Eating In Translation

Bromo Satay House

(This venue is closed.) If these had been fried spring rolls, I would have been well pleased.

Murtabak stall

Towers are more distant than they appear.

Four & Twenty Blackbirds

Amid the apple varieties ordered by customers just before and after I arrived — salted caramel apple, apple pear rose — this was the pie that called to me. Subconsciously, perhaps, I associated "blackbird" with the predominant dark color of the roasted nut and chocolate pie (slice; $4.50).

Sadly, the chocolate lacked richness befitting its hue, the nuts were somehow not so nutty, and even the crust seemed thin and dry. (This was late in Four & Twenty's working day, also note.) I would have done better following the lead of Ed Levine, if only he'd published sooner.

Four & Twenty Blackbirds
439 Third Ave. (at 8th St.), Gowanus, Brooklyn
718-499-2917
www.BirdsBlack.com

Maoz

Here's the namesake falafel sandwich ($4.95) in a bulky whole wheat pita, dressed by me at the toppings bar with onion, yogurt, and cilantro sauce. I prefer Taim.

Maoz
2857 Broadway (110th-111th Sts.)
212-222-6464
(One of many locations)
www.MaozUSA.com

"Carter's Little Liver Pills"

"If nature fails, your food may remain undigested, leaving you headachy and irritable," counseled an old radio ad from the makers of Carter's Little Liver Pills. Though its laxative pills are still manufactured today, Carter's was required to remove "liver" from the name after a protracted legal battle with the Federal Trade Commission in the 1940s and '50s.

Bazar Francais

Once "the premier source for copper pans in the city."

Je's Restaurant

(This venue is closed.) Yin and yang, soul style.

P. Ballantine & Sons

It being baseball season, my first impression was rows of red double stitches; a closer look revealed the weathered but unmistakable outlines of several stalks of grain. I didn't know anything more about the prior or current use of these pale cylindrical towers, but several follow-up emails helped fill in the blanks (see the comments).

P. Ballantine & Sons
Former brewery seen from St. Charles St., near the Ironbound Recreation Center, Newark, New Jersey

Teixeira's dessert truck

Doce de leite churro ($2) — fried, filled, and sugared on the spot.

Teixeira's dessert truck
Madison St. just south of Ferry (opposite Seabra's), Newark, New Jersey
This was a weekend afternoon; full schedule unknown

"Marmitex"

No relation to the pungent paste — at least, not directly. This sandwich board was stationed on the sidewalk outside a casual eatery whose patrons are chiefly Brazilians, not Brits, and "marmitex," I later discovered, is Portuguese for "box lunch." Likely it shares an etymology with "marmite," the steep-sided, covered French cookpot. As it happens, the British sandwich spread was originally sold in an earthenware container that resembles a marmite — which nowadays is still depicted on the label.

"Marmitex"
Seen outside Kibom Restaurant‎
61 Wilson Ave. (Paterson-Hensler Sts.), Newark, New Jersey
973-817-8187