Food

Flushing’s Food Culture

It is impossible to talk about Flushing without talking about its rich variety of delicious cuisines. Rivaling Chinatown in Lower-Manhattan, Flushing is one of the only places in New York City where one can find authentic Chinese cuisine. Sesame chicken with broccoli and shrimp lo mein, which can be found in the thousands of “Chinese stores” scattered around the city, are just as oriental as the hamburger is German. These stores sell American dishes with an oriental style, often deluding the typical New Yorker.

Right after entering Main Street around the Roosevelt Avenue intersection, one is immediately hit by the strong aroma of authentic Chinese food from surrounding restaurants. Around one in every four stores on this part of Main Street is a restaurant. However, Flushing offers much more than restaurants when it comes to food. Several beautifully decorated Chinese bakeries are frequently scattered all-around the neighborhood. Besides selling the typical breads and muffins, these bakeries also offer a wide variety of oriental cakes like the Mooncake, Cha siu baau and Egg-tart. The on-the-go dumpling house under the LIRR train line also serves thousands of people on a daily basis with tasty and filling dumplings, which cost only $1.50 for four pieces.

The restaurants in central Flushing offer a wide variety of exotic food options, most of which are unseen in the other parts of New York City. The Ku Shiang Taiwanese restaurant in the corner of 39^th Avenue and Main Street prides itself for offering an all-traditional menu. The menu, which has small English translations with frequent misspellings, offers genuine stinky tofu, duck-blood soup and cow-stomach with noodles. Many of these restaurants operate without proper health standards and conditions. However, that does not stop the hungry customers from visiting these stores.

Someone seeking less exotic food choices can visit the San Soo Kap San Korean restaurant on Union Street for a filling Bibimbap or a Korean BBQ dish. For quick and inexpensive food, one should visit the food court in Flushing Mall’s basement. This place offers a wide variety of food including Chinese noodles, jellyfish soups, Korean BBQ, Japanese sushi and westernized fried rice with steak.

Flushing also has several supermarkets and groceries on every block. These stores sell large quantities of Chinese products, oriental herbs and roots, and lots of fresh vegetables.

The food in Flushing is not limited to Chinese, Korean or Japanese cuisines. The Elmhurst Pho Bang is one of the most famous Vietnamese restaurants in New York City. The Biryani Point and Chat on Kissena Boulevard offers a rich variety of Indian food for Flushing’s South-Asian population. Flushing also has several chain stores such as Burger King, McDonalds and Starbucks serving a wide variety of customers. However, all these stores have adapted themselves to Flushing’s large oriental customer base. Both Pho Bang and Biryani Point offer some Chinese dishes on their menu, while Burger King and McDonalds have copies of their neon signs shinning with Chinese letters.