Eating In Translation

Nostro Ristorante

Three of us, three "piatti della nonna" — that was the plan. Huddled in one corner of the menu, these traditional Neapolitan "grandmother's dishes" were well-suited to a brisk damp night. Two were prepared with elbow pasta; the third and best (below, $15) partnered cut spaghetti with egg, pancetta, and peas. Almost as an afterthought, we added a pair of antipasti: burrata-topped crostini and polipo alla griglia (above, $13), grilled octopus dressed with garlic and olive oil, and superlative in tenderness. If we had skipped the tiramisu, for all its charms, and instead started and ended our meal with octopus, I wouldn't have complained.

Nostro Ristorante
710 Fifth Ave. (22nd-23rd Sts.), Greenwood, Brooklyn
929-337-7053
www.NostroRistorante.net

Coffee-cup-and-tomato incense holder

Jackson Heights, Queens

La Central Fruit Market and Carniceria

The spelling is uncommon — La Central has been home to many idiosyncratic hand-drawn signs — but the fruit is familiar. A Trinidadian fellow customer knew it as governor's plum and also noted the Jamaican name hog plum; I've encountered the fruit (or its close relatives) as jobo, trai coc, balonglong, and pommecythere. It's no mango, to be sure.

According to Margret Hefner, author of Frutas y Verduras, the fruit is best known at Mexican markets as ciruela (Sih-roo-AY-lah, with a "C," literally "plum") or jocote (ho-Koh-tay). Look for glossy skin and a predominantly reddish color, advises Hefner. She describes the taste as "sweet, creamy plum with tones of banana," but she also notes the slightly acid character of the skin. Owing to a large stone, which clings tightly to the flesh, it's hard to get a good bite — ciruela is better for nibbling.

La Central Fruit Market and Carniceria
4010 Fifth Ave (40th-41st Sts.), Sunset Park, Brooklyn
718-851-1085

Valerio Bakery Cafe

Linzer cookies, raspberry (two for $1).

Valerio Bakery Cafe
15-07 College Point Blvd. (15th-18th Aves.), College Point, Queens
718-886-2331
www.ValerioBakeryCafe.com

Bainbridge Bakery

The sign for "burek" lured me in, more out of curiosity than hunger, since I'd just polished off an Albanian-style smoked-meat pizza. The display case bade me stay — tiramisu ($3.95) became the cornerstone that completed my meal.

Bainbridge Bakery
3109 Bainbridge Ave. (East 205th-East 206th Sts.), Norwood, Bronx
718-882-4409
Sister bakeries in Morris Park, Bronx:
Gina's, 762 Lydig Ave. (Holland-Wallace Aves.); 718-792-4027
Anna's, 2125 Williamsbridge Rd. (Lydig Ave.-Pelham Pkwy. South); 347-851-4636

Produce vendor outside Our Lady of Sorrows Church

"Ice cream bean" is a common name for the pods of a tropical American leguminous tree. This variety was sold by a Mexican mother and daughter outside Our Lady of Sorrows; in good weather, many vendors set up on the sidewalk in concert with Sunday services. The mother called it jinicuil vaina (Hee-nee-Kweel Vie-nah), from, respectively, the Nahuatl for "crooked foot" and the Spanish for "sheath" or "pod."

With thumbs alone, I was easily able to split my purchase along its inward curve. A dozen large green beans, swaddled in white, were packed inside (at the time of the second photo, I'd eaten about halfway through). Reportedly the seeds can be toasted, then salted and eaten whole, as a snack, or ground and added to moles, atoles, and the like, but I learned of these uses only later. The daughter had cautioned me not to swallow the seeds while gently working away at their surrounding pulp, which has a pleasant, faint vanilla flavor but a curious fuzzy texture. How about calling it the "cotton candy bean"?

Produce vendor outside Our Lady of Sorrows Church
104-11 37th Ave. (104th-105th Sts.), Corona, Queens
Sunday only

5 de Mayo Food Market

Like many Mexican grocery stores, 5 de Mayo offers a Saturday-Sunday menu of prepared food, particularly the long-simmered variety. Azadura (as a taco, $3) is a generalized term for offal; at this Pueblan market it entails stewed pork liver and pork skin, here shown with considerable cilantro and onion.

Next to be explored on the weekend-only menu, provided that I proceed alphabetically, are barbacoa, then carnitas, or perhaps a consomé chico. In season, the selection of fruit is terrific, too: On this afternoon I might have procured guanabana, granadilla dulce, ciruela, and vaina.

5 de Mayo Food Market
81-06 Roosevelt Ave. (81st-82nd Sts.), Elmhurst, Queens
718-205-3280
www.Facebook.com/5-de-Mayo-Food-Market-1660861017502955

Puesto 50 fruit vendor

Mexican black pumpkins? Not quite. These calabazas were a variety of frutas en almíbar, or fruits preserved in syrup, many of which can be tooth-achingly sweet. Owing to their size, the calabazas are preserved from the inside out; the syrup is introduced through holes drilled in the shell.

I tasted two grades of calabaza en almíbar (40 pesos per quarter-kilogram, about $2 at the time) and chose the version that was longer-preserved, darker, a little less sweet, and less sticky. It warranted double-bagging nonetheless.

Puesto 50 (stall no. 50) fruit vendor
Tianguis Sullivan
Open-air market on Calle James Sullivan between Calles Manuel María Contreras and Jose Rosas Moreno, Mexico City
Sunday, mid-morning till late afternoon
(Saturday's market reportedly offers much less produce, much more apparel, and equally good cooked food)
(From a March 2017 visit)

Store for rent

For "store," read "stall." In five languages, these signs promote a yet-to-open Queens food court to prospective tenants. Although displayed near the entrance of one food-court-to-be, in Flushing, they advertise space for rent at another, in Elmhurst, which perhaps is closer to completion or lagging in tenant demand. Together, these signs cast a wide net: While a February announcement was written in Chinese, English, and Spanish, these latest postings also solicit tenants in Hindi and Vietnamese.

Store for rent
Signs promoting a food court under construction on the site of a former Hong Kong Supermarket, 82-02 45th Ave. (82nd-83rd Sts.), Elmhurst, Queens
Posted at the entrance to the market currently branded Super HK, above a basement food court also under construction, 37-11 Main St. (37th-38th Aves.), Flushing, Queens

Tacos de canasta vendor

The canasta (basket), and the towel draped over its contents, render the written sign superfluous — unless you need extra convincing that warm tacos on a brisk afternoon are ricos (delicious). This close-pressed trio ($1.25 each), dressed in salsa verde, were filled with black bean, potato, and, closest to you, pork.

Return visit: now with tepache (by the cup, $4; also in the larger containers shown below).

Tacos de canasta vendor
Outside the El Popo Mini Market, 88-28 Roosevelt Ave. (Britton-Elmhurst Aves.), Jackson Heights, Queens
Daily (except for the occasional Tuesday or Wednesday, and probably only in temperate weather), mid-morning till evening