Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

Thanks very much, Joe! As it happens, I'm headed up that way with a couple of chowhounds this week for a repeat visit, and with so many intriguing dishes to choose from, every bit of intel helps.

Do you know whether M&T's wall menu, those 60-odd strips of colored paper, duplicates or expands on the handheld menu?

"These restaurants pose one major problem; they are in neighborhoods so rich with eating possibilities that every meal is tinged with regret. ... This New Jersey beat is a real challenge."

I'm glad you're hanging in there for our benefit. Nice photos of these Chinese-leaning dishes, the taypa especially.

Serious Eaters should note that Saturday's Bolivian celebration in Jersey City is actually two events. First is a parade, beginning at 11:00 and winding down near City Hall, where I came across some interesting street food last year; admission is free. Second is a festival at the Mount Carmel Church, perhaps two miles away; it begins at 4:30, and there's an admission charge of $10 or $15 depending on when you arrive. I didn't attend last year, but the event website gives a sense of what you'll find.

There's another Bolivian festival on Sunday, outdoors in Hackensack, free admission, which I'd check out myself if I weren't going to be in Connecticut. Details on Eating In Translation.

There's also a Great Wall at 137-45 Northern Blvd., in Flushing, Queens, a little east of Main St. and almost immediately across the boulevard from the lately celebrated Hunan House.

Van Cortlandt is a big park -- more than 20 percent larger than Central Park, in fact. Where in the park do you plan to picnic?

Wonder what David Pasternack would do with these:

http://www.eatingintranslation.com/2009/06/american-fu-zhou-grocery.html

Well and good; I like scrapple myself. But for Serious Eaters who salivate at the thought of seafood at the seashore, I'm pretty sure that Mustache Bill's gets theirs from Shore Catch, also on the Barney end of Long Beach Island (near Viking Village) and, on Fridays and Saturdays, at the Fulton Stall Market.

At White Plains Rd. near 216th St., you'll find African/American Restaurant, the Nigerian-Ghanaian eatery formerly known as Aziza. And a few blocks south of the Gun Hill station, on Burke Ave., there's a cluster of venues that (last I looked) included a couple of interesting Caribbean joints.

Ice kacang.

! ! !

I like their hangover helper, too.

Most of the menu is Eurocentric, reflecting the chef-owner's training and earlier career, but he still prepares at least one Southeast Asian specialty, in keeping with his heritage and the restaurant that preceded Pinisi.

The larger Seba Seba on 37th Ave. will give you and your friends more room to enjoy them, and you'll find many other Colombian businesses in the neighborhood, too (I like Aqui Colombia Antojitos). For a detour to Cafecito Bogota, in Greenpoint, and its prodigious arepas montadas, weekend brunch might be your best bet.