Eating In Translation

Twin Donut Twins

To the rescue!
196 East 161st St. (at Concourse Village West), Concourse Village, Bronx
718-993-7050
(One of many locations)

Panda Express

Orange chicken — free, thanks to a postcard widely mailed in the neighborhood; eaten with a fork, since that's what was in the bag. Perhaps the recipe is in the public domain, like the fortunes.

Panda Express
2852 Broadway (110th-111th Sts.), Manhattan
(one of many locations)
212-678-0139
www.PandaExpress.com.

The Halal Guys

On a sunny afternoon earlier this week I tucked away my first Halal Guys combo — chicken and beef gyro, over rice — since some long-past Street Meat Palooza. In recent years I'd been dissuaded by a line of customers that often stretched from Sixth Ave. far down 53rd St., but this day, pigeons outnumbered people. Sunset, I hope, brought a flock of customers ready to break the Ramadan fast.

The Halal Guys
West 53rd St. near the southwest corner with Sixth Ave., Manhattan
347-527-1505
(one of numerous locations, many of them brick-and-mortar)
www.TheHalalGuys.com

Dunkin'

"Three shall be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shall be three." To go (and shown below): a Boston creme donut, the holy hand grenade of Covid diets.

Dunkin'
4030 Broadway (169th-170th Sts.), Manhattan
212-923-2222
(one of many locations)
www.DunkinDonuts.com

Milkcow

Milky Cube, one of a dozen-plus preconfigured options at this Korean chain, adds chewy honeycomb to a swirl of soft serve. (To be sure, "Cube" isn't the right shape for honeycomb, but "Milky Hex" could be a low-budget flick about a haunted farm.) The soft serve itself brought to mind a long-ago cone of fresh milk soft ice cream — emphasis on "fresh milk."

Milkcow
69A Bayard St. (Mott-Elizabeth Sts), Manhattan
212-227-1807
www.Facebook.com /Milkcow-NY-574402776360609

Nevería Roxy

Zapote negro nieve (25 pesos, about $1.25 at the time), made from the "chocolate pudding fruit."

Nevería Roxy
Av. Fernando Montes de Oca 89 (at Av. Mazatlán), Cuauhtémoc, Condesa, Mexico City
+52 55 5286 1258
(one of many locations)
www.NeveriaRoxy.com.mx
(From a March 2017 visit)

Bangjangsoo

(This venue is closed.) Amid baked pastries flavored by sweet potato, chestnut, and especially red bean, this fried soboro bread ($3) stands out. The topside is thinly coated with the namesake streusel-like topping, to which Bangjangsoo — a new outpost of a South Korean bakery chain — adds slivered almonds. Imagine a flattish, sweetly encrusted, red-bean-filled donut not long from the fryer, and you'll have the idea.

Bangjangsoo (a.k.a. BJD Bakers)
154-02 Northern Blvd. (at 154th St.), Murray Hill, Queens
718-888-9440
www.Facebook.com/BangjangsooNY

Lou Malnati's Pizzeria

Like most deep-dish pizzas, the Malnati Chicago Classic is built backward compared with, say, a New York pie. After the dough is patted into the bottom of the pan and up the sides (eventually it will form what the restaurant brands its Buttercrust), the mozzarella is laid atop it, followed by any additional ingredients (for the Classic, this entails extra cheese plus lean sausage). Last in the pan is a superb, especially chunky tomato sauce. Not shown: knife and fork.

On my final evening in town, I upsold myself from a personal-size to a small ($14.95), ostensibly meant for two. So how well, you may ask, does deep-dish pizza hold up the next morning? Sorry, you should have asked me during dinner, before I ate the evidence!

Lou Malnati's Pizzeria
439 North Wells St. (West Illinois-West Hubbard Sts.), Chicago
312-828-9800
(One of many locations)
www.LouMalnatis.com
(From a June 2016 visit)

Portillo's

Chicago dog ($2.99) with all the trimmings, all in their true-to-life colors — even that sweet pickle relish, in emerald green.

Also shown: the stand-alone restaurant, built expressly for Portillo's in the spring of 2016, and one of many retro signs that adorn the facade. To strengthen the impression that "we're old-timers in the neighborhood," nowadays many businesses employ deliberately distressed signage. The Coca-Cola sign goes further: Its placement suggests a faded ad that's hanging tough, even in the light of later construction.

Portillo's
520 West Taylor St. (at South Clinton St.), Chicago
312-667-4560
(One of many locations)
www.Portillos.com
(From a June 2016 visit)

Al's Beef

Five-napkin sandwich: Italian beef ($6.49), "wet, with hot and sweet" (peppers, 60 cents each).

Al's Beef (aka Al's Italian Beef, Al's #1 Italian Beef)
1079 West Taylor St. (South Aberdeen-South Carpenter Sts.), Chicago
312-226-4017
(One of many locations)
www.AlsBeef.com
(From a June 2016 visit)