Eating In Translation

Burmese counter inside New King's Fruit

(This venue is closed; the grocery that housed it is still a going concern.) I could grow to love the smell of mohinga in the morning.

Drying leaves

Downwind of a private garden that threatened to overgrow its chain-link and wooden-lath framework; species and culinary use unknown.

Drying leaves
Homecrest, Brooklyn

Laundromat (and, once, Cafe)

Items neglected longer than 30 months may be discontinued. I took this photo several years ago but never did find time for ice cream, Italian ice, coffee, or milk tea. The laundromat has since focused on its core competency, though one can still grab a cold drink from the fridge. See also the erstwhile Tri-Thai Cuisine.

Laundromat (and, once, Cafe)
1244 Ave U. (East 13th St.-Homecrest Ave.), Homecrest, Brooklyn

Kowloon Island

The name "Kowloon" — it's part of Hong Kong — means "nine dragons." And indeed this first, elaborate character in the restaurant's Chinese name, embellished with a head and tail, seems to be "loon," that is, "dragon." The balance of the characters, citing a southern Chinese province not far away, read "remember Guangdong cuisine." Perhaps "Guangdong cuisine the way you remember it" is more the connotation.

How Kowloon, a peninsula, might have been cut free from the Chinese mainland — at least in the translated, English name — I can't say.

Kowloon Island
1232 Ave. U (Homecrest Ave.-East 13th St.), Homecrest, Brooklyn
718-336-2338

Coney Island Bialys and Bagels

Onion bialy (95 cents).

Coney Island Bialys and Bagels
2359 Coney Island Ave. (Aves. T-U), Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn
718-339-9281
www.Bialys.com

Taste of Georgia

As at many Georgian shops there's a glassed-in display of assorted salads, but the focus is on the bread; the single word in Georgian script, at the center of the awning, means "bakery." And though it employs a traditional stone oven to prepare several varieties of khachapuri, the elongated bread called shoti seems to be the best-seller. A brace of shoti are pictured on the awning, and inside, behind the counter, they were racked like cordwood.

Taste of Georgia
1637 East 18th St. (Kings Highway-Quentin Rd.), Homecrest, Brooklyn
718-336-5556

Riga Food Market

"Condensed milk," said the counterman, when I asked what was inside these walnut-shaped cookies.

Efe Market

Here's a brand name that comes right to the point.