9.23.2008

A bike ride, a water taxi and pupusa's

All roads lead to Red Hook.

So it started off as any other Sunday morning would. The weather was great, the air was starting to crisp with fall now upon us. This is prime bike riding weather, as it's still warm enough. Perfect for shorts and a long sleeve shirt. I have a certain loop I usually ride which is great for after work or before bed. I did the loop and was still roaring to go so I ended up biking to Dumbo in order to investigate a new market called Foragers Market. The New York Times ran an article mentioning that they are carrying a very limited supply of fresh New Mexico green chile's from Hatch. The market was nice with plenty of high end goods such as cheeses, salami's and imported goods. The green chile's are prominently on display as soon as you walk in the door. After visiting Hatch and seeing the chile's roasted first hand I couldn't get myself to plonk down the inflated price per pound that Foragers Market was asking.


Onward I go. Just down the street is the beautiful Brooklyn bridge park, this was my first time visiting this park, it has some great views of the Brooklyn bridge, the Manhattan skyline and the waterfalls. I truck on over the Brooklyn Bridge, I end up at the world trade site. I carry on through battery park and the Manhattan waterfront greenway. Finally deciding on going to the south street seaport to catch the awesome, free ikea ferry over to Red Hook to make my way back home. Not only do you get to enjoy a great 20 minute boat ride, you have spectacular views, you can bring your bike and it's free. I've hopped on this ferry quite a bit the summer just for the ride.

So it's the weekend, and I know the Red Hook food vendors are in full swing. I've been reading about this food mecca for months now, finally this is my chance to check this place out.


As I approach the Red Hook soccer fields I hear music playing in the distance. Soccer matches are in full swing with more spectators than the New England Revolution will ever have. Surrounding the fields are around 10 to 15 food vendors all hawking a taste of South America. The best way to describe the scene here is a massive block party with live bands playing and so many people running around I could barely get situated.

The first truck I stopped at was a horchata/fruit juice vendor. I went with the horchata, this was top notch. I'm going to assume this is grandma's secret recipe because this was the smoothest and most flavorful cup to date.


After walking between all the vendors I decided on pupusa's, mainly because the line was the longest. Obviously pupusa's from this truck were the most popular item of the day. I've tried pupusa's once before and thought they were quite bland. Maybe the mesa to filling ratio was off but these were spot on. The plate consisted of one pork & cheese, one bean & cheese, pickled jalapenos, and curtido. Curtido is a pickled cabbage Salvadorian side dish, with just enough bite but pretty far off from sauerkraut. This was just great, so much flavor, the pupusa's had a nice char with great fillings, the whole atmosphere of the day was really something else.

I had some serious cramps biking back, I ate way too much.


Check out Bourdain and Andrew Zimmern feasting in Red Hook.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Interesting to know.