Sunny corner bakery and café with a cupcake-heavy display case. Shown: coconut-topped buttercream at a windowside table ($3.50); red velvet on an evening walk ($4.50).
Make My Cake
121 St. Nicholas Ave. (at 116th St.), Manhattan
212-932-0833
Also at 2380 Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Blvd. (at 139th St.)
212-234-2344
www.MakeMyCake.com
"Cafe" will describe this casual Ethiopian's atmosphere better than "restaurant" even when management isn't offering up sampler plates on the occasion of their grand opening. The fellows at the next table said the injera reminded them of back home; the spongy flatbread was on the thinner side, not too sour, with intermittently crisp edges.
The bread in the upper left corner, one of two pointed out by a lady at a table across the way, was cut from a loaf that resembled a large throw pillow or a small ottoman. "Dabo" was the name she mentioned, though this seems to mean nothing more specific than "bread," just as the colored veins seemed to be no more than coloring. It's not spicy.
Fre Cafe & Restaurant
268 West 135th St. (Frederick Douglass-Adam Clayton Powell Junior Blvds.), Manhattan
212-281-2673
Notable for the building's original tenant, the 1,450-seat Roosevelt Theatre; that's Teddy up there near the roofline. Opened in 1920, the theater — which hosted live events as well as movies — seems to have closed sometime in the 1950s. The building hosted at least one previous supermarket chain previous to Fine Fare.
Fine Fare Supermarket
2497 Adam Clayton Powell Junior Blvd. (at West 145th St.), Manhattan
212-281-8880
www.FineFareSupermarkets.com
Especially when filled in advance but deep-fried on the spot, pastelillos can get their filling all stuck up in one side; that's just the nature of the beast and not cause for complaint. Get 'em while they're hot.
The tomato-and-pepper-sauced shrimp pastelillo ($2) is available Saturday only; beef, chicken, and cheese, a buck each, are the standards. On the day of my visit, two soups were also on offer, one of them heavily burdened with assorted tubers.
Pastelillo cart
Frederick Douglass Boulevard near 129th St., Manhattan
Wednesday through Saturday afternoons
"Home of the $3 meal."
(Updated with additional multihued photos.) Anything colored like a jungle frog I usually leave to itself.
In Yemen the meat would more likely be lamb, perhaps chicken.
Provenance: "South Arabia."
These look like concords, named for the Massachusetts town and widely grown in upstate New York. During summer here in West Harlem, however, streetside produce vendors occasionally truck in a different variety from down South.
Bunch of grapes in bas relief
West 121st St. near Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Blvd., Manhattan
It only got uglier from here.
The only exotica are outside, on these decorative tiles.
"Wadadli" is an ancient name for Antigua; in New York, the Caribbean nation's sunny flag is seldom seen outside Crown Heights, at the annual West Indian Day Parade. "Patties" are widely distributed, of course, but I hadn't realized that "bite me" still had such currency.
Wadadli Patties
Sticker seen on Frederick Douglass Blvd between 115th and 116th Sts., New York
Curried goat, smothered steak, candied yams, and cabbage ($5.50), a Jamaican lunch special on a gingham-patterned backdrop.
Yvonne Yvonne, West 135th St. (Frederick Douglas Blvd.-Edgecombe Ave.), New York
212-862-1223
Horchata isn't uniquely Mexican, and it needn't be made from rice.
The grits are buttery, the salmon cakes are crisp.
Old school, and then some.
He may be the only fellow in town who calls these grapes "scuffalines."
My dining brief on this West African takeout shop, a favorite of taxi drivers, appears in the August 4, 2010 edition of The New York Times. For more photos of food that's worth a detour, see my slideshow.
Even if my fish hadn't been freshly fried by the church pastor himself, it would have been folly to pass up this whiting sandwich ($3). In warmer weather, impromptu cookstands appear on many Harlem corners and side streets; this one, which actually maintains a Wednesday-and-Saturday schedule on the sidewalk outside the church, offers the added attraction of Lee Lee's across the way.
Unity Cathedral sidewalk fish fry
2184 Frederick Douglass Blvd. (at 118th St.)
347-845-2493
Summer Wednesdays and Saturdays, noon until sold out
Thank you!
