I talk a lot about the fabulous produce of Astoria, and how a pile of eggplants made me decide to move here. But I’ve never shown photographic evidence before.

Look at that. It’s nighttime. The veggies are beautiful. And it looks like that all night long, because it’s open 24 hours! And there are about three more places just like this one on the same street.

Here it is during the day:

One day I was standing on that corner, mooning over some piles of peaches or something, when this troop of out-of-towners (you can tell by the white sneakers and sweatshirts) went by–it looked like maybe a resident was showing his family from Iowa around. The little brother said, in a voice dripping with scorn, “Geez, and everything’s always on special here.”

Boy, no city slicker’s gonna put anything over on that little brat.

But it was funny, because I’d until then I’d never even noticed the “SPECIAL!” signs. That’s how distracting the produce is.

And then there’s this. (Squeamish people, don’t scroll down!) As with produce, I have a choice of at least four butchers within a ten-block stretch, plus the all-halal butcher department at the Trade Fair. This sort of selection is an average day–when it gets to be any holiday period, there are double the number of carcasses crammed in there.

Astoria: it’s not just for vegetarians.