Pushcarts and food trucks for sale!

Not shocking, but it turns out Astoria has a thriving pushcart and food truck sales market.  This store specializes in nothing else (Effie's Food Truck).  As you can see from the window, there are many postings available right now!  If you're interested in setting up a sidewalk food business in NYC (remember, they are in fashion), look no further than Effie's for your venue needs (and apparently various violation services as well)!

Statues of Athens Park

I know I've written about the great little park at the end of our block where everyone congregates and hangs out, but I haven't had a chance to show off the statues that the City of Athens has given the city over the years.  We have many of the big shots from Greek philosophy/mythology represented, in fact, the 3 important people when it comes to intellectual debate -- fitting for how this park is used!

Meet Athena (goddess of wisdom, courage, among other important civil aspects of society):

Aristotles of course:

And finally Socrates:

When was the last time you saw an independent video rental stores?

For me, it was the other day here in Astoria (a couple blocks from my apt)!  Not only do they still rent videos, but they advertise that you can bring your DVDs and VHS tapes(!) to sell back to them.  Oh Astoria, how I love you!

Outer borough city services

It's no shock that residents from NYC boroughs other than Manhattan often complain that the city services are lacking in the outer boroughs.  Our main concern when purchasing a car and choosing to street park it was snow removal, especially given the blizzards and horrible outer borough snow removal response that the city was criticized for last year.  Thankfully (knock on wood) we have not had to test out the city's response on that yet this year given the mild winter.

Nevertheless, I have noticed that the city's public trash can collection services are a bit slacking in Astoria.  Case in point - the image below was taken of a trash can that looks this full probably 9 out of every 10 times that I pass it.  Funny enough there used to be another trash can directly across the street from this one that was always equally full, but as of last Monday it has mysteriously disappeared.  While I'm happy to report that I haven't seen a spike in litter rates on that corner as of yet, I do hope the city begins to realize that Astorians do deposit trash just like Manhattanites!

You know it's a mild winter when...

The ice cream truck passes by with its bells to attract customers!  It is February, right?!

Winter makes a (short lived) appearance

This weekend we had a few inches of snow fall in Astoria - the first time since late October in fact!  It's supposed to be back to the low 50s by tomorrow, but it was nice to see Astoria turn white for a weekend and bundle up to walk around and see the neighborhood in a different season.  My highlight was seeing all of the neighborhood kids enjoying playing in the snow.  Astoria isn't a hilly area, but nevertheless the park near our apartment was filled with screaming kids enjoying the snow and pulling each other across the flat playground with their sleds!  Definitely a big difference from my childhood sledding experiences (my own front yard or trekking up the street to the big hill suitably named devil's dive), but I was glad to see the excitement of a snowy day in the city!

Proof of Greek presence in Astoria

As if I haven't proven it already that there is a heavy Greek presence in Astoria, here's further proof:

This picture is taken at my grocery store (Trade Fair) and, as you can see, the bottom case displays a plethora of different types of fresh fetas from which to choose.  And don't fret, this still excludes the many pre-packaged fetas available in the cheese aisle.  I'm so spoiled :)  I've only tried about half of them by this point (I keep wanting to repeat certain ones that I especially love), but as I still have another half year in Astoria I have full faith that I'll have the chance to try the remaining ones.

If I've enticed you to go out to the store and buy some feta, try one of my favorite dishes, which is an amazing orzo dish that requires good quality feta:

Orzo with Roasted Vegetables

Ingredients

1 small eggplant, peeled and 3/4-inch diced 1 red bell pepper, 1-inch diced 1 yellow bell pepper, 1-inch diced 1 red onion, peeled and 1-inch diced 2 garlic cloves, minced 1/3 cup good olive oil 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper 1/2 pound orzo For the dressing: 1/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (2 lemons) 1/3 cup good olive oil 1 teaspoon kosher salt 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper To assemble: 4 scallions, minced (white and green parts) 1/4 cup pignolis (pine nuts), toasted 3/4 pound good feta, 1/2-inch diced (not crumbled) 15 fresh basil leaves, cut into julienne Preparation Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Toss the eggplant, bell peppers, onion, and garlic with the olive oil, salt, and pepper on a large sheet pan. Roast for 40 minutes, until browned, turning once with a spatula. Meanwhile, cook the orzo in boiling salted water for 7 to 9 minutes, until tender. Drain and transfer to a large serving bowl. Add the roasted vegetables to the pasta, scraping all the liquid and seasonings from the roasting pan into the pasta bowl. For the dressing, combine the lemon juice, olive oil, salt, and pepper and pour on the pasta and vegetables. Either mix in the scallions, pignolis, feta, and basil or, if serving cold, let cool to room temperature and then add these ingredients. Check the seasonings, and serve.

Burger madness

Burger joints are, apparently, a popular choice for restaurateurs opening up new places in Astoria.  While I thought we had to be nearing saturation on burger centric restaurants (we have at least four within 5 blocks of our apartment and that excludes all fast food chains), I learned today that a Five Guys Burger & Fries is planning to open in the coming months in Astoria.  While I definitely welcome the restaurant (very tasty burgers) and enjoy all of the other Astoria burger restaurants that I've tried thus far, I do have to stop and wonder... why so many burger joints?!

Christmas decorations, Astorians gets decked for the holidays

While many businesses and apartments get into the Christmas spirit with decorations, I don't think I've seen this many lights on a single building (more than half the balconies are decked out) since moving to New York.  This just happens to be across the street from my apartment so I've watched over the past month as more and more balconies become fully decorated in lights.  We'll see if they have a timely removal after the holidays are over!

My menorah candle lights may not be competing with this quite yet, but by the 8th night it may be a different story!

The corner bakery

I'll get to the post in a second, but first, an apology to my readers for my long lapse in writing.  While I wanted to write posts, life got in the way for the past month (vacation, holidays, etc.).  I'm back though and looking forward to sharing many more observations and experiences from the melting pot!  Here is the first:

One of the many gems of Astoria is the plethora of small bakeries scattered throughout the neighborhood.   Of course, each one caters to their country or origin so we have bakeries that specialize in Italian, Greek, and Turkish delicacies, to name a few.  The one on the corner of our block (Il Fornaio), boasts wonderful homemade pastries and breads (all baked each morning on premise) and while the store itself is very small, the two benches outside are always filled with locals hanging out (sometimes for hours on end).  It's a great local spot and each day when I pass it reminds me how great it is to be an Astorian!

[Update]: Is that safe?

Back in July, I posted a photo and message about some hanging electrical wire on our block.  I'm happy to report that as of two weeks ago, the wire has been secured and rolled up!  Now this had been hanging since at least when we moved in in mid-June so I can't be too excited that it took over 3 months, but better late than never!

Astoria vs. Panajachel

The electricity setup in Astoria is not totally unlike developing countries.  Case in point:

Taken in Astoria, Queens:


Taken in Panajachel, Guatemala:














In fact, one might argue that Panajachel's electrical wiring may have a bit of a better layout out than the jumbled knot of wires seen throughout Astoria!

Public health measures in Astoria

The MPH in me loves seeing signs like this one (spotted next to Henry Thoreau Elementary School on 30th Ave):

Sign reads "No idling: Asthma Free School Zone"

Astoria grocery stores big fear

Grocery stores in Astoria apparently have a real fear of grocery cart theft.  Not quite sure why I've seen almost all grocery stores with this security measure here, but no where else in NYC... Go figure!

30th Avenue preparing itself for a big street fair!

The 30th Avenue Street Festival will take place today (9/5) from 12-6 and run on 30th Avenue from 29th to 41st street.  Looking forward to walking around and checking out the stands (and hoping that it doesn't get rained out)!

New train tracks arrive!

Guess it was time to replace some of the train tracks on the subway line (N/Q) that runs through Astoria!  The MTA has been closing our subway station during the weekday and on some weekend days all summer long and I think we're finally finding out what they're up to!  New train tracks:

New tracks being lowered onto the elevated train

New tracks awaiting delivery to the train track via a big crane

Quite crazy to see them bringing in totally new tracks with a crane!  Hopefully after this weekend they'll be done with this project and I look forward to a smooth ride on the new tracks :)

Four stars

I saw 4 stars tonight on my nighttime stroll in Astoria!  That's 3 more than I've ever seen in Manhattan :)

Irene irks Astoria

A huge tree that fell half a block from our apartment, even lifting up the cement!  Amazingly the car next to it was hardly damaged.

So far the storm (which has been downgraded from a category 1 hurricane to a tropical storm as of 9am this morning) has brought rain, wind, and some damage to our fair city. In Queens 25,000 people are without electricity, but luckily Astoria itself has seemed to fare okay (knocking on wood as we may still a second wave coming our way).

Well, at least retailers in NYC will meet their month-end quotas!

Irene is ensuring that New York retailers are meeting their month-end quotas by gracing us with her presence this weekend.  I ran a few errands after work and couldn't believe the lines!  First I waited 25 minutes in a line at the drugstore where people were stocking up on water, first aid kits, and snacks and then stopped by my grocery store to pick up a few items for dinner and waited a whopping 30 minutes in line (the 10 items or less line no less). As packed as that grocery store gets, I've never waited more than 5 minutes in line!  Both stores were more packed than I'd ever seen them and people are definitely heeding the city/media's advice to get prepared.

Hoping that Irene decides to change her plans for the weekend!

Picture perfect weather

No picture enclosed as it wouldn't do the day justice, but we had such great weather today that I have to give mother nature a shout out. There were threats of rain predicted, but all day we had beautiful blue skies and the temp was in the low 80s with relatively low humidity. Definitely took advantage of it and hope you did too if you were fortunate enough to have this kind of weather (and didn't have to work)!  I have to admit after the July we had, I thought August was going to be a bit tougher than it has been!  Definitely no complaints here :)