Eating In Translation

P&W's Sandwich Shop

(This venue is closed.) In addition to a small deli counter, P&W's — "Brought to you by The Hungarian Pastry Shop right next door" — offers all sorts of snack items arranged in an enticing jumble. If you sit at one of the few seats rather than take your order to the Hungarian, you can even have them toast you up a Pop-Tart.

A beef tongue sandwich on soft rye with mustard ($5.95) was loaded with a goodly amount of tender meat, accompanied by a little cup of pinkish slaw and a pickle spear disconcertingly wrapped in saran. On another occasion, I may have enjoyed it even more on white.

P&W's Sandwich Shop
1030 Amsterdam Ave. (110th-111th-Sts.)
212-222-2245

Famous Deli

Another venue where packaged foods are your safest bet. For a late-night snack, I narrowly bypassed a large selection of Drake's and Hostess products for a coconut-flavored Fruit-a-Freeze "super premium frozen fruit bar" that was "made with chunks of fruit" (4 fl. oz.; $1.25). No surprise, the chunks were no longer apparent (perhaps you had to be there when they were making it), but it was still pretty nice, considering the long list of ingredients.

Famous Deli
2817 Broadway (108th-109th Sts.)
212-531-4040
24 hours

Walter Reade Theater

Since I was at the movies — catching another Michael Powell film at the Walter Reade — a concession-stand slice of strawberry rhubarb pie ($3) was bound to be undersized. But confronted with pre-buttered, pre-salted popcorn and a broken soda machine, pie and coffee (16 fl. oz.; $2.50) is an easy choice, especially when the Little Pie Co. is the bakery. Had I known, perhaps I would have taken a pass on the "French fries pizza" and made a dinner out of pie.

Walter Reade Theater
70 Lincoln Center Plaza (above 65th St., Amsterdam Ave.-Broadway)
212-875-5600

Food Village

The awning also reads "organic grocery," but the small selection of fruits outside the door suggested that it might be an old awning; so did a "hot buffet" that was sparse and a little scary in the early evening.

A can of Dr. Brown's black cherry soda (12 fl. oz.; 85 cents) seemed safe enough. It's certainly more of a "session" soda than Cel-Ray, and it reminded me how much I like dark-berry flavors. Perhaps it's time to pick up some seltzer and syrups for DIY soda experiments.

Food Village
Tenth Ave. between 57th and 58th Sts.

Trini-Pak Boyz

I think I found the right cart — that is, the one praised in The Chowhound's Guide to the New York Tristate Area. No name, but it had a worn, stand-up blackboard advertising "Halal lunch" offerings, and they make a fantastic chicken curry over rice (large; $4.50), with a little lettuce, tomato, and onion, plus squirts of hot sauce and white sauce. Must come back to try the lamb. Probably also a good place for a double — two layers of roti-like bread filled with chick peas and spicy sauce.

Trini-Pak Boyz
Street cart, West 43rd St. near Sixth Ave., Southeast corner

Old Town Bar and Restaurant

For a pre-Gang of Four bite to eat, I ordered the burger platter, medium rare, with fries ($8) and a Diet Coke (fountain pint; $2). Though I sat on the ground floor, toward the back, I didn't catch the arrival of my dinner — in the dumbwaiter, from the kitchen upstairs. Good, compact bar burger, charred outside and juicy inside, though if it were just a little less charred, the pickles and ketchup would have blended in better. Shoestring fries were too dry; soda was a little syrupy. As my friends Eric, Eric, and Gil arrived, I switched to a Harpoon Summer Beer (draft pint; $6) — "a light-bodied, golden ale [sic] that is brewed in the Kolsch style," I later read on the Harpoon website — that made little impression.

Lots of Old New York character here; for their part, the servers don't overdo it.

Old Town Bar and Restaurant
45 East 18th St. (Park Ave. South-Broadway)
212-529-6732

Pozzo Pastry Shop

(This venue is closed.) An apricot hamentash ($1) warm from the oven, sported little bits of crushed nuts (walnuts?) throughout the soft jam. During the last couple of bites, however, I got that familiar, slight, sulfur dioxide shortness of breath.

Pozzo Pastry Shop
690 Ninth Ave. (47th-48th Sts.)
212-265-7530

Uncle Nick's Restaurant

(This venue is closed.) My grilled baby octopus ("oktapodaki"; $9.95) was a big baby, judging by the size of the tentacles.

Europan Bakery Café

A pre-wrapped roast sirloin wrap ($6.75) was unstinting on the beef, but mozzarella was out of place, "caramelized" onions weren't caramelized, and the surrounding "Southwest tortilla" had picked up some moisture since its last dry spell. A peanut butter cookie ($2.25) was dry without offering much peanut butter flavor.

Europan Bakery Cafe
135 Columbus Ave. (65th-66th Sts.)
212-799-4100

Eagle Provisions

(This venue is closed.) A bottle of Tymbark brand wisniowo-jabtkowy (cherry-apple drink, 250 ml., 69 cents) had a pretty nice flavor, albeit from concentrate, after I spent five minutes wrestling with the ring-pull.

Eagle Provisions
628 Fifth Ave. (17th-18th Sts.), Greenwood Heights, Brooklyn
718-499-0026