Flushing's Chinatown

Thu, 2009–Sep–03

Discover a variety of Chinese (and Korean, etc) food on Main St, Flushing - last stop on the #7 Subway line. This is the second Chinatown in NYC, probably because downtown NYC was not big enough to hold all these new restaurants.

Good references: NYTimes Flushing Interactive graphic which also has a nice printout to take when visiting, and which links to the main article, which also has more tips from the readers in the article's comments section. A later article describes Dongbei cai, or the food of the Northeast, the area was known earlier as Manchuria.

The absolutely great things in this area: Sichuan food - spicy-hot with tongue-numbing Sichuan pepper experience, awesome lamb burgers with cumin and green chilies (in the Golden Mall, a collection of food joints in the basement off Main St - details in the NYT article), peking duck in snack form on a small pancake (fantastic Peking Duck, and sold at a window in a restaurant on the street), all sorts of dumplings, and the street stalls with $1 skewers of grilled spiced-meat ("Mongolian Barbecue?"). Finish off with bubble tea. And if you want to avoid eating out on the street, visit the Food Court in the Flushing Mall which has most of the similar foods.

Best items here?
1. Xi'an Famous Foods at 41-28 Main St Golden Mall Booth #36. It is confusing to find, enter the basement mall, take the left, cross two/three food booths, take a right, and this place on the left, probably the second/third store on the left. Just follow your nose and look for the sandwiches - their web site has pictures of their food. [Sep 2009] They have opened up a stall in the food court in the Flushing Mall. That is easier to find, and it is definitely in nicer surroundings than the original Main St location. Still, worth visiting the original location to get a true Chinatown experience.
NYT says: "His lamb stew is infused with fresh green chilies and cumin: stuffed into hot, griddled bread rolls, it makes the best sandwich in Flushing." ... "In the food court of the Golden Mall — a grand-sounding name for a basement warren of folding tables — is a man who goes by the name Shi Liangpi". Also good here: "his signature dish - liangpi, a dish of cold noodles in a sauce that hits every possible flavor category (sweet, tangy, savory, herbal, nutty and dozens of others)... in addition to four different sauces, and mountains of bean sprouts, slivered cucumbers and sprigs of cilantro. "

2. The Peking Duck from the street window at the Corner 28 restaurant, picture present below.

3. The unassuming Spicy & Tasty restaurant at 39 07 Prince Street, just a block or two up from the Main St Subway station. Good Sichuan food - nice and spicy.

4. The Flushing Mall at 13331 39th Ave, Queens, NY. Three blocks from the Main St station. The lower level has the food courts - again, here too some menus are in Chinese only but there are pictures to order by. And you can eat in the mall which is good in summer, avoid the street heat and smells. The food in this mall's food court is certainly unlike any other shopping mall in the US. And of course, it is a mall so has restrooms - certainly one thing that cannot be found on the street or in the Golden Mall. And as of Sep 2009 Xian Foods (see item#1 for details) has opened up a stall (towards the left-side end of the food court), so this food court can be the sole stop on a visit to Flushing's Chinatown, and still be able to sample a wide variety of food.

The only problem - most places have menus in Chinese only!