Do you watch the BBC show Downton Abbey? I’d heard folks talking about it for the past few months (never understanding what they were saying when pronouncing Downton) and finally one late weeknight in the recent past I got on Netflix and tuned in. I was hooked faster than you can unlace a corset—which I guess isn’t actually fast at all—and am now through half the first season. I’m trying to pace myself because that’s so far the only season to watch.

Anyway…in one episode, a lowly middle class lawyer says something to the effect of “Well I work during the week but there’s always weekends and evenings.” And the pitch-perfect Maggie Smith, playing the Dowager Countess of Grantham, says in disbelief “What’s a week-end?”

Well your Countess, a weekend, in these parts of Brooklyn anyway, is when you put on your skinny jeans and lace-up shoes and walk around Williamsburg, stopping along Smorgasburg on the waterfront, getting coffee at Blue Bottle, brunching at Fabian’s or Egg, then shopping along the strip of Bedford Avenue.

I took in Smorgasburg on Saturday afternoon for a little nosh. First you have to spend 10-15 minutes walking around checking out the vendors. You don’t want to commit to a vendor too early then be disappointed to find there was better barbecue on the other side of the flea market. This is what happened to Y. He committed to a barbecue sandwich from Williamsburg’s Meat Hook—not a bad move, you’d think this would be among the best—but then later discovered even more mouth-watering brisket being barbecued on the far north side of the market. Too late.

Well I’m an experienced food market strategist. I was waiting for the right vendor when I saw a couple strolling, gobbling sandwiches with cilantro and something fried inside. I caught them mid-bite, asked from whence it came, and was pointed toward Dadar, a stall hawking Bombay street food. The sandwich above is a Vada Pao; for $5 you get to chow down on smashed potato and chickpea flour fried and served on a bun with a tamarind sauce, spicy peppers, and cilantro.

My next diversion was Kombucha Brooklyn’s stand. As some of you know, I am a sucker for kombucha on tap, so couldn’t pass up the opportunity to get a $10 half-growler filled with fresh apricot kombucha. You can refill your buch bottle for $8 at Radish, Urban Rustic, Fresh Fanatic, and Khim’s Millenium, for starters. I told the guy I wanted to work for his company. I was only half kidding. That reminds me, I need to get business cards made. Ok it’s Downton time!