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.

Kachin Traditional Food Fair

From the most recent food fair, a go-pack of vigorously seasoned pork parts: liver, kidney, intestine, heart.

Previously: At home in the high country of northern Burma, the Kachin people once had little access to cooking oil. Traditionally, Naomi Duguid writes in Burma: Rivers of Flavor, they relied on "grilling, steaming (in leaf-wrapped packages), or boiling to cook their food." These days, she adds, many Kachin live at lower altitudes, where they have "less access to wild-gathered leaves" but find that oil is more available.

Kachin cooking techniques have evolved accordingly, Duguid notes. Even so, an old-school banana-leaf bundle like the one shown below, filled with steamed fish, greens, and chiles, will always find room at the table. For more food-fair highlights, see my photo collection on Flickr.

Kachin Traditional Food Fair
Elmhurst Baptist Church, 87-37 Whitney Ave. (Judge-Ithaca Sts.), Elmhurst, Queens
www.Facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=1873772302698412&id=1098160883592895
(The 2018 food fair was held on October 20)

Lanzhou Noodle (aka Lanzhou Ramen)

The first and most famous location of this mini-chain is on the lower level of the nearby Golden Mall, opposite Tianjin Dumpling House. If a long-rumored mall-wide renovation of the Golden Mall ever does disrupt business, it's good to have backup. Shown: stir-fried noodles with cumin lamb.

Lanzhou Noodle (aka Lanzhou Ramen)
Super HK food court, stall 25
3711 Main St. (37th-38th Aves., beneath Super HK supermarket), Flushing, Queens
917-688-2219
Golden Mall location: 41-28 Main St. (at 41st Rd., lower level)
917-660-9588
New York Food Court location: 133-35 Roosevelt Ave. (Prince St.-College Point Blvd., stall 22)
917-607-9188

Mom's Kitchen

After an hour-plus of grazing, a final food-court nibble: red-bean-paste-filled sesame balls, two for a buck-fifty.

Mom's Kitchen
Super HK food court, stall 18
3711 Main St. (37th-38th Aves., beneath the Super HK supermarket), Flushing, Queens

New York-area food events, November 15-22

The Serious Side of Food Reading: The Jungle
Thursday, November 15, 5:30-7:00; continues monthly through March 2019
NYC Department of Records and Information Services, 31 Chambers St. (Elk-Lafayette Sts., in the Rebecca Rankin Reading Room), Manhattan
www.Eventbrite.com/e/the-serious-side-of-food-reading-series-w-jane-ziegelman-and-andrew-coe-tickets-49503054970
Free admission with online registration

Taste of Ridgewood
Thursday, November 15, 6:30-9:30
Ridgewood YMCA, 69-02 64th St. (at Catalpa Ave.), Ridgewood, Queens
www.YMCANYC.org/ridgewood/pages/Taste-of-Ridgewood2
Tickets: general admission, $50; proceeds benefit the Ridgewood YMCA

Kindness & Salt
Thursday, November 15, 7:30-8:30
Books Are Magic, 225 Smith St. (at Butler St.), Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn
www.Facebook.com/events/276348339530992
Free admission

Brooklyn Bugs
Continues Thursday and Friday, November 15-16, various times
Brooklyn Kitchen, 100 Frost St. (at Meeker Ave.), Williamsburg, Brooklyn
www.BrooklynBugs.com
See website for ticket details

Shaanxi Tasty Food

It's not just one long bespattered noodle, but I did lift my first nearly a foot before I cleared the lip of the bowl. At this new food court some two dozen stalls serve food from Jiangnan, Shaxian, Wenzhou, Lanzhou, Shanghai, Sichuan, and Taiwan as well as Shaanxi; these ribbonlike, chewy "oil spill" noodles were an early standout.

H/T @garsleat, who supplied word of the food court's long-awaited opening

Shaanxi Tasty Food
Super HK food court, stall 27
3711 Main St. (37th-38th Aves., beneath the Super HK supermarket), Flushing, Queens