Eating In Translation

Kape't Torta: Coffee and Cake, Filipino-Style

"Tortas are modest in appearance — they resemble flattish cupcakes with minimal adornment — but they taste like breakfast at grandma's to many homesick Filipinas.

"And tortas are a common bond between Nora Galleros, Jeanette Uy and Khaterine Gadingan — Khaty, to her friends. Nora, Jeanette and Khaty grew up in the Southern Philippines, on theisland of Mindanao, and think back fondly to the food of their home city, Gingoog (Hee-ngo-og).

"In 2004, Jeanette remembers, the 'first stop when I came to New York' was to visit her high school friend Nora, who had arrived in 1990 and was running her own business. Jeanette, who loves baking so much that she 'could forget time' while in the kitchen, brought Nora a little something to accompany her morning kape, or coffee. Tortas, of course." Read more on Culinary Backstreets.

200 Gram Noodles: From the Streets of Chongqing

After moving to Flushing three years ago, Tingting Li missed her home city's most famous noodles, "which in the Chinese name of her restaurant are called xiǎo miàn. 'Small noodles' would be an overly literal translation. 'Small as in simple' explains them better, she tells us (in Mandarin; one of her two business partners translates to English). Eating them is a 'very casual thing' back home. 'No big deal … like you brush your teeth.' "

Finding them in New York, however, was another matter. Read more about the "local flavor noodles" that evoke her previous home on Culinary Backstreets.

Burmese Bites: Morsels from Myanmar

The dough for palata is "stretched to translucence by a series of acrobatic, table-slapping wrist flips, then stretched just a bit further until it seemingly must tear under its own weight." For Myo Lin Thway — shown, in the first photo, beside his wife, Rebecca, at the 2007 Myanmar Baptist Church Fun Fair — "showmanship is simply a natural byproduct of the palata-making process" that he's mastered over more than two decades. He's hardly a showoff himself.

Read more about Burmese Bites, which rose to fame at the Queens Night Market, then won new fans with a weekday food cart, on Culinary Backstreets.

La Gran Via Bakery: Cuban Comfort

At La Gran Via Bakery, in Jackson Heights, only the smile of co-owner Betsy Leites outshines the show-stopping display. When it's time for coffee, Betsy pulls a potent cortadito, too. Read more on Culinary Backstreets.

Addy's Barbeque: East African Sizzle

"We hear it, and smell it, before we see it. At Addy's Barbeque in Astoria, every mishkaki enters the dining room with a sizzle." You want masala fries with that? Read more on Culinary Backstreets.

Banggane: In Goat They Trust

Named for the color of its hair, not its meat, Korean black goat "is both refreshing and restorative, or so the traditional thinking goes. In Seoul, where [Banggane owner Chris Kwak] was born in the mid-1950s — not long after the armistice that brought a cessation of hostilities to the Korean Peninsula — dishes that feature the native goat have long been consumed as much for medicinal value as for culinary pleasure. Expectant women eat black goat because it's 'good for the baby, good for the mom,' says Chris. Older people rely on it to regain their strength after surgery; men of a certain age seek to improve their vigor. For these purposes, Chris tells us, 'we eat black goat only.' No other goat will do." Read more on Culinary Backstreets.

Little Egypt: All Hands on Deck

"The family chemistry is strong at Little Egypt in Ridgewood, Queens. Nashaat Youssef ('Nash' to friends and customers, who often are one and the same) owns the four-year-old business with his sister, Nagwa Hanna ('Hanna'). Nash's wife, Yvette, and their teenaged sons, Wadie and Mark, also help out around the restaurant — Wadie a little less these days, now that he's attending a local college. Hanna, who has a day job, wins praise for her pastries. But the lion’s share of the menu falls to Nash.

" 'The day I don't cook, I feel something,' he tells us. Ever since his childhood in the Egyptian port city of Alexandria, he adds, cooking has been 'in my blood.' When Nash was his sons' age, he began working at a seafood restaurant, close by the water, called Samakmak. There, and at a fish wholesaler all of five minutes away, Nash learned to appreciate, and prepare, the Mediterranean’s bounty of seafood." Read more on Culinary Backstreets.

Lamoon: Family Inheritance

The food of Northern Thailand — the first home of Arada Moonroj, chef and co-owner of Lamoon, in Elmhurst, Queens — "tends to be spicy and salty rather than sweet. It's also herbal, Arada emphasizes. Consider larb, a family of salads whose principle ingredient is often some sort of finely minced meat. Larb is a common dish in the Isan region of northeastern Thailand; in the last decade this style of larb has become a familiar sight on many New York restaurant menus. Isan larb, however, generally incorporates only a few seasonings; Arada relies on her mom's recipe, which uses 11. 'In every bite you can feel lots of herbs,' she tells us." Read more on Culinary Backstreets.

(Some of the) Best Bites 2018: Queens

For Culinary Backstreets, here are a few of my favorites of 2018, in the company of a few more from Esneider Arevalo, CB's walk leader in Queens. See also my Best Bites of 2017.

Eating In Translation is taking the rest of the year off; back in 2019.

Rudy's Bakery and Café: Baked-In German

"If we could wind the clock back to 1934, to listen in as Rudy's Bakery rolled its first strudel, German is the language we would have heard at the baker's bench, and beside the glass-fronted display cases, and, more likely than not, on the sidewalk outside, along Seneca Ave."

The bakers from the old country have long since retired, but in Ridgewood, Queens, Rudy's still follows the traditional recipes for its German confections. Everything is prepared from scratch — we can attest to the supple crust of the apple crumb cake. Read more on Culinary Backstreets.