Eating In Translation

Papa's Kitchen

Pancit is the name for Chinese noodles that long ago were assimilated into Filipino culture. Many varieties, such as pancit palabok, rely heavily on the flavors of the Philippines. Pancit Canton ($6.95), by contrast, still evokes its namesake. Essentially this is a pork lo mein with cabbage, carrots, and mushrooms, although the noodles are chopped into short segments and lemon wedges are provided on the side. The dish as a whole also carries a gentle undercurrent, via the Manila-raised chef, of Datu Puti soy sauce.

Also shown, from a previous visit: a jackfruit turron (on the house).

Papa's Kitchen
65-40 Woodside Ave. (65th-Burrough Pls.), Woodside, Queens
347-724-9586

The Brothers Deli Store

Filipino loosie (50 cents). See also this boneless chicken dinner.

The Brothers Deli Store
39-16 65th St. (Roosevelt-Woodside Aves.), Woodside, Queens
718-507-5546

LDBA Thingyan festival

Mont lone yei baw (loosely, "rice balls floating in water") seldom surface except during Thingyan, the water festival that marks the Burmese New Year.

South Asian wild style?

Perhaps. My dining buddy and I had just attended a food fair, a cafe, and a small restaurant, only one of which relied entirely on the Roman alphabet, and so maybe our eyes were primed to see something in that middle graffito. The strong horizontal line, in combination with the whorls below it, is strongly suggestive of a South Asian script. I can't say for sure, but the neighborhood demographic is a good fit.

South Asian wild style?
68th St. near Woodside Ave., Woodside, Queens

Pupusa Zone

Masa de maiz, corn-based dough, is the default for this storefront's 14 varieties of Salvadoran pupusa (15, if you include the off-menu pupusa featuring jalapeno, reportedly popular with Mexican customers). The two shown here feature cheese with some type of winter squash, and cheese with the leafy vegetable called chipilin ($2 each). From the way they gently oozed at the touch of my knife, both had clearly been fresh-made.

Too late I learned from a manager of an option that I haven't encountered at other New York pupuserias: For 25 cents more, one can substitute masa de arroz, made with rice. Neither corn nor rice is identified with a particular region of the country, noted the manager, adding that the chef previously ran her own restaurant in the capital, San Salvador.

Pupusa Zone
64-03 Roosevelt Ave. (64th-65th Sts.), Woodside, Queens
718-205-5241

Playground Bar & Bistro

To pull off the legs, you'll probably need both hands.

Tortas Neza

There were six of us, and only four tortas. A fair match, considering that the sandwich squad was captained by the Torta Pumas ($14, named, like its fellows, for a Mexican soccer club.) Heavy with ham, cheese, a deep-fried chicken cutlet, sausage (also shown during prep), an eggy fry-up, and generous applications of the usual fixings, the Pumas can take on two eaters of average appetite. As it happened, the six of us were in fine form this day, and ultimately, the tortas went down.

Tortas Neza
Truck on Roosevelt Ave. near 111th St., Corona, Queens, afternoons only
347-666-1517
Also at 53-26 Roosevelt Ave. (53rd-54th Sts.), Woodside
718-205-2121

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

5 Spice

(This venue is closed.) This deconstructed chicken egg foo young, accompanied by fried rice and a crisp vegetable roll, left it to me to mix the chicken and the egg. (Compare a more traditional version.) But bonus points for the amuse bouche of freshly fried shrimp chips and the lunch special price, five bucks for the lot.

5 Spice
39-06 64th St. (39th-Roosevelt Aves.), Woodside, Queens
718-606-9835

"Cocina economica"

In Singapore "economy rice" identifies a hawker stall that offers a portion of white rice and an assortment of pre-cooked dishes, from which you choose two, three, perhaps four. Though the term appears on signboards, it's rarely heard in conversation. In New York the name seems to be absent altogeher, though the concept — a bargain meal that stands in for home cooking — can be procured at many "four over rice" establishments.

"Cocina economica" seems to have a similar currency in Latin America, though as you might gather from the awning seen here, it's not this Woodside venue's primary line of business. Further investigation to follow.

"Cocina economica"
Woodside, Queens

Kathina ceremony of the New York Dhammaram Temple

The home of this Corona-based Buddhist monastery could easily pass for a single-family house. That's far too small to accommodate the annual kathina ceremony, at which lay members of the congregation offer donations of food as well as the saffron robes called kathin.

"It's breeding season..."

For the infamous octopus, that is. "Due to the weather" as well, "we won't have the octopus until September," reads the sign, not before late September, a staffer elaborated.

"It's breeding season..."
Seen at Sik Gaek
49-11 Roosevelt Ave. (49th-50th Sts.), Woodside, Queens
718-205-4555
Other location: 40-01 149th Pl. (at Roosevelt Ave.), Flushing, Queens
718-460-4564
www.SikGaekUSA.com

Woodside Cafe

"Back home we call this Nepali pizza."

Burmese home-cooked food bazaar

There are still times when someone cuts up my food for me.

"The Woodside Doughboy"

How did doughboys — as U.S. soldiers, especially during World War I, were once widely known — come to be called doughboys? In A Browser's Dictionary, John Ciardi took special note of two competing etymologies.

KPTL Express Vegetable Grocery

You might have to manage without the yak butter.

Mi Bolivia

Two points for the customized neon sign: one for the shoutout to salteñas, Bolivia's take on empanadas, and one for troubling to add the tilde, even if it lacks a squiggle. Minus one point for the neighboring neon (not shown here) that dilutes the Bolivian mystique with the message "pollo con sabor Peruano." Minus another point for the dining room devoid of staff and customers, despite the illuminated "open" sign.

Net: not an auspicious hour to sample those salteñas.

Mi Bolivia
44-10 48th Ave. (44th-45th Aves.), Sunnyside, Queens
718-784-5111

Stop & Deli

"Stop & Deli": Is that a noun and a noun? A verb and a noun? It can't be a verb and a verb, can it? I stopped long enough to snag a takeout menu, which on later review revealed a sandwich with roast pork, ham, swiss, and sliced pickle; it must be the toasted garlic hero that wins it the title of "Super Cubano." I would deli one of those, when the imperative mood doesn't compel me to hurry on to a lunch appointment elsewhere.

Stop & Deli
64-14 Woodside Ave. (64th-65th Sts.), Woodside, Queens
718-255-6488

Inthira

That's not regular iced tea; that's not Thai iced tea, either.