Eating In Translation

"Close"

A handwritten sign at what seems to be a temporarily shuttered food stand, Elmhurst, Queens

Rad's Bodega (Corona edition)

In the pre-pandemic, 2018, edition of this street-ready artwork, neither the passerby nor the bodega cat was wearing a mask.

Rad's Bodega (Corona edition)
Sticker on traffic-control box (Rad, 2020), Morningside Heights, Manhattan

Keur Coumba

Three takeout plates from this excellent Senegalese restaurant in West Harlem: yassa yapp, lamb smothered in onion sauce; and thiebou djeun (Cheh-boo Jen; immediately below), the national dish of Senegal, in both its red and white versions. These are prepared on alternating days, and worthy of multiple picnics.

When I first set eyes on Keur Coumba nearly a decade ago, I'd noted the name "Kilimanjaro," called out on the awning, perhaps in affection for the "Roof of Africa"; worldwide, several Senegalese restaurants are named after that Tanzanian mountain. The Latina manager didn't know. She did, however, explain that the owner wanted some Caribbean food to complement his West African chow, given the local demographics, hence the two different takeout menus, one Senegalese, one Dominican. She also acknowledged that both menus conformed to West African dietary preferences. Keur Coumba might have been the only restaurant in town that served Dominican cooking entirely free of pork.

Tom's Restaurant

Measuring off a buffer zone outside "Monk's" — that is, Tom's Restaurant, not far from the fictional apartment of Jerry Seinfeld — in preparation for the official reopening of outdoor dining in New York City on June 23. Figuring on a six-foot buffer, we're still a couple of Pez dispensers short.

Previously, when dining at the counter: home fries, scrambled eggs, and sausage, with rye toast; a chocolate malted.

Tom's Restaurant
2880 Broadway (at 112th St.), Manhattan
212-864-6137
www.Facebook.com/TomsDiner.original

Habesha Market & Restaurant

Breakfast is a more intimate meal than lunch or dinner, and a breakfast menu can be a strong sign of connection with an emigre population. This morning, my plate was crowded with beef stew fir fir, featuring large shreds of injera soaked in the spicy, chunky stew called sega wat; kinche, steamed cracked wheat; and kita fir fir (aka chechebsa), broken-up berbere-laced flatbread, also typically made from wheat. With the addition of scrambled egg and (out of frame) two small French rolls, it was an Ethiopian jumbo breakfast combo.

Another sign of connection, spotted, after a previous breakfast, among the take-ones by the door: the local Ethiopian yellow pages.

Habesha Market & Restaurant
1919 9th St. N.W. (T-U Sts.), Washington, D.C.
202-232-1919
www.HabeshaMarket.com
(From a visit in late winter)

Market Lunch

Rockfish are not one fish. The name describes many different species from around the world that share the habit of hiding you-know-where. Order rockfish in the Mid-Atlantic, however, and almost certainly you'll be served the state fish of Maryland and the state saltwater fish of Virginia, striped bass. Above: on ice at Southern Maryland Seafood, a supplier of Market Lunch with a retail counter just across the aisle. Below: lightly fried with eggs and grits.

Market Lunch
225 7th St. S.E. (near C St. S.E., inside Eastern Market), Washington, D.C.
202-547-8444
www.MarketLunchDC.com
Open for breakfast and lunch, Tuesday through Sunday; rockfish only during weekend brunch
(From a visit in late winter)

District Doughnut

As the ornament suggests, more salty than sweet: a caramel chocolate pretzel doughnut.

District Doughnut
Inside Union Market, 1309 5th St. N.E. (at Neal Pl.), Washington, D.C.
(one of several locations)
www.DistrictDoughnut.com
(From a visit in late winter)

Henan Flavor

This restaurant serves five varieties of kou wan — literally, "invert bowl," or upend the cooking vessel, over the serving plate. Even when dining in, the practice is not universal, and it certainly would have been unwise at an improvised setting by the roadside. My bowl featured 16 loose-knit pork meatballs in anise-scented broth. A small surcharge added a portion of roughly torn wheat noodles for which the province of Henan, breadbasket of central China, is also famous.

Henan Flavor (aka Henan Fengwei)
136-31 41st Ave. (Main-Union Sts., downstairs), Flushing, Queens
718-762-1818

Stir-fried chestnut cart

In normal times this fellow also deals in stir-fried sunflower seeds and peanuts, and grilled sweet potatoes, as well as chestnuts. Considering the foot traffic — he's stationed outside that bastion of hands-on business, the local post office — masks, gloves, and bottles of sanitizer might now be even more appealing as impulse buys.

Stir-fried chestnut cart
East side of Main St. between Sanford and Maple Aves., Flushing, Queens

Accra Restaurant

The takeout equivalent of "hat hair" means good value for the money — my container of djollof rice, egusi with spinach, and fried whiting was unlovely, but packed full. The cuisine at this West African steam-table restaurant is largely Ghanaian but also incorporates some dishes from Nigeria and Guinea, a counterman told me during a visit several years ago; I recall a little soul food, too. The motto "where the food sticks to your soul" might also beckon to a congregation a half-block to the west, at the Presbyterian Church of Ghana.

Previously, when dining in (and shown below): fish and djollof rice; okra sauce.

Accra Restaurant
2065 Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Blvd. (123rd-124th Sts.), Manhattan
917-504-3098
www.Facebook.com/AccraRestaurantHarlem
Also at 2041 Davidson Ave. (at West Burnside Ave.), University Heights, Bronx
718-584-8500
www.Facebook.com/AccraRestaurant