Eating In Translation

Ola African Market

(This venue is closed.) There's no mystery about how the alligator pepper got its name. Within the gnarly pod are dozens of seeds; a few are shown, poorly, in the lower right corner of the first photo. Though cardamom is a closer botanical relative, the dried seeds resemble small peppercorns and, in West Africa, have similar culinary uses. Medicinal uses, too: A fellow customer offered that a few seeds, swallowed with honey, help to clear the lower respiratory tract.

Can the seeds also properly be called "grains of paradise," which some marketers maintain is a distinct and superior spice? Especially in Nigeria, the previous home of this market's proprietor, both alligator pepper and grains of paradise have been identified with Aframomum melegueta, even in the scientific literature. My own further research hasn't clarified the matter; it's not so much a mystery as a muddle.

Ola African Market
182-13 Jamaica Ave. (182nd St.-182nd Pl.), Hollis, Queens
646-765-5178

Fujianese stoopline stand

Weekdays are crowded, weekends, more so. In Sunset Park, Brooklyn, the sidewalks that flank Eighth Ave. in the 50s and low 60s become even more impassable on Saturdays and Sundays, when a phalanx of additional street vendors hawk their wares. There's no hurrying things along; why not pick up a snack to tide you over? Sweet potato fritters filled with red bean paste (three for $2.50) are inevitably oily (snag some napkins), but if you're lucky they'll still be a little warm, too.

Fujianese stoopline stand
Eighth Ave. near the southeast corner with 57th St., Sunset Park, Brooklyn
Hours unknown, but midday on any weekend is a good bet