Eating In Translation

Queens Village Community Fridge

Hand-painted artwork (Brandi Jones, Black Village Arts, 2020)
Outside God's Gospel Cafe
19011 Hollis Ave. (99th Ave.-191st St.), Hollis, Queens
718-413-7177
www.GGCafe.org
www.Instagram.com/QVCommunityFridge

Rib Shack

These come from higher on the hog — or at least higher on the GI tract — than chitterlings. Compared with those sometimes rubbery pieces of pork intestine, hog maws are firmer. Both varieties of offal must be well washed, but hog maws, cut from the muscular wall of the stomach after the lining has been removed, are less likely to retain unpleasant alimentary aromas. Mine had a pleasant vinegar flavor that I accented with just a splash of hot sauce.

Suggested chaser: peach or apple cobbler. Also consider watermelon, in season, from H. Huston & Sons Produce Plus, next door.

Rib Shack (shown in 2010, and little changed)
157-06 Linden Blvd. (157th-158th Sts.), Jamaica, Queens
718-659-7000
www.Facebook.com/pages/Rib%20Shack/113121468750994

Patmar Bake Shop

This West Indian grater cake (purchased at Patmar, but with a label, not shown, from Steph's in Canarsie, Brooklyn) is essentially a sugar-and-coconut drop cookie. Despite the bullseye (just food coloring), it's much easier to nibble the edges first.

Patmar Bake Shop
20507 Linden Blvd. (205th St.-Francis Lewis Blvd.), St. Albans, Queens
718-341-0900
www.Facebook.com/pages/Patmar%20Bake%20Shop%20Inc/116216551739317

Asian Foods

The label called it suman malagkit; the receipt, biko bibingka. The gist: Filipino sticky rice cake topped with caramelized coconut cream, from a turo-turo and grocery. My takeout plastic fork was overmatched.

Asian Foods
8335 Parsons Blvd. (84th Rd-Grand Central Pkwy.), Jamaica Hills, Queens
718-658-3841
www.Facebook.com/pages/Asian-Foods/205179066192198

Philippine Famous

Tuna in coconut milk, part of a Filipino combo that also included rice, a side of bitter melon, and a can of soda that I plucked from the fridge.

Philippine Famous
8330 Parsons Blvd. (Hoover-Coolidge Aves.), Briarwood, Queens
718-526-3760
www.Facebook.com/Philippine-Famous-257574738183791

Roti Paradise

Already two lunches to the good, I passed up an attractive steam table — I'll return for the mixed-offal curry called pachownie — but spotted a curious dessert. Vermicelli cake, like Indian payasam and similar sweets in Pakistan and Trinidad, is prepared with noodles that have been simmered in milk and sugar, and flavored with spices or extracts. This Guyanese confection, however, is cooked down to a thicker consistency, then cooled until firm enough to cut, and to carry away on an afternoon walk. Some versions incorporate raisins or currants; mine took on a pinkish cast from maraschino cherries.

Roti Paradise
21151 Jamaica Ave. (Hollis Ct. Blvd.-212th St.), Queens Village, Queens
718-776-1112
www.Facebook.com/Roti-Paradise-Restaurant-986106931598425

LakFood

The Sri Lankan neighborhood of Jamaica, Queens, is much more attenuated than its counterpart on Staten Island. If a market crawl is unfeasible in this neck of the woods, head to LakFood for the likes of vacuum-packed sailfish, ground coffee spiced with coriander, ginger, and cardamom, and a ten-pack of sesame jaggery sweets. Their percentage of unrefined cane juice is not too high; unwrapped, the depth-charge-shaped confections are not sugar bombs as you might fear.

On weekends only, the market — which has doubled in size and made over its facade since I took my photo, in 2013 — fills a keep-hot cabinet with buns and cutlets (croquettes). Fillings include mutton (goat), onion, and in my case fish. Figure on spicy.

LakFood
88-01 182nd Pl. (near Hillside Ave.) Jamaica, Queens
347-949-5137
www.Facebook.com/LakFood-186836845375607

Vintage Curry

(This venue is closed.) Dum pakht (or dum pukht) is a means of slow-cooking under tight seal. Often a strip of wheat dough weds the cooking vessel to its lid, encouraging the return of juices and aromas to the simmering food. For our generously seasoned lamb curry enriched with heavy cream, dough was fashioned into the lid itself. (It covered the serving vessel but probably replaced a permanent lid just before the final stages of cooking.) At the table we sliced open this now-bready lid, called a pardah ("curtain" or "veil"), and spooned our curry over rice, then employed torn bits of the pardah to swab up after.

The dum pakht technique was developed in northern India and neighboring Pakistan is but evidently well-established in the United Kingdom: Vintage Curry proclaims itself a home for "British style Indian" food and Chinese halal cooking, too.

Vintage Curry
8777 168th Pl. (Hillside-88th Aves.), Jamaica, Queens
718-206-4206

Tesser's Meat Market

We have ways of ensuring your loyalty: Tesser's roster of specialty items is uncommonly extensive and varied. But complete? No — missed it by a nose.

Tesser's Meat Market
87-84 Parsons Blvd. (Hillside-88th Aves.), Jamaica, Queens
718-523-1041

Romanian picnic at St. Andrew's Orthodox Church

Each was rolled, each had its virtues. The sarmale (sar-Mah-lay), or stuffed cabbages, featured a moist pork-and-rice filling; in its favor, my sarma was also accompanied by a generous portion of the chopped cabbage in which it had been slow-cooked. All the clătite (clah-Tee-tay) bore marks of the crepe pan, but my clătita — thanks to a guide who led me to the sanctuary of the downstairs kitchen — had cooled only for as long as was needed to spread it with jam. (Apricot.) And each, in its turn, vanished oh so quickly.

For more photos, see the EIT page on Facebook.

Romanian picnic at St. Andrew's Orthodox Church
90-34 139th St. (90th-91st Aves.), Jamaica, Queens
www.Facebook.com/sfantulandreiny /posts/1000639916733556:0
(The picnic was held on June 3, 2017)