Eating In Translation

Fuji Foods

A not-too-sweet rice cake, palest of the Burmese confections stacked on the counter of what's mainly a Japanese mini-mart. The proprietor lived for a time in Japan and until recently cooked at a Japanese restaurant; for Fuji, his Shan wife prepares various sweets and savories from their home country. Weekends offer the best selection.

Fuji Foods
8655 Broadway (Queens Blvd.-Justice Ave., inside Broadway Plaza), Elmhurst, Queens
646-750-3643
www.Facebook.com/groups/394535003928451/user/100055443900013

Casa Victoria

The ingredients of suman sa ibos are simple: principally glutinous rice and coconut milk, best eaten with fresh mango or a sprinkle of sugar. But the palm-leaf wrap is a puzzle to unravel: Where is the image of tiny scissors or the legend that tells you to "tear here"?

Also shown at this Filipino market: the point-of-purchase display; a bunch of bibingka; a slice of sapin sapin, a trilevel pie of glutinous rice dressed with toasted coconut; and calamondin (calamansi) plants outside the shop. My photo of the potted plants was taken on a late summer day; I'd expect that they've been brought inside.

Casa Victoria
691 Newark Ave. (Summit Ave.-John F. Kennedy Blvd.), Jersey City
201-216-1055
www.CasaVictoriaNJ.com

Oasis Mega Market

In the Caucasus, the griddled crepes called kutaby, or qutaby, often are folded over an assortment of wild greens. In Sheepshead Bay, spinach (with onion, scallion, and what might have been feta) served very nicely instead. Oasis Mega Market seems to be under Uzbek ownership, with a greater focus on foods from Central Asia; the expansive and well-labeled hot and colds displays are an excellent primer to this family of cuisines.

Oasis Mega Market
2828 Coney Island Ave. (Kathleen Pl.-Ave. Z), Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn
347-509-0000
www.Instagram.com/Oasis_Mega_Market

Six-word short story, Gravesend, Brooklyn

Mom Grocery Store, under new management.

Taiyo Foods

"Sale" with a smiling A, a hand-drawn sign whose blocky letters resemble the neighboring Japanese character, for "goods." Another hand-drawn sign describes warabimochi as "a bracken-starch dumpling. It's a sweets," but it's also too jiggly for a decent photo of its own.

Taiyo Foods
4508 44th St. (Queens Blvd.-47th Ave.), Sunnyside, Queens
718-392-2233
www.Facebook.com/Taiyo.Foods.Sunnyside

All kosher

Hand-drawn sign outside GSA King Tomato Farm
1140 McDonald Ave. (at 20th Ave.), Mapleton, Brooklyn
718-434-2200
www.Mercato.com/shop/gsa-king-tomato-farm
H/T Deli Grossery

Punjabi Grocery & Deli

A two-dollar go-bag of pakoras; the fan-driven in-house photo gallery (detail); the view from the sidewalk, in 2007.

Punjabi Grocery & Deli
114 East 1st St. (First Ave.-Ave. A), Manhattan
212-533-3356
www.Instagram.com/PunjabiDeliNYC

Stewart's Scottish Market

Dessert first: This shortbread layer cookie was capped with vanilla icing and a candied cherry; the jam between the two cookie layers might well have been cherry, too.

Previously: There's just not much call for haggis anymore, Al Stewart told me a dozen or so years back, at least not 'round here. The owner of this specialty store for Scottish, Irish, and English chow added that he still turns out meat pies on a regular basis; sausages, somewhat less often; haggis, only occasionally. (One such occasion is before Robert Burns's birthday, on January 25.) But even plucked from the freezer, sliced haggis — ground lamb with beef liver and kidney, oatmeal, plus onion and other seasonings, stuffed by Stewart's in a natural casing — fries up nicely for brekkie.

Stewart's Scottish Market (previously Stewart's of Kearny, as shown below)
338 Kearny Ave. (Halstead St.-Garfield Ave.), Kearny, New Jersey
201-991-1436
www.StewartScottishMarket.com
Closed Sunday

D'Vine Taste

Chocolate flatka, cut from a sheet — "like babka, but flat," said the fellow who served me.

D'Vine Taste
150 Seventh Ave. (Garfield Pl.-Carroll St.), Park Slope, Brooklyn
718-369-9548

Archie's Corner

At this jack-of-all-trades corner store, the candies didn't seem to have as much turnover as the cigars, but, hey, 25 cents.

Archie's Corner
562 Elizabeth Ave. (at 6th St.), Elizabeth, New Jersey
908-354-0274