Eating In Translation

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.

Unlabeled tacos al pastor stand

From daytime through dinnertime, more than a dozen Ecuadorian carts and trucks do business at the eastern edge of Jackson Heights, near the Junction Blvd. station of the 7 train. By night, many have yielded their places to Mexican street-food vendors (I've never witnessed the shift change). During one recent excursion, at least three Mexican vendors featured tacos al pastor; the pork for these was sliced from the busiest trompo.

H/T Food and Footprints

Unlabeled tacos al pastor stand
Roosevelt Ave. near the northwest corner with Junction Blvd. (outside the window of the check-cashing business), Jackson Heights, Queens
Night, certainly no earlier than 9:00

El Perro

The comically fat wad of napkins that accompanied my perro con huevos de codorníz, a quail-egg-topped Colombian hot dog with bacon, pineapple, and crushed potato chips, seemed very prudent very quickly. Thanks to a quartet of sauces — ketchup, pink sauce, mayo, and mustard — the eggs slid this way and that, even as the chips affixed themselves to my fingers. The "super hamburguesa" at this tiny, family-run business, I also noted, sports not two eggs, but three.

El Perro
8026 Northern Blvd. (80th-81st Sts.), Jackson Heights, Queens
718-424-0763
www.Facebook.com/YeisyRoberts

Tamales Peruanos Doña Fela

Moments earlier, this takeaway container held several skewers of anticuchos — slices of marinated, grilled beef heart. If I had tarried much longer, I would have been left with little more than the boiled papas in back. Even for meat-and-potato lovers, first things first.

Tamales Peruanos Doña Fela
Street cart on the north side of Roosevelt Ave. between 89th and 90th St., Jackson Heights, Queens
347-456-4300
www.Facebook.com/Tamales-Peruanos-Doña-Fela-118244475558301
Weekend mornings and afternoons only; anticuchos from about 1:00 till sold out

Fuska House

"Bharta" (Bur-tuh), however it might be transliterated from Bengali script, almost always refers to some sort of "mashed" Bangladeshi dish. At restaurants they are generally prepared in advance, displayed behind glass, and doled out in small portions; the flavors are potent.

At this street cart, the name is "vorta." Fuska House offers three varieties, made to order, featuring mango, peara (that is, guava), or a mix of the two, shown here. For these raw-fruit vortas, no mashing is involved — just slicing, seasoning, serving, and ultimately finger-licking.

Fuska House
Street cart on 37th Ave. near the northeast corner with 73rd St., Jackson Heights, Queens
646-479-4912
www.Facebook.com/DeshiShadFood
Seven days, early afternoon till about midnight

Tong

This Bangladeshi street cart prepares its own crisp shells for fuchka (Foosh-kah) and fills them with well-seasoned chickpeas. Here the shells are hard to see under a litter of grated hardboiled egg.

Tong
Street cart on 73rd St. near the northeast corner with 37th Ave., Jackson Heights, Queens
929-257-6996
www.Facebook.com/BangladeshiStreetFoods
Tuesday through Sunday, midafternoon till about midnight

Adela's Cafe

Cuenca, a city in Ecuador's southern highlands, owes its greatest culinary fame to the Lenten soup fanesca, but mote pillo (Moh-tay Pee-yo) might run a close second. This breakfast favorite consists of eggs scrambled with hominy in the presence of onion, garlic, and cilantro; in my experience mote pillo is quite mild without the intervention of hot sauce. Also shown below, from the same Christmastime visit: a "toro Navideño."

From a previous holiday season: Literally a "bread baby," Ecuador's guagua de pan is a sweet bread prepared in anticipation of Día de los Difuntos. This "Day of the Deceased," observed throughout the Andes on November 2, is less well-known in the United States than Día de Muertos, the Mexican "Day of the Dead." However, the holiday bread itself, compared with Mexico's pan de muerto, is often more elaborately decorated. My guagua de pan, in Ecuadorian yellow, blue, and red, was a modest example. A hot spiced purplish beverage called colada morada is the traditional pairing; reportedly, dunking is encouraged.

Adela's Cafe
94-01 37th Ave. (94th-95th Sts.), Jackson Heights, Queens
917-396-4106

Nepali Bhanchha Ghar: Momo Champ

True, this autumn Nepali Bhanchha Ghar (Bahn-sah Gar) celebrated another victory in New York City's annual Momo Crawl. Without fanfare, however, on a typical morning you're more likely to find owner Yamuna Shrestha preparing sukhi roti, a flatbread that she herself rolls out, griddles, and then briefly touches, top and bottom, to an open flame. Read more about this "home kitchen" for the food of Nepal on Culinary Backstreets.

Los Cafetales Bakery & Restaurant

When in Queens, ask for helado (eh-Lah-doe) and you might get ice cream, but that common translation from the Spanish — literally, the name means "frozen" — also embraces housemade ice pops. My milk ice, from this Colombian bakery-restaurant, was an helado de chicle (Chee-clay), which I had hoped, perhaps unreasonably, might offer some of the chewiness and elastic consistency of certain Middle Eastern ice creams. Instead it sported the color and flavor, but not the texture, of bubble gum; the payload at the bottom seemed to have been a pair of malted-milk balls. Next time: helado de mango biche.

Los Cafetales Bakery & Restaurant
7811 Roosevelt Ave. (78th-79th Sts.), Jackson Heights, Queens
718-255-1922

Mexican ices vendor

The nieve code: Colored hand towels identify tubs filled with flamboyant Mexican ices. Clockwise from right, they signify limón, tamarindo, piña, guayaba, melón, and (partially tucked away) mango. Also shown: my guava ice, in bubblegum pink.

Mexican ices vendor
North side of Roosevelt Ave. between 88th and 89th Sts., Jackson Heights, Queens
Daily, afternoons