Eating In Translation

Red Bowl Noodle Shop

(This venue is closed.) A more literal reading of the Chinese characters for "Taiwanese hot dog" is "small sausage inside large sausage." Both are grilled. The latter consists mainly of glutinous rice, in this case bulked up with a handful of peanuts. The former, made of pork, occasionally approaches the length of an American frankfurter and often is elaborately garnished — at least that's the word, many times over, from Taiwanese night markets. At the streetside window of this 24-hour restaurant, the wieners are stubby, and they're sliced lengthwise before assembly; the finished item includes only half, held in place by a pair of cucumber shims. It sure is a small sausage.

Previously: The accompanying soy sauce had a vigorous ginger bite, but dense shark meat offered little beyond the advertised "smoked" flavor. Specialists handle the smoking process more deftly; fresh is best of all.

Red Bowl Noodle Shop
40-52 Main St. (at 41st Ave.), Flushing, Queens
719-353-7683

Banggane

(This venue is closed.) Toward the tail end of the three-course black-goat feast, you may wish that you'd paced yourself better.

Ya Hala Restaurant

(This venue is closed.) It's not double-dipping to scoop once and be rewarded twice. Qudsia (kood-See-ah, $7) marries two Middle Eastern dishes: hummus, the pale puree of chickpeas and tahini that lines your bowl, and fool modamis (one of many spellings), warm fava beans aswim in olive oil and dressed with lemon juice, crushed garlic, and chopped parsley.

The generosity of the portion is well-matched to the complement of four large rounds of pita. When you're constantly picking at a side plate of olives and beet-juice-tinted vegetables, however, no napkin wipes your fingertips clean as well as a warm pita. More can be had for the asking.

Ya Hala Restaurant
326 South Broadway (Ludlow-Morris Sts.), Yonkers, New York
914-476-4200
www.Facebook.com/pages/Ya-Hala-Restaurant/298626536854055

Hala Market

These Egyptian-made, chocolate-coated and -filled wafer cookies (50 cents) were less notable for their content than for their packaging.

"Por favor no maltratar los aguacates"

That is, please don't maltreat the avocados. Gracias.

"Por favor no maltratar los aguacates"
Sign at Guadalupana II
423 South Broadway (Post-Radford Sts.), Yonkers, New York
914-964-7024

Bakery Rzeszowska

(This venue is closed.) Has anyone made a time-and-sunlight study of the optimal conditions for selling baked goods? This decades-old Polish shop sits on the east side of the avenue, so the window display gets its best light in the afternoon. On especially sunny days the apple cake, for one, beckons from a half-block away. This particular afternoon, however, the gleam in my eye was cheesecake (also shown in the first photo below).

Previously, on partly cloudy occasions: a cherry-apple crumb square; a poppy loaf, generously supplied with seeds, that ventured outside the Polish pantry for a tropical tweak — shreds of coconut within and without.

Bakery Rzeszowska (zhe-Shof-ska)
948 Manhattan Ave. (at Java St.), Greenpoint, Brooklyn
718-383-8142

T&T BBQ Hut

(This venue is closed.) The name is as compact as a txt msg. The hut itself, as you might expect, is none too large either, and takeout orders are the norm; a precious few sidewalk seats appear in the warmer seasons.

T&T, of course, stands for Trinidad and Tobago, a two-island nation just north of Venezuela, and the BBQ is Caribbean-style, no relation to low and slow. My lamb (large, solo — that is, no sides — $13) was sliced thin, grilled fast, and well-lacquered, bones and all. The sauce is the customer's choice from a palette of West Indian flavors; mine was guava.

Also shown: 7Up (12 fl. oz., $2), made in Mexico and so, typically, corn-syrup-free.

T&T BBQ Hut
122-09 Liberty Ave. (entrance on 122nd St.), Richmond Hill, Queens
718-848-2210

Maxx Food Shack

(This venue is closed.) Even while they're green, much can be done with mangoes.

Bello Deli

Concon-solation prize: Stewed eggplant, a Tuesday-Thursday special, was already 86'ed when my dining buddy and I nosed into this Dominican deli. A plate of pernil ($6), with the crunchy, bottom-of-the-pot rice called concon (cone-Cone) and ladles of beany gravy, was more than enough encouragement for a return visit.

Bello Deli
5009 Broadway (213th-214th Sts.), Manhattan
212-567-0734

Thanh Da

For a wrap-your-own order of banh hoi nem nuong, lettuce and mint leaves come first to the table; "tiny rice sticks" arrive next.