Eating In Translation

Happy Holidays!

Eating In Translation is away for winter break and will return in the New Year. Till then, any food news that just can't wait (say, a newly announced Armenian bake sale) will appear in my Twitter feed. You can also follow my peregrinations (save for those that must stay on the q.t.) via my nascent Foursquare account.

Window seat

From my photo archives — in fact, taken several years ago on a January afternoon — but appropriate to the weather this weekend.

Window seat
Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn

Continental Baking Company

Probably. This building and its surviving signage are visible to the east from Metro-North New Haven Line trains passing through the Bronx. The first part of "Continental" is plain to see along the roofline, and the tail end of "baking company" runs above the doorways, but I have yet to find a single source of documentation that puts it all together.

The final photo shows another building visible from the same side of the train, a little to the south, sporting signage that once promoted "pianos & player pianos."

Continental Baking Company
3362 Park Ave. (165th-166th Sts.), Morrisania, Bronx

"We got beef!"

Great Western Distributors? Jiffy Foods? New York Loin? Many food-service tenants have occupied this building since its doors first opened for business, in 1904; it's difficult to know which of them might have posted the sign, now embellished by graffiti. Today, of course, there's much less meat in the Meatpacking District. As of 2013 the tenants include a pair of nationally known apparel companies, both of which offer a greater variety of goods to customers with trimmer figures.

"We got beef!"
420-424 West 14th St. (Ninth Ave.-Washington St.), Manhattan

Norma's

The original name, "savory bread pudding," just didn't cut it. Leftover bagels are one component, noted the local Chowhound who first steered me this way. There's some biscuit, too, added the counterman, and lots more — sweet sausage, ham, egg, a dose of black pepper — most everything associated with a certain mighty breakfast combo except the potatoes and, unless you dress for the occasion, the plaid flannel. Henceforth, ask for the "lumberjack" ($4).

Also shown: a "crazy cookie."

Norma's
5902 Catalpa Ave. (at Forest Ave.), Ridgewood, Queens
347-294-0185
www.Facebook.com/NormasRidgewood

Sabrosura

The dwindling ranks of establishments that offer "comidas China y Criolla" generally serve one roster of food from the Orient and another from the Occident; the two combine only in name. Culinary traditions have intermarried, however, at decades-old Sabrosura. But don't call it "fusion." Over lunch at the restaurant's recently opened, much larger second location, my dining buddy and I noted that the menu disdains that label for the initialism "ABCDE" — American Born Chinese Dominican Eatery.

Of our two rice plates, locrio ($10.75) was the more traditional. It may very well be a New World descendent of paella, but it was heavy in typical Dominican fashion with shrimp, chicken, and especially chorizo. A second, more winning dish ($8.95), featuring fried rice with shredded beef and decorated with avocado and fried plantain, better exemplified the felicitous marriage of cuisines. Much of our locrio turned into leftovers, but we scraped our plate clean of that chofan de ropa vieja.

Sabrosura
Since 2013 at 1808 Westchester Ave. (Beach-Taylor Aves.), Soundview, Bronx
718-502-9878
www.Sabrosura2.com
Since 1982 at 1200 Castle Hill Ave. (at Gleason Ave.), Unionport, Bronx
718-597-1344
www.SabrosuraRestaurant.com

Perusing the newsstand

West Indian and West African fare were in my sights during a visit to Canarsie, Brooklyn, the last stop on Rockaway Parkway-bound L trains. It's a long haul from Manhattan, so I was well-supplied with reading material, but kiosks like this are always worth a once-over — they have much to tell about the folks who use the station every day.

Of the four newspapers draped in front, the third, The Final Call ("the official communications organ of the Nation of Islam"), jibed most readily with what little I knew about local demographics. To its left, however, were the Polish newspapers Nowy Dziennik and Super Express; to its right was The Irish Echo. Though this day I couldn't make time to confirm, the odds are good that somewhere close you can get your hands on the corresponding pierogi and shepherd's pie.

Perusing the newsstand
Rockaway Pkwy. station, Canarsie, Brooklyn

Taste of Persia

(This venue is closed.) "This is our Persian soup; we make it with 17 different vegetables. We top it with mint, crispy onion, garlic, and yogurt" (that is, kashk). The gal who runs Taste of Persia's outdoor pop-up repeats this litany tirelessly; despite the winter cold, customers just keep coming.

Not far away, chef-owner Saeed Pourkay also serves his thick noodle soup, ash reshteh (small, $6), and three or four other dishes each day from the front corner of a Flatiron pizzeria. (At less-busy hours, you may be offered samples of the lot, commentary included.) The setting is unglamorous, but it does offer indoor seating and ready access to fountain soda.

Previously: My Persian plate ($12) would look humdrum if not for the sumac powder and saffron water that decorate the basmati rice. That's too bad. Kabab diggi, the sauteed ground beef shown at top left, is quite good; fesenjan, below it — shredded duck in a pomegranate walnut sauce — is terrific, especially for the tartness of the pomegranate.

Taste of Persia
12 West 18th St. (Fifth-Sixth Aves., inside Pizza Paradise), Manhattan
212-488-0020
www.Facebook.com/pages/Taste-of Persia-NYC/256654807729263

Elika's Kitchen

The package, and the identity of its contents, were no mystery. The baker had sent word that a complimentary bag of biscotti would be sent from her home kitchen to my mailbox; she hoped they wouldn't crumble. As you see, they did fine.

What the photo doesn't reveal is the lush, exotic aroma that greeted me when I opened the bag. Considering that the baker first passed along word to Eating In Translation readers, years ago, of the summertime Indonesian bazaars behind Masjid al-Hikmah, perhaps her choice of flavors is not so surprising. These may be the city's first gado-gado biscotti.

Elika's Kitchen
Kew Gardens, Queens

Grandaisy Bakery

At Grandaisy, you can feel downright sophisticated even when you're eating off a slip of waxed paper, a very simple place setting that doubles as a minimalist container to go. Shown: zucca (butternut squash) pizza.

Below (some seasonal slices included): carciofi, featuring a confit of the namesake artichoke as well as sea salt and crushed garlic; funghi, littered with mushrooms; cavolfiore, topped with roasted cauliflower and anointed with olive oil; grape-dotted schiacciata d'uva; lingonberry crostata.

Grandaisy Bakery
250 West Broadway (Beach-North Moore Sts.)
212-334-9435
www.GrandaisyBakery.com