Eating In Translation

Kababish

An affiliated market, just down the block, provides ready access to off-cuts.

Tawa Food

Samae baji ($6) is a Nepali variety plate featuring beaten rice. The baji itself, made by flattening uncooked, soaked rice with a mallet, can be incorporated into cooked dishes or, as at Tawa Food, offered as a textural counterpoint to other items.

Above, baji is surrounded by spicy chicken, potato curry, crunchy fried soybeans, and pickled daikon. Below, sel roti (included; $1 purchased a la carte), a rice flour fritter, has a faint sweetness that plays well against the spicier dishes.

Tawa Food
37-38 72nd St. (37th Ave.-Broadway), Jackson Heights, Queens
718-457-7766

Phayul

One of the many Chinese-leaning dishes at this second-storey Tibetan restaurant, Lhasa fried noodles ($7) would elsewhere be called lo mein. "Mix spicy," the menu adds; protein is provided by beef and chicken, and heat, by whole chili peppers. More spice is your call.

The noodles themselves are on the stiff side — as I left, I saw another such batch emptied from a sealed plastic bag into a wok — but they do have a kiss of flame about them. To that point, the entire dining room, shared by a narrow open kitchen, smells of sizzle and spice. Whether that's an indication of good ventilation or bad ventilation is a matter of taste.

Phayul
37-65 74th St. (at 37th Rd., 2nd floor), Jackson Heights, Queens
718-424-1869

Mi Estrella

Cuba, si! China, si!

Merit Halal Meat & Grocery

The cascade of adjectives in the name Mamta natural tender coconut water (300 ml., $1.25) conceals the tough truth: Perhaps the water was coaxed from natural tender coconuts, but those nubbins can be persnickety between the teeth.

Though the bottle advises customers to "shake well," this one is shown in a nearly undisturbed state. Evidently coconut meat and coconut water are equally dense; the little bits just hang there in suspension.

Merit Halal Meat & Grocery
37-68 74th St. (Roosevelt Ave.-37th Rd.), Jackson Heights, Queens

Vanilla Cafe

This dessert was labeled Hawaiian ice ($2), not Hawaiian shave ice, perhaps with reason. Scooped into a machine, cubes were coarsely hacked, then heaped. The texture didn't hold the flavors, cherry and green apple, as nicely as a snowier product, while the icy particles cohered all too well. After about 15 minutes of excavation, the remainder was partly melted but mostly frozen solid.

Vanilla Cafe
87-01 Roosevelt Ave. (at 87th St.), Jackson Heights, Queens
718-507-0807

Maravillas

Snow day.

Plátano or teléfono?

Use this
phone
now
For 25¢ you can
call
Colombia
For less
than the cost of
a plantain
call your
family and friends
now
Talk 3 minutes
for only
[25¢]

Plátano or teléfono?
Jackson Heights, Queens

Panaderia Coatzingo

Many small shops that carry homemade foods display them near the point of sale, where the cashier can identify these intriguing but often unlabeled items.

Haat Bazar

They're only distant relatives of the familiar aquarium molly.

Ambala Sweet & Bakery Chat House

Ambala name-checks a city in northern India, and the awning references Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Tibet. The banner promoting "halal Thai food," however, is the biggest draw.

Deccan Kabab

(This venue is closed.) My dining brief on this Hyberabadi eatery appears in the December 22, 2010 edition of The New York Times. For more photos, see my slideshow.

Bilingual workers need not apply, part two

"A waiter wanted; must speak Hindi, Punjabi, and English." See also Chinatown, previously.

Bilingual workers need not apply, part two
Notice posted at Maharaja Quality Sweets & Snacks
73-10 37th Ave., Jackson Heights, Queens
718-505-2680

Tashi Delek Momo

Hot, said the counterman.

Gourmet Sweets & Restaurant

Burfi (sometimes, burfee or barfi) is a South Asian sweet made from condensed milk cooked with sugar, with a texture that hovers somewhere between fudge and marzipan. Pista (as in pistachio) burfi is common, date-and-pistachio, less so. This restaurant offers a good-sized steam table for savories, too, but the sweets counter, nearly as long, is much more eye-catching, especially for an innocent passer-by who can't turn down a free sample like this.

Gourmet Sweets & Restaurant
72-08 Broadway (72nd-73rd Sts.), Jackson Heights, Queens
718-533-8700

Obleas vendor

In theory, you could ask for an open-faced oblea.

El Buen Juguito

"The Good Little Juice Joint" (my fluid translation) also touts tortas, sopes, and tamales, none of which were promising on an afternoon when the cooktop was quiet. More amusing is the prefab construction; in another life, this might have been a good little garden shed.

El Buen Juguito
37th Ave. at 92nd St. (next to Beauty Nails), Jackson Heights, Queens

La Nueva Bakery

At right angles to the long display of Latin American sweets under glass, La Nueva presents a shorter counter with an assortment of sandwiches de miga as well as two varieties of arrollado, like the primavera ($2) shown here. Ham and cheese, hearts of palm, and hardboiled egg; lettuce, tomato, green olive, and bell pepper — surely this must be a savory snack. Surprise! Those fillings are overmatched by the sugary sponge cake, which might be spiraled just as comfortably around cake frosting. Enjoyable, but to my taste, another olive or two would balance the sweetness better.

La Nueva Bakery
86-10a 37th Ave. (86th-87th Sts.), Jackson Heights, Queens
718-567-2339

La Gran Uruguaya

Migas are the softies of the sandwich family. A "miga" — in South America, the name literally translates as "crumb," referring to the internal structure of baked goods — resembles an upsized tea sandwich. This miga de pavo (turkey; $2) was a double-decker, with lettuce, tomato, bell pepper, and hardboiled egg on the top level, and thin-sliced meat on the bottom. When bought at a bakery or café, typically a miga is assembled and shorn of its crust in advance, and chilled, as it was here.

La Gran Uruguaya (on the awning, called Uruguaya Bakery)
85-06 37th Ave. (85th-86th Sts.), Jackson Heights, Queens
718-505-0404

Cavalier Restaurant

(This venue is closed.) Here's the one sign that remains.