Another Camel Walk

June 26th, 2013

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Today’s adventure was another ‘Camel Walk’. Bullwinkle found a reference to an Armenian bakery in Brooklyn which baked fresh goodies every day. Several people on the internet highly recommended the ‘lavash’. They said it was the freshest on the east coast of the US. So, I had to go and try it!

The Armenian Brooklyn Bread House

The Brooklyn Bread House was located in the Sheepshead Bay area of Brooklyn, which is in the eastern corner of New York City along the Atlantic Ocean. It was also, according to Google Maps, 63.6 miles or one hour and 37 minutes from our house. Putting it plainly, it’s a hike for us!

  Plov is the National Dish of Uzbekistan

As retirees who like to explore less familiar neighborhoods, we set out this morning for the adventure. The Brooklyn Bread House is a small storefront just east of Brighton Beach and Coney Island. Although the stripes on the awning outside is the Armenian flag, all the signs in the window were in Russian. The patrons and clerks also spoke Russian. This was the result of Soviet Russian rule of Armenia for 71 years.

Chuchvara stuffed with Potatoes & Sour Cream

The shelves inside the bakery were full of groceries from the Republic of Armenia. There was a counter along the back wall for baked goods. I purchased two large pieces of ‘lavash’ and a box of ‘kata’. Lavash is the soft thin flatbread which is popular among Armenians. I remember my grandfather had it with just about everything at every meal. Armenian ‘kata’ is a tasty sweet bread. This one had cheese inside. It was very good and not too sweet. By the way, the young woman behind the counter was from Kazakistan, another former Russian satellite.

Exterior of Nargis Cafe

For lunch, Bullwinkle suggested an Uzbek restaurant in the neighborhood. I was excited because I never ate food from Uzbekistan and the country was on my ‘must visit’ list. We easily found Nargis Cafe on Coney Island Avenue and went inside the bright purple restaurant. What a treat! It was spacious, clean, and well decorated. The many young servers were personable and friendly. The food was delicious. I took some photos of our choices and we enjoyed everything.

Steamed Khonim

After a tasty lunch, we drove around Coney Island and Brighton Beach. Both areas had experienced severe damage during Hurricane Sandy last winter and it was reassuring to see these communities are rebounding.

Before leaving Brooklyn, we stopped at Gulluoglu Baklava & Cafe on Brighton Beach Avenue to pick up a few fresh sweet morsels of baklava to take home. Bulluoglu boasts the best baklava on several continents. We’ll see….

Turkish Baklava from Gulluoglu Cafe

As you probably guessed by now, Brighton Beach and Coney Island are neighborhoods which abound in ethnic diversity. Russian and, to a lesser extent, English are the common languages of communication here. Many signs are written in Cyrillic and not translated into English. It is truly an international smorgasbord of humanity. And what fun it was to be a small part of it today!

View of Manhattan from the Whitestone Bridge

 

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