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(This venue is closed.) Fig buttermilk pie, from a modest storefront on a nondescript block that I walked down by happenstance. Now on my map.
Pels Pie Co.
446 Rogers Ave. (Lincoln Rd.-Lefferts Ave.), Prospect Lefferts Gardens, Brooklyn
347-350-5906
www.PelsPieCo.com
Reflexively, when I made my order, I referred to the rice rolls as "cheong fun." At this new shop, however, they're branded as "Hak rolls" — named for the Hakka people who emigrated to Taiwan from Guangdong and surrounding regions of southern China — and packaged accordingly.
By some accounts the young proprietors of Hak Box were given the recipe by the former owners of New Southwind, a beloved coffee shop that did business nearby more than a decade ago. The noodle itself, which had been prepared in advance, was rolled as I watched around dried shrimp, "low-sodium Spam," and scallion. Served cold (as at Southwind), the result was less like a roll than a log — a chewy, filling, delicious log. Next time I'll make a point to return by morning; early on a weekend afternoon, every other item was sold out.
H/T Kim, @garsleat
Hak Box
88 East Broadway (entrance on Forsyth St.), Manhattan
www.Facebook.com/Hak-Box-NYC-438723786669621
Morning through midafternoon; closed Monday
Qingdao, China, a port city midway between Beijing and Shanghai, has long been celebrated for its seafood. Explore it at M&T, which closed in Flushing seven years ago but recently reopened in Fairfield, New Jersey (H/T scoopG). Shown: fish fillet with hot and spicy peanuts; braised ribbonfish (listed on the menu as "hand pull beltfish"); chewy segments of sea cucumber intestine with chives (off-menu); and home-style black cod with "gold cake." In Qingdao, and in Shandong Province as a whole, breads and buns are more in favor, as staples, than rice.
For many more photos, see my album on Flickr. Since several of my captions are inexact, even comically so, a visit to M&T might be cause to make your own picture menu.
M&T Restaurant (aka 唐家食府, Tang Family Restaurant)
14 Route 46 East, Fairfield, New Jersey
973-244-1717
Deconstructed Creamsicle: vanilla ice cream (housemade) and orange sherbert (the uncommon house spelling). Also shown afterward, even more deconstructed.
Egger's Ice Cream Parlor
1194 Forest Ave. (Mundy Ave.-Llewellyn Pl.), Staten Island
718-981-2110
(one of several locations)
www.EggersIceCream.com
Uncovered, at a street-food vendor outside Columbia University: Greek amphorae at a secondhand Chinese cart. Which classic has the longer tradition, the pottery or the hong shao rou?
Previously: a three-over-rice combo of green pepper and potatoes, "tofu noodles," and pig's ear with bamboo. Tasty, filling, but next time I'll swap the tofu for mustard greens, to add a little more color.
Healthy Corner (aka Qingyun Meishi)
Cart near Broadway and 117th St., Manhattan
Hours irregular; most days, lunchtime through dinnertime
Cake for a cause: Local restaurants donated all the desserts at this festival table. The proceeds from the sale of slices, and of portions of flan and tiramisu, will help fund the restoration of "Against Domestic Colonialism," painted in Hell's Kitchen by the Canadian-Mexican muralist Arnold Belkin. Completed in 1972, the mural has deteriorated considerably in the nearly half-century since. Shown here, from nearby Barbetta, is a slice of hazelnut cake — like all the desserts at this table, just $3. You can't get deep-fried cookies for anywhere near that price.
West 46th St. Block Association
At the Ninth Avenue International Food Festival
Ninth Ave. between 42nd and 57th Sts., Manhattan
www.NinthAvenueFoodFestival.com
(The 2019 festival takes place on May 18-19)
(This venue is closed.) "We hear it, and smell it, before we see it. At Addy's Barbeque in Astoria, every mishkaki enters the dining room with a sizzle." You want masala fries with that? Read more on Culinary Backstreets.
From daytime through dinnertime, more than a dozen Ecuadorian carts and trucks do business at the eastern edge of Jackson Heights, near the Junction Blvd. station of the 7 train. By night, many have yielded their places to Mexican street-food vendors (I've never witnessed the shift change). During one recent excursion, at least three Mexican vendors featured tacos al pastor; the pork for these was sliced from the busiest trompo.
Unlabeled tacos al pastor stand
Roosevelt Ave. near the northwest corner with Junction Blvd. (outside the window of the check-cashing business), Jackson Heights, Queens
Night, certainly no earlier than 9:00
Sea of tranquility: beef-and-mushroom porridge, garnished with the traditional crushed sesame and seaweed. Rest assured, during any hectic day, that this Korean porridge specialist admits only modest distractions. The accompaniment to my meal was a recorded cello solo.
Bonjuk
152-26 Northern Blvd. (152-26 Northern Blvd. (Murray-154th Sts.), Murray Hill, Queens
718-939-5868
www.BonjukUS.com
From the Igbo chef of this Nigerian restaurant, which recently settled beside Maria Hernandez Park: banga (palm fruit soup) with croaker, wheat fufu, and nsala with goat. We paired the last — whose full name, ofe nsala (white soup), indicates the absence of tomatoes and palm oil — with a pale fufu of pounded yam (not shown). Two fingers of fufu, wiped through the nsala, brought to mind a good mash and gravy.
H/T Scott Lynch, Gothamist
Hills Kitchen
252 Knickerbocker Ave. (Starr St.-Willoughby Ave.), Bushwick, Brooklyn
929-480-8775
www.HillsKitchenOnline.com
Thank you!
