Eating In Translation

Deshi Biryani

Though it's hard to dismiss the namesake rice dishes, solo lunchers have lots of options at this Bangladeshi restaurant.

Tacos Guicho

That's the firm, full-flavored cecina, or dried beef ($2), dressed with onion and cilantro (by the chef) and a dribble of thin, deep red hot sauce (by me). No lettuce, tomato, or pico de gallo in sight; the only other condiments at hand were sliced radishes, lime segments, and what seemed to be pieces of dark green pepper mingled with carrot. Must look into this stand some more.

Tacos Guicho
Street cart on Roosevelt Ave. (south side, at Gleane St.), Elmhurst, Queens

Corner corn cart

The briefest of picture menus makes your choices very clear.

Thomas Pizza

No, no, no, there's no grandpa pizza. Despite the notice in the front window, Thomas sells the same old square-panned grandma pies, they told me. I like thin crusts layered with tomato sauce and fresh mozzarella as much as the next guy, but perhaps another time.

Thomas Pizza
83-08 37th Ave., Jackson Heights, Queens
718-446-5388

Aqui Colombia Antojitos

Second shelf down in the refrigerator case, the plastic cups are filled with a sludgy, pond-algae-colored liquid. Fear not.

Mark Twain Diner

Apart from those greatly exaggerated grill marks, my beefburger deluxe (medium rare; $6.25) was distinguished mainly by sheer mass; it's served with fries, a trio of onion rings, lettuce and tomato, plus a pickle and cole slaw.

Mark Twain Diner
72-12 Northern Blvd, Jackson Heights, Queens
718-651-2212

El Palacio de los Cholados

Drink, or dessert? You'll be handed both a straw and a spoon with your cholado, a Colombian concoction that's assembled like a snow cone — shaved ice is drizzled with fruit syrup and soaked with condensed milk — then freighted with a fruit salad that might include berries, banana, cantaloupe, pineapple, and whatever else is on hand. The especial ($5), I gathered, has a little extra of everything.

El Palacio de los Cholados
83-18 Northern Blvd. (83rd-84th Sts.), Jackson Heights, Queens

Tamale Lady

Though she called out "Tamales! Tamales! Tamales!" whenever passengers disembarked from the 7 train, the lady (shown here without a younger woman who spoke some English, and who may be an assistant during busier hours) seemed already to have secured the bulk of the local streetside tamale business. A similar vendor nearby said little, and sold less.

From a somewhat limited late morning selection, a pollo picante tamale (spicy chicken; $1) was laced with the occasional hot pepper that kept me on my toes. To score a coveted mole tamale, I hear, better arrive early.

When I circled back two hours later, I found a police van stopped near the corner, where an officer was writing the tamale lady a summons. Though she did not specify the violations, the officer took a few minutes to explain to me that due to the growing number of vendors in the neighborhood, there had been growing concern about congestion, from storeowners and others; that a street vendor could not sell within ten feet of a subway exit; that a vendor could not impede a crosswalk; that a repurposed shopping cart was not safe for selling food; and that a vendor needed to secure the appropriate permits and licenses. I'll circle around again, and report back.

Tamale Lady
Near the southwest corner of 82nd St. and Roosevelt Ave., Jackson Heights, Queens

Maharaja Quality Sweets & Snacks

The countertop presented two variations on the Indian sweets called ladu (Lah-doo; $5 per pound), each of them the size of a golf ball, but with more heft. Boondi ladu, made from chickpeas, were golden, nubbly, and a little greasy; I preferred the firmer, finer-grained besan ladu, made from gram, or unhulled pulses — a rubric that comprises various beans and peas, as well as lentils and even lupins. Stand and deliver!

Maharaja Quality Sweets & Snacks
73-10 37th Ave., Jackson Heights, Queens
718-505-2680

Rajbhog Foods

Elachi srikhand ($5) proved to be a dense, creamy yogurt relentlessly flavored with cardamom. A few spoonfuls too many, and you can almost feel your lips shaping the word "srikhand."

Rajbhog Foods
72-27 37th Ave., Jackson Heights, Queens
718-458-8512

Al-Naimat Sweets & Restaurant

Al-Naimat offers "all kinds of Pakistani, Indian, and Bangladeshi cuisine," but even if you never make it past the sweets counter, you can still get your veggies from gajar halwa (top photo; about $1), grated carrots prepared with clarified butter, milk, sugar, and perhaps cardamom, and topped with sliced almonds. Also look for pale green dudhi halwa, made from squash.

On another occasion, a pistachio-flecked square of almond burfi (bottom photo; 75 cents) hovered somewhere between fudge and marzipan.

Al-Naimat Sweets & Restaurant
37-03 74th St. (37th Rd.-Roosevelt Ave.), Jackson Heights, Queens
718-476-1100

Trade Fair

Goya brand mango-flavored vanilla wafers (69 cents). Since childhood, I've had an understanding with artificial vanilla: I get my sugar, and I don't pay too close attention to the list of ingredients. Not the case with mango, or whatever that was, pretending to be a tropical fruit. Store itself is fairly large but cramped, and unremarkably stocked.

Trade Fair
75-07 37th Ave., Jackson Heights, Queens
(one of many locations)
718-533-0844

Burmese Café

(This venue is closed.) This had better be good, I told myself, if it's displaced a restaurant I enjoyed as much as Karihan ni Tata Bino. For a simple, late-afternoon belly-warmer, a bowl of mo hangar ($5.99) — rice noodles in sour catfish soup, with cilantro and very hot red pepper flakes on the side — was very promising.

On another visit; the duck soup with sour mustard ($6.99) was comforting, and just a little tangy; squash fritters ($4.99) were fine, but the gram fritters (made from yellow split peas; $4.99) were too dry; green tea leaf salad ($5.99) added a tannic layer to a hepped-up hodgepodge of tomato, cabbage, and peanuts. The fiery-looking pork and onion curry with mango pickle ($4.99) was a pussycat; fried butterfish curry simmered in a blend of spices ($6.99) was fine with its accompanying vegetables, too fishy without; mushroom and watercress with garlic ($7.99) was simple and satisfying.

Burmese Café
71-34 Roosevelt Ave., Woodside, Queens
718-803-1320

La Picada Azuaya

Fanesca, an Ecuadorian specialty served only during the week before Easter, traditionally includes 12 grains (for the 12 apostles) as well as salt cod, sliced egg, and some sort of tuber; here it's also accompanied by white rice and a salad, plus lime wedges and hot sauce to taste. The soupy body of this fanesca ($15), though refreshing, was less satiating than the stewlike version at Guagua Pichincha, but the restaurant's mirrored interior, and the occasionally bouncy soundtrack, was equally familiar and welcoming.

La Picada Azuaya
84-19 37th Ave., Jackson Heights, Queens
718-424-9797

N.Y. Chonghap Market

It's too bad this big, wide-open, well-stocked store has the same sullen character as many other Korean markets.

Bashundhara Mini Super Market

(This venue is closed.) This bright, spacious halal butcher and grocery may well stock a very good selection of meat from the subcontinent (and Malaysia, too!) in its two rows of top-loading freezers, but it offers a less-than-overwhelming array of snacks. A "hot mixture" from Wy-Nad Foods (400 g.; $2.99) — including roasted peanuts, banana chips, curry leaves, and chili powder in addition to those fried crispies — had a pleasant level of heat but was a little shy on the banana.

Bashundhara Mini Super Market
40-04 73rd St. (near Roosevelt Ave.), Queens
718-672-9690

Aires del Sur

(This venue is closed.) Friendly Argentinean-Colombian bakery with a few elaborate pastries and many attractive homey-looking items. I don't know the proper name for the sweet shown here (75 cents), but it balanced cookie, caramel, and coconut very nicely.

Aires del Sur
77-07 37th Ave., Queens
718-507-6539

Patel Brothers

The freezer case up front offers ice cream in chickoo, thandai, rose, fig, pista kulfi, and a half-dozen other flavors. But despite its size and that promising first impression, Patel didn't seem to offer the bounty of, say, Phil-Am Foods or Hong Kong Supermarket. I ended up with two items from the displays by the cash registers: Chandan brand tulsi vati (70 g.; $1.99), a mouth freshener that identifies itself as "basil tablets" but whose predominant flavor is black pepper, and Twin Rabbits brand sweetened star gooseberries (300 g.; $2.49), from Thailand, draped in sugar but also liberally dotted with chili pepper.

Bikaji brand mastkin (400 g.; $2.49) is a blend of corn flakes plus potato sticks, cashews, a host of spices, and the occasional golden raisin; needed a bunch more raisins to do the trick for me.

Patel Brothers
37-27 74th St. (37th Rd.-Roosevelt Ave.), Queens
(one of several locations)
718-898-3445

Arepa Lady

My first visit to "the sainted Arepa Lady," as Chowhound's Jim Leff has beatified her, was a long time coming. On the advice of a Spanish-speaking customer, Ike and I declined the narrower, plumper corn-flour arepas in favor of the wider version made from choclos — freshly ground corn — and filled with sweet white cheese ($3 each). Sweet enough and so comforting, in fact, that this may become my favorite Queens dessert destination, especially in chillier weather.

Arepa Lady
Roosevelt Ave., 78th-79th Sts., Queens
After 10:30 p.m., Fridays and Saturdays only

Pacific Supermarket

It's filled with oceans and oceans of packaged foods from all across East Asia; the produce and fresh seafood have a more local provenance.

Los Paisanos Market

This Latin grocery is well-stocked with goods from Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru, though if your sweet tooth is acting up, you'll find that most of your options feature guava in some guise or other. An exception: Castipan brand bocadillo de cereals, rosa (24 pieces; 500 g.; $1.69), from Colombia, which seem to be rosewater-flavored jellies even though the package dismisses them as "cereal paste."

Tropicfruit brand bocadillo Veleño (1,000 g.; $5.99), from Colombia, are thinner-sliced and thicker-crusted than their brethren from D' Mi Tierra, but they have the same rustic appeal, and they likewise keep a lid on cloying guava flavor.

Los Paisanos Market
79-16 Roosevelt Ave.
718-898-4141