Brooklyn Botanical Gardens...

After a rather tasty breakfast at Juniors, Mops, Pops and I went over to Prospect Park to visit the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens...

The gardens were lovely and peaceful, and felt so different from anywhere else in New York, it felt a million miles away from all the rushing around during the morning commute in Manhattan - it was a haven on Friday morning...

Some parts felt a bit like being in the Chinese Gardens in San Francisco, some bits reminded Mops and Pops of Singapore, it was all incredibly relaxing.

As we walked round we spotted these huge nest like structures...

 They were huge and you could walk in and around them, seeing all the tightly bound branches and twigs. It felt like being in a huge bird's nest, or being in those tree cages in Lost!

I'm not sure who did them, but they looked a bit like Andy Goldsworthy type things, something you might see at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park or in the Chatsworth Gardens. They were great.

There were lots of different areas in the gardens, big ponds, big nests, big open spaces for children to run around in, green houses, pavilions, and a lovely little English Country Garden that had flowers and plants that were inspired by or linked to the work of Mr. William Shakespeare. It was lovely.

After mooching around the gardens, we went for a wee stroll (which turned into a big stroll) through Prospect Park. It was very quiet and peaceful in the park too, there were hardly any people about...

We eventually walked across to the other side of the park and walked up towards the Grand Army Plaza (where there's another L'Arc Du Triumph type thing in the roundabout, like Washington Square Park), and found the Brooklyn Library...

The entrance to the Library is so grand, with shining gold leaf characters all over the HUGE black doors and stone pillars. Inside the Library wasn't quite as grand, but they did have a little cafe, so we sat and had a little smackeral before heading back to the hotel for a wee rest on the big comfy bed!

Some Very Special Guests...

Last Thursday evening some VERY special guests arrived in New York.

Mops and Pops!!!

We had an absolutely amazing long weekend in Brooklyn - there's lots to talk about and lots of photos to show, so get ready - here we go...

Traffic? What Traffic?

This man was completely unfased by the 5th traffic as he pushed his yellow cart out into the road and preceded to walk down towards Washington Square Park...

Perhaps he thought if he disguised his cart as a yellow cab people wouldn't notice...?

T Minus 12 Hours...

In about 12 hours I'll hopefully be giving Mops and Pops a big hug as they arrive to Brooklyn!!!

WHOOP WHOOOOOOOP!!!!

Also - I hope you have a safe journey back home Tom, Qatar Adventure Part 1 - Done.

Memorial Day Scorcher...

It's been a blummin' scorcher today - I think New York's trying to compete with Derbyshire over the weather... I don't think either of them will come close to Qatar though!

Brooklyn Farmacy & Soda Fountain...

Yesterday afternoon we went for a Sundae on Sunday at the Brooklyn Farmacy & Soda Fountain...

It's an old Pharmacy in Cobble Hill that's now been converted into an amazing little ice cream parlour!

It was obviously popular as nearly every seat was taken, luckily there were two stools just waiting for us up at the counter...

It was beautifully done inside - all the old original shelves from the Pharmacy were still there, they even had some old Pharmaceutical stuff on them, in the old packaging. But now the shelves are full of local produce, like Phil's Pickles, McClures Pickles, Sir Kensington's Ketchup, Stumptown Coffee and lots of other locally produced yummy goods from around New York.

They had a huge menu, of all sorts of different sundaes, floats, puddings and sodas, they also had some delicious savoury stuff too - all made using local produce. The roast beef sandwich I had came with local Cabot cheese (from New York) and some homemade horseradish sauce. Abi had an amazing Empenada with some local relish and we shared a side of some Mac & Cheese that was made with the same local cheese and even locally made pasta from Queens!

But the main reason we went, wasn't to have delicious savoury food, it was to have a big ice cream sundae...

It was pretty fantastic! I had two scoops of their delicious chocolate ice cream - which made me feel like I was little again!

It was great sitting up at the counter as we got to see everyone else's sundaes being prepared...

All the people working there were either wearing old fashioned hats like the girl in this photos, or tweed flat caps and waistcoats. It was a little bit like a slightly more informal version of the Franklin Fountain in Philly.

All the little details were fantastic, they managed to keep a lot of the original features, including the mosaic floor from when it used to be called Lonco's Pharmacy...

I loved the fact that the majority of the menu was created using local produce - and the food was delicious. The atmosphere was great and they were playing some brilliant music (lots of Chuck Berry and Johnny Cash). It's another great little gem in Brooklyn!

Out & About...

Icy Signs...

Yesterday while we did a bit of a food shop at Brooklyn Fare I went round the corner to try and find a place called Icy Signs...

I'd read a bit about it online, it was a project that Steve Powers/ESPO (the bloke who did that big Love Letter To Brooklyn work all over that car park) was involved in. It was a big gallery space where they were showing (and selling) lots of hand painted signs by Steve Powers and some other people.

Unfortunately it was a one night thing, back in December - so I was just a wee bit late. But there were still  some hand-painted signs up in the windows and some of them had fallen down, leaving just enough space to peer inside.

Inside the huge space were lots more signs and some big spray painted murals - it looked like a working studio space - but apparently the unit's empty and up for rent...?

I love old hand-painted signage - stuff more like the 'icy signs' rather than all the other ones in the windows. It's great walking around Brooklyn, especially down Myrtle Avenue because quite a few shops still have hand-painted signs rather than the big computerized plastic jobbies.

Wouldn't it be great to be able to paint type like that!

Out & About...

We had a lovely mooch around Williamsburg yesterday, just before the heavens opened!

Moody & Gloomy...

It was all a bit cloudy and moody in Madison Square Park yesterday evening...

 Luckily it didn't rain though and Abi and I were able to enjoy a lovely evening sitting in the park eating a Shake Shack burger and soaking in the New Yorkiness after work.

Happy Birthday Beth...

Happy Birthday Beth!!!

I hope you have a wonderful day and enjoy all the sunshine.

The Great Googa Mooga...

This weekend saw the first 'Great Googa Mooga Festival' take place in Prospect Park in Brooklyn.

It was a festival of local food and drink and great music, run by the people who run the Bonaroo music festival and curated by a group of world class New York chefs and other foodie types from Brooklyn.

The tickets were FREE, and all sold out instantly, so we were lucky to be quick enough to get some online - once we arrived at the festival is was clear why they sold out so fast...

Prospect Park was heaving for food fans all wanting to try what was on offer.

The idea was that 75 food vendors from around New York would have a stall and would serve one signature dish from their restaurants - there were also beer vendors and wineries there, as well as all sorts of other people doing food related stuffs...

 The whole thing was designed and put together so well - they had all sorts of great things around the festival, all branded and designed in the Great Googa Mooga style. The whole site was separated into different 'Experience' zones - they had the Hamburger Experience, The Pizza Experience, The Coffee Experience, The Sweet Circus and lots of other areas. Naturally we headed straight for the Hamburger zone!

 We joined the long queue to try a cheeseburger from The Burger Joint... rumored to be the best burger in NYC! So we had to try it. The verdict... it was pretty pretty delicious, I think we'll have to go to the proper restaurant, but it was definitely up there with Shake Shack (our No.1 NYC burger).

There were pretty huge queues for each and every stall, but they moved fairly quicky, we waited about 15 minutes for all our food. The fun thing was that they had people who held up signs saying how long it would be til you'd be eating the food (like at Disney)...

They also had signs saying 'This line is fine' or 'We're here to wait with you!'... so it made light of the situation and I think helped keep people from being too grumpy about the queues.

After our delicious burger, we went for a wander round the festival to see what else was on offer...

 We'd downloaded the Googa Mooga app before we went and were able to make a list of all the food we wanted to try (most of them were burgers or sandwiches!), then you could tick them off your list and rate them and write a review... it was all very cleverly put together.

The next delicious food we sampled was from James Restaurant - they were serving up some amazing fried cheesecake bombs, small balls of deep fried cheesecake mix... they were DELICIOUS!

Tucked away in a very special corner of the festival was the meat-lovers paradise that was Hamageddon!

This little piggy was actually a huge huge spit roast over, with a real little piggie rotating inside...

The hog inside looked so delicious and crispy, and I bet it tasted incredible, but it was spinning around the whole time we were at the Festival and still going when we left...

As well as all the food they had some great bands playing too, on the Saturday the Roots were headlining and pulled a big crowd...

The headline act on Sunday was Hall & Oates! A bit of a strange choice, but it takes all sorts I suppose.

The whole festival was absolutely amazing - so well designed and so well curated and the atmosphere was brilliant too, everyone was sitting enjoying the incredible weather and the delicious food, listening to the great music and just enjoying themselves.

There were some people who were moaning about some of the food selling out and some people moaning about the queueing times... but for a FREE festival that's so close, with such great food and music, I don't know how anyone could complain really. It was a great success in my eyes and I REALLY hope they hold another Googa Mooga next year.