Detail of signage at the former, Ninth Ave., storefront, which I know only in passing. (B&H, the photo, video, and audio store, is directly across the avenue.) The restaurant relocated nearby but left this beautiful dragon behind.
Ming's Restaurant
393 Eighth Ave. (29th-30th Sts.), Manhattan
212-868-1378
Jamaican-Guinean combo meal: jerk chicken and lafidi. The latter is a West African dish of seasoned rice accompanied by one or more sauces. At B&B — whose owner comes from Guinea, and whose customers this afternoon spoke mostly in French — it was one of the few unlabeled dishes at the steam table. Until I confirmed its identity with an attendant, I wasn't sure I was looking at lafidi, in part because the sauces were largely depleted and the rice, hollowed out. The regulars must have spotted it at a glance.
B&B Restaurant
165 West 26th St. (Sixth-Seventh Aves.), Manhattan
212-627-2914
Aficionados, please note: The menu reads "Taylor pork roll"; a handwritten sign in the window credits both "pork roll" and "Taylor ham." Nowadays doesn't seem a good time to press the point with staff, let alone to ask to see the wrapper, and so "pork roll, egg, and cheese" is as precise as I plan to be.
Star on 18
128 Tenth Ave. (at 18th St.), Manhattan
212-366-0994
www.Facebook.com/Star-On-18-Diner-Cafe-113669535332136
This Chelsea business, across the avenue from the Empire Diner, was reportedly active in 1982, but I don't know when it first opened, or when Deli Levi served its last sandwich.
Sandwiches, tea, coffee, beer, soda, [Deli] Levi
Surviving signage, The Practice Room, 205 Tenth Ave. (22nd-23rd Sts.), Manhattan
(This venue is closed.) The price is right.
That's not merely a suggestion, that's the actual retail price, and it's hard to go very wrong unless you buy so much that you dip into the folding money. Ferrara Pan brand Hot Tamales, Boston Baked Beans, and Red Hots set me back just 25 cents each, though over visits two years apart, the boxes shrank from 1.3 oz. to just under an ounce.
Then again, on a more recent visit, a box of Dots and a coconut Long Boy required the outlay of just 25 cents total; you might scrape together that much by jiggling coin returns (which were much easier to jiggle in 2010, the date of that more recent visit). For the extremely thrift-minded, the shop sells Starburst loosies, too.
Sweet Banana itself is less than polished, even a little dingy, but I've always received a friendly send-off.
Sweet Banana Candy Store
112 Ninth Ave. (17th-18th Sts.), Manhattan
212-255-0673
The same blend of beef and pork that fills the khinkali plumps a lunch-only burger at this Georgian restaurant. Beneath the patty is a seam of roasted mushroom; to one side, a pourable sauce of tomato, cilantro, and onion. Also shown, two sweets (comped for me): a qada, baked in-house like the burger bun; and a wedge of pickled watermelon rind.
Shown at bottom: "[Not re]sponsible [for ha]ts & coats". As late as the 1950s, many New York gentlemen rarely went about bareheaded. By contrast this sign, probably exposed during construction, has been left uncovered, offering a tip of the hat to a restaurant-design fashion of today.
Via Kim, @garsleat
Chama Mama
149 West 14th St. (Sixth-Seventh Aves.), Manhattan
646-438-9007
www.ChamaMama.com
(This venue is closed.) From the food-hall display of vegan donuts and donut-adjacent pastries: Meyer lemon, in a twist. Also shown below, from early 2010: the original Cinnamon Snail, during its first weeks on the road, before a recent snowfall had fully melted. Nowadays the truck hibernates during colder weather and returns in the spring.
The Cinnamon Snail
Inside The Pennsy food hall, 2 Pennsylvania Plaza (Seventh Ave. at 32nd St.), Manhattan
212-695-7454
www.CinnamonSnail.com
(This venue is closed.) "Do you have bean sprouts?"
"No."
—Overheard at the counter of this Hanoi-style restaurant, where the noodle soup disdains Southern Vietnamese decoration. Shown: phở bò tái, raw beef pho; nem rán, pork spring rolls; cà phê sữa, hot condensed-milk coffee, brewed by the cupful. ("Very strong," I was cautioned. Exactly, was my thought.)
H/T Jared Cohee and Nigel Sielegar
Just Phở
252 West 31st St. (Seventh-Eighth Aves.), Manhattan
917-261-7494
www.Facebook.com/JustPhoNYC
From a refueling stop near the northern end of the High Line: fried cubed potatoes dressed with spicy tomato sauce and, vitally, aioli.
Bravas kiosk
Inside Mercado Little Spain, 10 Hudson Yards (Tenth Ave. at 30th St.), Manhattan
646-495-1242
www.LittleSpain.com/kiosks/bravas
(This post is based on visits to the original location, on West 29th St.) In the Sahel — the semi-arid region of Africa between the Sahara and the tropical savanna, stretching from the Red Sea in the east to the Atlantic Ocean in the west — fonio has been cultivated for millennia. A small-grained, slightly nutty variety of millet, fonio thrives in drier regions, and matures quickly. It can be made into porridge or couscous, ground into flour, even brewed as beer.
Thank you!
