Eating In Translation

Sometimes you ride the hog...

Even more avidly than usual, lately I've been on the lookout for food trucks in the far reaches of the five boroughs. One Saturday afternoon in the Bronx, I spotted the pink skin of a porker, glistening in the sunlight, from several blocks away. Closing in, I snapped this photo, but didn't see word one about chow; crossing to the sidewalk, I found the backside equally blank.

A half-dozen men were camped out in the shade, and one pointed out the van's owner; he wore a pullover with Harley-Davidson insignia. Hence, hog — long the nickname for a large motorcycle, more recently the acronym for the Harley Owners Group and even, as of 2006, the company's NYSE ticker symbol.

But hog lovers, little surprise, love all sorts of hogs; the fellow told me that he and his buddies are planning a streetside roast toward the end of the year. Even from a distance, it'll be hard to miss.

Harley lover's (removable) roof ornament
Longwood, Bronx

Redemption center

Redemption center
Hunts Point, Bronx

The digital transition and your diet

On June 12, 2009, all full-power television stations that haven't done so already will make the transition to all-digital. Your mortadella, rest assured, will remain fatty, plump, and analog.

"We carry Puerto Rican mortadella"
Hunts Point, Bronx

Mo Gridder's BBQ

Drive-in BBQ theater.

La Casa del Latino Grocery

The list of ingredients leads off with "vanilla," but "rompope" (rom-PO-pay) is the key.

Hunts Point Summer Festival and Fish Parade

Fish heads, fish heads.

Israeli Independence Day Festival

Despite the advance publicity, the only "delicious Israeli cuisine" to be found was a rather crumbly heap of falafel, with lettuce and hot sauce, in a pita ($5). Dogs, burgers, too. I had hopes for Brother to Brother, "the most famous band of singers from Israel's National Army," when they proved to be a coed combo of twenty-somethings in olive drab, on guitar, bass, drums, and keyboard, with two female lead singers, but their sound check was so painfully long that that's all I heard.

Israeli Independence Day Festival
Independence Ave. between 232nd and 235th Sts., Riverdale, Bronx
Late April

Broadway Pizza and Pasta

This grandma has her own recipe.

The fish of Ewen Park

Beside the park stairs that rise from Kingsbridge to Riverdale are between 12 and 20 fish (I didn't make an exact count; a few are partially buried by soil runoff).

Tibbett Diner

Missed this sad news entirely while traveling out of town.

Puerto Rican snack van

It's warm inside, and they've got tunes.

Vincent's Meat Market

As it dissolves during cooking, the fat from pork skin gives this sausage a luxurious texture.

Casa Della Mozzarella

Of course there's a tour-bus stop outside, though how Casa Della Mozzarella squeezes tour groups inside is beyond me.

Zero Otto Nove

The pizza looks especially cheery at lunchtime, when the sun streams down from skylights in the high-ceilinged back room.

Susie's Pies

There's scant room to maneuver inside six-seat Susie's.

Tony & Tina's Pizza and Burek

The bureks filled with mish, djath, and spinaq take the typical pielike form, but the kungal will throw you a curve.

Calabria Pork Store

Best known for the thick cluster of cured meats that hang overhead, the Calabria Pork Store also decks out a display case with fresh sausages.

Terranova Bakery

Terranova is better known for bread, but direct your gaze under the counter and you'll spot a humble selection of housemade cookies.

Caribe Restaurant

"Bacalao" refers to dried, salted cod, and to any number of dishes that feature it (only after the fish has been boiled, or soaked overnight, to remove excess salt, you'll be relieved to know). Propped up by a plateful of beans and short-grain rice, this lunch special ($6) was stewed with green olives, red bell peppers, onion, and potato. I paired it with a morir soñando (small; $3), an iced drink combining orange juice and milk that comes on like a liquid Creamsicle.

Caribe Restaurant
498 East 138th St. (Brook Ave.-Brown Pl.), Mott Haven, Bronx
718-993-3353

La Orquidea

On weekends, when the jukebox kicks in, the Honduran specialties at La Orquidea are headlined by sopa de caracoles ("snail soup").

Pio Pio

In New York, the best-known Peruvian dishes from that country's highlands and coast are spicy rotisserie chicken and citrus-marinated fish ceviche; both can be found at Pio Pio. So can salchipapas.

General Baking Company building

Built in 1922, the General Baking Company building "originally served as a factory with attached stables in the rear," according to a study by students in the Historic Preservation Program of the Columbia University School of Architecture. The structure "demonstrates an evolution of industrial design from the masonry structures to the daylight factories of the late 1920s onward," adds the study, but with the company long since out of business, "the windows have been filled in."

General Baking Company building
360 Gerard Ave., (East 140th-144th Sts.), Bronx

California Deli Grocery

Most of the jugos and licuados on the menu are made from fresh fruits or vegetables, but one is just plain nuts.

"Eat-It-All" ice cream cone

That's not chocolate, said a passer-by, who recalled when a pizza parlor stood on this site some 30 years ago. After the Italian eatery gave way to a Chinese restaurant (though perhaps not the same restaurant shown below), the ice cream's original white sheen slowly acquired a patina that looks very much like deep dark soft-swirled goodness. In fact, it was and is vanilla — now coated with a decades-long Bronx dip.

Surviving "Eat-It-All" ice cream cone signage
Above Foo Hing Chinese Kitchen
522 East 138th St., Mott Haven, Bronx

Honduran independence festival

The mixed pickles were the first sign of a superior pupusa.