Neighborhood: May 2005 Archives

So I finally got around to checking out the weekend Red Hook Latin food fair on what I'm pretty sure was Bay Street, between Clinton and Court streets. The food was great and cheap. Of course, we were pegged as total gringos. My sister, who is fluent, surprised a tamale vendor by ordering in rapid-fire Spanish, thus making it clear that she understood all the gringa jokes they had just been making about her, which caused everyone in line to chuckle. My husband got called "blondie," and I was whisked through another line, in what I think was a move to get me in and out as quickly as possible. Still, it's a good experience to be an outsider, and the food was fabulous. The tamale ($3) was the sweetest and creamiest I've tasted. My personal favorite was a beef "burrito" ($4) that was topped with radishes, guacamole, sour cream, salsa verde, lettuce and a slow-burn salsa. My husband liked the well-seasoned pork burrito, also topped with lettuce, salsa verde and guacamole ($5), but we all agreed that you could eat just about anything off a freshly made tortilla slathered in melted cheese and it'd taste pretty damn good.  We all bought from different vendors to mix it up, but I don't think there's a bad one among the bunch. We also sampled the grilled corn, with salt and lime, and may or may not have been charged inflated prices at $2 an ear. (And we didn't even get to the yummy looking ceviche.) A highly recommended trip; we will be back.

For more great Latin food in Red Hook and a *killer* mole, try El Huipil on Sullivan Street, between Van Brunt and Conover streets. Phone (718) 855-4548. Hours: Mon-Thu 11am-8pm, Fri-Sat 11am-10pm, Sun 12pm-8pm. Buen provecho.

Yes, 'tis true. We are packing up all of our belongings and moving a block and a half closer to the Carroll Street Station.  What prompted this craziness? The lust for outdoor space, which we will have in the shape of a lovely garden in a few short weeks.  And our sign from God came this morning in the form of a  free-for-the-taking Weber charcoal  grill that's now in our current apartment's hallway (thank you friendly people on Nelson Street). It needs a little TLC, but I can almost taste the burgers, shish kebobs and grilled shrimp. 

The one downside was having to use (or rather pay) a broker. While we saw plenty of nice one-bedroom by owner apartments for rent in the neighborhood, very few, if any of them, had a private outdoor space. It seems the brokers have a stranglehold on the prime spots.  We managed to find a broker who agreed to one-month's rent as a fee, but some held firm on their 12 percent, which left our mouths gaping when we did the math.  At most, our broker spent two hours showing us the place, meeting with us and the owner and then copying the lease and having it signed, which roughly translates into about $900 an hour. Not bad for a few hours of work. Now, I realize that she may have showed the apartment to other people who declined, but how hard is it to rent a good apartment in this city? Considering it seems the average shelf-life of a place on Craig's List is one week, it can't be that hard. Thankfully, she was nice enough and handled the landlord well enough that we didn't feel as if we were being taken, even when we went to see the place in her brand-new BMW 5 series.

Ahh spring. It looks better at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. The cherry trees are peaking, the grass is green and the birds are preening. (Click on the pics for bigger photos.)