My fiancée Tara and I had planned a wonderful fall outing Saturday before last. We would bike over to Prospect Park, and then head over to the 10th anniversary Target First Saturday party at the Brooklyn Museum.
On the way over to the park, our stomachs insisted we take a detour. We hadn’t eaten since breakfast and it was now nearing three o’clock. As I contemplated that eternal question, “Should I eat now and spoil my dinner?” Tara made an executive decision: we’d get some baguettes and soup for an impromptu picnic in the park.
As we closed in on Prospect Park, I scanned for options. There were some small bodegas that didn’t look like they would have the goods and some restaurants that mocked me with the smell of delicious—but slow—food. Luckily, when we hit 7th Ave and 13th street, I spotted our savior, Union Market.
Upon entering I was greeted with a gorgeous display of red ripe tomatoes, yellow corn and greens. A few steps further and I saw the most diverse offering of mushrooms I had ever seen in Brooklyn. Around the corner were dizzying towers of even more colorful and exotic food items.
I had clearly found a gourmand’s funhouse. I quickly lost Tara in the tight maze-like aisles of the market. Turning a right at a display of specialty oil, I found myself face to face with a trove of olives and other oil-cured delicacies, along with a cache of toothpicks. I am not an olive lover, but the sun-dried tomatoes beckoned. I speared one, popped it my mouth and was rewarded with a burst of intense sweetness. Yummy.
Union Market had more fantastic distractions from the task at hand. I next found mounds upon mounds of cheese, glorious cheese, which entranced me. A noise broke my reverie and I noticed the cheese monger, whistling to himself while cutting thick wedges from an enormous wheel of cheese. In front of the counter were samples of his wares: sharp parmesan slivers, and a creamy goat cheese spread on some fresh French bread. Before I knew it, cheese samples had also found their way into my mouth. I asked the man about the goat cheese. He helpfully stopped his work and retrieved a small package from the display.
“You like it? It’s on sale for $5.99.”
I thanked him, but declined the cheese; it wouldn’t last the hours before I returned home. Turning the corner, I found Tara plucking some gourmet potato chips out of a barrel.
“These are good,” she said as she fed me one.
We walked past a deli counter stocked with a tantalizing display of salads and prepared foods, and found two bubbling soup pots. I had my heart set on some clam chowder, but all they had was vegetable and chicken soups. Luckily, Union Market offers many non-soup, picnic-ready options. We decided upon some house made roasted red pepper hummus. I led Tara back through the maze, jostling customers and white-coated employees, in a quest to reach the fresh bread to go with it. Along the way, I was gracious enough to show Tara the samples she had missed.
We wanted the focaccia but felt it was too expensive for its size. So we grabbed a large round loaf of golden crusted bread and paid for our late-afternoon snack. Though at this point we almost didn’t need it–as we walked out of the store, I patted my sample-satisfied belly.
Though Union Market is a bit expensive for weekly trips to stock up on basic groceries, it is a great place to get gourmet items for special occasions at home or a picnic in the park. For those readers participating in the Brooklyn Making Strides walk this Sunday, which will be near this stretch of 7th Avenue, I encourage you to stop by and sample.
Note: Anyone interested in making donations to Making Strides and/or sponsoring my team, The Pink Crusaders, please visit pinkcrusaders.org or the team donation page. All donations go to the American Cancer Society, the nation’s largest source of private, nonprofit cancer research funds.
Union Market
402 7th Ave
Brooklyn, NY 11215
(718) 499-4026
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