MetaChat - Tonight I went for a walk and bought some cherries.

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31 July 2008

Tonight I went for a walk and bought some cherries. →[More:]

I have enough for a pie, but I like 'em straight up. I thought I'd missed the rest of cherry season. Passing the Top Tomato, I didn't see them. (They've been on my mind ever since my mom sang "Cherries are Ripe" on our answering machine a few weeks ago.) They were on a bottom shelf in back. $2.49 a pound. Not bad. I eyed the brussel sprouts, too, but I have to save something for tomorrow.

After being horribly sick with what I can only describe as "angry belly" for almost a week, it's good to be back amongst the living. On the plus side, a small amount of food now fills me up and I (almost) fit into my wedding jeans.

I swear it's only been a couple weeks at most since I last strolled down Ditmars, yet so much has changed. One of the local restaurants is now also a comedy club. And there's a new tattoo parlor. I did a double-take going by, leaning back and mumbling, Where the heck did that come from? A bald proprietor in back looked up expectantly. (I have been thinking about getting a dragonfly tattoo on my left wrist.) There was also a new "Parrot Gourmet European Mediterranean Organic Coffee and Market" (I half expected to see "Rides & Tickets" on the awning). Martha's Bakery now has sidewalk tables, which were packed, and Taverna Salerno, which I must try, had twenty people waiting on a Thursday night, and there's a tiny, elegant sushi place of interest, too. I flashed on a new ending for my short story and watched an old barber shake his finger at a young guy in a smock who nodded and smiled at him. It was a good walk.

post by: Pips at: 21:19 | 12 comments

It's Taverna Cyclades, honey.

posted by jonmc 31 July | 21:40

That was great, pips. I felt like I was walking with you.

posted by LoriFLA 31 July | 21:42

One of the local restaurants is now also a comedy club.

Yea, I've seen ads for that (at Mezzo Mezzo)... I don't know. How funny could it be? They charge a COVER- even if you've already had dinner at the restaurant! $10 to hear comics in Astoria? I don't think so. But I also don't like that place very much- the last few times we've been has been very uneven, either the food is good and the service is terrible, or the service is good but the food is bad. Too many good restaurants in town to keep going to bad ones. Like Taverna Cyclades, which is very good.

posted by ThePinkSuperhero 31 July | 21:46

Thanks, Lori...

(Ah, Taverna Cyclades, that's right -- I never could keep that name straight. I googled and got the wrong Taverna. On preview: yes, Mezzo Mezzo. I haven't eaten there, but I agree with your review, pink. It looks very so-so. Of course, Waltz-Astoria, the coffee shop near the park, also features comedy, if you have a hankerin', and perhaps are drunk enough. I see their sidewalk ads in colored chalk all the time.)

posted by Pips 31 July | 21:56

Pips' description of her walk is a great illustration of why I love my neighborhood. We've got places like the gourmet bakery and coffee bar, but we also have old-school dive bars, gryo stands, middle eastern restaurants, housing projects, diners, cybercafes, mosques, ethic markets and Dunkin Donuts...and it all exists relatively harmoniously, not in the 'cumbaya' sense, but in the 'life soup' (to steal a phrase from my man Richard Price) sense. Some areas of New York have turned into demographic clusters, but here in Queens, the mixing bowl/melting pot/whatever remains alive and well and I love it.

posted by jonmc 31 July | 21:56

Well said, my love. I'd love to someday buy a little place in the neighborhood, one of the smaller brick row houses down a side street with a patio and black-eyed suzies. And when I die, you can ship me across the street to O'Shea's and scatter my ashes in Astoria park where I can haunt rowdy teenagers on skateboards.

posted by Pips 31 July | 22:05

I'm jealous.

I do walk past a Sonic, a Mediterranean grocery and a tattoo parlor on my way to the gym, but it ain't the same.

posted by bunnyfire 01 August | 07:35

Color me green. WHat's it cost to rent or buy there?

posted by chewatadistance 01 August | 08:54

In the neighborhood of 500 grand to buy, alas, chewy, but renting's more reasonable -- $1200-$1600 or so for a 1 or 2 bedroom, heat and hot water included usually, which is not bad for NYC (our place would go for $2000+ in Manhattan.

My cherries are yummy. Plump, dark, firm, and sweet, oh my.

posted by Pips 01 August | 10:45

I think it's still possible to get some smaller apartments (studios or 1 bedroom) in the 200-300k range, but yes, anything else is 500k at least. The junky houses on my block (two family homes with "finished basements" which probably means you could have someone live there, although it wouldn't be legal) go for close to three quarters of a million.

posted by ThePinkSuperhero 01 August | 11:11

Yeah, it's the one thing that may prompt us to move someday. I drool at the beautiful houses on House Hunters for $180 to $250 grand in cities like Nashville, Fort Wayne, Milwaukee. I'm talking vaulted ceilings, fire places, big yards with pools. Even Vegas and Seattle are much more affordable than here. It's depressing. But I still love New York.

posted by Pips 01 August | 11:26

I concur, pips! You wouldn't believe what 200k buys down in FL where my parents live.

posted by ThePinkSuperhero 01 August | 13:30

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