Eating In Translation

Myanmar Baptist Church Fun Fair

Once a year, members of this Burmese congregation dole out home cooking. The personal touch is everywhere in evidence: In the wrapping of the spring rolls, in the mixing of the elaborate salads, in the snipping of chili peppers to add a kick to just-griddled parathas. Many dishes are made to order, mixed by hand (gloved hand) immediately before serving for maximal stimulating freshness.

Case in point: rice tofu salad, a pale sibling to the more commonly sighted Shan tofu. The latter is made from chickpeas, split yellow peas, or a combination of the two, often with a little turmeric to amp up the color, and tends toward creaminess. The rice tofu, a fellow fair-goer observed, was firmer to the bite. The dressing — as for Shan tofu, it incorporated peanut, garlic, and chile — took acidic brightness from fresh tomato. And the overall flavor was sour as well as sweet; did the server's final ladle drip with tamarind?

Dishes that have been prepared in advance can be equally engaging. Davoy kanut, shown below, is a mix ("kanut") of vegetables served over rice noodles. Its namesake, and the chef's previous home, is "an attractive town halfway down Burma's tail-of-the-kite south coast," Naomi Duguid writes in Burma: Rivers of Flavor. Nowadays it's better-known as Dawei. This rendition was well-supplied with eggplant, ladyfinger (that is, okra), long bean, and cabbage; young jackfruit and banana blossom were more difficult to detect. Finishing touches include fried onion, roasted sesame seeds, and two different chiles, one for heat, one for flavor.

At one time the fun fair was held in a canopied backyard. In recent years the event has been confined to indoor halls, which afford a little less space but dampen spirits not a whit. For photos of many more items from multiple fun fairs, indoors and out, see my album.

Myanmar Baptist Church Fun Fair
St. James Episcopal Church, 84-07 Broadway (St. James-Corona Aves.), Elmhurst, Queens
www.MBCNewYork.org
(The 2017 fun fair was held on September 9)

Bazaar Foods: Indonesia's Culinary Riches, Packed into One Parish Hall

Indonesia, the fourth-most-populous country in the world, comprises some 17,000 islands that stretch over a vast archipelago of diverse culinary habitats. Even if you've spent years looking into every Indonesian nook and cranny in New York, pay a call on this monthly bazaar, and you're sure to discover something new.

Read more in my latest story on Culinary Backstreets; for dozens of additional photos, see my album.

Haewoondae

Chicken cradles ginseng: This hand-drawn artwork depicts samgyetang, a Korean soup featuring a whole young chicken, traditionally stuffed with short-grain or glutinous rice, garlic, and dried jujube, in addition to ginseng root. Samgyetang is served hot, but following the logic of "fight fire with fire" it is especially associated with the most sultry days of summer.

Each year three such days, over the course of a month, are determined in advance by the lunar calendar. In 2017 the first, chobok, was on July 12; the second, jungkok, was on July 22 (when this photo was taken); the third, malbok, falls on August 11. Hot chicken soup, most agree, is wonderful in winter, too.

Haewoondae
75-32 Broadway (at 76th St.), Elmhurst, Queens
718-397-5834

Hug Esan

Northeastern Thai larb moo (pork liver, stomach, ear; $7) and tum poo plara (green papaya, salted crab, pickled fish; $9). The first is terrific; the second is an acquired taste. Do nibble around the crab legs, but don't bite down on the carapace!

Hug Esan
77-16 Woodside Ave. (77th-78th Sts.), Elmhurst, Queens
929-328-0392
www.HugEsanNYC.com
Closed Wednesday

Sugar Club

What the menu lists as "toasted bread" I would call "toast."

Taiwanese Specialties

At first sight of dried scallops with squash ($15.95), you might ask, where are the scallops? The featured ingredient is present throughout, but — after being cooked and dried near the fishery, then rehydrated in the kitchen and torn to bits to release as much flavor as possible — the shellfish muscle meats are near-impossible to recognize. The whitish tidbit in the center I teased out just for the photo; most of the scallops were in shreds.

Like salt-cured meats, dried scallops are rich in umami, but the marine saltiness of their home waters is tempered with a sweet undercurrent. You'll need no prompting to eat your vegetables.

Previously: For English speakers the menu identifies the second dish shown here as "ginger chicken with sesame oil" ($11.95), but to customers who read Chinese, the characters that signify "three cup chicken" are more evocative. Equal parts sesame oil, rice wine, and soy sauce are cooked down, often in the presence of ginger, garlic, chili peppers, and sugar, until their flavors are absorbed by the chicken; basil is commonly added as a finishing touch. Since the liquids are largely reduced, when served the dish often sizzles. At a minimum, it should glow; so will you.

For more dishes from several meals, see my photo album.

Taiwanese Specialties
84-02 Broadway (at St. James Ave.), Elmhurst, Queens
718-429-4818
www.Facebook.com/Heart.Of.Taiwan

Kulu Desserts

The roster of sweet, soupy Cantonese desserts called tong sui (Tong Shway, literally "sugar water") can, at Kulu, be served hot or cold. In sweltering weather, tapioca pearls and taro in coconut milk ($3.75) might seem more enticing when chilled. Give the nod to the hot, however — not only for the sake of tradition but also to soften those chunks of taro — and let the AC do its job.

Previously, at other Kulu locations: an excavated view of "sawdust pudding" that reveals terraces of cream and finely ground cookie powder (my dining buddy quickly pegged the flavor, if not the texture, as tiramisu); green bean soup with seaweed; mango and pomelo in mango pudding; and, ready to be introduced in various guises, pulped durian.

Kulu Desserts
86-55 Broadway (Queens Blvd.-Justice Ave.), Elmhurst, Queens
718-751-9898
(one of several locations)
www.KuluDesserts.com

Songkran celebration on Woodside Ave.

White, golden brown, empurpled and black: The colors of the sticky rice were so captivating that I overlooked the colors of the mangos. Even though I returned to the vendor's table several minutes later to identify the crunchy bits spooned over my Thai dessert — not sesame seeds, but the less prosaic touch of toasted mung beans — the fruits still didn't register. I'd asked simply for "mango with sticky rice" ($7); mine was yellow-skinned, even more richly colored within, ripe, and sweet. Perhaps this was the default.

Perhaps, however, I could've gone green. Last year, at a Colombian bakery not far from this Thai street festival, I encountered mango biche (Bee-chay), prepared from an unripe, tart fruit. If this is an option, I count myself lucky to have a second bite at the mango: The 2017 Songkran celebration, first held on April 22, repeats on April 29.

For more photos, see the EIT page on Facebook.

Songkran celebration on Woodside Ave.
Woodside Ave. between 75th and 77th Sts., Elmhurst, Queens
www.Eventbrite.com/e/songkran-thai-new-year-festival-tickets-33550304865
(The 2017 celebration, first held on April 22, repeats on April 29)

Awang Kitchen

The textures were not dissimilar. As a chaser to my gulai otak sapi, or curry cow's brain ($10.99), the owner of this new Indonesian restaurant offered a jar of jus alpukat (regularly $3.99; comped). The menu calls it a milkshake, but the thick blend of avocado and condensed milk with sugar and ice, striped with chocolate syrup, clogged my straw at first sip. For curried brain and thick shake, a spoon serves best. Make that two spoons, one for each delicious course. To see more photos — most from a later group lunch capped off by a delightful crab egg foo young — see the EIT page on Facebook.

H/T Dan, who I know only as a fellow patron of the most recent Indonesian bazaar at St. James Episcopal Church.

Awang Kitchen
84-05 Queens Blvd. (Van Loon-Reeder Sts.), Elmhurst, Queens
347-492-9264
www.AwangKitchen.us

Fanesca: Easter soup for the Ecuadorian soul

Fanescas in Queens may be more diverse than finches in the Galapagos. My story on Ecuador's beloved Easter-season soup, and a list of restaurants, cafes, and food trucks where you can try it, appears on Culinary Backstreets.