Eating In Translation

Boishakhi: A Journey to Bangladesh, via Ozone Park

In New York, where many restaurants advertise an "Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi" menu and offer a bill of fare rooted in the north of India, customers not raised on Bangladeshi cuisine often conflate it with the food of its larger neighbor. As a hub for Eurasian traders for many centuries, however, Bangladesh has developed its own delicious combinations of cardamom and clove, coriander and chile pepper — and acquired a special love for river-going fish such as ilish, also known as hilsa (shown above).

Last autumn, Tozammel Tanzil and his longtime friend Khaled Khan (shown below) introduced Boishakhi, a Bangladeshi restaurant, to the southern Queens neighborhood of Ozone Park. Yet despite the temptations of ilish pulao — fatty fish and fluffy rice — opening a restaurant during the pandemic was a "big risk," says Khaled. "People don’t want to take chances on food they don’t know,” adds Tozammel. Get better acquainted on Culinary Backstreets.

GT Kingston Diner

Two Caribbean capitals are called out, separately, in the restaurant's name: "GT" as in Georgetown, the largest city of Guyana, and Kingston, its counterpart in Jamaica. My entree was plated in similar fashion. I'd hoped (while waiting in the heated, but perhaps overly enclosed, outdoor dining area) that sweet and sour shrimp fried rice would appear as a mound of rice enjeweled with tidbits of shrimp rather that rice and shrimp side by side. True, that's a greater challenge for the kitchen; my fork took up these efforts instead.

GT Kingston Diner
10908 Liberty Ave. (109th-110th Sts.), Richmond Hill, Queens
347-561-7540
www.Facebook.com/GT-Kingston-Diner-2183915811846934
Also, as GT Kingston Restaurant & Bar, at 11445 Lefferts Blvd. (Linden Blvd.-115th Ave.), Ozone Park
718-848-6006
www.GTKingston.com

Give some, take some: Ozone Park Community Fridge

Hand-painted artwork (Brandi Jones, Black Village Arts, 2020)
Outside Dave's Barber Shop & Hair Salon (that's Dave at work near the window)
13206 Liberty Ave. (132nd-133rd Sts.), South Richmond Hill, Queens
718-577-8331
https://Daves-Barber-Shop-Hair-Salon.business.site

Phagwah celebration in Richmond Hill

(Many of the fairs, festivals, and other wonderful food events that usually fill my calendar each spring have been postponed or cancelled. This post is based on celebrations in previous years.)

Phagwah (Pog-wah), an Indo-Caribbean celebration of spring, is better known as Holi in India and among the country's worldwide Hindu diaspora. It's also known as the festival of colors, which are playfully applied, generally in powdered form, to friend and stranger alike. In the parade photos shown here, anything that might look like a puff of smoke is actually a cloud of powder, which may be directed with intent or simply tossed to the shifting winds. (First-time celebrant? Don't wear your best clothes.)

Hack's Halal Restaurant

In its native Guyana, the preparation of cassareep (Cazh-uh-rip) begins with the painstaking process of extracting juice from cassava roots. The juice, boiled until thick and brownish-black and seasoned with spices, hot pepper, and brown sugar, acquires a molasses-like consistency and bittersweet flavor. Here it's lacquered over chicken.

Hack's Halal Restaurant
107-25 Liberty Ave. (107th-108th Sts.), South Richmond Hill, Queens
718-674-6418

Guyana Choice Bakery

A restaurant or bakery that prepares different items with a similar appearance often marks its wares with an in-house code, so counter staff and customers can look at the outside and tell what's inside. The crimped edges of empanadas and pastelitos, for example, can be notched and pierced in various patterns.

Guyanese table

How can you tell your bara from your pholourie? Both are fritters, made from ground chickpea flour. Bara are sometimes flattish and pan-fried, but often they are deep-fried just like pholourie, and the resulting golden orbs are almost identical in appearance. On the tabletop shown here, bags of both fritters shared the tray at front and center.

The difference between the two, said the lady of what seemed to be a husband-and-wife operation, is that pholourie consist only of fried spiced dough, while bara incorporate some sort of vegetable; these were threaded with spinach. While not a particularly rich source of greens, my bagful (five for $1) were appetizingly oily and springy. Appetizingly, literally — I was overdue for lunch.

Guyanese table
112th St. at the southwest corner with Liberty Ave., Richmond Hill, Queens
Weekends, morning till evening

Guyanese street stall

"We eat this one," the junior of the vendors told me, pointing to the paler sausage. Unlike a black pudding, a white pudding (small, $5) contains no blood. Often it's enriched by coconut milk instead, which complements rather than obscures seasonings such as basil, scallions, thyme, and garlic. Need I mention that this pudding is savory and not sweet?

And unlike the English and Irish varieties that are stiffened by oats and fried for a full breakfast, the gossamer casing of a Guyanese pudding is plumped with rice. When recently steamed or boiled, it's quite supple, suggestive of a good boudin — take up a single segment between thumb and fingers, hold it to your mouth, and squeeze.

Suggested pairing: freshly sliced chunks of pineapple (not shown; mine were courtesy of the senior vendor).

Guyanese street stall
114th St. at the northeast corner with Liberty Ave., Richmond Hill, Queens
Weekdays after 3:00; weekends from late morning

Triangle Hofbrau Restaurant

Surviving gnomelike door-minder, looking downward at the entryway of 117-19 Jamaica Ave. (on the acute triangle formed with Myrtle Ave. and 117th St.), Richmond Hill, Queens

See also this menu from 1947, which includes turtle soup, broiled shad roe, calf's head a la vinaigrette, and hasenpfeffer.

Singh's Roti Shop & Bar

It conjures up a Caribbean knish.