Eating In Translation

Chalupas Poblanas El Tlecuile

"Crispy" is a word that affixes itself to many descriptions of chalupas, especially commercial enterprises that furnish them with lettuce, tomato, and string cheese. The chalupas in this batch, shallow-fried in lard and topped with onion and shredded beef, were supple; the texture reminded me of pancakes. A better label for my half-order, sauced red and green in equal measure, would be "short stack."

Also shown: a cup of café de olla, ladled from the traditional earthenware pot (on the house). The pot and the cooktop each rest on a tlecuile, the Nahuatl word for the Spanish fogón — generally, a wood-fired hearth or stove of some sort. These tlecuiles are charcoal-fueled and, when need be, hand-fanned.

H/T Matt Shapiro

Chalupas Poblanas El Tlecuile
By the roadside at 3747 Junction Blvd. (Roosevelt-37th Aves.), Corona, Queens
718-424-3662
www.Facebook.com/Chalupas-Poblanas-El-Tlecuile-114216710342440
Friday through Sunday, 6:00-11:00, except during heavy wind or rain

Mama's Restaurant

Bangladeshi bhuna khichuri, beef with yellow lentils and rice, accompanied by the essential plate of crisp palate cleansers.

Mama's Restaurant
37-34 73rd St. (37th Ave.-Broadway), Jackson Heights, Queens
347-448-6002

TastYork

An after-lunch, after-nosh perro caliente Venezolano — a loaded Venezuelan hot dog — compliments of Jesús. Other menu items are so massive I'd need to make TastYork my first stop.

TastYork ("Tasty York")
8516 Roosevelt Ave. (Forley-Elbertson Sts.), Jackson Heights, Queens
929-312-7107
www.Instagram.com/TastYork

Son D'licias

This former ice cream truck now serves Colombian snacks; note the national colors below the service window and the flag, one of two, at the windshield. Among those snacks is a mashed-yuca fritter filled with rice and beef. While the menu labels it a pastel de yuca, Esneider Arevalo, who leads food tours in Queens for Culinary Backstreets, calls it a carimañola. I'd always thought that was a Panamanian name — but Colombia and Panama are neighbors, no?

Son D'licias
Truck parked on 82nd St. near the northwest corner with Roosevelt Ave., Jackson Heights, Queens
929-366-3738
www.Instagram.com/SonDelicias82St

Prince Kabab & Chinese Restaurant

(This venue is closed.) At our sheltered table outside this Bangladeshi-Chinese restaurant, bitter melon was the most glamorous dish; a lamb shank, the most uncompromising; goat biryani and spinach, the most indifferently plated. The potatoes were very good; indeed, they were my favorite.

Prince Kabab & Chinese Restaurant
3756 74th St. (37th Rd.-37th Ave.), Jackson Heights, Queens
718-406-9206
www.Facebook.com/pages/Prince%20Kabab%20&%20Chinese%20Restaurant/795409224161599

Puebla Sea Food

In Mexico, "atole" is a more common spelling for a hot sweetened drink with a cornmeal base, such as atole de chocolate, better known as champurrado. This restaurant pays homage to Mesoamerican roots with the Nahuatl spelling "atolli" — and to its home away from home with "I [heart] the Big Apple" to-go cups.

Puebla Sea Food
9527 Roosevelt Ave. (95th-Warren Sts.), Jackson Heights, Queens
718-672-3556
www.Facebook.com /Puebla-Sea-Food-134379806632340

Empanadas Mix

A Venezuelan hot dog — with onion, cabbage, carrot, corn, potato, pecorino, pink sauce, ketchup, and mayo — at a sidewalk table. Actual hot dog not shown.

Empanadas Mix
8103 Northern Blvd. (81st-82nd Sts.), Jackson Heights, Queens
347-935-3777
www.Instagram.com/EmpanadasMixNY

Angel Indian Restaurant

Angel has expanded its all-vegetarian menu to include meat — but at our outdoor table, we never gave a thought to passing up the kale pakoda (shown above and in the first photo that follows).

Kabu Lounge

Spanish-to-Spanish translation notwithstanding, the salteñas of Bolivia are not the empanadas of Argentina, or Colombia, or Ecuador, or anywhere else. Almost always the filling takes longer to prepare, and invariably it requires some caution to consume. In my salteña de carne, this jigote (he-Go-tay), as it's called, resembled a wet beef stew. The consistency was typical, and, for me, so was the spill; I hope my aim is always this good.

Kabu Lounge
8509 Northern Blvd. (85th-86th Sts.), Jackson Heights, Queens
718-429-0321
www.Facebook.com/Kabu.BarLounge

Cannelle Patisserie

It doesn't look like much, but surely this is the city's best strip-mall French bakery.