Jackson Diner - Tuesday February 19 2002
Warmish weather comes every few days now, and since today was a warm one, we decided to take advantage of the situation by taking the subway to PS1, a modern art museum in Long Island City, the part of Queens directly across the East River from Midtown Manhattan. Getting there (which we did via Manhattan, since north-south subway options from Brooklyn are rudimentary) involved three or four different subways. Since we were going to that part of Queens anyway, Gretchen thought we should also take advantage of the cheap eats in the nearby Indian (dot not feather) neighborhood of Jackson Heights.
The Jackson Diner must be some sort of legend. It's a big cafeteria-style space decorated with a massive Alex Calderesque sculpture meant to conceal the ceiling ducts. On weekdays the buffet is $6.95.
After lunch, we came upon an odd supermarket selling a wide range of foods targeted at the Indian immigrant consumer. The very weirdness of some of the vegetables caught our attention, so we went inside to explore. While there, we stocked up on Indian food goods as if we were at a duty-free store in a Mumbai airport. Items we bought included a big box of Taj Mahal tea, a bag of tasty ganthia snacks (a kind of dry noodle made from chick pea flour), vindaloo curry paste, and a lifetime bottle of garam masala. Had we wanted to, we could have also stocked up on 50 pound sacks of dried lentils or any of a number of rices.
We found PS1 closed when we arrived in Long Island City. It's only opened from Wednesday to Sunday, something we hadn't known.
Going back to Brooklyn, we decided to take the G, since this saved us from having to go through Manhattan again. Unfortunately the G is perhaps the slowest subway in the entire system.
Strange vegetables outside an Indian grocery store in the Indian neighborhood of Jackson Heights.
The Chrysler Building viewed from the
Queens neighborhood of Long Island City.
Click for a wider view.
Manhattan viewed from beneath the 7 raised subway line in Long Island City, Queens.
The Empire State Building is on the left and the Chrysler Building is on the right.
Click for a wider view.
