Eating In Translation

Schmidt's Candy: Perfectly Imperfect

The charming sign outside Schmidt's Candy speaks eloquently, especially when we look closer. The words "home" and "made" frame a tall glass candy jar; we notice the slight irregularity of the brushstrokes, and we see that the candy jar is a bit out of true, as are the colorful candies inside it. Obviously the sign was painted by hand, and lovingly so. That theme continues inside the shop, where dozens and dozens of varieties — milk and dark, filled with nuts or caramel, jellies or cherries, marzipan or pretzel, almost anything that might be dipped — huddle on chocolate-smudged platforms inside glass-and-wood cabinets. Read more on Culinary Backstreets.

Manor Delicatessen

Like most modern-day delis, this German-rooted oldtimer makes allowances for today's dining preferences. You can order from a roster of wraps and panini or top a tossed salad with grilled chicken teriyaki. Traditionalists continue to be well-served, too. Here's the "Mr. B" ($8), with roast beef, white American cheese, lettuce, tomato, and horseradish.

Manor Delicatessen
94-12 Jamaica Ave. (94th-95th Sts.), Woodhaven, Queens
718-849-2836
www.ManorDeli.com
Closed Sunday

Schmidt's Candy

Artwork is for illustration only: Many candies at Schmidt's are not nearly so regular in appearance. A peppermint pattie, to take just one example, will inevitably be lumpy and out of round, a far cry from machine-made, foil-wrapped, pucklike symmetry. But its mint flavor will be pure, free of the metallic notes that taint some brand-name patties, and well-balanced by a thick robe of dark chocolate. Hands on!

Schmidt's Candy
94-15 Jamaica Ave. (94th-95th Sts.), Woodhaven, Queens
718-846-9326
www.SchmidtsCandy.com
Closed Sunday, Monday, and during most of the summer; at other times, call ahead

Around the Clock Locksmith

From many moons ago, this two-bit dessert came to mind after a gumball-machine sighting in, of all places, a West African restaurant. (On the more recent occasion, the meal concluded instead with corn porridge and sour cream.) I think it was meant to be banana — but an actual banana changes color and texture to signal its transition from ripe to overripe to decidedly past its prime. Hardware-store gumballs, by contrast, can be made of sturdy stuff.

That said, I spotted the gumball machine inside, toward the back, only because I walked in, and I walked in because this is a nice little shop of the sort that's being squeezed out of too many New York neighborhoods. (Visit them while you can, and support them as you're able.) I manage my hardware needs closer to home, but I bought a gumball once, and I'd buy one again.

Around the Clock Locksmith
62-45 Woodhaven Blvd. (62nd Rd.-62nd Dr.), Rego Park, Queens
718-651-5400

Rico Chimi

These wheels aren't functional in the usual sense — note the leafy debris beginning to accumulate beneath the tires, which are snugged up against the facade of a brick-and-mortar building — but they aren't simply decorative, either. At one time this business was run from a food truck, with a menu that surely featured the namesake Dominican sandwich. (I've never been a big fan, myself, of the classic chimichurri, but I do have fond memories of a certain chimi burger.) As at the El Tapatio "truck" in Richmond, California, the proprietors of Rico Chimi are laying claim to street cred.

Rico Chimi
8001 Atlantic Ave. (at 80th St.), Woodhaven, Queens
347-644-5343
Also, without wheels, at 2928 Atlantic Ave. (Warwick-Ashford Sts.), Cypress Hills, Brooklyn
347-715-7272

Mama Meena's Family Restaurant

(This venue is closed.) Sago at gulaman ($2.50) is one of those tropical concoctions that can double as drink and dessert. At Mama Meena's, a Filipino restaurant whose corner premises still evoke its prior tenant, the Woodhaven Coffee Shop, it provides an apt counterpoint to the porky menu.

Indeed, in my slideshow (taken at one group meal, but shown only approximately in the order served), the first six dishes all feature pork, and several others make use of it to lesser extent. Even so, our group's sole vegetarian, by employing a situational approach to ethnic dining, did not go hungry.

El Anzuelo Fino

(Much of this post is based on visits to the Jackson Heights location of this restaurant, now closed.) Come to papa.