Walking into Louis Armstrong’s garden from his neon blue kitchen, you can imagine the sense of ease the quiet Japanese-style space would have provided the jazz legend during the last year of his life.

The garden boasts more greenery than most swatches of Corona, a fish pond, winding paths and a performance space

If you’ve had a hard day at the office or the kids have run you ragged, there’s no better place to relax and dine than Zen Fusion Cuisine at 79-28 Parsons Blvd. in Flushing.

Actually, you don’t need an excuse to visit this newcomer that is wowing food lovers. The atmosphere, like its name, is soothing, and you will find enlightenment in selections from a large menu offering Japanese, Thai and South Asian specialties.

Today's subject comes to us thanks to my cousin's college roommate, who just recently bought a home upstate and sent me a kind e-mail telling me about some projects he was thinking about undertaking. Being a chef, most of his major wants surround the kitchen and his first idea was to repaint his kitchen cabinet doors before putting on a set of designs; we spit-balled and decided that cooking utensils and accessories would make a great theme.

Letters. We get letters. We get stacks and stacks of letters from youngsters living in Queens family homeless shelters hoping to get a toy or two from Santa Claus.

This year, for the Queens Chronicle’s 17th annual toy drive, three institutions will benefit from your generous contributions. They are two city homeless shelters, the Metro in Elmhurst and the Briarwood, and the River Fund New York, an organization that assists 800 children in the borough.

At Citi Field, hot dogs, hamburgers and beer are the order of the day. But just down the road at the U.S. Open, expect things to be a little more upscale.

The two-week event, which began Monday at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, appeals to a more well-heeled crowd. This year, the choices are more international.

The New York Families for Autistic Children is expanding its operations and plans to open a series of programs for developmentally disabled adults and children in a new home on Crossbay Boulevard in Howard Beach.

NYFAC President Andrew Baumann said his nonprofit organization, which has administrative offices at 95-16 Pitkin Ave. in Ozone Park, will open an adult day program, an after-school program, and speech, occupational and physical therapy at 164-14 Crossbay Blvd., where Danny’s Szechuan Garden was located until the end of June.

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“When you leave Japan you are not authentically Japanese,” Satomi Shirai said in an interview at Topaz Arts in Woodside, the location of her latest photography show.

When international jazz icon Louis Armstrong pulled up in a cab in front of 34-56 107 Street in Corona, he couldn’t believe the two-story brick residence was the new house his wife, Lucille, had picked out while he was on tour.

In hopes of carrying on the tradition of the 1965 World’s Fair, held in Queens’ Flushing Meadows, community groups and businesses will gather together over the coming weeks for the second annual World’s Fair at Atlas Park, in Glendale.

At the corner of Metropolitan and 71st avenues, in Forest Hills, steel girders have finally begun to sprout above the blue wooden fence that has surrounded what used to be a local auto garage — and what has been, since late last year, mostly a hole in the ground.

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If music soothes the savage breast, then karaoke is the chill pill for 21st century life. And you don’t have to feel embarrassed performing in front of strangers anymore. The latest sensation is the karaoke box, also called KTV, which is a private room with karaoke equipment for a group to rent.

Let me say right out: I love Polish food. On holidays, my grandmother’s kitchen smelled of kielbasa, ham and stuffed cabbage, and the association between those aromas and a sense of home is palpable every time I go shopping in Greenpoint.

Looking for a good place to have a cold beer under the trees this summer? Well, if you don’t mind breaking the city’s open container laws, there’s always the city parks. But if you’re looking for someplace a little more, ahem, legal, then head over to Bohemian Hall & Park in Astoria, which boasts the city’s last authentic beer garden.