Instagram Post 8/1/2019

Named for the waterfront tourist destination in Shanghai that features modern skyscrapers alongside historical architecture, The Bund at 100-30 Queens Blvd in Forest Hills features Shanghainese cuisine alongside customary Chinese fare.

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My dining buddy had his heart set on hock, specifically The Bund Special Crispy Pork Hock – crackling skin, yielding meat, everything you’d want from a hock plus a gratuitous toss of broccoli florets on the side, presumably a colorful nod to healthiness. (Nice try.)

This cold appetizer is one of my favorite Shanghainese dishes. Called “The Bund Special Spongy Gluten with Woodear Mushroom & Peanuts” on the menu (a mouthful, both literally and figuratively), I know it as Kao Fu. Unpacking the description: gluten is made from wheat (you might have sympathy for seitan, a wheat gluten product) – if you purchase it straight in a Chinese market, it looks a bit like whole wheat bread; spongy, an apt adjective because this form soaks up juices as if it were one; wood ear mushrooms (aka cloud ear, black fungus, tree ear fungus, and a raft of other names) don’t have much flavor but they bring contrasting texture to this dish. If there were any peanuts to be found, I didn’t catch them; still, I liked it well enough.
 
 

Instagram Post 7/28/2019

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Zheng Zhou Noodles, Stall #28 in the New World Mall Food Court, 136-20 Roosevelt Ave, Flushing, is arguably best known for its liang pi noodles, but I’m more enamored of this dish, called simply Chinese Fried Pancake. If you’re familiar with Malaysian kottu paratha, you’ll recognize its cousin here. It may look like noodles, but the difference is all in the chew; it starts with a thin pancake sliced impossibly perfectly into noodle-like strips, it’s available in beef, lamb, pork, chicken, egg, or vegetable versions, and it’s wonderful. My kind of comfort food.
 
 

Instagram Post 7/27/2019

The (surviving 😢) big three Flushing Chinese food courts get a lot of ink (or bytes, I suppose) and deservedly so, but there are other, smaller, aspirants nearby that beg exploration. Queens Crossing Food Court, 136-20 38th Ave, is home to Lao Jie Shi Fang (Old Street) which features mostly light fare: a selection of fried (pan- and deep-) snacks as well as some noodle soups and málàtàng.

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My initial foray was okay. Shown here is Deep Fried Potato Cake which carried a little kick, I’m guessing from white pepper, flanked by a quartet of Fried Turnip Balls comprising long shreds of turnip, crispy outside and almost creamy inside.

Ham Egg Pancake: bits of vegetables like scallion for bite, carrot for sweetness, and teeny traces of ham on close inspection. Not pretty, but a sufficiently satisfying snack on the run.
 
 

Instagram Post 7/25/2019

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Sometimes, you just need to go back to basics. No roof to raise. No lilies to gild. Just quiet, reliable, mood food. These are fried pork dumplings from 88 Lan Zhou Handmade Noodles, 40 Bowery in Manhattan’s Chinatown. The waitress approached. I made my request. Silently, she walked to the back. She emerged with my order in less than a minute. Because when you’re famous for something, you’re prepared to provide. Very Zen.

The obligatory I-took-a-bite-and-of-course-it-was-delicious shot.
 
 

Instagram Post 7/22/2019

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A few weeks ago, I wrote that Mama’s Kitchen, Stall 28 at Elmhurst’s HK Food Court, 82-02 45th Ave in Queens “continues to hone their menu and it keeps getting better with each iteration”. This time the ascent is a significant order of magnitude higher.

My understanding was that part of their repertoire is Cantonese (from whence the chef hails) and part is Shanghai, so when Rui Lee Liu showed me their newest menu abounding with Sichuan delights, I was understandably surprised. I had intended to hold this post until I tried a few more of the latest entries, but the Lamb with Cumin, ostensibly a universal favorite these days, was so good that I didn’t want to wait lest it disappear from the list before you’ve had a chance to taste it yourself. More to come soon though….
 
 

Instagram Post 7/20 & 21/2019

Dim sum is one of my favorite meals because it affords the opportunity to taste so many diverse dishes at a single sitting. The tricky part is coordinating schedules with a group of good friends to actually converge on a restaurant at the same time for the experience. We finally succeeded in congregating at Royal Queen on the third floor of the New World Mall, 136-20 Roosevelt Ave in Flushing. As we proceeded to load our tabletop, I realized that it might be prudent to stop taking pictures and actually eat something because, well, FOMO. This accounts for the fact that you’re not seeing everything we ordered. But here are some examples from the prosaic to the unique.

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First photos are from the unusual category; a peek inside revealed a sweet peanut/sesame filling.

Tofu Stuffed with Shrimp

Beef Tendon

Xiao Long Bao

Lotus Leaf Wrapped Sticky Rice with shrimp, lap cheong (Chinese sausage), pork, and salted egg yolk

Flaky crust with a sweet ginger/custard filling inside

Fish Cake

Shrimp Balls on Sugar Cane

Roast Duck

Fried Silver Fish

Shrimp and Chive Wonton

Nian Gao (glutinous Rice Cake) made with Jujubes (dried red dates)

 
 
Serious question: what’s your favorite place in NYC for dim sum? Leave a reply below.