"Yes, there are a few bodegas in Dyker Heights and Bensonhurst that push aside their shelves, install a table, and sell soups. But one must go to Jamaica, Queens, to find a full-service Guatemalan restaurant. Xelaju, the ancient name of the country’s second largest city of Quetzaltenango, advertises itself as both an Italian pizzeria and a Guatemalan restaurant. It peddles breakfasts featuring blacks beans, thick small tortillas, and bouncy white cheese, as well as tamales incorporating the green leaf called in English “longbeak rattlebox.” Best of all is salpicon, a cold beef-and-radish salad." - Robert Sietsema
