I wanted to try this new Qingdao restaurant called M&T, [...]]]> I was supposed to take my parents somewhere to eat during their layover at JFK yesterday, but they didn’t make it out of the airport due to ticketing problems. Not to waste an opportunity to eat away from Manhattan, G and I headed to Flushing anyway.

I wanted to try this new Qingdao restaurant called M&T, but it was closed–and being too cold a day to go exploring, we went back to our old standby: the jumble of basement food stalls known collectively as Golden Shopping Mall.

liangpi, tiger salad, and beef noodle soup

G went straight to “Xi An Famous Foods” (西安名吃)–which by the way now has swanky new signs, a video camera (?!), and wall photos of Anthony Bourdain enjoying their liangpi–and ordered a dish of cold skin noodles (“liang pi,” 凉皮) and tiger salad (“lao hu cai,” 老虎菜). I went to a sichuanese stall by the entrance to the mall and ordered a spicy beef noodle stew (“niu nan mian,” 牛腩面). All three dishes were delicious, humble, and beat the pants off anything in Manhattan’s Chinatown.

I must admit that the tiger salad defeated me: consisting of raw jalapeno peppers, scallions and cilantro in a vinegar sauce, one of the peppers was just too much… so I ran to the counter and asked for a plum drink (“suan mei tang,” 酸梅湯), which is a typical drink to have with spicy hotpot.

Total damage: liangpi $4, tiger salad $4.50, beef noodle $4.50, plum drink $1.50. And full + happy stomachs.

Golden Shopping Mall
41-28 Main St
New York, NY 11355
(map)

Vendor scooping out seeds at a tea & herb shop:

Street [...]]]> For foodies, it’s no secret that Queens is the home of New York’s best cuisine–and for Chinese and Korean it’s in Flushing, an easy (if long) ride on the 7 line all the way to Main Street. Here are a few photos of this vibrant neighbourhood:

Vendor scooping out seeds at a tea & herb shop:

Street counter food:

Massage, anyone? Only $20-30 per hour…

HK-style BBQ, and a cook just finishing his smoke break:

groceries…

the entrance to my favourite food court (love the Xi-An place in this “Golden Mall”):

and the street food counter under the train bridge:

Flushing is one of the most diverse communities [...]]]> As New Yorkers voted for the richest man in the city for mayor, I spent the morning of November 3rd doing exit poll surveys for AALDEF. My shift started at 6 AM in District 20 of Flushing, Queens–which meant catching the subway at 4:30 from where I live.

Flushing is one of the most diverse communities in New York, which is why I wanted to volunteer there (though I didn’t realize it would be at 6 in the morning). My shift started out with just me and a Korean guy doing exit surveys–and it was a good thing he was there, because at first there were far more Koreans than Chinese people coming out of the polls. In fact, whenever I would happen to approach a Korean (in either English or Mandarin, since I wasn’t sure of their ethnicity), they would just wave and walk by–stopping only once my partner ran after them, effusively cajoling them in Korean. With Chinese people it wasn’t so difficult, since many understood English and/or were very patient with my imperfect Chinese. Actually, since most voters in the morning were senior citizens, all were generally pleasant and patient.

There were some oddities at the poll though. There were the usual campaigners, who–though not allowed within 100 feet of the poll site–seemed to inch closer and closer as the day wore on (set back only temporarily when the police came by). There were also two poll workers who kept walking in and out of the building (and talking to campaigners) until my Korean partner went to complain to the site manager. One of them was a Chinese translator that was supposed to be there for voters who need assistance (as required by the Voting Rights Act)–in fact, a voter can ask for anyone to come with them into the booth to assist them in voting. A voter later complained to me that some poll workers inside were clearly advocating for certain candidates–which could easily go undetected by the Board of Elections personnel who did not understand Chinese.

Questions from the survey (also in Korean and Chinese):

1. Are you…? (Chinese, Korean, Asian Indian, Bangaldeshi, Pakistani, Indo-Caribbean, Filipino, Latino, Arab, Other)
2. When did you become a U.S. citizen?
3. Is this your first time voting in an election in the United States?
4. What is your native language/dialect?
5. How well do you read English?
6. Do you prefer voting with an interpreter and/or translated materials?
7. In voting today, did you use an interpreter provided by the Board of Elections?
8. Did you use any translated written materials or ballots provided by the Board of Elections?
9. Are you more likely to vote when assistance in your language is available and publicized?
10. Did you encounter any of the following when you voted? (Name missing or error in list of voters; Voted by affidavit ballot; Problem with poll workers; No interpreters/translations and needed help; Poll site confusion; Required to show identification)
11. Your party affiliation?
12. For whom did you vote for Mayor? (Michael R. Bloomberg-R; William C. Thompson-D; Other)
13. For whom did you vote for Comptroller? (John Liu-D; Joseph A Mendola-R; Other)
14. For whom did you vote for City Council? (Yen Chou-D; Peter Koo-R; Evergreen Chou-G)
15. In your vote today, what were the most important issue(s) influencing your vote? (Crime/Public Safety; Economy/Jobs; Ethnic/Race Issues; Terrorism/Security; Health Care; Education; Housing; Other)
16. How would you rate Barack Obama’s performance as President?
17. Your age?
18. Your gender?

The results of the election? Bloomberg will enter his third term in office (after conveniently passing legislation allowing him to do so), and Peter Koo (supported by Bloomberg) is voted to City Council. More interesting is that John Liu is the new Comptroller–and the first Asian-American to hold a city-wide office (he was also the first Asian-American voted to City Council in 2001). We’ll see in 2013 if he could be the next mayor…

For trends in Asian American voting from the 2008 presidential election, take a look at this report by AALDEF.

actually, the term ‘food court’ is misleading. it’s more like a collection of half a dozen Chinese food stalls in the basement of a place called Golden Mall (also a misnomer because the ‘mall’ appears to consist entirely of this basement).

after hmm-ing and [...]]]> the best food I’ve had in NYC was in a Flushing food court.

actually, the term ‘food court’ is misleading. it’s more like a collection of half a dozen Chinese food stalls in the basement of a place called Golden Mall (also a misnomer because the ‘mall’ appears to consist entirely of this basement).

after hmm-ing and haw-ing awhile between the different stands we finally settled upon a place run by a guy from Xi’an. like all the other stalls, the menu items are displayed on the wall, with nothing in english (though the proprietor here spoke english and even some japanese, as he was joking with a couple of japanese girls that stumbled upon the place). I ordered the liangpi (涼皮) and cumin lamb hand-pulled noodles (孜然羊肉扯面, zi1 ran2 yang2 rou4 che3 mian4)–he asked if I wanted the lamb noodles fried or in soup, and I opted for the fried.

I haven’t tasted anything so good since being in Beijing, where I used to be able to get liangpi for about a dollar, served in a plastic bag: cold noodles with sesame oil, chili oil, some wheat gluten ‘skin’, bean sprouts, cucumber–really tasty on a hot summer day. the cumin lamb has also been hard to come by outside of China since it is a specialty of the Uighurs, a Muslim population from the western province of Xinjiang. it was this type of food that surprised me most in China: the liberal use of cumin and chilis combined with a chinese style of cooking = culinary phenomenon.

Though not in Xinjiang (it is the capital of Shaanxi province), Xi’an marks the start of the Silk Road and has a large Muslim population–the most popular foods of which were offered at this Golden Mall food stall (you could also order lamb sandwiches and yang rou pao mo, a mutton stew with crumbled bread).

these dishes were so good. so so so so good.

despite its humble appearances, Golden Mall has already hit the culinary radar big time: the top google results for ‘liangpi’ led me to a nytimes article about the guy who runs this Xi’an food stall (he makes the liangpi noodles and wheat gluten from scratch “in a sauce that hits every possible flavor category (sweet, tangy, savory, herbal, nutty and dozens of others)”) as well as a detailed blog from seriouseats about the ‘mall’ (apparently mr. liangpi sells 300-400 orders of the dish a day!).

I have to go back. I have to go back. anyone who comes to visit me in new york will have to suffer the hour-long trip to Queens for this.

Golden Mall
41-28 Main St
Queens, NY 11355
(Flushing)