Many smaller events aren't just a gateway to homespun food: Sometimes they point to what else is good in the neighborhood.
Yes, on departure I did carry off a home-baked, cross-hatched slice of carrot cake (that evening's dessert), but I also took along some local bakery wisdom. As I walked the line of display tables, which were set up end-to-end for nearly the length of the parish gymnasium floor, a crumb-topped sponge cake caught my fancy immediately. (Crumb cake is a touchstone of mine). It had a more professional bearing than most of the other baked goods on sale, and a rich, firm texture. The sponge cake, I soon learned, was the handiwork of the Astoria Bakery, which I quickly added to my itinerary for the afternoon.
My brief post on that bakery prompted an email from a reader who lives nearby, identifying two "great, old-school specimens of their kind," the kind of restaurants "where the local Roman-Catholic and Orthodox priests, respectively, go for a good meal." First I had word of a bake sale, then a good local bakery, and now two solid neighborhood restaurants — dare I say, this sounds like a snowball effect.
Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Rosary Society Bake Sale
Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Parish Institute, 23-20 Newtown Ave. (Crescent Ave.-23rd St.), Astoria, Queens
www.MountCarmelAstoria.org/bulletin/mar15_2015_mountcar.pdf
(The 2015 bake sale was held on March 22)
