Shondesh, Momos, Kababs and More

After dropping Tanya and the kids off at the airport I made the most of my bachelordom (or is it bachelorhood?) by...doing some Christmas shopping and then hitting Jackson Heights for Indian food.  Unfortunately my adventurousness failed me here and instead of trying out something new I went to the always reliable Rajbhog.  But as I was walking around later I saw a ton of places that looked worth checking out.  For hopeful future reference here's a yelp search for restaurants around 74th street.

I noticed Bengali writing in almost every restaurant, and reading through the reviews there are a good number of places serving Bangladeshi food like Khaabar Bari and Premium Sweets.  These include some dishes I recognize from West Bengal like shondesh.  There are also a number of Tibetan or Nepali places like Lali Guras and South Asian Family Restaurant with dishes like momos.  I also noticed Kabab King on 37th was doing a booming business, it sounds like the Bihari kabab is the thing to get there, as opposed to Kababish where its apparently all about the gola kebabs.

Brooklyn Commune

We had beautiful weather this weekend.  Brooklyn is best in fall.  The quality of the light filtering through the clouds and the fall colours in the park and elsewhere can make even the most mundane blocks seem a little romantic.  After dropping the girls at their class, we managed to check out the Postmark Cafe.  It was not life changing, but the latte was good and the bench outside was the perfect place to enjoy the season while Darshan puttered around.  

On our way back from the library in the afternoon and too tired to contemplate preparing dinner we checked out Brooklyn Commune on Greenwood Avenue.  It is very stylish and appealing in a modernist way: blond wood, high ceilings, big windows, an elegant marquee.  The food was good, had variety, was not overpriced and passed what I call the leftover test: it tasted good even when eaten cold the next day.  I think we will be back.  

Postmark Cafe

It feels like there are approximately five gajillion cafes in a two block radius around 5th avenue and 5th street.  In fact, you may spot one while emerging from another as I did when I spotted the Postmark Cafe after buying a coffee at Brooklyn Bread.  The storefront looks tiny but the pictures on Yelp show that Tardis-like it sports a spacious interior.  Unlike most of the other cafes in the neighbourhood this one is a not-for-profit business run by the Church! of Park Slope (yes it has an exclamation point in its name) but as any visitor to the Ganesh Temple canteen will tell you religion and good coffee need not be strangers.

Governors Island

Governors Island is only open till September 25th. Ferries depart from Pier 6 in Brooklyn. Looks like a great day trip: a ferry ride, views of the Statue of Liberty and hammocks. Yes, hammocks.

Culture

Culture: An American Yogurt Company 

331 5th Ave

(between 3rd St & 4th St) 

This place caught my eye as I was walking down 5th avenue a couple of weeks back.  What could be more Brooklyn than a yogurt shop called Culture?  I looked it up on Yelp and it sports an impressive 4 1/2 star rating with 60 reviews.  The Key Lime pie yogurt recurs often in the reviews but it sounds like an all around winner.