Eating In Translation

What's Eating In Translation?

This website began as a collection of field notes on interesting food I'd tried, or planned to try, in and around New York. Since its launch, in January 2005, I've visited thousands of venues, from white-linen restaurants to elbows-on-the-table eateries, as well as street vendors, fairs, festivals, grocers, and greenmarkets — and my "to eat" list is longer than ever.

Deli El Bigotes

Prompted by the hand-chalked window menu: a pair of heavily-laden tacos de panza blanca, or goat stomach. You'll find good AC in the dining area, once you duck beneath the stairway to the apartments above.

Deli El Bigotes ("whiskers," in Spanish; all are welcome)
3 East 31st St. (Church-Snyder Aves.), East Flatbush, Brooklyn
718-282-2001

Burmese Bites: Morsels from Myanmar

The dough for palata is "stretched to translucence by a series of acrobatic, table-slapping wrist flips, then stretched just a bit further until it seemingly must tear under its own weight." For Myo Lin Thway — shown, in the first photo, beside his wife, Rebecca, at the 2007 Myanmar Baptist Church Fun Fair — "showmanship is simply a natural byproduct of the palata-making process" that he's mastered over more than two decades. He's hardly a showoff himself.

Read more about Burmese Bites, which rose to fame at the Queens Night Market, then won new fans with a weekday food cart, on Culinary Backstreets.

New York-area food events, July 18-25

Fermented Foods: A Bubbly History and Funky Future
Thursday, July 18, 6:30-8:00
Brooklyn Historical Society, 128 Pierrepont St. (at Clinton St.), Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn
www.Eventbrite.com/e/fermented-foods-a-bubbly-history-and-funky-future-tickets-60431540364
General admission: $10

Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Brooklyn
Concludes Thursday through Sunday, July 18-21, various evening and weekend hours
In the streets surrounding Our Lady of Mount Carmel, 275 North 8th St. (Havemeyer St.-Meeker Ave.), Williamsburg, Brooklyn
www.OLMCfeast.com
Free admission

Indonesian Gastronomy Association bazaar
Saturday, July 20, 11:00-5:00
Diversity Plaza, 37th Rd. between 73rd and 74th Sts., Jackson Heights, Queens
www.Instagram.com/p/Bzd5hEeHB0h
Previously: www.Flickr.com/search/?user_id=61177627%40N00&sort=date-taken-desc&view_all=1&text=%22indonesian%20gastronomy%22
Free admission

Food + Culture: South Asia
Saturday, July 20, 1:00-5:00
Mana Contemporary, 888 Newark Ave. (at Senate Pl.), Jersey City
www.Eventbrite.com/e/food-culture-south-asia-tickets-65283212847
Free admission with online registration

Little Pepper

Silken tofu with fresh scallion, spicy braised sliced fish, dry-sauteed string beans, and minced pork with clear noodles ("ants climbing trees") from a Little Pepper lunch, one of many. No flourishes; none needed. See more on Flickr.

Little Pepper
18-24 College Point Blvd. (18th-20th Aves.), College Point, Queens
718-939-7788
www.Facebook.com/pages/Little-Pepper-Sichuan-Restaurant/187153177996589

Una Fría

"Hecha por Neoyorkinos. Inspirada en el Caribe. ... A golden pilsner brewed with plantains."
—Advertisement for a collaboration between Blue Point of Patchogue, Long Island, and Presidente of the Dominican Republic, seen in Upper Manhattan