The Flushing Food Tour Review

Gathering inspiration from the NYT feature, a group of us headed to Flushing, Queens to, well, eat everything in sight. Well, no not really... we were selective since we only have so much space in our stomach for the deliciousness. Here is a recap of our journey and a ranking of the dishes we had based on how much I loved them =P
[photo credit]


Having been to Flushing a few times myself, I warned the newbies about the culture shock they might experience... Even when I first ventured out there, I was intimidated even though they are "my people".  When we first stepped off the 7 Train, English became the "foreign" language and the entire place looks like a street in Asia. (I really think that it's places like this that make the US great! All this diversity in one country whoo)

Anyway, onto the journey!   

Hopefully you guys can get out there soon because the trip is definitely worth it! (Map, resources and links are at the bottom!)
Pork Buns Under The LIRR
Our first stop was the pork bun (or  the non-Shanghainese style xiao long bao..) window (yes it's just a window)  where the LIRR tracks cross above Main Street. For $1.25 you get 4 of these babies! We were not sure if they were REALLY delicious or if we were REALLY hungry (or hungover), but these are classic, great tasting pork buns! It was a good start.  



The Golden Shopping Mall
 
After devouring the buns on the street corner, we marched down Main Street until we reached the corner of  Main St and 41st Road. There we found the Golden Shopping Mall.  I think most people would definitely pass this by unless they knew what they were looking for. After descending the narrow / dirty / ghetto looking stairs, you finally see that they've crammed ~10 shops into this small underground space! The "restaurants" (more like stalls) are like those you'd expect to find in a Taiwanese night market or developing country street corner. My friend later admitted that she expected the "Golden Shopping Mall" to be like a real mall, not this grungy space with a wide range of people (LV toting women to homeless looking people). After the initial shock though, one realizes what a great find a place like this is! Fresh hand pulled noodles for less than $5, sandwiches for $4, a plate of dumplings for $4...You get the idea. 
This blogger provides this WONDERFUL map of the underground place! Not sure how old this is, but very helpful!

Lanzhou's hand pulled noodles
Our pit stop was Lanzhou's hand pulled noodles. We ordered two bowls of noodle soups -- one beef and one roast duck. Right after we ordered, he started turning one big piece of dough into a thick cylinder, folding it in half, stretching it out and repeating the process until he got  tons of thin strands of noodles. A few minutes later, our bowls of steaming noodles came out and it was delicious!  The noodles had the perfect texture and you could taste the freshness. I ate mostly the beef noodles and I think I would have preferred if I got the spicy broth one instead of the clear broth (i added plenty of chili to compensate).  They also had a plastic tub of sour cabbage that i added in my noodles (Veronica thought it was gross -- see her face in photo below). I will definitely have to come back here and try  the other noodles again!
[TONY]

I also found out that they have tons of other hand pulled noodle places in Manhattan... that will be another mission!

Lamb Burger at Xi'an Famous Foods 
While we were eating at Lanzhou, we turned around and  also ordered the signature dish at Xi'an Famous Foods -- the lamb burger. What we got looked like a pita stuffed with the most flavorful lamb I've tasted. It was seasoned with cumin and I think I saw some onions in there too. I am not sure how this is considered Chinese  since it seemed like something you'd get at a Greek restaurant. Anyway it was delicious!!!! (Afterwards, I also googled where Xi'an Province is... for anyone interested here's the map)


Beef Pancakes and Pigs' Ears at House of Tianjin
After finishing our noodles and lamb burgers, we wandered one stall down to the House of Tianjin. There we got Beef Pancakes (Niu Ro Shao Bin) that were so fresh and reminded me of Saturday mornings with my dad and brother at A&J Restaurant in San Jose before Chinese School... ah the good old days. The best part was that they were only $1 each! We also spontaneously decided we wanted to try the crazy pig ears spicy salad type thing, which was great to say we tried, but didn't satisfy us very much.


By now we were already semi-stuffed, but we were troopers and kept going. We left the Golden Shopping Mall and made our way to the quieter part of Downtown Flushing.

Nan Xiang Soup Dumplings
After a short walk, we arrived at Nan Xiang.  It looks like a normal small suburban Chinese restaurant and the pork buns were very high quality and delicious! I think if we were just starting out and I was craving soup dumplings, these would really hit the spot, but not sure if it's something we wouldn't be able to find in Manhattan. Objectively though I thought these were pretty good.



Many of us wanted to give us after this, but we had one more item left on our "must eat" list -- crab and sticky rice from Imperial Palace.

Crab and Sticky Rice at Imperial Palace
This white table cloth place was very different than all the other restaurants we visited. We ordered the crab with sticky rice that we came for, which we loved, as well as this fried chicken skin shrimp dish, which was actually kind of gross. The crab dish smelled / tasted so good and i LOVED the sticky rice! It's definitely a must try and even though we were so full we really liked this dish. Just avoid the fried chicken skin with shrimp. It's like a fried chicken skin sandwich with gelatin shrimp paste inside. ew =T
[Photo above by Peter D. on Yelp]




Anyway that concluded our trip this time! We hopped back onto the 7 and returned to our lives in Manhattan. Until next time, Flushing!


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Thanks to Jing, Veronica, Andrew and Josh for coming out on the trip to Flushing! Apologies for the blurry photos... still working w/ the camera =P 

Here is a list of everything we ate and how I would rank them: What I'd go back for, what I would avoid and what I'd return to try next time!

Would make a trip out there again for these:
  • Lamb Sandwich at Xi'an Treats
  • Beef Pancakes at Golden Mall
  • Dungeness Crab with Sticky Rice at Imperial Palace
  • Pork Buns Under The LIRR
  • Shanghai Xiao Long Bao (Soup Dumplings) at Nan Xiang Xiao Long Bao
  • Lanzhou Pulled Noodles (I would try the spicy broth ones next time) 
Probably wouldn't get these again next time:
Learn from our mistakes and save your stomachs for other dishes!
  • Spicy Pigs' ear at the Golden Mall (it's a crunchy texture and the spicyness tasted good, but not worth the stomach space when there is so much other food out there!)
  • Fried Chicken Skin Sandwiches with Gelatin Shrimp (it sounds gross..didn't taste that great) 
Places I want to try next time:
  • Happy Beef Noodle House
How to get there: Get to Times Square or Grand Central and take the 7 train to the last stop "Main Street". After you get off, just follow this handy map below!

Resources:


Take the 7 train to Main St - Flushing Stop. We went south on Main St first and then headed north.
View The Flushing Food Tour in a larger map.
JessicaFood, New York City