June 21, 2008

Brighton Beach

If everyone has a secret garden for getting away from daily routine, my garden Eden would be Brighton Beach. Brighton Beach is located at the southeast part of Brooklyn, a Russian immigrant community, which has an informal nickname “ Little Odessa “. . Being a fascinating resort by the black sea as real Odessa, Little Odessa in Brooklyn has a similar accessible way of the Atlantic Ocean. People can talk a walk along the endless beaches while thinking, enjoy listening words from mind without any city noise or just get a jealous tanning of city residents in terms of any seasons.

I could smell the salty cool breezes and soak up the Slavic atmosphere right after I stepping off subway station. While walking along the Brighton Beach Avenue, I found most signs on the stores were either bilingual or only in Russian. Women were wearing babushkas or mink coats on chatting or picking up fresh fruits at the storefronts. Some elder men were playing chess or cards on beaches by the boardwalk. Most of them spoke languages that I didn’t understand even though I tried to eavesdrop on their conversations. This exotic atmosphere put me in an aliened surrounding and raised a pleasure of my adventurous personality. Most important of all, I could just walk two blocks away from the main shopping avenue to enjoy the spectacular ocean view and to refresh myself after a lousy day. Walking along the beach reminded me of those days I spent at a sunset beach, though I knew it’s Atlantic Oceans’ not the one of the Pacific Ocean in my hometown.   

I like to stop at any local shop to smell the domestic air when traveling. At M&I International Foods, a domestic supermarket, there are dozens of sausages, hams, breads and smoked fishes carefully displayed under warm lights. Unlike the upscale ones of Dean and Deluca in Soho, Zabarr in Upper West side, M&I provided more materials that I unfamiliar with and those vivacious staffs were more likely to hand over “ taste samples” to help me make a decision. Some of them spoke English worse than I was obviously; we had to communicate with each other by fingers, signs or others’ help. However, the difficult purchasing process gave me more fun on exploring something as I was traveling outside of English World. I particularly like to take a seat at the deli section having a cup of Ukraine red borscht and bread with cabbage and meat inside it. Watching the dealing process by the counters, listening their conversation and guessing ethnic-identities of staffs and customers before the unionization was the most tasteful ingredient having a snack time there! The Russian pilmeni, something like Italian ravioli, made me think of the homemade dumplings of Chinese food. I was always wandering if there was any relationship connected with these different gourmet cultures on this special recipe.
 At the Black Sea Bookstore, there was a pile of Russian books, videos, and souvenirs, music CDs over there. It showed me the former Soviet Union was such a magnificent Empire with astonished cultural glamour and diversities in many fields except the political arena. I would like to pick some CDs of military marches for weak moments, folk dance music on Sunday morning and cabaret music albums for a lonely night. Surprisingly, each of them cost me less ten bucks. That’s another essential beauty of this paradise to me.      

 

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