Eating In Translation

Warning: Strange Food!

The three photos below might be considered much less appetizing by many readers. If you're at all squeamish, it might be better to stop right here and wait for my next posting. If you're curious, you might want to guess which one of these tasted wonderful, which one would serve as sustinence in a pinch, and which one I never need to try again. As always, you can click on any photo to see more from my Flickr collection.

A "turned" duck egg from the Ben Thanh Night Market, Ho Chi Minh City.

Dog, the other dark meat, from a vendor on Long Van St., Hanoi.

Fried silkworm larvae from a vendor in Psar Thmei, Siem Reap.

9th St. Bakery

(This venue is closed.) The display cases aren't vast, but even a winnowed-down early evening selection prompted several minutes of decision-making. This blueberry turnover ($1.35) was exceptionally light and very sweet; I'd like to catch one (or two) of these coming out of the oven.

9th St. Bakery
350 East 9th St. (First-Second Aves.), Manhattan
212-477-6642

Bamn!

(This venue is closed.) This tiny East Village automat seems to attract many more browsers than buyers. I stopped by long enough to drop in $2 worth of quarters for one of the more unconventional offerings, a deep-fried peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Not half-bad.

Bamn!
37 St. Mark's Pl. (near Second Ave.)

Stage Restaurant and Coffee Shop

This old-school Eastern European lunch counter was just the place for a nosh as straightforward as kielbasa on rye with mustard ($4.80). From somewhat farther afield, here's a more recent sandwich whose kielbasa was also more thinly sliced.

Stage Restaurant and Coffee Shop
128 Second Ave. (7th-8th Sts.), Manhattan
212-473-8614

Taqueria y Fonda la Mexicana

Tiny but amiable Columbia student favorite for belly-filling meals from Southwest Mexico, such as chicken pipian ($9.95), in a cilantro-green pumpkinseed sauce. Their housemade version of the sweet rice drink called horchata ($2.25) is very cinnamony.

Watching the grillmen up front is sure to get your appetite going (especially if you're temporarily consigned to the sidewalk). On previous occasions: A taco filled with carne asada (beef steak; $2.75) was a little dry; a taco al pastor (pork strips with pineapple; $3) was moist and tangy; my "stretch" order, an oreja (pork ear; $3), was just too chewy.

Fish tacos ($3.50) also turned out a little dry, without much flavor. The owner mentioned that they were using jackfish, a common name that seems to refer to any number of species, only because bluefish, which "makes the best fish tacos," was unavailable that day.

Taqueria y Fonda la Mexicana
968 Amsterdam Ave. (107th-108th Sts.)
212-531-0383

El Barrio Juice Bar

While they offer the customary bottles of Mirinda, Jarritos, and their Western counterparts, plus a freezer case of popsicles flavored with guava, lime, and almond, the fine folks at El Barrio Juice Bar specialize in customized coolers, both the traditional and the health-shake variety. Choose, for example, from a dozen flavors of the thin shakes called liquados; prepared with milk and sugar, a liquado de mamey (mah-May; $3.50) was reminiscent of cantaloupe and papaya.

El Barrio Juice Bar
308 East 116th St. (First-Second Aves.)
212-828-0403

Don Paco Lopez Panaderia

At a panaderia, customarily you help yourself to the pastries of your choice, using a tray and tongs; I plucked this still-warm jojo (80 cents) from a fresh batch.

Also called a "beso," it sealed together two sugar-dusted domes of yellow cake with a "kiss" of strawberry jam. (That well may be where the name comes from, but I wasn't comfortable asking the counterman any more about a kiss.)

On a return visit, my selections included the flaky pastry below (perhaps called a "tornillo"; $1) that was spiraled into the shape of a cone, then filled with an egg custard.

Don Paco Lopez Panaderia
2129 Third Ave. (116th-117th Sts.)