Eating In Translation

Esanation

There's pork neck, and then there's pork neck. In the American South, the name conjures up a slow-cooked dish, often swamped in gravy, generally on the bone. In much of the rest of the world, however, "pork neck" denotes a meaty cut somewhere around the collar, shoulder, or butt. For pork neck namtok, Thai chefs also favor the jowls. I'm not sure what part of the beast figured in the rendition shown here ($13.95), but my dining buddies and I appreciated the upshot: a boneless, tender grilled-meat salad.

See more photos from this dinner, enjoyed several months ago but unaccountably posted only now, on the EIT page on Facebook.

Esanation
750 Ninth Ave. (50th-51st Sts.), Manhattan
212-315-0555
www.Esanation.com

Buffalo's Famous

(This venue is closed.) Grilled hot dog with ketchup, mustard, onion, relish, and (hidden below) pickles.

Buffalo's Famous
1111 Church Ave. (Stratford-Westminster Rds.), Ditmas Park, Brooklyn
347-425-0134

Food-cart sidewalk storage

Some years ago, on a visit to Shanghai, I happened upon a pair of mops hanging in a back lane. Since then, in New York, I've come across many similar minor appropriations of public or communal space for private use.

Here, a lunchtime food cart has left for the day. While the cart is cleaned and restocked at its commissary, several folding chairs and two wooden platforms remain on the sidewalk, chained to a signpost. The platforms allow the two women who operate the cart to step up and get a better angle on the griddle; one platform has a cutout (not visible in my photo) that serves as a chock to help hold the cart in position.

This appropriation of space is only slightly more intrusive than most, especially given the context of three newspaper boxes (which are permitted under law and seem to be comporting with all local ordinances). A fourth and smaller box, which the platforms lean on, once distributed promotional brochures (and poses a fuzzier legal case). Though the business is still a going concern, this particular box is outmoded, and in recent memory it's done nothing but take up sidewalk space and serve as a trash can with a window. The chairs and platforms, though well-worn, are at least in good working order.

Food-cart sidewalk storage
Broadway, Manhattan

Taiwan Hakka Delicacies

Hakka cuisine carries on the heritage of a people who emigrated to Taiwan (and many other countries) from Guangdong and surrounding regions of southern China. Rare in New York, the delicacies at this pop-up stall (each $2, or mix and match any three for $5) are dear to the heart of the local Taiwanese community. They're simple in concept, but execution is everything.

Shown: chao a kueh, whose filling of radish, mushroom, and soy "ham" is encased in a doughy wrapper of glutinous rice flour and an herb called mugwort; wah guay, featuring that same savory trio atop a steamed rice-flour "bowl cake"; ang ku kueh, "turtle" cakes with sweet fillings fashioned from red or green beans; and an item for which the only name I could gather was mi gao ("rice cake," which might apply to any of these items). Shot through with sesame seeds, pine nuts, and raisins, the loosely affiliated grains of glutinous rice were breathtakingly moist and fragrant.

Taiwan Hakka Delicacies
Stall at Flushing Night Out, on the lawn outside Flushing High School, 35-01 Union St. (35th Ave.-Northern Blvd.), Flushing, Queens
www.Facebook.com/events /1737265739821854
Repeats July 29, August 12, and August 26, 2016

Grenada, Carriacou, and Petite Martinique Day

Our stewed manicou ($8), as it's known in Grenada, really didn't need any sauce; it was very juicy just as is. The flavor of the meat was hard to pin down. What seemed to be a foreleg was gamey, the ribs were sweet, and the tail (our serving included one segment, the oblong at lower right) was surprisingly substantial. A prehensile tail does a lot of work, so some musculature made sense, but the overall impression was fatty and rich, not to mention tasty — hardly what I expected from opossum.

For a few more photos from the 2016 event, see the EIT page on Facebook. Additional photos, from 2014, appear on Flickr; skip the first few photos in the set and start with the soursops.

Grenada, Carriacou, and Petite Martinique Day
Field outside Old Boys and Girls High School, 736 Rutland Rd. (Troy-Schenectady Aves.), East Flatbush, Brooklyn
www.Facebook.com/GrenadaDay
(The 2016 festival was held on July 17)

NY Wan He Chuen

Shaved ice with condensed milk, lychee jelly, watermelon, mango, taro, and red beans (large, $5).

NY Wan He Chuen
New World Mall food court, stall 27
136-20 Roosevelt Ave. (Main-Union Sts.), Flushing, Queens
718-939-2807

Chongqing Little Noodles

New in numbing noodles: The appearance of this stall's namesake bowl ($7) is not unlike that of similar dishes from Guizhou province, Chongqing's neighbor to the south. Note the scallions and peanuts especially; expect sesame seeds and roasted soybeans, too. But the deeper you dig though the wispy wheat noodles, the more you'll taste the mala seasoning of Sichuan province, to the west. (Indeed, the municipality of Chongqing was part of Sichuan until a decade ago, when it was granted independent administration.)

The signage in the food court, also shown here, is in Chinese only. Though my receipt cited Chong Qing Noodle (singular), I've chosen to use Chongqing Little Noodles, a translation that is both more fluid and more direct. "Little," in this instance, is not a measure of size but — as with the youngest Cartwright brother — a mark of affection. In Chongqing, they love their noodles.

Chongqing Little Noodles
New World Mall food court, stall 19
136-20 Roosevelt Ave. (Main-Union Sts.), Flushing, Queens
718-888-1113

-196 ºC Ice Cream

Choose your ice cream methodology, asks the menu board: "N₂" or "fried." The shop's name alludes to the boiling point (-196 ºCelsius) of liquid nitrogen, or N₂, which chills the ingredients in a matter of moments. (A Williamsburg parlor, -321 º Ice Cream, applies the same technique but translates into Fahrenheit.) "Fried," however, is not fried. It's a slangy if misleading term that evokes the efforts of a short-order cook (see the process at another competing vendor) but describes what's often known as rolled ice cream.

Take a firm hand when ordering your toppings; except for the tapioca pearls, my counterman's choices were too sundae-like for this full-flavored pitaya ice cream ($5.50). As for "pitaya," it's a name you might expect to see several avenues away, at one of many Mexican shops. Here in Chinatown, the usual translation is not to Spanish but to English: dragon fruit.

Also shown, from nearby: a westward view at dusk.

-196 ºC Ice Cream
5302 Eighth Ave. (entrance on 53rd St.), Sunset Park, Brooklyn
917-459-9502

Werkstatt

In some quarters, spaetzle are confined to the dinner table. The flour dumplings often accompany generously sauced dishes such as beef gulasch or paprika chicken, both of which appear on this Austrian restaurant's evening menu. But at Werkstatt, spaetzle also do a daytime turn: In eiernockerl, the dumplings are deftly scrambled with bacon and egg, then accented by sparingly dressed tomato, cucumber, cabbage, and potato salads. For the brunch prix fixe ($15), the sprightliest potent potable is a grapefruit hefeweizen.

Disclosure: A principal of Werkstatt is an acquaintance of many years (more than I have fingers and toes), and a chicken liver terrine was provided on the house. For photos of the terrine and its bacon onion marmalade, several dishes ordered a la carte, and a distant view that suggests the breeziness of the side-street dining room, see the EIT page on Facebook.

Werkstatt
509 Coney Island Ave. (at Turner Pl.), Ditmas Park, Brooklyn
718-284-5800
www.WerkstattBrooklyn.com

Taipei Hong

Taiwanese fried rice noodles (a Frisbee-sized "small" order, $3).

Taipei Hong
136-55 Roosevelt Ave. (Main-Union Sts., at the back of a mini food court), Flushing, Queens
718-813-9107
www.Facebook.com/Taipei-Hong-%E5%8F%B0%E5%8C%97%E5%A4%AF-111833908922753