Eating In Translation

Eating on Vacation

I'll be away from my blog beginning Friday, September 26, and returning Monday, October 6. Cape Cod clam bellies, beware.

California Deli Grocery

(This venue is closed.) Most of the jugos and licuados on the menu are made from fresh fruits or vegetables, but one is just plain nuts.

Garden of Eden

First, wait till it sheds its skin.

Singapore street food demonstration

That's much more exciting than it might appear.

"Eat-It-All" ice cream cone

That's not chocolate, said a passerby, who recalled when a pizza parlor stood on this site some 30 years ago. After the Italian eatery gave way to a Chinese restaurant (though perhaps not the same restaurant shown here), the ice cream's original white sheen slowly acquired a patina that looks very much like deep dark soft-swirled goodness. In fact, it was and is vanilla, now coated with a decades-long Bronx dip. The sign has since been removed.

"Eat-It-All" ice cream cone
Previously above Foo Hing Chinese Kitchen
522 East 138th St. (St. Ann's-Brook Aves.), Mott Haven, Bronx
(one of several locations)
718-993-8680

ShanghArt Supermarket

There's no there, there. This mixed-media installation by the artist Xu Zhen "is a full-scale replica of what is alleged to be a prototypical Chinese convenient store [sic]," even to the clerk at the register, whiling away her time with a book, with one very notable exception: All the containers, representing both Western and Chinese brands, are empty of all consumable content. As for the artistic content and its "critique of exchange value...an appropriation of economic strategy, and its very negation," curious onlookers may download the press materials to read more.

ShanghArt Supermarket
At James Cohan Gallery
533 West 26th St. (Tenth-Eleventh Aves.)
www.JamesCohan.com
Through October 4, 2008

The Prime Burger

The burger isn't the best reason to visit.

Name This Restaurant

The lyre, the beguiling apparel, and this young woman's rocky perch bring to mind the legends of ancient Greece, but the castle in the distance suggests that she's a Siren from another time and place. Succumb to her song, and you'll leave her abode well-filled; overindulge, and you'll sing your own song of woe the morning after. Can you name this mythical maiden, and the namesake restaurant where you'll find her portrait today? (The answer appears in the comments.)

La Bella Palermo

Tie me up, wolf me down.

Bazaar Ramadhan

Wish I'd had room for a full order.