16 NOVEMBER 1, 2018 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
Veterans Day
parade
in M.V.
this Sunday
BY EMMA MILLER
EDITORIAL@RIDGEWOODTIMES.COM
@RIDGEWOODTIMES
Members of the Armed
Forces will be celebrated
during the Queens
Veterans Day Parade scheduled
for Sunday, Nov. 4, at noon in
Middle Village.
The parade will start at the
corner of 80th Street and Metropolitan
Avenue, and proceed
down the avenue to Christ the
King High School, where a
ceremony honoring vets and
veteran organizations will take
place.
All veterans and active military
are invited to march in the
parade. The participating organizations
include the Veterans
of Foreign Wars, American
Legion, Disabled American
Veterans, Vietnam Veterans of
America and AMVETS. Local
Boy and Girl Scout troops along
with baton and flag twirlers
and marching bands are also
scheduled to participate.
The grand marshal of the
parade this year is Sergeant
Gerard M. Opitz who was part
of the U.S. Army Air Corps
during World War II. Opitz is
from Glendale.
During his time in the army,
he was part of the 389th Bombardment
Group that was active
from Dec. 24, 1942, to Sept. 13,
1945. The group ran raids in
Crete, Sicily, Italy, Austria and
Romania early in the war and
was later stationed in England
to bomb airfields in France and
the Netherlands.
In addition to honoring
Opitz, the Queens Veterans
Day Parade Committee will
also present its Humanitarian
Award to Maspeth’s Frank Kowalinski
Post No. 4, also known as
the Polish Legion of American
Veterans Post, for their service
to veterans in Queens.
The organization is named
for Frank Kowalinski, a man
from Maspeth who was the fi rst
Polish-American soldier to die
in World War I.
Women’s podcasting event
coming to Maspeth
BY MARK HALLUM
MHALLUM@CNGLOCAL.COM
The battle for the SHSAT is not
going away anytime soon, with
elected offi cials calling out a de
Blasio administration employee who is
accused of attempting to end the public
comment portion of a Community Education
Council 24 (CEC 24) meeting
on Oct. 23.
The representative from Mayor
Bill de Blasio’s intergovernmental affairs,
Roberto Perez, was said to have
attempted to block CEC 24 president
Lucy Accardo from returning to the
stage aft er using the restroom and
tried to call the heated meeting at the
P.S. 7 in Elmhurst to an end, according
to the New York Daily News.
Staff from CEC 24, which is mostly in
Councilman Robert Holden’s district,
has not returned request for comment.
“As public servants, our job is to listen
to the concerns of our constituents
and address them, period,” Holden
said. “It is appalling that someone
who is paid to represent the people
would not only attempt to silence these
concerned parents at a public meeting,
but do so by intimidating members of
the CEC.”
The SHSAT has created an even
wider rift between the city and state
when de Blasio attempted to have a bill
passed in the legislature which would
abolish the exam for specialized high
schools.
The de Blasio administration has
released statistics showing that specialized
high schools are dominated
by mostly white students, with black
and Hispanic pupils not getting a fair
shake.
But state legislators, who would ultimately
need to pass any laws enacting
the mayor’s initiative, were widely
opposed to ending the test in favor of
instead increasing access to the exam
and supporting test prep programs.
State Senator Tony Avella said he
would continue to champion upholding
the SHSAT.
“The mayor’s offi ce and city Department
of Education should be ashamed
of themselves for trying to stop community
members from voicing their
opposition to mayor’s plan to end the
Specialized High School Admissions
Test,” Avella said.
The mayor’s offi ce did not immediately
respond to a QNS request for
comment.
Photo: iTunes
Ridgewood chef set to show off Nepalese cuisine skills
BY MARK HALLUM
MHALLUM@CNGLOCAL.COM
An up and coming Nepalese
chef who established himself
in Ridgewood is going to be
showcasing cuisine from the old
country on Nov. 10 in the Greenmarket
Bites series.
Chef Bikash Kharel has been
spreading the word about Nepalese
food since opening up While in
Kathmandu on 758 Seneca Ave. in
2017 and takes aft er his father who
also opened his own restaurant in
Ridgewood upon moving to the states.
But it is his mother’s cooking
which inspires him most, Kharel said.
“Really looking forward to sharing
this unique dish inspired by my
mother’s cooking,” Kharel said. “The
fact that I’m serving this on my own
block in Ridgewood, makes it even
more defi ning in terms my journey
of being a chef and representing my
own city block.”
The Greenmarket Bites series will
take place in three places in Queens
with Kharel showcasing his recipes
between 10 a.m. and noon at the
Ridgewood Youthmarket on Cypress
Ave, between Myrtle and Putnam
Avenues.
Two other events are scheduled
in the Greenmarket Bites series
with Chef Hugue Dufour of M.
Wells showing off his skills at the
Long Island City Youthmarket at
Center Boulevard and 46th on Nov.
3. Chef Alfonso Zhicay of Casa del
Chef Bistro at the Jackson Heights
Youthmarket at 34th Avenue and
79th Street on Dec. 2.
According to figures from the
Ridgewood Nepalese Society, the
southwestern pocket of Queens
now has over 2,000 residents from
the small Himalayan country with
the main centers of the community
being in Elmhurst, Woodside and
Sunnyside.
Bed Kharel, Chef Bikash Kharel’s
father, moved to Ridgewood in the
early 2000s with his children following
later and he eventually started
his own restaurant under the moniker
of Nepalese Indian Restaurant on
Myrtle and Seneca Avenues in 2012.
In 2017, Bikash opened While in
Kathmandu with the help of his
family and has become known
for breakfast specialties such as
dumplings known as momos, a goat
dish known as tass and buckwheat
pancakes.
While in Kathmandu was the
younger Kharel’s strategy for commercializing
Nepalese food without
having to rely on the demand for
Indian food as a marketing channel.
Kharel stresses the diff erences between
Nepalese food and Indian food,
a somewhat related counterpart that
the American public is much more
familiar with.
Photo via Shutterstock
A plate of momos, a delicacy
common in Nepalese and
Chinese cuisine
link
link
link
