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Minimalist setting (with a little attitude) for old-school favorites like grilled cheese — specifically, cheddar-mozzarella-provolone on white ($4.25), with roasted red peppers ($1 extra) and tomatoes. A few potato chips passed the time while that molten cheese cooled down a tad.
Tiny's Giant Sandwich Shop
129 Rivington St. (at Norfolk St.)
212-982-1690
Grilled pork on fried rice ($5).
Vietnamese stall
At the International Cultures Festival
Sixth Ave. (46th-47th Sts.)
That's guava duff ($6), a slice of rolled-cake pastry with a scoopable "sauce," my server called it, that was more like firm mayonnaise.
Bahamian stall
At the International Cultures Festival
Sixth Ave. (46th-47th Sts.)
A Creamsicle ($1.50), for old time's sake.
Ice cream truck
On this occasion, at Moshulu Ave. and 253rd St., Riverdale
Thick toast and lots of bacon on the Texas BLT ($9.95); fries were just OK.
The Pier View
1 Van Der Donck St., Yonkers, New York
914-290-2162
Busy, sometimes boisterous destination for the raw and the cooked, Japanese style; savvy sushi lovers also take full advantage of the no-corkage BYOB policy. I was especially taken with the chawan mushi (top photo; weekends only; $8): king crab, shiitake mushrooms, and mitsuba (Japanese parsley) steamed in a egg custard and topped with peelings from the sour citrus fruit called yuzu. Of the nigiri sushi, the unagi (freshwater eel; $3), uni (sea urchin roe; $6), and toro (tuna belly; $8) were fine examples of their kinds; I was also happy to catch the "spider" roll ($10) during soft-shell crab season.
A more-carnivorous approach might take you to beef tataki (bottom photo; $9) pan-seared and served cold, perhaps sided with enoki, shiitake, and eringi mushrooms sautéed in butter and garlic soy sauce ($7). Broiled Chilean sea bass marinated in sweet miso ($16) was very pleasant, though don't expect anything approaching entrée size. To open and close your meal, consider the spicy miso soup ($5) and a trio of rice-dough-wrapped ice cream flavors called mochi ($4.50).
Poke Restaurant
343 East 85th St. (First-Second Aves.)
212-249-0569
Visit Teixeira's when you're hungry, and your appetite may be utterly spoiled by sweets like this little number ($1.35), which folds browned, sugar-sprinkled spongecake around egg custard.
Teixeira's Bakery
186 Ferry St., Newark, New Jersey
(one of several locations)
973-344-0103
One-stop destination for Portuguese food and drink; witness the extra-large assortment of bacalhau. If salt cod isn't on your shopping list, Mimoso drinkable yogurt, coconut flavor ($1.49) is a pretty good thirst-quencher.
A.J. Seabra's Supermarket
260 Lafayette St., Newark, New Jersey
973-589-8606
Lip-smacking grilled sardines ($1.25 each) — lovely, if picking around the bones isn't a bother.
Pic-Nic Barbeque
233 Ferry St., Newark, New Jersey
973-589-4630
At the Portugal Day festival in the Ironbound District
Forsook the namesake cheese bread for a cup of sugarcane juice ($3), fresh-squeezed from bundles of the cane fibers rather than from the full stalks.
Casa do Pão de Queijo
220 Ferry St., Newark, New Jersey
(one of several locations)
973-344-3232
At the Portugal Day festival in the Ironbound District
The muscled-up texture of the beef on this espetinho, or skewer ($2), was well served by dense farofa and a few dollops of A-1 sauce.
Casa Nova
262 Ferry St., Newark, New Jersey
(one of several locations)
973-817-8712
At the Portugal Day festival in the Ironbound District
Friendly little Portuguese-Brazilian-Latin grocery — a candies-on-the-counter kind of store — where I picked up Vilma brand cashew-apple drink mix (240 g.; 95 cents; makes 2 liters). There's some flavor in it apart from apples, but I don't know that I'd ever guess cashew.
Vai Brasil
315 Ferry St., Newark, New Jersey
973-578-8376
Rolled my beef churrasco ($2) in fine-ground farofa — toasted meal made from yuca (also called manioc and cassava) — which helps satisfy your daily starch allowance and also holds the hot sauce in place.
Brasilia Grill
99 Monroe St., Newark, New Jersey
973-589-8682
At the Portugal Day festival in the Ironbound District
An understated destination for refined (and reasonably priced) takes on rustic Greek cooking.
Soft ice cream with a twist — here, vanilla with root beer (about $4). Gofer serves hard ice cream, too, if you'd rather float it.
Gofer Ice Cream
869 High Ridge Rd., Stamford, Connecticut
(one of several locations)
203-504-3105
(This venue is closed.) Upscale tavern with a bar and booths to one side, a quieter dining room to the other. After a too-ambitious shared appetizer of six coconut-battered shrimp ($12.95) with a cloying fruit dipping sauce, my bacon-cheddar burger and fries ($9.95) were humble but more than ample. Desserts — apple cobbler, blueberry and passion fruit sorbet, and crème brulee ($6.50 each) — were fine.
Black Goose Grille
972 Post Rd., Darien, Connecticut
203-655-7107
"Old-fashioned cashew butter" (16 oz.; $9.95), made by Bazzini in the Bronx, is called that only to distinguish it from the (presumably newfangled) chunky version, the lady at the checkout told me. Spongy texture; no so nutty for so much cash. The store itself, though, is worth further exploration.
Bazzini
339 Greenwich St. (at Jay St.)
212-334-1280
Bone marrow packs gobs of meat flavor into every bite, especially with the aid of a fat pinch of salt. Landmarc's roast marrow bones ($12) are accompanied by sweet onion marmalade (I prefer parsley, as at London's celebrated St. John) and grilled country bread (here it's a little too thick-cut), but they still make for a fine, finger-licking starter.
If you must have meat, this clean-cut bistro offers many more options, such as this simple burger ($13) dressed with ketchup, mustard, and bread-and-butter pickles, on a firm, juice-absorbent roll. Comes with excellent twice-fried fries that I'd happily order all by themselves.
On a later visit, to the newer, more expansive Landmarc at the Time Warner Center, a strip steak with béarnaise sauce ($28) was good, no better, even when accompanied by those excellent fries. The original, relatively cozy Tribeca location may be less taxing on the kitchen.
Landmarc
179 West Broadway (Leonard-Worth Sts.)
(one of two locations)
212-343-3883
I want to eat...a "lumberjack breakfast"! Two scrambled, bacon, and pancakes are standard ($8.50), and an extra dollar secured "fruited" pancakes — in this instance, a rare confluence of "lumberjack" and "peach."
On an earlier occasion, at the tiled counter of the uptown branch, two scrambled seemed closer to three, a wad of bacon slices was pleasantly soggy, and two coarse, whole-grain pancakes each sported a large, moist blueberry bullseye.
Kitchenette
156 Chambers St. (Greenwich St.-West Broadway)
212-267-6740
1272 Amsterdam Ave. (121st-122nd Sts.)
212-531-7600
Thank you!
