Roast pork bun, with a much more savory filling than I expected. I had picked up a roast pork puff to try, but the lady pointed me to this warm, freshly baked bun instead. Very well filled relative to the bread quantity.
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Continuing here for 2026.
Stopped by a few Flushing spots to pick up an assortment for dinner with friends.
Pancakes and dumplings from assorted Main St. fronts – the pancake stuffed with greens was particularly good, the dumplings delicious as usual.
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First time trying poached chicken with Sichuan chilli oil (@vinouspleasure I did finally try it) – delectable, if a bit salty. Also pork belly braised with taro – a bit too rich for me, but flavorful. Braised chiu chow duck was not as good as usual. Char siu was lovely, and not just because I have missed it!
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Excellent shiu mai from the takeout counter. Also very good black bean spare ribs with squash, not pictured.
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Satay had an unusual abundance of treats, perhaps in anticipation of Lunar New Year?
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At all looks so good!!
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Queens eating after a while, in weather that varied from sunny and chilly, to graying and a bit wet, to gray and SNOWING, and then back to wet.
Dosa Hutt:
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Da Pai Dong:
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(The very attractively named) Chicken Skeleton Salad
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Green Beans with Garlic
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Pork (Lions Head) Meatballs
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Delicious free peanuts:
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The newish Bao’s Pastry (always a line):
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- the caramel croissant tart was delicous, surprised they’re not selling it for $5–$7
- the first butter mochi was a little more savory than I expected, but the second and third were very perfect, perhaps an acquired taste.
- the photos don’t do justice to just how many people are working that kitchen, it looked like something from a sci-fi movie.
at least for now, this is my fav bakery in flushing, maybe nyc.
best,
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Explored a new-to-me stretch of Queens recently — the Bangladeshi enclave in Jamaica. Very reminiscent of Jackson heights a couple of decades ago.
Lots of similarities in the offerings from place to place, but some things looked better / fresher to me at one place vs others, so I backtracked a few times after doing a quick survey. In that time, the stores and restaurants went from being scantly occupied to full with lines as people came in to pick up dinner or sit down to dinner.
Some smaller spots were at the end of their stock for the day, others were restocking snacks and hot tables for the dinner crowd.
I’ll be back (especially as I figured out that this is a slightly quicker way home for me from Flushing thanks to an express train).
One bakery / cafe — Mannan — had professionally packaged pitha and other snacks, plus familiar breads, plus a hot table in the back.
Another place —Panshi — had a full separate buffet of desi chinese dishes, but there was someone there to package what you want — not self-service despite the appearance.
One of the oldest spots in the enclave — Ghoroa — has renovated and also expanded to Brooklyn — this looked very fancy on the inside, even though it’s still a hot table place (though prices seem to include the cost of their reno 
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There are several puchka / fushka carts scattered about, plus a tiny storefront that sells the Bangladeshi version of chaat and haleem with a scant few drinks — I’ll go back here another time. (There’s also a brick and mortar version of the Tong cart somewhere there, though I didn’t look for it.)
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I find grocery stores in internationally specific enclaves fascinating, and the ones here were no less so. Fresh halal goat, chicken, and beef, a crazy range of frozen Bengali fish, and similarly of sweets and savories. I saw signs for fresh and frozen and dried Bombay duck, which I might explore at some future point (dried can also be weaponized 
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My favorite was this place that penalizes customers for messing with the ginger (or for being psychologically damaged, but either way, organic and broken is cheaper):
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I was forcibly minimalist in my actual purchases because I was about to travel for the weekend.
Possibly the best version of curry beef in puff pastry I’ve had — flaky and light puff, well-filled with delicious Kheema. When I backtracked here, they replenished the hot table for the dinner crowd, but I’d already done my dinner buying by then.
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Kalabhuna / Kalobhuna Gosht seemed to be a specialty at several places (apparently it is a special prep that hails from Chittagong), so I picked up some to try along with a naan and some chicken seekh kabab which are always hard to resist.
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Fantastic, intense flavors that I clearly recognized as Bhuna Gosht, but further browned to a dark shade. I ate this at home with dal and a vegetable to offset the intensity. Another day, it made a fantastic filling for a Frankie / Kathi roll (with a flour tortilla standing in for the paratha that I was too lazy to defrost).
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Which place had the curry beef puffs?
Every place has them, as well as singhada/ shingara (see pic of Mannan display) which is the Bengali name for samosa.
The one I picked up was from one of the divier spots — King Kabab.
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Oh, sure, they’re not hard to find in general, but I want to try “[p]ossibly the best version of curry beef in puff pastry [you’ve] had.” And the divier spots suit me just fine.
Some Thursday when I’m free, I’ll join you out that way.
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I can’t remember who was talking about Bakarkhani recently (maybe @JenKalb?), but they were available both fresh and frozen in several places.
That would be fun. It’s too much food to sample alone 
The Mannan puff looked pretty, but I could see that it had proportionately less filling .
I went to Pitha Ghor first because it looked the most homestyle of all, but they were almost completely cleaned out for the day.
I was astounded by the range and quantity of pitha at so many places too!
I just realized the pics with the Mannan puffs didn’t upload:
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Same.
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Clearly they are going to charge me the broken person’s price. What train did you take?
margarita, one of nyc’s best slice joints is in Jamaica.
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F train - even better for you than for me 
Apparently just 2 blocks from Pitha Ghor, I just looked!
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>> F train - even better for you than for me
Not since they switched the f and the m at 63rd 
Tragedy.
I missed that
A quick return to Jamaica, racing against the clock to collect some snacks.
I snagged the last kheema puff (lady in front of me took the other one) at King Kabab, singaras were already cleaned out. I couldn’t resist a shami kabab too. Their kabab and biryani / pulao case was more populated than last time.
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I did snag a singara / samosa from a window outside a fried chicken spot (as one does). And a couple more chicken seekhs for a rainy day. Pakistani and Bangladeshi samosas always taste completely different than Indian / Punjabi ones. Good, but never what I’m expecting when I take my first bite 
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Remembered to take a pic this time of the desi chinese spread at Panshi; if I wasn’t going places after, I would definitely have picked up a “Drum of Heaven” just for the name. Giant pakodas at 2 for $1 must be the bargain of the strip (though my $1 shingada was also a steal, and still warm and crisp). Haleem is everywhere (including at the chaat place).
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the bengali samosas/singaras - do they have celery seed/radjuni in them? I remember that as a distinct flavor when I used to buy them frequently on Coney Island Ave. I think it was a Bengali vendor, I broke a tooth on a samosa in those days - never could figure out what it was,maybe a coriander seed!
Samosas vary widely in spicing. These didn’t have any seeds at all,
(Radhuni isn’t celery seed, btw - even though it’s sometimes referred to as wild celery, and many versions of 5 phoron don’t include it because it’s hard to source outside West Bengal /Bangladesh.)
