Eating In Translation

Holtermann's Bakery

My morning of "apple picking" (one glazed, one cinnamon sugar) was prompted by a visit to September's Nansen Lodge Scandinavian Heritage Fair. At that annual event, all of the baked goods were homemade, with one exception: Holtermann's kringle, a flattish, filled, iced pastry ring that was doled out two slices per portion. This day, an entire ring of kringle crowded the edges of the box immediately below my donuts. I'll show it when I can, but the dining buddy who bought it has the right of first reveal.

Holtermann's Bakery
405 Arthur Kill Rd. (Miles Ave.-Giffords Ln.), Great Kills, Staten Island
718-984-7095
https://HoltermannsBakery.webs.com

Yin Ji Chang Fen

Procure once, prepare many times: Yi Jin Chang Fen uses the same fish, tilapia, for its Lai Wan style congee, replete with crunchy peanuts and chewy curls of squid; for rice noodle rolls with sliced fish and chives; and for the not-to-be-neglected deep-fried fish skin. Touch the crispy, gently salted skin to the surface of the accompanying light soup and listen close for a breakfasttime snap, crackle, pop.

H/T Kim, @Garsleat

Yin Ji Chang Fen
91 Bayard St. (akt Mulberry St.), Manhattan
212-227-4888
www.Facebook.com/YinJiChangFen.NYC

Canstruction

More than 100 cities worldwide participate in this annual event, for which teams of architects, designers, and contractors compete to design and build sculptures from unopened cans of food. Afterward, the sculptures are disassembled and their component parts donated to local food banks (in New York, to City Harvest).

Several of the 2019 entries have a spacegoing theme, including (from top) "Houston, We Have a Hunger Problem"; One Small Can for Man, One Giant Leap Against Hunger" (also shown: detail of the RCS thruster assembly); and "For All CANkind." See my album on Flickr for many more photos, including two down-to-earth favorites from the 2014 exhibition, "A Balanced Meal" and "Hungry to the Core."

Canstruction
Brookfield Place, 230 Vesey St. (at North End Ave.), Manhattan
www.BfPlNY.com/event/canstruction
(The 2019 New York exhibit was on view November 7-21. Admission was free, "but we ask[ed] that all our visitors bring a full can of healthy food (or several) to donate to City Harvest.")

Coca-Cola, Cinerama

Surviving neighboring signs, 164 and 166 Broadway (East 5th-Dodge Sts.), Bayonne, New Jersey

King Dumplings

The table settings didn't affect the chow; fried pork-and-chive dumplings were quite good. They did say something, however, about the typical customers at King Dumplings, a counter-service restaurant on the eastern extreme of Manhattan's Chinatown. At our table (and the others, too), vinegar, soy sauce, and hot sauce kept company with toothpicks, paper napkins, and plastic cutlery, but chopsticks could be found only at the register. That's where I left them; a fork, after all, is very handy for capturing a dumpling in biteaway view.

Via Mark Satlof

King Dumplings
74 Hester St. (at Allen St.), Manhattan
917-751-6681
www.Facebook.com/King-Dumplings-358670851431724

Chama Mama

The same blend of beef and pork that fills the khinkali plumps a lunch-only burger at this Georgian restaurant. Beneath the patty is a seam of roasted mushroom; to one side, a pourable sauce of tomato, cilantro, and onion. Also shown, two sweets (comped for me): a qada, baked in-house like the burger bun; and a wedge of pickled watermelon rind.

Shown at bottom: "[Not re]sponsible [for ha]ts & coats". As late as the 1950s, many New York gentlemen rarely went about bareheaded. By contrast this sign, probably exposed during construction, has been left uncovered, offering a tip of the hat to a restaurant-design fashion of today.

Via Kim, @garsleat

Chama Mama
149 West 14th St. (Sixth-Seventh Aves.), Manhattan
646-438-9007
www.ChamaMama.com

The Cinnamon Snail

(This venue is closed.) From the food-hall display of vegan donuts and donut-adjacent pastries: Meyer lemon, in a twist. Also shown below, from early 2010: the original Cinnamon Snail, during its first weeks on the road, before a recent snowfall had fully melted. Nowadays the truck hibernates during colder weather and returns in the spring.

The Cinnamon Snail
Inside The Pennsy food hall, 2 Pennsylvania Plaza (Seventh Ave. at 32nd St.), Manhattan
212-695-7454
www.CinnamonSnail.com

Just Phở

"Do you have bean sprouts?"

"No."

—Overheard at the counter of this Hanoi-style restaurant, where the noodle soup disdains Southern Vietnamese decoration. Shown: phở bò tái, raw beef pho; nem rán, pork spring rolls; cà phê sữa, hot condensed-milk coffee, brewed by the cupful. ("Very strong," I was cautioned. Exactly, was my thought.)

H/T Jared Cohee and Nigel Sielegar

Just Phở
252 West 31st St. (Seventh-Eighth Aves.), Manhattan
917-261-7494
www.Facebook.com/JustPhoNYC

Seafood Palace

Exemplars of wok control: Hong Kong-style "sea clams" and sweet pea pods in XO sauce, and pan-fried egg with noodlefish. Also called icefish, noodlefish are relatives of the smelts; their enveloping eggs were particularly pillowy. (Compare this eggy lumberjack breakfast translated for Chinese farmhands.)

As for sea clams, a more on-point if less appealing English translation would be "sea cucumber intestines." The grooved seafood segments do indeed suggest chewy clams. Accompanying them, in addition to snow peas, my dining buddy divined green and red chile pepper, Chinese chive, purple onion, and what might have been crumbled Chinese bacon. Even as the only other customers filed out at the tail end of a weekend lunchtime, the assembled ingredients were deftly tumbled together, just minutes before the chef and his crew sat down to family meal.

Bensonhurst is home to a dense concentration of Cantonese kitchens; Shun Deck is one of many others that deserve attention. My "to eat" list grows longer with every visit.

Seafood Palace
2172 86th St. (Bay Pkwy.-Bay 29th St.), Bensonhurst, Brooklyn
718-669-8288
www.WhereYouEat.com/Seafood-Palace--16936.html

Taste of Taylor Catering

Collard greens — bolstered by smoked turkey, easy on the salt, free of bitterness — exemplified the soul food that headlined this day's menu. Caribbean cooking played a lesser part; the logo, in particular the cutlery, broadly hinted at the chef's West Indian heritage.

Taste of Taylor Catering
347-693-2220
www.Facebook.com/TasteOfTaylorCatering
At the New York City Public Markets Festival
South Street Seaport, Pier 17, 89 South St. (at Fulton St.), Manhattan
www.FultonStallMarket.org/events/2019/10/22/nyc-market-taste-amp-talk-series-9ckpa-5kkn4
(The second of three autumn 2019 festivals was held on November 3)