The Trenchermen

Inspired by a New York Times article with a fantastic interactive map, we jumped on the 7 train one Sunday in March and trekked out to Flushing to explore the wonders and revisit the glories of regional Chinese cuisine.  Over the course of the morning and afternoon, interrupted by only one stop at a bar for a beer, we ate at 5 different restaurants. We finished the day with some Sichuan-style dan dan noodles (pictured to the left), which have that unforgettable, numbing spice called something like “ma-la,” that leaves a delicious metallic tingling sensation on your lips.

A few of us have visited China and we have all been stunned by the quality and diversity of the food there, which is dramatically different in each region of the country.  This trip was a pleasant reminder of that diversity.  

We started the day by putting our names on the list at the very popular and very small Nan Shian Dumpling House. While we were waiting, we went next door to the Happy Beef Noodle House and shared some delicious beef noodle and beef tendon noodle soups.

In the Happy Beef Noodle House, we were assaulted by the urine-like smell of some nasty pickled cabbage in a bowl at each table.  But, once we tasted the greens, the smell became less offensive and we polished off the noodles.

Next door, back at the Nan Shian Dumpling House, we dove into the best food of the day, which included soup dumplings (which were, in the words of R.W. Apple, absolutely “seraphic”), scallion pancakes, and an excess of tofu milk, into which we dipped fried breadsticks that were eerily similar to churros, but without the cinnamon and sugar.

After that, we picked up some Xingjian-style spicy skewered lamb and chicken from a street vendor (not pictured), then went for a beer (pictured).

To finish the day – as we were already quite full – we ducked into the Golden mall for some more dumplings, strange, bready noodles, an intensely-cumin-spiced lamb burger (from Xi’an), and the above-mentioned dan dan noodles.