Eating In Translation

Sweet Mama's

Jacob Restaurant, a soul food and salad bar of several years' standing, with two Harlem locations, this year spun off a full-service restaurant featuring the cuisine of the owner's native Senegal. Might newly opened Sweet Mama's follow a similar trajectory? This selection ($4.99 per pound) featured nothing more exotic than oxtail, in the company of collard greens, mac 'n' cheese, black-eyed peas, and candied yams. The owner held out hope, however, that if all goes well he might eventually serve some food like that back home, in Burkina Faso.

Sweet Mama's
689 Lenox Ave. (144th-145th Sts.), Manhattan
212-939-9383

Accra Restaurant

Accra is not associated with the bygone halal restaurant that once operated from this address; "no pork on my fork," the owner told me, is just a nod in Mookie's honor. This new West African steam-table restaurant is, however, a sibling to the Accra in Morris Heights, in the Bronx. The cuisine, said a counterman, is largely Ghanaian but also incorporates some dishes from Nigeria and Guinea; there's a little soul food, too. The motto "where the food sticks to your soul" might also beckon to a congregation a half-block to the west, at the Presbyterian Church of Ghana.

This sampler ($6, likely at an opening-day discount) included spicy lamb, a spicier stew of egushi (pumpkinseed) with spinach, fried plantains, and rice. The rice was very welcome in combination with the egushi, which was supplied in a generous scoop that's largely hidden here; it had more zing than you might think.

Accra Restaurant
2065 Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Blvd. (123rd-124th Sts.), Manhattan
917-504-3098
Also at 2041 Davidson Ave. (at West Burnside Ave.), Morris Heights, Bronx
718-584-8500

J. Restaurant Chez Asta

"J" is for Jacob, the Senegalese owner of two soul food and salad bars. The awning of his latest enterprise proclaims "fine African & French cuisine," served a la carte in comparatively polished premises and not from a buffet, though a full printed menu is still to come.

Borokhe (baw-Row-hey, $10), one of three entrees on offer during a recent lunch, is a sauce feuille, a general name for leaf-based stews prepared in many West African countries. This recipe called for spinach and lamb, a little fish and peanut — though not so much peanut as you'd find in a mafe, also called sauce arichide or even "peanut butter stew" — and a generous dose of palm oil.

The other entrees available that afternoon included thiebou djeun, Senegal's famous fish-and-vegetable platter. To be precise, thiebou djeun rouge, flavored with tomato, though thiebou djeun blanc is prepared as well. In common with another restaurant that serves both versions, lunchtime entrees are offered in rotation; the red and the white never appear on the same day.

J. Restaurant Chez Asta
2479 Frederick Douglass Blvd. (132nd-133rd Sts.), Manhattan
212-862-3663

Harlem BBQ Company

Kenny Heatley, the executive chef of Londel's Supper Club, soft-opened his new enterprise early this year on the site of the former Sherman's Bar B.Q. For the time being it's takeout only, though a stand-up counter may be added.

Heatley doesn't employ a smoker; he smokes "on the grill" and relies more on "marination and seasoning." Shown: the BBQ beef brisket sandwich ($8) on Texas toast, with cole slaw.

Harlem BBQ Company
2509 Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Blvd. (145th-146th Sts.), Manhattan
212-690-0191

Drinking water sampling station

West 125th St., between Old Broadway and Amsterdam Ave., Manhattan
(One of 965 sampling stations in New York City)
www.NYC.gov/html/dep/html/drinking_water/sampling.shtml

Floridita

The beans were hard to find for all the meat and potatoes.

"[Do Uneeda] Biscuit?"

This tagline is one of several devised for the first brand of prepackaged biscuits in the late 1800s, not long after the merger that created the National Biscuit Company, later called Nabisco. Another, "Lest you forget, we say it yet, Uneeda Biscuit," I know only from printed accounts. "In rain or shine, just as fine," a reference to the product's moisture-resistant wrapping, has survived in at least one well-preserved painted ad.

The signage shown here was brought to light during construction of Columbia University's new Manhattanville campus, just north of 125th St., on the side of the building at dead center of the first photo. The surfaces to either side of the window column seem to contain different texts that may have been repainted several times, with variations. In the right-hand section (click for a closer look), a large-type "biscuit" and an equally dramatic question mark apparently succeeded a smaller "biscuit company."

As with many such signs, we may never be able to read the wording with precision. Is this a surviving example, at least in part, of the catchphrase "Do Uneeda Biscuit?" The question stands.

"[Do Uneeda] Biscuit?"
Surviving signage at 614 West 131st St. (Broadway-Riverside Dr.), Manhattan

Las Americas Bakery

My hot cup of te de jengibre ($1) was paler and not as potent as similar drinks from the East Indies, the West Indies, and West Africa. In fairness, though, it's an appropriate match for mildly flavored Dominican pastries, and the price is right. Two sugars, please.

Previously: Under the watchful and perhaps envious eyes of Los Tigres del Norte, I bagged myself a sweet mini-sandwich of fried plantain folded over cheese and butter ($2).

Las Americas Bakery
3362 Broadway (at 136th St.), Manhattan
212-234-2715

Pork-free rhyme time

Unaccountably I have no photo for the bygone halal restaurant Mookies, a.k.a. No Pork on My Fork. In its stead I offer two near-rhyme restaurant mottos. It's a good bet that "no ham on my pan" and "no swine on my mind," though opportunistic in name, are meant as homages, too.

Update: At a glance, the food-cart motto "no pork in my fork" seemed at odds with the photo menu. The actual bacon turns out to be turkey or beef, your choice, though there's no accounting for the contents of the stock images.

Makkah Pizza Restaurant
641 Lenox Avenue (at 142nd St.), Manhattan; 718-772-0972

Nasa Pizza
471 Lenox Avenue (141st-142nd Sts.), Manhattan; 212-491-7920

Columbia Cafe & Grill
Cart stationed this day at Broadway and 118th St., Manhattan

Dominican snacks table

Side-by-side with a produce stand and an orange-juice press (forlorn in freezing weather), this table was crowded mostly with homemade sweets. I quickly recognized the handheld confections and a pair of pale yellowish puddings but couldn't make out the items at front and center, in the round containers, which were filled with something dark and sticky. "Naranja," said the proprietor — slices of orange, in syrup.

These might have been wonderful, eaten as is or employed in some elaborate recipe, but I didn't trust the plastic tub in my backpack. (My camera case, which typically sits at the bottom of the pack, bears all sorts of interesting stains.) A dulce de mani ($1), or peanut sweet, hit the spot without muss or fuss.

Dominican snacks table
Broadway near the southwest corner with 144th St., Manhattan

Foot N' It

A handful of counter seats notwithstanding, this Southern-style storefront is more for takeout or delivery, to "home, office and curbside." An entree with two sides and cornbread runs ten bucks, but at lunch or dinner most entrees are available with any one side for half that price. "Tanasia's sweet ham," shown with yellow rice, is sweetened thrice over with pineapple, honey, and — one was tucked under the bottommost slice — maraschino cherries.

Another $5 lunch special: smothered fried chicken and red rice.

Foot N' It
153B Lenox Ave. (117th-118th Sts.), Manhattan
646-590-1569

La Savane

Many people are put off by the texture of okra. The Man Who Ate Everything, when composing an annotated list of his food phobias upon being appointed a food critic, classified it as a food he might eat "if starving on a desert island, but only if the refrigerator were filled with nothing but chutney, sea urchins, and falafel."

Though thickened by the namesake vegetable, this sauce gombo (lunch, $11), wasn't nearly as gooey as the bowl I remember from the former Florence's. At that beloved restaurant, the okra stew was downright mucilaginous; at Savane, I could raise a spoon to my lips without finding a trail of goo threading back down toward the bowl. Thanks also to fat chunks of lamb and a broad plate of white rice, I ate light at dinner.

This afternoon's chef hailed from the Ivory Coast, as does the owner, who tells me that he also employs chefs from Mali and Guinea. I don't yet know who cooks when.

La Savane
239 West 116th St. (Frederick Douglass-Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Blvds.), Manhattan
646-490-4644

Davis & Warshow

From my archives, two photos of a showroom for kitchen-and-bath furnishings. This Harlem branch (to the trade only) shows off local color provided by Tats Cru murals. Though some have since been partially or fully covered by construction, the Sylvia's artwork is still in full view.

Davis & Warshow
251 West 154th St. (Adam Clayton Powell Junior Blvd.-Lenox Ave.), Manhattan
212-234-5100
www.DWNY.com

Sylvia's

Fried chicken livers (lunch special, $8.95), not quite smothered in gravy and onions, would have been delicious enough all on their own. These, as it happened, were flanked by string beans that had been sauteed with something both calorie-laden and delicious. For a palate freshener: pickled beets.

Sylvia's
328 Lenox Ave. (126th-127th Sts.), Manhattan
212-996-0660
www.SylviasRestaurant.com

Dixie Drifter Grocery & Variety

Seen afresh as I was navigating the less-charted regions of my archives, the Dixie Drifter shuttered sometime between summer 2007 and autumn 2009. Flanking it, and now also shuttered, was the South Carolina Variety Store. A truck with Georgia plates has picked up the slack.

Dixie Drifter Grocery & Variety
Formerly at 2425 Adam Clayton Powell Junior Blvd. (141st-142nd Sts.), Manhattan

Margie's Red Rose Diner

It's not key lime, but it is in the citrus family.

Rejuvenate Juice Bar

A "Cool Breeze" smoothie combined strawberry, mango, papaya, and pineapple, the last providing an essential acidic bite. My small cup ($5) topped out at about 16 fl. oz.; in the best fountain-drink tradition, the excess was served on the side. The Trinidad-born owner's bill of fare also includes many beverages bolstered with carrageen moss, and fresh-blended rather than bottled.

Rejuvenate Juice Bar
171 West 133rd St. (Adam Clayton Powell Junior Blvd.-Lenox Ave.), Manhattan
646-533-8777

African and Caribbean Market

Vita Malt (330 ml., $1.50) is hoppier and less cloying than most other such alcohol-free, halal-friendly malt beverages; there's also a ginger variety. In addition to soft drinks, sundries, and packaged goods, this Malian-owned market also stocks a variety of dried herbs and other flora.

African and Caribbean Market
403 West 145th St. (St. Nicholas-Convent Aves.), Manhattan
212-234-2793

Amy Ruth's

If you have your mind set on Sunday brunch at Amy Ruth's, arrive in the morning, before the nearby church services let out, or wear comfortable waiting-line shoes.

Street pretzels

Near Lenox Ave., Manhattan