Smorgasburg 2: Ducks & Passion
Even bad calls still taste good. They just might leave you feeling bloated later… — Duck Season
No, this is not about to be a post detailing my romantic tryst with planet Earth’s most quacked up waterfowl. And if it was, I’d be doing more than just Peking.
Summer is here, and it has brought the heat with it. As NYC’s COVID levels surge up once again, and I sit here slow cooking in the confines of my apartment, it’s fun to reminisce about what it’s like to go outside. A couple of Sundays back marked my not-entirely triumphant return to Prospect Park Smorgasburg, this time with more friends in tow (and masked up accordingly). It’s funny to think about how in the month or so since I last attended, the weather had shot up a good 30°-40° or so. That’s just how the weather is nowadays. Freezer to furnace.
And while the sweltering heat absolutely made it a necessity to find shade if my friends and I didn’t want to end up in an ice cream puddle on the sidewalk (spoilers: we found it), apparently that wasn’t going to stop me from making poor gastronomical decisions.
Let’s start with me acting within reasonable conscience. When it comes to summertime staples, a nice cold, refreshing beverage does wonders to make you feel less like you’re dying. And for lack of a lemonade stand, we turn to other fruit juices to satisfy our need for hydration. While I have my sights set on the stand serving straight-from-the-source coconut water, I’m going to have to save that for next time.
This past visit led to me hitting up Vaquero Elotes, which in addition to their titular offerings of street corn, also doubles as a much needed provider of tropical fruits. Operating out of their stand is a respectable line of colorful tubs, from mango juice to watermelon juice, to strawberry lemonade and regular lemonade.
Saving me from the summer sun. — Vaquero Elotes
Okay, I lied about the lack of lemonade being offered earlier. But if it’s not being sold by a kid with a makeshift sign in a cul-de-sac it ain’t a lemonade stand.
The sign that caught my eye at Vaquero was one that read maracujá—passion fruit if we’re translating. I honestly don’t recall if I’ve had passion fruit before, whole fruit, or juice, but we are forever in the department of trying new things. And if I did have any doubts, the customer in line behind me was doing his best hype man routine for the stuff (and it was affirming).
If the name is anything to go by, I can see why people are passionate about this stuff. Oh man. It’s sweet, a tad bit sharp, and it’s got a little bit of tang. That’s good fruit right there.
Other hits include cut out mango roses covered in tajin (not pictured, unfortunately). If you’re not familiar with what that is, do yourself a favor and look it up. It’ll overhaul your whole summer. And it’ll be 1000% for the better.
We then of course shift focus to my second act of the afternoon—absolute buffoonery. Today’s flavor of buffoon is duck flavor. Cut to Duck Season (no wabbits in sight), a stand which I fully intended on stopping by during my first Smorgasburg visit. But that would have made sense at the time. Nah. On this second visit, I made the call to order myself a fully loaded cardboard boat of duck poutine. And did it hit the spot in the 80°+ sun?…Well I mean, it didn’t “hit the spot” per say, but it was pretty tasty.
I’m pretty sure this marks my first time having poutine with all of the fixings, and in this case a few more fixings on top of that. True to its name, Duck Season embraces the undisputed king of poultry (do not dispute) in all of its savory glory. Loading up their fries with cubes of braised duck and a salty pour of duck gravy to finish, the end result is a calorie bomb that does at times threaten to leech the moisture from your mouth. Again, clearly made the right call on when to order this one.
But I will not allow for the trivialities of weather to impede my food ordering decisions! There is poutine there, it is to be had, and I only kind of sort of regret ordering it when I did. But considering that it’s not going to be cooling back down any time soon, I can feel accomplished having crossed it off my list.
Of note: I really did play myself. Did not could not order any other food this time out. I was FULL. That or my stomach elected to take the controls away from me and tap out. It was a fair enough call.
Maybe next time I’ll eat something spicy when it’s 90° out. That sounds like a good move.
