Ming Xing BBQ (正宗東北風味) (Recommended)

Ming Xing BBQ (正宗東北風味)
35-14 Farrington St
Flushing, NY 11354
$
Menu (Prices Outdated)

If you are a fan of Chinese BBQ cart skewers, then you will love this restaurant. Ming Xing BBQ serves every street food lover’s favorite BBQ skewers in a sit-down setting. So instead of standing on the sidewalk, you comfortably grill your meat in private booths.

 

Don’t worry about your clothes smelling like smoke and meat because the ventilation is very effective. In addition, I was pleasantly surprised how clean the restaurant was.

10 Beef Skewers (14.99) and 10 Chicken Skewers (14.99)

The skewers here are pretty much the same price as street carts but you have to order in sets of 5 or 10. For example, 10 beef/lamb/chicken skewers will be $14.99. The meat is lightly marinated so you can adjust your own flavors. Also there are other options like gizzard, squid, and even penis! The menu is multi-lingual it lists each item in Chinese, Korean, and English.

You can tell how legit the place is because they use wood charcoal on top of the charcoal briquettes. This adds a unique smokey flavor that you can’t get from just grilling on regular coal. The fire intensity is controlled by the knobs on the side of the grill. Steel sticks also allow the meat to be cooked more evenly.

Each diner will receive a plate of premade seasoning. It’s a mixture of chili powder, cumin seeds, coriander seeds, and sesame seeds. Add when the meat is just about done.

There’s a two-tier rack on top of the grill. You cook your meat on the bottom level while the top level uses indirect heat to keep the skewers warm.

This place has Korean and North-east China characteristics as they serve side-dishes along with your meal. Some examples of their “banchan” are salted dried fish, beansprouts, spicy cucumbers, peanuts, and pickled daikon.

Dumplings 水餃

If you need something more to fill your stomach, they have other food options like dumplings 水餃 ($10.00), soups, and various cooked meat, seafood, and vegetable dishes.

Ming Xing BBQ is one of the few do it yourself BBQ skewer restaurants trending around Flushing. These are the perfect places to relax with friends and have a drink. The skewers here are as authentic as any BBQ cart and the food taste so much better knowing that you put your own labor into it.

Queens International Night Market (Opening Day Post)

Queens International Night Market
New York Hall of Science Parking Lot at Corona Park

Ever since my first trip to Taiwan, I hoped someday that a legit night market would open in New York. Yes, we have Smorgasburg, LIC Flea, holiday street fairs, and every single pop-up food festival in the city. But they lack the affordability, the authenticity, and the presence of a evening backdrop.

The queens international night market organized by John Wang was a huge step in making this hope a reality (although it came with a handful of hiccups). Patrons left disappointed, hungry, and angry due to the lack of food vendors and the disorganization of the event as a whole.

Vendors wrapped around the edge of the parking lot. Eaters numbered to around a thousand and with less than 20 vendors, it was a recipe for disaster. Each vendor required about a 30 minute to a hour wait. There was a demand for food that couldn’t be met.

An early line forms around a typical Chinese skewer cart. These are the kinds you can find on the streets of Flushing that sell lamb, beef, chicken, squid skewers at $1.50 a stick. I am glad they didn’t jack up the price for this event and kept it the same. Truly a pioneer of NY Asian street food, these guys would know how to handle long lines.

Teaus served drinks in their signature corked-glass bottles. I noticed their bottles are embed with their logo now. Most of the drinks ranged from $2.75 to $4.00. The convenience factor caused this vendor to be one of the first to sell out.

A vendor selling Italian sausages. They must be one of the few non-Asian food stands that day.

Here we see a Mexican street corn (elotes) vendor but made by Asians. This is the corn you usually see made street-side in Hispanic neighborhoods. The corn is covered with mayonnaise and then coated with cotija cheese.

Next is Panda Cafe selling an assortment of bubble teas. Didn’t check out what they had…

Burmese Bites sold some kind of flat-bread from photos I saw and I assume they have other Burmese specialties as well. Further down was the Japanese-Chinese Teinei Ya. They had fried chicken and noodles.

Karls Balls was serving up takoyaki by the half dozens. At $6.00 for 6 balls, it was a decent deal. However the initial batch was kind of undercooked.

I have no idea what this stall was called but they had squid skewers ($3.00/stick) 魷魚須=tentacles and 魷魚板=body. Also they were making this Chinese crepe sandwich.

Ling’s HK Style Mini Cakes and Tater Twist (needs a shorter name) had Hong Kong Cakes 雞蛋仔($4.00) and those spiral cut potatoes on a stick ($5.00). One of the few stalls that I felt was overpriced. I’ll prefer my $1 for 15 HK Cakes in Chinatown, thank you.

As the night went on, more people rolled in. It got to the point where it looked like a human sea.

       But when the lamps flickered on and the smoke from the food slowly hovered in the beams of light with the night backdrop, it really felt like a night market. The atmosphere was like a scene straight out of Asia (the fact that the place was filled with 90% Asians helped too).

This night market was nowhere near perfect but it was passable for a first attempt. We have to remember that this is a setting that many of these businesses never experienced before. I am sure that even pros like the vendors from Smorgasburg won’t be able to handle hundreds of hungry and pushy Asians. I want this concept to stick around so I hope this was a learning process for the organizers and vendors. Hopefully, they will incorporate other Night Market elements like games and cheap clothing/electronic shops.

Personal tips:
– split up your group and line up on different lines to order simultaneously
– drink vendor lines move the fastest but might sell out first so grab a drink first
– don’t let other people start forming a new line

–

Gui Lin Mi Fen (桂林米粉) (Recommended)

Gui Lin Mi Fen (桂林米粉)
135-25 40th Rd
Flushing, NY 11354
$
Menu

Gui Lin Mi Fen is one of the new specialty restaurants to join the fray in Flushing. The menu here is simple and focuses on one thing: mi fen (rice noodles). Guilin is a city in the southeast Chinese province of Guangxi. In this region, one of their most popular snacks and everyday food staple is their mi fen (米粉) or rice noodles. It’s quite common to top these noodles with an assortment of ingredients that include soybean, picked vegetables, scallions, and thin slices of meat.

The only thinking you have to do is deciding on what meat you want to pair with your noodles. There are 9 choices to pair with the noodle that includes vegetarian, smoked fish, chicken, braised brisket, and more.

Authentic Guilin Mi Fen 正宗桂林米粉

Being that it’s my first time here, I went with the first item on the menu: “Authentic Guilin Mi Fen 正宗桂林米粉” ($7.25) that had a few brisket slices and some roast pig.

The noodles are dressed with a light sauce with a hint of sichuan peppercorn. Each strand is very smooth and slippery and perfect for slurping. The sauce coupled with the toppings and braised slices of brisket has just enough flavor and if you want to turn it into a noodle soup, just pour in the pork broth.

For spicy food lovers, they have the Sour & Spicy Lao You Fen 酸辣老友粉 ($7.25) topped with spicy bamboo shoots and wood ear mushrooms. A lot of the heat comes from the chili oil, however its more more spicy than sour.

Each noodle is accompanied by a pork bone soup. The soup is actually one of the best parts of the meal and tastes very natural and clean.

One of their main appetizers (and meat option for the noodles) is the Shanghai Chicken 三黃雞. It taste just like a poached chicken (also think Hainan Chicken) with little meat. Portion sizes comes in quarter ($5.95), half ($11.95), and whole ($21.95).

The restaurant is quite new, barely a few months old. However it’s rare to eat something in Flushing that puts quality over quantity. The soup and noodles are top notch and the staff even teaches you how to bring out the best from the meal. Our waiter suggested that we eat the noodles dry first and then add the soup half way. I see big things in this small noodle shop and look forward to try out the other noodle assortments.

Kimganae (김가네) (Recommended)

Kimganae (김가네)
3912 Union St
Flushing, NY 11354
$
Menu (Prices Not Updated)

If you are looking for cheap Korean food, look no further. Kimganae serves some of the cheapest kimbaps around and they are generous with the portions as well. It is located on Union Street along with other small Korean restaurants.

Kimganae is known for their kimbap or gimbap, a rice roll with various types of vegetables and meats inside. The typical ingredients are usually pickled radish, egg, imitation crab meat, carrot and rice. Be sure not to confuse this with sushi as this roll rarely contains fish and the rice is flavored with sesame oil instead of vinegar. This is one of the most popular types of Korean fast food.

The kimbaps take up a whole page on their menu. The best part is that they are super cheap. The rolls range from $4.50 to $5.50. The popular ones are any roll that contains beef, squid rolls, and spicy tuna rolls.

Left: Sausage Roll / Right: Beef Roll

On the left is the Sausage Roll ($4.50) containing a vienna sausage-like meat. The right is the Beef Roll ($5.00) filled with thinly sliced beef. You can see the workmanship on how compact and even the rice and ingredients are put together.

Pork Cutlet Roll

Rolls like the Pork Cutlet Roll ($5.50) that has some sauce inside taste better. The cutlet still retains some crispness since the food gets to the table quickly.

With the meal, each table gets complimentary spicy picked daikon and bowls of soup. The soup is frequently refilled your empty soup bowls as well.

Kimganae also has non kimbap options like rices and noodles. However I hear these are not that great.

You can tell the Combination Ramen ($7.00) is just instant noodles. I don’t think its ever worth it to pay that much for instant ramen. It is topped with a bit of meat, kimchi and cheese.

The kimbap here will definitely fill you up. I was already stuffed after one roll so I recommend ordering a couple to share because it was difficult to decide on one. For about $5 a roll, its a bargain and definitely worth a visit.

New York Food Court (紐約美食廣場)

New York Food Court (紐約美食廣場)
133-35 Roosevelt Ave
Flushing, NY 11354
$

A new food court joins the battle in Flushing as New York Food Court had its grand opening this past weekend. This “New World Mall Food Court” clone opened on Roosevelt ave, across the street from the apartment complexes. Walking in, you would feel like you have stepped into a parallel universe of NWM Food court because the vendors are almost exactly the same (if not by name, then by cuisine).

So shiny and clean, I am sure this won’t last long. There are not much people here yet as words still spreads about the opening.

I am not going too in-depth with this post but I will give you a quick tour of this food court.

EAST

The following are all the vendors along the right side of the food court spanning numbers 1-12.

So the first thing you see when you walk in is this drinks vendor. Don’t know the name of it so lets call it panda drinks.

Next is Yang Yang Noodle and Panyo. As you can see not all the shops are fully set up yet.

The Crispy Pancake 炸雞餅 looks like they fry up anything that is Asian. But their main attraction is a fried pancake of some sort.

Yoyo 甜品 is the first dessert shop you will encounter. Think HK style desserts like mango everything and sweet soups.

Chicken Noodle 老四季 serves Chinese chicken noodle soups. There are only 6 items on the menu ranging from $5-6.

Next is Dumplings 大大水餃 and you can guess what they serve. I had to guess too since there is no menu anywhere.

Liang Pi Wang 涼皮王 serves my favorite cold noodle, the liang pi ($5.00). I wonder if its as good as those of Xi’an Famous Eats 西安名吃.

Happy Lemon is a popular drink shop chain everywhere in Asia. I’ve seen a couple of these back in Taiwan. They specialize in their lemon flavored drinks and slushies.

Fu Zi Dumpling 福字蒸餃 is another dumpling vendor. We got the Bok Choy Dumplings at $3.99/10 pieces

Reaching almost the end, we see Peng Shun 麻辣香鍋 with their numbing spicy casseroles. It’s the food bowls where you pick a random assortment of ingredients and they stir fry it in their special sauce. Food here is charged by the weight.

The last vendor on the right side is SLZ? They serve noodles, buns, and braised side dishes. However, the menu has no prices so I skipped this one even though the food looks good.

NORTH

The north side and also the shortest side of the food court only has the following 2 vendors. Shops 15-16 are here.

Gladly Cuisine 客來勤 has some unique spicy seafood dishes and a 4 side 1 soup 四菜一湯 ($6.00) option.

I kind of regret my decision in ordering this since I realized that the 4 sides 1 soup is cheaper everywhere else. Also since all the sides are are in the open, they are cold and dry.

Hang’s 夯 serves the mala soup and the spicy mixed bowls as well. This seems to be the trend in food courts these days.

WEST

The left side of the food court has more familiar options and is as extensive as the right. Vendors 17-26 are on this side.

The first two are Mango Mango (a favorite from Manhattan Chinatown and Hong Kong) and Joyful Yummy House Inc. Mango Mango serves some of the best mango desserts in the city and you have to try their Slush-O drinks. Joyful Yummy House 悅食悅香 seems like they serve stews and braised food.

The third mala soup vendor is from 老媽’s. This is the mala soup lovers are accustomed to as they have branches in New World Mall and Golden Mall. The beef mala tang here is $7.99.

Next to 老媽 is Lanzhou Hand Pull Noodles 蘭州拉面. This famous chain is also found in all food courts and around the city. They make the noodle right in front of you and serves it with a delicious beef broth. Right next to them is Xiangyi Noodle 香溢美食, another noodle vendor.

Around a small corner must be the most popular and biggest vendor 8090 八零九零台灣小吃. The food here is really similar to those of Hankou Steaks in Flushing Mall. That means they have steaks on sizzling platters and Taiwanese snacks. Above is the Fried Squid and Rice ($6.50).

Szechuan Taste 天府之國 deserves a couple of photos because their food looks so good. There are many Szechuan delicacies to choose from but some of their noodles are on the pricier end.

The last vendor, Tokyo Express, is unopened and the oddball of the food court. This place seems like it will sell fake Asian food. The limited menu comprises of chicken, beef, or shrimp teriyaki or a mixed of those meats.

In conclusion, there are many good places to eat in this food court but everything is so similar to the New World Mall Food Court which begs the question: is it worth going all the way here? If you are around the area or finished shopping at Skyview Mall, then this food court is the perfect stop for a quick bite. Inside, just go to where the lines are. Lines usually mean the food is good.

Flushing Mall Food Court – Closed

Flushing Mall Food Court
133-31 39th Ave
Flushing, NY 11354
$

Flushing Mall Food Court is a legend in the Flushing food scene. It paved the way for Asian food courts all over the city and its one of the first, if not the first, to assemble multiple types of Asian fast food in one place. I remember eating here way back in my high school days when it was the only Flushing loitering spot with food, before the days of Queens Crossing and New World Mall food court. Unfortunately, this food court just never got popular with the masses. Maybe it was during a time when Western palates weren’t accustomed to exotic Asian street food. Maybe it was because its location is far from the train station and it was too much effort making the walk down 39th Ave. Regardless, this food court is still here and whipping out food better than most places in Flushing.

Like most days, the outside of the food court is empty. Occasionally there are small-scaled shows and corporate rallies that liven things up a bit.

What was once a melting pot of Chinese, Korean, Japanese cuisine has dwindled down to only a handful of shops. Now the vendors primarily serve Taiwanese food

At Diverse Dim Sum 不一樣點心, you can get a variety of Chinese breakfast items such as buns, fried dough, dumplings, and soy products.

Fresh Juice Bar 水霸 is the only non-savory shop in the mall. Here you could get refreshments like teas, smoothies, fruit juices, and bubble tea. I see they still use the Taiwanese ice station that used to be here.

At the furthest end of the food court is Temple Snacks 廟口小吃, named after a famous market district in Keelung city of Taiwan. They specialize in regional small eats but oddly I didn’t see any seafood on the menu, a trademark of the Keelung Miaokou Night Market.

Place your order here. The staff is very friendly.

Fool-proof menu with pictures and names of the food. Also everything is cheap and unique.

Hanged above the cashier is the secret menu that’s in only in Chinese. If you can read these or feel adventurous, definitely order from this menu as well.

Reiterating from my previous posts, I love kitchens that are visible to the public. You can see how clean the place is and what goes on with your food.

Fried Chicken Roll 廟口炸雞卷

Fried Chicken Roll 廟口炸雞卷

You will love the crispy bean curd skin of the Fried Chicken Roll 廟口炸雞卷 ($5.75). Inside the roll is a filling of taro and onions but I don’t think there is an ounce of chicken. I guess it gets the name because it resembles fried chicken? Best part of the dish is the garlic sauce that lights up your taste and smell senses.

Bamboo Shoots & Stewed Pork w. Rice 廟口筍干焢肉飯

Bamboo Shoots & Stewed Pork w. Rice 廟口筍干焢肉飯

They don’t mess around with the pork belly in the Bamboo Shoots & Stewed Pork w. Rice 廟口筍干焢肉飯 ($6.75). The whole chunk of meat was juicy and full of flavor. Accompanying the rice is some shredded bamboo shoots, minced fatty pork, lettuce, and tea egg.

 The most famous vendor at the food court is Hankou Steaks 漢口牛排. Everything that is fried or grilled is good here but they are most famous for their steaks served on a sizzling platter. You can check our their menu here. I do fear from the C rating in the back though…

As soon as you walk into the vicinity, you feel an aura of oil in the air.

House Special Steak 漢口牛排 ($14.75)

The House Special Steak 漢口牛排 ($14.75) is what everybody gets. Its hard to resist when you hear the sizzling sound and smell the beefy aroma from the plates of everyone walking pass you.

House Special Noodle Soup 阿宗麵線

A restaurant called Ah Chung used to be next to Hankou Steaks but I think their menus consolidated. Being so, Hankou also serves the Ay Chung Mee Sua or House Special Noodle Soup 阿宗麵線 ($5.00). It is a soup of flour-rice noodles with some bamboo and cilantro in a bonito-flavored broth. After tasting the original in Taiwan, this one was not as deep in bonito flavor and a bit saltier. Nonetheless, I am glad I was able to find this soup in New York. 

Flushing Mall Food Court has seen better days and I am amazed on how this whole mall is still running considering there is no business in any of the shops. Every year there are always rumors of the mall and food court closing down and I can see why with competing food courts in Queens Crossing and New World Mall. Very soon, a fourth food court (New York Food Court) is going to open on 133-35 Roosevelt Ave. As for now, Flushing Mall is here to stay so might as well make the best of it and have a taste of history.

Yoz Shanghai (老鴨粉絲湯) (Recommended)

Yoz Shanghai (老鴨粉絲湯)
41-28 Main St 1FL
Flushing, NY 11355
$

Yoz Shanghai is one of the best kept secrets of Golden Mall and all of Flushing. Inside this mecca of cheap eats holds a small restaurant no bigger than your bedroom. Appearances aside, what makes Yoz beautiful is their cheap dumplings and… 8 soup dumplings (小籠包) for only $4.00!  As I write this, I cringe that I might have opened a Pandora’s Box because attention and popularity equals price inflation.

We live in a time where every other restaurant is raising dumpling prices. You can’t find soup dumplings under $1.00 a dumpling anymore. Thankfully Yoz continues to keeps the prices down. Additionally, they specialize in duck noodles and the traditional pan-fried dumplings (鍋貼) and boiled dumplings (水餃).

Locating the restaurant begins at the cozy Golden Mall Food Court. We head to the 1st floor to find Yoz Shanghai.

After going in the restaurant is to the right just a few shops in. Easy as pie.

The menu here is simple, you have your choice of various dumplings and then noodles to fill the rest of the stomach. Note: For the duck noodles, the one on the left is noodles with “duck treasure” (you can use your imagination with that), duck liver, and duck blood. The one on the right is duck noodles in a osmanthus broth with preserved duck meat.

There are barely any seating space (2 four person tables and 2 two person tables) and getting a seat requires some stalking and pushing if necessary.

Its a misconception that hole in the wall restaurants are dirty. In my opinion, if I can see the kitchen and the staff cooking the food, its clean in my books.

Soup Dumplings or Steamed Pork Buns

I chose to pack the soup dumplings 小籠包 ($4.00/8 pieces) to go because getting a seat was impossible. At only 50 cents a dumpling, these didn’t taste cheap at all. Each dumpling had a even soup to meat ratio and taste amazing. Also the skin was paper thin. It was good for chewing but bad for picking the dumplings up as a lot of them popped on contact. Which brings me to recommending that you eat these at the restaurant when they are served in the bamboo steamers.

Guihua Duck with Noodle Soup

The Guihua Duck with Noodle Soup 桂花鴨粉絲湯 ($5.75) is a good supplement to the dumplings. It is filled with rice noodles, fried tofu, baby bok choi, cilantro, and Chinese salted/cured duck. If you are Cantonese, the duck is really similar to 臘鴨, the flat salty dried duck that is seen hanging in supermarkets.

Yoz Shanghai definitely deserves some more attention but I hope at the same time prices doesn’t rise because of this. Actually, all the restaurants in the Golden Mall is worth a visit as the restaurants here serves some of the most traditional Chinese cuisines you can find. It avoids any American influences so you know this stuff is authentic.