Brooklyn Sunday

After Arielle's birthday and the McKinsey party last night, today's ingredients for relaxation were brunch at our local haunt - The Farm on Adderly, a trip to Brooklyn's botanic garden, rounded off with a movie - Little Miss Sunshine - yes, in Brooklyn. If you're not sure if you like photos of natural things like plants, look away now.

Brooklyn Botanic Garden is 4 years off its centenary and is a 52-acre urban garden featuring more than 10,000 different kinds of plants. It's not on the same scale as Kew in London, but the effort they've put in to creating a real variety of environments in which to provide an inspirational and educational setting for visitors is notable. The Japanese garden is particularly well designed, and seemed to be one of the more popular spots. The gardens also contain Brooklyn's very own walk of fame. A lot like Hollywood Boulevard's version, only with fewer tourists and less glitz, Celebrity Path has stepping stones inscribed with names of famous Brooklynites past and present. The walkway was donated by the Brooklyn Union Gas Company in 1985. Each celebrity honoured has their name embedded in an 18-inch by 24-inch concrete paving and decorated with a stylized leaf outline cast in bronze. Each paving also contains a bronze medallion of the Brooklyn Bridge, encircled by the phrase, "The Greatness of Brooklyn Is Its People." New names are added to Celebrity Path each June on the borough's annual Welcome Back to Brooklyn Day, and current honourees include - Woody Allen, Lauren Bacall, Steve Buscemi, Aaron Copland, Neil Diamond, Richard Dreyfuss, George Gershwin, Rita Hayworth, Harry Houdini, Harvey Keitel (second name check), Norman Mailer, Barry Manilow, Arthur Miller, Mary Tyler Moore, Mickey Rooney, Jimmy Smits, Barbra Streisand, Marisa Tomei (another second name check), and Mae West. Jay-Z isn't up there yet, but it can't be too long.

More information on our eating hangout of choice... The Farm on Adderley comes from an expression that the founder's family used when something was a long shot. They would say, "If that ever happens, I'll buy you a Farm on Adderley." Adderley is a busy, commercial street in Cape Town, South Africa where having a farm is impossible. For them, the restaurant has always been a dream, something he never thought would happen... Ditmas Park was once occupied by farmland, and by using ingredients from local and sustainable sources, The Farm is being true to those roots - and the food is good too.