The menu is almost superfluous when the featured items are front and center.
The Macau-born, Cantonese-speaking proprietor also prepares spring rolls, tea eggs, and lo mein, but most customers simply point to their favorite treat on a stick (each $2.50 or less). The best-seller, according to Linda's daughter, who sometimes helps tend the cart beginning in midafternoon, are the curried minced fish balls (first photo below). An unassuming pale orange, the fish balls reveal their spicy character slowly but surely.
The daughter, who also speaks English, added that the cart's "stinky tofu" has been toned down at the request of neighboring businesses, who felt they might lose customers if they found themselves downwind. Linda's Mini Kitchen prepares smaller quantities than do stinky tofu specialists, and in a much milder form, though at close range (second and third photos below), there's no mistaking the aroma.
Also shown below, after a quick boil in oil: eggplant stuffed with fish paste; engagingly chewy squid; peppers, both mild and spicy; and taro.
Linda's Mini Kitchen (not labeled in English, but look for the skewers)
Near the southeast corner of Eighth Ave. and 57th St., Sunset Park, Brooklyn
917-405-6375
Morning till about 8:30
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