Eating In Translation

Di Palo's Fine Foods

"Pecorino" ("little sheep") describes a vast range of Italian sheep's milk cheeses; Di Palo's carries more than a hundred, including this variety ($12.99 per pound) that borrows from the beehive, then wraps itself in paper impressed with hay. The yellowed interior is hard and granular; the aroma, mildly lactic, with hints of honey as well as hay. On the tongue, exceptionally even-tempered lactic flavors step forward, and the other notes recede, provided you peel it.

Di Palo's Fine Foods
206 Grand St. (at Mott St.)
212-226-1033
www.DiPaloSelects.com

Divalicious Chocolate!

(This venue is closed.) "Monte's gift" (large; $3.75), a frothy hot chocolate "spiked with Aztec flavors," delivered its entire spice load at the back of my throat; not sure I'd like it much even if the heat was more fairly distributed. Plenty of straightforward sweets await another visit.

Divalicious Chocolate!
365 Broome St. (Mott-Elizabeth Sts.)
212-343-1243

Falaj Falafel and Shawarma

(This venue is closed.) Pretty good falafel on pita ($3) that you'll never try; this venue closed three weeks after my visit.

Falaj Falafel and Shawarma
165 Church St.
212-571-0668

Arte Around the Corner

If you're passing by Arte's takeout nook and espresso bar, look for this pastry miniature: a pebbled patio infiltrated by a few green shoots, beside a retaining wall. On closer inspection, the pine nut and rosemary tart ($3.75), bounded by a tall, heavily browned crust, has a homey appeal all its own.

Another evening (the tart nowhere in sight), a carrot-ginger scone ($2.25) struck a jaunty balance between the two flavors; pear-almond looked good, too.

Arte Around the Corner
274 Columbus Ave. (72nd-73rd Sts.)
212-875-2195

Rajbhog Foods

(This location is closed.) Elachi srikhand ($5) proved to be a dense, creamy yogurt relentlessly flavored with cardamom. A few spoonfuls too many, and you can almost feel your lips shaping the word "srikhand."

Rajbhog Foods
72-27 37th Ave., Jackson Heights, Queens
718-458-8512

Al-Naimat Sweets & Restaurant

Even if you never make it past the sweets counter, you can still get your veggies.

Trade Fair

Goya brand mango-flavored vanilla wafers (69 cents). Since childhood, I've had an understanding with artificial vanilla: I get my sugar, and I don't pay too close attention to the list of ingredients. Not the case with mango, or whatever that was, pretending to be a tropical fruit. Store itself is fairly large but cramped, and unremarkably stocked.

Trade Fair
75-07 37th Ave., Jackson Heights, Queens
(one of many locations)
718-533-0844

Con Sõl

(This venue is closed.) Con Sõl's very dark dining room all but concealed some ambitious "Iberian cuisine," including a dense polvo guisada, octopus stewed with potatoes and red wine ($8) and somewhat stringy cordonizes, marinated quail grilled and topped with a red wine gravy ($6). Carne porco alentejana, chunks of pork loin stewred with clams and topped with cubed potatoes and onions ($11), was ample but lacked complexity; paella Valenciana, with clams, shrimp, scallops, chicken, and linguica (shown; $13) seemed busy, and not fully one with itself. Even so, the fact that everything was prepared and served by just one man suggests a lot of promise, once restaurant-permit problems and other growing pains iron themselves out.

Con Sõl
279A Broadway (Elm-Columbia Sts.), Cambridge, Massachusetts
617-868-3111

Flour Bakery and Café

This maple and oatmeal scone ($1.95) had a simple, understated sweetness; it also evokes Flour's blond-wood color scheme, if memory serves.

Flour Bakery and Café
12 Farnsworth St., Boston
(one of two locations)
617-338-4333

Kim's Aunt Kitchen

Nice catch amid the gyro-and-chicken carts.