Eating In Translation

Little House Café

"Kueh" (pronounced Kway, also spelled kue and kuih) is a broad term embracing many small Southeast Asian savories and sweets. Kueh are everywhere in Malaysia — the previous home of the Little House owners — as well as Singapore and Indonesia, but they're hard to track down in New York. Sanur, a bi-level establishment on Doyers St., in Manhattan's Chinatown, once showcased the city's brightest and most varied selection in the window of their upstairs cafe, but when the owners chose to focus on their downstairs restaurant, the windowside shelves were left bare.

A few kueh, consigned by an outside confectioner, do crowd their way onto the countertop at Little House. Layered kueh like these commonly are made from layers of steamed rice flour blended with mung bean starch, and customarily are colored to signal their flavors, in this case, pale green for pandan, deep brown for palm sugar. I expected that these kueh would be purely sweet, but to my surprise the pandan layer was salted, too, a tad much.

Also shown: a tray of housemade bak chang, the pyramid-shaped Malaysian analog to zongzi, and pulut panggang, leaf-wrapped cylinders of glutinous rice filled, for this variety, with shredded coconut and dried fish. More details, you can unwrap for yourself.

Little House Café
90-19 Corona Ave. (90th-Hampton Sts.), Elmhurst, Queens
718-592-0888
www.Facebook.com/pages/Little-House-Cafe-Elmhurst/474707772715154

Lamoon

Kang hung ley goes hand in hand with kang hoh. The first is a thick pork-belly curry; its sour and spicy flavors evoke Myanmar (where the curry originated) and neighboring Northern Thailand (where Lamoon's chef was born). The second is based on the curry, which is stir-fried with noodles and vegetables.

At a restaurant where both dishes are available à la carte, such as Lamoon, sufficient kang hung ley must be reserved for the explicit purpose of preparing kang hoh. But kang hung ley is also well-known, in its homeland, as a festival food. And when large quantities are made for the monks at a temple celebration, the often copious leftovers are commonly transformed into kang hoh for congregants and volunteers — and, perhaps, a second meal for the monks.

For many more photos, see the EIT page on Facebook.

H/T Joe DiStefano, Chopsticks and Marrow, and Jared Cohee, Eat the World NYC

Lamoon
81-40 Broadway (at 82nd St.), Elmhurst, Queens
917-745-1168
www.LamoonThaiNY.com

Blue

What's the difference, I asked the counterwoman, between the baked goods at top center and at top right? Just the names and the shapes, she told me. The pandebono is more pyramidal, while the flatter, knobbier rosca suggests a crown, its literal translation, but each is a cheese bread. (To be sure, these names and shapes vary from bakery to bakery.) Standard tiebreaker, since I had room for only one savory Colombian pastry while on my way to lunch: Heed the wisdom of the crowd that came before me, and have what they've been having.

For more on baked-goods style and substance, see this Guatemalan trio.

Blue
82-63 Broadway (at Elmhurst Ave.), Elmhurst, Queens
718-396-0717
www.Facebook.com/BlueCafeRestaurantNYC

Chef Guo

"Stewed pork noodles with pork" is the menu's less than forthcoming translation of 红烧肉炖粉条, hóngshāo ròu dùn fěntiáo. How about "red-braised pork belly over noodles" instead? For more photos, see the EIT page on Facebook.

Chef Guo
83-29 Broadway (Whitney-Dongan Aves.), Elmhurst, Queens
(on the former site of Uncle Zhou, which is temporarily closed during relocation)
718-393-0888

Sinaloense

Bandera of beans, rice, and chilorio — pulled pork, Sinaloa style. In that Mexican state the meat is often simmered with and gently sweetened by orange juice; traditionally it is then fried in lard with chiles, garlic, cumin, and other seasonings. On this platter, an especially nice touch was the addition of green olives to brighten the refried beans.

Previously: The spicy Mexican soup called birria is traditionally prepared with goat or lamb, but it can also be made with beef, as shown below. My bowl, as a consequence, offered lean meat and a little skin but no chopped-to-order off-cuts — who can butcher a side of beef on the spot? — and the tortillas, though pre-dipped, had the too-regular shape of mass production. Compare the exemplary version at Birria el Güero. At that Mexico City restaurant, however, "no hay birria chica"; in Elmhurst, a fellow like me, working on his second lunch of the afternoon, can limit himself to a small order like this and have more than his fill.

Birria is best-known from the Mexican state of Jalisco; Sinaloa, this restaurant's namesake, is somewhat to the north. Awaiting a return visit, for breakfast, is a Sinaloense specialty: machaca con huevos, shredded dried beef scrambled with eggs.

Sinaloense
40-80 Case St. (Elmhurst-Whitney Aves.), Elmhurst, Queens
917-832-7797

Kachin Traditional Food Fair

At home in the high country of northern Burma, the Kachin people once had little access to cooking oil. Traditionally, Naomi Duguid writes in Burma: Rivers of Flavor, they relied on "grilling, steaming (in leaf-wrapped packages), or boiling to cook their food." These days, she adds, many Kachin live at lower altitudes, where they have "less access to wild-gathered leaves" but find that oil is more available.

Kachin cooking techniques have evolved accordingly, Duguid notes. Even so, an old-school banana-leaf bundle like this, filled with steamed fish, greens, and chiles, will always find room at the table. For more food-fair highlights, see the EIT page on Facebook.

Kachin Traditional Food Fair
Elmhurst Baptist Church, 87-37 Whitney Ave. (Judge-Ithaca Sts.), Elmhurst, Queens
www.Facebook.com/events/288652494979727
(The 2017 food fair was held on December 2)

Happy Stony Noodle

Logjam in brown and green: beef with chive, one dish from a dozen or so at a recent Taiwanese lunch. Also shown: egg with dried radish; three-cup chicken.

Happy Stony Noodle
83-47 Dongan Ave. (Broadway-Poyer St.), Elmhurst, Queens
718-335-0500
www.Facebook.com/pages/Happy-Stony-Noodle/1619422978340125

Wat Buddha Thai Royal Kathin Celebration

At the end of Thailand's rainy season — in New York and other less tropical climes, figure on mid-autumn — lay Buddhists present the monks at their local temple with the saffron robes called kathin (sometimes, katin). The offering of respects to the monks, and to the temple, is accompanied by food prepared by congregants and by Thai restaurants. All are welcome to partake, bearing in mind the spirit of the occasion — not so much food frenzy as good fellowship. A donation to the temple is welcome, too.

For photos from multiple years of this celebration, see my album.

Wat Buddha Thai Royal Kathin Celebration
Wat Buddha Thai Thavorn Vanaram, 76-16 46th Ave. (76th-78th Sts.), Elmhurst, Queens
www.WatThaiNYC.com
(The 2017 celebration was held on October 22)

5 de Mayo Food Market

Like many Mexican grocery stores, 5 de Mayo offers a Saturday-Sunday menu of prepared food, particularly the long-simmered variety. Azadura (as a taco, $3) is a generalized term for offal; at this Pueblan market it entails stewed pork liver and pork skin, here shown with considerable cilantro and onion.

Next to be explored on the weekend-only menu, provided that I proceed alphabetically, are barbacoa, then carnitas, or perhaps a consomé chico. In season, the selection of fruit is terrific, too: On this afternoon I might have procured guanabana, granadilla dulce, ciruela, and vaina.

5 de Mayo Food Market
81-06 Roosevelt Ave. (81st-82nd Sts.), Elmhurst, Queens
718-205-3280
www.Facebook.com/5-de-Mayo-Food-Market-1660861017502955

Store for rent

For "store," read "stall." In five languages, these signs promote a yet-to-open Queens food court to prospective tenants. Although displayed near the entrance of one food-court-to-be, in Flushing, they advertise space for rent at another, in Elmhurst, which perhaps is closer to completion or lagging in tenant demand. Together, these signs cast a wide net: While a February announcement was written in Chinese, English, and Spanish, these latest postings also solicit tenants in Hindi and Vietnamese.

Store for rent
Signs promoting a food court under construction on the site of a former Hong Kong Supermarket, 82-02 45th Ave. (82nd-83rd Sts.), Elmhurst, Queens
Posted at the entrance to the market currently branded Super HK, above a basement food court also under construction, 37-11 Main St. (37th-38th Aves.), Flushing, Queens