Picnicing in Prospect Park, Brooklyn

I attend Trinity Grace Church, which has 4 locations in Manhattan and 1 location in Brooklyn. Today was a church-wide picnic at Prospect Park in Brooklyn. As iconic, intricate, and beautiful as Central Park is, Prospect Park, in some ways, is better.

Prospect Park has never-ending fields of grass, making it the perfect location for a picnic. In fact, everyone else in NYC agrees me. The park was filled with people picnicing with family and friends, but there was still more than enough to invite thousands of more picnicers to join us.

The majority of TGC’s picnic was spent playing flag football. I was on the UWS Marrieds team (Team Name: High Flyin’ Kites...another blog for another day), and my primary offensive role was to hike the ball while my primary defensive role was to rush the quarter back. I thought for sure I’d hate it. Not so. I loved it. (Team Pic to follow)

Anyway, on our way home, walking through the park, we were able to see what others were doing on their day off work, on their day to picnic. The diverse nature of the City was made very clear.

One group had been transported to the 21st century from the medieval era. On their patch of grass, they were challenging each other to duels and fighting “to the death.” They wore medieval garb and fought with medieval weapons (made of foam so as not to hurt anyone, of course).

Another group was barbecuing and steaming foods in giant pots that resembled the trashcan that Oscar the Grouch lived in. What were they steaming? You’d never guess it...crabs and lobster tails. Even more intriguing, it was a reunion, recalling old times when they were in...nope, not college or high school...jr. high. I’ve never known anyone to have a jr. high school reunion, but they sure did seem to be having fun.

When our group went to look in the "trash can," they offered
us crabs. We took 4, and Philip and our friend Andy ate some.
Apparently, it was yummy.

There were, of course, the standard birthday parties, barbecues, tanners, and families just spending time together. No park in the City would be complete without the people and groups that seem typical and the people and groups that defy expectations. If one is missing, you’re surely not in NYC.

Good Southern BBQ...in NY?

“Do you smell that?” Philip asked me.
“Mmm...yeah, I do,” I responded as the aroma of BBQ kicked my salivary glands into overdrive.

We had just arrived at the Big Apple BBQ Block Party, an annual weekend-long BBQ event that raises money for the Madison Square Park Conservancy. Over 15 of the best pitmasters from the southern states and New York, NY were serving all sorts of BBQ - pulled pork shoulder sandwiches, sausage, beef brisket, whole hog, different types of ribs, all natural turkey, coleslaw, and beans - at Madison Square Park in Flatiron.

Whole hog

Over 100,000 people are typically served over the course of the weekend. And Philip, four friends, and I were among the first of those 100,000.

A lot of people who attend this BBQ Block Party have done their research. They know whose BBQ they want to eat and why. Some pitmasters have somehow managed to gain either a following or a level of fame that draws eaters to their booths, and people will stand in line for hours to pay $8 for a small plate of BBQ prepared by the pitmaster of their choice.

The short line for Big Bob's

Two of our friends had been to the block party before and suggested we arrive as soon as the event started, 11 am. We arrived at 10:59, and almost immediately, I started salivating. Because of this “come early” strategy, the longest we stayed in line for anything was about 45 minutes.

We started at what we knew would be the most popular stop at the block party, Big Bob Gibson’s Bar-B-Q. (See Big Bob's chopping up their "pulled" pork in the video below.) By the time we got our pulled pork shoulder sandwiches (just under an hour long wait) and finished eating them, the end of the line was about 2 hours away from the cash register. Eek! 

Our next longest wait was about 45 minutes for pies from The Original Fried Pie Shop. The only reason it was that short was because our strategizing friends left four of us in line while they figured out what was going on with the lines at the pie shop. Long story short, the vendor didn’t know what to expect at the event, and as a result, their system was chaotic.  Our friends figured out there were four lines (instead of one), found the shortest and grabbed our pies. (The people we had been standing by in the extra long line would probably be there at least another hour and still would not make it to the front.)

The Original Fried Pie Shop chaos

Were the pies worth the wait? Well, I guess the 45-minute wait was fine...and I could even handle the cold wind and rain...but I certainly wouldn’t wait 2 hours for it. By the way, “Fried Pie” is a fancy term for “I’m an upgraded McDonald’s pie.” It was shaped like a large, flat empanada, and it was filled with - you guessed it - pie filling. Between the six of us, we had at least one apple, apricot, and blackberry; the only option we were missing was the peach.

 

The Big Apple BBQ Block Party was an interesting experience, and we all left talking about how we need to do it again next year. As I sit here writing this and smelling the BBQ smoke on the clothes I wore, I can’t help but think, “Yeah, I’ll go again next year. But I might be more strategic about what I wear.”

St. Louis Style Ribs from Checkered Pig

Pitmasters/Vendors Philip and I visited:
1. Chris Lilly, Big Bog Gibson Bar-B-Q, Pulled Pork Shoulder

2. Tommy Houston, Checkered Pig, St. Louis Style Ribs

3. Michael Rodriguez, The Salt Lick Bar-B-Que, Beef Brisket and Sausage

4. Jenn Giblin, Blue Smoke, Rootbeer float

5. The Original Fried Pie Shop, Apricot and Blackberry

Married Couples Only

Waiting to release the kite at the perfect time

What does a kite, frisbee, and football have in common? They’re all things that can get stuck in a tree.

As we enter into the heart of summer, our married couples home fellowship is choosing a different activity for our Wednesday night time slot. This week, we packed up our dinners, blankets, and picnic toys and headed to Central Park.

One of the most prominent things I’ve noticed about get-togethers in NYC is that people don’t really potluck. It’s every man for himself. If we had been in Arizona, we probably would have been responsible for bringing drinks or a side dish. Here, we were responsible for bringing our own dinner. It’s interesting how much a culture can change after only a 6-hour flight.

Frisbee stuck in the tree

Anyhow, it was a beautiful evening spent in the park with some new friends. Our husbands aren’t particularly skilled at keeping their toys out of the trees. With little to wind tonight, it was hard to get a kite up in the air, but as soon as it started flying, it was tangled up in some tree branches. The frisbee fared better, although it also got stuck in a tree a couple of times...only to get knocked down by a football the guys kept throwing into the tree.

The wives did what they do best: chit chat. We just enjoyed each other, laughed, and had fun.

Wives laughing at husbands trying to
get their frisbee out of the tree

Every town and every city should have its own Central Park, a beautiful grassy park with trees for shade and open areas for such games as bochee ball (the guys spent half the evening playing). And every church should have a married couples home fellowship. I’ve never known so many married couples my age who I could relate to and fellowship with. It’s fun having married friends.