Watch the Mets fans as they cheer a hit.
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Best of queens senses 2007
By Brian M. Rafferty
With feet firmly planted on the mound of dirt I stood atop to get a better view of Bowery Bay, I closed my eyes, lowered my head slightly and drew a deep breath in through my nose to take in the smell from the field at Elmjack over in East Elmhurst where I spent so many springs playing Little League baseball.
The smell was still there. It was that mix of salt, chemicals, fish, garbage, water, jet fuel, exhaust and dirt that I had grown up with when I was a Bantam League champion.
It’s incredible how much our senses and memories are inexorably linked. A smell, a taste, a sound and even a texture can cause a memory to pop up out of nowhere, just the same as thinking hard about a delightful moment might bring a phantom aroma to the nose.
We all have memories of the Best things in Queens that link to sensory experiences; some are shared, like at Elmjack, where the dirt was so compacted that my teammates and I would throw it like a rock, but when it hit it would explode like a dusty, loosely packed snowball. Some are private, like the specific pleasure of the post-game ritual of a hot dog with sauerkraut, onion and mustard along with a White Rock grape soda sold by the hot dog truck driver who would and out by the 19th Avenue entrance.
As for the shared sensory memories, let’s approach them one at a time:
Listen to the thunder of feet during the NYC Marathon. |
Best Queens Smells
Bakeries: We are blessed with a wide assortment of bakeries that, though closed to the public overnight, keep the ovens on all hours of the day and night, turning out loaves, braids and buns, and venting the most delicious toasty smells throughout the neighborhoods. Palermo Bakery on Grand Avenue and 71st Street seems to make enough bread to feed all of Maspeth in a single day, and when you walk around the corner on a cold winter night, the smell alone is enough to warm you to your toes.
Restaurants: As a kid I would take a “shortcut” to PS 69 in Jackson Heights that would take me through an alley that ran from 74th to 75th Street just north of 37th Avenue and behind a long-since-departed Chinese restaurant. The smell of roasting pork and cooking ribs would waft from huge vents that fed directly from the kitchen.
That place may be gone, but walk down 74th Street today and you will be assaulted by smells of curry kabobs from Delhi Palace and the Jackson Diner. On Northern Boulevard, along the way to Shea, pass Green Field Restaurant on 108th Street and the smell of char-grilled steak floats through the air.
Over at Shea, the smell of sausages on the grill greets you on every level – a distinct improvement from the sparse options of yesteryear. As a matter of fact, between the sandwich stand from Mama’s of Corona and the Cascarino’s Pizza stand, Shea has become a better place to take a whiff of your surroundings.
Outdoors: The air is cleaner in the borough’s dense parks – Kissena, Flushing Meadows, Forest, Cunningham and Alley Pond. The trees do a wonderful job of filtering, despite the fact that most of our parks are either bounded or bisected by highways. The air is fresh, the smell is “green” and during the right time of year the flowers fill the air with welcoming, luxurious scents.
Sushi is a visual delight. |
Best Queens Sounds
Transit: Clearly, this is subjective, but for anybody who lives near one of the major highways, the sound of traffic moving along helps me fall asleep at night. Perhaps that’s because when it’s not moving well the sound of screeching brakes, sirens and horns is more prevalent.
However, there are certain other transportation-related sounds that are unique to Queens. How about the sound of driving over the open grating on the lower roadway of the Queensborough Bridge? Where else in New York can you hear the echo of a freight train horn bounce off the low-hanging clouds on an overcast night? For most of us, the constant rumble of low-flying aircraft around our two major airports almost disappears from the transom of our thoughts, but is there nonetheless.
Languages: We may not know what the heck they are saying, but you know when you have moved from one neighborhood to another walking through the borough when the language changes: in Astoria Greek turns to Arabic; in Forest Hills Russian turns to Uzbeki; in Flushing Mandarin turns to Korean.
Even in heavily Latino areas you can tell distinctions between the Spanish dialects that are native to the various Central and South American countries. Walk down Corona Avenue and hear the change in Spanish from Dominican to El Salvadoran to Peruvian in just a few blocks.
Sports: The kick of a soccer ball on a field at Flushing Meadows, the crack of a bat at Shea, the “oomph” made by the tennis players serving at the U.S. Open, the crunch of helmets against shoulder pads at a Bryant High School football game, the slap of a runner’s shoe on the track at Juniper Valley Park, the whistle of a golf club slicing through the air at Kissena Park and the splash of a diver at the Astoria pool all evoke images of strength, endurance and grace of athletes throughout the borough.
You can almost smell the plum sauce on Tung Shing’s ham. |
The Best Flavors
Okay, this one is going to get me in trouble, but keep in mind – this is just one person’s opinion. Having grown up in Queens, lived here most of my life and written numerous restaurant reviews (with girth to prove it), I am confident in my choices for what some of the best dining spots and food are in the borough, though this list is far from thorough. Okay, here it goes:
Pizza: Rosa’s on 69th Street and Grand Avenue; Pizza Boy, still holding on at the corner of 74th Street and 37th Avenue; Il Vesuvio on Bell Boulevard at 40th Avenue; New Park Pizza on Cross Bay Boulevard; and Singa’s at 82nd Street and Broadway (that’s where my grandmother taught me about oregano and garlic on a slice).
Chinese: Tung Shing House, 97th Street and Queens Boulevard; Mr. Tongs, right on the other side of Queens Boulevard from Tung Shing; King Yum at 181st Street and Union Turnpike; 192nd Street and Union Turnpike; Wing Lee, 74th Street and Northern Boulevard; and New Grand China, 69th Place and Grand Avenue.
Italian: Pizza Sam, 88th Street and Northern Boulevard; Armando’s, 75th Street and 37th Avenue; Sapori D’Ischia, 55th Street and 37th Avenue; and Castel Mare at 21st Avenue and Utopia Parkway.
European: La Baraka (though technically Moroccan French) at 262nd Street and Northern Boulevard; Manor Oktoberfest at the Shops At Atlas Park; Cobblestones Pub at Queens Boulevard and 117th Street; and Marbella at Northern Boulevard and 220th Street.
Other Ethnicities: Jackson Diner, Delhi Palace and Indian Taj, all between 37th and 35th Avenues on 74th Street; Ben’s Best on Queens Boulevard and 96th Street; Lailla’s (Turkish) on Bell Boulevard at 42nd Avenue; and Thai Austin, Austin Street and 70th Avenue;
Sunset over One Court Square. |
The Best Sights
The best sights are usually the most fleeting.
The view of the sun as a giant pink ball glowing in the low sky as you head west on the LIE before dusk; the gleam off the tower at One Court Square as the Manhattan skyline is threatened behind it by an oncoming thunderstorm; the moment that the crowd jumps to its feet to cheer a homer hit out of Shea; and the steam that rises up on a cold day from the gratings that cover the subway along Queens Boulevard are all moments that we catch, we treasure and tuck away in our sensory library.
