Eating In Translation

Sugar Club

(This venue is closed.) What the menu lists as "toasted bread" I would call "toast."

Moon Man

First griddled, then torched, these Indonesian coconut-rice cakes can be brightly decorated, but except on special occasions, most wear modest dress. My kue pancong (Kway pan-Chong, $4.50) was caparisoned simply in shredded coconut and palm sugar. Behold!

Moon Man
Various pop-up locations
www.Facebook.com/HelloMoonMan
Shown here at the "Taste the World" Famous Food Festival
Grand Bazaar NYC, 100 West 77th St. (at Columbus Ave.), Manhattan
www.Facebook.com/events/283201275447220
(The 2017 festival was held on June 25)

New York-area food events, June 29-July 6

International African Arts Festival
Saturday through Tuesday, July 1-4, 10:00-9:00, rain or shine
Commodore Barry Park, main entrance on Navy St. between Park and Flushing Aves., Fort Greene, Brooklyn
www.IAAFestival.org
Previously: www.EatingInTranslation .com/2007/07/comida-divina.html
Donation: adults, $5; children, $2

Royal Bengal Street Fair
Sunday, July 2, noon-7:00
East 204th St. between Hull and Decatur Aves., Norwood, Bronx
www.BangladeshCircle.com/event/royal-bengal-street-fair-2017
Previously: www.EatingInTranslation.com/2015/05/royal-bengal-street-fair.html
Free admission

Paleteria La Michoacana

Contrast in textures: blackberry-cheese and pineapple-mango-chile paletas (about $2.25 each). The first (H/T Ethnojunkie) was rich enough to spread on your morning bagel, if only you'd wait for it to melt. (You wouldn't.) The second evoked a brunchtime eye-opener, bright in color and bracing in flavor. Hello, sunshine!

Paleteria La Michoacana (aka Paleteria La Michuacana, aka Neberia Cotida)
407 South Broadway (Post-Radford Sts.), Yonkers, New York
914-709-0439

Baonanas

Strawberry "baosil" pudding, abundant with crumbled wafers and little bits of banana.

Baonanas
Various pop-up locations
201-205-2152
www.Baonanas.com
At the Project: Eats Street Festival
City Hall Plaza, 280 Grove St. (Mercer-Montgomery Sts.), Jersey City
www.Facebook.com/events/1454290544621153
(The 2017 festival was held on June 24-25)

Stop 1 General Market

Although the leaves of maca, an Andean vegetable, "are eaten in salads and are used to fatten guinea pigs, it is most valued for its swollen roots. Resembling brown radishes, the roots are rich in sugars and starches and have a sweet, tangy flavor. Dried, they can be stored for years." Or, ground into powder, they can be blended with water and sweetened with cane sugar for Vita Lina brand maca drink (16 fl. oz., $2.25). "Shake exuberantly," the label advises; repeat as necessary, I'll add.

Stop 1 General Market
103 Westchester Ave. (at King St.), Port Chester, New York
914-937-4510

Tasting at Peru Food Festival and Expo

Courtesy of the grill man, a sample of super-tender anticuchos (grilled beef-heart skewers) was a prelude to several further tastes from the stall of Passaic, New Jersey's La Casa de Rosita. For more photos — mainly of meats but also of my eventual devil-may-care pachamanca for one — see the EIT page on Facebook.

Tasting at Peru Food Festival and Expo
On the grounds of St. Peter's Church, 19 Smith St. (Westchester Ave.-William St.), Port Chester, New York
www.Facebook.com/Tasting-at-Per%C3%BA-526367264152341
(The 2017 event was held on June 11)

Yonkers Ukrainian Heritage Festival

I'd never thought of chicken Kiev as picnic-table fare. When cut in two, however, it deposits a pool of melted butter that can be swabbed up by corn, cabbage, roasted potatoes, boiled half-moon potato varenyky, and the matter-of-course slice of bread that crowns many a backyard platter. True, even melted butter has its limits; at dessert time we changed plates.

For more photos, sour cream cake included, see the EIT page on Facebook.

Yonkers Ukrainian Heritage Festival
Grounds of St. Michael's Ukrainian Catholic Church, 21 Shonnard Pl. (at North Broadway), Yonkers, New York
www.Facebook.com/YonkersUkrainianFestival/photos/a.441090888306.241435.330268493306/10155269335658307
(The 2017 festival was held on June 16-18)

Taste of Jewish Culture

Coriander, juniper, and sage, bay leaf, black pepper, and chile pepper. Grocers Original (the red one on the right, 12 fl. oz., $3), from Court Street Grocers, might be the world's only soft drink so fully flavored by a blend of pickling spices. Could you use it to braise a brisket? Outlook good. Would you enjoy it straight from the bottle? Signs point to yes.

At a prior festival: I rarely do shots in the afternoon. But presented with chilled borscht from Peck's, not only did I down mine in the middle of the street — when the only kick comes from horseradish crème fraîche, the police look the other way — but ultimately I also wiped my shot glass clean, discreetly, with a finger.

For more photos from multiple years of this event, see my album.

Taste of Jewish Culture
Sixth Ave. between 48th and 49th Sts., Manhattan (one block of a larger, otherwise humdrum street fair)
www.Circle.org/event/2017-taste-of-jewish-culture-street-fair
(The 2017 Taste of Jewish Culture was held on June 18)

Caldos de Gallina Luis

Stacked: enchiladas de mole negro (55 pesos, about $2.75 at the time). These were laden, like Luis and family's namesake hen soup, with long-cooked and flavorful meat from mature female chickens, and distinguished by an exceptional chile-chocolate sauce that disdained any sweetness. Half of this hefty order served as a late-night snack, the other half, as a morning-after restorative.

H/T Culinary Backstreets

Caldos de Gallina Luis
Puebla 188 (Av. Oaxaca-Av. Insurgentes Sur), Roma Norte, Mexico City
+52 55 5514 7107
www.Facebook.com/pages/Caldos-de-gallina-Luis/171718612911927
(From a March 2017 visit)