The Weather.

shakahislop

Well-known member
I'm still waiting for your Kabul top tips guide before I book anything. But at least now I know the winter's aren't too bad.

its a bit like the east village, just rock up and walk around, go into a few bars, hang out in the park, get an incredibly overpriced sandwich full of pastrami and an incredibly shit reheated knish, you don't really need a guidebook
 

Leo

Well-known member
Actually, what's the food like in Afghanistan? Been to any good places where locals eat?
 

shakahislop

Well-known member
You've been to Katz's, I see.
my take on Katz's is that it's alright, actually quite nice if you're there at odd hours and can pop in and get something small. the queue is phenomen better studied than participated in though. the knish place down the road is a joke, hilarious, amazing that it exists. Afghan food is great, more or less the same thing all the time but it's really nice, very bread based, lots of kebabs, dumplings, rice with raisens and carrots in, beans, absolutely no interest in vegetables, obsessed with fruit.
 

Leo

Well-known member
Yeah, Katz's at non-peak tourist time is still pretty fun, the whole ritual.
 

Leo

Well-known member
I was down there earlier. Were you there to take part in the cannoli eating competition?

I've avoided the feast for many decades, just happened to be walking back across Grand after selling some records at Paradise of Replica. This was Friday at around 3:30-4:00 pm, not many people there yet. A few little Chinese kids riding the tea cups that spin around.
 

shakahislop

Well-known member
I've avoided the feast for many decades, just happened to be walking back across Grand after selling some records at Paradise of Replica. This was Friday at around 3:30-4:00 pm, not many people there yet. A few little Chinese kids riding the tea cups that spin around.
in greenpoint they stage a kind of mock execution of christ, with some guy wearing a loincloth staggering down the road being whipped by romans, that was a good thing to bump into
 

Leo

Well-known member
A friend who lives on Conselyea near the Graham stop posts annual videos shot from his window of a procession like that, still a popular thing in Italian and Polish neighborhoods, I guess. I don't imagine you get much of that in the UK.

 

wektor

Well-known member
A friend who lives on Conselyea near the Graham stop posts annual videos shot from his window of a procession like that, still a popular thing in Italian and Polish neighborhoods, I guess. I don't imagine you get much of that in the UK.

even with the current rates of polish and italian populations (high), no, unfortunately
 

Leo

Well-known member
even with the current rates of polish and italian populations (high), no, unfortunately

it's probably more likely to happen in old-school immigrant neighborhoods, places where they've been living for 100 years or whatever and there are older grandparents and parents. maybe more recent immigrants aren't as tied to their religion and national customs.

an interesting dynamic here in areas like chinatown, which is large. a collision between the older generations who tend to maintain national traditions, and young generations who want to assimilate. they see themselves as American, grew up on American culture, and have little interest in maintaining Chinese customs (or even living in Chinatown anymore when they start their careers).
 

Leo

Well-known member
another factor might be that America -- particularly NYC -- encourages ethnic pride and celebrations.

one of the craziest days here used to be the Puerto Rican Day Parade, which starts way uptown in Spanish Harlem and comes down Fifth Ave by all the swankiest old-money apartment buildings on Central Park East. Some rich white folks would freak out, hire security and stores would board up street-level windows. there were a few years where the scene in the park (where in parade ends) was kind of out of hand with disorderly conduct, sexual assaults, etc. Not sure what it's like now, I don't think they held it during the pandemic.
 
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shakahislop

Well-known member
Polish people in the UK are almost all under 40ish, whereas polish people in nyc are almost all over 50 or whatever. Generationally it was a totally different wave of migration I think.
 

shakahislop

Well-known member
Greenpoint in nyc is fascinating in that respect. Coz at some point the inward migration from Poland seems to have totally stopped. So all the polish people who were born in Poland (as opposed to polish people born in the US) have this kind of retro eastern bloc vibe to my eyes
 

Leo

Well-known member
What are the ethnic neighborhoods of London? I know Chinatown is near Soho, and Brick Lane used to be Jewish but later more Indian/SE Asian (is that right?). My cousin lives in Hampstead Heath and there are Jewish delis around there. What else?

NYC is a melting pot but there still are sections (more the outer boroughs than Manhattan) than are heavily Italian, Irish, Greek, Polish, German, Korean, Dominican, Russian, Jewish. Founded by the Dutch but not many of them here now.
 

luka

Well-known member
london doesnt really work like that.
there used to be golders green for the jews
southall for the punjabis
brixton for the west indians
edgeware rd for the arabs
green lanes for the turks
theres new maldon for the koreans
 

luka

Well-known member
tower hamlets/brick lane for the bengalis
green st for whoever was on there im a little hazy on the details
 
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