What does one see when strolling down down the streets of Brighton Beach? One can see everything from food to pharmacies. Walking from Brighton 1st to Brighton 7th, daniel and I saw many groceries that had all sorts of delicious looking fruits and vegetables lined up against the counters. We saw many types of cafes and restaurants. We observed people, we observed their manners and how everyone was in a rush. We looked at the available foods: salads, Georgian pastries, and desserts. We looked at the products in the pharmacy. Brighton beach has many things to observe and is a great place to people watch.
After class on March 10th, Daniel and I went to check out Brighton Beach. It was a cool 47 degrees Fahrenheit. We got off the train at Ocean Parkway and walked down to Brighton 1st to take some pictures and see how many people were out at about 4:00 pm on a Friday. Friday is a good day to be on Brighton Beach because Russian families like having dinners either on Friday or weekend nights and many people go food shopping. We saw many people on the streets walking around with their shopping bags and running back and forth between other stores.
The first place we visited was a Georgian bake shop right at the beginning of Brighton. Georgians make a great savory pastry called “khachapuri” which is farmers cheese in a puffy dough. Daniel and I decided to each try one. It was very tasty. The pastry was hot, a honey golden color on top and white cheese inside was perfectly melted. While we were in the store we took pictures of traditional Georgian food that the man was selling. The salads were similar to the Russian ones but the bread was very different. The read was in an almost S shape that I have never seen before. There was also a traditional Georgian dessert of dried fruit.
We continued to walk down Brighton. There are many fresh fruit and vegetable stores down Brighton and it is a mystery to me how they all manage to stay afloat. Regardless of that, the first one we passed was booming with people measuring out how many products they needed.
Most of the people that we saw were in their later years. Many of them were walking around with their home attendants that were assisting with their shopping because there is a large population of elderly people living in Brighton. Also, they were many middle-aged women that were doing their shopping. Most of them were nicely dressed; some had fur coats and long leather jackets. This is also typical for Brighton: Russian women enjoy being encased in furs because it is a tradition and shows off their wealth.
We continued to walk through Brighton to see if we would stumble across someone willing to do an interview. There are also many pharmacies on Brighton so we decided to step into one. Daniel had family friends in it but unfortunately, they decided that they couldn’t do an interview. Instead, we took pictures and looked at the products. Many of the products were from Russia, and there were also many herbal products.