(This venue is closed.) Even while they're green, much can be done with mangoes.
It's quite possible that the shop owner made these two Trinidadian snacks, mango chow and mango curry, with fruit from the same unripe bunch. For the first, the natural tartness of green mango was accentuated by a marinade — typically this includes chile pepper, culantro, salt, fresh-squeezed lemon or lime, and chopped garlic, for which the owner clearly has a taste — but the slices were still readily identifiable and still firm. For the second, slices of mango flesh, and rind as well, were colored and given a pulpier consistency by being stewed with an amchar masala, a West Indian take on a traditional East Indian spice mix. The curry is sweeter, the owner explained — thanks, most likely, to brown sugar in the stewpot — though only in relation to the garlicky chow. With equally strong characters, they make a good couple ($2 each, one of them comped by the owner).
Previously: From the Trinidadian-made Solo line of soft drinks, "soda aux extraits vegetaux a base de citron vert" was, in essence, lime soda in a plastic bottle (20 fl. oz., $1.50). Now and then, Trini shops like Maxx still stock the old glass bottles, too. These may not have classy-sounding brand names like Bentley, but their artwork is much more charming.
Hassa, unfortunately, were nowhere in evidence that afternoon. The photos at bottom were taken a year earlier, toward the end of a long day's walk, when I had no room for another bite. Except that they have lots of bones, according to the counterwoman, I still know nothing of the texture or flavor of armored catfish.
Maxx Food Shack
130-04 101st Ave. (130th-131st Sts.), Richmond Hill, Queens
718-441-2127
