(This venue is closed.) Sago at gulaman ($2.50) is one of those tropical concoctions that can double as drink and dessert. At Mama Meena's, a Filipino restaurant whose corner premises still evoke its prior tenant, the Woodhaven Coffee Shop, it provides an apt counterpoint to the porky menu.
Indeed, in my slideshow (taken at one group meal, but shown only approximately in the order served), the first six dishes all feature pork, and several others make use of it to lesser extent. Even so, our group's sole vegetarian, by employing a situational approach to ethnic dining, did not go hungry.
Sago at gulaman is not a pure thirst-quencher like calamansi juice, which found a place elsewhere at our table and that can be sipped hands-free. Sago pearls, rolled from the pith of palm stems, resemble tapioca pearls but are softer, and quick to clog a drinking straw. Both the sago and the gulaman, a seaweed-based product colored and cubed like gelatin, fare better with a spoon — occupying fingers that might otherwise be busy with lechon kawali or chicharong bulaklak. Choose your dining companions, then, for their generous, sharing spirits, and all will be well.
Mama Meena's Family Restaurant
94-20 Jamaica Ave. (at 94th St.), Woodhaven, Queens
718-696-8882
Closed Monday
