Eating In Translation

Cerasella: Italian Delights

"In Italy, 'we would call this a bar,' Caterina Pepe tells us. We're chatting inside Cerasella (pronounced 'Chair-ah-Sell-ah'), the small pasticceria e caffetteria she owns with her husband, Luca Schiano, not far from their home in Long Island City. In New York, of course, a bar is typically adults-only, and rarely known for its food. Using that name for Cerasella, Caterina adds, would lead New Yorkers astray — but happily so, once they found themselves in front of the pastry case." Shown here: an exquisite sfogliatella riccia made with Neapolitan semolina, Calabrian orange and Apulian buffalo ricotta, coupled with an espresso. Read more on Culinary Backstreets.

Merguez & Frites

Thinner, crisper, and perhaps a tad tangier than Philly tomato pie: a square of olive-adorned Algerian-style pizza.

H/T Queens Qustodian and Food and Footprints

Merguez & Frites
4006 25th Ave. (Steinway-41st Sts.), Astoria, Queens
718-255-6253
www.RestaurantAstoria.com

Eira

(This venue is closed.) Pão de ló (sponge cake), a bola de Berlim, and — of all the items at the counter of this Portuguese bakery, market, and cafe, what might be the sweetest — a spaghetti squash tart.

Eira
24 Mercer St. (Grove St.-Marin Blvd.), Jersey City
www.EiraCafe.com
Closed Monday

Dacha 46

Limited-edition strawberry shortcake pampushky, brioche donuts coated with a sour cream glaze and a shortbread cookie crumble and filled with strawberry jam.

Dacha 46
Pop-up at 657 Washington Ave. (Bergen St.-St. Mark's Ave.), Prospect Heights, Brooklyn
www.Instagram.com/Dacha_1946
Closed Monday and Tuesday

Mama's Backyard Cafe

Over morning coffee, planning for the afternoon: a coffee float, Manhattan Special espresso soda over soft-serve vanilla ice cream (at an air-conditioned table indoors).

Mama's Backyard Cafe
4610 104th St. (46th-47th Aves.), Corona, Queens
718-565-9104
www.Facebook.com /pages/Mamas %20Backyard%20Cafe /113928861972120
Closed Monday

Ole & Steen

In Denmark, the home of Ole & Steen's founders, they don't call this a danish. The general term for such pastries is wienerbrød, named for the Austrian capital and its celebrated baking traditions and techniques. The common circular shape with filling in the middle is a spandauer; this one is topped with raspberry marmalade and slivered almonds.

Also shown, from a springtime visit, Easter chick puffs — passion fruit marshmallow, passion fruit ganache, white chocolate, shredded coconut, wandering eyes.

Ole & Steen
873 Broadway (East 18th-East 19th Sts.), Manhattan
929-209-1020
(one of several New York locations)
www.OleAndSteen.us

Pan Rico Ambateño

"Flattened": an Ecuadorian "aplanchado," shatteringly crisp puff pastry topped with a stiff layer of icing. Two for a dollar.

Pan Rico Ambateño
302 Knickerbocker Ave. (Hart-Suydam Sts.), Bushwick, Brooklyn
(One of several locations)

Brighton Tandir

Uzbek samsy filled with beef, lamb, or onion-laced pumpkin are abundant in Brooklyn and Queens. For a change of pace, how about a samsa filled with chicken and spinach?

Brighton Tandir (principle signage in Cyrillic only)
504 Brighton Beach Ave. (Brighton 5th-Brighton 6th Sts., near the foot of the stairs; service window to the left of Home Made Cooking Cafe), Brighton Beach, Brooklyn

Tatar Bakery & Pies

(This venue is closed.) Just one sweet, I told myself. This day, apricot, the apparent crowd favorite, another time, perhaps walnut, farmer cheese, cherry, or blueberry — not to mention all the savory piroshki and chebureki.

Tatar Bakery & Pies
Roadside stand on Brighton Beach Ave. near the northeast corner with Coney Island Ave., Brighton Beach, Brooklyn

Bonelle Pastry Shop

My kind of midafternoon "power bar": raspberry-walnut. Also shown, from ages ago: a prune hamentash. These days the storefront is a little different; the hamentashen look pretty much the same.

Bonelle Pastry Shop
108-30 Ascan Ave., Forest Hills, Queens
718-575-1792