Flushing NY

Flushing, NY

Walking though the busy downtown Flushing, you could very well be in Beijing, Seoul or Taipei. Chinese and Korean billboards crowd the horizon and English signage is reduced to a bare minimum. Even the KFCs, Burger Kings and Bank Ams sport ads in Mandarin! Street vendors hawk their wares off the street selling shoes, purses, lottery tickets, phone calling cards, fruits, even steaming skewered kebabs hot off a charcoal grill! Yes, Chinese do love their meat on a stick and there is a distinct bit of Muslim Chinese representation in this part of the world.

If you wanted to ever experience first hand; a true microcosm of global diversity, this has to be it. How else can you describe a scene where a sari clad Indian lady shops for groceries assisted by a Hispanic worker inside a gigantic Chinese supermarket in the suburbs of the largest city in America?

We wind our way through the hustle and bustle gazing at the exotic shop windows, some showing off their glazed Peking ducks; others sporting huge colorful backlit images of Chinese or Korean delicacies; dim sum and lunch specials posted up front. Curious aromas waft out of the open windows; some off putting, others rather inviting.
Our destination this time is a mall. More specifically, its the "food court" of the mall. As we approach the "Golden Mall" on Main St., a sign directs us toward the basement to the food court. This looks odd; nothing like your traditional food court with the free General Tsao's Chicken handouts. Walk gingerly down a narrow flight of stairs into what is essentially the basement of the "mall". It truly feels like you have stepped into some shop in some faraway Chinese city like Chengdu or Shaanxi.

You are met with tightly packed stalls and chairs all squeezed along a narrow passage. Looking around, you realize all signs, save a few, are Mandarin only! No worries though; many vendors have huge numbered images of their foods and there is the occasional smattering of English thrown in for good measure. A bewildering array of foods is on display; large cauldron of soups, steamed and fried dumplings stuffed with exotic sounding lotus paste, sweet potato and various meats; noodles being freshly drawn out of dough and stir fried on huge woks.

You look for your desired stall number; the only visible indicator that gives away the identity of the stall - unless you can read Mandarin of course. We are headed to stall # 36 aka 'Xi'an Famous Foods'. This is food from the remote province of Xi'an and its capital Shaanxi; apparently a city with a notable muslim population. There are reams and reams of pages written up on Stall#36.

Suffice to say, we didn't have to think twice on what to order once we got there. The fairly large number of regulars awaiting their order were all gunning for the 2 most popular dishes on the menu and we did likewise.

Item #2 or 'Liang Pi' were slightly chewy al dente cold noodles and crunchy bean sprouts, accentuated by chunks of soft spongy wheat gluten all tossed together in a medium spicy garlicky oily gravy topped with coriander and chillis. Literally translated, 'Liang Pi' means 'cold skin'; but there is no meat involved. Its all vegetarian. You attempt to dunk and roll up the noodle, bean sprout and wheat gluten mix that you managed to put together with the chopsticks into the gravy for maximum flavor and in one motion, drive contents held by the chopsticks into your mouth. Chances are; you've already dropped some of that oil if not a piece of trailing noodle on your white shirt. But its all worth it.

Especially for whats coming next.. Yes Item #3 on the menu is the lamb sandwich / burger or 'zi ran chao yang rou jia mo', considered by many to be one of the finer sandwiches in the city.

Toasted English muffin like bread pockets are filled with small spicy green chilli spiked chunks of roasted lamb. Those in India can relate it to a premade kheema pav.

The sandwich is greasy but somehow the oil seems to hold the sandwich together keeping everything moist and flavorful. The Muslim influence is quite evident as one hits flavors like cumin and anise which you wouldn't normally associate with any of the known Chinese flavors - Cantonese /Sichuan /Hunan cooking.

Seasoned visitors can be seen dunking the lamb sandwich into the remnants of the gravy accompanying the 'Liang Pi'. The owner has proudly put up a large autographed photo of a recent visitor - Anthony Bourdain - who will probably feature this tiny shop in one of his upcoming episodes. There are other famous spots next door - Chengdu Heaven and Lanzhou Noodles; but they will have to wait. For tonight, the sandwich holds its place on the tongue.