Chinatown in Queens

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Had read about a year ago in the NY Times that the Flushing section of Queens had a thriving Asian community and a wealth of good (and inexpensive) Chinese and other Asian restaurants, one of my chief motivators for putting a destination on my list of places to visit. I grew up in Queens but that was a long time ago and there have been some very positive changes.

Took the subway, the 7 line from Times Square to the last stop, Main Street in Flushing. The intersection of Main Street and Roosevelt Ave is where you come up from the subway, and no matter which way you turn, you see Chinese characters (both the written and human kind). We found our way down Main Street to 39th Avenue, turned left and walked a block to Prince Street, which is lined with restaurants. We chose Nan Sian Dumpling House (at the Times recommendation) and had soup dumplings, with crab and port inside along with a savory broth (inside the dumpling). It was as good as Shanghai, but at $6.25per serving of six a lot more expensive. In Shanghai we stood on line for a while but each got about 10 dumplings for less than $2.

We walked back along 40th St. to Main Street, turned right and went to the Golden Shopping Mall at the corner of 41st Rd. Down a flight of stairs is a food court, and one of the stalls is Lanzhou Handmade Noodles. We had the Roast Duck Noodles with greens in a bowl of terrific broth and as we ate we heard the thumping of the noodles being thrown down and pulled into long strands. I had seen a TV show about one of the last handmade noodle makers in Taipei (I think) and it made the case for hand-thrown noodles as having a wonderful texture, better than what comes out of stretching machines. Whatever the case, these were wonderful, though the duck was pretty fatty. The bowl was $5 and we shared it.

The only disappointment was the egg custard tarts at Sun Mary Bakery on 41st Road near Main Street. They were very small and not very tasty. We've had much bigger and better ones in Chinatown in Manhattan (and of course in China). There are other bakeries, including one with bigger tarts right at the Main St. subay stationl, a good reason to return. Many more places to try.

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