god bless the vanilla suburbs
So I did my annual white suburbanite duty today, drove into the East Side, spent 45 minutes and $4 at the Broadway Market, and got back to Kenmore, happy to report that my car did not get 'jacked' by any 'gangstas.' I look forward to going back next year, if it's still open.
This is sarcasm, of course, but it's all true - does it make it any less terrible that I at least realize that it's terrible? No, it makes me a ponce who would rather feel guilty than do something. Perhaps I will make an effort to do regular shopping at the Market this year. Perhaps I say that every year.
Broadway/Fillmore reminds me a lot of where I used to live in Greenville, Jersey City. Both neighborhoods, obviously, have seen better days. I don't know about Greenville, but B/F used to be a bustling shopping district not very long ago. Unlike other areas of the East Side, B/F is ripe for large-scale retail investment. All the buildings - gorgeous, big, retail buildings - are still there [excepting Sattler's, which is now a gorgeous, big, empty parking lot], are largely vacant, and the real estate is dirt fucking cheap. I firmly believe that if you build it they will come - but seriously, who's going to invest millions in renovating a dilapidated old department store in the ghetto when you can spend millions on a brand-new box store built to spec out on Niagara Falls Blvd? It's fuckin' depressing.
But enough with the sadness; the Broadway Market brought me great joy today as well, for nowhere else in the world would they bother to clean 25 fresh smelt (WIKIPEDIA - Smelt) per pound for four bucks a pound. Hell yes. The noble smelt averages six inches long, and is best described as 'bait.' Smelt are extremely plentiful in the lower Niagara near Lewiston early in the spring, and all you have to do to get a bucketful is to dip your net in the river and pull it out. You have not truly tasted seafood until you've eaten a basket of fresh smelt, six hours from river to fryer - but you have also not truly prepared seafood unless you've cleaned a five-gallon bucket of fresh smelt, 25 to the pound.
One of my happier childhood memories involves my dad coming back from a fishing trip with a drywall bucket full of smelt he'd just pulled out of the river. He showed up at my aunt's house with the bucket and a hopeful grin.
"Nuh uh, no way. Get away from me with those. There's gotta be at least a hundred fish in there. If you don't want to clean them, I'm sure as Hell not going to clean them."
"No, no. It'll be great. Let's do this." So they spent the entire afternoon gutting and beheading the little fuckers, and we gorged ourselves on just this insane pile of the most delicious fried fish you can get.
I think that was the last time I ever had smelt, for obvious reasons, and this is why I love the Broadway Market. You think Danny Jr's got the cojones to offer fresh smelt at $4/lb? pfft.
- Z
This is sarcasm, of course, but it's all true - does it make it any less terrible that I at least realize that it's terrible? No, it makes me a ponce who would rather feel guilty than do something. Perhaps I will make an effort to do regular shopping at the Market this year. Perhaps I say that every year.
Broadway/Fillmore reminds me a lot of where I used to live in Greenville, Jersey City. Both neighborhoods, obviously, have seen better days. I don't know about Greenville, but B/F used to be a bustling shopping district not very long ago. Unlike other areas of the East Side, B/F is ripe for large-scale retail investment. All the buildings - gorgeous, big, retail buildings - are still there [excepting Sattler's, which is now a gorgeous, big, empty parking lot], are largely vacant, and the real estate is dirt fucking cheap. I firmly believe that if you build it they will come - but seriously, who's going to invest millions in renovating a dilapidated old department store in the ghetto when you can spend millions on a brand-new box store built to spec out on Niagara Falls Blvd? It's fuckin' depressing.
But enough with the sadness; the Broadway Market brought me great joy today as well, for nowhere else in the world would they bother to clean 25 fresh smelt (WIKIPEDIA - Smelt) per pound for four bucks a pound. Hell yes. The noble smelt averages six inches long, and is best described as 'bait.' Smelt are extremely plentiful in the lower Niagara near Lewiston early in the spring, and all you have to do to get a bucketful is to dip your net in the river and pull it out. You have not truly tasted seafood until you've eaten a basket of fresh smelt, six hours from river to fryer - but you have also not truly prepared seafood unless you've cleaned a five-gallon bucket of fresh smelt, 25 to the pound.
One of my happier childhood memories involves my dad coming back from a fishing trip with a drywall bucket full of smelt he'd just pulled out of the river. He showed up at my aunt's house with the bucket and a hopeful grin.
"Nuh uh, no way. Get away from me with those. There's gotta be at least a hundred fish in there. If you don't want to clean them, I'm sure as Hell not going to clean them."
"No, no. It'll be great. Let's do this." So they spent the entire afternoon gutting and beheading the little fuckers, and we gorged ourselves on just this insane pile of the most delicious fried fish you can get.
I think that was the last time I ever had smelt, for obvious reasons, and this is why I love the Broadway Market. You think Danny Jr's got the cojones to offer fresh smelt at $4/lb? pfft.
- Z
