On offer: yerba buena, also spelled hierba buena (in the little bucket), a name that denotes various species of mint, and pápalo, a peppery herb that insistently makes its presence known in cemitas. At this moment the vendor and her cart were paused outside a self-service laundromat crowded with likely customers; a nearby nail salon was the likely next stop.
Itinerant herb vendor's pushcart
Elmhurst, Queens
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Asked for a dish distinctive to Medan, capital of the Indonesian province of North Sumatra and first home to the chef, my waitress pointed to emie (Ay-mee, $7.50). Unlike most of Sky Cafe's noodles, which are served in chicken broth, these "gravy egg noodles" are swamped in a sauce prepared from long-simmered shrimp. The bowl is filled out with potato, firm tofu, a few small shrimp, and a hardboiled egg, topped with seafood-flavored crackers that snap and pop in the gravy, and freshened with a last-second squeeze of lime. Chopsticks are the traditional utensils, but for finishing off the gravy, using a spoon is more decorous than tipping the bowl to your lips.
Emie is sometimes also known as mee rebus (reh-Boos), meaning "boiled noodles." The now-closed Malaysian restaurant Mamak House served one of many variations.
Sky Cafe opened in mid-July in the space that previously was home to Mie Jakarta and Pondok Jakarta. The menu, still under development, is very similar to that at the original, Philadelphia location; prices currently top out at $9.
Sky Cafe
86-20 Whitney Ave. (Broadway-43rd Ave.), Elmhurst, Queens
718-651-9759
Closed Wednesday
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The commemoration of the birth, enlightenment, and parinirvana (death of the mortal body) of Siddhartha Gautama is named for the the fourth month of the Tibetan Buddhist calendar. This particular event, on the premises of a Nepali social group, came to light only because I took a wrong turn; when I found myself on the Elmhurst corner that is home to the United Sherpa Association, one of the gentlemen standing by the courtyard, or perhaps it was a driveway, asked if I'd like to have lunch.
In New York, many small festivals such as this are not promulgated outside the immediate community but do welcome passersby. True, most of the chow this day had no allegiance to either Tibet or Nepal: an apple, a cup of yogurt, a sushi roll, a brand-name veggie sandwich. The sole distinctive dish was dresi, a sweetened preparation of rice cooked with butter — a great deal of butter — and featuring golden raisins, cashews, and tiny tubers called droma. These, like most of the congregation, had made the trek all the way from the Himalayas; in the scope of things, my one wrong turn was a very small matter.
Saka Dawa Festival
United Sherpa Association (aka Sherpa Kyidug)
41-01 75th St. (at 41st Ave.), Elmhurst, Queens
718-779-7300
www.SherpaKyidug.org
(The 2014 festival was held on June 14)
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While looking for a different event featuring food from another continent, I happened on a street festival sponsored by a Bangladeshi communications company. During the warmer months, similar single-block events pop up all over the city. Even when word is published in advance, often it's difficult to find out about the organizer, the entertainment, the vendors, or anything more than the time and place.
At midday a stage was being set up at one end of the block for musical performances; tented stalls lined both sides of the street, almost all of them draped with South Asian apparel and fabrics. Just one stall sold food, and though primed for bulky but mild European fare, I bought a serving of black chick peas ($3) to tide me over. Mustard oil, evidenced by the thin stripe at the edge of the bowl, pointed my palate in a different direction.
Bangladeshi block party
Elmhurst, Queens
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Shaped like a cookie, yielding like a cake, it's not a ringer for a late-night, made-to-order arepa de choclo. But channeling its namesake, this arepa ($1.50) does have sweet bits of choclo — corn — scattered within. And at this 24-hour Colombian joint, it's ready when you are.
La Gata Golosa
82-63 Broadway (at Elmhurst Ave.), Elmhurst Queens
718-779-1747
(One of several locations)
www.GataGolosa.com
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Despite the English-language explication of "petai with belacan sauce," this was a generous portion for a lunch special (with soup and rice, $8.95). The sauce took only a slight fermented funkiness from the namesake belacan, or shrimp paste, and after a long build delivered just a small burn; the petai were firm, and not as odiferous as their moniker suggests. Typically they're assigned the warning label "stinky" beans; on this menu they're "stingy."
Pulau Pinang supplanted a longstanding member of the Penang mini-chain in December 2013. The staff are Malaysians of Chinese heritage; the chef hails from Kuala Lumpur.
Pulau Pinang
82-84 Broadway (45th-Whitney Aves.), Elmhurst, Queens
718-672-7380
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Sputnik was raised into orbit in October 1957; this Indonesian brand of seaweed-based gelatin powder took off in 1958. Rarely can one date a decades-old logo so precisely based on its appearance alone (in truth there are several variations, but all recognizably from the same era). Occasionally such logos are relaunched; more often they're scrapped. During the past 50-some years, however, the Satelit logo seems to have come full circle — from timely, to tired, to retro-chic. Satelit vanilla agar-agar powder (7 g., $1).
More from the annals of overseas package design: Below, a jar of Parrot brand bumbu buah pedas, or spicy fruit seasoning (150 g., $1.90) blends black pepper, white pepper, chili, and salt. The label, printed in Indonesian, Chinese, and English, also features a two-panel illustration of its use, though I can't fathom to what end. In any language, what could be more self-evident than "season food, eat food"?
In addition to imported and domestic packaged goods, this Indonesian grocery — affiliated with nearby Java Village — stocks an intriguing selection of locally prepared items. One of the most portable is a dense, not-too-sweet square of rice imbued with brown sugar ($2). No instructions necessary.
Indo Java
85-12 Queens Blvd. (Grand Ave.-Van Loon St.), Elmhurst, Queens
718-779-2241
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This weeks-old storefront, a few doors down from Sugar Club, specializes in Thai-style steamed chicken, a much-loved street food in the owner's previous home, Bangkok. The accompanying sauce is not as subtle as at Khao Man Gai NY; here it has a red-pepper directness. But in EIM's favor, one can choose dark meat instead of white, and, since whole birds are on hand, even a basic set like this ($9) might also sport chicken liver and stomach, shown to the left and right of my rice. I didn't think to ask — is coxcomb an option?
EIM Khao Man Kai
81-32 Broadway (81st-82nd Sts.), Elmhurst, Queens
718-424-7156
www.Facebook.com/pages/EIM-Khao-Mun-Kai-Elmhurst/708980312469993
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"Xi'an" doesn't yet the same ring in New York that "Brooklyn" does in Paris. But the name turns heads (mine, for one) when a cafe menu of salads, crepes, and panini is bolstered, as of this winter, with dumplings, noodles, and braised-meat "burgers" prepared by a cook from that Chinese city.
In addition to a roster of more-slender noodles, with sauce or in soup, the cook also serves his home city's broad biang biang mian ($7.50) with egg, tomato, scallion, and long-stewed pork (or beef, if you prefer). These hand-stretched, doughy ribbons — also called waist-belt noodles or, simply, belt noodles — can become clumpy if you let them linger. Arrive with an appetite and they'll go down like silk.
Cafe Hooloo (previously known as Hulu Coffee & Tea)
86-18 Queens Blvd. (Grand-54th Aves.), Elmhurst, Queens
347-808-8501
www.HuluCoffeeAndTea.com
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Thank you!
