NYC: Brooklyn and Fort Greene Flea Market

New York City consists of 5 boroughs; Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Staten Island and Queens, but many people think that New York City is synonymous with Manhattan, and Manhattan only, so I’ve got my share of puzzled looks, when telling people that I stayed in Brooklyn, the last time I visited New York (“Brooklyn, that’s not really New York City, is it??”).

As a matter of fact, Brooklyn is the most populous of the 5 NYC boroughs and this is where you find some of the hippest neighborhoods right now, such as Fort Greene and Williamsburg.

Tina lives just a few blocks away from Fort Greene, so Saturday morning, we went for a walk in the park followed by a visit to the big, outdoor Fort Greene Flea Market. On our way to the Flea, we passed Fort Green Park Greenmarket located just outside the Fort Greene Park entrance. This is the place to shop organic, sustainable produce from local farms at affordable prices.

Fort Greene Flea takes place every Saturday from April through November, and there are more than 150 different stalls to browse through in the schoolyard, which provides the settings for the market.

“Organic” and “handmade” seem to be two overall Fort Greene dogmas so don’t expect to find cheap knick-knacks made in China. Instead, the market is teeming with vendors selling homemade delicacies, handmade jewelry and cool vintage pieces.

One of the vendors was Sunny Bang, who sells his Sunny Bang Probiotic Hot Sauce. Tina has been a loyal fan of that hot sauce for a long time, and she usually buys her supplies from the stall at Fort Greene Flea, but the hot sauce is also available from a few other select outlets including The Brooklyn Kitchen in Williamsburg and Gotham West Market in Hells Kitchen.

I don’t usually like hot sauce, but I gave it a try one morning along with an omelet and I was immediately hooked. That hot sauce is the best hot sauce, I’ve ever tasted! And yes, it is indeed a HOT sauce, but it also has this slightly fruity and rich flavor that makes the flavor much more than just hot.

Sunny Bang was busy selling his sauces at the market so I wouldn’t disturb him, but Tina told to me how Sunny Bang (yes, that’s his name) has explained to her earlier on how he got the idea to make the sauce, and how much work this vigorous individual has put behind the development and refinement of the sauce, sourcing only the best and most exquisite ingredients.

What makes Sunny Bang stand out from other hot sauces is that it’s probiotic, meaning that the peppers in the sauce have gone through lactic fermentation. This is the same procedure used for making kimchi, and it makes the sauce tickle your tongue like a hot sauce version of champagne.

I would have loved to spend the entire day at the marketplace, but I had the hangover from hell was really tired after our Friday night out at Macao, so after an hour or so, I was dying for a coke so we went to one of the nearby cafes and had brunch.

Smorgasburg in Williamsburg – A market full of good food

Visit Brooklyn Flea’s website