Eating In Translation

R&M Glatt Supermarket

Apricots ($3.99 per pound).

R&M Glatt Supermarket
63-64 108th St. (63rd Dr.-64th Ave.), Forest Hills, Queens
718-897-3600
Closed from midafternoon Friday through Sunday morning

Fu Xiang Ju Restaurant

(This venue is closed.) A menu in English, Chinese, and Korean offers a hint; more pointedly, so does an amuse-bouche of kimchi. Fu Xiang Ju is a Dongbei ("Northeast") restaurant, from the region of China to the north of North Korea. (The chef himself comes from Shenyang, capital and largest city of Liaoning province.) The premises, on the site of former lamb-offal destination A Fan Ti, have been divvied up to provide several small semi-private dining areas.

There's one large private room, too. Claim it, and you'll find a table that's long and thin, not round. To cleanse your palate between cumin fish and orange pork with a bracing mouthful of coriander, green onion, and hot pepper — a.k.a. "tiger vegetables" — some plate-passing gymnastics might be required. See the EIT page on Instagram for more dishes that are worth a stretch.

Fu Xiang Ju Restaurant
136-80 41st Ave. (Main-Union Sts.), Flushing, Queens
718-961-2430

Cafe Orlin

(This venue is closed.) One in a decades-long parade of breakfasts after noon: Tunisian eggs. The cafe's take on shakshuka includes two poached; a spicy, very chunky tomato sauce; quarters of soft pita; and fried potatoes. Perhaps the potatoes have own distinctive name in North Africa; on this East Village menu, they're home fries.

Cafe Orlin
41 St. Mark's Place (First-Second Aves.), Manhattan
212-777-1447
www.Facebook.com/CafeOrlin1981

While In Kathmandu

Nepal's capital and largest city, Kathmandu, sits 4,593 feet (1,400 meters) above sea level, in a valley framed by four mountain ranges. Ridgewood, Queens — named for the once thickly forested land atop a terminal moraine, the heaped leavings of a glacier that retreated some 18,000 years ago — claims an elevation of just 95 feet (29 meters). From the restaurant's backyard, your view will take in a slatted wooden fence and, beyond it, tenacious city trees and low-rise apartments. Not majestic, but charming, and worth a trek in picnic-table weather.

Shown below: a bowl of jhol momo, one of several with various fillings; jerky-like chicken choila accompanied by pickles and beaten rice; and chilled chiya, or spiced iced tea.

While In Kathmandu
758 Seneca Ave. (Woodbine-Madison Sts.), Ridgewood, Queens
718-386-3416
www.Facebook.com/WhileInKathmandu

Atlixco Bakery & Deli

Even while wrapped, tamales dulces ("sweet tamales") hint at their contents. Stray bits of tinted masa cling to their husks; over-bright colors glow from within. Unwrapped, they're unmistakable. Breakfasttime eye-openers: bubble-gum-red raisin, golden pineapple ($2 each).

Atlixco Bakery & Deli
12 St. Paul's Ave. (at Van Duzer St.), Tompkinsville, Staten Island
718-390-0171

Caracas Arepa Bar

By default a Venezuelan arepa is sliced and stuffed; this open-faced presentation honored visiting chefs representing Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden. Alas, the "Nordic arepa" — which boasted smoked bluefish, pineapple sauerkraut, caper-dill crema, and microgreens, atop a patty whose dough was colored with squid ink — made port only briefly, then sailed on.

Caracas Arepa Bar
www.CaracasArepaBar.com
At the Munchies Festival
Hester Street Fair, Hester St. at Essex St., Manhattan
(The festival was held on September 16-17, 2017)

(Not Just a) One-Dish Wonder: Khao Man Gai NY

Bagel shop by day, destination for Thai chicken-and-rice (and more) by night. While we wait for our order at one of the wood-topped tables in the dining area, we wonder what the morning crowd knows of khao man gai. For many of them, the shop might be nothing more than a place to wake up and smell the coffee, perhaps to wolf down a bagel with a shmear. For us it's a place to lean in close and smell the rice. Read more on Culinary Backstreets.

St. George Coptic Orthodox Church Street Festival

Beef, not goose or duck; spicy, not subtle; served not as pâté, but in a pita. This Egyptian "foie gras" shared little with its French counterpart but the name — and the richness intrinsic to "fat liver." It was one of the savory interludes on a festival afternoon that began, and ended, with dessert. For more photos from multiple years of this festival, see the EIT page on Facebook.

St. George Coptic Orthodox Church Street Festival
Eleventh Ave. between 62nd and 63rd Sts., Dyker Heights, Brooklyn
www.Facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10103117072538717
(The 2017 festival was held on September 20)

St. Markella Greek Orthodox Church Street Festival

Greece's entry in the fried-dough food group, honey-glazed division: loukoumades (loo-koo-Mah-des, small, $5). Does anyone turn down the offer of powdered cinnamon?

St. Markella Greek Orthodox Church Street Festival
26th St. between 23rd Ave. and Ditmars Blvd., Astoria, Queens
www.Facebook.com/saintmarkella /posts/473691042986440
(The 2017 festival was held on September 14-17)

Let's Dessert

(This venue is closed.) Simpler was better. My herb grass jelly with coconut milk ($3.75) was swamped with sago pearls and buried under mango; a potential third free add-in went unchosen. Colorful, yes, but the flavor of the grass jelly paled in comparison to the best I've tried. A dining buddy's taro sago soup ($4) — from an entirely different category of desserts, altogether — wasn't entitled to add-ins, and needed none. Taro softened by coconut milk leaves little room for improvement.

Let's Dessert
2108 Bath Ave. (21st Ave.-Robert Merrill Way), Bath Beach, Brooklyn
718-513-1689