Eating In Translation

Nurlan Restaurant

As served by Nurlan, a Uyghur restaurant across the street from Flushing's botanical garden, da pan ji lives up to its Chinese name — literally, "big plate chicken." But beneath are ribbonlike belt noodles (second photo), and when both chicken and noodles are gone (third photo), the plate is still enticing. They have a bread for that.

Previously, the comfort of SpaghettiOs without the Os: ding-ding laghman, fat noodles sliced into spoonable nubbins. For more photos, see my collection on Flickr.

H/T Sam Oppenheim

Nurlan Restaurant
4339 Main St. (Dahlia-Elder Aves.), Flushing, Queens
718-987-9878

Meal Mart

Like the smaller nokedli, the soft, potato-based dumplings called nudli have their roots in Hungary and in the western parts of present-day Romania. Sweet versions, shrouded in ground poppy seeds and sugar, are still prepared in the old country; in the kosher shops of Kew Garden Hills, Queens, where these dumplings are known as shlishkes, the readily available style is savory, coated in breadcrumbs. Shlishkes function as a side dish and are meant to be served hot, but sneaking a few before you get home won't hurt.

Also shown, and likewise beloved in the same homelands: noodles with cabbage.

Meal Mart
72-10 Main St. (72nd Ave.-72nd Dr.), Kew Gardens Hills, Queens
718-261-3300
www.MealMartOnMainStreet.com
Also at 1920 Ave. M (Ocean Ave.-East 19th St.), Midwood, Brooklyn
718-998-0800
www.MealMart1920.com
(Two of many locations)

Friendship BBQ

In the company of well-seasoned Chinese skewers, vegetables at Friendship BBQ are assertive, too, sometimes almost inartfully so. Shown: garlic okra, garlic eggplant, spicy cumin lotus root — and a shrimp, before its body was laid to waste and its head, sucked clean.

Friendship BBQ
13676 39th Ave. (Main-Union Sts.), Flushing, Queens
347-542-3909
www.FriendshipBBQ.com

Cupid Cheese Fruit Cake

Warm cheese mellows durian, even the double dose offered by the "super" pie shown here. (Joe DiStefano has made a similar observation regarding durian pizza). On a recent food crawl with a dozen friends — none who loves the pungent "king of fruits" as I do, but all of them game to try something new — this ready-sliced pie disappeared as quickly as any other dish.

H/T Rich Sanders, Ethnojunkie

Cupid Cheese Fruit Cake
New York Food Court
133-35 Roosevelt Ave. (Prince St.-College Point Blvd., stall 18), Flushing, Queens
917-908-0383
www.Chowbus.com/menu/Cupid%20Cheese%20Fruit%20Cake/1702

Super HK Food Court closed until further notice

Someone forgot to tell a tankful of large gaping fish, but everyone else seemed to have pretty much cleared out. This food court, which replaced a mini-mall in the basement of the Super HK market, opened in November 2018 with some two dozen stalls. The original vendors served food from Shaanxi, Jiangnan, Shaxian, Wenzhou, Lanzhou, Shanghai, Sichuan, and Taiwan; a recent addition served Uyghur cuisine native to China's Northwest.

The market on the ground floor remains open (and busy). The sibling HK Food Court, in Elmhurst, remains open, too, although only half of its stalls are occupied. Beyond the language of the sign itself — "until further notice" — at the moment I can't offer more.

Super HK Food Court
3711 Main St. (37th-38th Aves., in the basement of a like-named supermarket), Flushing, Queens (currently closed)
HK Food Court
8202 45th Ave. (82nd-83rd Sts.), Elmhurst, Queens (currently open)

Heat Noodle

"Wuhan style cool noodle" was the one menu item whose name (English name, that is) suggested a regional cuisine. I loved the chewiness of the thin noodles, even as I despaired of identifying all the toppings, and I was surprised by the accompanying cup of soup — chilled, lightly sweet mung bean soup. The chef-owner himself does come from Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province in central China, according to a lady who placed her own order a few minutes later. She pointed out that the first item on the menu, "hot dry noodle" (热干面, rè gān miàn) is Wuhan's emblematic dish; her husband "has them every day."

Heat Noodle
New World Mall food court, stall 10
136-20 Roosevelt Ave. (Main-Union Sts.), Flushing, Queens
917-908-0908

Uyghur Apandi Food

Nan kordak paired crusty bread with stewed lamb and vegetables. Kuurdak, as commonly spelled, can be prepared with lamb organs instead, or with other meats except pork. (This stall, like many Central Asian kitchens in New York, keeps halal.) Swap in chicken for the lamb, and belt noodles for the bread, and you'd have da pan ji.

Also shown: home-style lagman, likewise with lamb.

Uyghur Apandi Food
Super HK food court, stall 7
3711 Main St. (37th-38th Aves., beneath Super HK supermarket), Flushing, Queens
917-476-2612
(I've also spotted a like-named food cart on Prince St. near 39th Ave.; that day the proprietor planned to open in midafternoon)

Meiling Snacks

This steamed roll, at first glance, might seem to cradle well-cooked mini-franks. In fact, those are fruits. Jujubes, when first ripe, have a taut skin, often yellow-green patched in brown, and an apple-like crispness and flavor. Mature, they wrinkle, sweeten, and take on a mahogany color that suggests another common name, Chinese dates. (Mind the little pits.) Although just seven jujubes are in sight, you likely know that Chinese cultures accord good fortune to the number eight, a homophone for "prosperity." Sure enough, one more jujube was concealed deep within the folds.

Meiling Snacks (美龄小吃)
136-21 Roosevelt Ave. (Main-Union Sts., inside a mini-mall), Flushing, Queens

Chinese taffy vendor

For want of a proper name, I'll call this street food "Chinese taffy." Despite the crushed peanuts, it's not out-and-out sweet (note the bit of green), nor is it fully savory. It is, however, fresh enough to droop under its own weight.

H/T Joe DiStefano, Chopsticks and Marrow

Chinese taffy vendor
This afternoon, on the west side of Main St. between 41st Rd. and Sanford Ave., Flushing, Queens

Sangza vendor

Also transliterated as sanzi (with a near-identical pronunciation), these fried dough twists are a common street food and teatime snack in China's Xinjiang province. Sangza have also migrated, with the Hui and Uyghur minorities, elsewhere in China and, lately, to Flushing's Chinatown.

I've come across two street vendors, in fact, who sell sangza a few blocks south of the Flushing-Main St. 7 train terminus. One, a man who sells long, doubled-over strands, sits on a stool beside a wire pushcart, the sort that often carries groceries or laundry instead. The other, a woman, makes do with a less elaborate setup. She perches on a large white tub that might once have held MSG, and bags of her two-bite dough twists — they're crunchy, and a little sweet — are framed in the upturned lid of a cardboard box. She seems grateful for business.

Sangza vendor
This afternoon, on Main St. near the southwest corner with Sanford Ave., Flushing, Queens