Eating In Translation

Polar bear refrigerator raid

Hand-drawn artwork (detail; Juan Luis Colón, date unknown)
Carlo's Refrigeration Repair & Maintenance
61 Broadway (Crane St.-Bloomfield Ave.), Newark, New Jersey
973-241-1148

European Gourmet & Catering

Bandi red currant plombir, Lithuanian-made ice cream.

European Gourmet & Catering
5624 Mosholu Ave. (Liebig-Tyndall Aves.), Riverdale, Bronx
718-548-8650

Tamales Jarochos

(This venue is closed.) The proprietors of this recently opened tamales kiosk — "Jarocho" means "from Veracruz," a large port city in the Mexican state of that name — fashion a half-dozen or so varieties overall. Rarest, in New York, are the two tamales Veracruzanos, with chicken (shown) or with pork, wrapped in and scented by banana leaf, and more substantial than their corn-husk-wrapped cousins. Also shown: atol de nuez, sporting bits of crunchy walnut.

Tamales Jarochos
8814 Roosevelt Ave. (Britton-Elmhurst Aves.), Jackson Heights, Queens
Daily, 8am-2pm

Empanatidas

Perhaps the city's only street vendor of Paraguayan food bakes empanadas, alfajores, and lattice-topped pastafrolas in many fruit flavors. Guava, shown below, is the classic.

Also shown: a baked spinach empanada. Note that the business name is not "Empanaditas," as in "little empanadas." It's "EmpaNATIdas" — "Nati" is a play on the baker's given name.

H/T Gustasian

Empanatidas
46th St., in the plaza under the elevated 7 train, Sunnyside, Queens
202-421-6148
Most days, from midafternoon

Spicy Fatty Burger

I can't pin down the seasoning for the namesake Bangladeshi burger, but both "spicy" and "fatty" were fair enough. And I don't have so much as a worthy photo of the fries, only of their lingering masala.

Spicy Fatty Burger
Truck on 37th Ave. near the northeast corner with 74th St., Jackson Heights, Queens
646-420-2237
www.SpicyFattyBurger.com

Sandwich Therapy

A sabich — or in this case a half-sabich — is an especially well-dressed fried-eggplant sandwich, best-known in Israel. Bright chopped salad is accompanied by hardboiled egg, potato, tahini, and amba, a sour-spicy condiment of pickled mango; typically these are rolled with the eggplant in laffa, a flatbread. Even though mine was clamped instead in a sesame loaf, simply "popping the top" for a photo of the delicious contents proved to be impossibly messy. How messy, you can get a sense from my photo of the leavings, atop an otherwise empty gaming table in neighboring Travers Park.

H/T Kim, @Garsleat

Sandwich Therapy
Food stand in the 34th Ave. median between 77th and 78th Sts., just south of Travers Park, Jackson Heights, Queens
www.Instagram.com/Sandwich.Therapy
Friday through Sunday, various midday and afternoon hours

La Antioqueña Bakery VII

In Colombia, the stiff Christmas custard known as natilla is often paired with a buñuelo, which provides crisp-shelled contrast to the rich custard. My fritter, a gift from the counterwoman, was offered in a plain paper bag — but I imagined it as a stocking stuffer.

La Antioqueña Bakery VII
96-08 Roosevelt Ave. (Junction Blvd.-97th St.), Corona, Queens
(one of several locations)

Window service

Peach Tao for the Chinatown Mural Project, 2020
Hand-painted mural around the corner from Sam's Deli, 30 Mulberry St. (at Mosco St.), Manhattan
212-964-6418

Jehova Nissi Deli & Grocery

Not your morning coffee: The flavor of fresh corn is evident from the first sip of this Guatemalan atol de elote, long before you get down to the dregs.

Jehova Nissi Deli & Grocery
7401 18th Ave. (at 74th St.), Bensonhurst, Brooklyn
347-254-6755
www.Facebook.com/LeidyZece

Pride of the Southside, El Orgullo de Los Sures

Detail of frio-frio vendor (Los Muralistas de El Puente, 2016)
Mural outside Middle School 50 (aka J.H.S 50 John D. Wells)
183 South 3rd St. (at Roebling St.), Williamsburg, Brooklyn
www.MS50.org