Eating In Translation

Burmese Bites: Morsels from Myanmar

(This venue is closed.) The dough for palata is "stretched to translucence by a series of acrobatic, table-slapping wrist flips, then stretched just a bit further until it seemingly must tear under its own weight." For Myo Lin Thway — shown, in the first photo, beside his wife, Rebecca, at the 2007 Myanmar Baptist Church Fun Fair — "showmanship is simply a natural byproduct of the palata-making process" that he's mastered over more than two decades. He's hardly a showoff himself.

Read more about Burmese Bites, which rose to fame at the Queens Night Market, then won new fans with a weekday food cart, on Culinary Backstreets.

Little Pepper

Silken tofu with fresh scallion, spicy braised sliced fish, dry-sauteed string beans, and minced pork with clear noodles ("ants climbing trees") from a Little Pepper lunch, one of many. No flourishes; none needed. See more on Flickr.

Little Pepper
18-24 College Point Blvd. (18th-20th Aves.), College Point, Queens
718-939-7788
www.Facebook.com/pages/Little-Pepper-Sichuan-Restaurant/187153177996589

Una Fría

"Hecha por Neoyorkinos. Inspirada en el Caribe. ... A golden pilsner brewed with plantains."
—Advertisement for a collaboration between Blue Point of Patchogue, Long Island, and Presidente of the Dominican Republic, seen in Upper Manhattan

Bastille Day celebration of the French Institute Alliance Française

Festival food of the French diaspora: poutine, a one-day-only offering from Spanish churros evangelist Dulcinea.

Bastille Day celebration of the French Institute Alliance Française
East 60th St. between Fifth and Lexington Aves., Manhattan
www.FIAF.org/event/2019-07-14-bastille-day
(The 2019 celebration was held on July 14)

Sweet Malina Bakery

Out of many pączki, one pączek (Pon-chek), a filled Polish doughnut in this instance flavored by plum, during an appearance at LIC Flea & Food.

Sweet Malina Bakery
1635 Great Neck Rd., Copiague, New York
631-841-3465
Closed Monday
Also at 1907-05 Great Neck Rd.
631-789-1945
Closed Sunday and Monday
www.SweetMalinaBakery.com

No parkin

"That's a shame, I like a bit of Parkin with a cup of tea." Owing to that comment on my Flickr photostream — by Neil C., whose profile photo features a classic British red pillar post box — I've gleaned that parkin is an oatmeal gingerbread, dense with treacle, that's especially popular in northern England. In return, might Neil enjoy a primer on "alternate side of the street"?

No parkin
Long Island City, Queens

Han Joo

Although this Korean restaurant is better known for tabletop BBQ, chilled bowls of naeng myun (often transliterated naengmyeon) are more ideally suited to summer weather. The two shown here, one ready to mix with spicy sauce, the other partially immersed in chilled beef broth, feature sliced beef, vegetables, hardboiled egg, and noodles prepared from arrowroot starch. These are Han Joo's most basic naeng myun; our party didn't make a pass at the version topped with sliced raw skate. Also shown: the customary bevy of banchan.

Han Joo
4106 149th Pl. (41st-Barclay Aves.), Murray Hill, Queens
718-359-6888
http://NY.KoreaPortal.com/english/yp/18423-New-York-Han-Joo-Restaurant

Foxface

A hotdog window had been here before, and the signs at Foxface emphasized "sandwiches," but at first I didn't gather that my "moules frites" would be served between bread. So it was a surprise, as well as a pleasure, to see the care that went into its making — particularly the addition of the potato chips, which were not crumbled with disdain but carefully layered, intact.

The moules frites, alas, seems already to have come and gone like many items on the Foxface menu, all of them subject to the whim and inspiration of an ownership that "dreams of sandwiches."

Foxface
Sandwich window, with seating inside William Barnacle Tavern, 80 St. Mark's Pl. (First-Second Aves.), Manhattan
www.Instagram.com/foxface_nyc
Closed Monday and Tuesday

Suzy's Roti Parlour

Sometimes even a talented graphic artist falls back on the printed word: In the tiny space allotted by the menu board, it would have been very difficult to render iconographic chickpeas. My dining buddy and I ordered two veggie combos, one over rice and beans, the other, equally substantial, inside a roti. Alongside them (but not shown here): Solo cream soda, in the traditional aviator-themed bottle, was true to the heritage of the owners' first home, Trinidad.

Suzy's Roti Parlour
907 Church Ave. (at East 10th St.), Prospect Park South, Brooklyn
718-282-8190
www.SuzysRoti.com
Closed Sunday

Carnaval Mixteco en Staten Island

Enchiladas are corn tortillas imbued with a chile pepper sauce. Enfrijoladas (en-Free-ho-Lah-dahs) instead employ a sauce based on frijoles, that is, beans. For this trio, black beans were the foundation of the filling, too — enfrijoladas elevate them from side dish to featured attraction.

Also shown, but not ventured, since this was but the first stop of a long afternoon excursion: manzanas con chamoy, apples coated in a salty-sour-spicy-sweet sauce and, most likely, extra sugar, too.

Carnaval Mixteco en Staten Island
Snug Harbor Cultural Center and Botanical Garden, 1000 Richmond Terr., Livingston, Staten Island
www.Facebook.com/events/430025437772770
(The 2019 festival was held on May 26)