Sunday, April 27, 2008

Eating, mostly

It looks like Friday’s feathers were from a Guinea fowl. My sources tell me that one was last seen wandering around the Rose Garden pools a good decade ago. Up on the Far Away Island, these fowl have been imported to eat ticks. It looks like fly-fishing types use the feathers for flies, too. You can order some here (a non-native species, it isn’t illegal to possess their bits and pieces). Neither explains what one was doing in Prospect Park being eaten by a predator. I assume that one of them, like the chicken I saw at the southern end of the lake a couple weeks ago, was an escapee. No match for a hungry red-tail, though, which plucked it vigorously.
*
A slice of sweet plantain from a Dominican place I didn't catch the name of. A full sour pickle from the Pickle Guys on Essex. A piece of halvah from a sweet shop on Hester. Some Asian candy from Ichiban, including candied rose, on Mott. Small cannoli from La Bella Ferrara on Mulberry, quite good, supposedly they still make things there. A cube of parmesan, a small mozzarella ball, and a slice of sopressetta from Di Paola on Grand. This, the Big Onion Eating Tour of the Lower East Side, which I did today on the Man’s dime ($20 a head, actually). Better for tourists than an old pro like me. I mean, we started at Delancy & Essex and they didn't even mention the Essex St. Market across the street. I had to supplement with some dumplings from that hole-in-the-wall on Mosco and a rice ball in what’s left of Little ItalyTM, not to mention a glass of chianti when it was all over. This, by the way, after leftover nachos for breakfast and a hobbitish elevenses at the Brooklyn Flea, waffle mit Nutella.
*
I stopped into Evolution on Spring where there wanted $3 per “devil nut,” the pods of the invasive water chestnut that floats freely up and down the Hudson, where I've been grabbing them for years.
*
I found on the street a wooden something or other painted for a child's room that I thought I'd use as a planter. Pictures later. The point is I got to use my power drill to punch some holes in the bottom of it for drainage. Hardly ever use that sucker, which I got for ushering at my pal A's & A's wedding. Lots of fun.

2 comments:

amy merrick said...

Using a power drill is so satisfing, glad someone else thinks so!

Marie said...

Guinea fowl: at my parents' house in Constantia (Cape Town) they sound like rusty gates in the early mornings. I mean, the guinea fowl in the morning sound like rusty gates (anytime).

If I heard that sound here I'd be stopped in my tracks - it's very evocative.