Re: Greetings from Brooklyn, NY





on the way out we walked thru a mini picnic area. if we had come earlier, or if it was sunny, i would have tarried a bit. then again, i was starting to wonder about where the black folks were.

as we walked, we heard drumming, and i got excited - o yea, there we were cuz and i hurried over.

it was a korean group unu can watch a bit of this video if unu want

[mountaingal]

Re: Greetings from Brooklyn, NY

it was getting dusky, so we didnt stay long in the botanical gardens. i took these pix of tree roots that were shaped into a kind of children's playground. it's basically a bunch of root rooms. ingenious.



inside looking up

[mountaingal]

Re: Greetings from Brooklyn, NY

we walked back a bit along washington avenue, which, believe it or not, was close to where my aunts lived back in teh 1970s. i used to trod this road back in the day with my brooklyn cousins.



stopped in the library, had a coffee. my cousin took this pic of me looking tired and a lickle bedraggled


i looked at the fashion art in the library, what my cousin wanted me to see. it was student work, some of them really beautiful. i didnt take pictures because i felt it would be a bit of copyright infringement.

i did take a pic of the window above the library entrance/exit, from the inside. had a nice classic feel

[mountaingal]

Re: Greetings from Brooklyn, NY

back into the subway, this one i think is actually the one for the brooklyn museum. it was gorgeous.

[mountaingal]

Re: Greetings from Brooklyn, NY

we get out somewhere in the 90s and 50s (don't ask me what ). and suddenly, i'm back in a brooklyn that feels familiar

pan chicken man out and nite no fall yet

my cousin asked if pan chicken is the same as jerk chicken. mi tell her no, imo, caw as far as mi know, the finishing touch mi see di panman dem put pon di chicken is nuff ketchup. u would not do that with jerk



i think someone on jcans.com did mention white castle, and i wondered if it was this one them was talking about. mi cousin seh di burga dem small

[mountaingal]

Re: Greetings from Brooklyn, NY

why was this guy walking down the street on stilts?

[mountaingal]

Re: Greetings from Brooklyn, NY

we were heading to my other cousin business. the cousin with me was supposed to be leading the way. she mek a turn, and i said &quot;it feels like we are backtracking&quot;

she said no...at first. then she stopped, and cupped her chin. yup, we were lost.

to be specific, we were lost outside THIS house


for the first time on my trip, i felt a bit of trepidation. there werent a lot of people on the road. we finally saw a guy approaching, and my cousin told me to ask him for a certain street. christ. but it was either ask and risk being robbed cuz we were deemed strangers. or wander around without asking and getting loster and loster.

i asked. and the guy, clean cut and decent looking up close, with a slight west indian accent, pointed the way