Eating In Translation

Printon 56

For a "you pick 'em, we mix 'em" salad, I chose field greens with beets, diced tomatoes, carrots, and cucumbers ($5.75) from among the 50 or so possible ingredients. OK, though at a late lunch, the fixings were a little tired.

Many European chocolates near the checkout. Cadbury Dairy Milk Turkish (48 g.; $1.50) oozed too much for what it claimed was a "Turkish delight filling," and it had an artificial rosewater flavor.

Printon 56
50 West 56th St. (Fifth-Sixth Aves.)

109 St. Gourmet Deli

Negra Modelo (six 12 fl. oz. bottles; $8), Mexico. Reddish brown; fast-disappearing head. Faint fruity aroma, light carbonation, slight caramel taste, not much body.

Leinenkugel's Sunset Wheat (six 12-oz. bottles; $9), Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin . Deep gold with a scant white head; clean, orange-pineapple aroma; lemony, slightly sour, monotone flavor (due in part to coriander); fades but doesn't quite finish.

109 St. Gourmet Deli
990 Amsterdam Ave. (at 109th St.)

Café Mozart

(This venue is closed.) Always a bit of a wait here on a Sunday afternoon, given its proximity to Lincoln Center and Central Park. Joined Mom and a friend for a light lunch, but since I can no longer read my notes, all I can say is that the service was pleasant if absent-minded, given the hectic setting, and that our shared desserts were nice enough. Been here several times before; when it's busy at Café Mozart, it's so crowded that I can't really enjoy the food.

Café Mozart
154 West 70th St. (Broadway-Columbus Ave.)
212-595-9797

Barcade

Doc's Draft cider (draft pint; $5). Very pronounced nose; tart and very refreshing after several hours of walking around Ridgewood.

Barcade has about two dozen (primarily U.S.) brews on tap; it also offers about that many reconditioned '70s and '80s video games in its warehouse-like space. For 25 cents, Tetris provided 10 minutes of kicks; next time — perhaps after dinner at Dumont — I'll take a spin at Asteroids, and maybe even try my hand at Punch-Out.

Barcade
388 Union Ave. (Ainslie St.-Powers St.), Brooklyn
718-302-6464

Colombian Café

(This post is based on a visit when the business was known as La Unica Colombia Café Bakery, with the same phone number.) Despite the two-week-old Valentine's Day décor, I tried the pan guayaba ($1). The buttery roll was scantily smeared with guava; perhaps I could have picked up a better one that morning.

Colombian Café
690 Seneca Ave. (at Palmetto St.), Ridgewood, Queens
718-418-8511

Muncan Food Corp. No. 3

(This location is closed; two other Muncan locations, on Myrtle Ave. and in Astoria, remain open.) "That's what you're smelling" said the counterman as he offered me a sample of "cracker" — fried pork rind that down the block might have been called chicharron, except for its smokier flavor. Lots of great barbecue possibilities at what's primarily a butcher shop, but for today I bought just a quartet of Kras "animal kingdom" milk chocolates (four 15 g. bars; $1). Didn't try them myself, but the kids at a get-together the next afternoon seemed to like them.

Muncan Food Corp. No. 3
676 Seneca Ave. (at Gates Ave.), Queens
718-418-2212

Polamia

A steam table in the back room of this deli offered "Polish-style dinners," but only if you want your meat, potatoes, and boiled vegetables to go. A dozen kinds of kielbasa and many grocery items in front.

Runoland "borowka do mies" (lingonberry meat sauce; 7 oz.; 99 cents). Also includes apples and sugar. Good balance of tart and sweet; must pick up some more before next barbecue season.

"Lesna" ("Foresty tea"; 3.52 oz.; $1.79). Includes aronia, apple peels, hawthorn, briar, rowanberry, raisins, flower of hibiscus, elderberry. Smells and tastes of dark berries; a little sour.

Winiary "budyn o smaku smietankowym" (pudding mix; 60 g.; 89 cents). Can't figure out what flavor this is by looking at the package (and I forgot to ask in the store), but this package and a similar photo (found online) each picture daisies. Butterscotch, perhaps? Some sort of crème fraiche flavor? Even after dessert, I'm still not sure. (Update: "Sweet cream" is what's meant, observes a Polish-speaking reader.)

Polamia
690 Woodward Ave. (at Palmetto St.), Queens

MeKong

(This venue is closed.) Some tasty food here, but a non-Vietnamese-speaking waitstaff suggested a lack of authenticity. Grilled squid ($6.95) was actually quite nicely cooked. Papaya salad ($6.95), spring rolls ($4.95), hot and sour soup with shrimp or salmon ($7.95 each), and pad thai were fine.

MeKong
44 Prince St. (at Mulberry St.), Manhattan
212-343-8169

New Beer Wholesale

Hitachino Nest Red Rice Ale (23.4 fl. oz.; $5.95), from Naka-gun, Ibaraki, Japan. Cloudy straw color, with a light fruity aroma and a lemony, effervescent taste that fades slowly and pleasantly. Had this beer on its own; I could imagine pairing this with Japanese bar food at an izakaya, but it would probably overwhelm sushi or sashimi.

New Beer Wholesale
167 Chrystie St. (Rivington-Delancey Sts.)
212-473-8757

Blue Ribbon Sushi

On a very snowy evening, most members of my sushi dining group bailed out, so only Chester and I were left to snag a small table in the back room. Looks like a West Village walk-down restaurant — stylish, but not an atmosphere that matched all the hype I'd read. And no squid this evening, either, which meant no tiger's eye; a mixed sunomono (mixed seafood in vinegar; $9.50) was good, if small.

I've always loved catching (if not cleaning) blue crabs at the Jersey shore, so a spicy blue crab roll with shiso ($8) and a piece of kani sashimi ($3.50) were at the top of my list, but they proved uninteresting. Good, again, but they didn't bring summers at the shore to mind. Hamaguri sashimi (littleneck clam; $2.25) was at least true to form.

Two more-recent favorites of mine, kurage (jellyfish; $2.75) and baby anago (sea eel; $2.75) each showed off very fine flavor; the maguro (tuna; $3.25) was a very nice cut.

We split two desserts: green tea crème brulee was pretty good; a sesame mousse with raspberry and ginger ice cream tried a little too hard.

All in all, high-quality seafood and smallish portions at relatively high prices.

Blue Ribbon Sushi
119 Sullivan St. (Bleecker-Houston Sts.), Manhattan
212-343-0404