Eating In Translation

Teixeira's Bakery

It's not unusual for baked goods to be given names evoked by their appearance; consider, for example, Guatemala's "chicken." The folded spongecake of Portugal's lencinho (len-See-nyo) is likewise suggestive, but an oozy pastry cream filling belies the name, "handkerchief."

Thanks to Ethnojunkie for the treat. When I pointed out my chosen indulgence, I'd utterly forgotten my previous post from this bakery, more than a decade earlier (illustrated below). It was a case of déjà vu all over again.

Teixeira's Bakery
186 Ferry St. (at Van Buren St.), Newark, New Jersey
(one of several locations)
973-344-0103

Burkindi Restaurant

In Burkina Faso, tô is a doughy paste combined with various sauces and stews — on this day, spinach-based babenda. It's finger food, but only for practiced hands (I made good use of my spoon). This halal restaurant also serves a tempting sauce arachide, or peanut sauce; in the final photo, it enrobes exquisitely tender lamb.

Burkindi Restaurant
492 Clinton Ave. (Bergen St.-Chadwick Ave.), Newark, New Jersey
973-732-3310
www.Facebook.com/Burkindis

Pão da Vida Bakery

Homesick-student hunger pains, or so the story goes, were the inspiration for the Bauru sandwich, which takes its name from a city in the Brazilian state of São Paulo. Though the original recipe calls for roast beef, a common variation (and the only style I've found in Newark) features ham as well as mozzarella, tomato, and oregano. This bakery-restaurant does offer a Bauru on the typical sliced French loaf, but the option of pão de queijo, or cheesebread (shown, $4.25) serves better as the salty centerpiece of a savory and sweet breakfast.

Also shown, a trio of cakes ($2.50-$3 each) in approximate order of increasing sweetness: bolo mandioca, made from cassava; bolo sabor vida queijo, which weds corn and cheese; and bolo gelado, a coconut-covered "chilled" cake that may remind you of a less-runny tres leches.

Pão da Vida Bakery
331 Oliver St. (Pulaski St.-Elm Rd.), Newark, New Jersey
973-810-3595
www.Facebook.com/pages/Padaria-Pao-Da-Vida/336634883145930

Caseiro e Bom

Compliments of the butcher: Ruffles sabor a presunto, Portuguese-made potato chips with dry-cured-ham flavor, which faintly echo his most celebrated stock in trade. We sampled that, too.

Caseiro e Bom
70 Pacific St. (Nichols-East Kinney Sts.), Newark, New Jersey
973-900-5385
www.CaseiroGourmetHouse.com

Brazilian Pizza

What can be a crazy quilt of curious toppings, and not the crust, distinguishes Brazilian pizzas from their New York counterparts. One of this pizzeria's 40-some named varieties, the Baiana — named for a state of northeast Brazil — was to our surpise rather modestly colored, primarily because the green olives, hardboiled eggs, and linguiça Calabresa were largely shrouded by mozzarella. In retrospect, our addition of catupiry, creamy cheese that was squiggled over half of the pie, might have been an overreach even by exuberant Baiano standards. Large pie ($19, plus $2 for the extra cheese).

Brazilian Pizza
97 Wilson Ave. (Hensler-Darcy Sts.), Newark, New Jersey
973-817-9400
www.BrazilianPizza.com

Shaved-ice cart

"Whatever you call it, I've got it" is the message implicit in this vendor's handwritten sign. As you might gather from the decal at lower right, he's from Colombia, where "raspado" is one common name for his icy confection. Raised among Puerto Ricans, he also knows it well as a "piragua"; when catering to the local Dominican community, he readily identifies his stock in trade as "frio frio".

All of his confections are built on the same granular bed of shaved ice; variations are minor. For example, the "diablito" — note the devil-horns D — is laced with a chile-spiked sauce. My "minuta" could also have taken the enchilado treatment, but the default (shown, $2) is simple: ice, tamarind, lemon.

Shaved-ice cart
Van Buren St. near the southeast corner with Ferry St., Newark, New Jersey

Las Americas Food Center

In and around New York, the most widely available style of the beverage horchata (or-Chot-ah) is made from rice, scented with cinnamon, and sweetened with sugar. But horchata isn't uniquely Mexican, and it needn't be rice-based; a recently vogueish Old World variety employs tiger nuts.

Still another variety relies on trees in the genus Crescentia, whose common names include morro, Mexican calabash (no relation to the gourd), and jícaro (Hee-cah-row). The fruit, jícara, when ripe has a thin hard shell that often is transformed into a decorative bowl or drinking vessel. The pulp is reportedly unpalatable, except to horses and cattle, but the seeds, when dried and ground, are the namesake of Gran Nevada brand horchata de morro (11 fl. oz., $1). Perhaps because this commercial product, like many homemade horchatas, incorporates cocoa and cinnamon as secondary ingredients, my overall impression was of a thinner Nesquik. For a sweltering day, it's an easygoing choice.

Las Americas Food Center
43 Fleming Ave. (at Lexington St.), Newark, New Jersey
973-589-7661

Cucuzzella's Bakery

My crumb cake ($2) was not one of the squares already cut free; given a choice, I always ask for an edge, if not a corner. Also shown: an apple turnover, courtesy of the counterman. Although summer weekends are slow, he noted, Monday through Friday remain big days for bread. Not in the morning — in late afternoon and evening, when fresh-from-the-oven Italian loaves welcome customers headed home for dinner.

Cucuzzella's Bakery
196 Jefferson St. (Warwick St.-New York Ave.), Newark, New Jersey
973-589-1646
www.Facebook.com/CucuzzellasBakery

No Pão

On wheels (from a truck) and on bread ("no pão"), flavors of Portugal: pork cutlet with smoked pork loin ($7); blood sausage pressed with tomatoes, cheese, and sauteed onions ($9). Both take well to the chef's aioli, but a dash of his housemade hot sauce is the clincher.

No Pão
Various locations in Jersey City and Hoboken, New Jersey
201-803-5209
www.Facebook.com/MyNoPao
On this afternoon, at the Rotary Club of Jersey City Food Truck Festival
Grundy Pier, at the foot of Montgomery St. near Exchange Place, Jersey City
www.JerseyCityRotary.org /Stories/ftf2016
(The 2016 festival was held on August 6)

Bobby's Restaurant

Two contrary maxims whispered in my ear as I surveyed the countertop display of desserts. Look for the latest arrivals, said the first, but under their glass domes four other cakes — pound, yellow chocolate, German chocolate, an as-yet-unsliced coconut — seemed equally fresh. Well then, said the second, why not follow the lead of the locals? Here's where they'd left their marks: lemon cake (slice, $3.75).

Bobby's Restaurant (a.k.a. Bobby's Authentic Southern Cuisine)
272 Lyons Ave. (Aldine St.-Clinton Pl.), Newark, New Jersey
973-923-2425
www.BobbysFamousSoulFood.com
Closed Monday