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In Bensonhurst, one question: What’s Italian for ‘Chinese’?

By Alex Rush
The Brooklyn Paper
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Photo by Stefano Giovannini
In Bensonhurst, Chinese-language signs juxtapose with Italian-American iconography, especially here on 18th Avenue, co-named for a legendary Italian.

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When the Sicilian bakery Vilabate Alba Pasticceria opened 40 years ago on 18th Avenue, workers would buy their lunch and do grocery shopping at a salumeria down the block. But now the family-run bakery is surrounded by Asian noodle houses, hot pot restaurants and seafood markets, so the workers’ shopping and eating habits have changed.

“The meat store closed about five years ago,” said Angela Peralta, whose family, the Alaimos, opened the bakery in 1970. “But now we buy fish from the Chinese market and take-out from Jade Star Kitchen across the street.”

New Era Development Group

Statistics confirm what Peralta has noticed about Bensonhurst and adjacent neighborhoods, including Gravesend: the latest Census data show that Asians make up about a third of the residents, about an 18-percent increase from the last decennial count.

In some areas, such as along W. Sixth Street between Avenues P and U in Bensonhurst, Asians are almost half the population. And recent arrivals from China and other Asian countries have opened businesses, turning was known as Brooklyn’s Little Italy into the borough’s newest Chinatown.

Yoketing Eng, president of the neighborhood’s community education council, has embraced the new food and shopping trends in the mirror. Eng, a first-generation Chinese-American, said he moved to Bensonhurst five years ago from Brighton Beach for one reason: the food.

“I noticed that the neighborhood was getting a lot of new Chinese restaurants, so that drew me here,” Eng said. “There are also Chinese grocery stores with my favorite vegetables.”

As the Asian population has risen, there are about a fifth fewer white people in Bensonhurst and Gravesend.

Old-timers suggest that they are nostalgic for the neighborhood’s Italian culinary traditions, but younger, non-Asians like Dave Sheridan, 37, are excited by the new offerings.

“As much as I lament the loss of some Italian delis, change is good because I love Asian food,” Sheridan said. “I go to a great Sichuan restaurant on 18th Avenue and shop in the groceries there for Thai peppers so that I can cook Thai food at home.”

©2010 Community Newspaper Group

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Reader Feedback

mike v from bensonhurst says:
immigration is nice when its watched and done slowly,this area has become a 3rd world flophouse.dirty,spitting,nose blowing with no tissues,garbage everywhere.asians who wont learnthe language as well as latinos who are here illegally.dont say its good for us,its bad.you supposed to come here and be american,not chinatowns.
when will we learn?remember rome.they multiculturalized themselves to ruin.
its too much too fast.chinese are everywhere.shame on americans who fall prey to this nonsense its good for us.its not.
Jan. 15, 2011, 11:06 am
your Chinese neighbor from Bensonhurst says:
You fool. What is America? It's a place for different ethnic groups with different cultures and different ways of life. You can't just accept what you like and discriminate against what you don't like. Every ethnic group have their own little "town" not just the Chinese, don't hate because the Chinese population is getting bigger and bigger. If you don't want Chinese neighbors, move the hell out of Bensonhurst and go to Kansas.
March 4, 2011, 2:31 pm
mike p from bensonhurst says:
if you asians insist on moving into the neighorhood yous should at least keep it clean and take pride in the community. why do you people make a mess out of your own backyard??
May 5, 2011, 11:51 am
mike v from bensonhurst says:
we used to be a nation of immigrants.we are really a nation of english colonists who let immigrants come to help settle and build it.the last 100 yrs we didnt need immigrants.the immigrants from the 19th century had kids who had kids etc.they are america.you new immigrants do nothing to better america,all u do is take and destroy and demand.you are filthy garbage.look at bay parkway and 86st between bay pkway and 24ave.its become a filthy dump.no english and nothing bujt soitting and snot all over sidewalks.
you are all here because politiciians want youy for votes.
a civil war is coming once the money runsout.latino scum having 4 and 5 kids to collect benefits.we need this?old immigrants came and supported themselves
May 15, 2011, 8:42 pm
frank from dyker says:
chinese are nothing but pigs. They don't keep the area clean the spit and blow their nose in the street and they smell like fish.
Sept. 27, 2011, 1:33 pm

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