Queens Bites 2025 (Flushing, Jackson Heights, Elmhurst, Astoria, LIC, Sunnyside, and beyond)

Kay and I have a very short trip to Flushing scheduled for March 28, 29 and 30

We are staying in Flushing/Murray Hill. Here are our windows of opportunity

Friday available in Flushing at 1pm. Must leave for Manhattan by 5pm.

Saturday 3/29 available in Flushing or Manhattan. We need to be at our theater in Manhattan by 6.00

Sunday we are on a train to Baltimore at 6.49 out of Moynihan Train Hall. Available any time. NY food court does not get hopping until 11 or 11.30 and we think it is the best food courts in Flushing. Asian Jewel opens for cart service dim sum augmented by a huge menu at 9am. Maxi’s Noodles at 10.30am

Let us know if there are any people interested in any of these opportunities.

I stopped by NY food court last week and was pleased to see that all the stalls are now occupied vs the last time I was there a few months ago. Several new stalls.

I don’t have visibility to the end of March right now, but please keep us posted as your plans develop.

The last time we were there one stall was in grand opening and there was some NYPD responding to a stall owner not understanding they had been evicted. Sort of surreal.

unfortunately, we’ll be in the finger lakes that weekend.

I’m having a hip replacement on 3/20 & they tell me I’ll be doing home rehab for a couple of weeks at least. Have fun.

I want to go to the next one for sure! I can’t believe how many I missed out on. I’ve been doing Flushing food crawls with my buddies since back in the Golden Mall glory days.

I think I will have to miss you guys this time - heading off on a trip! Hope to see you next time.

My neighborhood!

Brief Flushing visit today.

Stopped by Tarim Uyghur because I regretted not getting a samsa at Tengri Tagh yesterday. I don’t know if it has changed hands, but the samsas are very different than before – dough is different, and they are almost twice the size and better filled.

The xian bing place right outside the subway has also changed – both price and product. They look like the much doughier ones at Tianjin now. I didn’t buy any, lest they taste like those too.

Stopped by one of the newish shwarma-style roujiamo stalls – flakey roujiamo bun, chicken sliced off a (small) vertical spit to order. Did not partake this time, will look around to see if here are other meat options.

In the many street sales, today I saw chilli oils being hawked for the first time. Picked up one.

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I was really unhappy with the last samsa we bought last spring at Tarim, so much so rhat we havent bought one since. It was scantily filled and what meat it had was nearly all gristle. We will give it another go based on your recommendation.

My recent schedule has been very up-in-the-air. I’d like to get out to Flushing on one of those days, particularly to see what’s up at the New York Food Court. Saturday or Sunday are likelier, but if I’m back in the city by Thursday night, I’d hate to let a perfectly good Friday afternoon go to waste. Will advise.

We are around in flushing both Saturday and Sunday of next week, 3/27 and 28. Need to start noonish or earlier as we are time constrained both days. Anywhere between Flushing and Manhattan is good for us. NY Food court is really enticing these days with any a new place we would like to try plus some old favorites.

Friday is tight as we are off the train around 11am and need to get to flushing, drop luggage and get back to Manhattan for a play at 7.30pm.

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Sifu Chio has turned into a brand new Fuzhou place (that does not look brand new on the inside, lol). I bungled my way through and picked up a couple of snacks – a giant triangular taro “cake” studded with bits of stuff, a “shrimp snack” (that the lady warned me had no shrimp) which was more like a scallion donut, and wontons (which I did not expect to be in soup, as the menu did not mention soup) which were the tiny, bite-sized ones @vinouspleasure wanders in search of :grin:).

Did another circuit of NYFC, but didn’t want to eat there because there may be another weekend visit, plus I had actual dinner plans :joy:

The skewer cart had set up when I left NYFC, so I bought a lamb and a chicken (he asked if I wanted it spicy or very, very spicy – I chose the former).

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A return to New York Food Court to sample some of the new additions, and revisit some old favorites

I was disappointed that the crab roe place was out of xlb, so we had the leaf buns stuffed with crab and crab roe. I’m not a big fluffy bun person (too doughy), but the crab overrode that for me. Served with vinegar that perked it up. I would have gotten the buns with crab and pork if everyone ate pork, those were probably more rounded in flavor, with more stuffing.

I found both the snail noodle soup and the vermicelli noodle bowl just on the other side of too spicy to discern all the flavors, but the noodles in both were lovely. Actually, it was a noodle-heavy day, and all the noodles were good. I enjoyed the liangpi more than last time.

The lions head meatballs were light, and seemed less fatty than the last time I ate them. A very nice dish, with bits of trumpet mushroom and baby bok choy.

I skipped the eggs as my encounters with deep fried boiled eggs have been pretty uniform, not my thing. These seemed to be soy sauce or tea eggs that were coated with spices and then fried.

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@DaveCook Got an elaborate and gorgeous purple dessert at Golden Mall later that he can describe in more detail.

I got my boring but delicious sponge cake (in the end at Maxin’s, after striking out at a few places including one which tried to tempt me with a really fresh one which would come out of the oven in 30 mins).

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The xian bing stall mentioned in the link below is carrying Changsha stinky tofu, a drier, blackened version. Here it is, along with its non-blackened cousin from “8090” (stall #24) at the NY Food Court down the street.
stinky

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Stopped by the Ganesh Temple Canteen in Flushing to see what’s what.

Coffee — not as strong as Dosa Hutt or a chinese bakery, so I’ll stick to those in future.

Meduvada / Vadai — Now 4 minis to a serving. Freshly fried, and very good, especially as a coffee accompaniment.

There were a few other people there: I saw a couple of different dosas that looked much better than past versions.

That said, the “coconut” chutney with the vada was a disappointment — much more dalia / chana dal than coconut.

There were a few other menu options I might go back to try — puri chhole, bisibelebhat, a vegetable pulao that seemed to be a special.

I wonder if the kitchen staff / management has changed.

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Picked up prepared foods from an assortment of stores along Main for dinner and weekend eats. Mostly successful, which was good as I just went by “looks good, why not” as my choosing process.

— Roast pork cheung fun / rice rolls
— Pork and chive dumplings
— Flat noodles in peanut sauce
— Stewed duck Chaozhou / Teochow style
— Mixed vegetables with vermicelli
— Double sautéed pork belly with cabbage and peppers
— Fried rice

Also stopped into various bakeries looking for Japanese-style crepe cake (which I’ve bought in Manhattan Chinatown), couldn’t find any but did find what I correctly guessed was Japanese-style cheesecake in an unusual shape (rectangle) in two flavors —- plain and chocolate, the latter of which had a center layer of cream. I picked the plain, and it was lovely.

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Lemon “cheesecake” from Maxin, a deviation from sponge cake after last week’s Rainbow cheesecake was a big hit.

Fluffy, slightly richer than sponge cake, and just luscious enough when chilled.

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Also a pork, ham, and scallion roll from Rainbow – I was pleasantly surprised by this: pork floss rolled into dough, not just on the outside. Plus some scallions and bits of ham too. Must be popular, because I got the last one.

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What makes it a cheesecake? I usually get the sponge cake