I won’t lie: moving cross country, saying goodbye to loved ones and family in California, leaving my job for freelance life, and trying to adjust to New York have been enormous life changes to undertake all at once. (I’ve only cried about a half dozen times since we got to NYC three weeks ago.) But I’m slowly getting the hang of this new chapter of my life and finding my bearings in this new city.
Part of that’s meant getting to Chinese food, stat.
We did Chinatown last week and today we made a pilgrimage out to Flushing. K and I went off of some basic lists and also meandered around, eating ourselves silly for roughly $30. Not a bad eating adventure.
We started out at White Bear for an order of their wonton in chili oil (紅油抄手). We somehow managed to have this dish at three different places this weekend, and White Bear’s was notable because it was garnished with preserved pickled vegetables. Other than that, White Bear’s rendition wasn’t as mind-blowing as people on the Internet made it sound. I realized this weekend that so much of what makes these wonton so satisfying is in the particular chili oil mix that the wonton bathe in. You want something with brightness and punchiness but also depth and an inviting dose of heat. White Bear’s chili oil mix was a little too flat for my taste. One of my favorite places for hong you chao shou is actually at Pine & Crane back in LA. They’ve got their chili oil mix down. (12 wonton for $5)
We then rounded the corner and popped in to a little food court, the name of which I never got, for jian bing, a crunchy crepe filled with a crackly sheet of crunchy deep fried dough and your choice of fillings. We got green onions, a fried egg and various sauces. This was fine but I definitely need to keep trying others, because I know there’s got to be a gem in Flushing (alright, in America) that I don’t need to travel to China to enjoy. (1 jian bing for $3.50)
After we kept on walking until we hit a BBQ skewer cart that Thrillist calls Xinjiang Traditional BBQ, but which is probably called Three Treasures BBQ, based on the Chinese name that was on their menu. Whenever I’m in a Sichuan joint I always want whatever lamb cumin dish is on offer because I’m just chasing the lipsmacking joy of perfectly smoked and spiced lamb skewers (羊肉串), the memory of which has lingered in my belly ever since I tried them on my first trip to China over a decade ago. Something about the combination of lamb and cumin is magic to me. The two go together like tomatoes and basil. This spot was a total joy. I could eat my weight in Chinese meat kebabs from this stand. (2 skewers for $3)
We went onward to the enormous food court in the New World Mall and were too full for more than grapefruit green tea for me and hot soy milk for Kevin. We moseyed around the mall and grocery store while I dreamed up menus and shopping lists for when we’ve got our own permanent kitchen for me to muss up. I love a good supermarket field trip. We’ll be back, for sure. ($6 for the two drinks)
Back out in to the spring sunshine and we ended up at Biang!, a sit-down noodle spot with an alcohol license by the Xi’an Famous Foods folks (like Din Tai Fung at Glendale Galleria!). You can never go wrong with Xi’an Famous Foods noodles. That and a cold potato salad splashed with Sichuan peppercorn chili oil rounded out our day. Guess we’ll keep on chasing that numbing chili spicy high–and washing it down with glasses upon glasses of water. ($14.60 pre-tip)
After that it was the best time: grocery time. We finished our day picking up fruit and bao and other provisions for the week before heading back.
Till next time,
