Golden Palace and M & T Restaurant

Today, I went out with some friends to go eat at a couple interesting Flushing restaurants, Golden Palace and M & T Restaurant. They were right around the corner from each other.

At Golden Palace we had Tiger Vegetables, which looked like the garnish to some other dish. But no, it was it's own dish. Cilantro, green peppers, and some hot peppers. Very crunchy and light. We also had an egg with some pickled vegetables, corn cakes (which was like a dry bun made from cornmeal), and loofah dumpling. Probably the best were the Tiger Vegetables and the Corn Cakes. The Loofah Dumpling's taste was a bit one-dimensional, and they were surprisingly heavy given the fact that they were only filled with a mild vegetable.

We went over to M & T, which I think was a bit better. They had a bunch of Qingdao dishes. The dishes we had were very interesting: a cold jelly noodle dishes that was simply beautiful (and quite garlicky), a deep-fried ginseng that would have been a good bar snack but that didn't have enough ginseng taste, and a stir-fry of "fiddleheads", potatoes, mushrooms and celery. I was expecting fiddlehead ferns, which would be odd, since they are very seasonal and I've never encountered them in any restaurant. But, they were some other thing, I have no idea what. The menu here was large and very interesting. I think this one I'd sooner come back to than Golden Palace, but they were both pretty good.

Check out the photos below:

Flushing with Ben and Charles

Artichoke Basille

I dropped by Artichoke Basille's today, for the first time.  Since it opened half a year ago, it's been compared repeatedly with DiFara's.   I tried a Margherita slice, and a Sicilian slice.   This corresponds with what I order at DiFara's, where I usually try and get an ordinary slice and a square slice.   I avoided the eponymous Artichoke slice, which seemed really thick and although I like artichokes, it seemed topped with something more like artichoke dip.  Yuck.

At any rate, the margherita slice is pretty well done, in both senses.  It had a nice thin crust, and had a rich taste as a result of the generous parmesan sprinkled on the pie.  The crust was a bit too blackened.  The Sicilian was pretty much the same.  Rich and a bit overly blackened.  On both, the sauce was tangy and complemented the richness of the cheese very nicely.  All in all, everything was great, and I'll definitely be back here again when I'm in the neighborhood.  This is the best slice I've had in Manhattan.

My friend Ben and I ate at the XiAn stall today, at the basement of the Golden Mall in Flushing.  We had the LianPi, cold noodles with chunks of soaked bread in it.  Very odd, but that's xi'an food for you.  The noodles were slick, slightly spicy, a bit sour, and in general very flavorful.  We also had the cumin & lamb sandwich, which was small but dense.  Like all good street food, it's very simple.  Lamb, cumin, stirfried, sandwhiched between two dense pieces of bread.  Both these things were great.   The menu had many other options, included a few variations on what we ate, such as noodles with the lamb & cumin, just plain stir-fried lamb & cumin, and another meat sandwich.

The stall itself was tiny and cramped, and was too crowded.  We had to eat half the meal standing up before we got seats.

After this, we ate some "sumo dumplings" at a little window on the street, and a curious yellow sticky rice with thick pork and dates.

I love Flushing.  Sometimes I wish I lived there, so I can have food like this as a snack regularly.   But perhaps I'd just endlessly gorge on this stuff, and make myself sick.

Today I stopped by the large, modern looking public library there too, for the first time.  It was three levels, and was almost as good as the mid-Manhattan library.  Better looking, but not quite as much material.

Spicy & Tasty

I've been to Spicy & Tasty now a number of times. Most Sichuan-cuisine fans would rank it one of the best in New York, perhaps only behind Little Pepper.

When going there, I would advise to get several cold dishes (cold as in room temperature). When you enter, you see a whole cold station for concocting these wonderful treats. This is some of the spiciest and most flavorful stuff on the menu. Pictured here is one of the cold dishes, ma la tendon. Ma la is what a lot of these dishes are: spicy and numbing. The sichuan peppercorn, not found outside the cuisine, is responsible for the numbing part.

I went again a week ago, and this visit we tried Stinky Tofu, but it was only mediocre. But we also tried the hot pot, which was pretty nice. They brought frozen squid balls, beef slices, bean-thread noodles, vegetables and a few other things. It was divided into a non-spicy section and spicy section. I preferred the spicy section, but the items boiled in either were nice. The spicy section wasn't overwhelming.

We had a number of other really good dishes, including the tea-smoked duck, cold conch, cold eggplant, and a few others I can't even remember. It's always a great meal, the prices are good, and the spicy, garlicy taste is intoxicating and addictive.

Spicy & Tasty is located in Flushing on Prince Street. Try it out!

Cafe Sabarsky

A few weeks ago I and a few others went to Cafe Sabarksy, which has
the reputation of being a very authentic Viennese cafe. I've never
been to Vienna, so I really can't comment, but it was very nice
looking, with wood paneling, nice silverware, and a general relaxed
but sophisticated vibe.

I got a cafe creme, which had the same smooth chocolate notes that I
remember from drinking those Nestle Viennese coffee mixes a long time
ago. I'm sorry to compare the two, since I'm sure the one at Cafe
Sabarsky is made with much more care.

We also got some dishes and a slice of cake. Everything was elegantly
prepared, and was well seasoned. I had a beef consomme with root
vegetables and wide noodles made from sliced crepe (which I hadn't
seen before) . It matched the rainy day quite well.

The chocolate cake slice we had was exceptional. It was intensley
chocolaty with cute little shave chocolate curled on top.

The whole thing was a bit expensive. I'd recommend trying it out, but
maybe a coffee and cake would be the best value.

Malaysia Taste Good

This weekend I went to Elmhurst to satisfy my craving for a good,
spicy, noodle soup. Malaysia Taste Good (an oddly but accurately named
restaurant) fit the bill. I had a curry fish ball noodle soup for
around $5.50. It was a medium-sized bowl full of a nicely spiced,
coconut-based soup, with noodles, fish balls, and a handful of bean
sprouts. The noodles were soft and thick, without much chew. The soup
was well balanced and really flavorful. I'll be back again for the
exact same thing.

After the soup, I noticed that Elmhurst now has a Quickly bubble-tea
store. Good bubble tea is hard to find, and Quickly is the best you
can find here. It comes from the Bay Area, and there it is solid but
unexceptional. Sometimes I miss that place. I actually noticed a
fruity taste in my tea, which shouldn't have happened since my tea was
black tea flavored. Otherwise, the tea was good.

Hakata Ippudo

On Thursday, my friend Ben and I went to try the new ramen noodle shop, the Tokyo-based Hakata Ippudo. It was packed with a mostly Japanese crowd. We were seated within ten minutes in an elegant medium-sized room that sat about 40.

The soup I ordered was very well executed. It had a rich porky broth, but it was well balanced. Not too salty, but very robust. The noodles were thinner than the usual ramen noodle, but they had a great firm texture. I think this is the best ramen noodles I've had. Unfortuntely, I have not been a good food blogger, and did not write down the name of the soup. But it was the second soup on the small menu. 

For dessert we had a macha green tea creme brûlée.  It came with a lychee ice cream, and it all worked very well together. 

The past year has seen a huge ramen rennaisance in New York. And it is not over, more Tokyo-based shops are coming.  I love it!