Eating In Translation

Pupusa stand outside Iglesia La Luz del Mundo

Pupusas aren't knife-and-fork food. These stuffed Salvadoran tortillas, even when dressed with hot sauce and the piquant purple slaw called curtido (evidently a homemade batch in a repurposed tub), are easily managed with fingers only. Slicing my just-griddled pupusa ($2.50), however, helped cool the still-bubbling cheese, offered a peek at the companion filling of imported fresh chipilín, and made room for negotiation. Trade you a slice of mine for a slice of your calabaza!

H/T Jeff Orlick (private communication)

Pupusa stand outside Iglesia La Luz del Mundo
37-36 92nd St. (Elmhurst-Roosevelt Aves.), Jackson Heights, Queens
646-643-0027
www.Facebook.com/LLDMqueensNY
Friday, 4:00-10:00; Saturday, 10:00-11:00

Dashain celebration of Adhikaar

This Hindu festival, celebrated in Nepal and some of its easterly neighbors, takes place over the 15 days leading up to the October new moon. In Woodside, Queens, the public celebration was limited to a single afternoon within a school cafeteria — more than sufficient for fellowship and dance, often at the same time.

Shown below is an apple, blessed at a nearby temple, and jamara — grass grown for this occasion, knotted into slender bundles, and worn in the hair or around one ear. Also shown: a plate from the buffet, and gulab jamun that smacked of almond.

Dashain celebration of Adhikaar
P.S. 12 (The James B. Colgate School), 42-00 72nd St. (at 43rd Ave.), Woodside, Queens
www.Facebook.com/events/778353058941295
(The 2016 celebration was held on October 15)

Ceresota Flour makes the best bread

The portmanteau "Ceresota" marries the Roman goddess of agriculture, Ceres, to the state where the flour was first milled, Minnesota. Once destined for the likes of pullman loaves, Ceresota now figures in pizza crusts, Polish dumplings, and pierogies, too.

Ceresota Flour makes the best bread
Surviving signage, 1903 West 25th St. (opposite Carroll Ave.), Cleveland
(From a June 2016 visit)

Juana Pastelitos

(This venue is closed.) A kipe (Key-pay, $1.25) — Juana's also employs the more common spelling quipe — is a street-friendly Dominican version of Levantine kibbeh. In this rendition the casing of deep-fried bulgur, which surrounds a core of seasoned minced meat, was exceptionally nutty and chewy.

Juana Pastelitos
West 142nd St. at Frederick Douglass Blvd., Manhattan
Closed Sunday

You Garden Dumpling House

Greens are never far from sight at this Shanghainese restaurant. Chopped snow pea leaves fill dumplings to bursting; baby bok choy helps fix in place the roly-poly meatballs called lion's head; dried seaweed colors the batter that enrobes deep-fried yellow croaker. These might be the best fish fingers in Flushing. For more photos, see the EIT page on Facebook.

H/T Pookipichu

You Garden Dumpling House
135-33 40th Rd. (Main-Prince Sts.), Flushing, Queens
718-886-2286

Bangjangsoo

(This venue is closed.) Amid baked pastries flavored by sweet potato, chestnut, and especially red bean, this fried soboro bread ($3) stands out. The topside is thinly coated with the namesake streusel-like topping, to which Bangjangsoo — a new outpost of a South Korean bakery chain — adds slivered almonds. Imagine a flattish, sweetly encrusted, red-bean-filled donut not long from the fryer, and you'll have the idea.

Bangjangsoo (a.k.a. BJD Bakers)
154-02 Northern Blvd. (at 154th St.), Murray Hill, Queens
718-888-9440
www.Facebook.com/BangjangsooNY

Romanian Fall Festival

(Updated with additional photos.) Our party spent more time admiring the sunlit nave of the Romanian Orthodox church than we did inquiring into the making of pastramă de oaie (pronuounced "why"). "Smoked sheep" was the gist of it.

Bickford's

For the back story on Bickford's, see my post on a former Manhattan location, which lacks the colorful terra cotta.

H/T Forgotten New York

Bickford's
Surviving signage, 893 Flatbush Ave. (Church-Snyder Aves.), Flatbush, Brooklyn

Best Fuzhou Restaurant

The glass arrived unbidden, before my plate of noodles. Its contents were in accord with traditional Chinese medicine: Warm water is better for digestion than cold. As for the glassware itself, bargain-hunting by the management helps bring low prices to the clientele. Also shown: chow mein ($4).

Best Fuzhou Restaurant
71 Eldridge St. (Hester-Grand Sts.), Manhattan
212-219-3328
www.BestFuzhou.com

Jerusalem Restaurant

Waste not: These fried pita fragments, including many pita tops snipped off in preparation for the lunch rush, share a proud tradition of thriftiness with Mexican chilaquiles, Middle Eastern fatteh, and American bagel pudding. At Jerusalem, a countertop courtesy plate is set out in late morning, when I snapped this photo; by early afternoon there's much more hot-sauce spatter.

Also shown: one of many stuffed pitas ($5-$6 each), this one featuring falafel; a counterman's lagniappe, shown in cutaway; and the view from the two-top nearest the door. Up close, at the building across the street, a tracery of old signage can still be seen.

Jerusalem Restaurant
2715 Broadway (103rd-104th Sts.), Manhattan
212-865-2295
www.Facebook.com/Jerusalem-Restaurant-101405643524811