Eating In Translation

Mr. Mango

Guarapo (wah-Rah-poh) — sugarcane juice fresh-pressed by the proprietor, deftly strained into a cup that's filled to the brim, served cold with a little lime — isn't much to look at. The sign itself is more eye-catching. It's busy with detail, but the labor of the farmer is front and center. "Leonard," the artist, was already in his 90s when he accepted this commission three years ago, according to Cuban-born Mr. Mango; he has since retired from sign-painting.

Mr. Mango
Roadside fruit stand and juice kiosk, 4209 Hudson Ave. (42nd-43rd Sts.), Union City, New Jersey
Open Monday to Saturday, April to November

Union City Home Center

Warm-weather entertainment centers for sale: cajas Chinas (Chee-nahs), for cooking meat, particularly pig, and mesas de domino, because the roasting box can't be rushed.

Union City Home Center
3801 Bergenline Ave. (at 38th St.), Union City, New Jersey
201-864-8576

Kreyol Flavor

No cod to be had: Morue was listed on the menu but absent from the display of Haitian patties. Here's herring instead.

Kreyol Flavor
8221 Flatlands Ave. (East 82nd-East 83rd Sts.), Canarsie, Brooklyn
718-975-7488
(one of several locations)

Melanie's Roti

We'd dropped in for lunch at a West African restaurant but learned that food wouldn't be ready till midafternoon. Good thing we had Caribbean backup, a few blocks away, to provision us with pepper shrimp, goat curry, and bunjal duck. The last is a sort of Guyanese dry curry, cooked down yet still moist, as evidenced by the emptied plate.

Melanie's Roti
1248 Castle Hill Ave. (at Newbold Ave.), Unionport, Bronx
718-409-1088
www.MelaniesRotiGrillRestaurant.com

Teta's Kitchen

Chicken soup looked great, but the improbably young-looking teta ("grandma," in Lebanon) advised me that I could order a bowl any day. If I had room for just one dish, was the thought, better make it a special: beef-stuffed peppers over rice.

H/T Pao & Cha Cha

Teta's Kitchen
28-02 21st St. (28th-29th Aves.), Astoria, Queens
718-777-0106
www.Instagram.com/TetasKitchenNYC

New York-area food events, April 11-18

Heating Up History: An Exploration of Spice, Hot Sauce, and Immigrant Foods
Thursday, April 11, 6:30-8:00
Brooklyn Historical Society, 128 Pierrepont St. (at Clinton St.), Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn
www.Eventbrite.com/e/heating-up-history-an-exploration-of-spice-hot-sauce-and-immigrant-foods-tickets-52725472307
General admission: $10

Notes from a Young Black Chef
Thursday, April 11, 7:30-8:30
Books Are Magic, 225 Smith St. (at Butler St.), Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn
www.Facebook.com/events/360198541236375
Free admission

Opening day: Smorgasburg WTC
Friday, April 12, 11:30-7:00
Westfield World Trade Center, Oculus Plaza, Manhattan
www.Smorgasburg.com
Free admission

200 Gram Noodles

Street vendors in Chongqing, said my server, often serve noodles "200 grams" at a time. Customers call out this order from their seats, he added, pointing to a photo that depicted precarious plastic stools (I remember them well from Vietnam). At this recently arrived Flushing restaurant, "local flavor noodles" evoke the chef's previous home; sturdy tables and chairs are a welcome modification. Also shown: an amuse-bouche of duck foot and necks; condiments; brown sugar jelly.

200 Gram Noodles
36-26 Union St. (37th Ave.-Northern Blvd.), Flushing, Queens
347-732-4419
https://200-Gram-Noodles.business.site

Honey Bee's Kitchen

This might be the first restaurant that I found by visiting a bakery. Usually the flow of information is the other way around: I've identified many local purveyors by perusing the point-of-purchase display at neighborhood restaurants, and at markets, too. (Even when items are unlabeled, often it's possible to learn something about the people behind them.) I knew of Honey Bee's only from a distribution list on the website of the Nigerian bakery Naira Bread. The online list has been removed, but, when a dining buddy and I visited Honey Bee's for lunch, we found a rack of cushy Naira loaves leaning against the refrigerator case.

Shown above: ayamase sauce, more of a chunky stew fattened with "assorted meat," stockfish, and a hardboiled egg. At odds with the restaurant's motto, "ounje dun bi oyin" — Yoruba for "food is sweet like honey" — ayamase has a very spicy reputation. After we'd placed our order, the chef-owner sent the waitress back to caution us; despite our assurances, our serving probably contained a higher-than-usual proportion of bell pepper to habanero. Traditionally ayamase is served with ofada rice, a heritage blend not available this day; we made do with white.

Also at our table: peppered snail; a suya amuse-bouche; gizdodo; gbegiri and ewedu with amala and croaker.

Honey Bee's Kitchen
9322 Ave. L (East 93rd-East 94th Sts.), Canarsie, Brooklyn
718-975-2006
www.Facebook.com/HoneyBeesKitchen

Malai Ice Cream

Intensity of hue isn't always a guide to intensity of flavor. With rare exception, Malai's ice creams employ an undersaturated palette befitting the decor (also shown below). Yet the flavors, as in this twosome of masala chai and carrot halwa, are bright and clean.

Malai Ice Cream
268 Smith St. (Sackett-Degraw Sts.), Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn
347-889-5789
www.Malai.co

Provence in Vientiane

Developed in Provence a century ago, pétanque is popular throughout the former French Indochina. The sport resembles lawn bowling, but without the lawn, and without the footwork — both feet are planted during the throw. In the words of the T-shirt worn by the player at right, "same same but different." Also shown: another Provençal transplant, neaby, with a less than traditional menu.

Provence in Vientiane
From a November 2006 visit to the capital of Laos