(This venue is closed.) One bite leads to many more.
While riding the rails to a scheduled lunch or dinner, when time permits I exit a stop (or two or three) early, then wander to my ultimate destination, eating lightly along the way. On a warm weekend, descending from the Parkchester station in the Bronx, I found a small farmer's market with two prepared-food stalls. One, representing a nearby snack shop, proffered a small bowl of Bangladeshi black chana ($1) redolent with coriander, probably green chili and mustard oil as well. Though my server spoke little English, she also upsold me on a pair of barely sweet "coconut pops" (two for $1.50).
The coffee shop itself sits a block north of the Castle Hill station, amid a growing South Asian community. During a later expedition, I stopped in for two pastries ($1 each). The flatter poa pitha is typically a simple batter of rice flour, sugar, milk, and water that's deep-fried; it's also known as an oil pitha. (Some poa pithas also include wheat flour, and in this case the counterwoman made some mention of corn; more details, I don't have.) The heftier lobongo latika consists of coconut folded in dough, which is pinned together at the top, before deep-frying, with a lobongo — a clove.
Starling Coffee Shop
2172 Starling Ave. (Castle Hill Ave.-Purdy St.), Parkchester, Bronx
347-579-4271
In 2010 the Hugh J. Grant Circle Farmer's Market, below the Westchester Ave./Parkchester 6 train station, ran on Saturdays and Sundays, May 16-September 26; the 2011 schedule is not yet available
