I love my apartment, and I love Sunset Park. I can't say it enough. It certainly doesn't look like much, with the fast food joints, the initially scary looking Greenwood Cemetery and the gas stations all within a few blocks of my house. But I've been regularly discovering new and exciting things about the hood.
My latest and greatest discovery is the tamale lady at 35th and 4th Ave., just one block before the subway stop. She sells $1 steaming mole and spicy tamales from her little Coleman cooler, as well as atole, the Mexican sweetened cornmeal drink (I've never had it, but I assume it tastes better than it sounds.)
But just yesterday, ANOTHER tamale lady showed up at the corner of 36th St. and 4th Ave. with the same kind of cooler full of tamales and several kinds of drinks, including arroz con leche (hot rice milk) and champurrado (Mexican hot chocolate thickened with cornmeal). Today I bought a tamale from her for comparison's sake. I will reveal the results of my taste test after lunch. I wonder if the O.G. tamale lady is gonna throw down with the tamale lady biter and have a turf fight, sloshing cold leftover atole on each other. That would be awesome. And for dessert, I still have a piece of sponge cake (dan go) from my Chinese baker boyfriend at the corner of 36th and 4th Ave. Breakfast and Chinese lessons for only $1.20/day!
Sunset Park is like a utopic distillation of my childhood experience in La Puente, CA -- lots of Asians, lots of Latinos. But the difference is that we all have to live on top of each other and breathe each other's narsty germs on the subway. That's why I get to see an Asian lady buying a tamale from the tamale lady, a Latino guy buying coffee and a sweet bun from the Chinese bakery, and a Filipino lady bantering with the customers in fluent Spanish. Sunset Park rules.
(bear with me if this is a repeat...i thought i posted a comment)
have you tried the tamale joint on 4th ave (closer to 59th st)? they have delicious queso tamales (tho $2 each, gringo/chino prices, i'm sure) that you can wash down with champurrado. there are two-three tables and a bench you can squeeze into. i was wondering how they compare... 36th st is a bit far to hike from my end of the woods, esp before noon on a weekend... but dammit, i'm curious. cheers to sunset park cheapeats!