Turkish Festival at Daley Center Plaza Farmers Market

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Yesterday Anjum and I went to the Daley Plaza Farmers Market again. They happened to be having a Turkish Festival on the plaza, as well as the market. There was Turkish drumming, music, dancing, fashion show, and tons of Turkish food. We had planned on getting salads after wandering around the market, but got caught up in all the Turkish excitement and decided to eat there. Anjum had a bean salad. I got a Mediterranean chicken plate. It had a small salad, pita bread, rice and a kind of stew made of chicken, broccoli, potatoes and mushrooms in a tasty, savory gravy.

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North Avenue Beach

On Tuesday, Stephanie and I went to the farmers’ market. I don’t know if she’d ever been to a farmers’ market before. She wasn’t too terribly interested. Vegetables are not cool, apparently. Although, I must admit that she did try some things I doubted she would. Thank you baba ganoush for all of that. Back at the cookie party, Steph tried baba ganoush and loved it. I don’t think she knew what it was. So now when she doesn’t want to try something I remind her that she would never have wanted to try roasted eggplant if she knew that’s what baba ganoush was. So at Whole Foods they had free samples of some kind of carrot parsnip cake and I took one. She said she didn’t want to try it because it sounded “ew” and I reminded her of baba ganoush. She circled back for a sample. I don’t think she liked it too much, but at least she tried. You never know. She ate raw zucchini slices today and liked it.

Anyway, back to the farmers market. We bought a bunch of stuff. I remember at one point Steph said something along the lines of “this vegetable looks like crap!” I had to remind her that the produce at the farmers market is fresh, natural, dirty, right from the farm. It was picked ripe. It didn’t travel 1,000 miles, get sprayed with coloring and wax and made to look pretty so people would buy it in some super mega store. I tried to teach her a bit about buying local and direct. I don’t know if it’s possible where she lives… but we talked a lot about all the reasons to love a farmers’ market.

For lunch we went to Turquoise Cafe, Roscoe Village’s Turkish restaurant, where Stephanie attempted to get her gyro on again. Turquoise didn’t have gyros proper, but when Steph decided she loved gyros at Retro on Roscoe I told her other names they go by sometimes so she could watch for them at home. Names like… schwarma. So for lunch she ordered the beef schwarma. I got the lamb wrap. When it came we split both half and half. The lamb was more gyro-like than the beef, which oddly kind of resembled a steak burrito. I definitely like the lamb wrap more there. I’ve had it on several occasions.


Hamlin Park, Lakeview, Chicago

We were rushing back from lunch so we could get to the Hamlin Park pool when it opened. .. which turned out to be never. There are tons of big trees down at Hamlin Park from the storm and one was on the fence off the pool. The pool was closed for the whole day. Since we already had swim bags packed, we stopped home quick just to check the swim report and then we headed to North Avenue beach for a few hours. It was nice. The water was fantastic. I don’t think I’ve actually gone into the water at any Chicago beaches. I mean, more than ankle deep. We had fun. And Chicago beaches always freak me out how you sit on wide sand beaches and the lake is so big you can’t see across it. Then you turn around and there are skyscrapers behind you.


North Avenue Beach, Chicago


Rachelle & Stephanie, North Avenue Beach, Chicago

Coming home Stephanie and I got off the bus at Roscoe and Damen at the exact moment that Dallas got to the intersection from his walk from the Addison Brown Line. Kind of funny. For dinner we grilled chicken sausages. Later on Stephanie and I made zucchini blueberry bread with zucchini and blueberries we got at the farmers’ market. More on that later!

Hells Kitchen • Central Park • SoHo

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Pavonia/Newport Station, NJ

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My Old Apartment, Hells Kitchen, Manhattan

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Central Park, Manhattan

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Jessica, SoHo, Manhattan

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Sorbet in Lemonade :: Cafe Borgia, SoHo, Manhattan

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SoHo, Manhattan

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Vesuvio Bakery, SoHo, Manhattan

My second day in New York I was supposed to meet Jeannette & Mark in Hells Kitchen for lunch but I accidentally took the wrong train out of Hoboken, where I was staying with Jessica, and ended up at Pavonia/Newport farther in to Jersey instead of Christopher Street in Manhattan. By the time I got on the right train, got to Christopher Street and took a cab up to meet them, I was like a half hour late. But we still had time to grab something to eat at Turkish Cuisine on 9th Avenue.

After lunch I walked past my old apartment on 9th Avenue. Some things remain the same there, but there are many new restaurants and places that weren’t there when I lived there. Like my apartment entrance used to be between West Side Sushi and Gotham Cabinet and Craft.. but now Gotham Cabinet and Craft is gone and the space it was in is empty. I wonder what will go in next. Just so Seven Brothers is still there.. I used to go to that deli every single day.

Next, I considered going to MOMA, but Jess was getting off work early and I wanted to meet up with her, so I just walked through the park a little bit. I think I will forever and ever be in love with Central Park.

Then I went downtown and since Jess hadn’t eaten anything all day, we went to Cafe Borgia on Prince Street in SoHo. I wasn’t hungry, really, so I just had some lemon sorbet in lemonade.