A sampler with pistachios (on the house), as much as I dared allow myself on a serendipitous first stop of the afternoon.
Damascus Sweets
677 Morris Park Ave. (Victor St.-White Plains Rd.), Morris Park, Bronx
347-621-2791
www.Facebook.com/DamascusSweetsNY
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Bruce and Mark Becker of Max & Mina's Ice Cream, in Kew Gardens Hills, Queens, have a repertoire of more than 10,000 flavors (not all at once, of course); the current house favorite reflects the shop's wildly diverse decor. Read more on Culinary Backstreets.
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At a glance, you might almost mistake it for a flat cupcake. Leske's celebrated black-and-white cookie (also shown below, moments earlier) was an unexpectedly gooey pleasure on a fat, spongy base. More recently: a peach danish.
Leske's Bakery (shown in 2008)
7612 Fifth Ave. (76th-77th Sts.), Bay Ridge, Brooklyn
718-680-2323
www.Facebook.com/LeskesBakery
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Outside a shuttered stall labled simply "Old fashioned Coney Island food," Coney Island, Brooklyn
Pinball-action artwork by Tats Cru, 2005
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"Bolis," a name for Mexican ice pops in a bag, might be both singular and plural (or perhaps uncountable, like "ice cream"). Whether you unknot the top or flip the bag and and slice the bottom — the pulp of nanche, a golden, cherry-size Latin American fruit and my chosen flavor, tends to settle — things will get messy, unavoidably.
Bolis vendor
Pushcart-mounted cooler on Fifth Ave. near the southwest corner with 47th St., Sunset Park, Brooklyn
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"Let's send together to Kyrgysztan" is the message in the window at the Brighton Beach location of this worldwide chain. Singling out the Central Asian country — even if the spelling does transpose the "s" and the "z" of the much more common "Kyrgyzstan" — raises an interesting prospect.
We'd imagine that Ria, which was founded in New York in 1987 and now comprises a network with locations in more than 150 countries, fine-tunes its marketing efforts by keeping well-informed on local demographics. In this neighborhood I'd noted an uptick of businesses with roots in Georgia, and later in Uzbekistan. Can we hope for another Kyrgyz restaurant sometime soon?
See also my thoughts while perusing the newsstand in Canarsie.
Ria Money Transfer
709 Brighton Beach Ave. (Brighton 2nd St.-Brighton 3rd St.), Brighton Beach, Brooklyn
(One of many locations)
855-355-2141
www.RiaMoneyTransfer.com/us/en
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"Wuhan style cool noodle" was the one menu item whose name (English name, that is) suggested a regional cuisine. I loved the chewiness of the thin noodles, even as I despaired of identifying all the toppings, and I was surprised by the accompanying cup of soup — chilled, lightly sweet mung bean soup. The chef-owner himself does come from Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province in central China, according to a lady who placed her own order a few minutes later.
She also pointed out that the first item on the menu, "hot dry noodle" (热干面, rè gān miàn) is Wuhan's emblematic dish; her husband "has them every day." On a recent visit, after passing a mandatory temperature check at the food-court entrance and later stripping the takeout trappings from my order, so did I.
Heat Noodle
New World Mall food court, stall 10
136-20 Roosevelt Ave. (Main-Union Sts.), Flushing, Queens
917-908-0908
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Drab, but only in looks: gaap kai buu, a shard of coconut husk filled with mud crab, shrimp paste, and coconut, the first course in a seafood-centered "Golden Mermaid" set menu. Also shown, in the photo at the bottom of this post: the modest entrance to this Thai restaurant. Again, looks might deceive.
Previously, beginning with the first photo that follows: The dark red dollop of nam prik narohk, literally "chili paste from hell," is one of a family of Thai condiments with various consistencies and temperaments. At Little Serow this particular nam prik was prepared from catfish, tamarind, and chilies; ultimately, it wasn't so hellish. Alongside is khaep muu, introduced by my server as housemade Thai "chicharrones."
In normal times, Little Serow (rhymes with "arrow") serves only a single set menu of Northern Thai dishes, updated weekly. Since no substitutions are made on the fly, any accommodations of non-Thai palates and sensibilities must be made up front. A nam prik might not be prepared at its most fiery; a traditional Thai snack of deep-fried pork skin is assigned a more familiar Latin American name. On my visit, fermented funk was entirely absent, though seemingly it reared its pungent head when the set menu was revised for a later week.
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Mitchell Schorr, 2020
Detail of a three-panel mural; part of a long-running series that seems always to include an ice cream truck
Broadway near the northwest corner with 84th St., Manhattan
www.MitchellSchorr.info
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My serving of naem khao hu muu was an upgrade. The restaurant's basic version of this Laotian salad includes crispy coconut rice, pig ear, sour pork, peanut, banana flower, lime, scallion, and cilantro, to be wrapped in leafy bindles by the diner; "hu muu" denotes the addition of pig ear in thin, chewy strips. (They're difficult to discern, even in the closeup below.) I'm not sure if this was the same version as I enjoyed some years ago at Thip Khao's sister restaurant in Falls Church. My notes from that day mention simply "nam khao," but I did describe the salad as pork-riddled.
Thip Khao
3462 14th St N.W. (Meridian Pl.-Newton St.), Washington, D.C.
202-387-5426
www.ThipKhao.com
Closed Monday
(From a visit in late winter)
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Thank you!
