Happiness Is Found At the Queens County Market

Yesterday afternoon I headed over to SingleCut Beersmiths and spent some time at the Queens County Market, which popped up there for the second time this year. I’ve attended a number of these markets and I really enjoy this space. It’s easy to move around in and see the vendors, and I really like the big table in the middle that serves as a meeting place for folks to meet up, and even chat about what they bought.

The first table I encountered was Charlito’s Cocina, makers of fine charcuterie. Both owner Charles and his friend Jimmy offered us samples, and I fell in love with the chorizo (this is a non spicy version), so I took some home with me. My second favorite was the Trufa Seca, seasoned with black truffles and sea salt. They also has a beer sausage and a dry-cured country sausage. All were delicious. They were also making sandwiches for people, which looked amazing!

Yelp was next to them! This was the first time I had caught them there.

Next up was Crusticks, a delightfully crunchy snack.

I tried the sour cream and onion flavor, which was quite nice. This was this vendor’s very first time EVER at a market. They make their product out of an incubator kitchen in the Bronx. Bravo, guys!

Next up was Malu, which brought amazing frozen treats, as usual. They brought back some old favorites and had some new (at least to me) flavors to offer as well.

I tried the watermelon sorbet, which was sweet and refreshing, as well as the cafe au lait ice cream, which I absolutely fell in love with. Eating it was a complete joy. They used beans from Native Coffee Roasters to make it!

Here’s one of Malu’s owners, Jennifer, who I enjoyed speaking with about ice cream and more.

Eméché Cupcakes was here with their boozy cupcakes and cake pops, made with SingleCut beer. I picked up one of their tasty chocolate covered cake pops.

I thought their cupcakes were gorgeous.

I was thrilled to see Native Coffee Roasters here! Brian and his wife Lauren were at the table (Lauren had one of those sandwiches from Charlito’s Cocina in her hand and she said it was amazing). Along with the cold brew coffee was something called a “latte” which was basically the cold brew concentrate diluted with milk. This made for a seriously strong cup of coffee that was also a seriously good cup of coffee.

Gustavo’s Salsa was there with their excellent chipotle salsa (I slathered my eggs with it this morning).

Gustavo was also manning the Project Crudo table. Here’s more info about Project Crudo: “Montauk Pearl Oysters, farmed in Long Island, will be shucked to order when the Project Crudo team debuts on Sunday.” They were accompanied by lemon and Gustavo’s Salsa, which was a perfect match for these lovely oysters. I got two for $5.

Finally, there was Veda’s Catering, who has been a staple at the Queens County Market over the months. Veda makes wonderful Guyanese food, and I am a HUGE fan of her almond cake. She had smaller almond cookies for sale, so I snatched them up, a steal at $.75/each. She also had cassava pone, cheese rolls, chicken patties, codfish cakes, and curry available, among other things.

It was great to see people enjoying the market!