If you can see the customs house, then you are near the Bowling Green farmers' market.
Today, I tried to give the Bowling Green Greenmarket a second chance. It just has such a fantastically redundant name that, really, I couldn't let my first impression condemn it.
My second impression, however, was sufficient. The basic details are that the market is open on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 8 AM to 5 PM. I arrived at about 2 PM, so it's possible that things are better in the early morning, but I really doubt it. The space available for the market is so insufficient that I really just don't know where more stalls would fit.
The entire market is pictured here
Three stalls. Two of them with more or less identical offerings, though one had corn and potted plants and the other did not. One had cleaner okra. I was not pleased.
The middle stall was a little interesting. It carried baked goods with a dessert focus, and seemed to have some pretty good confectionarial technology going on. Unfortunately it just wasn't what I'm looking for when I try to get food. Pre-baked desserts, to me, are like the souvenir shop of the foodie world. They're generally overpriced for their quality, they're not as good as what you could make yourself, and while they might look good for an impulse buy, sometimes they sit around until you don't want them anymore.
The thing that this vendor did have, though, was the advantage - I think - of offering a product that the likely consumers at Bowling Green would be interested in. It was a little difficult for me to figure out quite what the intended audience of this market is; after all, the place is situated right near all of the major stock trading groups and many financial buildings downtown, there is not a lot of residential living around there, and the park attracts people who want to see sights during the hours that it is open, not regular stiffs who want to work their 9-5 jobs. I can only assume that it grabs two markets; tourists, and commuters to the financial businesses who might need to bring the odd dessert or forgotten ingredient back home to make sure dinner goes off well.
The baker stall seemed to agree, with its array of premade desserts, but the other two vendors had such an incoherent set of items that I just don't think they would get any purchases from that crowd except by chance. There were certainly people there, but the selection just wasn't very wide and the quality wasn't high enough for me to recommend this market to anyone who doesn't just accidentally happen upon it while in need of cucumbers.
However, because the market was so unfortunate, I decided that I would make my way over to the not terribly far away New Beer Distributors (167 Chrystie St.):
This place easily has one of the widest bottle selections I have ever seen in such a small area. They have specialty brews from a great many US microbrewers, and a very wide selection of imports.
I picked up a few interesting things; the Stone Brewing Co.'s 08.08.08 Vertical Epic, released the same day as the Beijing Olympics opening ceremonies. Stone has been doing a series of "Vertical Epic" brews since 02.02.02, all of which are designed to be aged until 12.12.12, at which point they are to be all opened and tried together. I'll be trying the 08.08.08 now, and then will store a second bottle until that later date.
The second interesting beer is something I've had before; He'Brew's Origin, which is an ale that is brewed with pomegranate juice and I find quite enjoyable. But the best of all is definitely Paulaner's Oktoberfest Märzen. It's like caramel on toast, with a honey undertone. It's delicious and malty. Love it.
After that, I tried to make my way on foot to Union Square, as I like walking, and was interrupted by becoming an innocent bystander to a street fight in Chinatown that got kind of dangerous and I'm glad I got away from unscathed. Not everyone was so lucky, but we made sure the police got called and hopefully everything will sort out well. Very unusual for Chinatown, though.
Finally I made it to Whole Foods, where I got some locally caught bluefish, an orange, and a lemon, along with some linguine and basil. These became an interesting dish, which I'll pass on to my readers once it has become finer-tuned. Until next time...
The middle stall was a little interesting. It carried baked goods with a dessert focus, and seemed to have some pretty good confectionarial technology going on. Unfortunately it just wasn't what I'm looking for when I try to get food. Pre-baked desserts, to me, are like the souvenir shop of the foodie world. They're generally overpriced for their quality, they're not as good as what you could make yourself, and while they might look good for an impulse buy, sometimes they sit around until you don't want them anymore.
The thing that this vendor did have, though, was the advantage - I think - of offering a product that the likely consumers at Bowling Green would be interested in. It was a little difficult for me to figure out quite what the intended audience of this market is; after all, the place is situated right near all of the major stock trading groups and many financial buildings downtown, there is not a lot of residential living around there, and the park attracts people who want to see sights during the hours that it is open, not regular stiffs who want to work their 9-5 jobs. I can only assume that it grabs two markets; tourists, and commuters to the financial businesses who might need to bring the odd dessert or forgotten ingredient back home to make sure dinner goes off well.
The baker stall seemed to agree, with its array of premade desserts, but the other two vendors had such an incoherent set of items that I just don't think they would get any purchases from that crowd except by chance. There were certainly people there, but the selection just wasn't very wide and the quality wasn't high enough for me to recommend this market to anyone who doesn't just accidentally happen upon it while in need of cucumbers.
However, because the market was so unfortunate, I decided that I would make my way over to the not terribly far away New Beer Distributors (167 Chrystie St.):
This place easily has one of the widest bottle selections I have ever seen in such a small area. They have specialty brews from a great many US microbrewers, and a very wide selection of imports.
I picked up a few interesting things; the Stone Brewing Co.'s 08.08.08 Vertical Epic, released the same day as the Beijing Olympics opening ceremonies. Stone has been doing a series of "Vertical Epic" brews since 02.02.02, all of which are designed to be aged until 12.12.12, at which point they are to be all opened and tried together. I'll be trying the 08.08.08 now, and then will store a second bottle until that later date.
The second interesting beer is something I've had before; He'Brew's Origin, which is an ale that is brewed with pomegranate juice and I find quite enjoyable. But the best of all is definitely Paulaner's Oktoberfest Märzen. It's like caramel on toast, with a honey undertone. It's delicious and malty. Love it.
After that, I tried to make my way on foot to Union Square, as I like walking, and was interrupted by becoming an innocent bystander to a street fight in Chinatown that got kind of dangerous and I'm glad I got away from unscathed. Not everyone was so lucky, but we made sure the police got called and hopefully everything will sort out well. Very unusual for Chinatown, though.
Finally I made it to Whole Foods, where I got some locally caught bluefish, an orange, and a lemon, along with some linguine and basil. These became an interesting dish, which I'll pass on to my readers once it has become finer-tuned. Until next time...
1 comment:
I have to get ahold of Boulevard Brewing (KC's local brewer) Oktoberfest beer. Everyone's told me it's delicious.
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