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.

Ole & Steen

In Denmark, the home of Ole & Steen's founders, they don't call this a danish. The general term for such pastries is wienerbrød, named for the Austrian capital and its celebrated baking traditions and techniques. The common circular shape with filling in the middle is a spandauer; this one is topped with raspberry marmalade and slivered almonds.

Also shown, from a springtime visit, Easter chick puffs — passion fruit marshmallow, passion fruit ganache, white chocolate, shredded coconut, wandering eyes.

Ole & Steen
873 Broadway (East 18th-East 19th Sts.), Manhattan
929-209-1020
(one of several New York locations)
www.OleAndSteen.us

Breyer's Ice Cream, luncheon

Surviving privilege signage outside Baonanas
181 Monticello Ave. (Belmont-Jewett Aves.), Jersey City

Bad for Business

First course of a Filipino streetside lunch: a lechon sandwich, dressed with Chinese celery and a really nice liver sauce, on a toasted bun. My not-quite-dessert: a hot dog draped in banana-honey ketchup, butted up against a marshmallow.

Bad for Business
Various pop-up locations
www.Instagram.com/BadForBusinessPopups
One of dozens of vendors celebrating Filipino independence on June 12 and 13, from noon till 7:00, at a festival on the Lower East Side

La Brujeria

Witchcraft, or marketing inevitability: lamb birria nacho fries.

H/T Robert Sietsema for the birria; I'll take credit (or blame) for smothering it in pico de gallo, queso fresco, sour cream, and fries. Serving suggestion (for which I wasn't fast enough on my feet to try myself): a side of consomé, as a pourover.

La Brujeria
590 Grand St. (at Fairmount Ave.), Jersey City
201-267-6760
www.La-Brujeria.com

Son D'licias

Untie the topknot of this tamal Tolimense, and you'll find it overstuffed with chicken, beef, pork, egg, potato, peas, carrot, and rice. Unphotogenic but filling.

Son D'licias, a Colombian food truck, also serves many snack-sized items, among them a mashed-yuca fritter filled with rice and beef. While the menu labels it a pastel de yuca, Esneider Arevalo, who leads food tours in Queens for Culinary Backstreets, calls it a carimañola. I'd always thought that was a Panamanian name — but Colombia and Panama are neighbors, no?

Son D'licias
Truck parked on 82nd St. near the northwest corner with Roosevelt Ave., Jackson Heights, Queens
929-366-3738
www.Instagram.com/SonDelicias82St