Last Saturday, June 22, was a glorious day to visit Utica NY with a blue sky, ideal temperatures and light puffy clouds. We were there for the World Refugee Day Celebration and planned to celebrate by eating as wide a variety of ethnic foods as we could culminating in a visit to the event itself.
Pork hand pie at Lucky Mey’s; the crunchy bits are jicama which are non-Cambodian but delicious.
We started out at Lucky Mey’s Market where we picked up some premade bahn mi (fine, except for absence of pate) and delicious pork hand pies that were a bargain at $2. This Asian goods grocery was neat as a pin compared to the other Asian supermarket which probably has more stuff, but you can’t find it all. Then off to Lejla and Ajla Coffee Shop, where were lucky enough to arrive on the last day before the owner goes home to Bosnia for two months. We crossed the street to Zwe Ka Bin Burmese Tea and Snack Shop and ordered noodle salad which was really good with a peanutty sour dressing and batter-fried mung beans on the side.
Noodle Salad from Zwe Ka Bin in Utica
Now it was time to head toward Kennedy Plaza for the International Refugee Day festival itself. The Google Maps link actually leads to an apartment complex called Kennedy Plaza, but it’s a compact area and we found the correct park easily enough. Booths and tables were set out by various local banks, civic organizations and organizations selling henna tattoos, African fabrics and other goods linked to specific refugee groups. I have not seen such a variety of ethnicities and regional garb concentrated in such a small area anyplace, NYC included.
Utica High School ROTC Color Guard at citizenship ceremony
The citizenship ceremony kicked off around 12:15 with a number of short speeches by public officials, a former refugee who has now earned her doctorate in dentistry and is returning to the area to practice, and one of the citizenship candidates who told a harrowing tale of her family’s experience in various camps before they arrived in Utica.
A Homeland Security official who was praised for coming to Utica on his day off (does the government no longer provide funding for citizenship ceremonies?) made a fine statement and then administered the Oath of Allegiance. It’s an anachronistic pledge which includes references to renouncing “all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state, or sovereignty”. My college student companion found it a bit jingoistic but I had a tear in my eye, as did most of the audience.
Ethnic foods of Utica…. many of the hole in the wall places are not listed.
Afterward we all—including the Homeland Security official—celebrated by lining up at the “Eat Out Lao(d)” food truck where we got pretty good Lao jerky, sticky rice and papaya salad (no green beans but good heat). Various groups in ethnic costumes were to perform on stage, but we moved on for our Lebanese raw lamb kibbeh at Zeina’s Cafe—we got it to go and I later discovered no one would eat it but me, which was fine—and a stop at Roma Sausage and Deli on the way out of town where we bought a whole small pie ($9), a Sicilian sausage roll (maybe $5) and too much house-made sausage.
Utica Tomato Pie from Roma… the best
Utica is a smallish city of 61,000, and 16,000 of those citizens—better than a quarter of the population—came as refugees. The spirit of diversity and tolerance is everywhere, not only in the variety of foods but in the clothes people wear on the streets and the way they present themselves. (Lots of porch sitting, lots of pop up shops in front yards.) The director of the sponsoring MVRCR (Mohawk Valley Resource Center For Refugees) told us only 130 refugee placements have been approved thus far this year, which is far below the level needed to sustain the vitality of the community. Let’s hope things get better soon. If you would like to help, you can donate here as well as supporting similar programs wherever you are.
