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"Sale" with a smiling A, a hand-drawn sign whose blocky letters resemble the neighboring Japanese character, for "goods." Another hand-drawn sign describes warabimochi as "a bracken-starch dumpling. It's a sweets," but it's also too jiggly for a decent photo of its own.
Taiyo Foods
4508 44th St. (Queens Blvd.-47th Ave.), Sunnyside, Queens
718-392-2233
www.Facebook.com/Taiyo.Foods.Sunnyside
Caribbean brunch: jerk shrimp and grits; yard-style brisket (hidden beneath the vegetables and eggs); and, best of the bunch, a bake with ackee and salt fish. A bake can be baked, but often (as here) it is fried. When fried it might be called a fry bake or (as here) simply a bake. Why so much loyalty to the name, I wonder, when what's best about the bread is the freshness of the fry?
Imani
271 Adelphi St. (at Dekalb Ave.), Fort Greene, Brooklyn
718-923-0100
www.ImaniNYC.com
Although tempted by a tray of raspberry "rugulah," I carried off a dessert that seemed closer to the baker's heart: sweet potato pudding. This version of the Jamaican favorite was much darker than most, and firmer, too, even if you grant that the name "pudding" is being employed in the general sense of "dessert." For that matter, "sweet" was a stretch as well, raisins notwithstanding.
Jamaican Pride Bakery
731 Flatbush Ave. (Clarkson-Parkside Aves.), Flatbush, Brooklyn
Hand-drawn sign outside GSA King Tomato Farm
1140 McDonald Ave. (at 20th Ave.), Mapleton, Brooklyn
718-434-2200
www.Mercato.com/shop/gsa-king-tomato-farm
H/T Deli Grossery
On the menu, for what looks to be about a half-zodiac of customers: piggy buns, fried dumplings, char siu buns, beef balls, chicken feet, sesame balls, turnip cakes, egg tarts, durian cakes, chicken with sticky rice in lotus leaves, har gow, shrimp chow mein, tripe, green vegetables, hot sauce and soy sauce, and green tea.
This new artwork replaces a 2014 deli-grocery mural that was defaced earlier this year. Greetings from Chinatown — another 2014 mural, around the corner — has faded but is otherwise unchanged.
Now Serving Dim Sum
Peach Tao for the Chinatown Mural Project, 2020
Hand-painted mural outside Dai Sing (formerly known as Tay Shing), 100 Division St. (at Allen St.), Manhattan
212-925-2942
Banner outside Holy Cross Roman Catholic Church
2530 Church Ave. (Veronica Pl.-Woods Pl.), Flatbush, Brooklyn
718-469-5900
www.HolyCrossRCChurch.org
A two-dollar go-bag of pakoras; the fan-driven in-house photo gallery (detail); the view from the sidewalk, in 2007.
Punjabi Grocery & Deli
114 East 1st St. (First Ave.-Ave. A), Manhattan
212-533-3356
www.Instagram.com/PunjabiDeliNYC
Krakow-style cheesecake, distinguished by its latticed top and, more definitively, by the raisins adrift throughout the filling.
Babka Bakers
6045 Maspeth Ave. (at 61st St.), Maspeth, Queens
718-894-8877
www.BabkaBakers.com
(This post is based on a visit to Ursula's former location, in Crown Heights.) Despite their different postures, these sopaipillas (So-pie-PEE-yahs) — New Mexican fried dough pockets, one filled with carne adovada, one with ground beef — were equally substantial. This was lunch for two. Available from 11:30, just as the breakfast burritos begin to disappear.
Ursula
387A Nostrand Ave. (Madison St.-Putnam Ave.), Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn
www.UrsulaBK.com
Closed Monday and Tuesday
Sidewalk art (detail) outside Veselka, 144 Second Ave. (at 9th St.), Manhattan
212-228-9682
www.Veselka.com
Thank you!
