Everybody's still rushin' to Flushing!

Under fun:

Flushing Chinatown

Main Street, Flushing

We wanted to take out DJKung's poppa for some dimsum. He's been curious about our first sojourn to Flushing and we just had to go back there. We parked our car at the municipal lot (free on Sundays!) and walked towards Ocean Jewels Seafood (across from Flushing Mall).

DJKung's pops was really impressed at how crowded Main Street was. We passed by my fave cream puff joint, Happy Lemon (38-40 Main St) so I took a pix from across the street.

There were a lot of cars whizzing by, so it was hard to get a clean picture. If you look closely, Happy Lemon is the yellow stand to the left. Besides cream puffs, they also sell bubble tea and other pastries.

Unfortunately, Ocean Jewels was mobbed (one hour wait at 1pm on Sunday), so we walked back to Main Street. We passed by Corner 28, a slick buffet joint with mouthwatering posters. So we went in.

Corner 28. The crowd outside is just the sidewalk traffic.

The layout inside Corner 28 was a bit confusing. On the left side, they have dumplings and soups, and a cashier machine. The right side is where the buffet is; you fall in line and when it is your turn, you indicate which dishes you want. You then get a printed receipt which you go to the cashier to pay, and then give the stamped receipt back to the buffet side.

The prices were very reasonable. It was a bit harrowing making a snap decision when there were a lot to pick from, and a lot of the dishes looked pretty good (i.e., Chinatown-quality fare and not your typical por quilo joint in the city). My advice is to not fall on line and stand a bit apart, and do a thorough canvas of the ~40 dishes they have, before you fall in line and place your order.

We all opted for the four dishes with rice for $4.99. This also comes with your choice of soda or water, and a small bowl of seaweed soup.

DJKung's picks. Peking pork chops, sauteed bok choy, fried squid legs (buried). I have to ask him what his fourth dish was.

Superfatty's picks. Sauteed greens, stewed tofu, curry squid and sweet and sour fried fish (it is buried). DJKUng's pops was starving, and I was not able to get a shot of his dish.

So what we thought of the place? Not bad for $4.99, and the quantities they gave were massive. The food was pretty good by buffet standards; it was fresh and they had a big selection, from fish/shellfish, to meats, and veggies. We watched the other customers, and it seemed that the dumplings on the left side were part of the selection too. On the other hand, it was not too appetizing having your carefully selected dishes all lumped on each other in a styrofoam tray. The favors and sauces all got mixed up, so it felt like you were eating slop after a while.

Next, we went to Fay Da, the old Chinese bakery standby, for coffee and dessert. We were done after that.

Sweet bun and cheese roll from Fay Da.

Of course I had to swing by Happy Lemon to get my cream puffs. I got 6 for $5 (it is $1.25 each, but you get one free if you buy five). At home, Chibs and Babams split one, and you can tell by the way their eyes got reaalllly big that they liked the cream puffs as much as I do! Gotta get a dozen next time!

Everyone's rushin' to Flushing, Queens

Chinatown
Flushing, Queens

Yay, we finally made it across to Flushing! UFC has been planning this excursion for ages it seems. Last weekend, we finally did it! And we did a food crawl, to boot!

Using our GPS, we made it to the Korean section and had to ask around for directions. Basically, the epicenter of the Chinatown her is Main Street and Roosevelt Ave, by the No. 7 Main Street, Flushing subway stop. We were even able to find some parking at the municipal parking lot on 41st Ave, although there was a bit of a wait.

Once we hit the crowded streets, we see a sign for handmade noodles at the food court of Golden Mall (41-28 Main Street). The food court turned out to be a bunch of little eateries pretty much on top of each other, each apparently with its own specialty. It reminded us a lot of this okonomiaki emporium that we checked out in Hiroshima a while back, where the atmosphere is for serious noshin'.

DJ Kung was really overwhelmed by the menu at Lanzhou Handmade Noodles. Yup, there was a guy there stretching out the noodles to order.

Menu at Lanzhou Handmade Noodles

I ordered the seafood noodles. Came with about three pieces of shimp with shells, fake crab, and a surprising number of little clams. The broth was divine. And the noodles? They were wheat noodles, with a nice spring to them, and cooked perfectly.

DJKung got the beef bowl, which he thought was excellent. He put a lot of the chili oil, which went so well with the broth. Even though it was below freezing outside, we were sweating from all the spice we used. Yum!

The noodle soup really invigorated us. We went back up to Main Street for some browsing. DJKung stepped inside Fay Da Bakery to get a sweet bread. Fay Da must get quite a it of Filipino customers, because they also sell ensaymada now.

Sweet bread from Fay Da Bakery. DJKung said it tasted just like the ones from Mei Lai Wah on Bayard Street in the big Chinatown.

Street view. I wanted to catch a picture with a plane flying overhead, which was approximately every ninety seconds. La Guardia Airport is really close by.

A tiny cream puff joint on the other side of Main Street crossed my eye. Their big-ass cream puffs ($1.25 each, $6.25 for 6) were premade and already loosely wrapped in plastic. These babies were fresh and reaaally good. The crust was a darker golden brown, dsted with powdered sugar, and was crispy. The filling was not overly rich, not too sweet, and just the way I liked it. The place was called Lemon something...

Look at this beauty!

The Chinatown here is really nice just to walk around and people-watch. The food shopping here looks pretty good, although we did not see a lot of seafood displays hanging out in the open. I think it's because there are a lot of big gricery stores here, and the fish are all indoors.

On one of the side streets, we came across a "taho," aka soft tofu stand. Interestingly, it a florist's shop shared its space with it. The store, fittingly, is called Soy Bean Chen Flower Shop (Roosevelt Avenue). We had to bring the soft tofu home because we were getting full at this point. It was sooo silky and satisfying when warmed up.

Superfatty's so happy she found the Soy Bean Chen Flower Shop. Brings back a lot of happy childhood memories. You can eat the tofu inside. We got a quart of it for $2.

The soft tofu tasted just like how I remembered it, except the Filipino version comes with a dark sugar syrup and tiny tapioca balls.

We next ducked into a joint on Roosevelt Avenue that had dumplings. Northern Chinese Dumplings was tucked into a corner of a mixed-use space that included a dry grains store, a video store, and a sushi joint.

We ordered the leek and aquatic food dumpling. The wrappers were rather heavy and the filling was ok. We figure that the food is heartier in the colder north regions of China.

Not bad for $3.25! Even comes with some pickles.

We resumed our walking and stumbled into Flushing Mall. This was great because we had to go pee at this point. The shops in this mall looked pretty quiet. All the action was in the food court, where an awards program for kiddies was being held.

The people watching the program were six and seven deep. A lot of proud mamas and papas were in the audience.

The food court had various offerings. We're definitely going back here. We had a tiny bit of space for the takoyaki.

Takoyaki. The lady turning these octupus balls was not as fast as the others we've seen. However, I think this was the best I've had. She really took her time to make sure it was perfecly cooked and crunchy all over, and each piece had a real bit of octupus in it!

Takoyaki. Look how generous the garnishes (nori, bonito flakes, sauce) are. You're the best, Takoyaki Lady!

On the way back to the car, I just had to have a few more cream puffs for the road. We also stopped by the dumpling place next to the parking lot for some fresh soy milk (unpictured). We gotta try their dumplings next time.

Chibby enjoyed his cream puff a lot. This was a great food crawl!