Turbans: chartreuse / khaki

And a tribute to Jackson Heights, Queens

Two friendly guys, happy to have their pictures taken. The top one is in Jackson Heights, Queens; the bottom one in India, presumably in the military or police.

I’ll write about India another time, but let me tell you about Jackson Heights, one of my favorite places to travel the world. There are almost 100 languages spoken in the New York City borough of Queens, and almost all of them thrive in this complex, immigrant-rich neighborhood. In Jackson Heights, you can buy saris and gold jewelry as well as dozens of varieties of peppers from smokey to combustible, get fruit you have never seen before, and have your eyebrows threaded and your hands intricately henna-ed.

And eat very very well. From the subway (actually an elevated train at Roosevelt Ave), head straight for the Himalayas and south Asia—from Tibet and Nepal to India and Malaysia. If, however, you turn right off the train, a Spanish-speaking landscape stretches out, rich in food trucks, sidewalk taco and tamale carts, and produce stands. In either direction lie small restaurants run by people who specialize in dishes they’ve cooked thousands of time and prepare to perfection.

Within Jackson Heights you’ll find cuisines particular to one small town in Mexico, a region of India, a particular Caribbean island. Or you can grab a stool in a place featuring 20 varieties of Nepalese momo, goat curry, or Peruvian-style chicken fried sweet and crisp.

It was not long ago that Jackson Heights faced disaster. Densely populated by people whose jobs would not let them work from home, and who needed to commute by crowded subway and bus, it was an epicenter for Covid—despite exceptionally high vaccination rates. Fully half of Jackson Heights’ 60,682 residents contracted the virus, and one in every 132 died—almost twice NYC's incidence. In light of that toll, it is facile to say the neighborhood is recovering, but indeed, as Covid recedes, Jackson Height's streets have once again grown vibrant with life, diversity, and the occassional chartreuse turban.