Manhattanites often think of Flushing, Queens, as having only two attractions: Shea stadium and the U.S. Open. But we found out that it’s also the home of New York’s second Chinatown, a delight to eat your way through. We sampled the ‘best of’ at seven places, and it cost us only $8 per person. In Manhattan, that won’t even buy you a sandwich and beverage at Café Metro. We’ll take credit for being adventurous eaters, but the credit for discovering the best-of-the-best in Chinatown goes to the NY Times. We printed out its guide and used it to navigate the streets of this neighborhood, which is the last stop on the 7 train.
First stop: No. 1 East for spinach dumplings (6 for $4.95)
Don’t get a table. Grab them as take out and go to…
Second stop: Lanzhou Handmade Noodles in the Golden Mall for hand-pulled noodles in soup with greens ($4.50). Well, that‘s what we asked for anyways. But there was chicken floating around in it. We sat in the food court of the “mall” (it resembled an Amish food market more than your typical Auntie-Annie-pretzel scented food court) to eat the soup and our dumplings with chopsticks (a challenge for Tammy, but she did it!) The dumplings were extraordinary and fresh. We slurped up the soft noodles with satisfaction, but the real enjoyment was in watching their formation. The chef, 24-year-old Zhang Feng, chops off a wad of dough and then effortlessly pulls, folds, pulls, folds, pulls it in his hands, turning it into a skein of noodles. It’s seriously like a magic trick, what you dream of the when you spend hours practicing string games as a kid.
Third stop: Sun Mary Bakery for egg custard tart, green bean cake, and curry cake ($4.50)
Time for dessert, if only because we were passing the bakery. We had to try the 90-cent tart because it’s cited as the rare example of British influence on Chinese food. Delicious, but not very exotic. We had no idea what to expect from a green bean cake — unlike a carrot cake, it wasn’t a slice but rather a dense round ball, that had a yellowish flaky shell, and a red stamp on top. Biting into it, it was sweet — but not rich like a truffle would be. Though the insides were green, the taste of green beans wasn’t very pronounced. Note: Take advantage of the clean restroom here for your bathroom break (even though it says employees only, no one seemed to mind).
Fourth stop: Quickly for bu
bble tea ($1.99).
It’s the only bubble tea chain we’ve ever seen. Tammy ordered her tapioca balls with black tea, Rachel with green, but when she asked for the “low sugar” option, we think she caused some confusion and wound up with black too. Doesn’t matter — bubble tea is all about sucking up the tapioca balls through your extra-large straw.
Fifth stop: Xinjiang Barbecue Cartfor grilled skewer of lamb ($1).
Vegetarian Rachel opted out of this one, and Tammy only took a bite. We handed this one over to our trusty food test dummy, Lorne, who gave his guy verdict as “spicy and fatty.” So consider this the least favorite, but it was still pretty cool to order it from a guy who wore a surgical mask and eat it sitting on plastic chairs in front of his cart.
Sixth stop: Zhu Ji Guo Tie for tea eggs and rice cake ($3.50).
We planned on ordering the 3 for $1 dumplings, but turns out they don’t make them without meat. So instead, we opted for tea eggs (eggs hardboiled in vinegar and spices) and rice cake (brown, sticky rice wrapped in banana leaves…supposedly with meat mixed in but we only saw a few little pieces that might pass for pork).
Seventh stop: Random market we found ourselves for ginger candy ($0.79)
We stumbled in one market to gawk at the fresh seafood and ginormous melons they were selling — we even saw some live toads in one bucket. Next, we went into another to look at the dried foods, herbs, teas, and candies. For all we know, the cure to the common cold or makings of love potion number 9 could be resting in there. As cheap as this whole adventure has been, you’d be surprised to know there was ginseng on sale for more than $4,000 a pound! We snagged a handful of ginger candies, which Rachel knew as the equivalent of after-dinner mints from her travels to Hong Kong, and chewed on them as we made our way back to the 7 … truly amazed that a world that felt a plane-ticket away was really only an hour outside of our Manhattan comfort zone.
