Eating In Translation

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

Hamro Bhim's Cafe

Even before a dab of coriander sauce or a squirt from the chili bottle, my kera momo, Nepalese banana dumplings, were savory and not sweet. At first I imagined that the filling was made from firm-fleshed, squarish burro bananas, but the truth was more prosaic — once boiled, mashed, and well-seasoned, "lunchbox bananas" serve very well.

Previously: Bhutton, prepared by this Nepali restaurant using either goat or chicken, is scarcely attributed online, at least in English. The word seems to be a cognate of bhutua, or bhutuwa, a dish of slow-cooked organ meats served in the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand, which borders Nepal. "Bhutua" means "a sharing," according to one recollection of mountain meal memories, perhaps along the survivalist lines of "whatever you've got, put in the pot." In a serving of goat bhutton (first photo below the dumplings), we've got liver and tripe, and probably other offal, too.

Also shown: spicy, dry-cooked choila buffalo, procured for takeout by the same dining buddy; a thali whose featured protein, the dark mass at the two o'clock position, was fried catfish. The bhutton that day (not included) was chicken, made with liver and gizzards.

Hamro Bhim's Cafe
74-10 37th Rd. (74th-75th Sts.), Jackson Heights, Queens
718-458-0917
www.Facebook.com/BhimsCafe

Tashi Delek Momo

Hot, said the counterman. He spoke truly.

Los Poblanos Grocery

My first sight of this grocery, in June 2017, came as I led a small tour group over (largely) familiar ground. Los Poblanos wasn't on my map, but from a distance I spotted the tubs that advertise nieves. The afternoon was hot; the group needed little persuasion to make a detour; the nieves, mango and melon, were excellent.

While passing by several months later, I saw the items shown here in an unlabeled crate outside the grocery. The manager couldn't provide a name; he said that some customers liked them but he did not, and he handed me a couple, free of charge. Each was slightly smaller than a table-tennis ball and nearly as stiff-shelled; I spent around ten minutes peeling one, first with fingernails and then with teeth. The inside seemed almost woody, and I soon tossed it in the trash; its fellow became a paperweight on my writing table.

Multiple attempts to identify it were unavailing until Margret Hefner, author of Frutas y Verduras: A Fresh Food Lover's Guide to Mexico, came across better-looking specimens in a Mexico City tianguis, a small outdoor market. The vendor called the fruit "cocoyul"; from that I identified its parent, Acrocomia aculeata, whose common name "Macaw palm" suggests that only a powerful beak, or perhaps a hammer, can crack that inner shell for a taste of the coconut-like endosperm within.

In some quarters, the fruits are reportedly mashed into a paste and fermented into an alcoholic beverage; Ms. Hefner also observed that they can also be long-cooked, in syrup, as frutas en almíbar. Perhaps I'll just leave them to the parrots.

Los Poblanos Grocery
92-19 Roosevelt Ave. (at 92nd St.), Jackson Heights, Queens
929-208-1880

Bicycle-mounted tacos de canasta vendor

Even when withdrawn from their namesake basket, tacos de canasta are hard to distinguish once their slim contents are striped by salsa. These, proffered during the after-school rush by a mobile vendor — I didn't check to see whether his kickstand was down — variously held frijoles, papa con chorizo, or chicharrón.

Bicycle-mounted tacos de canasta vendor
This afternoon, on the southwest corner of Junction Blvd. with 37th Ave., Jackson Heights, Queens

Lhasa Tibetan Restaurant

Momo on the mobile plan, or, greens to go: Steamed chive dumplings from that little Himalayan restaurant hidden behind a cell-phone store. The entrance at the street is ill-marked; when you reach the stairs that head down to the luggage store, veer right and proceed all the way to the back. If you happen upon a Burmese mini-mart instead, you've taken a wrong turn, but do have a look later.

H/T Jeff Orlick

Lhasa Tibetan Restaurant (much better known as Lhasa Fast Food)
37-50 74th St. (Roosevelt-37th Aves.), Jackson Heights, Queens
347-952-6934
www.Facebook.com/LhasaFastFood

Taqueria Coatzingo

Most closely associated with the Mexican state of Jalisco, birria is best known as a goat soup (some call it a stew). Taqueria Coatzingo prepares its birria from beef and serves it in a bowl, as the focal point of a platter, atop tacos, and even in the archetypal sandwich from the city of Puebla. For some reason this fully loaded cemita de birria de res is absent from the published menu; perhaps the weight of public acclaim will bear on the next printing.

H/T Food and Footprints

Taqueria Coatzingo
76-05 Roosevelt Ave. (76th-77th Sts.), Jackson Heights, Queens
718-424-1977

Nepali Bhanchha Ghar

From the sidewalk the seating area seems tiny. It's within enticing range of the cookers at this Nepali "kitchen home" but also exposes staff and patrons to periodic sub-Himalayan gusts from the front door. Descend to the foot of the narrow stairway, however, and you'll discover a not-quite-banquet-sized dining room and a momo-making station, too. Best bite: bhuttun, made, I believe, from goat. See also the version of this offal-laden dish as prepared at nearby Hamro Bhim's.

Nepali Bhanchha Ghar
74-06 37th Rd. (74th-75th Sts.), Jackson Heights, Queens
929-522-0625
www.Facebook.com/Nepali-Bhansa-Gar-1679469442331104