Cheap Eats Tour #2
Target: Flushing Queens, aka Little Taipei
Budget: $15 per couple
# of Couples: 3
Taking the 7 train on a Saturday morning from Brooklyn was a long, sleepy ride. We met the rest of our group above ground at the intersection of Roosevelt Avenue and Main Street. With everyone gathered, we make our way to our first stop:
Corner 28 Rice Noodle and Peking Duck Stall
Tip: If you check Yelp, there are three entries (Corner 28, Rice Noodle Stall, and Peking Duck Sandwich Stall) for the exact same place. Eat the duck sliders while they are warm and crispy. It’s not easy to reheat them.
- 6 Peking Duck Sliders @ $1.00 each
- 3 orders beef rice noodles @ $1.50 each
AA Plaza (fast food windows near the LIRR)
Tip: Try to go early (before 11AM) if you’re planning to go on the weekends.
- 4 steamed pork buns @ $1.25 for 4
- 3 spring onion pancakes @ $1.00 each
Temple Snacks @ the Flushing Mall Food Court
Tip: There is a famous temple in the town of Hukou near Taipei, Taiwan. This temple is extremely famous for the food stalls (night market) that are set up just outside of the entrance. I suggest trying one thing you have never tried before every time you go. The older gentleman behind the counter speaks Taiwanese and Mandarin and is usually agreeable to a chat or story. That’s how I found out that the Yong He Zi Jia breakfast foods stall closed because the owners went back to Taiwan – no new location.
- 1 Taiwanese style sausage with fresh garlic slices @ $3.50
- 1 Five Delicacies appetizers (pickled seaweed, soy sauce braised eggs, sliced intestines, cucumber salad, and five-spiced tofu with shredded ginger and chili garlic sauce as condiments) @ $6.75
- 2 pork and vegetable rice dumplings @ $1.25 each
- 1 red bean rice dumpling @ $1.75
Han Kou Steaks & Appetizers (formerly Ay Chung Noodles) @ the Flushing Mall Food Court
Tip: Deep-fried anything with a few shakes of pepper salt will make it taste amazing. The combo plates are a good deal, but if you grew up in a Taiwanese household, the oyster thread noodles are where it’s at. The numbers are always called out in Mandarin, so brush up.
- Salt and Pepper Squid @ $4.25
Tip: Ask for half-sweet (Hanyu pinyin: bàn táng) whenever possible at the drink stalls.
- 1 lemon kumquat juice (my favorite)
- 1 hot milk tea
- 1 lemonade
Deli Manjoo @ the Flushing Mall Food Court
Tip: Eat these while they are warm. If you buy two boxes of 24 cream filled cakes per box, you get a free beverage. They come in cute boxes which make them great hostess gifts that everyone can enjoy.
- 2 boxes of 24 cream filled cakes @ $5.50 each
- 1 guava juice box
Tip: Weekend manager is really friendly and speaks several languages . . . at least enough to greet people from a lot of different countries. I think I heard him greet a Japanese family while we were there.
- Mocha layer cake
- 2 Portuguese egg tarts
- 1 watermelon milkshake
- 1 almond bubble tea
- 2 walnut bars
Tip: Most of the cashiers speak English, Mandarin, and Cantonese, but if you don’t, no worries, just point.
- 1 Hong Kong waffle drizzled with peanut butter sauce and condensed milk
- 1 small coffee
Ponji @ the New World Mall Food Court
Tip: Most stall owners speak English, Mandarin, Cantonese, and/or Fuzhou.
- 1 mango strawberry snowflake shaved ice sundae
Yes, I lost tally of the prices when the food coma hit me. Internet rumors were spreading like wildfire that the Flushing Mall would be leveled for a parking garage after the ten year contract was up. Well, after speaking with some trusted sources, looks like the mall isn’t going anywhere. New restaurants will be filling those empty stalls in the food court in the new year. You heard it hear first!
Let me know if you ever want to go on a food tour. I’m always up for an adventure.
Stereotype Rebel 