Eating In Translation

Oversea Taste Restaurant

Stateside, "pearl noodles" is the customary, genteel name.

456 Restaurant

Kao fu, shown with fatty half-moons of boneless pork leg ($9.95 for both dishes), is a traditional Shanghai appetizer whose principal ingredient is wheat gluten. At the very traditional 456 it's braised, with slices of bamboo, in soy sauce that surely is dosed with sugar — hence the peanuts, which provide salt as well as crunch.

456 Restaurant
69 Mott St. (Canal-Bayard Sts.), Manhattan
212-964-0003

South China Garden

There's an orthodoxy to the ordering at this Cantonese restaurant; our table deviated from it, for the worse.

212 Grand Food

This is the new incarnation of Kong Kee Food, which until recently sat for many years on the northeast corner of Grand and Bowery.

Long Xin

Deep-fried milk (about $9) is really deep-fried milk custard; since the filling must be very firm, many recipes also call for corn starch. Though sweet enough for dessert, at Long Xin (and elsewhere) it's blithely slipped into the menu amid many other mostly savory tidbits. At our table this evening, watermelon was the final course; deep-fried milk was simply a change of pace from crispy little fish and "king garlic chicken."

Long Xin
50 Eldridge St. (Canal-Hester Sts.), Manhattan
212-625-8199

Yuen Yuen Restaurant

These noodles are identified with Xiamen, in southern Fujian province, but share the city's alternate name.

Sau Voi

"Sweet no vegetable."

He Nan Flavor

Egg McHenan?

Sidewalk fruit vendor

Wong pei, two ways.

Inexpensive Delicacies Company

I confess, for me the name of the business was the main attraction, however small the typeface.

Streetside "small eats" vendor

(Updated with prospective IDs and more photos.) Not long after my latest visit to Singapore, I began to search New York's various Chinatowns for creditable renditions of my favorite Singaporean dishes.

Hibiscus 2

The proprietor of this small Malaysian shop is from Ipoh; her ample stock of Old Town Coffee is the giveaway.

Double Dragon

(This venue is closed.) Red cooking is one hallmark of Fujianese cuisine.

"Crap"

It's a challenge for me to puzzle out Chinese characters, especially characters written by hand, so I shouldn't point when someone stumbles over English. In the case of this succinct mistranslation, however, I couldn't resist. As for the critters in question, they had fins, not claws, and for all I could tell, when cooked they'd have been delicious.

"Crap"
Grand St., New York

Tung Woo

Tung Woo's warm soy custard distinguishes itself in two ways.

Glutinous rice ball sidewalk vendor

My first thought was, kin to chin chow.

Ah Ping Snack Bar

The cauliflower was a surprise.

Great N.Y. Noodletown

Here's a good test for tender squid: Squeeze one end between two chopsticks, and nip off the other end with your teeth.

Zheng's Family Garden

Simply muttony.

Xi'an Famous Foods

If only someone would look into those "buns."