La Belle Boulangerie: Brooklyn Flea @ Fort Greene

Last Saturday I went to go checkout the Brooklyn Flea in Fort Greene. I took the Q train all the way to Atlantic Avenue, which took about 45 minutes.

The view from the subway crossing the Brooklyn Bridge from Manhattan is stunning. I wish they would have a stop in the middle for people to appreciate the view and take some pictures.

Getting out of the subway, the first thing that greeted me was the Barclays Center, a centerpiece of downtown Brooklyn.

There's also the clock tower with the archaic sculptures outside.

I really liked the brownstone houses. I snapped a photo of someone putting up their Christmas decorations in June =)

There was also this really cool Paris laundry mat turned haute-culture store along the way.

It took me a couple of tries to get to this place, because i had forgotten to press the last step on my GPS, so it pointed me back to Atlantic Ave subway every time. I was shrugging my shoulders wondering why in the world the flea was located at the subway. Hubby even told me that it was in the big clock tower building. But when I strolled back (I was already 15 minutes down the road) I found the building closed.

So then afterwards I realized that I had been walking the right way, just that I needed to go up further. Guess my internal GPS (usually functional) was experiencing some technical difficulties that day.

Finally, after 20 minutes of walking and sweating and puffing in the sweltering heat, I finally made it. I was so happy that I almost yelped out loud when I reached the barred enclaves of the flea market, located in the parking lot of a local high school.

Since it was already 1-ish when I arrived, I headed straight to the food section (even bypassed the ice cream! Aren't you proud of me?)

There were some pretty cool food joints, like Rice & Miso Everyday. I woulda tried some but the prices were pretty steep for a ball of rice (around $6 for a regular one). So I got a Mexican corn-on-the-cob with all the fixings for $3. Then I watched the chef bake some deilsh looking pizzas at Pizza Moto.

The corn on the cob was surprisingly delish! It was crunchy, soft and full of the nutty texture of queso cheese sprinkled on top. The heat was countered by the sweetness of the corn, making it a perfect snack to munch on while browsing around. Only two complaints are that the one I got was pretty small, and that being a corn you do need to stop and eat it lest it drops all over other people's stuff.

One thing I wanted to try was the Texas Style Sandwich curtesy of a speciality pulled pork food truck, but the line was pretty crazy.

I liked the large hunk of pork over at Porchetta, which I thought woulda been tasty if 1. I ate pork and 2. the prices weren't so steep at $7 per bun the size of a small filet-o-fish at Mickey D's.

Prochetta

Of course there were the regular food truck joints, like Asia Dog (I had a similar idea of it back in 2010, but didn't think it would be successful), a Mexican fast-food joint ($6/tostada) and even a coffee and doughnut stand serving up caffe latte flavored doughnuts.

By now I was getting pretty thirsty from walking non-stop under the sun, so I picked up a mango lassi at the makeshift Indian joint where they were frying up samosas for $2.50/each (they are about $0.50 at the local Indian joint).

The mango lassi was nice and refreshing, not to mention really smooth and filling. I was glad I was walking around with that for the rest of the trip.

I actually had another motive to go the Brooklyn Flea - to see what kinds of products sell and what doesn't. I've been wanting to start my own business for a long time, and I think flea markets are the perfect place to start to try selling either food or your old junk.

Have to admit, Brooklyn has some pretty interesting personalities. The flea market owners were all pretty eccentric, but then again, I guess you have to be to become a professional dill pickler or a vintage CD collector.

According to my research, it's about $250 to rent a food stand for a day. That means if I sold something for about $5/piece (thereby beating out all the competition), I would be pretty rich by the end of the day. That'll help me start a restaurant fund!

By the time I made it back to the station, I was kind of hungry again (guess the corn wasn't that filling). So I grabbed a plaintain empanada from Cesar's Empanada Truck.