Eating In Translation

Brennan and Carr

Leaning up against the ledge beside the takeout window is the best posture for watching your hot beef sandwich ($5.50) in the making. Thin slices of beef are dunked in a deep, simmering reservoir of pan drippings, which dulls their pinkish glow to a grayish brown but adds a salty tang to both meat and bread; more "broth" is ladled on for good measure. (See also the roast beef and mutz at John's Deli.) Eating at the window has other virtues, too: Your sandwich will be at its hottest, the soft roll, though soaked, will still hold its form, and extra napkins are just a nod away.

Brennan and Carr
3432 Nostrand Ave. (at Ave. U), Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn
718-769-1254

Totonno's

Totonno's is no slice joint. Apart from drinks, the menu is devoted to whole pies and nothing but, a degree of focus that enables very specific menu orders. While admiring the thin, blistered crust of my half sausage, half mushroom and garlic (small, $24), which crackled just a bit as it bent in my hand, I overheard another table call for a "half sausage, high heat." Presumably, shuffling the pie around the hottest part of the coal oven produces even crispier slices, if that's to your taste. I wasn't around long enough to see for myself; I waited 45 minutes for my pie but polished it off in half that time, tops.

Many New York pizzerias will, if you ask, produce a "well-done" pie, which is simply a matter of extra minutes in the oven. Are there other pizzerias that accommodate a request for "high heat"?

Totonno's
1524 Neptune Ave. (West 15th-West 16th Sts.), Coney Island, Brooklyn
718-372-8606
Closed Monday and Tuesday

Yun Nan Guo Qiao Rice Noodles

(This venue is closed.) There's a touching, often-told, and probably apocryphal story — you can look it up for yourself — about the origin of the name guo qiao mi xian, "crossing the bridge noodles."

Halal Food/BBQ Chicken

Bus-stop fare, fast and filling.

Sheng Jian Muslim Little Kitchen

Lu da gun, "donkey rolling on the ground" ($1), owes its name to a coating of cooked soybean powder.

Mobile zongzi vendor

The proprietor, standing to the left, rolled up with his wares during the annual Dragon Boat Festival. Since I'd first seen him, a day earlier, he'd made out a larger, clearer menu for his zongzi. These leaf-wrapped bindles of glutinous rice, with various fillings, are a traditional food for this festival. The character for "pork," in the first menu item, I recognized at once, but the other handwritten entries were more troublesome, especially as other customers closed in. Ultimately I trusted in the wisdom of the crowd and bought a second, popular dumpling — I believe it was number four — which proved to be shot through with corn kernels and mung beans.

Mobile zongzi vendor
Main St., Flushing, Queens

Zongzi-making competition

Better than a zongzi a minute is a pretty good pace.

Brooklyn Farmacy & Soda Fountain

This cherry lime phosphate ($3.95), like the cherry lime rickey, is a New York drink of yore. The rickey, which in some corners of the city has held its place on the menu as an effective countermeasure against spicy food, can be cloying; the lime adds tartness but, sometimes, not enough bite. The phosphate gets its edge from a dash of phosphoric acid, which you'll find in Coke and Pepsi, too. It's less sweet, so as not to distract from the full cherry flavor. That maraschino pales in more than one regard.

Brooklyn Farmacy & Soda Fountain
513 Henry St. (at Sackett St.), Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn
718-522-6260
www.BrooklynFarmacy.blogspot.com

Gangjong Kitchen

(This venue is closed.) The foundation of this off-menu Tibetan breakfast set ($6), in the pale green bowl, is paag. These tan lumps combine the roasted barley powder called tsampa, as well as butter, sugar, and tea, coaxed together with the fingers.

Recipes and mixologies vary. Often the liquid binder is bocha, or Tibetan butter tea. In this case I took up the option, offered by my server, to use an unadulterated black tea — "sweet tea," in her words. Another cup of this tea, with milk and sugar, sits to one side.

Customarily diners prepare their own paag, to taste. My server was kind enough to do this for me; barley powder doesn't play well with camera equipment. I did, then, eat with my right hand, employing lumps of paag to pick up shogo khatsa, the spicy potato dish at left. The small bowl of hot sauce proved superfluous.

Gangjong Kitchen
72-24 Roosevelt Ave. (72nd-73rd Sts.), Jackson Heights, Queens
347-848-0349

La.Sani

(This venue is closed.) Like its neighbor Chandni, which sits on the other side of Masjid Ar Rahman, La.Sani offers a steam table centered on South Asian food and, earlier in the day, a few made-to-order breakfast specials.