Last month we did sandwiches. This month we were going to do another food item, but we decided instead, because of the tragic stuff happening in the Ukraine, we decided to take a look at what’s going on in NY’s Russian and Ukrainian neighborhoods. It’s not a perfect view, we didn’t go millions of times, we only went to three neighborhoods, so we will just talk about what we did see. I also bought a lot of Ukrainian flags – and if you would like one just send me an email – george@redhookstar.com, and I’ll mail you one. We have quite a few, Brian put them together. I think it’s important that we show support. NYC needs to do more to show that we stand with the people that are getting, you know, the shit kicked out of them for no apparent reason. It strikes home because, you know, we have buildings here, we have lives here, we have all our lifetime collections of things that in one second gets bombed up – come on, give me a break. You can’t like Russia after this.
Anyway, that’s my own personal opinion and I’m in charge here, right Brian? Brian: Yes Sir!!! George: Although I’m always open to listen to other ideas, right? Brian: Always!
George: We decided to start this odyssey in Brighton Beach. I have to say right now that the most imaginative thing that I’ve seen in a long time was that dentist. You remember that dentist? Brian: Laughs. George: His sign said “Brighton Your Smile” Brian: That was one of the first things we saw. We saw a few Ukrainian flags as we were walking to the main street. The Guardian Angel Roman Catholic Church had a flag. George: On Ocean Parkway. Oh, here the picture of the sign, Brian Dr. Medyedofsky. George: Then we saw a few flyers for a peace march that happened the week before. Brian: We saw flags in windows of some of the stores. George: But not all that many. Then, because I’m always hungry, especially for interesting foods, we stopped at a kind of deli that ended up having sort of of a restaurant in the back. We shared a plate. Brian: Good food! George: We had something like a chicken hamburger. I had an aunt from that part of the world who made that. It wasn’t like a chicken burger at all. She would actually cook a chicken, and throw it into a meat grinder, and turn the crank. And we had kasha, and vegetables, and another kind of meat that I forget. Then I asked for some sauce, and they brought a little silver serving dish with a red liquid in it. It was so different from any taste that I have previously known that I didn’t actually have a word to describe it. Brian: not to mention that we had a little trouble communicating with the waitress since she didn’t speak even a word of English. George: That’s true. In Brighton Beach in general we heard mostly Russian, not much English or anything else. Brian: And they didn’t want to talk about the war at all.
Brian: Next we saw a clothing store with all the mannequins dressed in colors of the Ukrainian flag.
George: That was my favorite. Brian: We went inside and asked the lady, who was sitting in a chair, her feelings. She said she sends support but didn’t really want to talk about it. George: And she didn’t. I told her we weren’t KGB, but that didn’t make a difference.
George: Then we saw a big a big Ukrainian flag outside whipping around in the wind, and we took pictures. Actually Brian, you look like you could be one of those Russian stars on the Rangers! Brian: laughs. I thought they had pretty many flags up in public places, but not that many in stores. George: You really would not exactly know that there was any kind of war going on. Brian: We went to the boardwalk and there were a lot of people sitting around on benches, but nobody wanted to talk to us. George: I think they made believe they didn’t speak English. Brian: One woman was selling health products, and seemed to speak good English. George: When I asked about the war, she said to not think about it, because stress is not healthy.
Brian: Finally, we saw the Mr. Softee truck. George: I figured that he would be someone good to talk to. Brian: Yes, he’s a neighborhood guy. George: He told us that he has only had two conversations about the war. Brian: The first one was Ukrainian who was very against what was going on over the, and the second was Russian, who was very pro- in favor of the invasion: George: Yeah, he told us she said that they are doing the right thing. And that’s it 50/50, depending on who you were. So even without the Russian propaganda, you can see everything happening here on our TV, she still thinks Russia is doing the right thing.
Then, a few days later, we went to the East Village. We parked the car, and the first thing we saw was a sign for the Odessa Restaurant, which I used to go to when I lived there back in the last century. It’s actually the first place where I ever had French Toast Challa bread. I lived around the corner, and they also sold me whole loaves of the bread, which I cooked for my then-wife in our little apartment around the corner. They baked the bread right there. In any case, that’s neither here nor there – the restaurant is long gone, although the sign remains. We walked up St. Marks and there were a lot of flags all over.
Anyway, I was kind of hungry again, that could be a theme of these things, and I remembered the Ukrainian Restaurant from the old days. They used to also own a cool place called the Kiev Restaurant, but maybe that closed with the end of the Soviet Union, I don’t know. The Ukrainian Restaurant is on Second Avenue, right next to the Veselka, which is now very popular. Brian: We looked inside and it was like insane, totally packed even at off hours. George: So at about 3:30 we went to the Ukrainian East Village Restaurant for dinner. We were the only ones there, although it got more crowded by the end of dinner. We ended up having two separate dinners. Brian: I had goulash, which was very good. George: and after a bit of indecision, I settled on the Hunter’s Stew, partly because it is mostly composed of sauerkraut, and I still remember how good the Rueben sandwich was at F & M deli in Red Hook, last month. It might be worth growing up in Eastern Europe just for the sauerkraut! Brian: they had good pumpernickel bread too. George: Brian, your dish came with broccoli. Brian: Yes, the meal had all different colors, just like you’re supposed to have.
George: Across the street there was a Ukrainian butcher, which I took a nice picture of.
Note from the Editor: This goes on for another 20 minutes, and we are running out of room here. But you can hear the whole thing for yourself on the George Fiala Youtube page. Just go here.
