October 6th, 2018 was one of those days; one that I dare say could be one of best I’ve had this year! (cues SpongeBob’s Best Day Ever song)

This past Saturday the Brandon Douthitt Quartet made its Queens International Night Market debut. We all had never been to Queens International Night Market before, let alone performed there, so we were excited for what was in store. We arrived at the New York Hall of Science for Night Market and set up around 6:30pm. I had a bit of the collywobbles as it was lightly misting outside and it looked like it was going to rain for a moment. Thankfully it didn’t! As we were walking in, taking in all the sounds and smells, I got the feeling that this was going to be a great night. Regardless of how many people are in attendance, I am always grateful to perform, but it’s always nice playing in front of a lively and interactive crowd. We started our set at 7:15pm and right away the kids were intrigued by our instruments. They were so fascinated with what was going on and would NOT sit down! Seeing the kids running around and dancing to the music with their parents put a smile on my face. I won’t forget the look on this little girl’s face as she stood in front of us, mesmerized by Wen-Ting’s playing on her drum solo. Seeing people genuinely happy and enjoying the music really means the world to me.

After our we finished out set, we hung out with the band The Wag who was performing later, and watched the Chinese Center on Long Island dancers perform before we packed up. We had really worked up an appetite by this time and were MAD HUNGRY so we finally loaded up our gear and went back in to pig out. I’m generally not an indecisive person at all but there were sooooo many different food options that I didn’t know what to try first! Eventually, I along with Quincy and our boy Robert decided to try some empanadas from Sweet & Salty. I had the best empanada I’ve tasted in my life! From there I decided I wanted to be bold and try some new foods. When we initially walked in I noticed a vendor selling shark sandwiches..yup that’s right..SHARK SANDWICHES. Boy am I glad I tried them. They were soo good that I had to get one to go!

At this point, we were all starting to get the itis and wanted to end our night with some dessert. Right next-door to Caribbean Street Eats (shark sandwiches), there was Sam’s Fried Ice Cream. I had seen fried ice cream on TV but never had the opportunity to try it so I thought, this is my chance! I was expecting it to be more like a fried Oreo or a funnel cake but was pleasantly surprised! I certainly was not expecting the ice cream to still be as cold as it was on the inside.

All in all it was a great night.

Good vibes, good food, good people, and good friends; I can’t ask for much more than that.