Eating In Translation

Xi'an Famous Foods

If only someone would look into those "buns."

Old Town Asia Market

Here's where to score screwpine.

Benateri's

By Benateri's standards, this was a smallish serving.

La Cheesecake Bake Shop

Protective coloration isn't always protection enough.

Empire Market

Previously you might have found such provisions at the long-vanished Hungarian restaurant around the corner.

Tibbett Diner

Perhaps they take their name from the clingy top layer: It looks like lamé, and it sure is cheesy.

Da Bakery

(This venue is closed, and the artwork has been painted over.) Not a bakery: It's an apparel store, art gallery, muralist's supply shop (for customers of legal age), and fitting pretext for a short Royal Kingbee slideshow. Who knew you could buy so many different nozzles for a spray can — a bigger variety, could be, than for a pastry bag!

Da Bakery
1700 Southern Blvd. (East 173rd-East 174th Sts.), Fairmont, Bronx
917-652-4008
Closed Sunday

Hai Di Lao

(This venue is closed.) "Cold noodles with chopped pork and peanuts" ($4.50) — bean sprouts and spring onions, too — had a light refreshing vinegary flavor. The counterwoman this day, who may or may not be the proprietress, was Fujianese.

Hai Di Lao
133-31 39th Ave. (Prince St.-College Point Blvd., in the Flushing Mall), Flushing, Queens

Deluxe Food Market

There was barely enough meat for a decent pork face salad.

White Swan Bakery

(Note: This post is based on visits to the Bowery location, closed as of late 2013. Successor business Pie Pie Q Cafe, though it has the same phone number, and surviving Swan shops at 88 East Broadway and 153 Centre St. may not offer these items.) A multitude of add-ins is not the key. The name of Singapore's most famous lor mai fun stall mentions nothing about pork or peanuts, peas or carrots; it won renown, over many years, for the texture of its glutinous rice. White Swan's rendition ($2.50) was well-loaded, but even before a short trip in a tightly packed takeaway container, it seemed clumpy. (You may have said to yourself, by the way, that lor mai fan is a more apt transliteration. The online authorities are divided.)

Previously: the noodle rolls called cheong fun (two for $1.50) are cohesive enough to eat sloppy-joe style. The takeaway container is useful, though, for catching bits of ground pork (which seemed a little gritty) or, in another common variety, tiny dried shrimp.

White Swan Bakery
24 Bowery (Bayard-Pell Sts.), Manhattan
212-619-3388