Yesterday we had a lovely day at the Brazilian neighborhood in Astoria. That’s what I love about New York you can have a different country experience just by changing neighborhoods. It’s a mix of Brazilians, Greeks, and Egyptians. Astoria has one of the largest concentrations of Greeks outside Greece. And you can tell by the number of Greek Restaurants and Markets. We first had brunch in a Brazilian restaurant called “Favela” which means slams in Portuguese, but I can assure you it was the best Brazilian food I had in NY. It tasted like my Grandmother’s food, very authentic and at the end we asked if the chef was a man or woman, and the waiter told us it was a man and he was Mexican * … It is well know that Mexican immigrants run the country kitchens…. there’s nothing they can’t do! He was very goooood. He totally captured the Brazilian flavor. Kudos to him.

 So after that we walked around and found this Greek Supermarket that blew our minds with the display and selections of Greek goodies. Which by the way was a delight for us, we were in Greek heaven, and I didn’t know even where to start. The cheeses, the yogurt, the sweets, I had to berate my husband so he wouldn’t go overboard with the Halva choices infront of him (For those who don’t know, Halva is a Mediterranean sweet made of sesame seeds). If I left him alone, we would probably need a truck to carry the pieces of Halva he chose. The selection of feta cheese was overwhelming; I literally didn’t know what to chose, until this kind Greek lady that looked like she just stepped out of “My big fat Greek wedding” movie came to my rescue and gave me a lesson about all the different Greek cheeses. Man… she really knew her cheeses! She was awesome, and then I took advantage of her knowledge and asked about olive oil (yep…. I almost brought her home with me). She was a real darling, very friendly. Actually we realized that when you step out of Manhattan people are very friendly. Not that there isn’t friendly people in Manhattan, but you have to really look hard for them. Everybody here is always too busy to chat, I understand that, but it’s nice sometimes to be able to share things. Now I have to find some recipes to use this wonderful cheese I’ve got.  I’m totally open to ideas. If you guys have some fabulous recipe with feta and you feel like sharing… I’ll be delighted. 

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