Last Night: M. Ward, Yo La Tengo, and Broccoli in Prospect Park

By Robert Sietsema Wed., Aug. 8 2012 at 10:20 AM

Categories: Rock 'n' Dinner Roll, Sietsema

Here's your "healthy" rock snack!

[See More Rock 'n' Dinner Roll: Pavement's 'A Shady Lane' | Foodie Hip Hop]

Well, last night as the sun set in Prospect Park and Yo La Tengo took the stage (sans bass player James McNew, felled by appendicitis, but replaced by two other temporary musicians), I was distracted by the sight of punters passing in the gloaming carrying bowls of broccoli. Not hot dogs, barbecue, chips, or popcorn, but broccoli. Have the mayor's edicts finally fallen on fertile ground? I wondered as I leaped from the blanket and hastened to investigate.

Waiting in line for . . . bowls of broccoli at ~~Celibate~~ Celebrate Brooklyn last evening.

It turns out the event's concessions were dominated by Kensington's the Farm on Adderley, and it was offering a whole slew of vegetables to accompany the music, priced at three for $14, or individually for $5: succotash, green salad, green beans, peas and lettuce, and a spelt-farro salad that must have had the hearts of the nutritionists in the audience beating pit-a-pat.

And the audience seemed to be eating it up. To be fair, there were a few "unhealthy" options, too, including fries dressed with mayo, and pork sausage with Sriracha in a bun -- but the balance of the food was mayoral, to say the least.

Feeling smug, I wondered as I dug into my al dente broccoli: But would they dare to serve this fare at, say, a hip-hop show?