Eating In Translation

H Mart

(This location is closed.) In colder weather, H Mart's roasted sweet potatoes ($3.49 per pound, or $2.49 for "roasted potato normal") can warm your hands as well as your belly.

La.Sani

(This venue is closed.) Like its neighbor Chandni, which sits on the other side of Masjid Ar Rahman, La.Sani offers a steam table centered on South Asian food and, earlier in the day, a few made-to-order breakfast specials.

Arirang

(This venue is closed.) On the wall menu there's a mention only of "hand made dumpling."

No. 7 Sub

(This venue is closed.) No parmigiano in the zucchini parm? No problem.

Hyo Dong Gak

Don't keep mum, or the fried noodles and duck sauce will be trotted out.

Jin Jja Roo

All ends up in the same place.

RedFarm Stand

(This venue is closed.) I'm told it stays crisp even after a spell in the fridge.

Turntable Mad For Chicken

(This post is based on a visit to the restaurant's previous incarnation, sans "Turntable.") Though armed with the correct address, from across the avenue I saw little sign of the restaurant.

"Lunch soda lounge"

The survey website www.14to42.net asserts that this sign "very likely belonged to the Holiday Coffee Shop, located here from 1959 to 1972." The different colors of lettering suggest a "soda lounge," which has a clubby ring — and, nowadays, an alcoholic one, as in "whiskey soda" or "scotch and soda." My guess, though, is that this was the sign maker's innocent shorthand for "soda fountain," which at any decent size wouldn't fit.

Surviving painted "lunch soda lounge" sign
23 West 35th St. (Fifth-Sixth Aves.)

Chandni Restaurant

(This venue is closed.) Well met by moonlight.