Local asparagus, the Beard Awards, the shattered hopes of Knicks fans — there are a lot of unmistakable signs of spring in New York. But none trump the opening of the Red Hook Ball Fields, an explosion of ethnic home cooking and children’s soccer.

The vendors make up a de facto Latin American food court, with each stand offering some kind of handmade regional specialty. The Colombian stall offers dense, cheesy arepas, corn pancakes as pleasurably stultifying as opium; the El Salvadoran stand, rich and spicy papusas, meat-stuffed turnovers inside flaky dough. There are two Mexican stalls, one offering pork quesadillas and bottled sangria, and another barbacoa (spiced braised lamb or goat) — or, if you’re not up to that, cold boxes of fresh-cut tropical fruit.

The only barrier, really, is your appetite — nothing costs more than $5, and everyone is friendly enough to accommodate you if you don’t happen to speak Spanish. But it takes more than a few trips to sample everything. (Next week we plan on having some irresistibly brittle and salty Honduran chicharonnes, or fried pork skins.)

Related: The Red Hook Diet