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At an Independence Day affair in Madison Square Park, the juicy jalapeño-cheese sausage from Kreuz (rhymes with "Friday Night Lights"; $6) was a green-flecked beauty with a spicy attitude; the "Texas black-eyed caviar" ($4) had only their name to commend them.
The chef at the Cotton Club has little opportunity to bake for the nighttime crowd, the lady at this table tells me, but he does prepare sweets for this twice-a-week outdoor market. Although I gave a good, hard look at a radiant slice of sweet potato pie ($3), ultimately I gave the nod to the apple raisin cake ($2.50): extremely moist, with lots of fruit flavor and an over-the-top butter frosting.
JRose Catering
At the Grass Roots Farmers Market
145th St. near Edgecombe Ave.
July-November, Tuesday and Saturday, 9:00-4:00
Excellent milkshakes, though a recent chocolate malted (large; $3.50) was sorta thin, something like an egg cream (a dollar less for the same "large," about 20 fl. oz.). I prefer vanilla egg creams, and many folks won't waver from chocolate, but Ray's will mix in some 20 flavors; since the coffee-cup size is just $1.25, you can try two or three, easy.
Ray's Candy Store
113 Ave. A (near St. Mark's Pl.)
212-505-7609
A spinach knish ($2.50) had the heft of a softball, though it needed more greens to balance that mass of potato. The mushroom and the cabbage I like more; the sweet potato becomes tiresome halfway through. A lengthy lineup of Dr. Brown's sodas (12 fl. oz.; $1.25) includes the lesser-seen Cel-Ray.
The Original Yonah Schimmel Knishery
137 East Houston St. (Eldridge-Forsyth Sts.)
212-477-2858
www.Knishery.com
Charming boutique for candy, dried fruits and nuts, and related gourmet items, with a motto avowing that "anything can be dipped in chocolate." If pretzels are the featured players in that regard, softy pops (marshmallows coated in milk or dark chocolate; 60 cents a stick) are the comic relief.
The Sweet Life
63 Hester St. (at Ludlow St.)
212-598-0092
Sweet rice banana candies (6 oz.; $1.25) are marshmallow light, if droopy; though the banana "flavoring" tastes phony, they're addictive. Many other curiosities beg a look; I may never take a live turtle or bullfrog into the kitchen, but charcuterie prepared from duck and quail deserve a try.
A plum drink (30.43 fl. oz.; $1.79), from Taiwan, had many flavors competing for attention — dried hawthorne, dried orange peel, liquorice, osmanthus, honey, and sugarcane — though prune predominated.
Yeo's kaya (320 g.; 99 cents), from Malaysia, is a pandan-flavored coconut spread that's also a traditional toast-topper in Singapore. The pandan — a leaf widely used in Southeast Asian cuisine — gives it a greenish cast and moderates what otherwise would be an overly cloying flavor.
Hong Kong Supermarket
37-11 Main St., Flushing, Queens
(one of many locations)
718-539-6868
Favorite stop for all varieties of vegetables (as well as olives, mushrooms, and various other flora) that can be bathed in a brine. Ex-cucumbers like this full sour are available by the quart and gallon (about $5.75 and $19 respectively); if you crave a snappy snack, you can buy just one (50 cents).
The Pickle Guys
49 Essex St. (Grand-Hester Sts.)
212-656-9739
Closed Saturday
(This venue is closed.) Smoked shrimp wasn't my thought going in — Oklahoma Smoke takes evident pride in its Southwestern heritage, and I'd stopped by just days after the soft opening (sit-down service, and longer hours, are scheduled for mid-August) — but I'm glad, very glad, that I took their suggestion. Good to know, too, that they peel 'em, you just eat 'em.
In addition to a can of iced tea, my shrimp ($8) included a side of firm collard greens flavored with smoked meat; an additional side, rice and beans, soaked up the remaining broth. Love to try the mac 'n' cheese and candied yams, mains like the brisket and the pork jerk ribs, and halfway measures like a baked potato, smoked and then stuffed with a choice of BBQ chicken, beef, or pork. Also some more of that smoked shrimp.
Oklahoma Smoke BBQ
231 West 145th St. (Frederick Douglas-Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Blvds.), Manhattan
212-862-5335
(This venue is closed.) At lunchtime, the compact and toothsome short ribs sandwich (shown here with the top down; $7) was provisioned with chips and washed down with sweet tea ($2). Georgia's, too, is compact enough that the homey trappings can't hang far from the walls; at dinnertime, I expect you'd need to tuck in your elbows.
Georgia's Eastside BBQ
192 Orchard St. (Houston-Stanton Sts.)
212-253-6280
Closed Monday
(This venue is closed.) This restaurant chain takes an islander approach to Asian and mainland American flavors.
Thank you!
