Ottoman Queens

Almost as enticing as the architectural remnants of a lost empire is its aftertaste.

The culinary heritage of the Ottoman Empire lives on ninety years after its political collapse. The polyglot neighborhoods of Queens certainly lack Istanbul's glorious temples but they have more languages and not a little of its food.

Astoria is ostensibly a Greek neighborhood, but its changing fast. Along with Brazilian immigrants and hipster refugees from Brooklyn, Ditmars Boulevard has a secularized Muslim feel imported from old Yugoslavia and Turkey.

It is as if the northeast corner of the Mediterranean has moved in around the old Greek ladies.

The vexed geographical question of Europe's boundaries shows itself in the careful phrasing of the store sign. The Balkans are "European" and thereafter comes the Middle East.

However, a hurried pedestrian might read the sign so that 'European' refers to both the Balkans and the Middle East.

What a generous idea of the shop owner: to advertise a European Middle East! Storefront diplomacy. Either way consumer satisfaction solves cultural conflict once again.