Not That Far From Home

Last week I got to cross something off my list!  That didn't take long, did it?

Just a 30 minute train ride puts us smack in the middle of the largest Chinatown in New York City.

It's amazing to me that I can be somewhere that feels so utterly foreign so close to home.

There produce I don't recognize and signs I can read, but there is for sure some food that I want to eat!

Biang! is the latest in the small empire created by Xi'an Famous Foods.  I first ate there in the food court at the Flushing Mall, but this the first retaurant with waiter service.  The food is just as good and the atmosphere very pleasant!  We had the famous Cumin Lamb Noodles and fiddlehead fern salad.  Both were amazing.

Then, just a little bit further down Main Street is the Queens Botanical Garden.  It's rather small, but very charming and if you pause a minute in the little grove of trees, it completely possible to forget you're in New York City at all.

It's free on Sundays from 4-6pm.  I'm thinking it's the perfect place to have a little picnic.  That is if this rain ever lets up!

What about you? Cross anything off your Summer To Do List? Go any place exotic this weekend?  Eat anything delicious?

In which I take the 7 train to the end of the line

My friend Little Bunny has been raving about the food court at the Flushing Mall for-ever.  I mean forever.  To the point that I was really skeptical.  I mean, how good can it really be.  Really?

Well, circumstances collided a couple of weeks ago and Jeffery Tastes was sponsoring a trip out to the mall.  I asked Little Bunny and her bf if they were interested in going with me and their answer was a resounding, "Yes!"  (Again, too much enthusiasm?  Maybe.)

We arrived at the mall and saw the group forming for Jeffery's event, but decided to just go it alone, rather than joining in.  The Grazing Experience seemed like a lovely idea, but as Little Bunny put it, "I don't really like to share."  After our first plate of noodles, I knew what she was talking about.

Since they were old pros and it was my first time, I let them be my guide.  There are nearly an overwhelming amount of choices and it can be a little intimidating because not  much is really in English.  But if you are adventurous and courageous, you will have an amazing time.

We ate hand pulled noodles with spicy beef from this place, the weird gelatinous turtle pictured above, the biggest seafood scallion pancake I've ever seen, pork, seafood and scallion dumplings, Chinese lamb "hamburgers", green tea ice cream and fresh mango juice.  All that (which we did share) and I think my wallet was only $10 lighter at the end of the day.

Go hungry and go soon.  According to this article in the WSJ, the mall is being demolished in 2012.  And, yes, it really is that good.