(This venue is closed.) Tocino — sweet cured pork, Filipino style, with a vinegar dip — headliner of a breakfast that also included less photogenic sinangag, or garlic fried rice; itlog, egg; and slices of tomato, too.
H/T Kim, @garsleat
Bilao
1437 First Ave. (74th-75th Sts.), Manhattan
212-650-0010
www.BilaoNYC.com
Székelykáposzta (Say-keh-lee-kah-pohs-tah), pork-rich cabbage stew. Idle at noon, the ladles were busy minutes later, when services concluded at the Hungarian Reformed Church down the block.
Hungarian House Christmas Fair
Hungarian House of New York, 213 East 82nd St. (Second-Third Aves.), Manhattan
www.Facebook.com/events/784703778669241
(The 2019 fair was held on December 8)
Fonio is versatile. A small-grained, slightly nutty variety of millet, fonio (Phone-yo) is a staple at several of New York's West African steam tables, often as a humble stand-in for white rice.
Fonio can also be transformed by the kitchen. At chef Pierre Thiam's new restaurant Teranga, my vegetarian plate included jollof fonio (lower left), cooked in spiced tomato broth. Beside it were a black-eyed pea salad (upper left); yassa, a caramelized onion sauce (center); and ndambe, a stew of sweet potatoes and black-eyed peas (lower right). The best and most boldly colored dish (upper right) paired the sub-Saharan grain with a root vegetable more accustomed to cooler climes: beet and fonio salad.
Also shown: the amply stocked shelves of The Africa Center's reading room.
Teranga
1280 Fifth Ave. (at 110th St., inside The Africa Center), Manhattan
www.ItsTeranga.com
Closed Monday
What does traditional lace-making have in common with traditional nokedli-making?
The first was demonstrated, at a past festival, by Hövej, Hungary-born craftswoman Mrs. István Szigethy; the latter was evidenced that afternoon by E&Z Catering of Holmdel, New Jersey. (The most painstaking part of the prep work had been conducted offsite.) Both crafts require practiced, patient fingers; to no surprise, both are rarer in New York than once they were. Below, from 2015: nokedli with chicken paprikás; from 2017, with disznópörkölt, or pork stew. Also shown from that latter event: rakott krumpli, a casserole of potato, egg, and sausage.
Hungarian Heritage Festival Street Fair
Inside and outside Magyar Ház, 213 East 82nd St. (Second-Third Aves.), Manhattan
www.HungarianHouse.org/en/event/hungarian-heritage-festival-street-festival
(The 2017 street fair was held on September 9)
(This post is based on a visit to the restaurant's former, First Ave., location.) Peng's chef hails from Hebei, the Chinese province that surrounds Beijing and Tianjin, but menu categories such as ramen, donburi, and sake by the bottle point farther east, to Japan. Perhaps this culinary connection explains the name of the noodles in sesame paste cold banmen ($12). At Chinese restaurants, "banmian" is a much more common transliteration. Sesame paste, which often denotes an all-embracing texture, was introduced by a cool thin sauce into which noodles and vegetables — green soy bean and red radish, ribbons of scallion and pencils of cucumber — could be stirred and invigorated.
Also shown: dessert. This, too, was chilled.
H/T Alex Cone (by private communication)
Peng's Noodle Folk
1016 Lexington Ave. (72nd-73rd Sts.), Manhattan
929-391-3950
www.PengsNoodleFolk.com
Previously the soups of the day were served in rotation — literally, as the lady of the shop demonstrated by swiveling the golden pointer in the center of the sign — but lately it always seems to be time for odengguk. As at many such small markets, this Korean fish cake soup (pint, $3.50) is self-service, which might entice you to overstuff your container. Do scoop up some radish, kelp, and onion, too, but don't neglect the broth, made flavorful by a sachet of small, anchovy-like fish and suffusing all it touches. When you've eaten up, drink up.
K.Y. Grocery (a.k.a. K.Y. Fruit & Vegetable)
1578 York Ave. (East 83rd-East 84th Sts.), Manhattan
212-861-8466
Töltöttkáposzta (above), cabbage stuffed with rice and pork, and mákos guba (below), meringue-topped poppy-seed bread pudding. The latter, served warm, was a challenge to portion out; blame the poppy seeds, or credit the server's desire to give me full measure. I undertook several minutes of photo styling (read: eating stray bits) before taking the final photo and polishing off my pudding.
Hungarian House Christmas Fair
Hungarian House of New York (a.k.a. Magyar Ház), 213 East 82nd St. (Second-Third Aves.), Manhattan
www.Facebook.com/hungarianhouse/posts/1462106823819139
(The 2016 fair was held on December 11)
Dessert, 25 cents, vocabulary lesson, free — but scattershot, since many of these names are employed in multiple communities. For example, the romanized lettering at upper right probably speaks for several Indian languages, while the Turkish "muz" could be Kurdish, too.
Clarification awaits another day. Although I made my selection, handed over a quarter, gestured for permission to take a photo — granted, with a smile — the vendor remained immersed in a mobile-phone conversation, even while meticulously wiping down the sign with a tissue in his free hand. I'm confident, however, that the "Russian bananas" at lower right are merely a figure of speech; it will be a hot time in Sochi when Dole sets up operations so far north.
Produce vendor
York Ave. near the northwest corner with 86th St., Manhattan
Business is off by 50 percent, the manager told me. In March 2014, construction of the Second Avenue Subway had dirtied the street and sidewalk, driving away many spur-of-the-moment customers. Several months later, construction barriers on the roadway added a further disincentive that has lingered for more than two years. The first photo was taken last weekend, from a passing bus.
When the Second Avenue line finally opens (New Year's Eve is the target, but not a firm one), a new 72nd St. station will begin to funnel more foot traffic to nearby businesses. The last New York City restaurant devoted solely to Burmese cuisine, however, will not be among them. Cafe Mingala, which outlived its sister restaurants on the Upper West Side and in the East Village, closed up shop several weeks ago.
Also shown, from sunnier times: the restaurant and attendant delivery bicycles in September 2008.
Cafe Mingala (closed)
1393 Second Ave. (72nd-73rd Sts.), Manhattan
The original, Upper East Side location of this century-old bakery stocks "carefully curated items to enjoy with our breads." At the newer, larger Upper West location, which also offers a coffee menu and a seating area, many suggested pairings have already been put into practice — no assembly required. To wit: fig-and-ricotta toast ($6) on multigrain bread "with a dash of honey."
Previously: A full loaf of the massive "levain locale" would tip the scales at more than six pounds. My wedge (about a pound, $5) provided the armature for not a few sandwiches, though I confess to eating several slices straight up. The levain, baked in a limited edition for the New Amsterdam Market (now closed) and risen through "100 percent natural fermentation," had a rapturous sour flavor.
Orwashers Bakery
440 Amsterdam Ave. (at West 81st St.), Manhattan
646-461-7929
Also at 308 East 78th St. (First-Second Aves.)
212-288-6569
www.Orwashers.com
Thank you!
